Linus on Christmas...

A Baby into this world, Why?

3 Different Stories of Christ's birth.

The Prophesy:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%209:6-7;&version=31;

What we all know:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202;&version=31;

One most don't know:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2012:%2013-17;&version=31;


So have you ever wondered what God was thinking when he sent his Son into this world? Why in his world would God send his Son into the world full of sin? From the first sin of Man to the sin of Israel that lead to it’s destruction at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, even the sin in the world today. What was God’s plan with a Baby Boy that came into this world in the most unassuming way?

You see God is a jealous God, and his jealously makes him want to rise up in anger against that which separates us from him. That is sin. Our sinful nature is what provokes this jealous anger.

If you read through the Old Testament God’s jealously rises up against the sins of Israel to the point that he wants to beat the sin out of the world. Now think about that. He was so jealous of the sin in the world he destroyed it by flood, Sodom and Gomorra destroyed, Israel conquered by Babylon, all because they refused to listen to the prophets, and heed God’s warning.

What was a Jealous God to do to restore the relationship with the Man he created? Well he sent a little Baby, His Son to save us. II Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. To be sin… That is a powerful statement. What was God thinking? He wanted to rise up and destroy sin, to beat it out of this world. So why would he make his Son be that sin for us?

See, the baby that came into this world in an unassuming way, was beaten and crucified so that the sin that was laid upon him would be destroyed. God used the life and death of this baby to restore the relationship with his people by rising up with out stretched arms on a cross.

This Christmas as we celebrate the Joy that is Christ’s birth, let us not for get the ultimate sacrifice he made for us to restore our relationship with his Father.

Ex 34:14 14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Jealous: Qanna' - jealous (only of God)
jealous: Qana - to envy, be jealous, be envious, be zealous
a (Piel)
to be jealous of
to be envious of
to be zealous for
to excite to jealous anger
b (Hiphil) to provoke to jealous anger, cause jealousy

THIS IS PRETTY NEAT,


Place your mouse on the E below and drag to the U.

Even though you can't see Him, GOD is there for yoU

A not so biblical view of Faith..

The past few weeks we have been studying Cults and World Religions. Each one of us has had to do a couple reports on a Cult and religion. Here is my first on not so much a cult, but a no biblical movement with in the Christian church.

Word of Faith

The Word of Faith (WF) movement emerged within Charismatic/Pentecostal Christianity in the latter 20th century.

Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) who laid the foundations.
- Quimby's metaphysical teachings that influenced E.W. Kenyon,
- E.W. Kenyon's teachings that in turn influenced Kenneth Hagin.
- Most prominent Word of Faith teachers today draw their inspiration from Kenneth Hagin.
- many Word-Faith preachers broadcast their services and campaigns,
- Paul and Jan Crouch own TBN.
o with an estimated net worth of approximately $600 million dollars
o Televising the Faith message (as well as many other errant messages) all over the world.

Word of Faith teachers are notorious for teaching everything from the heretical to the downright ridiculous. For example, one WF teacher (who recently renounced WF) once stated that Adam could fly, and women were originally designed to give birth from their sides. Many sincere Christians within the WF movement are unaware that their favorite teachers are teaching doctrines that flatly contradict the Word of God. One reason for this lack of discernment is that followers are told that questioning the teacher is synonymous with "touching God's anointed," or "quenching the Spirit." They are unaware that Scripture encourages us to test all teaching by the written Word of God.

The Word of Faith movement is a serious threat to the Church -- this because WF is assaulting Christianity from within the Church.

Word of Faith leaders
o Paul Crouch ,Rory Alec (GOD TV) , Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, John Kilpatrick "Partners in Revival") ,John Bevere , Benny Hinn ,Rodney Howard Browne (The "Holy Ghost Bartender"), Charles Capps, Fred Price, E. W. Kenyon (Word of Faith pioneer), John Avanzini, Paul E. Billheimer ("Destined For The Throne"), Joyce Meyer, Jerry Savelle, Joel Olsteen

God is Humanized
Copeland
- God is a being who stands about 6'2"-6'3", weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred pounds, and has a hand span of 9" across
- "Adam was the copy, looked just like (God). If you stood Adam beside God, they looked just exactly alike. If you stood Jesus and Adam side-by-side, they would look and sound exactly alike"
Hin
- God the Father, Son and Spirit …Are all separate person
- Each is Triune in his on their own,
- There is 9 of them
He explains by saying: “God the Father, ladies and gentlemen, is a person with his own personal spirit, with his own personal soul, and his own personal spirit-body. You say, Huh, I never heard that. Well you think you're in this church to hear things you've heard for the last 50 years? You can't argue with the Word, can you? It's all in the Word”



Little God’s
Man is glorified and made divine
- passages such as John 10:31-39 and II Peter 1:4,
o Christians are "little gods." Copeland says, "Now Peter said by exceeding great and precious promises you become partakers of the divine nature. All right, are we gods? We are a class of gods!" (Christianity in Crisis, p. 116).
o Benny Hinn declares, "God came from heaven, became a man, made man into little gods, went back to heaven as a man" (Christianity in Crisis, p. 382 n. 43). Earl Paulk wrote, "Until we comprehend that we are little gods and we begin to act like little gods, we cannot manifest the kingdom of God" (Satan Unmasked, p. 97).

