Contrast

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or other! So, because you are lukewarm -neither hot or cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelations 3:14b-16)

Today God has affirmed and solidified something that has been in my heart for a long time. This passage has driven my choices. It has built me to refuse middle ground. No longer can I live as a pretender of the faith. I choose to live with passion. I ask that of everyone who reads this. Please, don't settle for partial faith in Christ, believe or don't believe. Follow what your heart tells you.

Anything in between a passionate believer and a passionate unbeliever is a waste of time. It's a waste of YOUR time. Why would anyone ever waste their time by partially following? Hours spent at church could be used more productively if the lessons taught there aren't applied.

Choose your side, take time to consider what you are jumping into, and when you have made your choice don't let anything stop you... including yourself.

What they didn't tell you when they gave you your certificate... your birth certificate

I'm going to get right to the point on this one. Satan will do anything to twist, skew, or in general just stop what God has planned. Probably the most prominent way that I have seen in my life is discouragement. He tells us what we can live up (or down) to be. That we don't make the cut, etc.

Of these things he prompts us most to believe that our age limits our abilities. To the young 'you are to young, you don't have the experience yet'. To the old 'you are old, and can't accomplish anything with the time you have left'. To the middle aged 'you have to many other responsibilites, family, work, friends'.

But if we look at history there is no age bracket for world changers! If you are old, at least you can pass your passion and experience to the younger. To the middle aged, God will take care of you as you take care of his work. To the young, how to you gain experience? Not be walking, but rather from falling.

Kind of a random jump, but DO what God has placed on your heart. There inlies fullfillment, joy, and passion.

What I do not know, I can not want

This is simply a thought I had today about how to keep away from temptations, and more so, against things that will keep us away from God.

As I had earlier said about avoiding sin, one of the first rules is to avoid places in which you will face temptation. The same goes with your relationship with God.

Lately God has revealed something that's been getting in the way of completely selling out for Jesus. My love of the computer. I'm a computer nerd/techy what ever you want to call it. I do a lot on the computer, it has most things that I previously wanted in a career. Anyways, God has been bugging me to make HIM my number one priority in my life. Even as I write this God is bugging me to drastically cut down on my computer usage. Taking out anything for entertainment purposes. Leaving only activities for school, or for his glory (such as this blog).

To me this is a really big deal, I could probably quite happily live on a computer the rest of my life, earn a living, buy what I need, and 'socialize'. I'm not as bad as all that, but I could be. Of course to some of you cutting back on computer usage seems like a piece of cake, you don't see what the big deal is.

That's the point though isn't it? I have no problem giving up TV any more because I simply don't watch it. Some of you can't imagine giving up you TV time, it's to near and dear, and what if they kill Jimmy on Lost?! and Heaven forbid they should ever mess with Michael's relationships in The Office!!!

What I'm suggesting is to simply not start anything that you know will addict you. You should be able to tell because it's generally suggested by someone or something as 'Amazing', and or 'I can't live without it'. If you are willing to even take it to the next step take out the things in your life that you know 'you can't live without'. It's really difficult. I'm not going to lie, and you will go through withdrawal, but after awhile your dependance fades. You start to realize what a waste of time it was, and that you really aren't missing too much.

Now comes the fun part. As I have found all to often when I am fasting something, or simply just cutting it out because there's too much of it, there's just a hole in my life. You have to let God come and fill that hole. Otherwise you will turn back to what originally filled that hole in your life.

Thoughts on Forgiveness of Sins, and God's Cleansing

I thought this would be a good follow up to my previous note. So many people believe they are condemned when they sin, not so, but at the same time there are so many that consider it a freedom to sin, also not so.

First we'll start with why we shouldn't sin even though Christ has forgiven us of our sins. The main reason to not sin even though we have God's grace is this. To receive this thing called 'Grace' it says that we must repent of our sins. This doesn't sound difficult, and like most Christian lingo it has been twisted over the years. People believe that all it means is to say, 'I'm sorry'. Let's look at Wikipedia and what it says...

Repentance is a change of thought and action to correct a wrong and gain forgiveness from a person who is wronged.

This means that we work to not commit this wrong again. We strive to take ourselves out of this situation. We flee from it. In doing so God gives us forgiveness of our sins, and in this new change found from repentance we now take one step closer to Jesus, and through him eternal life.

19Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,(Acts 3:19)

This is all why we shouldn't sin. I'm not going to say you should sin, I will never suggest that, but sometimes we mess up, and afterwards forget that we are forgiven. We need to live in that forgiveness.

