 |
| Abortion is a topic that has kind of fallen in to the background in recent times. It becomes more and more “Justifiable” in the popular view as time goes on, and in many ways has ceased to be a question of morality concerning the killing of unborn babies; and become more a struggle over the idea of “Who has the right to tell a person what to do with their body, and their life”. This must be said however about Abortion, the unfortunate truth is that the while there are certain circumstances that can result in an unwanted pregnancy, such as rape or a drug addicted mother; the majority of Abortions are chosen by women out of convenience. That sounds like a harsh accusation, but truth is truth. I know that the reasons sound really rational when you think about them “I can’t afford a baby” or “I’m not mature enough to take care of a baby” or the even popular “how can someone bring a life in to this world with as bad as it is”? These reasons as well as many others have the illusion of sounding like the thoughts of a mature and responsible individual but it’s only an illusion.Honestly speaking the reality that you aren’t ready for a baby or that you cannot afford to raise a child are not truths that come about because you are pregnant, they were true before that. Not to mention that it was obviously no result of the unborn child’s will that they came to be. Perhaps the “Choice” in prochoice should be considered before one becomes pregnant, rather than after. And in cases where the choice was taken from you… you still have the ability to choose life, to choose to protect life. If you went to a store and walked by a car on the way and saw that a baby had been left unattended in the car you’d be upset, you’d see the criminality of that child’s guardian for leaving that baby alone in a car. Many people have been prosecuted and imprisoned for such crimes. Why? Because a baby’s are helpless to take care of themselves, because a baby left in a car alone might die. If it’s wrong for a person to willingly put a child in a situation where they may die, how can it be right for a person to willingly kill there child? In the Bible God says “Before I shaped you in your mother’s womb, I knew you”. If God can say he knew you before such a time as you were created in your mother’s womb then what does that mean? If you think about it logically and chronologically it would have to mean that the person God created and more to the point you, which God created; the essence and spirit that is you existed before there was a body to go along with it. Picture your spirit, your soul as the engine of a car and your body as the car itself. When an engineer builds a new car they do not make the car and then attempt to build the engine within the confines of the structure of the car, the build the engine by itself and the cars body by itself and final put the engine into the car. Before the engine is placed in the cars body, the car is itself; empty and useless. So chronologically there is a you, an engine and then after there was a you there was a body or a car. As God the engineer builds you he places that engine or soul into the vehicle your body and after this you are born. When you ponder the standard quandary of what point in time does a baby in the womb become a person. I would have to say that the Bible tells us that a person exists even before the body with in the mother’s womb begins to form. Abortion I have to say is murder; moreover it’s the murder of a baby. We look down upon the idea of murdering children and even adults in this world because of the injustice involved. We can see the tragedy in the death of a child, we see the injustice in the murder of an innocent person, we even find the same compassion and outrage with the abuse or killing of an animal because they are helpless to defend themselves from their attackers and yet somehow we can see that but not the injustice of murdering a baby that is even more helpless than anyone else. Abortion is an argument that has raged sense before I was even born, and I’m not expecting that everyone who reads this might immediately change their opinion, however it’s my hope that anyone who does read this would think about it and while you are thinking about it take a second to appreciate the fact that you are able to ponder such a thing because you yourself were not aborted. When you think about which side of the debate you are on never forget to ask yourself the question why. Why is it ok to kill a child in favor of convenience, in favor of not having to step up to meet the challenge of raising that child. Abortion is a murder of convenience. It’s more convenient to kill a baby because you can’t afford it then it is to try and take care of that child. It’s more convenient to kill a baby then it is to try and become mature enough to take care of that child or to give that child to someone who can. It’s more convenient to kill a baby then it is to have a child with someone you wish you hadn’t. Murder is not okay weather you are a Christian or not it’s never ok and murder of the innocent is even less acceptable. It’s easy to let a subject like abortion fall out of mind because you may not have ever had to deal with that decision in your life, but it’s always important to speak out against injustice, against what’s wrong. Abortion is wrong. |
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Murder of convenience
Thursday, February 2, 2012
“What you win them with, is what you win them to”
I heard a good phase today.
