No one likes an arrogant Christian.

Have you ever met someone very passionate about something you don't know to much about? I have. I've seen people passionate about activities like video games, star wars, and music. I'm sure many of us have met people passionate about Christianity. Two things happen when we meet a person really passionate about something.
1) We are repulsed.
2)We are intrigued.
What cause these two reactions? The degree of intensity in the persons passion, there general demeanor, There facial expression and answers when a question is asked or the something they love is challenged, the effects on the persons life due to the passion that is held for the certain activity, and past experiences with the something they are passionate about. When I was a kid and through my teenage years I was very passionate about skateboarding. I skateboarded for 11 years. I would not be surprised if some friends and family found it annoying how skateboarding dominated my conversation. They thought it rude and arrogant when I got upset because they did not understand every little skateboard trick I was explaining. I did not even think to ask about there interest . Do we Christians do this? I have had people ask me whether or not I like such-and such and when I say never heard of it or just plain no. They look at me as if I have three heads then want nothing to do with me. Do we Christians do this when people are not immediately  receptive to the gospel? Yes!! We do ! When we stand on street corners with megaphones in hand telling people they are going to hell because of abortion, homosexuality and other sins. We are bring oppressive . How do we know the people walking by are not Bible believing Christians? Yes. Sin=Death. But sin does not = unrighteous anger or unrighteous judgement. Sin= death which means hell for the unrepentant sinner. Lets not throw our corrupt human emotions in the mix. Hell is eternal separation from God. Instead of yelling on megaphones and standing on step ladders yelling " God hates such and such group" ( God does not hate any human! God hates Sin. that is why Sin=death.) We need to be sad and show people we are generally  concerned that if they die in sin they will be separated  from God. Subjects of the wrath of God's hatred of sin. The oppression slips in when people are told about hell and not about the key out of hell (Belief in Jesus Christ and leading a life of repentance) Jesus said we are to be "fishers of men"- Matthew:4:19. It is important that we stress the importance of God's sadness and our sadness because of the way non-believers are living. We must stress that God is sad because he knows some will be subject to his wrath. You don't think God cries?read this (John 11:35, Hebrews 5:7, and Luke 19:41) Back to oppressive Christians. There are two reasons that some Christians are oppressive.
1) They are arrogant. Which is sin. (Sin=death)
2) There teaching is horrible and they can't communicate the Gospel well or just don't want to.
Jesus calls his followers to be gentel. " I am sending you as sheep in the midst of wolves, be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves- Matthew 10:16. To sum it up the reasons why so many Christians are rightfully viewed as oppressive  is because of arrogance or bad communication skills. So really in truly Christianity is not oppressive the people who "practice" it are oppressive .

You believe. So what ?

Today on the bus on the way to Wal-Mart I was reading the Bible. Right behind me I hear a guy ask me what I am reading. I tell him the Bible. Then he ask where at in the Bible am I reading. I was reading 1 Kings chapter 2. Then he ask me to "speak on it" which I took as "tell me the practical application of the scripture in my daily life". So I expounded on (1 Kings 2:36-46). To sum it up King Solomon tells Shimei to build a home in Jerusalem and to stay in Jerusalem and to never leave the city. Shimei had cursed and mocked Solomon's father David  (2 Samuel 16:13) This guy Shimei was a first class jerk he literally followed King David along a mountain cursing him and throwing dirt on him. Does he not know that this is the guy who killed Goliath. But to get back on track, Shimei's life is spared by David and David's son Solomon. Solomon told him stay here in Jerusalem and don't cross the brook Kidron and if you do you WILL DIE!. Shimei agrees. After 3 years Shimei's slaves run away to Gath. Shimei chases after them and he finds them in Gath then returns to Jerusalem. King Solomon finds out Shimei has left Jerusalem and after scolding Shimei asking why he did not keep his Oath to the Lord, and telling him how his own heart has convicted him of the evil done to King David. King Solomon has him executed. O.K. what does this look like in my life, you and the guy on the bus are thinking ?  Two things and one just popped into my head as I was re-reading over the scripture. Repentance and love of possessions. The Bible speaks so much about repentance openbible.info has 200 documented verses about it.(http://www.openbible.info/topics/repentance) The Lord is not playing around when he says repent from sin. Sin equals death (Romans 6:23) Shimei said he would abide by his oath to the Lord but he did not. So what happened he died. What caused his death disobediance and why did he disobey he was chasing after his possessions. Back to the guy on the bus he started to act weird and his breath smelled of alcohol. I glance at his hand and there is a beer in his hands. Then he says "don't judge me because I'm drinking I believe in Jesus I love him" Ok I tell him but the Bible says to obey the authorities (Romans 13:1-3)and there is no eating or drinking ON THE BUS. Drinking in moderation is fine in it's proper place. Then he goes off on some weird tangent telling me not to be stingy with the word of God, and don't judge blah blah blah... Dude first of all I was just quietly reading and studying. I told him that as a Christian I am supposed to share the Gospel and I am never stingy with the word of God. I tell him at this point I am going to get back to reading and he is mumbling some thing about how he loves God and this and that. I got off the bus shook his hand and that's that. Plenty of scriptures pop into my head as I am walking     "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder!"(James 2:19 ESV). Ok dude you believe God is real so does Satan ! Congratulations. You say you love him but you don't show it. You follow Satan! This verse popped into my head also. "Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb."(Psalm 37:1-2 ESV) This Psalm came into mind because this man on the bus had some kind of work ID badge on his shirt. This man has a job. I don't! It's tough to see people who either could care less about God, or say they do but are hypocrits do well. I have accepted where God has me right now in life and I am content to wait in him, do what he tells me, and watch for his next move and not watch the moves of secular society.