Jesus Christ
Cross and atonement is Distorted
- Jesus suffered and died on the cross,
- descended into hell
- three days serving a sentence in hell (where He was tortured by demons),
- then born again and released from hell on a technicality

The "force" of faith
- words to manipulate the faith-force
o create what they believe Scripture promises (health, wealth, etc.)
o God becomes a genie
Hagen in his book How to Write Your Own Ticket with God
In the opening chapter, titled "Jesus Appears to Me," Hagin claims that while he "was in the Spirit" -- just like the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos -- a white cloud enveloped him and he began to speak in tongues. "Then the Lord Jesus Himself appeared to me," says Hagin. "He stood within three feet of me." After what sounded like a casual conversation about such things as finances, ministry, and even current affairs, Jesus told Hagin to get a pencil and a piece of paper. He then instructed him to "Write down: 1,2,3,4." Jesus then allegedly told Hagin "if anybody, anywhere, will take these four steps or put these four principles into operation, he will always receive whatever he wants from Me or from God the Father." That includes whatever you want financially. The formula is simply: "Say it, Do it, Receive it, and Tell it."
Step number one is "Say it." "Positive or negative, it is up to the individual. According to what the individual says, that shall he receive."
Step number two is "Do it." "Your action defeats you or puts you over. According to your action, you receive or you are kept from receiving."
Step number three is "Receive it." We are to plug into the "powerhouse of heaven." "Faith is the plug, praise God! Just plug in."
Step number four is "Tell it so others may believe." This final step might be considered the Faith movement's outreach program.
Frederick K.C. Price: "Now this is a shocker! But God has to be given permission to work in this earth realm on behalf of man. … Yes! You are in control! So if man has control, who no longer has it? God. ... When God gave Adam dominion, that meant God no longer had dominion. So, God cannot do anything on this earth unless we let Him or give Him permission through prayer" (Prayer: Do You Know What Prayer Is. ... and How to Pray? The Word Study Bible, p. 1178)
Prosperity and Health Gospels
- God will make you wealthy if you ask.
o Robert Tilton, On a Trinity Broadcasting Network program in 1990 he said: "Being poor is a sin, when God promises prosperity. New house? New car? That's chicken feed. That's nothing compared to what God wants to do for you"
o Usually leads to asking for an offering… Give $10 get $1000, give $1000 get 100,000 …
- God not only heals our sin but heals our bodies
o Promised a life of health
o People get sick cause of lack of faith
o Sickness in the leaders lives is an attack from Satan.

http://www.gospeloutreach.net/whatwordfaith.html
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/char/more/w-f.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_of_Faith

101%

I haven't posted this week, but I got this in an e-mail and thought I would share.

Message
To my non-math friends, you probably won't be amazed at the math patterns in the beginning, but look at the meaning of 101% below the patterns. It is a better take on the meaning that some emails I have received. I liked it.
Absolutely amazing!
Beauty of Math!
1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?
And look at this symmetry:
1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=12345678987654321

Now, take a look at this...
101%
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:
What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?
We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER
100%.
How about ACHIEVING 101%?
What equals 100% in life?
Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these
Questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
If:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
And:
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But:
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:
L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D
12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%
Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:
While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will
Get you there, It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!
It's up to you if you share this with your friends & loved ones just
The way I did.

Answer to a question.

A follow up to a question from my Facebook...

The same Hebrew word for Divorce is used for the word separate. In Romans we can see that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. It should be just as impossible for a marriage built on Christ's foundation to separate.

Mt 19:6 "Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

In Mathew 5, Christ put out one exception to his command on divorce and that is adultery.

The word adultery (or Marital unfaithfulness, as Christ puts it) means the breaking or separating of a physical bond. If we are to give ourselves to our spouses in heart, mind and soul, how that physical breaking takes place can take many forms.

If our Marriage is built on Christ then we will avoid that exception whatever the form.

Elohim... The Trinity

Elohim is the first name given to God in the bible.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The father was there, so was the Word and the Spirit (Breath) of God.

1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Gen 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

This implies that we are to be in the image of God the Father the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Elohim
1.(plural)
1.rulers, judges
2.divine ones
3.angels
4.gods
2.(plural intensive - singular meaning)
1.god, goddess
2.godlike one
3.works or special possessions of God
4.the (true) God
5.God
Adonai (The one true Lord) Elohim , the Lord God, with many characteristics. El-Qana (Characteristic of God) the jealousy of God.

The 3 are this...

God our authority who judges our actions, gave us Jesus. Our example of what our actions should, who left us his Spirit our guide. So we can live under the authority, by transforming us into the example.

Divorce

1 Cor 7:10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.

Mathew 5
31 "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Ro 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

The same Hebrew word for Divorce is used for the word separate. In Romans we can see that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. It should be just as impossible for a marriage built on Christ's foundation to separate.

Now it is obvious if Marriage is built on Christ's foundation, we will avoid the prevision Christ set our for divorce.

