Yesterday I attended a church called Crossroads. Interesting church in my opinion.
Even though the church did not have much Scripture presented, God still chose to speak to me.
The Lord's prayer in Matthew: Jesus starts the prayer directing it to "Father"
How I view God has changed drastically, however I know my view of God is still not correct, probably not even close. I still cannot comprehend an ounce of God's love.
Anyway, I digress. Jesus initiates conversation with the Creator of the universe as "Father"
In this instance and many others throughout scripture, I recognize God as the fatherly figure.
Especially because God exists in three PERSONS: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Mark Driscol(told in scripture) "Prayer is trinitarian. To the Father through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit."
I've always been scared to approach God the Father with my prayer. I don't know if it is because of the worldly vision of our fathers being the "discipliner." I need to try to see God as the Perfect Father. He has given me the Holy Spirit.
......
....
..
done writing now...listening to a driscol sermon....
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Love
I am so thankful for God's love. Not only does he show his love for us while we are so undeserving.....But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [Rom. 5:8]
God loves us unconditionally. I just found that out firsthand a couple days ago. God showed me his love through others. I am so thankful for the true friends I have. Praise God for Paul, Micah, Nate, Nate, Drew, Jeff, Harrold, and Tim. And also Ben and Katie! :0)
God's people should focus on LOVE. Loving God and loving other brothers and sisters. Love conquers all.
Choosing to love is hard. For the sake of Christ's grueling death, choose love. Satan hates when we love.
God loves us unconditionally. I just found that out firsthand a couple days ago. God showed me his love through others. I am so thankful for the true friends I have. Praise God for Paul, Micah, Nate, Nate, Drew, Jeff, Harrold, and Tim. And also Ben and Katie! :0)
God's people should focus on LOVE. Loving God and loving other brothers and sisters. Love conquers all.
Choosing to love is hard. For the sake of Christ's grueling death, choose love. Satan hates when we love.
Monday, September 15, 2008
I am finding it Very difficult to love people right now!
I need prayers, because on my own I am fading into hatred.
I don't understand people. I realize I am such a sinful man and everyone is full of sin, but I can not understand how ignorant and inhumane people can be. Lord, please open my eyes to the fallenness of my heart and for me to understand that I am even worse of a sinner than everyone else.
I am desperately in need of your Grace. Thank you for the cross!
I am not enjoying Christ right now and need the to walk in the spirit.
I need prayers, because on my own I am fading into hatred.
I don't understand people. I realize I am such a sinful man and everyone is full of sin, but I can not understand how ignorant and inhumane people can be. Lord, please open my eyes to the fallenness of my heart and for me to understand that I am even worse of a sinner than everyone else.
I am desperately in need of your Grace. Thank you for the cross!
I am not enjoying Christ right now and need the to walk in the spirit.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
What a Beautiful God!
Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin.
Sin.
Sin.
Living according to our flesh results in our sin. How is it that we live according to the Spirit. Simple, but not easy we must continually walk in the Spirit. What does this look like? As friends have told me, this was the hardest thing for them to grasp about Christianity. Is it hard for me, why yes. It is very difficult for me to describe how someone can do this and it is also very hard for me to describe what it looks like. Walking in the Spirit is something that may be seen in the presence and sometimes after the fact. I would say that continually surrendering to God as Lord, Savior, Father, Helper...ect. This is difficult in a culture that desperately wants "us" to love "us."
Advertisements, athletes, movie stars, magazines, ect. always tell us to love ourselves. They all want us to follow the desires of our flesh. Although we are in this world we are not to be of it.
This is where the difficulty comes in. We are all born into sin because of Adam. [Gen. 3]
Because of Gods love for us he gave all who believe and place their hope soley in Him a helper, the Holy Spirit.[Jn 14:15-31]
Not only does Jesus give eternal life to us, but he gives us a helper to live in obedience to him as an act of our worship to the HOLY ONE.
[1Peter1:7]
so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Sin.
Sin.
Sin.
Living according to our flesh results in our sin. How is it that we live according to the Spirit. Simple, but not easy we must continually walk in the Spirit. What does this look like? As friends have told me, this was the hardest thing for them to grasp about Christianity. Is it hard for me, why yes. It is very difficult for me to describe how someone can do this and it is also very hard for me to describe what it looks like. Walking in the Spirit is something that may be seen in the presence and sometimes after the fact. I would say that continually surrendering to God as Lord, Savior, Father, Helper...ect. This is difficult in a culture that desperately wants "us" to love "us."
Advertisements, athletes, movie stars, magazines, ect. always tell us to love ourselves. They all want us to follow the desires of our flesh. Although we are in this world we are not to be of it.
This is where the difficulty comes in. We are all born into sin because of Adam. [Gen. 3]
Because of Gods love for us he gave all who believe and place their hope soley in Him a helper, the Holy Spirit.[Jn 14:15-31]
Not only does Jesus give eternal life to us, but he gives us a helper to live in obedience to him as an act of our worship to the HOLY ONE.
