C.L.I.M.B.

Reunited with lunch friends yesterday, during lunch.

Leah on the left and Kristina on the right. It felt as though the last time I saw them was a year ago, even though we parted in May.

After a tiring day at school and practice, I drove down to Pennsylvania again for C.L.I.M.B. (Christ Lives In My Body)- a sort of cell group meeting for college students and young adults (under 30).


Pretty much drove down Route 202 south almost the whole way. Because I left near peak hour, the traffic made the trip 30 minutes longer than the 2 hours it was supposed to take.


Drove by a field of cows this time.

The good old bridge across the Delaware River at Stockton, New Jersey, which tells me I'm almost halfway there.

Finally got to church at exactly 19:30, the time that C.L.I.M.B. was supposed to begin.

For these few weeks, we are concentrating on the whole of Romans 8 and yesterday, we talked about Romans 8:5-10.

"
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness."

To me, the meaning of this verse was as clear as night and day. I saw how before I was a Christian, everything that I wanted to do or dreamed of having were things that went against God. Whether consciously or subconsciously, I was always out to please myself or the devil but not God. For example, I used to like clubbing and got into argumentative moods easily. Plus, I actually LIKED doing those things. I LIVED to do those things. The clothes I wore, the music I listened to and the way I acted, talked and held myself was according to that lifestyle. There were other things of course; and they were all simply against God's way of living.

However, after I welcomed God into my life and submitted myself to obeying God, I noticed a change in my wants and ways. I was no longer attracted to doing things that I knew would offend God and over time, those things grew more and more disgusting and repulsive to me.

In that way, the spell that they had over me was broken. I was no longer someone who couldn't control myself and would get pissed off at every little thing. I started to not like showing off how much better I am than everybody else at everything. I didn't like being rude and cursing anymore. But I'm not saying that I don't do these things anymore at all. It's like I actually feel like I'm fighting a war. I don't do what I want to do and I do what I don't want to do. If I do any of those things, I don't feel justified or self-satisfied like I used to. Instead, I would feel horrible, guilty, miserable and plain disappointed in myself.

I was especially struck with Romans 8:7 which says "the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so".

THIS IS SO TRUE!

I don't know what else to say about this...

Oh.. and also, God is so wonderful! In my last post, I ended by saying how I felt as though God were far away and He didn't seem to be talking much to me?

Well, yesterday God said something BIG to me and I was completely surprised in an awesome way because I wasn't expecting it.

And now comes the hardest part... Submitting to His will and letting Him do the work.