More over we just must love our spouses as Christ loved the church.

Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Freedom in Christ and the trap Legalism

MV for the week.

Gal 5: 1,13

It is for freedom that Christ set you free. Stand firm, then, do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You my brothers are called to be free, do not use that freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve on another in love.

We are free to worship Christ and be in commune with him however we want, as long as we do not abuse the freedom and sin. Grace God’s forgiving grace is not a freedom to Sin. However we are no longer bound buy rules.

Following rules should not take the place of our personal relation ship with Christ, because doing so could distract us from our relationship with him.

Gal 3: 10- 11
10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."[a] 11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."[b]

The Law points us to our sin but because we are justified in Christ we are free from the consequences of our sin. Our faith will lead us to righteousness, not following a set of rules (Legalism). Our change to righteousness can not be done by our own action; we have to rely on our faith in Christ.

Col 2:20-23
20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence

Legalism Got eve in trouble when she added to God’s command:

God Said, Gen 2: 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Eve Said: Gen 3: 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "

God never said touch, and by adding this Eve took the focus off what God’s command and added to his word, and this lead her down the wrong path.

I find it interesting that

Satan Said:
Gen 3: 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Even Satan knew God’s command, and that it was eating that God commanded against.

Back to class.

It is hard to believe that a year ago, I was just starting down this road. God has been good to me, and opened my heart in many ways. The break has been good but I am anxious to get going again. Most of all to put Ezekiel behind me. Yikes what a book. I think it could take years of study to fully understand every aspect of that book. But again it proves God's jealousy towards anything that separates us from him, and his wanting to destroy what separates us from him.

So...

401 Starts tomorrow. I should be posting more, as the homework will pick up. I will be able to draw more from that.

I pray God continues to bless this group of men, and opens our hearts and minds to his word.

.....

Huckabee knows his God....

Genesis

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

When will I be normal?

I have not typed about my nephew Justin on this blog. He was in a bad car accident the Sunday before Memorial day, and sustained a serious closed head brain injury.

After 4-5 weeks in Intensive care, and 6 weeks at Frazier rehab he has made it home.

One of the things he expressed that he wanted to do was to start studying the bible. My mother in law, mentioned it to my wife. I prayed about it and offered to help.

Well now Tuesday nights I will meet with Justin for 1 hour. 20-30 Minutes will be spent working with his Nintendo DS with Brain Age, and 20-30 minutes reading the bible and talking about it.

This paragraph from my testimony will frame what we talk about.

God allows and knows I will fail, but he sacrificed His Son for all of us, so that we can get back up looking for Him to help us. He also gives us the power of the Spirit to enable us to succeed in overcoming our sin nature. When we succeed He celebrates with us, and is proud of us. I am now privileged to have a relationship that allows me to walk in the Light of the Word, confident in the salvation of Jesus Christ.

I also asked him, what is the one question that I can pray about for him, and ask God to help him answer. His answer, "When will I be normal?" I know God heard the question, and I pray that as Justin and I through our study start to unravel that question for him.

God I pray that you give me the guidance to help Justin. The wisdom to teach him about you and how much you love him. Help me through my experiences show him how to build a relationship that relies completely on you. Help me be a workman that correctly handles your word of truth.

Ezekiel...

During the break from class, we have been tasked to reading Ezekiel. I must say that it is confusing, especially at 5:15 am....

From what I can gather though, God is pouring his heart out to Ezekiel, trying to convey to the Israelites what He is feeling, and how their destructive living is ruining their chance at a better life and relationship with Him.

God promises his judgment and wrath, and shows again his jealous anger. Then in 18:30 we read this:

30 "Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Oh how God wants us to live a righteous life, with Him as our guide.

I have also come to understand this about my faith... Which seems to be a reaccuring theme as I read and blog...

I want my God to be El Qanna... To be so Jealous of my sin that He wants to root it out of every corner of my being and destroy it. I want Him to pursue me in such a way that He will do anything, even take out His vengeance on his own Son, to have a relationship with me. COR 5:21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we may be come the righteousness of God. I want to know that God laid down his Son for our forgiveness because He loves me so much he can not stand to have any sin in the way of a relationship with Him.

I like knowing that God will pursue that loving perfect relationship with me, and will do so in a way that points out flaws in my life I never knew I had. Then I want to turn to him and have him help me fix those flaws.

Ezekiel 18:30-32
30 "Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

God's name to me .... Qana

Ezekiel 5 Then he said to me, "Son of man, look toward the north." So I looked, and in the entrance north of the gate of the altar I saw this idol of jealousy.

The idol jealousy here is not the jealousy of man, it is the idol that provokes God to jealousy. That makes him want to rise up and stamp out the evil caused by worshiping idols. There are so many things we set up as idols in our life that causes God to be jealous. Each one separates and takes us further from the relationship we are meant to have with the one true Lord God.

Adonai Elohim, the Lord God, with many characteristics. El-Qana the jealousy of God.
http://www.biblestudytools.net/Lexicons/Hebrew/heb.cgi?number=07067&version=nas

Exodus
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me

I want my God to be jealous. I want him to pursue me to the ends of the earth. I want to know that he would lay his life down for me. Sacrifice everything, just to love me, because he detests the sin and idols in my life so much.

