This is a topic I have on numerous occasions run into and I generally find it's the atheists and agnostics that have this belief, although I am sure that a lot of other non-Christian faiths have the same beliefs and that is that the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are a contradiction from start to finish. Yet again, something I was guilty of believing as well in my rebellious days....I remember often questioning the reason why some laws in the Old Testament seemed to contradict themselves in the New Testament and that in my eyes discredited the Bible.
However, in recent weeks I have decided to read the Bible from cover to cover; a task or challenge I know a lot of people have not been able to accomplish and those that have, have found it to be a mammoth feat of endurance...
I have to honestly say I am finding it to be very enjoyable, I haven't given myself a time limit as I want to do it in my own time, at my own pace. But I am enjoying the story and thoroughly enjoying reading the Bible from start to finish and have yet to encounter boredom or lethargy in my latest challenge.
When I started reading the Bible I instantly realized that I would be reading it in the flesh and the best way to gain the type of understanding one needs is reading in the spirit. This is how we gain a deeper understanding of the Bible, so before I started I asked the Holy Spirit to guide me and to open my eyes to deeper truths, to a deeper understanding and to guide me and teach me through the pages of the Bible. And this is what I ask each time I open my Bible I ask for the Holy Spirit to guide me and to impart His Wisdom and Knowledge and to give me understanding and as always He is faithful and I can honestly say I have gained a deeper knowledge and when you read the Bible with guidance from the Holy Spirit it becomes an awesome and amazing adventure and an experience that I am thoroughly enjoying.
Anyway...I'm digressing, so back to the topic at hand. As I was saying I have encountered people saying that the Old Testament and New Testament are a contradiction from start to finish and it was something in the past that I questioned as well and never understood, but recently I have gained understanding.
And this is the basis of this particular post....is to impart that knowledge onto you....my readers.
Basically it comes down to this in a nutshell - The Old Testament and the New Testament are representative of humankind living under 2 different covenants. The Old Testament Covenant is known as the Abrahamic Covenant.....The New Testament is a record of Jesus' life and ministry and The New Testament is representative of the New covenant which WE are now living under. 2 different times, 2 different covenants.
Lets explain that first.... (please remember I am explaining under my understanding and more experienced Christians are more than welcome to correct me).
Remember God is Holy, He is beyond Perfection, and because of that He cannot look at us covered in sin, He cannot look at our imperfection. And because of this He had to institute a system or a method for us to atone for our sins and receive forgiveness.
We need to remember that blood is sacred in God's eyes and the shedding of blood is required as atonement for sin.
The Abrahamic Covenant was given to Abraham by God in Genesis 12:1-3 and was repeated by God again to Abraham's son Isaac and again to his grandson Jacob (see Genesis 26:1-5; 28:13-15) therefore these 3 are known as the covenant fathers.
The covenant was basically the offering of a burnt sacrifice or offering to The Lord as atonement for their sin.
Basically God required the shedding of blood as atonement for mankind's sin.
Also as an extra on the difference between The Old Testament and The New Testament....In Exodus 33:18 (NKJV) Moses said to The Lord "Please, show me Your Glory" and The Lord said to him in verse 20 "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live" and He put Moses inside the cleft of a rock as He passed by and Moses got to see His back. That was the way things were in The Old Testament and it is also a testament to God's Glory, Perfection and Holiness, we couldn't come face to face with Him, He could only deal with our imperfection and sin with His back to us. He couldn't face us, or rather we were not worthy to come face to face with Him and live to tell the tale.
Now we get to The New Testament.
Think about by the time Jesus entered the world how bad the world was at that time, how much wickedness had entered into the world, how disgusting (for lack of a better term) was the human race, how horrible were us sinners. God had created hell but it was never meant for us, it was not created for us, that was never the intention and things had gotten so bad that God was about lose His entire creation to hell.
Obviously He had to do something to save us, to redeem us and the covenant of burnt offerings just wasn't sufficient anymore. Although God still required the shedding of blood as atonement for our sin.
And God made the ultimate sacrifice....He gave His Son.
Now, those of you that have children especially boys especially those who only have one boy...I'm going to stop for a moment and let you imagine taking your only son and sacrificing him, allowing him to suffer the bloodiest, most gruesome, horrific, painful death known to mankind in order to save someone. Just imagine that for a moment >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Times up!! Could you do it? I didn't think so.