“What you win them with, is what you win them to”
This is a terrific phrase because of the truth within it. When it comes to Christianity and more specifically the concept of leading people to Christ, it should be Christ that wins those people over.
More and more today we have large churches that make attendance into a numbers game but Jesus didn’t do this. Jesus spoke the word of GOD without shame and without apology; he did not shape the message to fit the people in other words. He instead wanted the people whom were willing to shape themselves to the word.
There are a lot of churches and preachers that are trying to shape the word to the people in order to win more people over which at face value sounds good because there are lots and lots of people attending these churches and listening to these preachers however what were they won with?
When you win people over by presenting the bible and its wisdom in a more appealing way but overall compromise the fullness of the word to make it seem more “doable” or to cater to the world then have won people over to a self-serving form of Christianity. People need to come to Jesus on his terms not their own.
Jesus never chased anyone down and made deals with them to make them follow him, he never compromised the word to get followers as a matter of fact he did the opposite.
Consider the story of the wealthy young ruler who spoke to Jesus
In Matthew chapter 19: 16 through 22
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[e] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call me good? [f] No one is good but One, that is, God. [g] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ [h] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” [I]
20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. [j] What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And what happened after this? Jesus was sorrowful that the man chose his possessions over GOD and left instead of denying himself and worshiping his possession (Idols). But what did NOT happen was that Jesus did NOT go after him and say, never mind maybe you could sell just some of your stuff and give the money to the poor, or maybe you can just keep your things and follow me anyway. Jesus didn’t compromise it is how it is, are you in or are you out.
That is the true Jesus and if you are winning people over to Christ then be mindful that you are winning the them over with Christ, because as the quote says “what you win them with is what you win them too” and how sad it would be to end up in front of the Lord and have him say as he said in the beginning of Matthew “ you cried to me Lord, Lord but I did not know you.
“What you win them with, is what you win them to”
This is a terrific phrase because of the truth within it. When it comes to Christianity and more specifically the concept of leading people to Christ, it should be Christ that wins those people over.
More and more today we have large churches that make attendance into a numbers game but Jesus didn’t do this. Jesus spoke the word of GOD without shame and without apology; he did not shape the message to fit the people in other words. He instead wanted the people whom were willing to shape themselves to the word.
There are a lot of churches and preachers that are trying to shape the word to the people in order to win more people over which at face value sounds good because there are lots and lots of people attending these churches and listening to these preachers however what were they won with?
When you win people over by presenting the bible and its wisdom in a more appealing way but overall compromise the fullness of the word to make it seem more “doable” or to cater to the world then have won people over to a self-serving form of Christianity. People need to come to Jesus on his terms not their own.
Jesus never chased anyone down and made deals with them to make them follow him, he never compromised the word to get followers as a matter of fact he did the opposite.
Consider the story of the wealthy young ruler who spoke to Jesus
In Matthew chapter 19: 16 through 22
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[e] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call me good? [f] No one is good but One, that is, God. [g] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ [h] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” [I]
20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. [j] What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And what happened after this? Jesus was sorrowful that the man chose his possessions over GOD and left instead of denying himself and worshiping his possession (Idols). But what did NOT happen was that Jesus did NOT go after him and say, never mind maybe you could sell just some of your stuff and give the money to the poor, or maybe you can just keep your things and follow me anyway. Jesus didn’t compromise it is how it is, are you in or are you out.
That is the true Jesus and if you are winning people over to Christ then be mindful that you are winning the them over with Christ, because as the quote says “what you win them with is what you win them too” and how sad it would be to end up in front of the Lord and have him say as he said in the beginning of Matthew “ you cried to me Lord, Lord but I did not know you.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Very interesting Info on Christianity and science
There is some very interesting Information I found online, on the website of one Mr. Bob Dutko. He has a series of cd teachings called the top ten proofs and they are all geared toward a specific topic of information that is normally used by Atheist’s or Non believer as arguments against the GOD and Christianity.
