tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76411444438359654732024-03-04T21:55:16.817-08:00Making God Look BadThis blog is about how "Christians" can make God look bad and what we can do to make it right. We will cover many things in this blog like day to day living and how the body of Christ should act in the face of the things that are going on in the world today.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-89077968384243268822014-06-10T17:43:00.002-07:002014-06-10T17:43:38.532-07:00Chapter 10.5 The Careless Jesus<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">This new chapter is written by one of my great friends Tom Broyles. He is a great man of God who has a heart to share Jesus with all. Thank you Tom for being a part of this!</span></div>
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I was so honored when Pastor Eddie asked me to write a chapter in his blog. I have known Eddie for several years. He was a faithful mentor and friend through many challenging seasons of my high school career. Anyone who knows the guy knows he is a genuine lover- of God and people. So I first just want to say, thank you, Pastor Eddie, for allowing God to use you as a tool to shape my walk with Him. I have a deep respect for you.</div>
<br /> I have heard it stated by various ministers, church leaders, and brothers and sisters in Christ, “There is a call to holiness upon this generation.” And I could not agree more with this statement. We live in an evil world plagued with distractions, temptations, and sin, and our world is waiting for a model of what heaven looks like. However, this is NOT a new problem facing this specific generation. So I believe a more accurate statement would be, “There is a call to holiness upon EVERY generation.” God does not show favoritism, and His invitation for us to be like Him or “To be holy as He is holy” (Leviticus 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:16) is for everyone in the body of Christ. Father <b>wants</b> us to experience the joy and fullness of His holiness- His character and nature- and NO ONE is excluded from that invite! In this chapter we will be talking about the “Careless Jesus” or the Jesus who just doesn't really care how we live.. err..um.. is that right?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><br /> Over the past year of my life, but especially the last few months, I have had some of the most humbling encounters with the Lord. The more I encounter the Lord’s holiness- His character and nature- the more I find myself longing to experience more of Him. I am well aware of the fact that I have just scratched the surface of Father’s goodness, and I can’t seem to shake that desire inside for more! God says about Himself in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” I believe if there is anything we can underestimate or fail to understand as followers of Jesus, it is His goodness, His kindness, and His gentleness- all of which make up His holiness. His attributes are what separate Him from us. We aren't good like He is good. We aren't kind like He is kind. We aren't gentle like He is gentle. However, these attributes are the very thing which He has called and invited His body to live in and become.<br /><br /><b>The Lord deeply cares about how you live your life.</b> <b>If He didn't then He would not have called you to partake in His holiness.</b> I enjoy reading in the New Testament how Jesus speaks to the disciples versus how He speaks to the Pharisees. I think Jesus would put anyone to shame when it comes to name-calling, and He definitely let the Pharisees have it on more than one occasion. But honestly, one of the biggest differences between the disciples and the Pharisees were that the disciples’ hearts were positioned to receive from Jesus, and the Pharisees’ hearts were not. If we are not living holy as he is holy, it is because we are not receiving from Him. And if we are not receiving from Him it is for one of two reasons- lack of seeking, or unbelief. God calls unto us, but we as His children must believe and respond to Him!<br /><br /><b>Don’t be fooled!</b> The enemy loves to blow us around by waves of doctrine and teaching. It’s one of his favorite tactics. A common one I have seen that comes up around the topic of God’s grace and holiness is this idea- “God loves you and has abounding grace over you, but <b><u>expects</u></b> you to turn <b><u>by your own strength</u></b> from your evil behavior.” This type of teaching puts the focus back on self and back on works. It’s the mentality that as a believer, God expects me to do more. He expects me to be more. And He expects me to live up to a standard that I’m never sure I will attain. This is NOT the Gospel. The good news of Jesus is that <b><u>He changes us so that we can have new life through Him!</u></b>- “If the spirit who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His spirit living in you.” (Romans 8:11)He isn't searching for you to do more- because “apart from Him we can do nothing.” (John 15:5) He is not looking for your good works- “It’s by grace you have been saved through faith.” (Ephesians 2:8) He doesn't really care about a bowed head and closed eyes. He cares about a bowed heart- “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 55:10). If we say that our faith is in His abounding grace, yet we try to become like Him by our own will, then how is that a testimony to the grace of God? And if He has given us his spirit to put to death our flesh (Romans 8:13), then how could we possibly, once called into His fullness, perfect ourselves by our own will- our flesh? It is impossible. Jesus came so that we might have life right now, and living in the fullness of that life doesn't mean we are perfect, it means we are satisfied in His perfection because our hearts are yielded to His character and nature.<br /><br /><b>You were designed to commune with Father.</b> In the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had communion with God ‘s presence and were given a promise of eternal life. They were innocent like new born babies in the sense that they did not know right from wrong, all they knew was the presence of Father and His promise of life to them. It says in Genesis 3:8 that God walked beside them in the cool of the day. However, their promise of eternal life was based upon their obedience to God’s command, “You shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17) And this truth of receiving eternal life through our obedience still stands today. However, our obedience is not to the first Adam who willfully disobeyed in the the Garden of Eden, but to the second who yielded His will in the Garden of Gethsemane. Likewise, the first Adam disobeyed God’s command by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the face of much temptation, but the second obeyed God’s command by dying on a tree and yielding his will to Father in the face of much persecution. Therefore, if the children of Israel who were born under the law, “Thou shalt not..” as the first Adam was and had a communion with Father that was so intense that it split the Red Sea in Half, caused Moses’ face to shine with glory, and anyone who opposed them to fall to their knees in submission (the list could go on), how much more and greater is our communion with Father being born under the law of grace through the second Adam, Jesus Christ!<br /><br />Jesus came because He cares about the way you live your life. As humans we naturally live our lives contrary to the way God intended us to live. However, through personal, intimate communion with Father we can become holy as He is holy and live a life that is pleasing to Him. All of heaven bows before His throne and shouts, “Holy!” If we obey the work he has for us we can come in and find out what they mean. He has already paid the way. Do you want to go?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<b>“And this is the work God has for you: believe in the one he has sent.”</b></div>
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</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-14171314557047832682014-06-03T17:49:00.001-07:002014-06-03T17:49:35.274-07:00Chapter 10.4 The Mean Jesus<span style="font-size: large;">Well now that we are done with "Materialistic Christianity" I want to talk about another kind of "Jesus" that plagues the body of Christ in America... The Mean Jesus. This "Jesus" is, in my mind at least, one of the worst versions ever! In this part of the miniseries I want to cover how we make God look bad by making His son be a mean unforgiving person. It really breaks my heart to see people turn away from God because of his followers but most of all because we make Jesus to be a bad guy who is just waiting to deny anyone access to a relationship with him.<br /><br /> Like always I would like to give a disclaimer right off the bat, see with most of the extremest there are spots of truth, see God does not like sin what so ever. I do believe he will judge sin and that there will be punishment for sin. I do know that Jesus did talk about hell a lot more than he did about heaven and finally that we must, as followers of Christ, become renewed in him and not live an unholy life. With all of that being said let us go into the subject at hand "The Mean Jesus".<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /> So what is some of the characteristics of the "Mean Jesus"? Well he is full of hate and dislike toward many things. He loves his followers to spread the message of displeasure of this world. Most of all he only wants a relationship with you if you are willing to get yourself right before you come to Him. He is an all around unlikable guy. You know what is really funny about the "Mean Jesus" is that his followers think that they are safe from him but in reality if they come to find the real Jesus they are now on his hit list. See the people who believe in this kind of Jesus are not just the really loud out spoken ones they are the ones who secretly hate other people and claim it to be okay because God would too. The "Mean Jesus" people make God look bad by simply taking grace out of the equation. The reason that is a big problem is because grace is something that makes Christianity a very unique religion and without it our faith would amount to nothing. <br /><br /> I have brought up to separate kinds of ideas when it comes to the "Mean Jesus" now I want to talk about both of them. Now the first one we all know about cause we can see it all the time on the news. I will try and refrain from naming names but I believe most of you know what I am talking about. When ever a group of people say they are representing Christ and say things like, "God hates fags", or, "Thank God for dead soldiers", or the worst, "God hates you", those people are not speaking for God at all! If you preach a God that hates anyone you are not preaching the God of the Bible. Now I know that the old testament there was a lot of people God judged but nowhere did it say He did so because of his hate for the people. God judged them for their acts of sin. These kinds of people who preach the "Mean Jesus" can not tell the difference and just do a blanket statement of God hating everyone. This is far from the representation of the God of the Bible. God desperately wants a relationship with his people and did literally everything to make that happen so how can He hate them? The easy answer to that is, He doesn't! This kind of Jesus will not win souls nor help people come out of their sin. This "Mean Jesus", it seems like he wants them to be like that so He can judge them and send them to hell. The sad part is that when this Jesus is preached it makes no one want to hear about the real one. The last point on this part of the "Mean Jesus" is that while watching an interview with a former member of one of the churches that preach this way said, "I felt like God hated me", it gets no more sadder than that. Like I said earlier not even the people who follow the "Mean Jesus" is not safe, He rules with fear.<br /><br /> Now the other "Mean Jesus" is sorta of a secret agent. See he does not wave banners or protest He just sits in the hearts of people who claim to follow the real Jesus. This kind of "Mean Jesus" shows His ugly head when His followers are confronted with people they just dislike for one reason or another. This "Mean Jesus" shows up in racism, sexist, bigoted, class wars, and all around selfishness. The reason this "Mean Jesus" is hard to see is because he only comes out when the person who has Him in their heart is confronted with one of the people they dislike. I have a little of a personal story with this kind of "Mean Jesus". I used to go to church, very rarely, when I was a kid. I will leave the church nameless and the people involved that way too. I will just tell you that it was a white church and the other person involved was black. Now this black guy, who is a very close family friend, came to see my dad one day and found out he was at church so he decided to come see him there. Once my fathers friend got into the church he was asked to leave, my dad's friend did not make it any further than the front door. When he asked why he had to leave he was told, "this is not your kinds church and we do not want you here", and right then the "Mean Jesus" shows his ugly face. I do want to say that I do not believe that this was the feelings of the whole church but it was said by one of the ushers. My dad's friend did leave with out a fuss but even so that was very much unacceptable. This is not the Jesus who loved everyone and wanted everyone to come hear what he had to say about the Father. This is not the Jesus who freed a promiscuous woman from being stoned. No this is the "Mean Jesus" who says that if you do not fit in with us you must leave. There really is not to many other things that makes God look bad than making a relationship with him limited to certain people.<br /><br /> We must not stand for any of this in the body of Christ. We know that our God loves and wants people to love also. We can not simply watch people be turned away from the love of God because of this "Mean Jesus". We must teach the gospel and His love to all. We can not and will not back down from these kinds of people who love to share hate to everyone. This "Mean Jesus" does not really exist, except in peoples mind, and we should have no problem showing everyone this. We all are saved by grace through faith because of the love of God and we need to make sure everyone knows of this. He does not want you to have to clean yourself up before coming to Him, no He wants you just as you are so he can change you. God loves all of us and desires for us to come to Him as children asking for our fathers love and help. To sum it all up the "Mean Jesus" is a made up monster and has no power what so ever.<br /><br /> Then what can we do to solve this problem? Just stand up against all of this. So let me ask you, are you standing up? Can you tell when someone crosses the line into "Mean Jesus" preaching? Is there a little bit of "Mean Jesus" in your theology? Are we willing to be the louder voice for the real Jesus or just let these people have the platform to continue making God look bad?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-92073640642928869832014-05-27T16:10:00.000-07:002014-05-27T16:10:07.382-07:00Chapter 10.3 The Magic Genie Jesus<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">So coming off the heels of the last chapter, thank you Kris for the truth you so eloquently said, I plan to keep the to idea of "Materialistic Christianity". We have talked about one side of this type of Christianity, "Prosperity Gospel", now we will be talking about the "Name it and claim it Gospel". Unlike the "Prosperity Gospel" the "Name it and claim it Gospel" is less about reaping and sowing, even though that is Biblical it is twisted and mainly preached in the "Prosperity Gospel", this teaching is about speaking your blessings into your hands. I do want to give a disclaimer with this because I do believe we have life and death in our tongues but when that is twisted to be about getting worldly goods it just crosses the line.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Let me start with saying that I do believe that we should speak life into situations and people. I will stand by the idea of praying and speaking life over ministries, people, bad situations, marriages, children, etc. I just believe that when we cross the line into trying to say that something will be ours and not pray for the will of God first it tries to put us on the thrown and take God off. We must not be wrapped up in things of this world and our wants above what God wants us to have. The "Materialistic Gospel" goes beyond just being healthy and wealthy it tries to hold a knife to God's throat by using his principles in an improper way. There are many principles in the word of God that when used properly will bring wholeness to ones life but when we make it more about what we want on earth than what God wants we twist His words to fit our desires.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />I want to do the rest of this chapter a little different. I want to do a small list of why this makes God look bad instead of just paragraph after paragraph about this subject. So lets just look at this subject.<br /><br /><br /><b>1) We are not entitled to anything at all. Everything we get from God is because of grace through Christ.</b><br /><br />Yes we do have a new life in Christ but that does not mean getting stuff. Yes we can speak things into life for us but we should also first seek the Kingdom of God. We are not entitled to everything we want instead we are meant to live a life sold out for God. He does want us to have life and life more abundant but that does not equal stuff it equals a life that is in the fullness of God.<br /><br /><br /><b>2) Are the gifts more important than the gift giver?</b><br /><br />Why have we made this Christian life more about what God can give to us than what we can give to God? The reason this bothers me is because if we are only in this relationship with God is to get stuff than we are in it for the wrong reason.<br /><br /><br /><b>3) How does any of that stuff bring glory to God?</b><br /><br />I know that our God is the God with cattle on a thousand hills but if he put you in charge of it how would that bring him glory? I do believe that he does put people in charge of things and also blesses people but if all of his people are rich how exactly will that bring Him glory? Some may argue that if his people are rich than it would draw more people to Him but I remember a scripture that says that if we lift Him up, not if he lifts us up, that he will draw all men to him.<br /><br /><br /><b>4) Faithful with little?</b><br /><br />So you are naming stuff for God to give you huh? Well are you faithful with what you have now? How dare us treat what God has already given us as not enough. Was his son's death on the cross not enough? Was that open invitation to salvation just not enough? What more do we need for it to be enough? We sound like spoiled brats to God when we make His gifts already in our lives so trivial. He has blessed us more than we already deserve by sending His son to die for our sins.<br /><br /><br /><b>5) A promise is a promise?</b><br /><br />Yes he has promised us many things, some of them I have cover in earlier chapters, but why do we simply hold on to the promises we like? He not only promised us good times but also hard times. He said He would give us what we asked for but He also said that if we asked it out of selfish desires we would not receive those things.<br /><br /><br /><b>6) Principles put in proper use.</b><br /><br />Just because a principle is in the Bible does not mean we can just go use it how ever we want, and if we did we look no better than how the world treats the Bible. God's principles are in the Bible to help make us better not to give us things that we want. If we misuse His principles it is like telling our parents we want something and they have to give it to us simply because they are our parents. Yes God is Abba Father but would you look at your parents and tell them that they have to give you things just because they care about you. When we do that we sound like that teenage boy who tries to tell a girl that she will sleep with him if she loves him. When we hear that we all think that is sick but in a way are we not doing that to God?<br /><br /><br /><b>7) As in Heaven?</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What would look wonderful is if people would say, "Let my life on this earth look like what God sees my life look like in heaven". We should be more worried about what God wants us to have and not so much what we want to have. Christ prayed that the will of the Father be done on earth as it is in heaven but are we as concerned about this matter as we should be? Instead of us naming things here on earth for the "glory of God" shouldn't we be speaking the will of God, as it is done in heaven, over everything.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">Those are just a few things that come to mind when I think about "Materialistic Christianity". We can not and must not be driven by worldly desires in any way. We are meant to be followers of Christ and lay our lives down for the glory of the Gospel. Some people may be rich followers of Christ and some may not but over all we must be followers. I will leave you with a quote from John Piper that I believe sums up the thought of following Christ rightly and not driven by worldly desires. John Piper said, "God is most glorified when I am most satisfied in Him". He must be what satisfies us and nothing else. He is our goal and should be the only thing that drives our lives and how we live. He should be everything to us and anything else He chooses to give us is literally just icing on the cake. </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">I have no questions to ask because I believe I have posed enough of them to you throughout this chapter so go back and read them. Answer them honestly and see if you are being a "Biblical Christian" or a "Materialistic Christian".</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-76114686890493729522014-05-20T15:51:00.001-07:002014-05-20T15:51:34.708-07:00Chapter 10.2 The Lottery Ticket Jesus<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="font-size: x-large;">Materialistic Christianity a.k.a “The Prosperity Gospel” </b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I was asked by a very good friend, Eddie Barnes, to write a chapter for his blog on what is known as the “Prosperity” gospel, I thought long and hard about how to go about it. There are so many writings about this very subject, both in argument for and against it, so I wanted to go about it a little bit differently. Instead of doing a point-by-point, verse-by-verse, breakdown of this way of thinking, I actually want to talk about the danger of this belief, not from a theological level, but a philosophical one. <br /><br />Why, you might ask? Well, at it’s core, the so-called “prosperity gospel” finds its deepest flaws in its philosophy of what God’s ultimate goal in a person’s life is, as well as how He measures <br />success. If you are looking for a Biblical breakdown on this matter, there are many articles you can read, either online or in book form. Now that the methodology of this treatise has been set, let us get started!</span><br />