I couldn't. But that's what God did, He sacrificed His son for u and me and the entire human race. We were created for the purpose of having a relationship with Our Father, He wanted to have a relationship with us, He wanted us to serve Him, to love Him from the beginning. But sin entered the world and it wasn't possible anymore, God had to make a way to make it possible for us to have a relationship with Him. So He did away with the old Abrahamic covenant and made one final sacrifice in the spirit of the old covenant in order to redeem us once and for all. A living sacrifice and the shedding of blood as was required.
There is no more need for burnt sacrifices or for the way things were done in the old testament because Jesus' sacrifice was sufficient to redeem us once and for all.
I think a lot of people don't realize the extent of what Jesus' actually did for us...when Jesus was being crucified, God looked down from Heaven and He didn't see His son being nailed to a cross, what He saw was every single wickedness, sin, mental illness, illness every bad and ugly thing in this world, every murderer, rapist, child molestor, homosexual, abuser, thief, paedophile, adulterer, prostitute...you name it that is what God saw and all fury was let loose. With every nail that was driven in, every gasping breath Jesus took, every cry of pain, every drop of blood God's wrath was satisfied and it had to be done for the purpose of redeeming humankind. Every bad thing whether it be sin, illness, addiction, abuse, anything bad in anybody's life was nailed to The Cross that day and it matters no more.
Just as an interesting thing to consider. The Bible says that "by His stripes we are healed", in Roman law a prisoner was only allowed to receive 40 lashes, if the guards inflicted more than that they would receive lashes themselves. And when Jesus was being whipped they stopped at 39 to prevent going over and them being punished. He only received 39 lashes, study a few medical journals today or speak to a medical doctor or professor or just do some research and you'll find that today....all the illnesses and afflictions known to man today fit into 39 categories....something to think about.
The new covenant made by Jesus' sacrifice means we are redeemed and we are saved by Grace, Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, NOBODY comes to The Father except through Me"....He is now our way, He is our intercessor before God, He is our mediator, we are now free to have a relationship with The Father through Jesus. Because as I said before, God looks at us now through blood stained eyes, the blood of the lamb, the blood of His Son and when He looks at us now, He sees us as perfect and whole and He looks at us with nothing but unconditional love. Nothing we can do can make Him love us more and nothing we've done can make Him close the door.
Before I finish off another difference between The Old and New Testament. In The Old Testament God gave us the Ten Commandments the Ten Commandents was law, what does the law do? the law condemns. Moses went up onto Mount Sinai for an extended period and spent time in The Lord's presence, when he eventually came down he had to wear a veil over his face, why? because his face was shining so brightly, nobody could look at him, but heres the kicker, the people saw how Moses' face was shining and they ran in terror. Why do you think that is? because he represented The Law and he was bringing to them The Law and......all together now....say it with me....The Law Condemns. And in those days, God could only give us His back as He did with Moses.
I read somewhere recently - I think it was in one of Joyce Meyer's books, that by the time Jesus arrived the scribes and the pharisees had taken the Ten Commandments and turned it into 2000 laws that the people had to live by, how can anybody possibly live like that? That's bondage!
Jesus arrived and in the Bible it talks about the first time God introduced His son, He went up onto a mountain (please forgive me I can never remember the name of the mountain, I apologize for this, I will however look it up and make sure I don't forget - ever), Jesus shone up on the mountain brighter than daylight and Moses and I think Abraham appeared on either side of Him and God's voice said from Heaven "This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him" Not "listen to Moses" or "listen to Abraham" no, "listen to My Son". Jesus came down from the mountain as I said shining brighter than daylight and the people ran to Him and wanted to be near Him. Why? because he represented the Redemption, the Grace and the Love that He was bringing us....not The Law that condemns. And He was here to show us a way that we are able and can have a loving relationship with Our Father. And now today the new covenant means that we can come boldly before The Throne and God can deal with us face to face and love us unconditionally as He has always wanted to because we have been redeemed and made new and washed with the Blood of Jesus.
That is the difference, no contradiction, just plain Our Lord having a made a way for us.
God Bless :)
xxxx
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
What Makes You A Christian
I'm sure you've noticed that I don't blog very often...the reason for that is because as the Bible instructs I don't believe in idle chatter that has no purpose. I only add a blog post when a subject comes up that I feel is blog worthy.