Coveting 3 - 5

3 – Coveting=Greed

M. G Blankenship again says…

Coveting kind of boils down to Greed

We even see this concept of coveting in a young child: They are happy with their toy UNTIL they see another kids toy!
When we are not happy with what we have, we begin to desire what we do not have, and look for ways to satisfy the desire our selves.

Colossians 3:5 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ---> GREED BECOMES IDOLATRY:

Our heart was created to be satisfied by God! Coveting allows things to take the place of God in our hearts!
God says "seek ye first the kingdom" =

GREED seeks the "kingdom of things"

4 – We can lead people to covet

We should also be careful to not lead people down the road of coveting by our own actions.

Jesus Speaking of the Pharisees

Mathew 23 5-7

5 "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.‘

1 Peter 3:3
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.

Instead we should be humble

Psalm 18:27
You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

Psalm 147:6
The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.

Matthew 23:12
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

5 – The opposite of covet is to be content and love.

The opposite of coveting and the fix is contentment, to understand that what God provides to us is what he thinks we can handle and work with. The value of what we posses through God is no greater or less then anything any one else has. In 1 Timothy we learn…

1 Timothy 6:5-10

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Coveting 1 and 2

1 - Beginning of Sin

Have you ever wondered what it is like in the biggest house on the street? Ever asked what kind of TV do they have? Said to yourself, look at the nice car they Drive… I wonder how much Money they make…I would like to live his or her life. Well this is what Eve did when she looked at the fruit on the tree, She asked her self…”I wonder what God knows? I bet to know what he knows would be amazing….”

Coveting was the beginning of sin in the world

Ge 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Her imagination and feelings were completely won over be the serpant; and the fall of Eve was soon followed by that of Adam. The history of every temptation, and of every sin, is the same; the outward object of attraction, the inward commotion of mind, the increase and triumph of passionate desire; ending in the degradation, slavery, and ruin of the soul www.biblestudytools.net/Commentaries/JamiesonFaussetBrown/jfb.cgi?book=ge&chapter=3#Ge3_6

If coveting is the beginning of Sin.. Can it lead us to other sin?

2 - Coveting leads to other sin

In what ways can covetness lead us to break the other commandments?

David, the man with the heart of God, his coveting leads to… Here is a man with a heart for the Lord…And the Devil got…

2 Sam 11: 2-3 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her.

(1) Do not commit Adultery….4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. Then [a] she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."

(2) Do not give false witness…6 So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house.

12 Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home.

(3) Do not Murder…14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."

(4) Do not Steal…Nathan to David… 4 "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him."

Coveting.... My latest lesson..

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Even his rubber ducky!!)

Chamad

to desire, covet, take pleasure in, delight in

(Qal) to desire

(Niphal) to be desirable

(Piel) to delight greatly, desire greatly n f

desirableness, preciousness

The 10th commandment forbids all wrong desire of having what will gratify ourselves or lead to selfish behavior. Anything that will lead us away from God’s provision. I find it interesting that God in the first commandment establishes his provision as the one and only God, in the 10th he gives us the understanding of what leads us away from his provision.

Not all desire is bad. Desire causes: capitalism, work, eat, drink, social etiquette. Desire to be with your friends, family, and wife. Desire causes us to work hard and dream.

1 Corinthians 9:10

10Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.

It is the desire that leads us outside of God’s provision that is wrong.

Every culture has a proverb of sort about covetousness:
ENGLISH: Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
AESOPE : Man killed the goose that laid the golden egg - "MUCH WANTS MORE AND LOSSES ALL"
SCOTTISH: "Covetous man never has enough until his mouth is filled with mold"
HINDU : "Mention money, even a corpse opens it mouth"
BUSINESS: "Follow the money trail"

What are some things we can covet other than material stuff and why do we Covet?

Time, Relationships, Knowledge, Power…

The effect of covetness on our lives can lead to…

M.G. Blankenship http://www.apostolic.edu/

COVETING IS NORMAL DESIRE GONE WRONG! -- THIS UNBALANCED AREA OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS WHAT WE CALL ORIGINAL SIN. Coveting is at the root of the carnal mind - inner principal of sin
Ephesians 2:2-3

2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

There are 5 things I came to understand about Coveting...Which I will post in parts later.

Prayer...

If you have time, watch the following 3 sermons from my church this weekend...

Everyone has questions on prayer, and this is about the best explanation I have ever heard...

http://www.southeastchristian.org/sermons/

You may have to scroll down to see the links for the previous week.
Not sure how long they will be up....

God reaches and stretches out for us....

...and we are lazy and nonchalant in reaching out for him.

A reminder...

God loves all his children, from every where to everyone....It is whether they choose to believe in the Saving Grace of his Son that is the question. Even Ghandi had the choice to believe in Christ.

Jesus said to his followers, to go teach and preach to all nations, so that they may hear the good news, and come to know of Gods saving grace. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Christ said it is better to never hear the Good news, than it is to hear and not believe.