He has some samples of the cd’s he sells, I am by the way going to be purchasing a few of these and will report more information after I have done so but some of the more intriguing samples he has are
Reasons evolution is scientifically impossible and how the creation of the universe is not possible without GOD all very informative and very interesting I have included some links for you to check them out below.
Each of these samples ends with the statement “to better arm you to defend the faith” which I like and I have to say I have shown these samples to a friend who was seeking Christ in his life but at the same time hung up a little bit on what the world says is true and this made a huge impact on him. So please share listen and discuss and get yourself a few cds from Bob Dutko if you feel like this may be a good piece of knowledge you might use to spread the gospel to some of your friends and family.
Here is Bob Dutkos Website were you can listen to these and several other samples on different topics.
http://www.toptenproofs.com/products.php
Are you taking up your cross?
In light of some recent information (i.e. bible scripture and some audio teachings) I have recently understood the premise being presented in
Luke 9:23
New International Version (NIV)
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
To understand this we must first understand what a cross represents. It’s obvious that Jesus didn’t want us to drag physical crosses where ever we went, its equally obvious that he didn’t mean that we should wear crosses as a sign of our faith at least not in context with this verse.
What I believe Jesus to be talking about here is the fact that his teachings and the words of god that he brought to us eventually resulted in his death on the cross, and for us to “deny ourselves” and “take up our cross” would mean that you deny your own wants and your own will and share the word of god even in light of the consequences that you may be hated or mistreated and indeed even killed as a result. Jesus said no servant is greater than his master which means that you as a servant of Jesus can’t expect to be treated better than Jesus was.
How was Jesus treated? Some listened to him and accepted his words, even less people followed his words, but the majority of people suspected him of being a liar and of being a blasphemer, many hated him and his message and some even persecuted him and killed him.
He died on the cross, having paid the ultimate price, are you willing to pay that price? Are you willing that people hate you and persecute you? Hate you and do violence to you all because you are doing everything you can to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ?
I think that this statement in Luke is saying that in order to be his disciple you need to deny yourself, or not think of your own fear, not tremble in the shadow of the ideas that you will be shunned and hated and possible beaten and killed and profess your Lord Jesus no matter what. That is the cross you take up as a Christian, Love Jesus at all costs; preach the word by any means. If you’re worried about yourself and your wellbeing then you are not being faithful … you aren’t being a Christian and you are not baring your cross and denying yourself and you are not being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Luke 9:23
New International Version (NIV)
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
To understand this we must first understand what a cross represents. It’s obvious that Jesus didn’t want us to drag physical crosses where ever we went, its equally obvious that he didn’t mean that we should wear crosses as a sign of our faith at least not in context with this verse.
What I believe Jesus to be talking about here is the fact that his teachings and the words of god that he brought to us eventually resulted in his death on the cross, and for us to “deny ourselves” and “take up our cross” would mean that you deny your own wants and your own will and share the word of god even in light of the consequences that you may be hated or mistreated and indeed even killed as a result. Jesus said no servant is greater than his master which means that you as a servant of Jesus can’t expect to be treated better than Jesus was.
How was Jesus treated? Some listened to him and accepted his words, even less people followed his words, but the majority of people suspected him of being a liar and of being a blasphemer, many hated him and his message and some even persecuted him and killed him.
He died on the cross, having paid the ultimate price, are you willing to pay that price? Are you willing that people hate you and persecute you? Hate you and do violence to you all because you are doing everything you can to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ?
