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
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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.

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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.

What Isaiah knew before we did....HAVE A BLESSED EASTER

Isaiah53 2b-12 The easter story told some 700 years before the life of Jesus....

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression ^[a] and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken. ^[b]

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes ^[c] his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life ^[d] and be satisfied ^[e] ;
by his knowledge ^[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, ^[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong, ^[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

Go build a boat...

When God says go you go.

Sometimes I find myself asking this questions. You want me to do what? Sometimes Gods instructions don’t make since. Look what he said to Noah.

Genesis 6: 14-18

14 So make yourself an ark of cypress ^[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. ^[d] 16 Make a roof for it and finish ^[e] the ark to within 18 inches ^[f] of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

Now you have to understand, Noah lived in the middle of no where, miles from water, and God wanted him to build a boat in his back yard. Now this was not a weekend handy man project. He was not going to the local hardware store and find a kit. The scale of the Ark for that time was staggering, and there not being a lot of world travelers back then, boats/ships of this size were not common on the waters.

Genesis 6: 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

However, Noah obeys God as he always did. (I often wonder what kind of tools Noah had to invent to make God’s ark? He didn’t have 40 position table saws, jig saws, electric screwdrivers, or a Home Depot close.) So here is Noah in his back yard building something that not may people had seen, much less understood why he was building this boat for miles.

It took Noah 120 years to build the ark. God had to provide a lot for Noah here, but the main thing was trees…. I picture a forest clear cut for miles. Stumps upon stumps upon stumps. What a scene it must have been, when his friends walked by and wondered what he was doing. Those were his friends, but what about the people who did not know God. They must have thought Noah was just plain crazy. However, when God say’s build a boat, Noah took God for his word and built a boat, and for a very good reason.

Genesis 7: 11-12

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

What kind of boat is God asking me to build? Well, first it is to lead and raise a Godly family, centered on the Love of Christ, something that is becoming rarer in these days. Often people look at Godly family’s and try to figure out what they are doing, and wonder why they act or do what they do. When was the last time a TV show depicted a Godly family?

Also, God is calling me more and more to lead. Where he wants me to lead, and who is very much up in his hands; But, I know that me being a God made man is rare, and I hope that my relationship with Christ can shine and lead other men to the Jesus that I know.

1 Thes 4: 11-12 Make it your ambition to lead a quite life, mind your own business, and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Dig...

Mark 2: 4-5
4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." (Emphasis added)

We have to dig through the grime and dirt of our life to see Christ. Faith should drive you to do what ever you can to be close to Jesus. So much faith that you will dig through what ever barrier stands in your way to get to him.

MV for the week:
1 Thes 4:11-12
Make it your ambition to lead a quite life, minding your own business, and working with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

This is just to neat... Enjoy....

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/470445/jesus_painting/

The Fall and Sin of Man ruined God's perfect plan...

I look at the effects of all SIN this way...

In the Garden of Eden before the fall there was no Rot or Rust, and God walked daily in the Garden with Adam and Eve. The Garden was God's perfect dwelling place on earth. After the sin we were separated from God, and the rot of sin, and the rot of nature entered the world, once it became about "ME" and "US" and not God.

God by his Grace gives us a way to escape the Rot of sin... but we have to leave ALL things that God calls sin behind…We need to seek that personal relationship with God, it is by God's grace alone that we leave sin behind.

Also it is not up to us as Christians to judge a person’s actions, God’s is the judge of our faith and sin. All we can do is point out in love what sin is, pray that God opens the eyes for the sinner to see their error, do our best to live as an example using Christ as our model, and let God sort us all out in the end.

II Tim 4:21 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

Romans 12: 1-2 Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God...This is your spritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform anylonger to the paterns of this world, but be trasformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to approve and test what God's will is. His good pleasing and perfect will.

Evolving God?...No..Loving God?... Yes

The not so new fight to remove God from our lives continues, with the evolutionists. This article in the NYTimes tries to lay out an argument that our need to believe in God evolved from a need to believe in the supernatural or something greater than ourselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/magazine/04evolution.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

The fundamental question in the article is this:

Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity?

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.

Yes it is a simple answerer... But Faith as simple as a child is what Christ taught.