He also commanded believers to go and preach to every nation the Good news.

We all know John 3:16... (I don't have the rainbow wig though)

What is not often quoted are the verses following...

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

May not be a standard of Christian denominations to teach this, but it is the truth

God is not a vending machine,

The price to commune with God is not prayer..

The price was hung on a Cross for us, so that we can live and commune with God forever. Prayer is the constant conversation and interaction we have with God.

We can not demand things from God. His will is what will be done, and it is that aspect of Faith in Him that is hard for people with out faith in Him to believe.

Prayer should be
Recognition... Our Father
Worship.. Holy is your name.
Understanding who is in control... Thy will be done, on earth and in heaven.
One of his providing our basic needs ... Give us our dally bread.
One of guidance.... Lead us not unto temptation,
Salvation... Deliver us from evil.
Adoration. For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever.

Use what ever words you want. Beyond how Jesus taught to pray we become demanding of God, and who are we to challenge and demand of him?

It is ok to pray for provision of Rain within God's will, or Financial needs within God's will... God will answer prayer, we just have to be prepared for the answer, because sometime his silence on the matter is an answer.

Demanding of God and not trusting his will, will leave a person disappointed...

God wants people to trust him, to know that he is in control. Sometimes we have to accept a NO from him, and move on, or see the other avenues he may be opening to you.

EXAMPLE: I have been praying for discernment about entering the ministry, basically asking God if it is in his will put the path in front of me if I am to go to Bible College. Now this is something I really want to do. God is not putting the answer in front of me as I would have hoped. He is however opening up other avenues for me to share my Faith and hope of salvation. If I had just closed myself up to his will, and keep on down the path on my own to Bible College, I may not have seen these other avenues open up. Avenues after further examination are just as appealing to meet my desire.

My selfish prayer to fulfill a desire to follow my own path will never be answered by God.

Prayer is effective as long as we are praying for things to be done with-in Gods will, prayer is ineffective if we pray demanding our selfish desires will be fulfilled.

Essence of prayer is a communication with God. This should be a constant thing, so a person knows if they are making the correct decisions, or looking for discernment on a decision. God's will or not he still gives us the freedom to make decisions on our own.

Heb 13:18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

2Th 1:11 To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power;

Pray without ceasing!

I am courious...

So I have got to thinking about this blog, and wonder how many people read it regularly. I personally know of 3 people, other than my wife that read the blog.

I have an Idea to propose for this blog, and want to know if people who read it would be interested.

On Sunday of every week, I would post a scripture reference and some questions about the scripture that I have or just general questions. The people reading the blog could then comment and answer the questions through out the week and on Thursday/Friday, I could post a follow up, combining answers and comments from everyone.

Just a thought to make this more interactive and a learning experience for everyone, including myself.

Let me know...

You shall have...

OK.... So this is an outline of what has consumed my time the past 2 weeks...

Slide 1

My question today is…Does the first commandment have as much weight for Christians, as it did for the Israelites?

I think to answer that question we have to deal with Who is God?

If you understood God would you be freaked out?
Like Flash are you God or think that you make God?
Or like the engineer is it a fantasy concept?

What is your concept of God?

Today we struggle much like the Israelites did with the question, Who is God?
Are we much different than the people coming out of Egypt, doubting God’s power to provide?
Who is this God that protects us loves us, and wants nothing more that to commune with us?

What are some ways that God daily declares who he is to you?

Slide 2
These same questions were being delt with by the Israelites

Look at what life was like in Egypt and Today…

Multiple God’s…. Today Multiple distractions.

Riches beyond imagine…. Today you name it you can buy it.

Even as slaves they did not want for anything… Living in poverty in America you live better than half the population of the world.

Why on earth would they want 1 God, when multiple was better? Why on earth do we today need a God as provider and to worship?

The people didn’t look to God as who rescued them, they saw Moses as there deliverer, and we do not look to God for help with our problems we look to Dr Phil or Oprah.

Slide 3

So we are talking about the Israelites today.

Sitting in this stadium are 100,000 people, according to a Harris poll 7,000 of them do not believe in God. One of the more intriguing findings is that not all people who call themselves Christians believe all the conventional Christian beliefs. For example, one percent of Christians do not believe in God, 8% do not believe in the survival of the soul after death, 7% do not believe in miracles, 5% do not believe in heaven, 7% do not believe in the Virgin birth and 18% do not believe in hell.

Now do the math for Israel. I think there is a chance that some of them did not know who God was. They were looking at Moses as being who freed them from Egypt not God. There were an estimated 600,000 men coming out of Egypt that is a lot of people who did not believe in God. For God 1 was too many.

It is no wonder God says….

Slide 4

Can these people not see what I have done for them. Led them out of Egypt, Sacrificed my Son. God has true and perfect emotion, and his aggravation with Israel and us must be at least an 8 out of 10 at this point.

So God, who created the world, us, everything in it, and watches over it; has to establish who he and what he wants from us in the first commandment first.

Coming out of Egypt, in the mixed up words.

A call to a Monotheism, many gods…to the One God.

