Listening to Him

Not sure where to start on this one...

How to explain this event? How to work into it?

I have this belief, this hope, that the God I'm chasing after, is more than a god, more than a king. Don't get me wrong, He is both God and King, but He is more.

You see, a god and a king have always been portrayed to me as a person who at their best cares for the greater good, the benefit of the population, but when it comes to the concerns of the individual, why would he care? Why would he take time to sit down with you and just talk? Why would he help you through your seemingly endless, and yet meaningless problems?

Yet I hope. Hope for a relationship with my God and King. I want to be the one that He talks to. And so I have sought and prayed to hear His voice speaking to me. For the last four years I have sought this kind of a relationship with Him.

It has been a long journey, many times I have thought I had heard Him, but it took time, and I often wondered if I was imagining the voice. So many of the things said were so easy to write off as logical thoughts for me to have. And yet I sought His voice.

Today is one of those days that reminds me of how far I've come. How the Lord has healed my ears to hear.

I was working on a project, and this one has many small rings. As I was adding this ring it dropped, as they do from time to time. It's a small silver ring on grey carpet, a needle in a haystack if you will. Unless the light hits it just right, these parts are very difficult to find. I decided to look for it anyways, hoping that He might lead me in the search, though seemingly insignificant (the part is worth a fraction of a penny).

I start looking for it where I think I heard it drop. Look for a few seconds. Then a voice chimes in.
"Look down idiot".

Let's pause there. Number one thing. Jesus doesn't talk to me like that, He doesn't talk to you like that. You are His, not as a possession, but as His one love. Though He can be stern at times, as a mother with her child, He will never cuss you out, nor will He demean you, nor will He yell at you.

However I know someone who does... the devil.

I ignored him, satan, I moved the table in front of me to get a better look at the spot that it had fell. Then to my sorrow, I found a ring, where the devil had indicated for me to look (keep reading, this is a terrible place to stop, it gets better). I was beat down, but not destroyed. My mind started running, trying to explain it away, maybe it was a different ring? Then I heard the voice that I Love, calm and still, but as unmoving as a, as well something unmovable!

"Look"

He didn't need to tell me where to look, He didn't need to tell me how obvious of a find it was. I only needed to listen, and to obey. Not to look where satan had directed me, but to where I had started looking at first.

I looked. And I didn't see anything.
But I needed to know that my God is who He said He is. Regardless of whether there was a ring there when i looked the past two times or not, I needed to know He cared to speak to ME.
I needed to believe in HIM. HE could create a ring for me if there wasn't one there before. But I needed to believe in His word to me.

Look.

So I looked again, and there I found the ring. Separate from the first.
He spoke, and I heard, and I sought. He provided where there was once seemingly nothing.

Call it a coincidence. There just happened to be another ring there. "This kid probably has rings all over".
Let me ask you something though. Why are you still reading this?
You long for something more, as I do. Know that it can be found.

"Look"

As are most of these posts, this is a reminder to me, for times of encouragement in my unbelief and to help me chase after Him. I hope these posts are also an encouragement to you, whether you walk with Him everyday, or if you have never found Him. Seek Him.

Joy and the Fulfillment of life :-) Or the start

(Or 'Turning a New Leaf')

What Star Trek reminded me of...

The most rewarding times in recent life, most fulfilling, even most joyful, are those in which I have sought after what God, and through Him and my love for Him, I, have wanted.

I have known that God wanted us to choose Him. Not to be forced to follow Him, but actually choose Him, of our accord, of our desires.

I believe this also translates into our lives. We must be obedient, but instead of, we need to love Him!

I chose to go to North Central
I chose to go to the altar
I chose to sing, I chose to make, and to build, and create
I chose to write
I chose to love nature
I chose to love life
I chose to love His people
I chose to love my God

No longer in obedience will I follow my Christ, my Savior, my Jesus.
I will follow Him with love with all that is within me!

To obey my God is to love Him:
"If you love me, keep my commands." - John 4:15

Life is no longer a box in which we must stay inside the borders to avoid sin. Starting in sin outside the border of the box, and moving into life, inside the box.

