http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_41?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+complete+green+letters+miles+stanford&sprefix=the+complete+green+letters+miles+stanford

Like I said before, it is a really excellent, well written, absolutely mind blowing and life challenging. I appreciate the work of Miles J. Stanford.

This week, I have studied on my own the chapter purpose-  I am 2 weeks behind… and would like to catch up! But this chapter was amazing. What do you think His purpose is for us? Isn’t this the question that we all go through as believers? All the time? Every day? Curious, anxious, or even worried to know if we are “in His will?” I know that I go through this a lot. I know that I tend to allow my circumstances to be the “factor” of me being in His will- things are going smooth, in His will. Things aren’t as smooth as they were, out of His will. Simple, right? Yeah, if it was really on this easy… but how blessed are we to be in a relationship with God who understands us to the point of knowing that we need a clear answer to this question. He has given us His Word that clearly states what His purpose in our life is.

He began by creating man (the first Adam) in the image of Himself. After the fall, the brought forth a sinful, ungodly, self-centered race, born “dead in trespasses and sins.”God sent Himself, His Son, as His image back to earth, the Last Adam- Christ. BUT because we are “born again,” we have transitioned from our old sinful race or life (sinful, ungodly, self-centered, born dead in trespasses and sins) and have gone through a “new birth”- born into Him and now HE HAS BECOME OUR LIFE. One of my favorite verses of all time: “For as by one man’s disobedience (Adam’s) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Christ) shall many be made righteous (Ro. 5:19).”

God still has the same purpose, to make man in His image- purpose the same, but carrying out differently. All is NOW centered around Christ, as we are born INTO Him… Christ IN me. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15 that as we are born in the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of Christ! What a great promise! God is working, He is alive and working in our lives.

In Romans 8:28 and 29, Paul writes about how we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…but what is the “good?” The good is the purpose- working all things together, making us in His image that is centered and expressed in Christ, who is our life. Resting in this will allow healthy spiritual growth. “When we see that all things are working together to make us more and more like the Lord Jesus we will not be frustrated and upset when some of these ‘things’ are hard, difficult to understand… We will be able to rest in our Lord Jesus and say to our Father, ‘Thy will be done.’ And our constant attitude of faith will be, ‘Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him [Job 13:15].” (Stanford)

One of God’s most effective means to “change us,” or “conform us,” is thorugh the process of failure. I tend to hate failure, never enjoy falling on my face- I think the only time I like to fall flat on my face is when I am ready to hit the sack otherwise, I tend to not enjoy it. I try to run from it, hide it, ignore it, or justify my reason of failing that it’s “ok.” But in all this, I am “resisting the main instrument in the Father’s hand for conforming us [me] to the likeness of His Son!” (Stanford) God allows failure- why do you think He doesn’t “save us” when He sees we are about to fall? I think that this is a hard concept to grasp for many and goes along the many questions of unbelievers of: why did God allow “bad things” to happen to “good people?” or  even “if God is a God of love, why doesn’t He save those who believe in Him from hurt, tragedy, failure, ect.? “Failure… is allowes and often engineered by God in order to turn us completely from ourselves to His Source for our life- Christ Jesus, who never fails.” (Stanford) This is why it is so important to be in His Word and studying it out, to understand God’s purpose in our life and how it carries out His purpose. We need to look to the Lord revealed to us IN HIS WORD, “the Holy Spirit will quietly and effortlessly change the center and source of our lives from self to Christ… ‘Not I, but Christ.” (Stanford)

“God has a natural law in force to the effect that we are conformed to that on which we center our interest and love.” (Stanford)

If we are attracted to the world, we will be attracted to the idea to be more like the world. We will draw back from the ‘likeness of God’ and draw near to the destable world- don’t go pampering our self, our emotions, and feelings, and circumstances we don’t like… we become more self-centered. INSTEAD, we need to look to Christ so we can become more and more like Him.

This is my favorite quote from this chapter of the book (and so far out of the 4 chapters I read…):

“If I am to be like Him, then God in His grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize it the sooner I will be delievered from another form of bondage. Throw down every endeavor and say, I cannot do it, the more I try the farther I get from His likeness. What shall I do? Ah, the Holy Spirit says, You cannot do it; just withdraw; come out of it. You have been in the arena, you have been endeavoring, you are a failure, come out and sit down, and as you sit there behold Him, look at Him. Don’t try to be like Him, just look at Him. Just be occupied with Him. Forget about trying to be like Him. Instead of letting that fill our mind and hear, let Him fill it. Just behold Him, and look upon Him through His Word. Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but come to it to meet the Lord. Make it be a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord.” (Stanford)

Summary? His purpose has nothing to do with that I can do, but what I allow God to do through and in me. I allow God to mold me, shape me, make me, produce in me, change me- into the likenss of His Son. How? By resting in the fact that I am a failure, unable to produce the fruit of the Spirit in me. When I try, I fail… but God will use this failure to conform me. (FAILURE=GOD’S INSTRUMENT) How else? By centering my life around Christ, He should be and needs to be my first love and interest.