It's not about what you know, but what you do with what you know.

I have met many people on my journey in life that have claimed to have a knowledge of the Bible and Jesus Christ. Yet they do not bare the fruit of a Christian. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23 ESV), (John 15:16 ESV) or they claim that they do not need to follow all the doctrines of the Bible. Saying that you are well versed in the Bible or that you  "know" the Bible. But not applying it to your life is like saying you are an English major yet you continue to use ebonics and constantly make grammatical errors on essays just because you feel like it's not that important to use the knowledge you have learned. Or maybe there is a feeling of not knowing whether or not what you learned is the truth or not. Being confused is understandable in this world of humanistic philosophies, relativism , atheism, deism, and theism. But disregarding completely or only taking half of the truth and digging your heels in at that point is out of the question and a coward move.When I was learning multiplication and did not get an answer right I did not doubt the validity of the entire mathematics system, or deny the teachers correcting because of the plethora of possible answers at the side. How foolish would I have been to say " I don't know about this confusing multiplication and division. I will just stick with addition.and I will use addition in place of multiplication even though it will take me 10 times as long to reach my destination" I can not claim to be an expert in something when I refuse to practically apply that somethings methods when the opportunity arises. Why do you excuse sin and you are supposedly well versed in the Bible? Why do you constantly ignore fellowship with fellow believers? Why are you not bearing the fruit Jesus says that believers would bear ? When fellow believers and non-believers look at you they see a tree bearing as much fruit as a tree in the middle of winter. Now I need to say I did not start off writing this intending to bash people. But if we are believers we need to take a long hard look at whether or not we are truly representing Christ to the world and bearing the spiritual fruit Christ wants us to bear. Personally I can no longer excuse any sin in my life. C.H. Mackintosh said this regarding sin " We should at least seek to meditate more habitually upon His cross and passion...in this way reach a much deeper view of the awfulness of sin in the sight of God". And later C.H. Mackintosh says "How lightly, at times do we think of that which cost the Lord Jesus everything" I need to take a closer look at my sin. And if you claim to "know" the Bible yet are not bearing fruit and continue to excuse the sin in your life. You should "know" to do better! Plain and simple. It's not about what you know. It's all about what you do with what you know !

Learning to Walk

'walking in the light means for many of us walking according to our standard for another person' - Oswald Chambers. Jesus Christ puts it a bit more simply than Mr. Chambers. 'just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise' - Luke 6 :31 That is Jesus for ya. Simple. Solid. Not beating around the bush. But I'm not here to talk about the beautiful simplicity that we can find in Jesus teachings and how hard they can be for our complicated human minds to adhere to. I just want to say something really quick about day to day living and how I react to people in different situations as the day goes on. I admit and I'm usually the last to admit. But I am not always treating my fellow man the way Jesus would have. Or should I say does do today? Because Jesus is living ya know? I don't even think about my fellow brother the way I would want him to be thinking about me. If I found out that what you thought about me was what I thought about some folks on a bad temperamental cranky day I would not want to be around you. The problem lies in my soul. My soul (emotions,attitudes and will) have not been completely broken by the Holy Spirit. Why has it not been broken because I have yet to give myself completely, to him. I keep grieving the Holy Spirit by backsliding and misstepping and continuing in sin that i need not continue in as a born again believer. Because I do not fully trust the Holy Spirit and I don't listen to the Holy Spirit I get upset because the same things seem to be happening to me over and over again. Imagine someone who is cooking eggs in a skillet and a cook says "put oil in there or the eggs wills stick to the skillet!!" and I say "no!"I have done this before and gotten away with it!" Or " it turns out fine!". I am not aware of this cooks superior knowledge to cooking so I just stick with my own crappy sticky recipe. I pray that I would become more aware of the Holy Spirit and his want to guide me and direct me in this life, because he holds superior knowledge that he longs to share with me if only I would open my ears. Now why is it important for the human soul to be broken by the Holy Spirit ? Because if it is broken, the Holy Spirit can work threw our soul out towards our outer body and in to the world. See the holy spirit is deep inside a believer in Christ, then there is the human soul (emotions, will, and attitude) then the physical body. If we allow the Holy Spirit to override the human soul we will experience a change in emotions, will and attitude. This arrangement is how it is meant to be. Being governed by the human soul is like putting the cart before the horse. In allowing the Holy Spirit to change my will, attitude, and emotions. I will be able to abide by this simple teaching. 'just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise' - Luke 6 :31

Didn't turn to God

I Didn't turn to God
because I figured I'd get rich.
I Didn't turn to God
to fulfill my gimme list

I Did turn to God because he loves me.

