God’s Pride

James had just met Russ while at a ballgame and hit it off right away.  They talked about the game going on and the players.  When they sat just watching the game for a couple of minutes and didn’t talk, James turned to Russ saying, “Hey, the opposing pitcher reminds me a little bit of Ashton Kutcher.  Did you know he is from Iowa?  He lived just down the block from me.  We went to school together in Clear Creek Amana and were best friends.”

Would you say that James is proud to know Ashton Kutcher? Of course he is and whenever he gets the chance he wants everyone to know that he and Ashton are friends.  He can always find a way to slip into the conversation the person he is the most proud to know.  Now let’s take a look at another conversation by someone who knows me.

Jesus was sitting on his throne beside God the Father while looking over the earth and all the people on it.  God turns to Jesus and smiles.  “Son, did you see that nova I just created in the Orion constellation?”

Jesus looks to the father and nods.  “It was beautiful and so bright.”

Then with a smile he adds, “Speaking of bright and beautiful, did you see David today?  He was teaching a Bible Study and asked for our help to make my truth known to the class.  I want to open up the hearts of those in the class more than usual in answer to his prayer.  He is wonderful and I love him so much.”

While Jesus is up in heaven Romans 8:34 says he is interceding for us.  He is constantly bringing to God our names and requests.  He is so proud of you that he is always slipping your name into the conversation.  He loves you and is never afraid to be associated with you.

How proud of Jesus are you?

Photo Credit: Christ as Judge 2 by Waiting for the Word

How to Write a Christian Blog

You can find a lot of sites telling you how to write a blog.  If you need to know how to write a simple blog then I suggest you just Google it, but if you want to know how to write a Christian blog then read on.  I think you will find a few pointers that too many Christians miss.

1. This blog is not yours but Gods.  If you want to glorify yourself and show off your great writing skills that’s fine but it is a blog written by a Christian and not a Christian blog.  Don’t just dedicate your blog to the Lord but give it to Him and let Him have control of it.
2. Let God speak.  It is so easy to find things we want to write about in a blog.  If this was your blog that would be fine, but it is not yours.  You are merely the vessel God is using to speak.  Prayerfully ask God what He has for you to write.  Read His word. Quietly listen for that still small voice to speak to you.  God will show you what is on His heart for you to write. Wait for Him.
3. Rightly divide the Word of God.  It is very easy to find a verse that will say what you want it to say.  All you have to do is ignore what it really says.  Even if the subject your talking about is Godly, that does not mean you can take a verse out of context to prove what your saying.  Today in my time with the lord I had an insight into a verse that I had never had before.  I was going to blog to everyone what God had shown me.  The first thing I did was study closely what that verse said and I found that I was not only wrong in what I  thought that verse said but the theology I had taken from it was totally wrong as well.  If you accidentally do blog something that is not scriptural then humbly admit it and correct or delete the blog post entirely.
4. Pray. Pray about your blog even before you set up your blog.  Be in His presence constantly as you set it up, before every post, when writing your post, and when posting it on your blog site.  This is God’s blog and you can not do this job without Him.  It is in His presence that you will find the answers to everything you need for the blog.
5. Forget the numbers.  One thing I find myself falling into is seeing how many people are reading my blog.  I take pride in how many there are.  Its fun to see the numbers going up.  When you start your blog, pray that God will bring the people He desires to read what you post.  If you have 2 people read your post, those 2 people are the ones God has brought to read and learn from what He has said through you.  Forget the numbers.  They are not important.  What is important is that you follow God’s leading in what you write and then rest in faith that He is in control of how He uses what is written.
6. You will make mistakes.  You probably already figured out that your not perfect.  Remember that as you work your blog.  What you write is not Scripture.  If someone criticizes something you posted, humbly consider it and see if what they say is true.  They could be God’s way of saying your post is not what He wanted to say.
7. Love. You are God's tool and His steward.  That means it is your blog to work but only as His representative. Anything you say must be out of His love.  If someone gets nasty with you about anything in the blog, you are to love them as Jesus would.  God is love and everyone must see that in the blog where you are God’s representative.

If you follow these 7 points you will be a blessing to our Lord Jesus, to those who read your blog post, and to all those in your life.  The greatest blessing of writing a Christian Blog is the fellowship you have with our Savior and Editor, Jesus Christ.

If you would like to get your feet wet and join others in posting in a blog check out Subversive Truth. If you agree with their Doctrinal statement they will be happy to talk to you about posting on their blog site.