Also you will find that I don't mention third party's names purely because I don't feel right in doing this, unless I feel it is necessary and then I will only mention that person's relation to me.
Having said this there is a person in my life who I have recently been ministering to and trusting the Lord to them to Him as He did with me.
Recently this person came to a very profound thought which they mentioned to me and the thought was simply this - What Makes You a Christian?
This made me think of the time when I was 16/17 years old working with KAM (Kingdom Advancement Ministries) and the question we always used to ask people who we worked with for salvation counselling was "If you died right now, are you sure of where you are going?" some people were not sure, other's firmly believed they were going to Heaven without a doubt their theory being that they were good people, they read their Bible, they went to church every Sunday, and they were good people and believed that all this made them a Christian worthy of going to Heaven. And this happened to be the same thing that this person in my life said to me only that they believed even in doing these things there still is no guarantee.
So I've decided to address each of these 3 key issues and break it down into more understandable and digestible sections.
1. Does reading your Bible make you a Christian? No. Anybody can read a Bible, unless you can't read. in fact and this will shock you beyond belief - even demons know the Word of God, in fact better than most people do. It can be very disconcerting when in a deliverance session you make a mistake when it comes to scripture and the demon corrects you, not to mention a tad embarrassing.
Anybody can read a Bible....the trick is in the understanding of the Bible and I don't mean in the language like you would say you understand English. No, I mean understanding and vision only The Holy Spirit can give you. You say you're a Christian because you read your Bible but do you have a deeper understanding of what you are reading? do you understand what God is saying to you? do you hear Him speaking to you through the scriptures? do you find yourself learning lessons and life applications through what you read? do you receive revelation and vision through what you read? or are you just reading a "story book" as some believe the Bible to be.
2. Does going to Church make you a Christian? No. Anybody can go to church every Sunday, all are welcome. In fact even a satanist is capable of going to church believe it or not....I was told this story over 2 years ago so I don't remember the exact details. However, in a short sentence there was a case of a high priestess of a satanic cult who pastor ed a Christian church for a number of years before she was caught. No, she didn't teach Christian doctrine, her purpose was to warp as many minds as possible.
So, as I said, anybody can go to church. You can sit in that seat in church until your bumb cheeks turn purple and fall off, it will not make you a Christian.
3. Does being a good person make you a Christian? No. A good person by who's standards? your's? or God's? and if you measure it by God's standards would you be found guilty or innocent? and if guilty, of how many sins? I'll give you a moment to think about this one, jut take a minute and measure yourself by God's standards - I'll give you a moment >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tick Tock, Tick Tock >>>>>>>>>>>> Times up. I think you would agree that measured by God's standard's we are not good people and although we believe we are good people that deserve to go to Heaven, let me remind you that we deserve nothing......ask yourself this question...... if your supposed goodness had to be measured by God's standards and He had to give us our just deserts.....what would we get? Again, measured by God's standards, what exactly do we deserve?
So in conclusion, no, none of these things makes you a Christian. But I'll tell you what does, coming before God as a sinner, repenting of your sins and your past and asking Him to take over your life and giving Jesus complete control of every single part of you and your life, that is what makes you a true Christian. A true Christian knows Jesus intimately and personally, a true Christian walks in a constant relationship and even conversation with Jesus, a true Christian's most valuable relationship in life is with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and it is a relationship that he spends time nurturing and building and growing and spends time getting closer to Jesus and getting to know Him better.
Complete surrender to Jesus that is what makes you a Christian and guarantees your path into Heaven. Having the Holy Spirit as your comforter, teacher and guide only comes when you surrender and completely give yourself to Jesus.
Remember what we deserve as sinners is a fiery death of torture and torment in hell for all eternity, but because of Jesus' sacrifice we are saved by Grace and because of Jesus' sacrifice once you surrender completely to Him, God looks at you through blood stained eyes (The Blood of the Lamb), and He sees you as perfect and whole and as He meant you to be, His beautiful creation, created in His image.