God was not just to be the first among many, or put aside while we run off to fulfill a pleasure, he was and is to be the only God, and first in our thoughts.

Jesus taught in Mathew 4 as he echoed the first commandment, 4: 10 Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.

Slide 5

When God commands no other Gods he, wants to establish a relationship with his people. He wants them and us to trust in his provision. For so long he provided for them, and rescued them. Now he wanted to open himself to a relationship with his people. The only way for this relationship to develop was for Israel to forget what they knew of their life in Egypt, forget the many gods they worshiped and turn their eyes to the one true God. This required perfect love, reverence, obedience and worship.

Much the same way when we are born again into Christ we are to turn away from the ways of this world… Romans 2: 2 do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world.

Slide 6

But often we do not do this..

The problem …we hide from God we want to separate ourselves from God. Or as R.C. Sproul puts it we try to cover up who God is. We want to stay in the ways of Egypt and minimize who God is in our lives. In the 1st commandment God demands we put nothing in front of worshiping him.

And Paul says in Eph 4: 4-6, 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

What and why do we hide?

Slide 7

The possession of God in us.. To HAVE him….

James 2:19

19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder's

HAVE!!!!!!!!!! All the things God wants from us is in the word have…..

Slide 8

Hayah

5. to become 1a ---- TRANSFORMED

1. to become 1a

2. to become like 1a

3. to be instituted, be established

4. to be 1a

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

6. to exist, be in existence 1a --- Live With

2 Corinthians 6:16
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

7. to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time) 1a --- OBEY ALWAYS

1 John 2:3
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

8. to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality) 1a --- TO BE CONTENT

Job 36:11
If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.

9. to accompany, be with --- TO BE A Companion or Friend

James 2:23

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"[a] and he was called God's friend.

Slide 9

God wants to reveal himself to us.

Kyle - Perfect being, with a plan for life, that presides over all, and has the emotions to care as he presides.

35 turns 36

Had my birthday yesterday.... Turning 36...

Been an interesting year, and allot has happened over the past year.

So points of interest.

1. See my previous post for the big addition to the Family
2. I have become much more comfortable in my own skin. With God's help I no longer have to mask my emotions and can just be genuine about how I am feeling.
3. I have gained a much better understanding of the path God is leading me on. I have a feeling I will pursue some sort of way to teach. May be the ministry, may just be bible studies at church or elsewhere.
4. The relationship I have with Christ today continues to strengthen everyday. Just like any relationship it takes work and communication.
5. We live in a messed up world that we were not meant to live in. We were meant to live in perfection. God's grace gives us the hope of salvation.
6. I have come to understand that people that live outside the bounds of a righteous moral God because they don't want to accept something greater than themselves. Sin boils down to selfishness, and trying to have the pleasures God gives us outside the provision of God.
8. Hide the word of God in your heart. You never know when you are going to be in a place where you don't have access to the bible. Then need the comforting words or something to say to someone who is seeking or hurting.
9. God's will is Good, Pleasing and Perfect. Who are we to question or challenge him. Just ask Job....
10. God is God, we are not.. He is I AM.....

Favorite memory verse:
2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we may become the righteousness of God.

Well the past week has been busy...

If you are wondering why I haven't posted much this is why....
God has blessed my family with another arrow in my quiver. I just pray that God gives me the ability to raise this new little man.

Here is a picture of both the arrows that I have to aim... Sometimes I wonder why I am blessed as I am to be a Dad. I sometimes do not feel qualified at all. The nice thing is I know God my Father will be there to guide me.

I love them both so much, and pray that they see Christ in the way that I raise them...

I love them high, I love them low, I love them deep, I love them wide.. I love them, I love them...So Much...

Eph 17b-18 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Psalm 127 4-5 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.

5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

BABY DAY...

God, this is a day for you to take control. Let your light shine on the Dr's and Nurses as they deliver our new baby. Your will is great, perfect and pleasing.

I am so excited, as is my wife. I will post some more later...

Beep Beep Beep....

I interrupt the regularly scheduled blog posting to bring you this special message.

I haven’t used this blog to rant or post about things going on in the world, but 2 articles I read recently got me thinking about the priorities of the Church and the secular world.

Back in march I posted this:

My answer: God created us to love him, and gave us the ability to have faith in him because of the love he shows us. I do not believe it to be an accident, nor did we adapt to need it.

Well, we are also made to love, serve God, and serve others.

Recently there was a thread on a discussion board, about the new Creation museum in Kentucky.

Here is the article from Yahoo http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070526/us_nm/usa_museum_dc

On the same discussion board some one also posted this article about the search for life on other planets: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18882098?GT1=9951

As I read and even posted to these threads, a thought struck me. What in the heck are we doing? Why in the world is anyone spending money on this stuff?

Let me say here I am all for the rights of the people that opened the museum, and spend their money on alien research. What I don’t get is with all the other stuff going on in the world, couldn’t this money be spent better elsewhere.