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<br />You may (or may not) have noticed that I have given the term “Materialistic Christianity” first billing in the title instead of it’s more common moniker, “The Prosperity Gospel”. This is for a few <br />reasons. First of all, I believe it is a more accurate name for the actual belief itself and what it produces. Secondly, to attach the term “gospel” to this belief is to give it a weighty legitimacy that it does not deserve, so “Materialistic Christianity” it is. <br /><br />At the center of this belief is the use of the Greek term, εὐοδόω (yoo-od-o’-o), in the New Testament in verses such as 3 John 1:2. The term is actually the product of two words, εὖ (yoo), which means, “well done or to fare well,” and ὁδός (ho-dos), which means, literally, “the road or journey,” or metaphorically, “the way of thinking; the course of conduct.” εὐοδόω to the believer essentially meant that success or prosperity in life was measured by how well you accomplished your journey of life - Did you accomplish or fulfill all that you were called to be in this life? <br /><br />For Paul, prospering meant that he had run his race fully (2 Tim. 4:7,8), with no bearing on how materially blessed he was. In fact, it was his belief that he was to be content whether he was poor or rich, full or hungry (Phil. 4:12). εὐοδόω can be summed up in this one phrase Jesus Himself used to end one of His parables: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” <br /><br />Why is this distinction in the definition of this term so important? It simply comes down to this: the difference in philosophy between relief and freedom. <br /><br />The danger of materialistic Christianity is that it makes the goal of Christ’s life in you to make your life better on this earth. It puts all of its eggs in the basket of THIS life - the temporal, flawed, corruptible one. It says that all of God’s promises are not just mine, they are mine RIGHT NOW. It is not God’s will for me to go through any adversity or material lack. So much of what you see from the proponents of such beliefs is not much different from the prodigal son, who demanded the fullness of his father’s inheritance and tried to make it his before it was his time. Materialistic Christianity is the church’s contribution to the development of the Entitlement Generation that exists today, the one that says, “It’s mine, and I want it right now!” <br /><br />In the end, the flaw of Materialistic Christianity is that it puts the emphasis of Christ’s work as a means of relief instead of the power of freedom. We want Him to provide relief for us; when I don’t have money, He HAS TO give it to me. When I am sick, He HAS TO make me well. We become that child who begs his mother of father for the toy he wants, saying, “I NEED IT,” then breaking down into a fit in the middle of the store when he doesn't get it.<br /><br />Materialistic Christianity breeds weak believers, ones who are embolden in their faith when things are well, but fall apart and cry out, “Why have you forsaken me!” when God should dare have the audacity to have them walk through the fire of adversity or tribulation for our own growth. Even worse, we will make immature, pleasure-based decisions, then “claim” our "inheritance” when we are forced to face the consequences! <br /><br />God’s aim is not to give you relief; He wants you to be free! Materialistic Christianity teaches you that joy & peace comes when God removes all adversity from your life and blesses with money, wealth, and health in every area, but the true gospel teaches that joy & peace comes when those things no longer have mastery over you. <br /><br />So what is real? Is true life about this temporal existence or the eternal one? Which is more real? Isn't it time we stop attempting to hold God hostage to an idea of “prosperity” that isn't actually prosperous? <br /><br />Prosperity, εὐοδόω, in a believer’s life is not measured by what you can gain materially, but by how well you complete your journey. That is the TRUE philosophy of Biblical prosperity. THAT is the real Prosperity Gospel. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-41003389404688813882014-05-13T18:57:00.001-07:002014-05-13T18:57:43.278-07:00Chapter 10.1: The American Jesus<span style="font-size: large;">So who is the "American Jesus"? Well that is a broad question. See, on this subject we will be looking at Jesus as a cultural figure and how we have tried to make him something he is not here in America. There are many subcultures within the idea of the "American Jesus" and we will be touching on many of them throughout this miniseries. The first part I will be talking about is how we have tried to fit Jesus into our culture instead of making our culture conform to Jesus.<br /><br /> Now, there are many people who say that at the birth of America our forefathers tried to make our country a Christian nation with God, Jesus, and the Bible being our bedrock of morals. I really do not plan to make an argument other wise I am just going to point out that just as much as we are a very different country from what we once were, we also have a very different culture than what our forefathers had dreamed for us. Even if we at one time were a "Christian nation" we are most definitely not one now. So here is my big problem with that, we can not simply say that what we do as a culture is anywhere close to lining up with the Bible let alone claim that Jesus is cool with this culture.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">I do want to move on because I do not want to simply point out that as a whole country we are not Christian. What I do want to talk about is how we as Christians have tried to fit Jesus into our view point and call it Godly. I have a personal term for what goes on in American Christianity, someone else may have called it this too I just have not heard, but I call it "cultural Christianity". So what is "cultural Christianity"? Well to be honest, as a whole, it is religiosity, legalism, and at worst very much like the pharisees in the times of Jesus. We have made Jesus and the Bible simply a rule book to live by and not the Gospel and the truth. The flip side to this, in "cultural Christianity", is that if Jesus and the Bible are not the rule book, Jesus and the Bible are too harsh and we should take everything that was said as just a suggestion at best. So in this chapter I will be looking at both of them briefly and trying to shed some light on how both of these view points are making God look bad.<br /><br /> On the rougher side of the "American Jesus" people will be like, "If we do not like this or that than Jesus wouldn't either, so we are right". Now do not get me wrong there are things that the "world" is trying to say is right when it most definitely is not but I am not talking about that I am talking about things inside of the Body of Christ. "Cultural Christianity" has made God, Jesus, and the Bible something that it was never meant to be, a list of don'ts. Now again do not get me wrong there are a lot of things that we should not do but when we make it just about that we are really missing the message. See in "cultural Christianity" if you simply don't do a certain list of things, and that list will vary depending on who you follow, then praise the "American Jesus" you are a Christian. That could not be further from the truth though. Jesus did not die and raise again simply for you to not be able to do things. Jesus came so we could have life and life more abundant. When we make Christianity simply a list of don'ts and leave out what is desired for us to do than we make impotent and ignorant followers of Christ. I like how Jesus himself put it, "a form of Godliness with no power". If you follow the "American Jesus" then you will become someone who might not do bad things but also has no works to show that your faith even exists. It would be like telling someone if they simply eat right they will be healthy. That is not true either because if someone eats right but just lays around all day then they are really no more healthy than the person who may eat wrong but still goes to the gym to work out, neither person is truly healthy. Not only does this teaching raise up powerless Christians but it also raises up people who "know" what God does not want so much so that they will rally behind something that is not even Biblical. What I mean by that is twenty years ago there where people who would protest against biracial marriage, sadly there are still people who think that it is wrong, and what is worst is that these people thought they were doing the will of God. This kind of "cultural Christianity" will bring about people who do not know how to show the love and grace of Christ while at the same time thinking that they are justified by being that way. This kind of "American Jesus" will raise up radical, not in the good way, kind of followers that will be loud and think that they are talking for God all at the same time causing people to turn away from the true Jesus.<br /><br />The other kind of "American Jesus" is the one who allows all kinds of sin in the name of love and peace. The people who follow this kind of Jesus are the ones who will change what the Bible says to fit it into the culture today. "American Jesus" will be okay with what ever is the hot topic subject that is at hand no matter if it is something that can be perfectly spelled out in the Bible as wrong. In this "cultural Christianity" Jesus changes his mind as much as we do. It is okay for whatever as long as the majority, sometimes the minority, says it is. This "American Jesus" has no back bone and all his words are either suggestions or at worst just not literal at all. This other part of "cultural Christianity" will say that everything is okay just to say that Jesus is love and would not have a problem with anything cause he loves everyone so much. Where this may be true to people coming to know Christ it is not true once someone has become a new creation in Him. The culture of this Jesus is that if it offends anyone it can not be God. God to this "cultural Christianity" has no hell or judgement. He is just a loving "sky daddy" who even if you have done wrong your punishment will only be for a little bit then you get to be with him forever. This contradicts what the Bible says about God being the perfect judge and that his judgement is final. This "cultural Christianity" will also not hold back on throwing stones at the other side and call them intolerant because they do not show love well enough to people.<br /><br /> So over all who is the "American Jesus"? Well he is a bipolar guy who either hates the culture today or is completely fine with it. He is either all judgement or all love. He either will send everyone, except the ones who stand up and shout about his "laws", to hell or everyone to heaven. Both of these "American Jesuses" are sold to people all over America and it makes me shutter to my core. Nether side has the fullness of the Gospel in mind when they try and paint Jesus in this way. As I have said before God is perfect love and perfect justice. Even though it may hurt peoples feelings hell is real and awaits people who do not call on the name of Jesus for salvation. On the flip side he does not take pleasure in doing this. Jesus is waiting, arms wide open, to bring anyone who calls on Him into relationship with Him. Yes there are rules to following Jesus but those are things that by the guiding of the Holy Spirit and the Bible we will find out are truth. There may be some gray areas in there but to become a new creation is to lay aside your culture and take hold of the culture of the Kingdom of God. We really make God look bad when we try to superimpose our own culture or world view on him instead of being transformed in our mind to the way He wants things done and the view He has for this world.<br /><br /> We as true followers of Christ can no longer sit on the fence when it comes to this subject. The "American Jesus" is not the one of the Bible. We can not just be silent when it comes to either side of this subject. We must stand up with boldness and love to these kinds of things while at the same time trying to reveal the truth of who Jesus really is. If you are wondering who the real Jesus is then like always go and study it for yourself. We have not "cornered the market" on Jesus or the Gospel. We must change our culture, first inside the body of Christ and then the world, to conform to what God says it should look like. We can only do this by preaching the fullness of the Gospel and not just with the parts that we like.<br /><br /> Like always let me ask you some questions. In what way have you tried to make Jesus American? Do you believe that Jesus would be pleased with the way the "Church of America" looks right now? In what way can we stand up against these things to hopefully bring about change?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-67419475320510890772014-05-07T18:50:00.001-07:002014-05-07T18:52:25.002-07:00Chapter 10: Lets Look At Jesus<span style="font-size: large;">Okay so we have covered many things on a wide verity of subjects but now it is time to talk about the most important subject of all, JESUS CHRIST!!! This is a subject my brothers and I have touched on in many ways but now it is time to take a closer look at just Jesus. This chapter will not be broken down in to just two parts, oh no this chapter will be a ten part miniseries. Now I know that it can be much longer but I really just want to cover the many misconceptions of our Lord and savoir Jesus Christ. In this miniseries I will have help from many people all leading up to a super chapter with thoughts on Jesus from every coauthor that has written so far. So strap in, listen up, enjoy, and hopefully we all learn something during the next ten weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This first part is not going to be like any of my other chapters because I plan to lay some ground work for the subjects we are going to touch on and that is all. I will let everyone know what the next ten weeks will hold and will try to give brief explanations of what will be talked about and why I feel lead to talk about these subjects. To be completely honest I am very excited to go into this subject matter and have been waiting on this from the start, if you do not already know I have planned out this blog all the way to the end of the year. God has laid on my heart everything from the start and there has been many nights that I have been woken up or not been able to sleep due to what God was telling me He wanted me to talk about. So with out further ado lets look at Jesus.</span><br />
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<br /><br /> I will start by covering the idea of the "American Jesus". In that part we will look at how we as Americans have twisted Jesus into our culture. I am not talking about the early founders and their beliefs but instead how American cultural Christianity have made Jesus something he is not to fit our world view. The next part of this series will be "The Lottery Ticket Jesus". I have been promising to talk about the problems with the "prosperity gospel" for a while and now I will finally do it. I do not really have a problem with believing that God wants to take care of his children but when you cross the line into the idea of God being some kind of money pyramid scheme that is when I have to say something. I personally believe that we should want to know the gift giver more than the gifts that can be given and when it comes to this subject we look a lot like the practical son than anything else. The next part, "The Magic Genie Jesus", will tie into the same matter because along with the "prosperity gospel" there is the "name it and claim it" kind of people that make it seem that God is just some kind of magic genie that we can appeal to and then we can get what we want. If we scratch God's back he will have to scratch ours and well plainly that is not really how it works.<br /><br /> After the first three parts we will go back to the normal format of two sides of the same idea, just like all the chapters that have been posted so far. We will look at the "Mean Jesus" and the "Careless Jesus". We will be going over things like the Westboro Baptist and people who try to use Jesus as some kind of person who loves but also hates people if they do not agree with their theology. Then we will look at the idea of the "hyper-grace gospel" and how this teaching makes Jesus look like someone who is okay with sin somehow. The next two parts are going to be the "Non-charismatic Jesus" and the "Charismatic Jesus". We will be looking at a feud inside the church that has been going on since the start of the 1900's. We will look at both sides and see why fighting over this is Making God look bad.<br /><br /> The final two part split up of this series will be a little more controversial because we will be dealing with race. We will be looking at the "White Jesus" and the "Black Jesus". Now some people may think that this is bad but as a follower of Christ I think it is time to air out some of our problems with this. We will be looking at how we as people try to make Jesus fit into our own little personal ideas. We will look at the culture of these two things and how we try to call what we see as our own is right. Just as a side note Jesus was not white nor black but a Jew who was born and raised in the middle east. I am very much against racism. I think that the church being broken up due to race or culture because of race is something that really makes God look bad.<br /><br /> The last part, as I said in the start of this chapter, will be a mash up of everyone who has helped write so far. We will be taking a look at the "Real Jesus". We will be taking a paragraph or two to look at what the Bible says about Jesus. There may be some overlap but that would be great because then you will be able to see that when we focus on what the Bible has to say about Jesus we should be seeing the same things. This miniseries will be a challenging one but also hopefully fun and eye opening to all. Please be praying for all the authors that have agreed to help me and me also that we will seek God for what he wants to say on these matters. We only want to bring truth and not opinions when it comes to the matter of our Lord. <br /><br />There everything is in a nutshell and I really hope everyone will check it out. Tell others about what is about to happen and give us your feed back. The only reason everyone and myself are doing this is to try to shed some light on the most important matter, Jesus Christ. I am not promising you any great revelation nor some truth that you might not already know but what I am promising is people willing to seek out the truth and bring it to you. I look forward to what is to come and hope you do to. Let me ask you just one thing. <br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
WHO IS THE REAL JESUS OF THE BIBLE?</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-2393145927067579202014-04-30T08:59:00.000-07:002014-04-30T09:21:28.106-07:00Chapter 9.5: Spirit and Truth: Spirit<span style="font-size: large;"> My brother Arthur Criste, who is a worship leader for God's House Maui, has helped me author the last part of this chapter. In this chapter we have covered worshiping God in the truth and now we will look at what it means to worship in spirit.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /><br /> John 4:23, Gal 5:13-22, Romans 8:1, and 12:1. These are the first few verses we will be looking at when it comes to what it means to worship God in the spirit. First thing we must be is filled with the spirit but what does that mean? Well, being filled with spirit means having the fruit of the spirit manifest. Which are all connected to pleasing and honoring our Father through worship and praise. This is powerful because being filled with His spirit will allow the truth to operate the way God intended it. The truth of course is the word of God. His truth is the breath which brings forth life and life more abundantly. The Bible says the truth shall set you free!!! The only way you can truly be set free is through Jesus Christ and His spirit. Which is why I believe Jesus, the son of God, is the only way to please the father. God desires to be worshiped by His spirit and truth. We can't please God just by our earthly desires because it will always be tainted and misguided by our own desires but we can do this through the Holy Spirit. That is why it says in John 4:24: God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.<br /><br />John 14:6 truth John 6:63: Spirit </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br /> The Bible says the He is the way the Truth and it also says that He is the light. The Bible goes on to say God is spirit which is why I believe God desires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. One of the ways His spirit is described is a movement of air or in other words a gentle blast of the wind. Simply put He is a breath of fresh air. We need the spirit of God like we need the very air we breathe. Just one breath of God that is all it takes. The Spirit of God will bring life, comfort, peace, power to break any chain, it brings love, it brings hope, and takes us into that place of pureness where you are stripped down to nothing but yet feel so much more fulfilled because of His spirit. These two things cannot be separated because it is a unit He didn't want us to separate. We can not have one without the other because to have the fullness of worship you will need to have both. When you try to separate the two and only operate in one or hold one above the other you are not tapping into the fullness of what God has in store for you. It is like if you took the peanut butter away from a peanut butter jelly sandwich, it is stills good when it is on its own but they are best when they are put together. <br /> So, if we desire to give God our best worship we should have the desire to worship Him the way he would liked to be worshiped. A way of looking at is like this: I'm happily married to a wonderful beautiful wife and she has a certain way that she would like to be loved. She desires that I do some house work like wash the dishes, fold the laundry, throw out the trash, and etc. She also desires that I communicate with her better, like having conversations about our day, what is coming up, and etc. So these are just a couple examples of the way my wife feels loved. If I would just ignore some of these things and hardly ever did them, would she feel like I do not truly love her? No, but she would probably think that I am not listening to her and therefore do not really truly care about the way she would like to be loved. When you are in a relationship you are not trying to get what you want from them. Instead think of how you can best please the other person, which is what really makes for successful relationships, if you are only thinking about yourself and what you can get out of the relationship it will not flourish into all what that relationship can be. I believe this is the same way with God. When it comes to worship and loving our Father He makes it very clear on how He would like to be loved and worshiped. He is such a loving father He designed worship in the easiest most fulfilling way possible. You won't only please Him but you will learn to draw closer and closer to Him. The more you do this naturally your whole life will reflect the fruit of the spirit and you will have more love, joy peace, kindness, gentleness, meekness, and self control. Then through the spirit God's truth will be able to function the way He intended it to function with no ulterior motives just purity and truth. <br /> So I propose this as we end, how are you worshiping our father? As I expressed early, is it what our Father Desires? Lets really dig deep into His word and dive into the depths of His heart to find what He desires. All He wants is your yes, but lets really give Him our all by studying His word, spending time with Him in prayer, filling yourself with His songs, and most of all living this life as a worshiper of Him. As Eddie mentioned in the last chapter, lets serve others be it at work, at school, at home, with our family, and our friends as if we were serving Jesus himself. How much more would we respect one another, how much more would we give the shirt off of our own back, and how much more would we spend time with people we feel we can't stand. Lets make a difference in this world by living a life of services to our God by being that servant to all as we would serve Him. Let us all die to our selfish desires and look to Him. <br /> I love you all my brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us all link arms and represent Christ the way He intended us too. Lets not regard ourselves by race, culture, social status, denomination, church, or anything else society says instead lets be a people of who are lovers of God and His ways!!!! Being the most loving and encouraging people on this earth. We can only do all these things if we submit to the Holy Spirit which is the kind of worship the Father really desires.