Your DNA

Some of you may be familiar with the mid 90s movie titled The Nutty Professor. If you're not it's basically about a man who is obese and geta tired of dealing with the struggles. So, because he's a professor, he creates this syrum that makes him skinny. Sounds pretty smart right? There's a few things he didn't account for...

As the story goes he hooks himself up to his lab equipment and drinks the syrum. He goes through the dramatic process. At the end his monitor flashes the words DNA Reconstruction Complete.

Now he begins going through his life as Buddy Love. All the while dealing with the fact that his true self always comes out. It's a constant battle.

Often times we feel unworthy and useless as our true selves. We're not popular or thin. We don't have the gorgeous, voluptuous, and silky hair. We aren't built the way everyone else is. So we start to try to change who we are because we want others to like us or we want to be like everyone else. We create our own form of Buddy Love.

What we don't realize is that we're trying to change our DNA. When scripture says that God created us with a plan and a purpose for our lives. (Jeremiah 29:11) God created us as a masterpiece!! He loves us and created us in His image!! So when we try to change who we are, we're telling God he didn't do a good enough job and that He's a liar.

Catch what I'm saying here. I'm talking about changing WHO we ARE not WHAT we DO, there's a difference. We do things and make choices that are mistakes all the time. We can change our actions from minute to minute. When we change WHO we are in order to appease anyone other than God we end up with a Buddy Love.

Buddy Love is extreme! He's loud, annoying, and everything but Professor Klump! In the movie he's trying to win over a girl, what he finds out is that the girl loves him as he is! The other people he impresses along the way are phoney and only want to get what they can out of Buddy. The people in his life who love him, and really love him, love him for who he is!

So if you're struggling with loving yourself the way you are, remember that your DNA doesn't need to be reconstructed! God made you who you are for a reason!! He loves you endlessly!!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford

God's Promises for Me Thousands of Years Ago!

Leviticus 26:3-13 NIV

“ ‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.   “ ‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.   “ ‘I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high."

This is the end of Leviticus. If you've ever read this book you know that it is a book of the Laws. This is after God has brought the people out of their slavery in Egypt and is having to give them laws to govern them. He does this through Moses. These are the laws that, in the new testament, the Pharisees and Jews refer to as the Law of Moses or the Laws of Our Ancestors.

I had a discussion with a wise Pastor yesterday because there have been things that I wonder why it is in the Bible. Why is this necessary for me to know? There are things like the sacrifices they used to have to make, I know it is important for me to understand what had to be done so I can understand what Jesus meant as a sacrifice for me. I can look at how detailed God's instructions to them are and understand that even then God wanted hearts that were willing to do anything and that revered him enough to know he's worth even the tiniest detail. But why do I need to know that they weren't allowed to wear garments made of two different kinds of hair?

The conclusion we came to was that we need to read and understand the strict law that was once there, and without Jesus would still be here today, so we can understand and appreciate the freedom Jesus brings to us! Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law for us. So in Him we are able to be worthy of God!

So when I read the scripture quoted in the beginning of this blog, I read it knowing that with my Faith in Jesus Christ and my attempt everyday to live according to His word and walk next to Him through this life accepting His grace that I am able to receive those promises from God!

Today I want you to read that and read it in context to your life!

“If I (name) follow God's decrees and am careful to obey His commands, He will send me rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. My work will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and I will eat all the food I want and live in safety in my land(I will have plenty and God will provide everything necessary to live and live safely in my home, at my job). God will grant peace in the land(in my home and at work), and I will lie down and no one will make me afraid. God will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through my country(there will be no one or nothing to terrorize my home or my family or my job). I will pursue my enemies, and they will fall by the sword before me (I have the victory in all of my battles). Five of us will chase a hundred, and a hundred of us will chase ten thousand, and our enemies will fall by the sword before us.  God will look on me with favor and make me fruitful and increase my numbers, and He will keep His covenant with me. I will still be eating last year’s harvest when I will have to move it out to make room for the new (His favor will increase everything I need to the point where I will have MORE THAN ENOUGH). God will put His dwelling place among me, and He will not abhor me. God will walk among us and be our God, and we will be His people. God is the Lord our God, who brought us out of Egypt (our bondage and addiction) so that we would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; He broke the bars of our yoke and enabled us to walk with heads held high."

BELIEVE it!

~Awaken Us~
Brenna Stanford