I think that this statement in Luke is saying that in order to be his disciple you need to deny yourself, or not think of your own fear, not tremble in the shadow of the ideas that you will be shunned and hated and possible beaten and killed and profess your Lord Jesus no matter what. That is the cross you take up as a Christian, Love Jesus at all costs; preach the word by any means. If you’re worried about yourself and your wellbeing then you are not being faithful … you aren’t being a Christian and you are not baring your cross and denying yourself and you are not being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Why should you believe in a GOD
Why should you believe in a GOD when you can just do things yourself?
I was asked this question in the past and I admit when I was asked this question I didn’t know how to answer it, in addition I came to understand that at point on our walks with GOD where we are confronted with the worlds view and they ask a question which I would personify as standing on both sides of line.
You have on side of the line a non-believer and of course on the opposing side you have a believer, id that non believer asks a question which is answered by faith and they have none; well of course they aren’t going to get the meaning of the answer. Now before a Christian understands this they will likely get quite frustrated in the fact they what constitutes a “good answer” to you doesn’t necessarily carry as much weight to a non-believer.
Now the first thing I want to say about this is that this although it is kind of hard to understand is a good thing. The bible teaches that when a person is saved by Christ’s grace that he has a change of mind from that of the world to that of Christ. Jesus said to the decuples that he would lift the veil of understanding that they would know the meaning of the truth and to the non- believes GOD would send strong delusions that they would believe the lie. What does this tell us?
If you are speaking to a non-believer they won’t understand you on matters of faith because by definition as non-believers they do in fact believe the lie. The lie of course being that GOD isn’t real.
Therefore if what you said made sense completely to a non-believer and if your statements of your own faith do carry the same weight as the same statements would with a fellow Christian then the person you were taking too would already be saved, they would already be a believer.
It’s important to recognize as a new creation who is born again and has the holy spirit and Jesus to help you find the righteous path that the no believer does not have that an they are in that state of existence at least to themselves alone and to themselves they are the one doing things because they don’t understand what it means to be still and see the things of GOD happening all around them.
If you, or I can even go a step further and say “When you “ were not yet saved and you didn’t understand the fact that everything that you do from the first breath you take in the morning to the last thing you do before bed and everything in between is simply impossible without GOD , well then you would likely feel the same way and take ownership of everything that happened in your life as being either your own triumph or your own failure, because you didn’t know god then you had no idea probably of the truth.
No to get back to the actual question I was asked re stated” why should you believe in God, What’s the point, you can take care of yourself”? Well of course as a Christina this question may vex you and it may simply break your heart that someone is in such darkness that they don’t even know the most rudimentary answer to such a basic question.
I have read that faith is a blessing, and for a long time I thought of it more as a concept that when I have faith then I receive the blessing, but now I think of faith itself as the blessing. Why? Well because when you see that so many people don’t have faith and you see the hardship they face in addition to the same hardship we all face because it is said in the bible that we will all have trials and tribulations and that GOD brings his rain on the just and the unjust alike and so on, so we all have issue to deal with in life but imagine those who are going through those struggles no knowing GOD. Not being able to rest in their faith, not being able to pray for guidance and not having the bible to turn to in times of confusion.
That is why simply having faith is a blessing. Why the simple fact that you hear the word of GOD and you run toward it instead of away from it as so many do Is a blessing in itself.
Now back to the rest of the question and I’ll break it up in to parts and address each part individually.
Why Believe in GOD? First off I’ll pose a simple counter question of why would you want to not believe in GOD? IF you think about it in simplest terms you have a dichotomy where on one side you can believe that your nothing, that you are unimportant and expendable and you are only ever going to have what you can scrape out for yourself in this world and when you die that’s the end and after the first couple months people won’t even talk about you anymore and only the closes members of your family will feel the bite of your absence and once they die you will be forgotten, at least you won’t be remembered in any real sense by people who actually knew you.
On the other side you have a creator who made you on purpose meaning that you weren’t a happenstance you exist because GOD wanted you to specifically you and specifically now and specifically where you are and with your specific family or without, the bible says that even the hairs on your head are numbered that’s how much purposeful thought GOD put in to your existence.