<br /><br /><br /> Thank you very much brother. We must not get side tracked by tradition, which we love to call the spirit, but instead submit to what God has said in His word and is saying now to our hearts. To worship God in the way He desires is simple; being lead by the spirit and submitting to the truth. When we do this we make God look good. When we do not and say that we are, we are making God look bad. Let us no longer take for granted the freedom given to us through the death and resurrection of Christ but rather take that freedom to worship God the way He intended us to.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-49264556502314880942014-04-22T15:31:00.000-07:002014-04-22T15:31:06.367-07:00Chapter 9: Spirit and Truth: Truth<span style="font-size: large;"> Okay let us calm down a little from the last chapter, I know I sorta got on my soap box a bit, and lets look at something most of us have heard preached a lot. So, from the title you probably know what I am going to talk about. John 24:4, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." I have pondered on this scripture for a very long time and I am not saying I have figured it all out but plan to give my thoughts on it so far. Like always I plan to tackle this in two parts but I plan to tackle this in reverse of what is said in the scripture. I feel like before we can really worship God in spirit we must know who he is and if we are truthfully worshiping him. So let us first look at the truth of the matter.<br /> I want to tackle the truth part of this chapter in two parts. First the truth of who we are worshiping and second if we are truthfully worshiping him. So lets look at who we are worshiping. Many of us say that we are worshiping the Lord but are we really? Let me put it this way. Let say you are dating someone for a while, how long does not really matter, and you say that you love that person. Then after a while that person starts showing you who they really are and you break up with them. Then, after all of that, someone asks you, "did you really love that person?" You respond with, "well the person that I fell in love with was not really who they were." Now, that may seem like a really odd analogy but let me ask a very serious question, are you worshiping the God of the Bible or a version of God that you have made up? I have heard of a lot of people who are now atheist say that they were raised in church but fell away when they got older. Why? you may ask. Well, they say because they were told about God but really did not know Him and when they did their own research it was not what they were raised with. So they just figured that it was all just false. See, many of us have a God in our mind that we have been taught about but is He the full version of God revealed to us in the Bible. We can not worship God in truth unless we truly know Him, just like we can not truly love someone if we only know one side of them. So lets go back to the basics of studying the word of God so we can truly worship Him in all of his glory because of who He is wholly.</span><br />
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<br /> Now in an earlier chapter I gave a handful of attributes of God that we should be like as His followers. (Chapter 2 What's In A Name) These are the same attributes that we all normally praise Him for but I want to add that I have heard God called perfect love and perfect justice. Now my question is do we just worship Him for His perfect love? I am a parent and at times I have to spank my kids and to be honest it is heartbreaking every time. After I spank my kids and they have calmed down I always tell them that I love them. I will hold them and wipe away their tears and wait for them to tell me that they love me back. (Some people may disagree with spanking and that is fine but I find it biblical just as long as it is a spanking not beating). With all of that, if God is perfect justice do we tell Him we love Him when He has to "spank" us? It says in Hebrews 12:5-6, "and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." See the one we worship has to not only be the loving father but also the one who will call us out even if it hurts. On the flip side I want to add that at a Bible study I had once I asked people to describe God in one word. The over all answer was "smiter", I know that is not a word but you get the idea, and when asked to describe Jesus it was "love". The funny thing is that God the Father and Jesus are all part of the God head but we have polar opposite ideas of who they are. It is funny to me because God the Father, the smiter, sent Jesus, the one who loves us, to die for us because God the Father loved us so much. On top of all of that Jesus is the one who talked about hell and punishment more than He did about heaven. What gets me the most is that we have made this idea of God up in our minds that is either uneducated or we choose to overlook the hard things to swallow. I am completely okay with idea of God being full of mercy, love and grace but am also completely okay with the God who pours out wrath. If we are going to worship God we must do it knowing the truth about Him and the truth is that He is love but He is also jealous for our love so much that He will be hard on us to make sure He receives our love.<br /> Now, on to if we are truly worshiping God. Let me show another scenario: Lets say that there are a group of people worshiping from morning till noon. They dance and they shout. They sing praises the whole time. They do what their traditions are but get no answer. What went wrong? Well some may say that they were not really praising or maybe their heart was not in the worship but if you know the story then you might realize that I am talking about the prophets of Baal. What is really sad is it sounds like most churches today. See, somewhere we have lost what true worship looks like. We have made it a song or a service but to be honest that is not really what worship is all about. We are told what true worship is in Romans 12: 1-2, " And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all He has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind He will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship Him. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." True worship to God is a heart that is given over to Him totally. See, a heart given over to God can bring songs about like in psalms but it is not the song that is the worship. We get so mixed up with the culture of worship now a days we forget what God has called worship in the Bible. That is why I did not end with verse 1. We must not just follow the way the world does things all the way to the way the world worships, be it to people or otherwise. There are many love songs out there to people and to be honest our worship at times can seem to be just like those songs. We must get back to a lifestyle of worship to God starting with our heart. The songs we sing is not the kind of worship that God wants it is the lifestyle of a person. Everything we do is worship to God. I always say this to people, "I can find out what kind of follower of Christ you are by simply asking your boss." That may sound weird but think about it. If I asked someones boss what kind of worker they are and I am told that they are lazy, undependable, and all around not a good employee then it is reasonable to believe that that same person would more than likely have a lukewarm relationship with God. Some people may disagree with me about this but are we not told to do everything as unto the Lord? The Bible goes as far as to tell slaves to obey their masters even if they are harsh ones so that they can show them the gospel. True worship to God is a lifestyle that brings Him glory all the time. It can not just be a song or service it must be something that comes from the heart that ultimately brings a change of lifestyle.<br /> So the truth is are we truly worshiping the true God of the Bible? We make God look bad when we do not worship Him in the way His word tells us to. We make him look powerless when the world sees us worship and nothing happens or when we talk about only a part of who He really is. We make him look bad when our worship looks no different than idol worship that the world does all the time. We make him look even worse when our worship for idols, be it sports, movies, or anything else that is worldly far surpasses our worship for God. I am not saying any of those things are blatantly bad but what I am saying is that when we can quote stats, movie lines, words from a song, or whatever else better than the word of God we might want to really look at what is important. Who is it that we are really worshiping and what is it that gets our highest worship? We can no longer just hobble by with this half hearted half given life to God and call it worship. We must get back to studying the Bible to find out who this God is that we claim to love and what kind of worship He really desires out of us. If we want to really worship Him in spirit and truth than maybe we need to start finding out what the truth of the matter is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I think the main problem is that we love to say we worship with our heart but really never worship with our head. We must stop making worship just an emotional thing and learn to also worship him with our understanding also. Someone's personal style of worship does not bother me. What I am mainly trying to point out is that when worshiping God do we really worship Him in total truth. Truth through repentance, truth through forgiveness, truth through submission, truth through humbleness, and most of all truth through the grace given to us through Christ Jesus our Lord. I only have one question: Are we truly worshiping God?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-64806965881942525222014-04-15T17:07:00.003-07:002014-04-15T17:08:08.255-07:00Chapter 8.5 That Is In The Bible?!<span style="font-size: large;"> You are right "this too shall pass" is not in the Bible but when times are rough bro remember what it says in Jeremiah 29:11 "for I know the plans I have for you". Wait, what? That's not what that scripture is talking about. You can not just pull scriptures out of context and apply them to what you are going through. Another thing that really bothers me is when we, as followers of Christ, pull scriptures out of context. In the second part of this chapter, like always read the first one to get CONTEXT (lol), I plan to show how we take scriptures out of context and make them something that they are not. There are a lot of scriptures that get pulled out of context that people make a whole theology off of. Again I do not plan to tackle the prosperity gospel or the "hyper grace" gospel in this chapter and trust me there are many scriptures pulled out of context to make up those theologies.<br /> Context is the key to understanding the word of God properly. Just like anything else, when something is taken out of context it can mean something totally different. Lets say you told somebody something like, "I do not like to hang out with my brother/sister when they are acting stupid", but when quoted back to your brother/sister someone says that you said, "I really do not like to hang out with my brother/sister". At that time you would say, "Hold on, that is not all that I said, you are taking that out of context". No one likes to be taken out of context so why do we so readily and easily take the Bible out of context? Well the answer is easy, we do it because either it makes us feel better somehow or we do not know the whole context. This goes back to simply studying the Bible for ourselves and not just being hearers of the word. Like the earlier part of this chapter I am only going to cover three scriptures (the list is a lot longer than that, I promise) that are taken out of context by a lot of people.<br /> Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope". Now this is one of those scriptures that brings a lot of people hope and I really hope that it does not hurt to many feelings but I do plan to talk about it. I want to say first that I am not against quoting promises from the Bible for us and I think that there are many promises for us but not this one. Let us look at this scripture in its context. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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First, we must look at who is saying this and then who it is being said to. The book of Jeremiah is Prophetic Oracle and Narrative History, although not completely in chronological order. The prophet Jeremiah wrote it sometime during his ministry about 626-586 B.C. Key personalities are the many kings Judah, Baruch, Ebdemelech, King Nebuchadnezzar, and the Rechabites. Its purpose was to warn of the destruction that they were about to face and to urge Judah to return and submit to God. Jeremiah was a priest who God calls to be His prophet. Jeremiah identifies their sins and treachery, as he wants them to realize the serious condition of their sinful ways. He then gives prophecies of the coming king and the New Covenant that would be made. Now more specifically whom is Jeremiah writing to in chapter 29? Well let us look at the first verse: "Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar". So now in context we see that what is written is for a specific group. Who is this group? Well, the exiles of Jerusalem. See, even though I do believe that God does know the plans He has for us I also see that we can not just assume that those plans are for us to prosper but at times go through hard times. If we just simply take this scripture out of context then we have to contend with many o</span><span style="font-size: large;">ther verses </span><span style="font-size: large;">(that Christ himself said)</span><span style="font-size: large;"> that tell </span><span style="font-size: large;">us otherwis</span><span style="font-size: large;">e. Christ tells us that we will be hated and even killed because we are His followers. This is in stark contrast to the idea of prospering, having good, and not having evil happen to us. This scripture is a hard one for me to talk on because I know many people will say that I might be saying that God only wants us to suffer but that is not at all what I am saying. What I am saying is that we can not simply quote scriptures out of context to give ourselves false hope. We must always rest in the strength of God and know that even if His plan for us is hard times we must be content with that. Paul on many occasions tells us exactly that. The last thing with Jeremiah chapter 29 is that later in that chapter there is another promise God makes that I never hear anyone quote. In verse 17 it says: "This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat". Now I never hear this quoted but it is in the same chapter. Many will say, "well there is a direct group he is talking to", exactly my point. Context, context, context, we must read the Bible in context and not pull out things and say that one promise is for us and the other bad stuff isn't.<br /> On to the next one; Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged". Oh this one really gets me. I have heard this from believers and nonbelievers alike. This scripture seems to be almost as well known as John 3:16. The funny thing is that the reason this one bothers me is because it does not take much research, not as much as the last one at least, to see how it is taken out of context. In context it would look like this: "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, 'Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye". (Matthew 7:1-5) Lets look at it like this: If one person is on drugs and tells another person on drugs that they should stop doing drugs then they are in the wrong for judging but if the first person gets off drugs and goes to the second person and says, "hey I use to be on drugs too but I have found a better way, you should try it", then the first person is well within his/her rights, biblicaly, to say that. We do not like to see that scripture like this because we think it is a get out of jail free card to any rebuke brought to us. Well it isn't. If someone comes to you to rebuke you in a subject that they have went through and overcame it through the power of Christ then they have all right to lovingly call you out. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5: 12, "It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning". It is simple. If someone is inside the church and sinning then we have a right to openly and lovingly rebuke them for that sin. We need to stop taking scriptures out of context to make ourselves look like we are being attacked when we get rebuked and realize that, at times, an open rebuke is just what we need.<br /> This last scripture will get a little hairy because it is an issue that is very big for our time. I want to give a disclaimer before I go on. I whole heartily believe that homosexuality is a sin and that in no way does the Bible say otherwise. I believe the word of God is very clear on this subject and that we should always stand in line with the Bible. With all of that, one of the scriptures that gets quoted on this subject, out of context of course, is Leviticus 20:13-"If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense". Now, before you go off the deep end on me with this one let me explain. See, first the book of Leviticus is the of laws for the tribes of Israel, more specifically the Levites hence the name Leviticus. Second, in this book there are a lot of things that we do today that it calls unholy yet we do them and say that it is okay. Finally, there are better scriptures to use that are in the new testament that we should use to make our point. Let me show you why I say this. So yes Leviticus 20:13 said that but right before that verse it says in 20:9, "Anyone who dishonors father or mother must be put to death. Such a person is guilty of a capital offense". I do not hear a lot of people quote this one, why? Well because it is common place for disrespect from child to parent, we just call it teenage years, and even though it is wrong we still do not think that they should be put to death. How about 20:10, "If a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the man and the woman who have committed adultery must be put to death". This happens a lot in our day in age, sadly probably more in the church then we like to admit, but again we do not quote this scripture at them. We must make sure what scripture we use to stand for or against things can not be simply dismissed by just looking at surrounding verses. So if you are going to stand against homosexuality, as I believe we should as believers, then how about use this verse instead: "That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved." (Romans 1:26,27)<br /> Like I said in the first part of this chapter there is nothing that gets to me more than the misuse of scriptures. We must study to show ourselves approved just like the Bible tells us to. We can no longer hear scriptures from the stage, TV, or anywhere else and just take that at face value. We must hear the word, read the word, and most of all study the word. I would like to say after all that I have just written I may still be wrong on some of these scriptures so please go and do your own homework and see if what I have said is in context of the Bible. I am just a man and I can make mistakes but I will say that not only do I study before I write any chapter I also study any time I read the word of God. We must get back to making sure what we believe what the word says is really what the word is saying. We can not just rip things out of context and plug it in to our lives like it really is the whole truth of the word of God. We must be diligent with our studies so when faced with things we do not just look stupid or give ourselves a false sense of reality. Please, can we stop making God look bad, or at worst bipolar, by taking things out of context to suit our lifestyles. Instead we should be changing our lifestyles to fit in to the word of God.<br /> Finally I will ask some questions. What have you believed was in the word of God that really was just out of context? Do you study enough to be able to tell when something is misquoted? Are you making God look bad by twisting the Bible to suit how you live? Are you making God look bad by simply not knowing what is in the Bible?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-54472507201279356772014-04-08T19:59:00.001-07:002014-04-19T17:37:40.316-07:00Chapter 8: That's Not In The Bible?!<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Hey bro I know that times are rough right now but like it says in the Bible, "this too shall pass." Well actually no that is not in the Bible! WHAT? IT'S NOT??? So, one way that we really make God look bad is not knowing what is said by God. Now I am not saying I know everything that is written in the Bible but I do know that we, as the body of Christ, misquote or even say things that are not in the Bible. We must make sure what we say God has said is really something that God said. There are many things that are said that people believe that is in the Bible but in reality it is not. In this chapter we are going to cover not only things not in the Bible but also things that are in the Bible that we forget.<br /> Before we get into the meat of this chapter I want to say that before we start quoting anything it is good to go and make sure we are quoting it correctly. How upset would you be if someone put words in your mouth, even if those words might be good. One of my favorite memes on the internet is the one that says, "you can not trust everything you see on the internet"- Abraham Lincoln. Now I know this is very funny but it highlights what I am saying perfectly. I do not plan to tackle all the things said by people that are not in the Bible, that would take to long, just three that I think are interesting. I will not be dealing with stuff like the misuses of scripture in the prosperity gospel, I plan to talk about that in a chapter all by itself later.