[1Peter1:7]
so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Daily Dying
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I've been recently forcibly faced with the truth of 'daily dying.'
What is faith? Faith is the belief in some thing, person, or idea in which no physical proof is present. Interestingly enough Christians would argue that our faith in God (3 in 1) is a belief in something (the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ) in which proof is present. The law is written on our hearts, the glory of God's creation is all around us, the holy word of God is at our fingertips, and the Spirit of Him is in our hearts.
Yet there is a reason that faith is difficult for believers to hold fast to at all times. Why is it that the very thing we believe in is also the very thing we ashamed of. If we are honest with ourselves we would all admit that there are some times in which a sense reluctance, uncomfortableness, embarrassment, and timidness overtake our faith when around non-Christians. If we are also honest with ourselves we don't keep Christ the center of our lives as we should. The reason for all of this is sin. [Genesis 3]
As sinful people we are all self-centered and love to love ourselves. We are all created to bring glory to God. Loving Him is a great way to accomplish this. We, on the other hand, choose to love ourselves daily. [James 3:14, James 5:5 Romans 2:8, II Timothy 3:2]
By the grace of God [Romans 5:12-21]!!!
I've been recently forcibly faced with the truth of 'daily dying.'
What is faith? Faith is the belief in some thing, person, or idea in which no physical proof is present. Interestingly enough Christians would argue that our faith in God (3 in 1) is a belief in something (the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ) in which proof is present. The law is written on our hearts, the glory of God's creation is all around us, the holy word of God is at our fingertips, and the Spirit of Him is in our hearts.
Yet there is a reason that faith is difficult for believers to hold fast to at all times. Why is it that the very thing we believe in is also the very thing we ashamed of. If we are honest with ourselves we would all admit that there are some times in which a sense reluctance, uncomfortableness, embarrassment, and timidness overtake our faith when around non-Christians. If we are also honest with ourselves we don't keep Christ the center of our lives as we should. The reason for all of this is sin. [Genesis 3]
As sinful people we are all self-centered and love to love ourselves. We are all created to bring glory to God. Loving Him is a great way to accomplish this. We, on the other hand, choose to love ourselves daily. [James 3:14, James 5:5 Romans 2:8, II Timothy 3:2]
By the grace of God [Romans 5:12-21]!!!
[Romans 12:1-2]
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
To show love to our creator and savior we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. We are not living under the punishment of the law because of the blood of Jesus Christ, however as an act of love to God we are to live in obedience to his commands. Do not be conformed to this world! [Galatians 6:14b]
BUT; be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
The renewal of ones mind. What does that mean.
To renew: to revive, to recover, to restore to a former state, to become/make new , as if new again.
Christ died to RESTORE the broken relationship with people. Only if we accept Christ with a saving faith do we attain the restoration of our relationship with God.
This renewal of our mind is to make new again the saving faith we have with our Savior. Simply believing in Christ with out an outward change means nothing.
Life in the Spirit: [James 2:14-26, Colossans 3:1-17, Ephesians 4:22-24, Galatians 5:16-26 Romans 8:4-11]
The only way we can make new again our minds is to remember the cross daily! I would go so far as to say moment by moment in life. "Living the Cross-centered Life" (http://www.monergism.com/living_cross_centered_life_mahaney.php) is a great book to help in this area. I have read the book and it has helped to change my view on how often the cross should be thought of.
I constantly fail in this area of life. Because I do not completely see the Beauty of the cross and the Wickedness of my heart I do not see my need for a savior as often as I should.
This is why I constantly need to die to myself and carry my cross daily. It is by the grace of God and the Love of Christ that Jesus chose to take the cup of wrath for us.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
To show love to our creator and savior we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. We are not living under the punishment of the law because of the blood of Jesus Christ, however as an act of love to God we are to live in obedience to his commands. Do not be conformed to this world! [Galatians 6:14b]
BUT; be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
The renewal of ones mind. What does that mean.
To renew: to revive, to recover, to restore to a former state, to become/make new , as if new again.
Christ died to RESTORE the broken relationship with people. Only if we accept Christ with a saving faith do we attain the restoration of our relationship with God.
This renewal of our mind is to make new again the saving faith we have with our Savior. Simply believing in Christ with out an outward change means nothing.
Life in the Spirit: [James 2:14-26, Colossans 3:1-17, Ephesians 4:22-24, Galatians 5:16-26 Romans 8:4-11]
The only way we can make new again our minds is to remember the cross daily! I would go so far as to say moment by moment in life. "Living the Cross-centered Life" (http://www.monergism.com/living_cross_centered_life_mahaney.php) is a great book to help in this area. I have read the book and it has helped to change my view on how often the cross should be thought of.
I constantly fail in this area of life. Because I do not completely see the Beauty of the cross and the Wickedness of my heart I do not see my need for a savior as often as I should.
This is why I constantly need to die to myself and carry my cross daily. It is by the grace of God and the Love of Christ that Jesus chose to take the cup of wrath for us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)