I can tell you from experience that there is no better or more loving relationship than the one we are invited to have with Jesus. I have never experienced more peace and tranquility in His presence and knowing that He is mine and I am His. Sometimes I lose all track of time when I spend time with Him in His presence....but do you think I care.....that's my happy place :P
As a quick thought I decided to add this link, it's a song by Jesus Culture that has recently really grabbed me and is a song that of the type I have never heard before. It is basically God singing to you.........or to mankind, but I prefer to personalize this song when I listen to it :)
Enjoy
Jesus Culture - Come Away
Also you will find that I don't mention third party's names purely because I don't feel right in doing this, unless I feel it is necessary and then I will only mention that person's relation to me.
Having said this there is a person in my life who I have recently been ministering to and trusting the Lord to them to Him as He did with me.
Recently this person came to a very profound thought which they mentioned to me and the thought was simply this - What Makes You a Christian?
This made me think of the time when I was 16/17 years old working with KAM (Kingdom Advancement Ministries) and the question we always used to ask people who we worked with for salvation counselling was "If you died right now, are you sure of where you are going?" some people were not sure, other's firmly believed they were going to Heaven without a doubt their theory being that they were good people, they read their Bible, they went to church every Sunday, and they were good people and believed that all this made them a Christian worthy of going to Heaven. And this happened to be the same thing that this person in my life said to me only that they believed even in doing these things there still is no guarantee.
So I've decided to address each of these 3 key issues and break it down into more understandable and digestible sections.
1. Does reading your Bible make you a Christian? No. Anybody can read a Bible, unless you can't read. in fact and this will shock you beyond belief - even demons know the Word of God, in fact better than most people do. It can be very disconcerting when in a deliverance session you make a mistake when it comes to scripture and the demon corrects you, not to mention a tad embarrassing.
Anybody can read a Bible....the trick is in the understanding of the Bible and I don't mean in the language like you would say you understand English. No, I mean understanding and vision only The Holy Spirit can give you. You say you're a Christian because you read your Bible but do you have a deeper understanding of what you are reading? do you understand what God is saying to you? do you hear Him speaking to you through the scriptures? do you find yourself learning lessons and life applications through what you read? do you receive revelation and vision through what you read? or are you just reading a "story book" as some believe the Bible to be.
2. Does going to Church make you a Christian? No. Anybody can go to church every Sunday, all are welcome. In fact even a satanist is capable of going to church believe it or not....I was told this story over 2 years ago so I don't remember the exact details. However, in a short sentence there was a case of a high priestess of a satanic cult who pastor ed a Christian church for a number of years before she was caught. No, she didn't teach Christian doctrine, her purpose was to warp as many minds as possible.
So, as I said, anybody can go to church. You can sit in that seat in church until your bumb cheeks turn purple and fall off, it will not make you a Christian.
3. Does being a good person make you a Christian? No. A good person by who's standards? your's? or God's? and if you measure it by God's standards would you be found guilty or innocent? and if guilty, of how many sins? I'll give you a moment to think about this one, jut take a minute and measure yourself by God's standards - I'll give you a moment >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tick Tock, Tick Tock >>>>>>>>>>>> Times up. I think you would agree that measured by God's standard's we are not good people and although we believe we are good people that deserve to go to Heaven, let me remind you that we deserve nothing......ask yourself this question...... if your supposed goodness had to be measured by God's standards and He had to give us our just deserts.....what would we get? Again, measured by God's standards, what exactly do we deserve?
So in conclusion, no, none of these things makes you a Christian. But I'll tell you what does, coming before God as a sinner, repenting of your sins and your past and asking Him to take over your life and giving Jesus complete control of every single part of you and your life, that is what makes you a true Christian. A true Christian knows Jesus intimately and personally, a true Christian walks in a constant relationship and even conversation with Jesus, a true Christian's most valuable relationship in life is with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and it is a relationship that he spends time nurturing and building and growing and spends time getting closer to Jesus and getting to know Him better.
Complete surrender to Jesus that is what makes you a Christian and guarantees your path into Heaven. Having the Holy Spirit as your comforter, teacher and guide only comes when you surrender and completely give yourself to Jesus.
Remember what we deserve as sinners is a fiery death of torture and torment in hell for all eternity, but because of Jesus' sacrifice we are saved by Grace and because of Jesus' sacrifice once you surrender completely to Him, God looks at you through blood stained eyes (The Blood of the Lamb), and He sees you as perfect and whole and as He meant you to be, His beautiful creation, created in His image.
