It's been awhile since i have written anything on here. Mainly, just because i was busy with work this past few months. But also because i was working through some stuff in my faith. To be honest, i'm still working through it.
But i just noticed something that made stop and think.
Within the past week, i have the chance to share Christ with a jehovah's wittness, a mormon and a guy who said he felt like he was supposed to be a preacher, yet he didn't go to church.
The jehovah's wittness (jw) was a lady who saw me and my wife's kitchen table on craig's list and came to see it. Just through conversation we found out she was a jw and she found out we were christians. But there was no drawing of swords, no shedding of blood. I told myself i would wait to share the gospel until she came back to buy the table. She didn't.
The mormon i met at a youth group activity. He came with a friend. I found out about his faith because the mormons had been by this skating rink and left some mormon tracks behind. I noticed them and picked them up to give 'em a once over. He just happened to skate up and ask what i was looking at. I told him and he told me that he was a mormon. I was almost stunned and didn't know what to say.
The third person i met at the at&t place in the mall. While my wife was talking to her mother on the phone, i was talking to the guy behind the counter about where i worked and how i went to school to be a pastor. he told me he always felt like he was supposed to be a preacher. I asked him where he went to church and he told me he wasn't going anywhere and hadn't been in awhile. To which i said nothing.
Three different encounters put in place by God Almighty and i missed them.
How could i be so blind?
I was more concerned with selling my table than the first person's soul.
I was more concerned with skating than the second's.
I was more concerned with my phone coverage than the third's.
Oh, God! May you not turn your back on me for being so overwhelmed with my ownself. Please give me a burden for the lost! This is more a prayer than a blog. Please forgive me in not seeing the worth of these people's souls. If it were not for you love and grace, i would be no different than them. Father, i pray that you will lift up my head and show me your ways. "lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you do i wait all the day." Psalm 25:5
To the multitudes that read this (heavy sarcasm) i pray that you will also hold me accountable and hold yourself accountable. Do not pass an opportunity to share Christ.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
He wins...
there are times that feel darker than others.
there are times when it feels that all is lost.
there are times when the victory of the cross and the return of Christ seem so far off, somewhere only on horizon.
I know He wins, so why do i feel defeated? when will i wake up? When will i snap out of it?
God reigns.
he reigns over everything, everyone, everywhere, everytime, and all is under his control.
Oh, God how great is your love for me! There is nothing that can seperate me from that, not death, not life, neither angels or demons, present or future, nor powers or height or depth or anything in creation!
Praise God!
there are times when it feels that all is lost.
there are times when the victory of the cross and the return of Christ seem so far off, somewhere only on horizon.
I know He wins, so why do i feel defeated? when will i wake up? When will i snap out of it?
God reigns.
he reigns over everything, everyone, everywhere, everytime, and all is under his control.
Oh, God how great is your love for me! There is nothing that can seperate me from that, not death, not life, neither angels or demons, present or future, nor powers or height or depth or anything in creation!
Praise God!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Age of Grace
We live in an age of Grace.
Through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Father has taken us from an age of law and sacrifice to an age of grace. Through His sacrifice, we may freely come to Him.
It's so simple.
It clearly says in Romans chapter 10, verses 9 thru 13:
"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
All you have to do is believe that God raised Christ up from the grave and confess with your mouth that He is Lord and you are not.
God's riches at Christ's expense.
No longer must we shed the blood of an innocent lamb, for the Lamb of God has shed his blood for us.
We have hope in that. It is hope.
But, one day God's grace will no longer be freely given. A day of judgement awaits those who mocked and scoffed and blasphemed the goodness of our Lord.
A day comes when those who have rejected the Love of the Father will have sealed their fate.
God is love and so he must therefore be just. God is just so he must therefore follow through with his judgement.
And through this somber message, there is hope...
We presently live in an age of Grace.
I pray you believe in His goodness and accept what He has done for you.
"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."
Psalm 2:12
Through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Father has taken us from an age of law and sacrifice to an age of grace. Through His sacrifice, we may freely come to Him.
It's so simple.
It clearly says in Romans chapter 10, verses 9 thru 13:
"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
All you have to do is believe that God raised Christ up from the grave and confess with your mouth that He is Lord and you are not.
God's riches at Christ's expense.
No longer must we shed the blood of an innocent lamb, for the Lamb of God has shed his blood for us.
We have hope in that. It is hope.
But, one day God's grace will no longer be freely given. A day of judgement awaits those who mocked and scoffed and blasphemed the goodness of our Lord.
A day comes when those who have rejected the Love of the Father will have sealed their fate.
God is love and so he must therefore be just. God is just so he must therefore follow through with his judgement.
And through this somber message, there is hope...
We presently live in an age of Grace.
I pray you believe in His goodness and accept what He has done for you.
"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."
Psalm 2:12
Thursday, April 30, 2009
what the heezy?
You ever have those times in your life where you're not sure where God's leading you?
If you're a christian, you know what i mean.
You get all settled in and then wham, i want you to go here.
Right now, i'm searching His Word, trying to make sure He is calling me and not some idea in my head.
"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"
It's times like these that just want to make you say, "What the heezy?"
But hey, i'd rather be at a crossroads with Jesus than on my own.
There's some hope for ya kid...
If you're a christian, you know what i mean.
You get all settled in and then wham, i want you to go here.
Right now, i'm searching His Word, trying to make sure He is calling me and not some idea in my head.
"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"
It's times like these that just want to make you say, "What the heezy?"
But hey, i'd rather be at a crossroads with Jesus than on my own.
There's some hope for ya kid...