In the case of the people who are searching for aliens: 12.5 million donated. Dawkins has said (Paraphrased) we are part of the cosmos and all that is the cosmos is in us, and all that is in us is the cosmos. He also said that we may not want to search for Aliens because when we find them we will not be special anymore. I believe selfishness is driving this. I think these people do not want to believe that there is something or someone greater than themselves, that there is more to live for than the pleasures of this world, and that we are a unique creation in this universe. They do not want to have to think that they will ultimately answer for their actions, so they look for every way to discredit the existence of God or a Creator.

As for the people opening the creation museum (and I do agree with the premise of the museum) they do not get off easy ether. I have to ask the question of the people that opened it. Do you think Jesus would worry about the impact of the museum, or would he rather you act and do as he taught? How far would that 26 million go to stop hunger? I do not know the answers to these questions per say, but I do know that my savior is about serving the poor in spirit and saving the lost. I just do not see how this can be done charging almost 20 dollars a ticket to see what can be read in any bible. I just think that some in the Church are loosing site of “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

Now as I understand it most of the money for both projects is from private donations:

Compassion International has people sponsor poor children from around the world for about 30 dollars a month is. 38.5 million /30 dollars a month could sponsor 1.3 million children.

For the people looking for aliens they would have to admit there is something bigger and that we are unique, and made to serve others not our own self interests.

For the people who opened the museum: I can not think of one story in the bible where Jesus healed or served someone after he told them the good news of salvation. Love them first then tell them why you love them. Let Jesus change the heart, then you can show them the bible for free, and then they can develop a relationship with God.

I will now return you to the regularly scheduled blog.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Power..

God's power is unlimited, the Bible is a complete revelation of his creation plan and will, but we can not fully comprehend his power.

The path to him is narrow, and the path is open to EVERYONE. It is people who come out against the Narrow road that limit the power of God's sacrifice of his Son, and his willingness to love and forgive EVERYONE because of that sacrifice.

Mathew 7 :13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Faith begins with the begining and comes from inside...

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

"If you can believe the first line of the bible, you can believe everything else in it" Bob Russell retired Sr Minister SECC
_____________

The Holy spirit is physically put into us through the supernatural powers of God. Christ gave of himself with his whole body, as Dr Crabb puts it, "The idea of an eager bridegroom entering His bride to produce His fruit in her..." Think about that image for a second, and you can see that man has so distorted what is meant to be a beautiful embrace between God and Man. Love him, and he will love you in ways you cannot imagine and can not be experienced with human relationships.

John 14
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[c] in you.

Some early Sunday thoughts….

For DC class I have been reading Inside Out by Dr Larry Crabb, and the current train of thought is this…

1. We were created for and to live in perfection. We were meant to walk and talk with God. God meant for us to have not only a perfect relationship with him but also with each other.
2. Sin has ruined that perfection. It introduced imperfections deep into our being all the way to the building block of life, DNA. We struggle with not having that perfection. We long for the fulfillment of that perfection.
3. Every pleasure we seek, is us trying to achieve the perfection that we were meant to live in. Every relationship we seek is us trying to find that perfect relationship that God meant for him and us to have.
4. God’s creation is perfection he knows it, we do not trust him. We will not see that perfection again until we see his face. Then we will find pleasure and relationships that fill every empty spot in our soul from the “Inside Out”
   

Oh God I pray that the Church wakes up to this soon does your will and seeks perfection through you and only you. Not through the empty pleasures and relationships of the world. God you are the only one who can provide what we were truly made for; YOU!!!!

God Knows our hearts....

God knows the secrets of our hearts.

Psalm 44: 20- 21

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?

The other day in DC class I was talking about the light of Christ and I said: Christ’s light is not meant to shine on us, it is meant to shine from with in us. If the Spirit is indwelling in our heart and soul, then we will let that light out. When we let that light out it is when God knows us for who we are, His Child.

Mathew 5: 14-16 14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

If we live as light we do what is pleasing to God, and will expose everything to God.

Eph 5: 8-13 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,

God wants us to know he did not intend for us to live in this imperfect world. And we groan and long for the salvation of Christ so that we can live with him again as we were suppose to in the Garden of Eden. If we are not careful, if we do not expose our whole heart to God, and if we let our heart be affected by this world, God will not know us for who we. We will be separate form God.

Eph 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

-------------------------
Stay tuned if you are reading.... I plan to change direction a bit with the blog. I plan to work from a much more personal aspect. I will make this more of a personal Journal... Maybe some prayers, or quick thoughts for the day.... If something strikes me as I read the Bible I will put it in... My goal will be to post at least a 3 times each week.

Does God know your heart?

The word “heart” appears in the NIV Bible 743 times. So it would seem to be important to God.

In Genesis 6 it is how he recognizes the wickedness and evil of man…

Gen 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

This Wickedness and evil has made our hearts disobedient to God…

Eph 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

In Acts he see that God knows the heart, and purifies it by our faith…

Acts 15:8-9 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.

But for God to see our hearts filled with the spirit we have to believe in the word of truth.

Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

Once we choose to receive the spirit we become known and become members of the house of God.

Eph 2: 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,

But if we remain in our wicked ways, and do not prepare our selves God will not know our hearts, because they are not prepared, and we will be left on the outside.