Rather life is outside the box, and inside is sin, where we start. After we leave the box of sin we move outside the border into obedience to Him. And even more so we grow and move from obedience into life, true life! Into a relationship with my creator!

I choose to go to the altar
I choose to sing, I choose to make, and to build, and create
I choose to write
I choose to love nature
I choose to love life
I choose to love His people
I choose to love my God

After all...
"...so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me."
~John 4:31b

~In awe of His mercy, and His goodness, and His wonders, and what He has for me!
'Lord, never let me go back to where I was, but lead me, and watch over my steps as I grow into the fullness of what you have for me'

I chose to watch Star Trek ;-)

Risk

Let me paint a beautiful picture to you. The things that we as Christians dream of. A life on fire for our savior, to not care what the world has to say about us, because it's all for Him. A world on fire for Him. Passion for our savior sweeping through every town and village. Worship, true worship of Him. Unhindered unseparated by the things of this world, and the distractions of our mind. An unquenchable hunger for His word and to be with Him in prayer. A desire for His people. A fire that pushes us past our boundaries and into a world crying out for Him.

And so we dream. We sit back and silently cry when we hear of missionaries and distant revivals. And we ask, "can He use me?" We sink back, thinking that He could never use us. How could He use someone who struggles so hard just to live for Him each day?

Maybe it's not even wishing He would use me. Maybe I'm scared if He reaches out to touch me, and whispers in my ear "It's your turn." To fall off the cliff, gasping for breath, in utter abandon. How long have I fallen? Because once you step off, you're committed. There is no turning back. There is no midway. Your paradigm has changed. There is no longer forwards, backwards, and standstill. There is only forwards, and where ever He leads us.

But what do we fear? Is it the fall? Our what we will encounter in that fall? It's that risk. giving up our control. Trusting wholly in Him. But when have we ever been satisfied by normal? When do we feel alive? Whenever we have taken that step. Whether it's a step towards the altar. Thump. Or the step towards a crying stranger. Thump Thump. Telling that perfect someone how we feel. Thump. You hear that? Thump Thump. That's your heart beating. I'll bet you forgot about it. Because the heart that He gave you, it can take so much more. He made you for so much more.

I'm still scared.

But when He calls me. I pray I take the plunge before I think twice. To leap with abandon into what only God can see.

Remembering God's Faithfulness

This one is more for me than for anyone else. I use this blog much as others use a journal, as a remembrance of things past, and lessons learned.w I write today first, to recount what God has accomplished, and second to have a marker of God's faithfulness once we reach the other side. Yet, I also hope that this still speaks to someone else out there. I pray that these words encourage someone to keep moving, and to keep trusting in our God, our Savior.

Today I find myself between a fulfillment of one promise, and at the same time on my knees asking for His continued faithfulness. Yesterday, I interviewed for a job, and shortly after was hired. I have prayed for a job for many months now, and have been waiting for God to provide one of His choosing. And Yesterday I saw that fulfillment of a promise from Him. Today though I woke up and checked my e-mail and saw my financial aid for this coming year. Immediately, my faith was again put to the test. I cannot see if this is either an attack from the enemy, or a solidification of God's lesson that I have already begun. No doubt it was Satan's intent to break me, and my trust in God, but how can I so easily rip my faith away from my Father when I just saw Him work out my issues? How can I have sat in this dorm room for the past month, jobless, knowing that my God would provide a job for me, yet not trust Him to take care of my school finances? As one of our school's old professors said,'The zeros at the end of the check (or bill in this matter) make no difference o God.'

He is faithful, and He is true, and He WILL provide for His children. And what is more, He always has.

I choose to put my faith in Him. Where else do I have to turn?

God's Love

Over the past month or so, God has been teaching me something that I have known for a long time, but never correctly understood.

The concept that God is good and faithful to us despite what we do. He has been showing me my imperfections, and wiping the lie away that His promises won’t be fulfilled if I am not completely perfect at ever moment.

Yes, we will be made perfect, but we are not perfect now. That’s something that Satan loves to twist. He loves to tell us that we need to be perfect always for God to love us, for God to bless us. Then Satan shows us all of our imperfections as an accusation.