I can tell you from experience that there is no better or more loving relationship than the one we are invited to have with Jesus. I have never experienced more peace and tranquility in His presence and knowing that He is mine and I am His. Sometimes I lose all track of time when I spend time with Him in His presence....but do you think I care.....that's my happy place :P
As a quick thought I decided to add this link, it's a song by Jesus Culture that has recently really grabbed me and is a song that of the type I have never heard before. It is basically God singing to you.........or to mankind, but I prefer to personalize this song when I listen to it :)
Enjoy
Jesus Culture - Come Away
Monday, September 17, 2012
A Letter to God
Dear God:
this is my friend, whom I love and this is my prayer for her
Help her live her life
to the fullest.
Please promote her
and cause her to excel
above her expectations.
Help her to shine
in the darkest places
where it is impossible
to love.
Protect her at all times,
lift her up when she needs
you the most,
and
let her know when
she walks with you,
She will always
be safe.
this is my friend, whom I love and this is my prayer for her
Help her live her life
to the fullest.
Please promote her
and cause her to excel
above her expectations.
Help her to shine
in the darkest places
where it is impossible
to love.
Protect her at all times,
lift her up when she needs
you the most,
and
let her know when
she walks with you,
She will always
be safe.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
When Bad Things Happen to Good People - Part 2
Now for the theological teaching and let me just say for those Christians out their who are going to read this, please I am not an experienced teacher and I do not have a degree in theology, so if I happen to get anything wrong here, please feel absolutely free to correct me.
I'm sure we all remember the story of Job?? Job was a man who had everything, God blessed him abundantly because he had found favor in God's eyes and he was faithful to God and loyal. As we all know satan was cast out of Heaven before the earth began, what some don't know is that satan could move between earth, the atmosphere and enter into Heaven, this was the case until the crucifixion, now satan is limited to the earth and the atmosphere. Anyway....before I digress, during the time of Job, satan came before the Throne in Heaven and began to make accusations against Job (satan is the Hebrew word for accuser - for those of you who don't know). And he accused Job of not being loyal to God, saying that if things had to go wrong in his life he would turn on God, he would blame God and to make a long story short God gave satan the go ahead to make an attempt at proving his stupid theory.
And it wasn't God who tore Job's life apart, it was satan. If you go into the Bible and read the story by the time satan was done with Job there was practically nothing left of the man's life, satan took and destroyed everything, he even lost a child or 2 in the process.
Here's the interesting part, Job never turned from God. In fact his faith remained as unshakable as always, through all the turmoil, the pain, the suffering, the loss, he trusted God implicitly and on top of that continued to praise Him and worship Him inspite of everything. And ultimately made a completely ass out of an inferior creature who in my opinion is nothing more than a dumb animal - I think a donkey has more intelligence.
My point is this, it's easy for us to praise God, to worship Him, to be utterly in love with Him when our lives are good and when things are going well and we're happy. But let something go wrong.....then you suddenly find that praising Him and worshiping Him.......not so easy anymore, is it?? And I always say that it is in those times when we should be praising Him through our suffering that we separate the men from the boys or the girls from the women.
I could go into an entire discussion or explanation as to why satan messes (or attempts to mess) in our lives, why God allows it etc etc. but then this would become a book, no longer a blog. I will say this however, God is ALWAYS in control of satan and his actions and his every move and satan does not so much as sniff skew without God knowing about it. And satan only does things in our lives that God allows him to do and there is ALWAYS a legitimate reason, he does nothing without God's knowledge and that God does not allow. And in addition if God allows satan to do something he can only go as far as God allows him to. God has the idiot on a leash.
Jesus never said He would give us a bed of roses, but He did say that He would take our hand and walk with us through the fire.
Let it me leave you with this thought to ponder - Iron is forged in fire, what does fire do? it burns....what does it feel like when something burns? it is unbelievable pain........but what happens to iron the more the fire forges it? it becomes stronger, harder, tougher, more durable, more resistant.
Just something to think about.