Photo Credit: Year C: Second Sunday of Lent by Stephen Cuyos

What are Our Schools Missing?

My niece posted the above statement on Facebook.  This is the world we live in today.  This is the reality that our children see everyday.  Why is the world our children live in this way?  When did it all start to come apart?

1962 and 1963 Supreme Court ruled State sponsored prayer and Bible reading is prohibited in school.  1992 they ruled public prayer at school functions as unconstitutional.  God has been kicked out of schools.  The very foundation for Judeo Christian ethics has been erased from our schools.

If our children do not have any foundations for what is morally right, why would we expect them to live a moral life?  With no moral guidance in the schools ,where they live most of the day, is it no wonder that they have no hope in their lives for a bright future?  They see only the emptiness of a world gone wrong.

Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus saying “It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.” Ephesians 2:1-6 (The Message)

There is still hope but it will not be found in any political or school programs.  The solution is not in rules and laws but in Jesus Christ and the Word of God. God has the answers to how we should live.

Knowing True Hope From False Hope

Last night I was watching an episode of NCIS where there was a scene of a Navy destroyer at sea during a big storm.  It started with two men being tossed around in a cabin as if they were on the Bridge of Star Trek’s Enterprise during a Romulan attack.  They then stumbled outside to the bow section of the ship where a body was laying on the main deck.  Water was splashing over the bow and rain was blowing around the men as they went to check on the body.

My wife was laughing at me during  this because I was pointing out how fake this all was.  I had served in the Navy on a Navy destroyer. I knew that this scene was fake because I had lived for years on a destroyer.  I had experienced real storms.

Sailors are not tossed around like that during a storm.  We live on that ship and we know how to handle the ship’s rolling and pitching.  The men were on the bow of the ship being tossed from side to side, but the bow should also be plunging into huge waves, pitching forward and back.  The water should not have been splashing over the bow; it should have been pouring over the bow in huge waves, moving that dead body around, if not sweeping it off the deck entirely.  The men would not have been able to talk outside in a storm as big as they wanted us to believe it was,  they would have had to scream at each other to be heard.

Ok, I know.  It was only a TV show.  Nothing to get upset about.  They couldn’t really put the destroyer into a real storm and film the scene.  That would be ridiculous to expect.  Yet, I had to this feeling of being short changed simply because I knew the real thing from experience.  If I had never been on a ship I would have thought the scene was accurate and happily accepted it as what was depicted.

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:24

People in the world today are placing their hope for eternal life in false Christs and false prophets.  Muhammad is a false prophet.  People are afraid to say that for fear of offending someone, but it is the truth.  Bahá'u'lláh, Buddha, Joseph Smith, and any other spiritual leader, besides Jesus, are false prophets or false Christ.  Putting your hope in them will only lead to destruction and eternal death.

During these last days there will be other false Christ and prophets coming.  Eventually the Anti-Christ will appear and many will be deceived.  There is only one way to know that they are fake.  You must experience the true Christ who is Jesus.  I do not mean just accept Jesus as your savior and you will be fine.  I mean you must experience him everyday in your life.  You must live with him like I lived on that destroyer. 

I ate, slept, worked and played on that ship.  I was on board in port and out at sea.  I rode it in calm weather and in the biggest storms.  I knew it inside and out.  You must know Jesus the same way.  You must experience Jesus 24/7 in all kinds of environments.  Then you will know the true from the false.

True hope is known only when you experience the true Christ in your life.   

Photo is of my first ship, USS Lloyd Thomas DD 764.

Following the Crazy, Foolish Jesus

I wonder if people called Jesus names like “Crazy Christ” or “Madman Messiah”  He did and said things that made no sense at all.  His friends thought he was crazy and wanted to carry him away in Mark 3:21. In the next verse (Mark 3:22) it tells how the Scribes believed him to be possessed by demons. 

Jesus said things like "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” in Mathew 5: 43,44. Everyone knows an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Get revenge against your enemy.  You don’t do good for those who hate you.

And one time he told a man named Nicodemus that he had to be “born again” in John 3:3. Another time, in John 6: 53  he tells his disciples that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.  Doesn’t that sound like a madman to you? 

Many of his disciples couldn’t handle some of the crazy stuff he said and they left him. So why should we follow this madman who ended up tortured and executed?  Even many of those who followed him ended up killed by the government or the people of the lands.  It is outright foolishness to follow this man.