He shows us our imperfections out of hatred, but our Father shows us our imperfections that they may not hinder us from coming to Him. He actually means them to be a means to propel us into His arms, into His mercy, into His grace, into His blessing.

I now know that when I screw up, God won't take away what He has promised to give. But most importantly, I now know that He loves His work in progress, just as I am, just as you are, where we are.

Just a thought I wanted to share.

Listening to hear His voice

I wrote this post because often I had asked people what God’s voice sounded like. I hoped that somehow if I knew the characteristics of His voice, that I might be able to start hearing him. All I got back was, “Well, it’s a still small voice.” What does that mean? How am I going to sort a voice like that from my thoughts?

So I started my own journey. I made it my goal to hear His voice, and by extension to know the characteristics of His voice. It has been a long journey, and I have learned much along the way, and still am.

What can I say about His voice? How can I put into words, the things I have learned? My base came from this scripture:

You may be asking yourselves, "How can we tell if a prophet's message really comes from the LORD?" You will know, because if the LORD says something will happen, it will happen. And if it doesn't, you will know that the prophet was falsely claiming to speak for the LORD. Don't be afraid of any prophet whose message doesn't come from the LORD.
(Deuteronomy 18:21-22)

This passage is talking about God using a prophet, and how to test whether he is from God or not. The part I am interested in though is right in the middle:

‘You will know, because if the Lord says something will happen, it will happen.’

Over the past years, trying to hear His voice, I have found this to be invaluable. Often I have heard other voices in my head, and I wondered whether or not the voice belongs to my creator. I don’t usually think it’s from me because it’s not something I would suggest to myself. Some things I have been told will happen, and others I have been told to do. I came to recognize His voice after each event came to pass. Like when I heard that He would take care of my GPA. Now that I see that my GPA was taken care of, I believe in that voice.

Sometimes I have waited for months to see the outcomes, and other times I have waited for only a matter of seconds. Each time though His voice becomes more and more solidified in my mind. As well, my faith in Him is strengthened every time.

Even this blog post was an exercise in hearing His voice for me. I can honestly say that this is the most difficult one I have written thus far. I have written, rewritten, scrapped it, and started fresh. Also, the past two days have been some of the more difficult ones spiritually because I knew God wanted me to write it, but have allowed myself to be distracted. Do I know His purposes for me writing this blog? Not yet. He could just be using it to build me, or to strengthen one of His children, or something totally different.

As a final thought, I would like to say that the act of listening, is really an act of obedience. Many think they can’t hear Him, but truly they aren't willing to do what He says. If you are truly willing to do what He says, He will speak to you, and you will hear Him.

Thoughts on the Rapture

So with tomorrow being the believed rapture (by some), interesting thoughts came into my head.

Whenever this comes up I first think of the scripture that says we will not know the time, and of course I'm a bit skeptical and think how misguided they are. But then I realize they have something right that we generally don't. They're in the perspective that they should be preparing for Christ's return. Albeit I don't believe that the motivation is right, but that's how we should be living our lives. Regardless of the hour we should always live every moment to His glory, and in preparation for His coming.

We should always focus on the great commission as our goal.

I know I'm not the first to come up with this idea, but I think it's still important to bring it to the surface. I also believe that a lifestyle of living as if we are in the last days is completely do-able. If we listen to God's voice and let Him guide our actions instead of expending all our energy running around doing what we believe to be His will.

He moderates our life, giving us the actions to take, and the strength to carry them out. We are also refreshed in Him. His yoke is easy and His burden, light.

The Pure and the Twisted

This is as interesting one. Everyone has seen, but not everyone realizes all the good things that God has made that the Devil has twisted. Pick something, and I can almost guarantee that there is a twisted version of it. I know that for me personally this has created almost a fear to do anything. I also just realized that I subconsciously had begun to believe that the devil had won in the world against God's creation. I started to believe that there were more twisted and demented versions than the real things left.

Then the other night, I was just letting my mind wander before going to bed. As happens, some corrupted thoughts fell into my head which I did not want. I began my regular process of giving it to over to God, and it was a little more difficult than usual.

But then something unexpected and beautiful happened. God took the twisted thought, and untwisted it back into the pure thought it came from.