God Bless :P
I'm sure we all remember the story of Job?? Job was a man who had everything, God blessed him abundantly because he had found favor in God's eyes and he was faithful to God and loyal. As we all know satan was cast out of Heaven before the earth began, what some don't know is that satan could move between earth, the atmosphere and enter into Heaven, this was the case until the crucifixion, now satan is limited to the earth and the atmosphere. Anyway....before I digress, during the time of Job, satan came before the Throne in Heaven and began to make accusations against Job (satan is the Hebrew word for accuser - for those of you who don't know). And he accused Job of not being loyal to God, saying that if things had to go wrong in his life he would turn on God, he would blame God and to make a long story short God gave satan the go ahead to make an attempt at proving his stupid theory.
And it wasn't God who tore Job's life apart, it was satan. If you go into the Bible and read the story by the time satan was done with Job there was practically nothing left of the man's life, satan took and destroyed everything, he even lost a child or 2 in the process.
Here's the interesting part, Job never turned from God. In fact his faith remained as unshakable as always, through all the turmoil, the pain, the suffering, the loss, he trusted God implicitly and on top of that continued to praise Him and worship Him inspite of everything. And ultimately made a completely ass out of an inferior creature who in my opinion is nothing more than a dumb animal - I think a donkey has more intelligence.
My point is this, it's easy for us to praise God, to worship Him, to be utterly in love with Him when our lives are good and when things are going well and we're happy. But let something go wrong.....then you suddenly find that praising Him and worshiping Him.......not so easy anymore, is it?? And I always say that it is in those times when we should be praising Him through our suffering that we separate the men from the boys or the girls from the women.
I could go into an entire discussion or explanation as to why satan messes (or attempts to mess) in our lives, why God allows it etc etc. but then this would become a book, no longer a blog. I will say this however, God is ALWAYS in control of satan and his actions and his every move and satan does not so much as sniff skew without God knowing about it. And satan only does things in our lives that God allows him to do and there is ALWAYS a legitimate reason, he does nothing without God's knowledge and that God does not allow. And in addition if God allows satan to do something he can only go as far as God allows him to. God has the idiot on a leash.
Jesus never said He would give us a bed of roses, but He did say that He would take our hand and walk with us through the fire.
Let it me leave you with this thought to ponder - Iron is forged in fire, what does fire do? it burns....what does it feel like when something burns? it is unbelievable pain........but what happens to iron the more the fire forges it? it becomes stronger, harder, tougher, more durable, more resistant.
Just something to think about.
God Bless :P
When Bad Things Happen to Good People - Part 1
This is a subject that I have found over recent years keeps popping up and yesterday I came across the subject yet again.
I have separated this blog post into 2 sections, one is my story and the way I view the subject from a life perspective, the second is a theological teaching on the subject which I tend to think of as kind of an epiphany that I had recently.
The subject is simply this....things go bad in our lives and our first reaction is to decide what?? You guessed it, there is no God.....or that there is a God but we want nothing to do with Him.
Now please don't take me wrong, I have no intention of playing high and mighty or trying to come off as morally superior to anyone.....Lord knows I'm guilty of that exact same attitude. In 2001 I gave birth to a little boy 2 1/2 months premature, I was approximately a week into my 7th month when he due to a pregnancy related illness he had to be delivered by emergency c-section. He passed away 5 weeks later from a massive cerebral hemorrhage caused by septicemia. Not only that, the date of his death was 14 October 2001, 2 days before my 21st birthday, Wow!!! Happy birthday Staci!!.
Naturally, I did what everybody does I wanted answers, I wanted to know why, I wanted to know what I had done in my life to deserve this and I believed that I was entitled to an explanation. Which as you would guess wasn't coming.
Naturally, I got angry and the anger started to burn and fester and I eventually decided in my pain and grief that God had no right to take my child, he had no right to take what belonged to me. And I made a decision in that moment that I knew He was there, I knew very well that He existed but I wanted nothing to do with Him since he refused to give me the explanation I felt entitled to. And I spent the next 14 years doing everything in my power and going out of my way to offend Him, because....and yes I will say it, I hated Him.
This coming from somebody who was a Born-Again Christian for 2 years from the age of 16 - 18.