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."(John 8:1-11)

A bit of a long passage, but I needed you to know this. Christ doesn't condemn you. He doesn't condemn you. So many times after we have sinned the devil will lead us on a guilt trip(By the way, in my experience guilt seems to be something satan loves to manipulate). He makes us believe that God can't love us because he has no part in sin. The truth is though that Christ loved the sinner, he came for the sinner, for the sick and not the healthy. We must learn not to listen to satan and let him gain the upperhand in our lives.

Now that I've said all of this you must learn to walk the line as the Lord is teaching me. To live in Christ's forgiveness, but not to disrespect that grace by blatantly returning to the sin you just repented of. But when the you are overcome by sin, know that you are forgiven, "Go now and leave your life of sin."

Thoughts on Sin

First off I'm dedicating this to a good friend of mine, Dan, and my brother who was/is my accountability partner.

I'll tell you my story to start off with, or at least the relevant parts (otherwise we'd be here for awhile).

Generally everyone has a "big" sin. "Big" simply meaning they get caught more often. If the person wants to stop because God wants them to these sins seem to be easier to clean out because of how out in the open they are. Anyways, I had my big sin just like anyone else. I had battled through most of my teen years to gain control over this sin. I even recruited my brother as my accountability partner. There were a few times that I thought I'd finally quit, but then it (temptation) would hit me hard. One day I heard from God that I would never struggle with this again. I believed, but it still didn't happen right away. I struggled many more times and God had to tell me twice more that I would stop. This was around summer of last year. After that point I actually wanted to stop because God wanted me to stop, not because I wanted to. I had stayed clean ever since.

Little tangent here before I get back on track. When I say I stayed clean, I mean that I STAYED clean. I was tempted (although Satan gave up a little more often), and by tempted that means it still appealed to me, but then I would remember my goal to become closer to Christ, and how that just doesn't fit in.

Unfortunately my nearly year long clean streak was ruined tonight. I took it for granted when God had told me I would never commit this sin again. I figured that God would stop me when the temptation came. Well it did come and I'm sorry to say I failed. I failed to realize that it was a team effort. God helped me through, and to find a path of escape, but he didn't push me through the situation. You must "Want" to stop.

13No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 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 stand up under it.(1 Corinthians 10:13)

I have found that when you look for temptation you will fail unless you stop looking or wanting (which yah, sorry to say this, but in my experience this rarely happens). On that same note though if the temptation arises and you don't flee. don't listen to that little voice that says you've already lost (it's not you or God). You've never lost until the act has been committed. Notice how I use past tense. Stopping in the act is actually a victory! It's a step in the right direction, albeit a small one.

I wrote this letter first to explain sin immediately after sinning. So many people say "You don't know what it's like", "It's been forever since you've dealt with it", etc, etc. Thus for you guys knowing that I wrote this immediately after I hope you trust in my honesty on this subject. This is just an average guy telling you that there is indeed hope. I have lived it for almost a year, and plan to continue immediately following this incident.

As for advice on how to avoid temptation and falling to it. First don't put yourself in situations that you know you'll be tempted in. More first than 'first', you must Love and Rely on God, and resist sin, flee from it, put in your best effort. That's the definition for the battle with sin. If you try to run and fail at it, at least you ran. Do these things and God will give you the power to resist long enough to escape, and provide that way of escape. Once you have escaped don't become complacent, or look back. You are always in danger of sin and temptation, and that is the other first step in avoiding it.

Sincerely,
~a fellow sinner,
~forgiven

Dedication and Mission

I Dedicate this blog first and formost to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In doing so I also dedicate this blog to everyone who is willing to take a stand, to step forward, to fall deeper in love with Christ, and embrace God's plan for their life.

The purpose of this blog is to challenge Christians out of complacency, to break me out of complacency. To show Christians that there is always More to their relationship with Christ. He can always teach you something new about loving himself, others, and yourself. For he IS love.

I pray people will read this blog, and test what is written in it for themselves, and then to live what they have tested and found to be true.

Whether young or old, in Jesus name I call you to pick up your cross and follow him. I challenge you to fall in love with God. To let yourself become a solid Christian. To not be swayed by the winds of this world, so that when the storm comes you can take your stand and say, "I Shall Not Be Moved. Christ is my Rock, and upon him I have built my house".

46"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? 47I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." (Luke 6:46-49)

and again in Matthew

24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matthew 7:24-27)