So how can this option possibly loose out to the concept of there being no GOD? well first of all you have of course the evil urges in human kind that seriously conflict with the teachings of the bible, you also have the world at large that shows us to value all things that again are in stark contrast to what the bible says is valuable. We are indoctrinated from birth with this garbage culture of seeking things and pleasures and keeping yourself at the top of the list of things to consider when making all decisions.
That’s not what the bible teaches. The bible says esteem other higher than yourself, but how can you? How can you esteem others higher than yourselves and still seek fame and riches and all those other things that the world values? The answer is you can’t… the bible says lay thee not up treasures for yourself on earth but rather in heaven.
The fact is that even though people of the world think of Christians as being weak misinformed and foolish the reality is that they have to think that way of us because the alternative is that they are the ones who are weak misinformed and foolish .
Non- believers at least the variety of non-believer that chooses not to believe rather thank those who don’t yet know about Jesus, don’t want to believe in GOD because that would mean they would have to change, they would have to stop glorifying and gratifying themselves and think about others and that is terrifying to a sinner because it’s terrifying to the sin that dwells anthem.
Moving on to the next section of the question.
What’s the point? In this context of course meaning what’s the point in following Jesus, the point in submitting yourself to the creator of the universe? Well this is some things that as I mentioned before is something that is painfully obvious to believers but to non-believers not so much …
Let’s start off with eternity, now we read in the bible in many places that our souls are everlasting right? So while some people are able to kind of imagine the idea of forever in heaven, most people don’t think about the alternative namely forever in HELL. So that to me is a pretty good “point” to believing in Jesus and in GOD the Father, I am a Christian and I love my heavenly father and I do my very best every day to make sure I’m being as obedient as I can, not to get noticed or to look pious but because that is what I’m supposed to do I fail constantly we all do but guess what there’s another point to believing my father in heaven forgives me when I make mistakes. And he is there to help me learn from them so the next time it comes up I won’t fail. A lot of Christians talk about how “GOD is working in me” that’s what that means you need to be shaped and taught. Now think about that … People talk about how they don’t believe in GOD cause the cant see him, well none of us see him not in normal ways anyway but it’s like the old saying “how can you see the wind? You can’t but you can see the branches of the trees and the leaves moving”. I see GOD I see him when I can do things that I know for a fact I cannot do myself, some people say that they are “Just that good” I’m not. When I can see the message in my mistakes and learn the truth of what GOD wants me to do in those situations, I see GOD there too. That’s a big reason in my opinion.
And now the final part of the question “you can just take care of yourself”.
At this point I believe I have touched on this subject already, so I’ll make this short and to the point. NO NEITHER YOU NOR I CAN TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES! And if you can’t see that then I invite you to take a long and sober look at your life and tell me what was so fantastic that you did for yourself.
Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
I was asked this question in the past and I admit when I was asked this question I didn’t know how to answer it, in addition I came to understand that at point on our walks with GOD where we are confronted with the worlds view and they ask a question which I would personify as standing on both sides of line.
You have on side of the line a non-believer and of course on the opposing side you have a believer, id that non believer asks a question which is answered by faith and they have none; well of course they aren’t going to get the meaning of the answer. Now before a Christian understands this they will likely get quite frustrated in the fact they what constitutes a “good answer” to you doesn’t necessarily carry as much weight to a non-believer.
Now the first thing I want to say about this is that this although it is kind of hard to understand is a good thing. The bible teaches that when a person is saved by Christ’s grace that he has a change of mind from that of the world to that of Christ. Jesus said to the decuples that he would lift the veil of understanding that they would know the meaning of the truth and to the non- believes GOD would send strong delusions that they would believe the lie. What does this tell us?
If you are speaking to a non-believer they won’t understand you on matters of faith because by definition as non-believers they do in fact believe the lie. The lie of course being that GOD isn’t real.