Mathew 26:10-12 "But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' 12 "But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

Do not think like the unprepared virgins, that you can only give part of your life to God, and that be enough for Him to know your heart. Do not say, I will do these things here which are pleasing to God, and leave other things unattended. God knows the heart and only he knows when a believer has fully committed every aspect of his life to Christ.

You must let God see your heart, by shining your light, and then God will know you as one of His own. That light is lit by the Oil and Fire of the Holy Spirit.

More... Later....

God one in three...

To me God has made himself into 3 persona . Father, Son, and Holy Spirit , that together form the GODHEAD. Each persona has a different roll in a persons faith. But they all come from God and are God.

God the Father created all things. His Son came to earth with the full power of his Father to spread the word of his Fathers salvation and be the ultimate sacrifice. The Spirit is the full power of God that was given to the Disciples to heal, and spread the word The Spirit is given to followers today for comfort and help them spread the gospel.

They have all been there from the beginning....In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Then in Genesis we hear about the Breath of God (the Spirit) going out over the waters... And then in John we hear that Christ was there when the earth was created: In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh.

Can he be Omniscient?... Father yes... Omnipresent?.. Jesus...Yes Omnipotent?... Spirit...Yes

I will add this from C.S Lewis...

"His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say 'God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,' you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words 'God can.'... It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God."
– C.S. Lewis

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."
- C.S. Lewis

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable."
-C. S. Lewis

Testimony

I can’t think of a time that I didn’t know who Christ was. I was raised in a Catholic family and went through 12 years of Catholic schools. Although I stopped going to church after high school, if I was asked about my faith I always said I believed in Christ. However, I did not have a relationship with God and did not act like I believed.

Pride consumed me, being the center of attention meant everything, I was selfish, I was not very confident, and often doubted if I would accomplish anything.

That all started to change about 6 years ago with my in-Laws. They were never pushy about their faith, and we always went to Church with them when we would visit Louisville. I often said I would be willing to attend their church if we ever moved to there.

Well, do to layoffs at my work, my employer asked me to move to Louisville. Once we got settled my wife and I started attending church with my in-laws. I loved the worship music and sermons. I even started attending Saturday morning bible studies. My wife and I worked in the nursery, and church became part of our lives. We were baptized shortly after. I was hooked. Or was I? That seems to be the problem; I had still not really let God into my heart.

Then in Oct. 2002 my Dad was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent surgery in May 2003, and almost died on the table. My world went into a tailspin for the next few years.

I never stopped believing in God during this time, but I had failed to let him into my heart. I had numerous failed attempts to read my bible on a regular basis. Worship music that I loved became noise in the background. I was asking every time I remembered to pray, “God just move me, help me, feed me something....” My dad died July 9^th 2004.

So a little over 2 years ago I wrote these words, “You see, God gave us all plenty of time, and it is how we choose to use the time that can make a difference in our lives and the lives of others.”

It was the day after my Dad died. I knew I wanted to speak at his funeral, and that was the first sentence that I typed. As I sat there and thought about my Wise, Unselfish, Caring, Protecting, and Loving Dad, I wrote about how he valued the time he had on this earth, and used his time to be who he was, Dad. I also wrote this that same day, “Thank you Dad for taking the time. Thank you God for giving us a Dad who took the time.”

I was struggling with the thoughts of having lost my Dad, and I was slipping back into an old pattern of self doubt. I didn't think I had what it took to make a difference.

One night last spring God broke through. As I lay in bed, tears in my eyes, my wife trying to comfort me, the words hit me... It is OK.... What? What do you mean ok? It is OK.... What? To sit here and blubber like an idiot? It is OK... What? To lose sleep night after night trying to figure out if I will ever..... Ever what? IT IS OK.... To be mad that you can't turn to your Dad, it is OK to be sad that he won't be there when you walk into the house... It is OK to be happy... Happy what do you mean happy? It is OK to live your life. It is OK to stretch your limits, and be the man God wants you to be.... God was telling me IT IS OK....

I now have a different perspective on time.

Now I can say: Thank you God for giving me the time. God gave me time to heal.

God changed my heart, and this was the start of my personal relationship with God.

I feel a fire burning that fills me, guides me and tells me every morning, IT IS OK, I am with you...

Now how I lead my family and look at other people can only come from having Christ in my heart. I find myself doing things for others that I would have never done before, because I have also taken the focus off me and put it on Christ. What I know now is that Dad, even while dying of cancer was being Jesus to others, because he too had a relationship with Jesus.

Now I spend time with God every morning. As I walk through my house in the darkness of morning the knowledge I have of the house guides me so I don’t stub my toe. As I walk through this world of darkness God's word guides me so I do not fall. Sometimes though, as I walk through this world I will stub my toe.

God allows and knows I will fail, but he sacrificed His Son for all of us, so that we can get back up looking for Him to help us. He also gives us the power of the Spirit to enable us to succeed in overcoming our sin nature. When we succeed He celebrates with us, and is proud of us. I am now privileged to have a relationship that allows me to walk in the Light of the Word, confident in the salvation of Jesus Christ.