I didn't turn to God
because I didn't want accountability.
I didn't turn to God
he kept knocking on my heart
shacking the arteries and every sinew within me.

I did turn to God.
It was a situation I couldn't avoid.
Everlasting God come in me and fill this everlasting void.

Death & Life (To Be Continued)

Life is not fair we all know that famous phrase. What makes us think life owes us something in the first place ? What is it about this world, about this life that has us all come to the conclusion that life is unfair or that life is hard ? Is it because deep down inside our being we have some kind of faint shadowy knowledge of a more fair, softer, and more eternal life ? Another question I have is why has the human race been so obsessed with death ? Is it because we are meant to live forever ? I See no other reason for this obsession and fear over death. I will now do my best to explain my views about these two subjects. Let's start off with humanity's obsession and fear over death. Why fear ? Why obsess over finding ways to beat death once and for all ? According to some atheist views death is a "natural" part of life. Well lets pretend we all adhere to this particular belief. The belief that death is a "natural" part of life or a " spot on the circle of life". If death is so "natural" then why are we constantly trying to find ways to prevent it ? Breathing is natural, blinking, and walking are pretty natural also. We don't obsess over finding ways to prevent these everyday activities from happening. And we definitely do not fear these activities or we would end up looking like some kind of idiot, afraid to take a breath or a step. Why fear death ? Because it is an act we were never meant to experience. What went wrong ?  The current condition of humanity comes from the fact that we have fallen away from the God of the Bible. Away from his everlasting and loving presence. The human body became broken. as the years go on the condition of the body becomes worse and worse. The body never improves with age. Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 says 'So God created man in his own image' According to the Bible. God is a perfect being. He is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent. God also gave man free will which I will have to get back to later. In verse 28 of Genesis chapter 1 it says 'And God blessed them". Nowadays in this fallen hurting world. We sometimes consider a blessing from God to be a life changing experience. Try to imagine Gods blessing before the fall of man. Wow!!And before the free will choice of Adam and Eve to disobey God. No sickness, no dying. When Eve is deceived by Satan into eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then Adam makes a conscience decision ( Example of free will before the falling away of man another example of free will would be Adam naming the animals Genesis 2 :20) to do the same. They are automatically separated from Gods presence here on Earth. By Adam consciously choosing to disobey God the first ugly seed for sin was planted. Ready to bear fruit to sickness, death, hate, anger , violence etc. In his disobedience there was no possible way for Adam or Eve to be in the Lord God's presence any longer. Sin, death, sickness, has no chance standing in the presence of Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient God.( To Be Continued)

Wise words from God via C.S. Lewis

what are we to make of Jesus Christ?

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Faith

Faith .. "Confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see"-Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 1 . Faith is essential in our walk with Christ. In Matthew Chapter 14 verses 26-33 we read about Jesus walking on the water, and how Peter wanted to walk on the water also. Jesus said come and Peter did. Peter walked on the water ! Only for a minute or so . Then he began to sink crying out "Lord Save me !" What happened ? Several things happened during Peter's walk , that we can compare with our walk of faith today. First Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. Second he started to pay attention to the howling winds and last but not least "He was afraid ". Fear and doubt cripple our faith severely. In Mark Chapter 5 verse 36 Jesus says "Don't be afraid just believe". "You of little faith, why did you doubt "Jesus says to Peter " in Matthew chapter 14 verse 30. Peter took his eyes off of Jesus doing this he lost his direction,and the source of true power. Christ is the power we trust in. It is Christ that defeat's all our fears and doubts. If we don't allow him to work in us. Our fears and doubts will be waiting on us. The second thing that cripples our faith is focusing on the howling winds (Negative situations, feelings etc.) We leave no room for faith when fear crowds our minds. Pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to strengthen you giving you courage and hope in the midst of a negative situation ."Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" - 1 Peter Chapter 5 verse 7. Each of these will severely hinder our walk with Christ. Focus on Christ and his Word. Read the Bible daily and build yourself up in the knowledge of the Lord. Pray for Wisdom , "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. ⁶ But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. " -James Chapter 1 verse 5 . Ask him to help you memorize scripture, doing this the Word will be written on your heart. With the word written on your heart there will be no room for fear in your mind. Pray constantly asking the Lord to intervene if you feel you are to far in over your head. "..Lord save me! immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him"-Matthew chapter 14 verse 30-31. Immediately. Immediately ! Jesus came to the rescue. Jesus did not whistle and drag his feet on the way to save Peter. Jesus immediately reached out his hand. The Bible does not tell us how deep in Peter was before he was saved. We are only told he was immediately saved. I tend to complain " Lord are you there ?" "Do you hear me?" From our perspective it seems like the Lord lets us just sink deeper and deeper into trouble. Sometimes rightfully so he allows us to sit in troublesome spots so we can think. Think mainly on his ability to sanctify us in difficult times whether they be spiritual or physical. He is mighty to save. The Lord is omniscience , he always knows the time to save us.