2 years later at the age of 23 I believe today my answer came through my father. We were in the car driving somewhere and the subject came up, he reminded me that God can see further ahead than we can and He could see what was coming in my life. He could see the utter collapse of my marriage and what my husband did to me (that's a subject for another time), he could see the possible pain and suffering Keegan would have had to go through in being a premature baby and the possible complications of that and the fact that if Keegan had lived I would've at that stage been a single mother to a child who would need constant and more attention than normal. So in a lot of ways my dad believed that God did what He felt was best for both me and my child. He spared Keegan anymore pain that was possibly coming and he spared me the stress and anxiety of being a single mom to a child like him. I remember saying to my father that I didn't care what Keegan was like I just wanted my child and he reminded me that God knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows better than we do what we can and can't handle and we just have to trust His judgement. It took me a few years to realize that I had received my answer that night....at least I believe I did....I also believe that I had been given a second chance to start over - I would've preferred to have been given that second chance WITH my child, but I didn't get to choose.
I've come to the belief that...we have questions to the things that happen in our lives and often times when things go bad and even horribly wrong as human nature would have it we want to know why. But I've come to the belief that sometimes in that moment we won't be able to handle knowing why and I believe that we will get our answer....when we can handle it and have reached a place where we are ready to hear it, not before. And for those of us who never find an answer during our time on earth as to why, we will get an answer one way or another even if it comes after we leave this earth.
For those of us who are believers we will enter into paradise with our Lord Jesus and all of our questions will be answered, for those of us who are not believers.....Well........We love you just the same :)
God Bless :P
I have separated this blog post into 2 sections, one is my story and the way I view the subject from a life perspective, the second is a theological teaching on the subject which I tend to think of as kind of an epiphany that I had recently.
The subject is simply this....things go bad in our lives and our first reaction is to decide what?? You guessed it, there is no God.....or that there is a God but we want nothing to do with Him.
Now please don't take me wrong, I have no intention of playing high and mighty or trying to come off as morally superior to anyone.....Lord knows I'm guilty of that exact same attitude. In 2001 I gave birth to a little boy 2 1/2 months premature, I was approximately a week into my 7th month when he due to a pregnancy related illness he had to be delivered by emergency c-section. He passed away 5 weeks later from a massive cerebral hemorrhage caused by septicemia. Not only that, the date of his death was 14 October 2001, 2 days before my 21st birthday, Wow!!! Happy birthday Staci!!.
Naturally, I did what everybody does I wanted answers, I wanted to know why, I wanted to know what I had done in my life to deserve this and I believed that I was entitled to an explanation. Which as you would guess wasn't coming.
Naturally, I got angry and the anger started to burn and fester and I eventually decided in my pain and grief that God had no right to take my child, he had no right to take what belonged to me. And I made a decision in that moment that I knew He was there, I knew very well that He existed but I wanted nothing to do with Him since he refused to give me the explanation I felt entitled to. And I spent the next 14 years doing everything in my power and going out of my way to offend Him, because....and yes I will say it, I hated Him.
This coming from somebody who was a Born-Again Christian for 2 years from the age of 16 - 18.
2 years later at the age of 23 I believe today my answer came through my father. We were in the car driving somewhere and the subject came up, he reminded me that God can see further ahead than we can and He could see what was coming in my life. He could see the utter collapse of my marriage and what my husband did to me (that's a subject for another time), he could see the possible pain and suffering Keegan would have had to go through in being a premature baby and the possible complications of that and the fact that if Keegan had lived I would've at that stage been a single mother to a child who would need constant and more attention than normal. So in a lot of ways my dad believed that God did what He felt was best for both me and my child. He spared Keegan anymore pain that was possibly coming and he spared me the stress and anxiety of being a single mom to a child like him. I remember saying to my father that I didn't care what Keegan was like I just wanted my child and he reminded me that God knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows better than we do what we can and can't handle and we just have to trust His judgement. It took me a few years to realize that I had received my answer that night....at least I believe I did....I also believe that I had been given a second chance to start over - I would've preferred to have been given that second chance WITH my child, but I didn't get to choose.
I've come to the belief that...we have questions to the things that happen in our lives and often times when things go bad and even horribly wrong as human nature would have it we want to know why. But I've come to the belief that sometimes in that moment we won't be able to handle knowing why and I believe that we will get our answer....when we can handle it and have reached a place where we are ready to hear it, not before. And for those of us who never find an answer during our time on earth as to why, we will get an answer one way or another even if it comes after we leave this earth.
For those of us who are believers we will enter into paradise with our Lord Jesus and all of our questions will be answered, for those of us who are not believers.....Well........We love you just the same :)
God Bless :P
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