<br /> So back to "this too shall pass". Now as much as this sounds like it may very well be in the Bible; it is not. This quote, like many others, can be found in a round about way. What I mean by this is even though it may not say those words exactly there is some scriptural things that can mean basically the same thing. Okay so first where did the saying come from? This saying is believed to come from an old Persian poem. This story, Attar of Nishapur, records one fable of a powerful king who asks assembled wise men to create a ring that will make him happy when he is sad, and vice versa. After debating, the sages hand him a simple ring with the words “This too will pass” etched on it, which has the desired effect. So how about what the Bible says? Well we know that the Bible says, "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." (Matthew 6:34) Also the Bible says, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4: 17-18). This is one of the quotes I do not personally mind so much but do not like people saying that it is plainly in the Bible when it is not.<br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Next one is "God will not put on you more than you can handle". I will admit that I may have said this one in my youth, when I did not know the Bible as well, but none the less it is not in the Bible. This quote, like the last one, is one of those quotes meant to help people in hard times. I am not against using the Bible, properly of course, to help people when times are tough but we first must make sure we are quoting the Bible and second not give people false hope. This quote does not have a cool back story like the other one it is simply a misquote form the Bible. The verse that people are using is 1 Corinthians 10:13 and it is actually referring to dealing with temptation, not problems in life. The verse says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” I will say that I can sorta see, if I tilt my head a bit and squint real hard, how this scripture can be used improperly. My main point is when using the Bible make sure you use verses in context and do not try to twist them so you can simply ease someone's troubled mind.<br /> Now on to one of my favorite ones. "Love the sinner, not the sin." I will once again admit that I have said this, A LOT and not more than a year ago, but this quote is not in the Bible either. This one, unlike the others, I have heard people even give credit to Jesus. Not only is this one not in the Bible it is definitely no where in red letters. This quote sounds so good that it is easy for almost any believer to think that it comes straight out of the Bible but it actually comes from St. Augustine’s letters, which contains the phrase “Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum,” translated to “With love for mankind and hatred of sins.” Now an argument can be made that in a round about way the Bible actually says this. Things like, "love your neighbor as yourself", and "God does not delight in wickedness" are just two scriptures that we could use to make such an argument. The best scripture that could be used is Romans 12:9 "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." I am not saying that we should not love people and hate sin but what I am saying is before saying that the Bible says that directly we should make sure it does. <br /> The whole reason I started this blog was to bring to light things that we as followers of Christ do to make God look bad. I have spent the last four months going through many things that either has been done or is currently happening that does exactly that. I have talked on many different things in a wide variety of subjects and plan to continue. The reason I am saying all of this is because I hold very dear the Bible and the things said in it. Many others and myself have talked about subject from the Bible that we can do better at but the thing that bothers me the most is the simple fact that the "average Christian" just does not study let alone even read the Bible. I have heard the Bible referred to as "the handbook for life" but it is so much more than that. The Bible is the very life blood of our life. The Bible contains the very Gospel that saves us. It contains the truth about life, death, and everything in between. We can not just simple treat it like a book with good ideas or great proverbs for life. The Bible is more than just powerful words it is the power in word form. This is the reason that when we, as believers, misquote or even say that the Bible says something it does not I get very upset. The Bible should be treated with great respect and never just used flippantly. Worshiping God, learning about God, and understanding God can all be found in that book. So as believers we must get back to not just reading it but, instead, studying it. We must stop hearing things and going along with them. Instead, we should study what we hear so that we will not fall in to the trap of repeating something that may not be true.<br /> I normally end with a series of questions that would go something like this: What quotes have you heard that you think are in the Bible? or When is the last time you really studied the Bible? Both good questions but instead I will ask just one question. Do you treat the Bible with the importance it deserves? In your reading, when you hear it talked about, and in your life.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-63074194224099720912014-04-01T17:03:00.000-07:002014-04-01T17:03:09.179-07:00Chapter 7.5 Why Are You Still Sitting There?<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My Brother in Christ, Pastor Dwayne Dunning, has put together another great chapter. Here is the second part of this chapter, like always please read the first one to get the full understanding of what is being said.<br /><br />Pastors preach and the congregation just needs to sit there and listen. Don’t do anything with what is being said, just sit back and enjoy the nice speaker and his beautiful voice. Please just be entertained by all of it. Isn't that what it is all about anyway? Isn't this what Jesus wanted from His “followers”, a bunch of “hearers” not listeners or doers? Let me ask you, does this sound at all correct? Of course not.<br /><br />While thinking about this dilemma, the problem of obesity came to mind. “Why obesity?” you may ask. Well, let me explain. I can remember many Sundays when I was young, leaving the church and my dad saying, “I am so tired of all of the overweight Christians in the world”. As a boy I thought he meant this literally. I mean obesity is a major problem in America, isn't it? People are dying more often of complications from being overweight. Kids are bigger now than they ever have been. We get lazier and lazier. So I just thought he meant it literally. I mean, I saw Mr. So and So that could barely stand up to pray without almost killing over. I saw large people at the church every time we went. But he was saying nothing about the physical weight or size of the people’s bodies. He was speaking about their spiritual condition. My dad was upset because of the lack of willingness to be a true follower of Christ. My dad saw their lack of concern and desire to get off their rear ends and do something for the Kingdom. <br /><br />This intrigued me, so I sat down one day and asked my dad more about this thought. After the conversation I saw his correlation. Too many people come in to services on Sunday, partake of the word, and then just let it sit there. They do nothing with it. It is no different than sitting down at the dinner table every night, consuming everything that is in front of you, and then going straight to bed. We all know what happens then. It goes straight to our hips and we get fat! If we never exercise, we will just get fat and be out of shape. <br /><br />The word that is given by pastors is like the meat and milk for our spiritual lives, it is the food that we need so badly for our health. It is part of our spiritual nourishment. Just like our meals are our physical nourishment. But there has to be a time of working it off. We can’t just sit back and take it all in or we are just fat, sloppy, lazy Christians. <br /><br />Most of us are like babies, we have to be spoon fed. We aren't responsible enough to feed ourselves. We don’t dig into the meat of our word enough on our own and we need that person to feed us. Not saying this is the way it should be. We should get into the word on our own, but God has given us pastors to also feed us the word. Ephesians 4:11- It was he who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. We need what God is feeding us through them. But we have to get out and work it off or we will get fat and useless.<br /><br />Pastors get the word, study it, and put time into the message, just as a mother that cares for her family spends time in the kitchen preparing a great meal for her family. This message or meal is not for you to just hear but to apply it and actually begin to use it in life. As pastors, they want legs put to the words and they want healthy energetic Christians. <br /><br />After a meal has been eaten and we are full, we need to then take the time to exercise and work off the weight. We need to take the nourishment we have been given and work it off and make it count. When God has given a word to the pastor that leads you, you need to partake of it and then exercise it in your life. By doing this, it helps lead you to a healthy spiritual life. It causes you to begin to do and be what God wants. <br /><br />Pastors take what they have been called to do very seriously, at least they better. I know that there are those men that pull off a Saturday night special and just get up in the pulpit and spout off whatever they have thrown together, but most seek God and put all that they are into every message that is spoken. Why? Because they want us to live it out. They don’t just want people that sit in the pew and hear the words, but people that will listen to the words of God and then become doers of that word.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /><br />In his book The Lost Art of Listening, Michael Nichols writes, "Listening is so basic that we take it for granted. Unfortunately, most of us think of ourselves as better listeners than we really are." In other words, most people are no more than “hearers”. They aren't really paying much attention to what is being said. They are taking it in, but it really isn't doing much. Sort of like a child sitting down and just inhaling the plate of food that is in front them. We have to listen, really listen to the words that have been given by God to the pastors that are over our lives. If not, there is failure.<br /><br />Why do many marriages thrive, while others fail to survive? Why do many families flourish, while others seem to falter? Why do many sermons inspire, while others lack fire? It often depends on how well people listen. For those of you that are pastors, consider your own pulpit ministry. As you actively listen and learn from God's Word and from God's people, your preaching becomes all the more vibrant and vital. Consider your congregation. As members actively listen to God's Word, as they hear and heed Christ's call, as they prayerfully respond to the Spirit's leading, they become all the more fruitful in fulfilling the mission that has been set before them.<br /><br />Charles Swindoll suggests that Christians who study Scripture, hear the words of a pastor, but seldom put God's Word into practice are not followers at all. Rick Warren speaks of this kind of inactive listening among believers. Warren observes, "The Dead Sea is dead because it takes in water but doesn't give any out. When any Christian's schedule consists completely of receiving biblical input but has no planned outflow of ministry or evangelism, his spiritual growth will be limited. Study without service leads to stagnation.”<br /><br />This is exactly what I am trying to get us to understand. All of us need to listen to the words that are spoken to us by our pastors, apply them to our lives and do something with them. If not, we become stagnant and fat. This in turn makes us useless to the Kingdom.<br /><br />Look at what the writer of Hebrews sad about this. Hebrews 13:17- “Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.”<br /><br />According to what was written, we are called to submit to the words and authority of our pastors, those who lead us. The only biblical authority a pastor has comes from the Word of God and the Holy Spirit working through his teaching in the lives of his flock. In effect, he’s not a source of authority himself, but a vessel of it from the Lord to His people. That’s the authority God’s people need to submit to—the work of the Spirit through the faithful, consistent teaching of God’s Word through the pastor. <br /><br />And how should believers respond to that kind of authority? It says to obey it and submit to it. Don’t just hear it but listen to it and begin to apply it to your life. Do something with the nourishment that is being fed to you. Listen to it and use it. According to the scripture, if you do not, “it would be unprofitable to you.” It would be worthless and pointless. <br /><br />Think right now about your pastors and what they are asked to do. It’s a tremendous grief to try to shepherd a rebellious flock. Watching over the people of God is no easy task to begin with. Pastors are called to train, disciple, support, and serve you. They are called to guard your purity, and to lend insight and exercise oversight with you. They are also called to exhort, warn, admonish, reprove, rebuke, and discipline in the application of God’s Word in your lives—all for the sake of your spiritual growth. They are called to feed you.<br /><br />That’s hard enough with believers who are eager, engaged, and hungry. It’s almost impossible with people who won’t be faithful and put legs to the words that have been fed to them. If you have a faithful pastor or church leader who exemplifies the qualities of a shepherd, let him know how much you appreciate his labor on your behalf (1 Thessalonians 5:12). It will be a great encouragement to him to know he’s making a spiritual difference in your life. Let them know that you appreciate the meal that is fed to you each week. Don’t do this through empty words. “Great message today pastor!”. Show your appreciation by getting up and exercising and working off the meal that was given. Put legs to the words of your pastor. Be doers and not just fat, overweight, stagnant, “Christians”.<br /><br />And just to be brutally honest here in the end. If you’re a believer who rejects the biblical authority of the pastor and won’t submit to his leadership, you need to do a careful, thorough examination of your heart. What’s behind your rebellious spirit? What sin are you harboring that’s keeping you from submitting to godly authority? What’s keeping you from listening to the word God has given through your pastor and then doing something with that word? Why are you too stubborn to listen and do?<br /><br />Let’s all begin today with a brand new work out plan. It will consist of daily listening to the word of the pastor, consuming it, and then going out and putting it to work. Let’s all try and stop the obesity problem in our churches. God bless. <br /><br />Thank you again Pastor Dwayne and like always I am going to leave you with some questions. Are you an overweight christian? Do you put actions behind what you hear preached? Are you making God look bad by not obeying the words your authority is speaking to you?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-68826899614449564132014-03-25T19:52:00.000-07:002014-03-25T19:52:54.172-07:00Chapter 7: Preachers Preach And We should Just Listen. . . Right?<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Have you ever been in a service and was blown away by what was being said? The preaching was so great that we felt like it was just for us. Then we leave and nothing really changed. So the preacher should just preach and we just listen, right? Well, as always, I plan to break this subject up into two parts. In this first part I want to focus on the importance of how we treat the authority over us and the second will be on how we should respond. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> The first thing I want to do is dispel a common thought toward pastors. Most people think that pastors only really work <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_699595971" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">on Wednesday</span></span> and <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_699595972" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span>. If you are one of the people who think like this I greatly encourage you to do one of two things. 1) Go take a week and follow your pastor around or 2) sit down with your pastor and ask him/her everything he/she does. See what most people do not understand that along with the many jobs a pastor has he/she still takes time to listen to the voice of God for the people that he/she is over. So a pastor does not just preach, if they are good at their job, they study and prepare to make sure every word spoken from stage is the words of God for their people. My main point here is that preachers do not just preach.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Now that we know that there is a lot of work put into every message given on Sundays, possibly <wbr></wbr>Wednesdays too, then how should we respond to our leaders? Well with respect, a thankful attitude, and a proper response. Like I said in the beginning, all of my chapters are in two parts so I will not be talking on the response part but more over the respect and thankful attitude. If you attended a church regularly you have chosen to allow the pastor to speak into your life and to be somewhat of your authority in spiritual matters. So by choosing this, you should treat your pastor and his/her words in a different way than most any other person. Most people will enjoy a sermon but simply enjoying what is being said is not the goal of a preacher. A good pastor works hard making sure his/her sermon is the word of God and that it is relevant to all the different groups of people in his congregation. So, we should not just sit and listen like it is some kind of entertainment.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Respect! Well, the first thing we need to talk about is how to respect our pastors properly. It always amazes me how pastors, at times, get little to no respect from his/her congregation. This goes from when they preach all the way to how, at times, people talk to or about their pastor. I do know that not all pastors are respectable people but I am not talking about those kinds of pastors. The pastors I am talking about are the ones that do their position justice. So, let us tackle the first easy one, calling your pastor (be it youth, music, children, ect.) by pastor. If someone holds the position of pastor, and does the position justice, then we should, out of respect, call him/her pastor. Most people are probably saying duh but you would be surprised that there are people who do not do that, I see this a lot in the generation coming up now. Respect of that person in that position is not just proper but also biblical. How you perceive people is how you will ultimately receive people. With the story of the woman at the well, at first she sees Jesus as some Jewish guy until He began calling out her sins. At that time she says, "I see you are a prophet", then begins to treat him as such until she realizes that He is the Christ. If you do not call your pastor, pastor then this is how you see him/her. If he/she is just some person to you, you are not receiving him/her in the right light nor are you respecting him/her in the position that he/she holds in your life. Jesus was called rabbi by His followers because they respected Him as a teacher, so they called Him such. Next, respect your pastor as he/she speaks from the stage. You would not like someone talking, sending texts, or checking social media when you talk so we should not do it while the pastor is speaking either. Finally, how we talk to and about our pastor. We should always be respectful of our pastors and also build them up and support them when we talk to or about them. Do not even allow anyone to talk bad about your leadership; guard them and support them. If you disagree with your pastor go and talk to the pastor. Do not be one of those people who gossip or talk behind the pastor's back.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Thank your pastor! He/she works hard, we have already covered that, and just like how you like to hear "thank you" so do they. Pastor appreciation should not just be one day; it should always happen. Just as much as we should we respect our pastors, we should also thank them. You could drop them a note, send an email, or simply shake their hands and tell them how they are doing a good job. If your pastor has spoken a word to help change your life let them know it. I can promise you that pastors, at times, wonder if what they are saying is actually helping people. Go and tell them that it is. Telling them something as simple as, "Pastor what you have been speaking on is helping me so much", can bring so much encouragement. Simply appreciate your pastor! They are not doing this job to make their bank accounts big, at least not all of them. They do this job because they love God and want to help people. So, just let them know that they are helping you.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> So what does this have to do with making God look bad? Well, simply put, if we do not respect the people God has put in authority over us do we really respect God? We make God look bad by how we treat His leaders. If you went into a place of business and saw an employ disrespecting their boss you would either think that they do not like their job or they do not respect their boss at all. So, if we disrespect our leaders what kind of view are we giving the world? Respect is something we should give to everyone but respect for our leaders should be even more obvious. We need to stop making God look bad because we simply do not respect our leaders.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Preachers do not just preach and we should not just simply listen. Next chapter will be co-authored again and will touch on our response to words spoken from the stage because pastors are not on stage just saying nice things, they are trying to help us grow in the Lord. Let me end, like I always do, with some questions. Do you REALLY respect your pastor? When is the last time you thanked your pastor? What are some things you can do to show your pastors you appreciate them? What message are your sending by how you treat your pastors, to their face or behind their back?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-56973006421886513002014-03-18T16:40:00.000-07:002014-04-28T08:25:02.492-07:00Chapter 6.5 Bring It On In<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">When I used to play soccer, after every practice or game I remember the coach would always say, "Okay guys bring it on in." Now, if you have played any organized sport you might have heard this too, or something just like that. I remember no matter if we had won or lost, had a good practice or bad one, he would always "bring us all in" but why? Well, to go over what was good, what was bad, and what we could do about these things. He brought us all in so that we could see that we are still ONE team after ONE goal. Never do I remember, in these moments of the whole team being as one, the coach pointing fingers or blaming anyone. NO instead the talks were about US and how WE need to be a better TEAM. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Hopefully by now you can see where I am going with all of this. In the first part of the chapter, like always it is helpful to read it first, I touched on the subject of unity in the idea of embracing differences so that we do not become divided unnecessarily. In this next part I want to talk about coming together so that we can accomplish more and so we can look more like the followers of Christ. (John <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1009014658" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">13:35</span></span>) Now, this subject has become a little more difficult to talk on as of recent for me. You may ask why and the answer is simple because recently the Catholic church is trying to fix some of the schisms of the past thus uniting all of the churches again. Some may think it involves only the Catholics and Protestants but actually the Catholics are trying to reconcile with two groups: the Protestants and the Eastern Orthodox Church. (If you do not know who the Eastern Orthodox Church is please go look them up.) There are two camps when it comes to this subject. The first are those who love this idea and think it is the will of God. The second are those who hate this idea and think that this is something of Satan; trying to bring about the one world religion talked about in Revelations. I will not be talking about this subject in this chapter, I would rather you go do your own research and decide for yourself what this may be, but instead do what I normally do and talk on this matter with more practical applications so that we can unite more on a local level.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> We can all see how on a local level that we have slowly become more and more divided. Now I know that I come from "the Bible belt" of America and in other areas of this country it may not be as bad but, over all, the division is very obvious. So what are some things we can do to end this needless fighting within the body of Christ? As I said in the first part of this chapter the first thing is to embrace differences. The second is putting our money where our mouth is and unite. We can no longer say that we love each other and continue to not work together. It is far past time for us to "bring it on in". </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bring it on in guys! First thing that we can do to cause unity is to find out what local churches are doing and see how we can help. If you are a part of a church and hear about another church doing an event for the community why not look into it and ask what you can do to help. A great simple way to help is to ask if they need someone to do clean up afterwards. Wouldn't it be great if you where part of an event and another church said, "we would love to serve by helping with set up and tear down"? Well instead of waiting for that why not just go and offer it first. Although this may not seem like a great thing to do trust me it is, this is coming from someone who has been a part of many kinds of events, and I can not imagine that anyone would say no. Showing that we are willing to serve no matter what capacity will help build bridges of unity.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> The next thing that we can do is try and plan events with other churches in mind. Instead of planning an event then trying to get others involved in any way, why not plan one with the other churches in mind first. I know that this sometimes can be hard, because they might say no, but what if by doing this you open up doors that have never been opened. Let me put it like this: If church A wants to do some kind of cook out outreach and instead of trying to do it all themselves then ask other churches if they want to join in church A plans the whole event with other churches already involved. So church A calls church B and says, "Hey would you like to do some outreach with us? We want to do a cook out. We have the food we just need help with the grills." Then church A goes to church C and says, "Hey would you like to do outreach with us? We are doing a cook out. We already have church B bringing the grills, we will bring the food, can you bring an outdoor sound system?" It sounds so simple and to be honest it is. Now, I know that not everyone may jump on the idea but if you do not ask at all the answer is always NO. If we did events more like this instead of the idea of we will do it all and invite people, maybe we would get a better response.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Another way we can bring unity is a prayer night. We all pray, right? Well if we do then why not try to pray together? Now this one is a little more tricky. This is where embracing differences comes into play but also not forcing our differences on anyone. I know that there are many different styles of worship and prayer but to unite is to lay those aside so that we can come together. An open prayer night to pray for ones city is something that can cause unity if done proper. We must first invite everyone and create an atmosphere that is inviting to all types of people. We all know you can not please everyone all the time but you can try to become all things to all men, like Paul says we should be.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Finally the best and easiest way is relationship. Why are you part of the church you go to? Well probably because you have a relationship with the people there. Relationship is the key and something that I think we do not do enough of when it comes to bringing unity to the body of Christ. Simply picking up the phone or emailing other churches to try and build relationship is really not all that hard. The reason we do not do this is for one of three reasons: 1) We think that we are sooooo right in our theology and the others are so wrong that we are unable to embrace differences, as long as someones theology is not heresy then it is okay, we simply just do not try. 2) We are afraid that by building relationship with other churches it may cause one church to "lose their people" to another church. The main problem I have with this is that no one is yours or theirs they are all Christ's. 3) We are too prideful to even try to build relationships because we simply think that we are better than others for some reason. We can no longer allow these things to happen. We must remember we are all after one thing: Bringing people into a relationship with God through Christ. If that is truly our goal then it is time to "bring it on in" and work on changing our cities together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I love the saying, "No man is an island", but along with that no church should be an island either. We must unite and if no one else is willing to take the first step then you should. You may not be a leader or a pastor but you can do things and try to get your church to come along too. If you are not a leader talk to your pastor about these things and see what you can do to be the change. The body of Christ is made up of many parts and that is okay but being a severed body is not. Embrace differences, build relationships, and work on unity. We know that no kingdom divided can stand so why are we arrogantly trying to divided the kingdom of God? What would it really look like if the world saw churches working together? What can you do to bring unity to the body of Christ?</span><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-25693106700431832702014-03-11T20:19:00.000-07:002014-03-11T20:19:13.087-07:00Chapter 6: U.N.I.T.Y<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> I grew up in Clinton, NC and in my early teenage years came to know Christ at Clinton PH Church. At that church I had many friends that were very talented. There were many bands at that church and one of those bands was called Combat Junkies. The Combat Junkies were an awesome christian punk band and had a song called U.N.I.T.Y. The chorus of this song went like this: UNITY, united we stand. UNITY divided we fall. Most people might not know the band or the song but it is a great song and what I thought about for this chapter. Unity in the body of Christ is a subject very close to my heart and something that we fail at so much. We make God look really bad on this subject almost more than any other. The world hears us preach love and unity but rarely sees either from us, especially toward each other.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> In this first part of this chapter I am going to take a little different spin than what you may think. I want to first affirm that it is okay to have different views as long as we do not allow ourselves to cross the line into heresy. Also I think it is fine to have different denominations and different ways to worship. We first must rid ourselves of the thoughts that to have unity we must all do the same things and be the same way. If that were true then we would just be one thing and not many parts in one body. I want to quote Ravi Zacharias again, "Unity does not mean uniformity".</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> So, what exactly am I going to talk about with unity? Well, I want to talk about how we can be different without the need to seem like we have it completely right or without attacking anyone else. When I read the new testament I see many parts of a whole. The new testament highlights certain things by certain authors and because of this there is a wonderful rainbow of truths written that make up the whole truth. I am not saying that any of the new testament is not true but what I am pointing out is that where one book may focus on some specific subject another book completes it by talking on a different, but equally important, subject. For example, when Paul talks about how it is by grace through faith, not our works, that we are saved(Ephesians 2:8-9) and then James comes along to say that yes it is through faith alone but if you have no works than your faith is dead(James <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1224923993" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">2:17</span></span>). Wonderful truth given to us by two different men of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. Aw yes the Holy Spirit, the one who led the writers to write the new testament, works in this manner; taking many people and making one body.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> So, what does all of this boil down to? We need each other! We need each other's differences. We need each other's common ground. We make God look bad when we can not embrace each other in our differences and make God look good when we do. In my early 20's I use to think it would have been a good idea to just do away with denominations but now I look at it as something that is somewhat of a good thing, as long as no one takes the name of a denomination over the name of Christ. Unity and love is simply all of us excepting our differences and using that to our advantage. I look at the body of Christ sorta like a marriage in this manner. In a marriage you have two different people completing each other not competing against each other. If the body of Christ started acting in this manner we would be able to unite in ways that we have not done in a long time. Where one church in a given area may be good at one thing and another church may be good at another thing they can complete each other if they work together. I do not want to go too far with that because that is the subject of the next chapter.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> The main point I want to get across in this chapter is that unity does not mean that we all just try to be the same thing. Instead, unity is when we embrace the differences to become one body. No one would cut off their left hand because they are right handed nor would anyone cut out their eyes because they are weak. We must stop cutting on each other and do what we would do if one part of our own body was weak and that is to cover it so that it would become strong again. We are many parts of one whole and because of that we must act as such. Covering those who are weak and celebrating those who are strong, never elevating one over the other. Just imagine if the world saw a church that looked like that? Would that take some of the excuses away from people who say they will not go to church? We can and must become the body of Christ talked about in the Bible.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Finally, I want to say that no where in the new testament do I see where one church looked down on another and if they did I am pretty sure that Paul, or whoever, would have rebuked them for that. As a matter of fact I can think of a story where that actually happened. (Galatians 2:11-21) See, it is okay to be different, as long as the differences are not sin or heresy, and we must stop killing each other over styles of music, preaching types, bible versions, etc. We must get back to the core of things and love one another as Christ loves us. When I think about all of this stuff the statement, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", comes to mind. We all have but one enemy and that is the devil. So if he is your and my enemy, when we become enemies of each other, who then do we align ourselves with? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> UNITY, united we stand. UNITY, divided we fall. Let that sink in one more time and ask yourself: Who is my enemy? What am I doing to unite the body of Christ? If unity is not uniformity then how can I help my brothers and sisters that are of different denominations than I? What would it truly look like if we treated the body of Christ the way we treat our own body? </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-75781629579234728062014-03-04T19:13:00.000-08:002014-03-04T19:13:49.132-08:00Chapter 5.5 A Pathetic Apathy <div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> This is another chapter where I have asked for help from a brother in Christ to write. This is a subject that is also close to my heart but thought it may be better touched upon by my brother Dwayne Dunning. So with further ado here we go...</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> As I sit here watching “The Walking Dead”, yes I watch this show; I can’t help but think upon the subject that I have been asked to write about. That subject is spiritual apathy. What does this show have to do with apathy, you may ask. Well, if you are one of the 10 or so in America that has no idea what this show is, let me explain. In “The Walking Dead”, the dead have risen and are walking around as “walkers”. They seem alive, they move, they roam, they get together in groups, but they are dead. There has been an incident that has yet to be explained that has caused this phenomenon to occur. To put another twist on the story, (spoiler alert), everyone that is truly living is infected with this disease already. So, when they die, they will become just like the rest of the walkers on the planet. They will roam around with no purpose, no care, completely devoid of any actual life, dead yet walking around.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> When I look at the church today, this is what I see. I can’t believe that I am actually saying this, but it is true. The majority of churches and so called “Christians”, which let me remind everyone means Christ follower, are like dead walking. We have no life or desire to truly see God move or the world to be changed. Sure, we say do. We send up prayers asking for a move of God and for change to take place. We sing songs and mutter words that say we have a desire for it. But what do our lives say? Our lives are saying that there is very little life in us, at least spiritually speaking. We are walkers. We may not be carrying an actual disease like those represented in the show, but there is a spiritual disease that we have allowed to creep in and begin to kill the church. This disease is apathy. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> So what is apathy? Well, the definition is simple. It is the mindset of, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t care!</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It is having a lack of concern for others, ministry, spiritual growth, or what God wants of us. In a nutshell, it’s impassiveness about God. An attitude of, “God I really don’t care about you. I want all that you can give me and have for me. I want your blessings and definitely your salvation from hell, but don not ask me for anything. I have a life to live. I am too busy.” What are we thinking?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 1; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Spiritual apathy is perhaps one of the most ignored “diseases” in the Christian life. It’s a condition of the heart. It rarely, if ever, manifests itself in open rebellion. Instead it’s a secret thing, sometimes not even evident to those around us (although often evident to others before we even admit its presence in our lives). Spiritual apathy </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">doesn't</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 1; white-space: pre-wrap;"> care; it’s an I-can-take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward spiritual things: Bible reading and study, prayer, worship, church, witnessing, our world-view, our mental and emotional filters, relationships, service etc.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The thing about spiritual apathy is that it rarely strikes like a bolt of lightning. Instead it sneaks up on you; it’s a process that you don’t see coming. Few Christians become apathetic overnight – but they do over years. We all know people who at one time were faithful but who over time stopped attending church, reading their bibles, praying, witnessing – in short, stopped living the Christian life in any meaningful way. It is a slow spreading disease that begins to infiltrate every fiber of our spiritual being. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So, because you are </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">lukewarm</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%203:16&version=NKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revelation 3:16</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Christians are becoming lukewarm, disinterested, and non-committal. I mean think about it, today there are many so called believers who do not participate in regular church attendance and bible studies. Fewer of us are serving and many of our talents go unused. Something is wrong with the church and it’s getting worse as each year passes.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The other day I was worshiping the Lord with a group of believers. I had my eyes closed and was meditating on the words of Jesus as I sang. All of a sudden the Lord brought to my mind a concert. I know this sounds cliché-ish. But think about it. The people were shouting, raising their hands, getting excited about the person singing and were excited about the concert itself. Then my mind seemed to wander to a football game. The people were yelling and engaged with what was going on. They were mesmerized and watched in utter anticipation at the next move of the ball players.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Then I opened my eyes and glanced around the room at the </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">worshippers of Jesus</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. No one had their hands raised, no one was excited, people were fidgeting and talking over the music; mouths were singing but not with utter joy and anticipation as seen at the concert. Rather it was superficial and done merely out of obligation. There was a lack of real worship coming from the believers and little reverence was being shown. My heart broke! How can we cheer for people on a stage and players on a field which have done nothing but entertain us? Yet not cry out in complete worship to the Creator of the universe, the sustainer of our soul, the one that has given everything for us. I don’t understand. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I couldn't help but cry and ask God for his forgiveness. Then it hit me, we have the disease of apathy. It has hit our worship, it has hit our homes, and it has invaded our relationship with Christ. We simply don’t care anymore. I've heard pastor after pastor talk about apathy from the pulpits, yet no change comes from the body. We don’t vote because we say, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘ah our vote doesn't count anyhow.’</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We don’t worship reverently because we say, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘ah He loves us anyhow and I’m really tired.’</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We don’t tell people about Christ because we say, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘ah the Holy Spirit will tell Him or someone else will come along.’</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We can’t get involved in the work of our churches because, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">‘I just have to much going on.’ </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are watching our children and teens wander away from God in droves, yet do nothing about it. And the list goes on and on and on. My friend God says in his word not to be apathetic…</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2012:11&version=NKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Romans 12:11</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%203:2&version=NKJV" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revelation 3:2</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> This unseen, yet rampant disease is crippling us and it is a sin in the sight of the Lord. Apathy causes us to bear no fruit and brings no glory to God. Now is the time to wake up from our apathetic state, before we all become nothing more than “walkers” roaming around with the dead of the world. </span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Just take an honest look at yourself and your family. This can be very eye opening. That is why many of us do not want to truly self-evaluate our lives. But take a moment and do this. What does your life with Christ look like? Is there true life? What I mean, is Christ really there? Does your life show that you care about Him and His Kingdom? Where is your time spent? What are you doing for him right now? Is there always an excuse for why you can’t be a part of the work at your church? What is your attendance like? Just a side note, did you know that only about 27% of “regular” church attenders attend their church 75% of the time. Most are now calling every other Sunday regular attendance. This is a problem.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> If we were to be honest with ourselves, we would admit that we have all become infected with “apathy”. But, like the characters on “The Walking Dead”, we just haven’t realized we are infected. If asked, we would say, “There is no way I am apathetic to God.” Let’s ask ourselves this, when was the last time I really made an impact for His kingdom?”