Therefore if what you said made sense completely to a non-believer and if your statements of your own faith do carry the same weight as the same statements would with a fellow Christian then the person you were taking too would already be saved, they would already be a believer.
It’s important to recognize as a new creation who is born again and has the holy spirit and Jesus to help you find the righteous path that the no believer does not have that an they are in that state of existence at least to themselves alone and to themselves they are the one doing things because they don’t understand what it means to be still and see the things of GOD happening all around them.
If you, or I can even go a step further and say “When you “ were not yet saved and you didn’t understand the fact that everything that you do from the first breath you take in the morning to the last thing you do before bed and everything in between is simply impossible without GOD , well then you would likely feel the same way and take ownership of everything that happened in your life as being either your own triumph or your own failure, because you didn’t know god then you had no idea probably of the truth.
No to get back to the actual question I was asked re stated” why should you believe in God, What’s the point, you can take care of yourself”? Well of course as a Christina this question may vex you and it may simply break your heart that someone is in such darkness that they don’t even know the most rudimentary answer to such a basic question.
I have read that faith is a blessing, and for a long time I thought of it more as a concept that when I have faith then I receive the blessing, but now I think of faith itself as the blessing. Why? Well because when you see that so many people don’t have faith and you see the hardship they face in addition to the same hardship we all face because it is said in the bible that we will all have trials and tribulations and that GOD brings his rain on the just and the unjust alike and so on, so we all have issue to deal with in life but imagine those who are going through those struggles no knowing GOD. Not being able to rest in their faith, not being able to pray for guidance and not having the bible to turn to in times of confusion.
That is why simply having faith is a blessing. Why the simple fact that you hear the word of GOD and you run toward it instead of away from it as so many do Is a blessing in itself.
Now back to the rest of the question and I’ll break it up in to parts and address each part individually.
Why Believe in GOD? First off I’ll pose a simple counter question of why would you want to not believe in GOD? IF you think about it in simplest terms you have a dichotomy where on one side you can believe that your nothing, that you are unimportant and expendable and you are only ever going to have what you can scrape out for yourself in this world and when you die that’s the end and after the first couple months people won’t even talk about you anymore and only the closes members of your family will feel the bite of your absence and once they die you will be forgotten, at least you won’t be remembered in any real sense by people who actually knew you.
On the other side you have a creator who made you on purpose meaning that you weren’t a happenstance you exist because GOD wanted you to specifically you and specifically now and specifically where you are and with your specific family or without, the bible says that even the hairs on your head are numbered that’s how much purposeful thought GOD put in to your existence.
So how can this option possibly loose out to the concept of there being no GOD? well first of all you have of course the evil urges in human kind that seriously conflict with the teachings of the bible, you also have the world at large that shows us to value all things that again are in stark contrast to what the bible says is valuable. We are indoctrinated from birth with this garbage culture of seeking things and pleasures and keeping yourself at the top of the list of things to consider when making all decisions.
That’s not what the bible teaches. The bible says esteem other higher than yourself, but how can you? How can you esteem others higher than yourselves and still seek fame and riches and all those other things that the world values? The answer is you can’t… the bible says lay thee not up treasures for yourself on earth but rather in heaven.
The fact is that even though people of the world think of Christians as being weak misinformed and foolish the reality is that they have to think that way of us because the alternative is that they are the ones who are weak misinformed and foolish .
Non- believers at least the variety of non-believer that chooses not to believe rather thank those who don’t yet know about Jesus, don’t want to believe in GOD because that would mean they would have to change, they would have to stop glorifying and gratifying themselves and think about others and that is terrifying to a sinner because it’s terrifying to the sin that dwells anthem.
Moving on to the next section of the question.