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Happy Atheist's Day!
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good."
Psalm 14:1
Psalm 14:1
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
untitled...
"God's grace cannot be faithfully preached to unbelievers until His Law is preached and man's corrupt nature is exposed. It is impossible for person to fully realize his needs for God's grace until he sees how terribly he has failed the standards of God's Law. It is impossible for him to realize his need for mercy until he realizes the magnitude of his guilt."
John MacArthur
"Jesus paid it all, all to him i owe"
Monday, February 2, 2009
"For the Glory of it All..."
I have recently taken the role of Leader in our youth group's praise band. This is a new role for me and it's one I'm really taking to heart. At first, i wasn't quite sure that i wanted to do it, but the Lord has worked so much on my heart, that it's hard to imagine myself not doing it. He began by laying the book of 1st Timothy on my heart to read this month. And within the first chapter i found these verses:
12And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
13Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Here's Paul, one of the greats of the Christian faith, and he describes himself as the "chief of sinners." He's saying,"Here i am, a wretch and Christ sees me faithful enough to trust in his ministry." I know exactly how he feels. I feel under qualified to lead a music group, but i guess Christ sees it differently. And because of this, i want to see to it that He receives all the glory. Because that's one thing that's really been on my heart lately. Which leads us to the main point of this blog:
Everything is for the glory of God.
I know me personally, i get wrapped up in arguments and apologetics. It burns me up to see some of the things presented today in the "Name of Christ." I could launch into arguments about the emerging church movement, creation vs evolution, evangelism and countless other subjects, but end up just wasting my breath. I hate to see God's truth be clouded over with false notions and vain babblings of men. I love truth.
But when it comes to creation, you wanna know what matters? Not how many days it was done in or what order things came in, but that "The God of the universe" created all things for His glory. We look at the vast expanse of the heavens and wonder why there's only a small speck of life in it. Well, the universe wasn't created to show our relationship to it, but to show how amazing it's Creator is.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Psalm 19:1
The whole point of the creation story isn't really to tell us what happened, but to glorify the Creator. The whole point of Adam being made from dirt wasn't to say how low he was, but to say how great God is. The whole point of the fall is not to explain why people do bad things, but to show the redemptive power of God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Atheist will ask, "Well, if God is so perfect, why did He let sin into the world in the first place?" To which i would reply, "How else would He be able to show His awesome, powerful, redeeming love if there was nothing to redeem? He did it so ALL will know His glory."
It was John Piper who said, "The Christian Gospel is 'The gospel of the glory of Christ' because its final aim is that we would see and savor and show the glory of Christ"(1)
Now, some might disagree and say that the gospel is more of the things we do, such as taking care of the poor or feeding the hungry, which are good things and as Christians we should take part in these, but they are not the main point. The whole point of the gospel is to glorify Christ.
I'll probably get some flak for that last one.
What worship boils down to is to give God His glory. Worship is why we were created.
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
Romans 9:23
So when it comes down to the time to worship, don't just stand there, but rather fall on your knees and lift up the name of Christ, one who is worthy of all glory. Tell your King you love him. Rejoice in the blood that was shed for you and be like Paul, who considered himself "chief of sinners" and give the glory to the One who deserves it.
(1) John Piper's "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ"
12And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;
13Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Here's Paul, one of the greats of the Christian faith, and he describes himself as the "chief of sinners." He's saying,"Here i am, a wretch and Christ sees me faithful enough to trust in his ministry." I know exactly how he feels. I feel under qualified to lead a music group, but i guess Christ sees it differently. And because of this, i want to see to it that He receives all the glory. Because that's one thing that's really been on my heart lately. Which leads us to the main point of this blog:
Everything is for the glory of God.
I know me personally, i get wrapped up in arguments and apologetics. It burns me up to see some of the things presented today in the "Name of Christ." I could launch into arguments about the emerging church movement, creation vs evolution, evangelism and countless other subjects, but end up just wasting my breath. I hate to see God's truth be clouded over with false notions and vain babblings of men. I love truth.
But when it comes to creation, you wanna know what matters? Not how many days it was done in or what order things came in, but that "The God of the universe" created all things for His glory. We look at the vast expanse of the heavens and wonder why there's only a small speck of life in it. Well, the universe wasn't created to show our relationship to it, but to show how amazing it's Creator is.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Psalm 19:1
The whole point of the creation story isn't really to tell us what happened, but to glorify the Creator. The whole point of Adam being made from dirt wasn't to say how low he was, but to say how great God is. The whole point of the fall is not to explain why people do bad things, but to show the redemptive power of God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Atheist will ask, "Well, if God is so perfect, why did He let sin into the world in the first place?" To which i would reply, "How else would He be able to show His awesome, powerful, redeeming love if there was nothing to redeem? He did it so ALL will know His glory."
It was John Piper who said, "The Christian Gospel is 'The gospel of the glory of Christ' because its final aim is that we would see and savor and show the glory of Christ"(1)
Now, some might disagree and say that the gospel is more of the things we do, such as taking care of the poor or feeding the hungry, which are good things and as Christians we should take part in these, but they are not the main point. The whole point of the gospel is to glorify Christ.
I'll probably get some flak for that last one.
What worship boils down to is to give God His glory. Worship is why we were created.
And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
Romans 9:23
So when it comes down to the time to worship, don't just stand there, but rather fall on your knees and lift up the name of Christ, one who is worthy of all glory. Tell your King you love him. Rejoice in the blood that was shed for you and be like Paul, who considered himself "chief of sinners" and give the glory to the One who deserves it.
(1) John Piper's "Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ"
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