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Being a youth and children’s pastor, I see the spread of this disease first hand. I watch it spread from parents to children all the time. I am guilty of passing the infection also. Think about this. We send our kids to school for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 36 weeks of the year, and for 13 years of their life. That is, if they don’t go to college. Trust me, I believe that is extremely important. Just follow me a second. Also, in that time frame, we get them involved in sports, pageants, dance, work, practices, you name it. Then we have the busyness of our lives as adults and our pass times. What time is left?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> According to the God’s word, what does it matter if we gain the world, yet lose our souls? With all that we do, where is God and the spiritual growth and education of our children? As I said, the majority of so called “Christ followers” only attend 50% of Sundays and by no means are they involved on Wednesdays. Our children may be getting an average of 4 to 6 hours of spiritual teaching a month. Can we see the problem with this? Can we see how we are spreading this disease? What do we expect children and teens to do, when we are teaching them that everything else is more important than God? They will leave the church. They will leave God. And this disease will spread even faster. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.1500000000000001; white-space: pre-wrap;"> So what can we do? What is the answer to this problem? What is the cure? It’s simple. It is more of God and less of this world. It is more of His word, more time with Him, more time with His followers, and more time in His teaching and works. As a church, as Christ followers, let’s end this rampant outbreak of apathy before it is too late. Let’s be cured of apathy by reading the word, spending time with Him, praying, being reverent, and getting right with God. A simple cure is to “Abide in Him.”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (John 15:4).</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> The primary meaning of the word abide is to remain or to maintain a continual presence. The concept of abiding refers to maintaining an intimate, vital connection or relationship. When it comes to grapevines (the illustration Christ used to represent the Christian’s relationship with Him) the only way that a branch can bear fruit is to maintain a vital relationship with the vine. Once that connection is damaged or broken the branch is no longer useful to the vine. It becomes sick or infected and withers away and dies. It has no purpose or use any longer. The only way that Christians can bear spiritual fruit is to maintain a vital relationship with Christ. Once that connection to Christ is damaged or broken our usefulness to God is adversely affected.</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1; white-space: pre-wrap;"> What are we going to do to stop the spread of apathy? I pray that this speaks to all of you that are reading, that God is blessed, and that His kingdom grows. Let’s work together and see that His people become spiritually alive once more. There is so much to be done and the time is now!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God bless all of you. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Thanks Brother and as always lets ask ourselves: Does this touch us somewhere we are at in our own walk? Can we get back to a place of passion? Why have we allowed this kind of apathy to go on in the body of Christ?</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-83768783813796159172014-02-25T17:11:00.000-08:002014-02-25T17:11:37.054-08:00Chapter 5: Having The Right Attitude<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="background-color: white;">"</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">You better check yourself before you wreck yourself", is a saying that was popular in the late 90's early 2000's. Now if you are old enough to know this saying you know that it was normally brought up when someone might be acting, saying, or doing something that might end bad for them. I heard that saying so much that I got sick of it, but for this subject I think it fits perfectly. Having the right attitude is something that is very important in the church and not talked about enough. The attitude of anyone can be one of the biggest thing that can make God look bad.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> We have all met someone who's attitude just turns us off. That person may be smart but no matter what they say you tune them out. They may have great answers for life but because of their attitude you just do not want to listen to them. We as the body of Christ must never be one of those people. We have the very answer to life, Christ Jesus, but if we have the wrong attitude people will not even care to hear us. I have heard it said, "people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care". We must never think because we have this answer we can have bad attitudes toward anyone.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Our attitude is something that can hold us back from many things that God has for us and it also can put people at arms length of us when we try to share the Gospel. Like I said in the last chapter, everything is a choice for us to make and one of the biggest choices is our attitude. I truly believe that a bad attitude can lead us into sin. So what kind of attitude should we have as followers of Christ then? Well I am glad you asked. Let us look at this from two sides. First the bad attitude and second the good attitude. I think it is good to look at both so we can know what having the right attitude looks like.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Everyone can recognize a bad attitude when they see it. A bad attitude is as obvious to everyone as a open head wound on someone. So what does the Bible say about having a bad attitude? In Philippians <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1788115355" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">2:14</span></span> it says, "Do everything without complaining and arguing." WOW! That is a big deal. Even though that is really plain I want to break it down a bit. So the word everything in Greek is <i>pas </i>which means exactly what is said EVERYTHING. The word complaining is <i>goggysmos </i>in Greek which simply means: a secret debate or a secret displeasure not openly avowed. Finally the word arguing in Greek is <i>dialogismos </i>which means: the thinking of a man, deliberating with himself or a thought, inward reasoning. Basically a bad attitude is when we do things with a secret displeasure or when we have inward reasoning with why we dislike doing what ever it is we are doing. With that test I would be willing to say that all of us have had a really bad attitude with doing the will of God at some time or another. I do know that God at times asks us to do things we may not like or agree with but when we submit to His will we must not carry our attitude along with it, we need to also submit our attitude along with our actions. I want to finish the bad attitude part up with the thoughts from an earlier chapter by saying that we can not always have the right attitude by ourselves we must put our lives in the hands of God. He is the only way to overcome all of our short comings.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Well now that we know what the bad attitude is, what does having a good attitude look like? Again let us look into the Bible for this answer. Colossians <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1788115356" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">3:15</span></span> says, "And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful." Then in Colossians <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1788115357" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">3:17</span></span>, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." What does all of that have to do with a good attitude? Everything! We know from an earlier chapter that we are meant to carry the name peace along with us but how can we without a good attitude. See, Paul tells us not only to let peace be in us but also ALWAYS be thankful. Paul then goes on and says that no matter what you say or do you represent Jesus so do it with a good attitude. These words from Paul are really strong because they come from a man who when scourged left praising God, so he must know what it means to always be thankful.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Now that we have these definitions of good and bad how do we line our life up to the word? Step one: stop taking stuff so personal! Look, bad things happen to everyone but if we look at bad things happening through the lens of Romans 5 we see that those bad things can make us better if we allow them to. Step two: stop being the victim. Look, not everything that happened to you was done on purpose and even if it was, overcome it. If anyone, other than Jesus, had a right to play the sad victim card it was Paul but I have seen nowhere that he did. Paul, instead, took everything and allowed it to bring him closer to God. Finally step three: realize that God is still in control. This one is easier said than done, I know, but nothing happens that catches God off guard. If something happened in your life it did not catch God by surprise so he must know that you can get through it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> God gave me an analogy one time for this exact idea. If someone where to pour water on you what would happen? Well, we all know it would roll off but what if someone poured acid on you? Well it would eat right through you. With that, everything that happens in your life is either water or acid. We can either let it roll off our back or eat right through us. We must realize that everything is water until we allow it to become acid.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> Now, there is something that is worse than having a bad attitude and that is apathy. In the next chapter one of my brothers in Christ will be talking about how having no attitude at all is destroying the body of Christ today. Simply put, I would rather deal with someone who has a bad attitude than someone who is apathetic. Why you may ask? Well, because someone with a bad attitude shows me the potential of passion but someone with apathy shows me, well, apathy. I will leave the rest of that idea to my brother Dwayne Dunning.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"> I want to finish this out with saying that we must not allow our attitude to destroy the ability to minister to the world. When we have a bad attitude we can become useless to God in many ways. We need to always check inside ourselves if we are doing anything that we are asked to do by God with displeasure in our hearts. We must always have the right attitude when doing the work of our Father. Like always let me ask you some questions. Do you let your attitude come in the way of sharing the Gospel? In what way has your attitude pushed people away from God? Can you trust God enough to always be thankful no matter what is going on? </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-88425197966848362722014-02-17T17:30:00.004-08:002014-02-17T17:30:52.774-08:00Chapter 4.5 Don't Blame God! . . . Or The Devil Either<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> <span style="background-color: white;"> Well, I recently made a really bad mistake in life that will take along time to fix. I will not go into detail but I will tell you that it was all my fault and I have no one to blame but myself. If you are wondering why I am talking about this it is because in the first part of this chapter, which again I encourage you to read first, I talked about being in the hands of God and what that looks like. Now I stated that we make God look bad when we try to take this life into our own hands and take it out of God's hands. I myself am going through something of that nature now, see we all have done things we are not proud of so who can we blame it on? God, the devil, or ourselves? In this chapter we will talk about freewill and what it looks like when we try to take our lives and live them without being in the Hands of God.<br /> This chapter will be a little more personal because I intend to share some of the things I have done in life that made God look bad. I also plan to show some people in the Bible who forgot to be led by God and how it turned out bad. Earlier in this chapter I covered what it looked like to be led by spirit but when we fail we can not blame God; for this it is by our own doing. I also wanted to say how much it angers me whenever I hear, "the devil made me do it", NO he didn't! You did whatever it is that you are giving him credit for. Basically everything comes down to a choice and no one made that choice for you but you so stop blaming it on anything else.<br /> Throughout my life I have made some real bad decisions and I have had to pay the price for all these things. Now I could blame other people for what had happened but in the end I did what ever it was by my own choice. I have been a lot of things in my life. I have been a pot head, an alcoholic, a liar, a cheater, a thief, and even a person who has been angry at God, but why? Was it God's fault for calling me somewhere and me not being able to handle the stresses of life? Was it the devils fault for putting all kinds of sin in my way? Or was it my fault for being to blind and stupid to realize when I was moving outside of the will of God? Well to me the answer is obvious, ME, but to many people instead of taking blame for what they have done they choose to point the finger at anything other than themselves. Oh, the blame game it goes deeper than just saying that it is someone else's fault we go as far to blame our past, the devil, and at the worst case we blame God.<br /> So let us start with blaming God. Now understand that I think blaming God for any kind of evil is completely unbiblical! If anyone ends up in a place that God has called them then the choices made after arriving are theirs and not because they were called there. I want to look at some people in the Bible that came to a place by the will of God and what happened on their journey. Lets start with a story that is well known, the Israelites leaving Egypt to the promise land (Exodus 12). Now we know that the reason they were leaving was to go to the promise land but something happened. Most people know that on their way that they are given the ten commandments and many other rules to live by. So what went wrong? Well, like most people they got upset with their current situation and instead of looking toward what God had promised them and they rebelled. Some say that in this they moved from God's perfect will into His passive will in the wilderness. Although I agree to this point to a extent I see it more like this: God is not a liar so even though the people did pretty much what God told them not to do He had to follow through with His promise. See, the people could blame God for all of their mistakes but even in their sin God still took care of them with a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. Ultimately no one can blame God for what had happened it was the choice of the people to fall away and miss out on the promise.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br /> Well, then the devil made me do it! WRONG! There are two stories in the Bible that I can think of where people could try and blame the devil. Lets start with an easy one the garden of Eden. Yes, the devil deceived Eve who turned around and convinced Adam to fall too but is it the devil's fault? Of course not. Blaming the devil for this would be like trying to tell a cop that your friend told you that you could speed so he is the one that deserves a ticket instead. Adam and Eve had free will and they could have said no. How about Job? If you have read Job you know that the devil was allowed to do anything to Job just not to kill him. Throughout the story Job is told that it is his fault for his situation and to curse God and die. He refuses to do so until closer to the end and that is when God shows up to set him straight. Even with all of that I have seen nowhere that Job blames the devil but I could be wrong, it has been a while since I have read Job. Again with Job he had all right to blame the devil for his situation but not for his reaction to what was going on.<br /> So who is to blame for how we act? Well the answer is simple, WE ARE. I am well aware that we all have a sin nature inside of us but it is up to us to follow that or die to it. (Rom 7:21 and Rom 8:5-13) We are the ones that must take blame for our own sins and repent for them. We can no longer try to point the finger to an outward source and say that something made us do this or that. We must realize that we are all sinners and need a savior.(John 15:22 and 1 Tim 1:15) We make God look bad when we try to either justify or blame our sin on something other than ourselves. As His people we must be led by the spirit, as I said in the first part, and when we fail just admit it. When we do this we come back to a realization that we are all sinners always needing help with our lives and a savior who can help us.<br /> As I said at the beginning I am dealing with something that I have messed up with, what I did is not important, and it made me realize how frail I am. At times we get too comfortable with life and forget that EVERY day we need God to guide us. When we do mess up we must not try to run and hide, like Adam and Eve, but instead face it. We must not blame anyone or anything but instead repent. We are at our best when we call to our Father for help and at our worst when we think that we have everything under control. We must never act as if God can "sit this one out" in our lives. He is our way, our truth, and our LIFE. <br /> To sum up this whole thing, we need to put our lives back in the hands of God and when we mess up face it. God hates when we sin but delights when we truly repent and call on Him for help. It is not God's fault or the devil's fault, it is our fault. We give the devil too much credit and God too little. Let me end like I always do by asking some questions. What are you trying to hide and not repent from? Do you blame God, the devil, or realize it is your fault? How would your life be different if you stop blaming others and started owning up to your own problems?</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-15033149994440950242014-02-12T16:21:00.001-08:002014-02-12T16:28:29.555-08:00Chapter 4: In The Hands Of God<div class="im">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #500050;"> </span> Being in the hands of God is a subject that is going to be a little different than the others that I have talked on so far. There are two reasons that this subject is difficult for me to really talk about: 1) this subject has many different connotations when it comes to theology and 2) I have to be careful what I am going to say so I do not become a heretic. I want to say that I will not push any one theology in this blog, that is something that I think is better left for personal discussion, and I will not attack any one theology either. I do have personal thoughts on free will and predestination, that I can back up biblically, but I will do my best to leave those aside and talk about more practical things in the idea of being in the hands of God.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> So what does it mean to be in the hands of God? Well, the best way to find out is to look in the Bible. There are many verses that may come to mind when it comes to being in the hands of God but remember we are talking about how we make God look bad so I am going to just talk about the ones that pertain to living a daily life right for God. I will always affirm that we are taken care of by God (Matt 6:25-32 and Matt 10:29-31) and that if we place our life in His hands he has a planned provision for our lives but that is not what I want to go into. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> I want to talk about how the Bible tells us that if we are living for God that it is not really us who are living this life; it is through Jesus that we live (Gal <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_256998873" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">2:20</span></span>). We are fallen people and we fail on all regards to live right (Rom <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_256998874" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">3:23</span></span>) but through the power of the Holy Spirit we have the power to over come all of these things. Being lead by the spirit is something constantly on the pin tips of the writers of New Testament so it must be important. The bottom line is that we can not live a life that makes God look good without putting our life in the hands of God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Putting your life in the hands of God must start somewhere so the first thing is to put God first. God himself makes it very clear that this is a must do (Exd 20:3 and Luke<span class="aBn" data-term="goog_256998875" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:27</span></span>) and if we forget to do this it is beyond impossible to put our life in the hands of God. The next step is realizing that if we want to live for Him we must lay our life down for Him (Matt 16:24-25). The main way we make God look bad is failing to put Him first in everything and putting ourselves aside for His glory. Putting your life in the hands of God or being lead by the spirit, as some may say it, helps us come in line with the way our lives are meant to be. We are told that we can not overcome sin without His spirit (Rom 8:12-16).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Too many times we make this life man centered and too few times we make it God centered. We fail to realize that if we try to make things right we will always fail it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ that we can live an upright life. I have heard, I myself at one time have taught, that if you just do not think about doing a specific sin you can overcome it and with that teaching the scripture 2 Cor 10:5b "take every thought captive and make obedient to Christ". Is that what is really taught there? NO. If you read it in context or just the whole thing it is not a man centered power that overcomes it says in the verse before that, "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world", so how do we even try with our strength to take anything captive? It is only by the Holy Spirit, the weapon that is not of this world, that we overcome anything. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> The way to be in the hands of God is to do what Paul says in Rom 12, "... But let GOD transform you into a new creation by changing the way you think". We can not change without the power of the Holy Spirit! We must stop making this life transforming thing a man centered power and put it back in the hands of God. If we know that it is only through faith that saves us we must also realize that it is only by the spirit that sustains and changes us. A man powered change is something that has always failed us and is one of the many ways we make God look bad. We try to change, without the power or guiding of the Holy spirit, and when we fail to the world around us it makes God look powerless to change anyone. The kingdom of God is of power (1 Cor <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_256998876" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">4:20</span></span>) and what is that power? It is the Holy Spirit and if we want to live in that power we must stop striving and put our lives back in the hands of God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> The easiest way I like to put this is: to many times we try to fix things by looking at the shadows/sin in our lives and say, "I will not do those things", but instead of looking at those shadows/sin we should look at the light/God. When we take our focus off of the things around us that may cause us to fall and put it on the One that has saves us the shadows/sin becomes nothing. We can not change without the power of God and laying our life in His hands. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> I know that some people may think, "well we have freewill and I am putting everything on God", but our freewill will come in to play in the next chapter: Don't blame God... or the devil either. As always I leave you with some challenges. What things are YOU trying to get right and not trusting in God? What would your life look like if you put your whole life in the hands of God? In what ways have you made God look bad by not putting your life in the hands of God and how can you change that?</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-29536664272471791292014-02-04T19:08:00.000-08:002014-02-04T19:08:20.099-08:00Chapter 3.5 Speak Up By: Keith Rowell<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> So last week we looked at the work we have done but just doing good works is not enough. To talk to us about that is one of my good friends Keith. Here is what Keith had to say about this subject:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> I love the show “Undercover Boss.” The idea that the CEO of a large company would disguise themselves as an employee to better assess the health of their company is great. Throughout the show the CEO works with random employees of different locations to see the variety of jobs their company takes to run. My favorite part is the end, they gather those employees and they come face to face with the CEO, who they thought was just another co-worker. SURPRISE! It’s your boss! And they are baffled that the person they trained is the one who pays their salaries.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> At times Christians live like this. We go around like a boss on “Undercover Boss,” living life and fitting in. We are following Christ but we are not open and obvious about it. Some to the extent that our friends, co-workers, or even family have no idea; they think we are just good, moral people. They have no clue we are following Jesus and have access to the Hope of the World. We live life appearing as one thing, but secretly we are following Christ. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Then….one day…...they find you out……</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Maybe they catch you praying over a meal or they see a tweet you shared from your YouVersion Bible App. The gig is up. Then you get the opportunity to talk to them about Christ….and to explain why you </span>didn't<span style="font-family: inherit;"> say anything sooner...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> A big slogan for Christians is, “Preach the Gospel, use words when necessary.” This is great for encouraging those who follow Christ to make sure their actions in public and private are biblical. However, it sets a trap to almost be like “undercover” Christians. Throughout Scripture you have followers of Christ going out and boldly proclaiming the Gospel. Today, you will have the chance to proclaim the Hope we have in Christ. Actions are not enough. Open your mouth and share His love, His grace, and His acceptance. Let others know that you are not a good person, but one that is forgiven. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Speak loud. Prove your actions with your words.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Thank you Keith. Let me end with a challenge: Do not just do good works, which is great, but make sure you actually preach the Gospel too. Our works show cause people give glory to God but if we fail to let people know of our God than how can they give him glory?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-11717588596473790162014-01-28T16:37:00.000-08:002014-01-31T23:07:54.314-08:00Chapter 3: The Work We Have, Can, and Should Do<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> I have been saying that I was going to write this for some time now so here we go. In the first chapter I talked about the things we have done that has made God look bad. I now want to go on to the works that some people have done to make God look good. Now, I know there are many people that have done great things in the name of God but I just want to focus on four people. I am going to talk about two that are no longer with us and two that are in our time now doing great things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> First, I want to talk about William Tyndale again. I have touched on some of the things he has done but want I want to go into further detail. <span style="font-family: inherit;">William Tyndale was the one of the captains of the army of reformers, and was one of their spiritual leaders. Tyndale holds the distinction of being the first man to ever print the New Testament in the English language. Tyndale was a true scholar and a genius. He was so fluent in eight languages that one would think that any one of them was his native tongue. He is frequently referred to as the “Architect of the English Language”, (even more so than William Shakespeare) as so many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in our language today. He was a single minded man, in a good way, </span>especially when it came to<span style="font-family: inherit;"> translating the Bible into </span>English <span style="font-family: inherit;">and getting the Bible into the hands of every man. He wanted them to have and understand the Bible so much so that he was willing to die for this. He also held to the ideas of men like Martin Luther, that the church was holding people back from knowing God wholly. He was </span>determined<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to make sure that people knew that salvation only came by grace through faith and no other way. One of his greatest quotes is </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“<em>I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause the boy that drives the plow to know more of the scriptures than you!</em>” This was a reply to a man telling him that it is better to have the laws of the pope instead of the law of God. This man was focused on spreading the gospel to everyone no matter what. He was so driven that while he was being killed he said,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><em style="font-family: inherit;">Lord, open the king of England's eyes.</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">" Many believe that this statement was about allowing the Bible to be translated into English and this finally came to pass three years after Tyndale's death. This man is a shining example of what it means to fight for what is right even in the face of everyone who says it is wrong. He was a respectful man but he had his convictions on what it meant to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. He did everything with </span>integrity<span style="font-family: inherit;"> and is a great example of someone who makes God look good. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The next person is someone most of us know about, Mother Teresa. Now, I know that many people know that she gave her life to helping the poor and needy but how much do we really know? Her real name was Gonxha Agnes and she was baptized at the age of five and a half. At the age of eighteen she joined The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. That is when she </span>received the name most people know, Sister Mary Teresa. A couple of things that is not as well known as her help with the poor is that she was also a teacher and ultimately became a principal of St. Mary's School for girls in Calcutta. During her time as a teacher there she made her Final Profession of Vows and shortly after got the name that we all knew her as, Mother Teresa. She gave her life to helping the poorest of the poor and helped develop many ministries world wide doing the same. Even in her last days she spent her time helping people and leading the ministries that God had put her over. She is another great example of what it looks like to give ones life away for the calling of Christ. Making God look good does not always mean being killed, most of the time it is living a life completely surrendered over to his will all the way until the end.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Okay now lets look at some people still with us that are making God look good. These men are Bill Wilson and Matthew Barnett. The great thing about these guys is that they are on two different sides of the USA and yet doing basically the same thing. Bill Wilson lives in New York, New York and does intercity ministry. He goes out into the toughest parts of NY and brings people the gospel. He buses kids in every week to be taught the word of God but not only that he also takes box trucks, that have been remade into fold out stages, to many local neighborhoods so that they can also hear the word of God. <a href="http://www.metroworldchild.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Metro World Child</a>, the ministry started by Bill Wilson, does many events throughout the year to help the lost in NY. He is driven to see the next generation rise up and become followers of Christ no matter what their environment is and has extended his ministry world wide. Now, Matthew Barnett has an outreach ministry called <a href="http://www.dreamcenter.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">The Dream Center</a>. Like Bill Wilson, Matthew Barnett goes out to the intercity; but in L.A. He also buses kids in to hear the word and has the box trucks too. The Dream Center is more than just that, it is an old hospital that has been made into a place for people to go to get help. The Dream Center helps all kinds of people form pastors who have messed up, to helping girls out of the sex slave industry, to helping former inmates, and the list goes on. I am not comparing these two ministries, or men, but rather showing you what a life dedicated to Christ can do. I have great respect for both of these men and encourage you to look them up. These are two men doing there best to make God look good.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> So what can we do? Look at what has been done and think about what needs are around you. I have heard it said "the need is the call". God has put you in place that you can help people and can guide them to Christ, for if it is not about him then you are just doing nice things. We need to take up the baton that all of our forefathers have left us and go back to making God look good. We need to be people that represent his name well and that do things that show our love for God and people. I know we can do this and that it is time for us to stop being people who just watch others people do these good things. We are called to be the body of Christ and to take our roles seriously. I am not saying that all are meant to do outreach but I am saying that we are all meant to do something. Whatever it is that we are meant to do let us do it with a passion for Christ and His work. We must be driven people again and stop being lazy about doing the will of our Father. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Finally let me say that this is not meant to make you feel bad or belittle anyone but instead to spring you into action. I wanted to share these stories to show you that ordinary people, who follow the will of God, can do extraordinary things. Let me end with one more story. This story is about a high school girl, when asked one day why she was so happy she answered, "because I have a personal relationship with God through Christ". That is all she said but those words caused the person who asked her to start searching through the Bible. After about six months of going through the gospels this young man came to have a personal relationship with Christ. That young man is now Dr. William Lane Craig. If you do not know who he is that is okay let me tell you. Dr. Craig is one of the top apologetic in the world, he contends for the faith against other religions and atheist. He has written or edited over twenty-three books and has a website to help people in their faith called <a href="http://reasonablefaith.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Reasonablefaith.org</a>. <wbr></wbr>That story is not about young Dr. Craig but instead about a young girl who was bold enough to share her faith. We never really know the kind of impact we can have when we are simply making God look good. Let me challenge you again by asking, are you making God look good? Are we bold enough to share our faith at any time? What are we doing everyday to grow the body of Christ? What is God asking you to do?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: large;">The next chapter will be authored by one of my close friends Keith Rowell. He is a minister in a church in VA and a graduate of Emmanuel College. His heart burns for the things of the Lord and I know that he will help challenge us to stop making God look bad.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-80031828981062167342014-01-21T18:28:00.000-08:002014-01-31T23:23:03.982-08:00Chapter 2.5 A Christian's Christian<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: large;">Okay in the first part of this chapter, if you have not read the first part please do, we covered the name we carry and how important it is that we carry that name properly. We have seen that the name "Christian" has many things tied to it that is expected for us to carry out. What I want to do now is look at just the name "Christian" and how it relates to the church today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I did some research on </span><span style="font-size: large;">the origin of the term "Christian" and found that it came about 40 or so years after the death of Christ. The first time we see this term used is in Acts <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_136757037" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">11:26</span></span>. In this verse we see that in Antioch the followers of Christ first get this name. Acts <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_136757038" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">11:26 </span></span>says </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">met with the church and taught considerable </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans serif;">numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Now, we </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">have</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> heard that this term was meant to have somewhat of a derogatory meaning to make fun of the followers of Christ. I see no where in this context that it meant that but do know in the years to follow that to many people who claimed that name were mocked or even put to death. So, no matter what the original meaning meant it </span><span style="font-size: large;">ultimately was a term to mock the followers of Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> What bothers me the most is that a term that was meant to mock the lives of the followers of Christ is now a term mocked by the lives of the ones who claim to follow him. If you do not get that then let me put it this way. The people who claim to be followers of Christ make the name "Christian", a term to mock the early church, a joke with our lifestyle. Most people know that Christian means: Christ-like or little Christ, but in most places we do a very very poor job of being anything that even </span>resembles<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Christ-<wbr></wbr>likeness. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> So what does a Christian's Christian look like? Now a days it is someone who goes to church, helps out at events, maybe teaches <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_136757039" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">Sunday</span></span> school, maybe an usher, maybe a deacon, maybe a worship team member, or even just someone who just looks the part. Is this really all being a "Christian" is all about? Does the majority of us even care what is expected out of us in the Bible? I have realized that most of the people who claim to be "Christians" do not even have a relationship with Christ. Some people may think that I am being a little harsh here but 73-80% of people in America claim to be "Christian". If that is true then why is there only about 20% of </span><span style="font-size: large;">Americans who attend church? Now, I do know that you do not have to go to church to be a "Christian", something I am about to go into in a second, but lets just say that 20% of people can not go due to some reason or does something else like a home Bible study instead that leaves us at 40% that is a far cry short of 73-80%. Most people know that not everyone who goes to church is not always a Christian so that would bring the number even lower.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> First, I want to say that going to church does not make you a "Christian" but it is encouraged in Hebrews </span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_136757040" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: large; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">10:25</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Simply put if you can go you should, it is good for you. So, what does a true Christian's Christian look like? Well lets look at what we as Christians should be holding up as the standard, THE BIBLE. We are told in James</span></span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_136757041" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-size: large; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1:27</span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of </span><span style="border: 0px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif'; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">our</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';"> God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress,and </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">to keep oneself unstained </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">by the world. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I would be willing to say that most of us have failed by just that one verse alone but lets go on. In 1st John 4:7-8 it says</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">born of God and knows God. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In 1st John 4:20-21</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';">And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, 'sans serif';"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I read these words and I am shaken to my soul because I know that there are many people who call themselves a "Christian" and if you asked them, "name someone who you can not stand", it would not take them longer than a second to give you a response. Is that love? We must not allow this kind of mindset to continue in the body. We must always be the ones trying to bring peace, we are called to be peace makers, that is one of the names of God we carry with us. Lets now look at Romans 1:25-32 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am not going to touch on the homosexual part right now, I plan to devote a few chapters to that matter. I just want you to read that and see if you fit in it anywhere. If you can say yes then again we have some work to do. See, when I read that it breaks my heart because not only are there things that I notice that I can work on but also because there are many things that I see that we allow to go on in our churches with out even batting an eyelash at. These are just three verses that I have brought up. I could go on and on with this but think that you are getting the idea. If you wonder, "well what else?" then I </span>encourage<span style="font-family: inherit;"> you to go and read the Bible and let it show you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Now, lets look at some things that Jesus said about being followers of him should look like. In Matthew <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_136757042" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">16:24</span></span> Jesus tells us,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> "<span style="color: red;">If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.