“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:25

From a human point of view God’s wisdom is foolish.  It does not subscribe to our normal human wisdom.  The bible seems so contrary to what seems sensible, because God’s wisdom is so much wiser then ours.  Jesus was God’s own fool, but that foolishness was far supreme to our greatest wisdom.

We want to look wise in the sight of man.  When people point at us and laugh at our belief in Jesus we feel rejection.  Hollywood is full of man’s wisdom and it brings heartache and pain in people’s lives.  The Government does its best to manage our country with human wisdom and we are going bankrupt. Schools teach safe sex and children are giving birth to babies. 

Sometimes we simply have to take God at his word.  We do not have the wisdom to understand everything God says, but know this; When God speaks He speaks wisdom and truth.  Never doubt God and you will be seen as the wisest of all men in Heaven, and the most foolish in all the world.

Photo Credit: INSANITY copy by Jeanette Goodrich

Don’t Base Your Faith on Experiencing God.

Sometimes I like to think back when God showed Himself to me in some way.  Those experiences help to boost  my faith in Him.  I can say, “See, God is real!  He worked in my life and showed His power to me.”  I hope you don’t do this.  I have come to realize that basing my faith on my experiences is a very poor foundation for faith.

Johnny Christian enjoyed going to church.  He would raise his hands as he sang praises to God.  When the preacher was giving his sermon, Johnny would give out a loud, “AMEN!” or “Yes Lord. That’s true.” Johnny could feel the lord’s presence and it excited him.  He was one of the most outspoken men in the Church.

One day Johnny Christian lost a loved one.  He became depressed and his sorrow seemed to have no end.  He was confused that God should take someone he loved so from him.  That Sunday he went to church and sat in his pew.  Everyone was singing praises but he felt no song in his heart.  They raised their hands but Johnny just hung his head.  He barely heard the sermon and when he left the sanctuary he never came back.

Johnny didn’t feel the lord’s presence so either the lord didn’t really exist or, if He did, God had rejected Johnny.  Johnny was not experiencing God in his life, but instead experienced only pain in his heart.  God was dead to him.

If we base our faith on what we experience, then when we do not experience God in our lives we will lose faith. God might show Himself to you and heal you from a mortal illness but the next time your sick and God does not heal, will you reject God saying, “He didn’t hear you so He must not love you anymore” or perhaps that “He does not really exist.”?

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

The only true and solid foundation for your faith is in God’s Word.  We can trust what God says to us.  We can base all we believe on the fact that the Scriptures will not fail us.  When you hear what God says to you in His word, you can know that God will stay true to it and fulfill His word.  Experiences can fail you, but God’s word is eternally faithful.

Photo Credit: untitled by le vent le cri

Sins of Man and Sin of the Heart

God hates sin, but if you compare different religions you find that the view of sin and the payment for sin is different than the Christian teaching.  Other religions only go skin deep, while Jesus Christ goes down to the root of the problem.

Islam teaches that Allah weighs your good deeds and your bad deeds.  If your bad deeds outweigh the good then you are eternally punished in the fires of Jahannam (Hell).

Buddhist teach that sin is anything that transgressions against the universal moral code.  But some Buddhist disagree saying that there is no such thing as sin.  Your actions, whether they are good or bad have their own inevitable result for good or bad towards you.

Hindu’s are trying to achieve union with Brahman.  Once this is achieved the cycle of life, death and rebirth ends.  Then they are finally released from the suffering of  this world.  To attain this union with Brahman they must lead moral lives.  When they commit any acts of sin or good it affects their Karma which determines their future incarnation.

All three of these and other beliefs have one thing in common concerning sin.  Each act of sinning is paid for by the individual in some way.  Not sinning is the only answer to attain any type of salvation.

Christianity does not deal with just the individual sins, but goes to the source of sin.  Jesus Christ’s death is the solution to the Sin Nature and not just payment for our sins.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Romans 6:6

The old man, our sin nature, died on the cross with Jesus.  It is destroyed so that we no long have to serve sin.  Sin no longer has the power over us it once did.  We only sin when we decide to rebel against God.  All other religions leave you powerless against that sin nature.  They deal only with the sins of man and not the sin within the heart.  Only in Christ is there victory.

Photo Credit: SEVEN SINS TO BE AVOIDED IN LIFE by Diganta Talukdar