Just a thought to chew on. God is working. It’s not the most “feel good moments” but He is working, and is powerful. He can soften the most hard and bitter hearts. I love Him and cannot praise Him enough for what He has taught me, what He is teaching me now, and the ways He teaches me. Praise God for His grace and mercy and for His UNFAILING love and promises.

{ps. if you didn’t know, my sister (older) is ENGAGED! congrats to her- may 28th of 2011! here is a recent and updated picture of she and i and my family…}

If you are interested in this book, here is a link to amazon! $2 for a used copy…. click the link below:

 [http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Green-Letters-Miles-Stanford/dp/0310330513/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283474971&sr=1-1]

Now, moving on from advertising for him… this week we began with the first chapter- faith. The obvious title of this posting. Going through Hebrews now in classes and also going to the ‘Green Letters’ group this week, the word faith has been on my heart and mind a lot. When you think of faith… what do you think? Is it an emotional feeling, is it probability, maybe even an impression by something you have heard or thought? I know that through my 18+ months of being here in Michigan at New Tribes Bible Institute, God has really exposed the need of my definition to ‘faith’ compared to God’s.

Being here, I have tried and tried to understand the faith I have… what it looks like, why it doesn’t all ‘feel’ the way it should, what my next ‘step of faith’ will be, ect. I have tried talking about it, thinking about it, praying and reading more, trying to think I was being faithful. But especially through the last month of ‘Leadership Training’ here at the school and Hebrews class combined with “The Complete Green Letters” I have come to the realization that faith is much different than I thought it is. It has nothing to do with how busy I keep myself ‘spiritually’ but the ‘facts’ that I believe in.

What is faith? In Green Letters, Miles J. Stanford tells us that true faith is soley based on facts and is anchored on scriptural facts. How can you have faith in something you don’t know about? You can ‘think’ or ‘guess’ that just MAYBE it may be true- but that is not factual, that’s just guessing?…right? Take this verse, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).” What is this saying? In order to have faith, we must be IN the Word to HEAR the Word. Faith is not a guessing game… it’s based on God’s True Word that is factual.

I think of ‘impressions’ and probabilties’ in one’s life as the “guessing game.” Not to sure on what God’s Word says, but not in the Word to prove what they believe. Miles J. Stanford writes, “It is not impressions, strong or weak, which will make a difference. We have to do with the Written Word and not ourselves or our impressions.” My example of this in my own life is when I see something ‘sprititually inspiring.’ I see it, it has made an impression on me (the quote, the song, the story, the testimony, the miracle…ect.) and instead of seeing how it lines up with God’s Word or even what God’s Word says about it, I allow it to leave an impression on my life and I believe exactly what it says. It seems to be more of an emotional ride that is decieving and makes one believe their faith is real- but it ends up being a ride that leaves one discouraged, maybe feeling hopeless, and unconfident in what they believe. It should?! If you are not IN the Word, than how would one know if what they believe is lining up with the facts in God’s spoken and written Word?

Probabilites is one I definitley struggle with often. It’s a walk of sight for many… the idea of “Well, if my life is good… I am probably good with God” or “There has been no struggle in my life, therefore… I am probably living a life according to God’s Word.” The probabilties is just another part of the “guessing game” in our Christian life. In my life, it seems to be a way for me to be lazy and to not study out convictions or needs that have been exposed in my life. So instead of being in God’s Word, I think in a week maybe He will give me a circumstance to learn this Truth, or a teacher will say something that ‘hits the spot’. Another probability is thinking, “I CAN DO IT (on my own).” One may not be saying it out loud, but they could be definitley thinking about it consciencely. This is why we need the Word, to point us BACK to Him and the Truth He has laid out before us about faith. There is a difference between a walk of sight and a walk of faith. When one lives a walk of sight, than one is living in a state of unbelief- a life full of probablity, uncertainity, and impressions. BUT when one lives a walk of faith, they know the Truth’s of God’s Word that allows them to not guess or assume they are living faithfully, but gives them confidence that they are. Miles writes, “Many people are willing to believe regarding those things seem probable to them. Faith has nothing to do with probabilites. The province of faith begins where probablitlues cease and sight and sense fail. Appearances are not be taken into account. The question is- whether God has spoken it in His Word (Miles J. Stanford).” Is what I am ‘probably thinking true’ actually Truth and lining up with God’s Word?

This brings me to certainty. “There must be a definite knowledge of God’s purpose and will… For faith is not a force that we exercise or a string to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass… not biblical faith (Miles J. Stanford).” A definite knowledge, a certainty, and facts produce faith. The faith we have needs to rest upon facts. The confidence in God’s Word, knowing what God’s Word says, to oppose any trial that will come our way. Having a faith based on ANYTHING besides facts will leave us hopeless, exhausted, discouraged, and insecure. It’s only knowing what God’s Word says that we can face the trials, obstacles, difficulties, and some defeats that leave knowing we have hope, power IN Him, and a secure position IN Christ. These things “are the very food of faith.”