It was so remarkable, seeing God change something evil into what it was meant to be. I had to stop and just wonder at God and how awesome He is. It gave me hope for what God has for me and the world.

It was so nice to, because it was a conscious change of thought. I have been asking God for about the last semester to give me the correct view on many things that are viewed as corrupt. Slowly, but surely He has in so many areas, but this is the one that made me realize how very much He is working in me to create this.

Thanks!

I pray that this speaks to someone!

Learning to Live by Faith

This is really the story of this past semester.

Before the semester even began I knew by the classes that God had me take that I wouldn't be able to do it on my own. "Tough but good", was the semester's motto. It came to the point that it literally wasn't possible to do it on my own, not a few times either. With classes, and being a prayer team leader my life could have easily been scheduled from the time I woke up every morning to when I went to bed.

Often I would be brought to the point where I had to trust in God’s voice. The trouble is always questioning whether or not the voice is really from Him. If it wasn't God, I would have been crushed by following that voice. I would sink into a deep hole that only God would be able to get me out of. It felt like jumping off of a cliff, realizing full well that if God’s will was not the one telling me to jump it might end terribly. But that's what faith is isn't it? Stepping into the unknown with God at the head. Psalms 23 says it well.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk

through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

(Psalms 23)

There is so much truth to this passage. When I stepped out in faith there was a peace about it. Knowing that no matter the outcome I was in His hands. I could be jumping into a pool filled with rocks just below the surface, or to my eyes there may appear to be rocks when there are none. It doesn’t matter though, because he is leading me the whole time.

So how does this relate back to my semester? I needed a certain GPA to fulfill scholarship requirements. As said before my schedule was nuts, and I am a person that needs times of rest. I get worn out easily, and then I simply don’t function until my body can take some more.

There were times were I felt God’s voice saying to relax even though I thought that it would cost me points in the class. At the end of the semester though I knew it was His voice, and that His voice was true. I ended with the exact GPA that I needed. And throughout the semester He would give e rest when I was over taxed (sometimes through my own fault). Other times when resting was not an option He gave me strength and inspiration to finish job.

What is most important?

First off, welcome back! It has been two very long hard semesters of college, but I am done now. I hope that again this blog will be revived, and that it will bless and speak to those of you who read. Also, I have a lot of blogs that have not been completed from throughout the year. Hopefully these will be finished soon, especially in light of different experiences that will add to these posts. Expect to see a few new posts in the near future. Thanks for reading faithfully!

So the idea behind this post came from when I was finishing off my last assignments for the semester the other night. As usual with the last assignments I was pretty stressed and on edge. I piled through the last minute details, and cut some things that I usually would not have. I ended up finishing most of the major parts to the class, but needed to go back to campus to complete the rest. On the ride back I was still pretty stressed. It had been my brother's birthday as well as Mother's day. This led me to start thinking "What brought me to the point of putting homework before my family?" It made me sad that I had put more time into my studies than time I felt would have been appropriately spent with my family.

I began to realize though that it is situations like that that make my family so important to me. Times when I am stressed out, when I can't hold on any more. These are the times that my family takes care of me, as they did last night. The situation allows them to display their love to me.

Earlier that morning I had written a note down in church about love:

The amount you love is determined by the amount you give.

I saw how true this statement was in relation to my family. Usually, I write from things that I have given to others, but this time I saw this displayed though my family. I only hope and pray that I can give back to them, and to you, when it is needed most. I don't pray that those times come by any means, but these are the times in which we see God's love for us the most.

To my family. I could never ask for a better display of God's unfailing love to us.

Forgiveness, an Unfathomable Trait of God

So, I thought that I got a bit more indepth to my theology of forgiveness in this blog, but I went back and read my older posts and I didn't mention much (By the way, the older posts are a bit difficult to decipher, but have a lot of good material in them).