What’s the point? In this context of course meaning what’s the point in following Jesus, the point in submitting yourself to the creator of the universe? Well this is some things that as I mentioned before is something that is painfully obvious to believers but to non-believers not so much …
Let’s start off with eternity, now we read in the bible in many places that our souls are everlasting right? So while some people are able to kind of imagine the idea of forever in heaven, most people don’t think about the alternative namely forever in HELL. So that to me is a pretty good “point” to believing in Jesus and in GOD the Father, I am a Christian and I love my heavenly father and I do my very best every day to make sure I’m being as obedient as I can, not to get noticed or to look pious but because that is what I’m supposed to do I fail constantly we all do but guess what there’s another point to believing my father in heaven forgives me when I make mistakes. And he is there to help me learn from them so the next time it comes up I won’t fail. A lot of Christians talk about how “GOD is working in me” that’s what that means you need to be shaped and taught. Now think about that … People talk about how they don’t believe in GOD cause the cant see him, well none of us see him not in normal ways anyway but it’s like the old saying “how can you see the wind? You can’t but you can see the branches of the trees and the leaves moving”. I see GOD I see him when I can do things that I know for a fact I cannot do myself, some people say that they are “Just that good” I’m not. When I can see the message in my mistakes and learn the truth of what GOD wants me to do in those situations, I see GOD there too. That’s a big reason in my opinion.
And now the final part of the question “you can just take care of yourself”.
At this point I believe I have touched on this subject already, so I’ll make this short and to the point. NO NEITHER YOU NOR I CAN TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES! And if you can’t see that then I invite you to take a long and sober look at your life and tell me what was so fantastic that you did for yourself.
Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The Book of Second Corinthians is a wonderful blessing
I have recently been studying the book of second Corinthians, which is a very amazing book in the New Testament which is about the apostil Paul and the church he planted in Corinth which is a part of Greece down on the southern peninsula or island by the Aegean Sea in the east of Europe.
Please see the maps below for reference
As you can see above the 2 places we are addressing are Corinth and Ephesus then known as Asia modernly the country of Turkey.
There are a wealth of great scriptures and teachings in this book, my focus here is concerning the term or ideal that a good majority of us have heard of which is “Rest in Christ”.
The reason we are talking about these two specific locations is to illustrate the point of Paul’s faith, now as you may know already, and if you don’t the book of 2nd Corinthians is a letter that Paul has written to his congregation or his church in Corinth, he touches on a great and many different subjects but to highlight a couple specific subject we are going to talk about Paul’s time in Asia or Ephesus.
Paul’s comments on his time in Ephesus doesn’t states that while there he was in real trouble, now Paul doesn’t go into the details of what it was that he faced there but what he does say is that the trials he faced were so great that he was essentially certain that he would die as a result, but it’s what he says next that really is astounding. Here is the verse
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Basically what we read in this verse is that Paul having been in a situation that pushed him beyond his own strength beyond what he knew to be his own limits in every way to the point where he believe that he would surely perish , and all he could say about it is essentially “we trust not in ourselves” meaning we are not the capable party in any given situation, “but in god which raiseth the dead” he is saying that in Christ we have everlasting life, that with Christ who is the capable party in all things strong where we are week and truly the raiser of the dead. IN Christ we live forever therefore our worry is for nothing because our heavenly father promises our everlasting life through his son Jesus.
So how does this relate to the concept of our rest in Jesus?
It is our dependency in Jesus that gives us rest , Jesus said he would bare all burdens which means that when you are struggling you need only raise your issues up to God and focus on your Godly works Jesus will in fact take care of your problems for the bible tells us that “the lord knows what you are in need of even before you know yourself” the bible also says in Mathew chapter 6:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Essentially the point here is that if you toil first for God striving ever more for the glory of God, making the lord your first concern and all other things? Let them be background details for when you seek god he will provide, he will bare your burdens he will keep you fed and clothed and safe, you need not waste all your time worrying about yourself and your own pursuits.
If you have questions or comments or something to add to this please contact me here.
If you want to know more about the rest Jesus provides or just want to know more about God and the bible please contact me and I will do everything in my power to help you find the answers you seek through Jesus in whom all things are possible.
God Bless you