In the book “The Complete Green Letters,” Miles quotes James McConkey: “Faith is dependence upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith…” Wow. self-dependence vs. God-dependent… where do we begin? I guess we begin with, every person wants to live a life of hope and victory… and they only way to obtain hope and victory in this fallen world is through dependence on God- apart from my own strenght and my own self reliance. It’s by being IN HIS WORD that I am able to depend on God, have confidence in His Truth, and hope for the future. By being IN HIS WORD, I am able to walk a life full of victory and hope!

If you have your bible near you, turn to 2 Peter 1:2-4, “³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” Here is my question to you: how could you trust this piece of scripture in 2 Peter, if you have never studied the attributes of God, His character, or His faithfulness to His people and believers for the past 2,000 years? I could only assume that it was through probability or impression that one could believe this verse and have never studied out God’s promises and His faithfulness.  This is why being in His Word is so important to our faith, so that is it not mere guessing or probabilty or feeling- but that it is a true faith, based on actual facts, provided by the spoken words of God written in a book for you and I to study and have FULL confidence in. “We cannot trust anyone further than we know him. So we must not only learn the facts involved, but must intimately come to know the One who presents and upholds them (M.J. Stanford).”

Faith, reckoning God’s Word, resting in the Truth’s of God’s Word; not in man’s probabilities and impressions.

How does this truth of faith rest in your hearts and minds today?
I challenge you and myself to study this out more… and see what God exposes in our lives!

(ps. thanks for taking a look, reading, and sharing in this Truth with me today! let me know if i could be praying for you… I know I need it!)

he couldn’t have asked me anymore perfectly. it was july 6th that he got down on one knee to ask me to marry him, and it was july 6th that i answered with tears of joy, kisses, laughs, and hugs.

we have been camping all week… and the morning of our engagement, my dad had given daniel the final ‘yes’ to his big question. from then on- daniel planned. he called ALL of the photographers in lake tahoe, but none answered. so, he decided that he would continue on with the proposal anyway- but not without a back-up plan. with that, he invited my sister to join the proposal staff (hehehe) and she became the professional photographer whom took these amazing pictures (you would think it was a pro).

after getting ready (thank goodness i brushed my hair, teeth, and washed my face) we headed out to town to grab some things and to get a yummy cup of coffee (it was soo good- that vanilla latte) and we decided to go take a stroll on the beach we discovered earlier that week! 

as we began walking on the beach, he asked me all the funny and great stories that i have made with my family in tahoe growing up. of course, i had many…i mean, i am a esmeyer and cannelora. after talking for sometime and walking up and down the beach, he had made the comment of how cool it was to have memories in tahoe together and how he hopes to make more. of course, i agreed… hoping that one day, he would take me there to propose. as we walk a little bit more, he saw a photographer on the beach, he ran over to him, asked him a question, and ran back. i asked him what’s going on and he said i just want to ask him what kind of camera he had…. without me knowing, he told the guy that he was going to propose and was wondering if he could click a couple shots!

sooooo, we walked a little farther. and as i went to wash my feet off a little bit in the water, daniel stopped me to ask me a question. at this point, i still had no idea. we had talked about getting engaged sometime after i graduate and so i was clueless to what was really going on. as i looked at him, he looked into my eyes and asked me if i would marry him. i couldn’t believe it, i was in shock! i threw my face into his chest… and asked him over and over again, are you serious? really? when i turned to look at the water, daniel got down on one knee, brought out the ring, opened the box and grabbed my hand. when i turned back to him and saw him on one knee, i knew it was true and i ended with a ‘yes, of course!’

with that, everyone on the beach cheered! i clapped, laughed, jumped, giggled, and couldn’t contain myself! i couldn’t believe daniel and i were actually on our way to get married… as we head back to the campsite with all my family (extended and all) he told me my family was there the whole time, watching us, and taking pictures. i was so excited to know that specifically my sister was there- growing up we have always talked about being there to watch each other get engaged!

daniel did an amazing job. my ring is beautiful- classy yet very unique, simple but excentric, and everything i would have wanted and more!

with that- we as (soon-to-be-hoeppners) are looking to get married june of 2011. we are so excited for this day to come! we ask that you keep us in your prayers as daniel is living in taiwan with his family and i am back in school in michigan!

thank you to all who have been praying for us for almost the last 3 years! we truly do love you and thank you. if you would like to help with the wedding at all, let us know! we would love to have you helping us out on our big day! xoxoxo

written with excitment,

soon-to-be mrs.hoeppner  <3

{p.s. this is the link for the pics- http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=2057746&id=1057562691}