I don't know exactly what brought this topic back into my mind, but I know that it's one of my favorite ideas to contemplate and work through. The only problem with my theology is that it isn't strictly based off scripture. I do my best to check it against His word (and by all means, if you find a contradiction let me know), but it could still be off. These ideas are more to be taken and used to exercise your mind, to help you start to understand just how un-understandable God really is.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand: Forgiveness

as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
(Psalms 103:11)

As far as I can see, this passage says that our sins are no longer connected to us. This is a simple passage, and most of us seem to 'know' what it means, but have a hard time believing it. This is where my theology comes in. What if this passage means that not only does God remove our transgressions from us, but from existence? If he says something doesn't exist, who are we to argue? He is what we base our reality on. He is the most existent of everything we know, because he is, and was, and will be to come.

How can this happen though? How can God remove something from existence that HAS clearly happened? Then an explanation started forming in my mind. What if it's like being put to sleep for a surgery? The pain is clearly happening, that's why they put us under in the first place, but when we wake we have no memory of it. To us it doesn't exist. How he forgets it, or uncreates it is another topic, but this is a good stepping stone to those and many other questions.

Just imagine the befuddlement of our accuser on the day of judgement. Listing off the crimes we have committed. And to his astonishment, and even more to ours, when Christ declares that none of it happened! That this evidence has to be thrown out of the court! That we are innocent!

Sincerely,
a guy who likes to just sit and think

Thanks for reading! Comments, as well as follower, are appreicated and welcome!

And again, remember that this is only my theology. Use it as a tool, or a spur to start developing your own theology. Test mine against scripture, and against what you have been taught. Let it become a part of you once it has been tested.

Mentoring, A Collective Whole

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-16)

If you look a few verses back the writer of Hebrews mentions the faith of the ancestors of Israel. Ending with the patriarchs (as well as Sarah). In this passage the author looks at the promises that they were given from God the Father. The largest example being how Abraham was promised to have "descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore", and how he obviously didn't receive that in his life time.

How did this come about, and why am I talking about it (especially after not having blogged for almost a year)? I was reading a daily devotional that is forwarded to me every morning by a friend of mine. It generally starts with a scripture to dialogue about (much like this blog), but curiously once I finshed the passage in scripture God told me to stop reading. The scripture was Hebrews 11:13-16 (the one above). God began to speak to me about it, and how it applied to my life. I won't share with you the direct meaning that it had, and has for me, but I believe I was taught a core principle of Christianty while I was learning about my own life.

As much as we are told this all the time in church it's a pretty simple concept. Christianity isn't about us. It's for those who are yet to come, those who are to join us in our belief. Specifically though this passage reminded me of our duty to train those coming after us.

I believe that our relationship with God is not just about our personal growth with him. I don't deny that we should focus on our personal relationship either, but I believe there is more to Christianity. We also focus on the lost, and again this is very important if not a pivotal element in our lives. But I want to focus on the building up of other believers.

I want to tell you about preparing a generation.

Each generation is like a jump from where the last left off. This has always been for better or for worse, very rarely does a generation imitate its parent generation. We see this easily displayed in technology, every generation has completely new and innovative things that make our lives more efficient. Possibly most noteable though is our attitude. We choose to either rebel against our parents who in our minds thought they knew 'how best to care for us', or we try to fix the problems that we once perceived in our parents' style of teaching and training us.

Ideally each generation should be a leap forwards from their parents. Specifically I would like to see faith developed in our generation, and through us, the coming generation. There are some things that I have found we know to be true, but we still don't have the belief for it. Much like how in Acts 12 the church was praying for Peter, but they didn't believe when he came knocking at the door. They knew that prayer has power, but they did not believe that God's hand would actually move through their prayer.

I'm not exactly sure how to transition to this, so I apologize, but here it is.

As I often do, I was once telling my mom about my day, and how a few of my friends and I had felt led to go try walking on water. I told her in detail everything that led up to the point of stepping out on the water, my mom then interjected and said,"and you did" with a tearful expression of how good our God is. She believed for me, not so much having faith in being able to walk on water, but I believe she had faith, that I had faith, to walk on water.

This is what I want to see more of in our generation.
~First faith in the next generation.
~Second creating opportunities for them to develop their faith.
We may not believe that if we pray for someone that they will be healed, but we don't need to
destroy their faith by telling them so, or worse not praying for the sick to be healed.

Again, I believe that we need to create an atmosphere for those following us that develops their faith and belief. Not showing them where we failed to believe, but rather painting a picture of what can happen if they do believe.

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)