</span>" </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This verse most of us know but most of us fail to follow through with. We sound just like Peter when we tell Christ that we will follow him anywhere but ultimately we deny him with our lifestyles. Christ also set one big standard for us in Luke 14:26-27, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"<span style="color: red;">If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">." </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">If He is love how can He tell me to hate? I do not believe Jesus is telling us to really hate people I more over believe that He is telling us that if we do not love Him first and foremost then we are not really loving Him at all. See, most of us can deal with not loving ourselves more than Christ but it is hard for us to deal with the fact that we may love our families more than Him. As a parent this is a hard thing for me to deal with but if you go back to the story of Abraham you get an idea of what is being said here. God wants you to love Him first and most but that does not mean that you must hate everything else it just means do not allow anything to become an idol before Him, something I think that we do with our families way too much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Okay, I think it is a good time to recap. I do not know if everyone who is reading this is a Christian so before I move on let me say this, if you do not know the saving grace of Christ Jesus I invite you to. Everything I have said may seem overwhelming but I promise you it is not. See the holy spirit will help you grow into the type of person that I have been talking about. If you are a Christian let us recap on all that has been brought up. First, we know that the name we carry comes with some things that we are meant to be. Things like provider, shepherd, peace maker, and righteous. Then there are things we should do like taking care of one another and loving all people. Finally there are things that we should not do like the list in Romans, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Revelations 21:8. Most of all though we must run our race with our eyes on the prize, the prize being the Glory of God, just like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9. As I was saying to someone who may not be saved earlier we can not do all these things by our own strength. We must be willing to let the holy spirit to work in us and through us. That does not take all the responsibility off of you and put it on God but it does show us that we need Him everyday to HELP us become the type of person that carries His name well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> Some people may be wondering why I kept on saying "Christian". Well I did so because over all I do not believe that most people are really Christians. I think this term is thrown around just like the word love is. We have made the cost of both of those words mean so little. I believe to make God look good in this world again we must make the term Christian mean something again. I want to leave you with a story and a prayer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> I was talking to one of my friends the other night. This young man is a part of YWAM (youth with a mission) and he told me that when preparing for one of the mission trips he was going on they told him to not use the term "Christian" when talking to some people. Now you may be thinking that telling someone on a mission trip not to use the term Christian is crazy but there is a reason. See, he was told that in some parts of the world when you say that you are a Christian that people will instantly zone you out. He told me, "</span><span style="font-size: large;">In some Middle Eastern countries, a Christian is known to a Muslim as someone who killed their family member or loved one, or a crazy right winged republican who voted to send troops over to occupy their country.. So when they send us over there we have to use the term "follower of Jesus."" WOW! If this does not hurt your heart then I do not know what will. He ended our conversation with this, "The more difficult obstacle to overcome when presenting the Gospel to unbelievers is not the presence of other religions, belief systems, or world views, but the misrepresentation and misconception of the term "Christian." The church can, at times, be its own worst enemy. This is why I love presenting the Gospel to people who have never heard it. They do not have any pre-conceived notions or a culturally-tinted view when the name of Jesus is spoken and taught. Like the story I shared with you last week of the man who had never heard, and his response to the first time he had ever heard was "That is a beautiful story." The average American hears or sees the Gospel presented 365 times a year and the average South American over 500 times a year (whether through a billboard, car bumper sticker, church sign, television, radio, etc.) But because of its misrepresentation, the story has lost it's meaning and significance." Thanks Tom Broyles I could not have said it better myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I want to end this one with a prayer. God please forgive us for what we have made of Your name. Let us wake up and remember the sacrifice You made so that we could carry that name for all eternity. Please help us become the church that You died for. Help us make Your name great in this world again. We are chosen slaves to Your will in our lives and let us not love anything more than You. Allow us to move in Your will and power again. We desire to show Your love, mercy, and kindness to a dying world. Help us live the lives You created us for. Most of all help us fall in love with You again. AMEN.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-34827161330572407752014-01-12T19:27:00.000-08:002014-01-31T23:19:10.431-08:00Chapter 2: What Is In A Name?<span style="font-size: large;"> I know that I said that I was going to call Chapter 2 "The Work We Have, Can, and Should Do," but the other night God spoke to me about the title of the blog/book overall. As anyone who is reading this knows, the name is Making God Look Bad and I have made many points on the names that God has been called by unbelievers. I thought on this point for a while and God brought to my mind the names He already has. Now I know in western culture, unlike the majority of the rest of the world, that a name has little to no value or meaning, but at one time to take pride in your name meant a lot. Most people, unless they have done their own research, do not know what their name means at all, but at one time your name carried some kind of weight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Let us first think on the time we live in now. We carry a last name that most of us can use to trace back our heritage, but is it important to us and do we do that name justice compared to our forefathers? In other cultures, to disgrace your family (the last name you carry) is one of the highest offenses that someone can do. Some cultures to disgrace your last name may even bring you death, but compared to the western world it is of little consequence. We have lost the value of a name. Most people think that doing something bad only brings shame to them and thinks little to nothing of the resounding effects it has on their family as a whole. Let me ask you if you met someone with the last name Hitler, wouldn't that bring you pause at first?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Okay, so our name means something but big deal right? No. See as followers of Christ we carry more than just our name – we carry the name of our God also. We must realize how great a name is first to understand that we carry the greatest name with us when we call ourselves "Christians." I thought on this for a while and wanted to give a little parable to make it easier to understand.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Long ago there was a man with two sons. When his sons turned eighteen he gave both of them a little golden box which was locked. The first son took great care of this box. He would bring the box out every once and a while to polish it. He kept it wrapped up in a cloth and put away for safe keeping. The first son's house got broken into one day while he was away, and before worrying about anything else, he made sure that the box was not gone. The first son took great pride in the gift he had been given. Now the second son was not so diligent. He was a wild person, enjoying any kind of pleasures he could find. He spent his money on anything that would bring him happiness with no worries about tomorrow. The second son, due to his lifestyle, found himself in need of money and sold the box. As years past the father fell ill and knew his days where coming to an end. So he called his sons to come. When the sons came, the father gave both of them a key. Bewildered the sons asked the father, "What is this key for?" The father answered them, "It is to the box I gave you when you turned eighteen." "See,” the father said, "Inside that box is my will and with it all the wealth I have gained through my life." The first son left overjoyed while the second son left broken with a heavy heart.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> If you did not understand let me explain. We have been given a great gift to carry our Savior’s name with us, and with this gift come many promises. If we take care of this gift, God is more than happy to give these promises to us, but when we misuse his name some of these promises will be withheld from us. Jesus told us in Matt. 18:19 that if two or more are gathered together in HIS NAME he will be there, and again in John 14:13, if we ask anything in HIS NAME it will be given. So why do we not feel him and why do we not see our prayers answered at times? There are many different reasons I believe (not making sure it is His will first is one for sure) but I believe one reason is because we do not carry HIS NAME properly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> So let’s go into some of the names of God that we find in the Bible and look at how we are making them look bad. 1) Jehovah-Jireh (Gen 22:44): As most believers have heard, this means “God the provider.” Now what does that have to do with us? Well I know that we cannot provide like God, but we are told that we meant to be providers to others. In James 2:15-17 we are told that if we see someone in need and do not provide for them that our faith is dead. Also in Matt 25:40-45 we are told if we do to the least of these that we have done it to the Lord. So we carry the name of a provider with us. 2) Jehovah-Shalom (Jdg 6:24): “God is Peace.” Okay this one is a little simpler. We all have heard the sermon on the mound but let us look at one part closer. Matt 5:9 tells us that the peace makers will be called SONS OF GOD. I don't know that I could make that point any clearer. What an honor to be called a son of God, but again, do we do that name justice? 3) Jehovah-Ro'i (Ps23:1): “The Lord is my shepherd.” In Ephesians 4:11, what most people call the five-fold ministry, there is a part where we are called to be pastors. I know that most believers think that this is a title or office held by just the clergy, but in reality if you are helping anyone grow in the faith, which all believers are called to do (Matt 28:16-20), we are being shepherds. This is an important role that I believe most followers of Christ overlook and act like it is not a role that they must be a part of, but if you read the Bible, it is a role that is assumed we all will do. 4) Jehovah-Tsidkenu (Jer 23:6): “The Lord is our righteousness.” We all know that our righteousness is as filthy rags (Romans 3:10) but we are also told that His righteousness was given to us through the one who knows no sin and becomes sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21). We have become His righteousness and we must not shame that name that has been wonderfully given to us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> We as believers must fall in love with our Father again, and remember that because the death of His son we now are carrying His name anywhere we go. We must do our utmost to make sure that the name we carry means something to us. We can no longer act as if our actions have no effect on the name we carry, and cling to it for our very eternal salvation. We must strive to make the name we carry famous and to make sure we take away any reason for someone to mock it. We indeed may have our work cut out for us, but we can and will make it great again in all the nations. Let me end like I have before by asking questions. Do you carry these names with pride (not the sinful type)? Which son are you? How can you do better to make sure you do not bring shame to the family name that you now carry? </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-81421539188275203442014-01-06T20:38:00.000-08:002014-01-31T23:15:05.686-08:00Chapter 1.5: ...Let Me Explain <span style="font-size: large;">So I wanted to take time out before I move on to the next chapter and explain some things. After I posted the first chapter, if you have not read it you should or this might not make sense, I had a few people tell me that I need to go into more detail on some things. I want to say first that I am new at this and plan to put out a chapter a week. Next I want to say that this blog/book is meant to do two things: 1) I want this to call attention to some things that we as believers do that makes the name of God look bad and 2) give some direction to the body as how the Bible tells us we should represent our Lord. With all of that I hope that this stirs some things up in you the reader and also in the body of believers to stand up and be the ambassadors of Christ we are called to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Okay let me go in to some details I have been asked about so that people can see more clearly what I am saying and trying to bring across. So in my first chapter I brought up a few things that I have heard atheist say about God. Now I do not agree with nor do I like the things that have been said but my main reason for this blog/book is not to attack the atheist points at all. I am not on any level to debate the men who have said these things so I will not call them by name or give references to books they have written</span><span style="font-size: large;">, I do not want to help their book sales at all. The things I brought up that I have heard said by these men are just to give you guys an idea of the kinds of things said about our God by the people of the world and again if what you read they have said upset you then good it should as a believer. The things I brought up that are being said should make us realize that we need to step up and be the true representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Finally, as believers, we need to be well read in the word </span><span style="font-size: large;">so that we can contend for the faith with the word and our lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Next I was asked to give more details on some of the things that I said put a black mark on our history as the Church. One thing I mentioned was excommunication</span><span style="font-size: large;">. I brought up Galileo and his discovery that the earth was not the center of the universe. If you know your history then you would know that the church back in those days did not like this idea, even though his discovery could be reproduced like any good scientific </span><span style="font-size: large;">discovery can. At that time the church stood firm that the earth was the center of the universe and used scripture to support that idea</span><span style="font-size: large;">. As we all know this is not true and a misuse of scripture, but non the less he was labeled a heretic. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Another point I made about people being excommunicated was a man being persecuted for trying to translate the Bible into English. This is not as well known a fact as Galileo but it is our history, no matter how bad it is. The guy I am talking about is William Tyndale. William Tyndale lived from 1490-1536, if you are keeping up with dates Tyndale was before Galileo, and he was one of the first people to translate the Bible into English. After asking the church if it was okay to do so they denied his request. He spent some time on the run from the Roman Catholic Church until he was invited to go to England. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">So, the Roman Catholic Church was not the only church involved in the excommunication of Tyndale. In reality the Church of England had him hanged and burned at the stake (overkill if you ask me), but he was not hanged just for the translation issue. Tyndale was also one of the first people that believed that the Bible was the final authority of a believer's life and not the Pope.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> He also held to the position, like Martin Luther, about grace and salvation given to all through Jesus not some thing that the church had a right to control.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> I know that is a lot to swallow but I think it is good for us as believers to know our history. The other things that I mentioned should be common knowledge, i.e. The Crusades and The Civil Rights Movement, but if not please go do some studying. The main point of me looking back on our history is so we do not find ourselves doing the same things but in different venues.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> I do not want this to just be a history lesson so let me touch on some things I plan to write about in coming chapters. We know that we have made mistakes and would love to say, "if I would have been there I would not have done that", but then we sound just like the Jews in the days of Jesus saying that we would not have killed the prophets (Matt 23:30). Let us not say that we would or would not have done something in a time we did not live, let us instead say and do things in this time that we live. We must do our best to be the Church that Christ died for. We must remember our call to holiness and to love one another, if we forget this we are already lost. We need to not just stand up for social justice but for the whole Gospel, even the idea of righteous judgement that we like to shy away from. It is time for us to unite admits our differences and show this world what it is to be a follower of Christ in action and in word. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> I plan to start going into some subjects of what we can do to fix the state the church is in and the things we should stand for or against. I plan to bring to light scriptures that have been spoken to the body through out the ages that we continue to over look or just push away out of dislike. We must be lovers, doers, and preachers of the word of God. The world needs to see examples of Christ-like love in a world that is trying its hardest to skew the idea of love in general. Finally let me ask this, what have you done today, yesterday, or even recently to show the love of Christ to other believers or the lost? How can we do better? Are we living to make our Lord famous?</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06017090290158492387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7641144443835965473.post-6844506820057164482013-12-31T18:46:00.000-08:002014-01-31T23:09:22.981-08:00Chapter 1: We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us <span style="font-size: large;"> This is subject has been something I have spent a lot of time thinking on and believe that as a follower of Christ it is time that I say something. Now I know that there are a lot of people that see the things that I am about to touch on and think to themselves "what do we do now?" I can tell you that this will not be a bashing of Christianity but moreover a pointing out what is wrong and how to fix it biblicaly. With all of that lets jump right in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Our work is cut out for us in more than enough ways. I am a person that enjoys to watch, read, and listen to debates between atheist and Christians. From my time doing this I have heard God called all kinds of names like immature, impotent, childish, and even an ethnic cleanser. If these things offend you as a believer then good they should but let me ask you what are you doing to make his name look good? I know that is not our job to make God look great, he does this all by himself, but we sure can make him look bad by how we live if we are suppose to be the representation of him in this world. In these talks I have heard time and time again that if you want to be an atheist just read the bible. As followers of Christ we would say the exact opposite but let me ask, if you gave someone a bible and told them to read it would your life line up with what you are asking them to read? Now I don't want anyone to think that I am mad at any atheist or have hate in my heart for them at all, if anything I would like to thank them for calling us to the mat and pointing out things that we are failing to do. See when I listen to them I hear them not just making scientific claims why God doesn't exists but also how the followers of this belief are contemptible people who, as one of them put it, should be made fun of. So with all that what is the work for us to do and what are we up against? Lets look at it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Well first lets go back in time and look at the black marks on Christianity. 1) The Roman Catholic, who I am not singling out, went through a bad time when they use to excommunicate people for saying things like "the earth went around the sun" or translating the bible to English or many other things (the list is long). 2) The crusades are in my opinion one of the worst things against us. Even though there may have been political ties to them it is obvious that the church at that time was for it and put its stamp of "God approves of this" on it. 3) Slavery! In America, our chance as believers to get it right on a new land, the church at one time stood up and said "hey there is slavery in the bible so it must be right". Now I know that not every believer did this but come on any believer doing this is just wrong. 4) The civil rights movement. Again I know not every believer stood against the rights of the black community but any of them that did should have looked at Galatians 3:28. Worst is there are still people now a days saying that interracial couples are wrong. These are just some of the things that we as believers are already working against but lets look at what is happening now and see what we can do better.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Now I know we are not facing anything as bad as the list I gave above, to which we need to just come out and say sorry we were wrong, but we do have things to face. Let me start with just in house things like denomination bashing. I like how Ravi Zacharias put it in one of his open forum talks. Ravi said "unity doesn't mean uniformity." We as a body need to stop trying to make other parts of the body just like us but instead embrace them and make sure we are whole. When we do bashing on each other we cause the world to look and think "they talk about love and unity but look at how they treat each other." (I have heard people say what I just typed in my personal life). We need to be more focused on how we can complement each other rather than how to compete against one another, when we work together we show the world that we are truly his followers (Jhn 13:35). Next is the gospel we preach. I want to say with this point, cause it goes along with my earlier one, that it is important to preach the right gospel. I am not talking about difference in the theology that we may hold I am talking about plain out GOSPEL. See if there is anything preached that takes away from who God is or makes him something he is not then we should lovingly call this out and bring it to the light. If the main focus is not on the overwhelming grace of God through the person of Jesus Christ dying on the cross for the sins of the world then it needs to be dealt with. I do know that there is more in life than just that but we should always make sure that that point always is in front of us. Finally plain old living a holy life. We need to make sure that we are not just making God look bad by the way we live. It is imperative that we as followers of Christ do just that FOLLOW CHRIST and not just by words but in actions too. We must stand firm on the word of God and live a life that causes people not to make fun of God but shows that with God in our life we are better people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Look we must stop giving ammo to people to walk away from church and God by how we act. It is sad that today alone I was told by a youth at the church that I attend that he has a friend that doesn't like church cause of the hypocrites, the worst part is the kid who said this his dad is the pastor of the church he is talking about. Again I know that statements like those may be excuses to just go do what they want but let me ask you if we are able to take that excuse away shouldn't we? My final thought for us are these: What would it look like if we as believers lived out the bible holistically? Would there be any of these arguments between denominations? Would so many still reject what we preach? Would we finally see a revival in our nation that we have been praying for? What can you and I do better to make God look good?</span></div>
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