Honest Christian Conversations
A weekly podcast dealing with cultural and spiritual issues within the Christian faith.
Honest Christian Conversations
You Aren't Ready For This One! (MINISODE)
On the heels of one of my most SPIRITUALLY CONVICTING episodes, I reflect on my conversation with George Sisneros and his decision to give up the American Dream for his faith, which prompts me to question whether I would make the same choice.
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Hello everyone, welcome back to another mini-sode. What did you think of this episode with George Cisneros? I know I am still thinking about the conversation that him and I had. It's a daily thing. I think about just what he gave up the American dream, the whole American lifestyle. I have been thinking about my own personal. Would I be able to do that?
Speaker 1:There was a time in my life when I believe I was 17. My mom and my stepdad and I got to hear a missionary talking to our church about their time in Brazil. They had been there for about five years and they were sort of recruiting, I guess. And the message just impacted me and my family in a way where we started selling things, our personal possessions, all of it. We sold our things. We sold our things. I even had a replica of the sword Sting from Lord of the Rings, if you know about that. I had a actual replica, a big one, and I sold it. I sold everything. I wanted to go on this five-year mission trip. There was just something about the way they were talking about it. It stirred inside me and I had to go. Unfortunately, our church did not think we were ready to go. They told us they weren't going to support us. They really took the wind out of our sails and we had to start back over and we never left.
Speaker 1:God knew what he was doing, because not long after that, the program dissolved anyways and everyone had to go back home. But since that time I have grown. Obviously, I'm an adult now, I'm in my 40s now and I have five kids. I have a husband, I have a life here, I have this podcast, I have things that I do here. But if God asked me to go, or if he asked me the same question he asked George, do you love me more than? Would I easily be able to say yes, lord, I do. If I'm being honest, I don't think I could. There would be some hesitation, which concerns me and it should concern you when you think about that question as well, which is going to be your weekly challenge. Think about that question. If God were to sit with you today and say do you love me more than what, is the first thing that comes to mind as your, than Whatever that is, perhaps you love it more than God and you need to wrestle with that and figure out what it is you're supposed to do with it, because obviously, if it's your family, you can't just drop that. You shouldn't just drop that and say, oh well, sorry, I'm supposed to love God more than that. No, you just need to figure out how to align your priorities better to where you love God more and in turn, that's going to help you love them as well. But if it's a thing like George mentioned, god asked him if he loved him more than the Denver Broncos, and that was something he thought was trivial. But when he thought about it deeply, he was able to sit and watch the game, which was about three hours long.
Speaker 1:But read the Bible was a daily struggle. It's a daily struggle for me and man is that convicting. That is, so convicting to me that it is a pain sometimes to read the Bible because it's inconvenient or whatever. But if we say that we love God, we want to spend time with him, we want to do what makes him happy. Think about it in regards to your spouse and your kids. If you have them, you love them. You want to spend time with them. If something good happens, you want to talk to them. If you need a shoulder to cry on, you want to talk to them. You want to talk to your friends, you want to make your kids happy. Why can't we do that with God? It is just so, so convicting when we actually step out of our comfort zones and we think about these things, which we need to do because we are here on this earth to glorify God, not ourselves.
Speaker 1:So there is your weekly challenge. God is sitting next to you and he says do you love me more than what is the? Than what is the thing that comes after than Whatever that is? You need to wrestle with that with God. You need to talk it out, repent if you need to, and you need to figure out how to move forward in a healthy way so that you can have a good, healthy relationship with God. This is something I'm still working on. I'm still wrestling with trying to put God first, not in a legalistic sense, but in a sense of reminding myself that he needs to be my everything. I can't do anything apart from Him. We need to get to that point. So I hope this has encouraged you. I hope this has convicted you and that it's going to elicit change in your heart and your mind.
Speaker 1:If you want to share with me what it is that you're wrestling with, if you need someone to talk things out with. If you want some guidance, help, whatever prayer requests, I am here for you. Go to honestchristianconversationscom. Slash contact and you can contact me. If we happen to be friends on Facebook or YouTube, if you follow the channel there, you can always leave me comments there. If you want to message me through email, anna Murby at honestchristianconversationscom. Maybe you don't want me to know who you are, but you do need someone to be praying for you for this subject. If you go to the show notes, there is an area where it says leave me a message. You click on that. You can leave an anonymous text message and I will get the message. I will be praying for you, but I won't know who you are. If that's the way you want to go about it, you can do that. All right, everybody. Have a wonderful week. I will talk to you again soon. Bye.