Mark 10:15
15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."


And also in the article is this…

And one prominent member of the byproduct camp, Justin Barrett, is an observant Christian who believes in “an all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly good God who brought the universe into being,” as he wrote in an e-mail message. “I believe that the purpose for people is to love God and love each other.”

At first blush, Barrett’s faith might seem confusing. How does his view of God as a byproduct of our mental architecture coexist with his Christianity? Why doesn’t the byproduct theory turn him into a skeptic?

“Christian theology teaches that people were crafted by God to be in a loving relationship with him and other people,” Barrett wrote in his e-mail message. “Why wouldn’t God, then, design us in such a way as to find belief in divinity quite natural?” Having a scientific explanation for mental phenomena does not mean we should stop believing in them, he wrote. “Suppose science produces a convincing account for why I think my wife loves me — should I then stop believing that she does?”

Whether proven by science or not, God made this earth based on his own design and plan. We are made to seek him, and build a relationship with him; Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

The more I listen to what is going on in the world the more I realize it is not God’s plan. Evolution is a product of the world view that does not want to give God the credit for this beautiful world we live in, and wants to remove God and therefore morality from our lives. It is the ways of the world that are leading us further and further from the will of God. Paul when writing to the believers of Rome said:

Romans 12: 1-2 1 Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God...This is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the plans of this world, instead be transformed through the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve God's will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

God wants us to live our lives through him, and what better way to live in this world than through the God who made it and us.....

Cleave

Ge 2:24
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

A followup based on a comment posted. In the KJV the word used is cleave, NIV United, NAS Joined, all 3 are translated as follows...

Hebrew word: qbd translated word: Dabaq
Phonetic daw-bak' Verb

Definition
to cling, stick, stay close, cleave, keep close, stick to, stick with, follow closely, join to, overtake, catch
(Qal)
to cling, cleave to
to stay with
(Pual) to be joined together
(Hiphil)
to cause to cleave to
to pursue closely
to overtake
(Hophal) to be made to cleave

Used 54 Times in the KJV: cleave 32, follow hard 5, overtake 3, stick 3, keep fast 2, ...together 2, abide 1, close 1, joined 1, pursued 1, take 1

Tipically hebrew writing has one word for each meaning. And there is no reference I can find were they used Dabaq to mean dividing...

Dividing or Divide was a separate word: Baqa` Pronounced: baw-kah' Which intersting enough has cleave in its definition, but is only used once to

to split, cleave, break open, divide, break through, rip up, break up, tear
(Qal)
to cleave, cleave open
to break through, break into
(Niphal)
to be cleft, be rent open, be split open
to be broken into
(Piel)
to cleave, cut to pieces, rend open
to break through, break down
(Pual)
to be ripped open, be torn open
to be rent
to be broken into
(Hiphil)
to break into
to break through
(Hophal) to be broken into (Hithpael) to burst (themselves) open, cleave asunder

Used 52 times ... breached 3, break 4, break forth 1, break through 1, breaks forth 1, breaks open 1, broke open 1, broke through 2, broken 3, burst 2, burst open 1, cleaved 1, dashed to pieces 1, divide 1, divided 4, forth 1, hatch 2, hews 1, invaded 1, make for ourselves a breach 1, rip 1, ripped 1, ripped open 2, shook 1, split 7, split open 1, splits 1, tear 1, tore 2, torn 2

What do I get from this. When God talks about something being joined or put together he uses, Daw-Bak. The writes of King James used the word cleave which yes has two meanings in our languages. I believe based on the Hebrew looking at NIV and NAS, united or joined seems to be a better fit.

But I appreciate cleave (KJV) being used in this since though. It is a more dramatic word, and brings to mind a picture of one person holding fast to the other so as not to fall or be devided.

www.biblegateway.net was used for the word study.....

Leading a Marriage, Serving a wife.

OK. I know I know I haven’t blogged in awhile, busy is not an excuse it is the truth. Well now that I have broadband at home I can keep up better.

Well the past 8 weeks in DC we have covered Fellowship, The Tongue, Unity, Conflict and Marriage.

The Marriage topic is one that holds my attention. 1) I am married 2) Marriage for a man is the true definition and practice of leadership. So here are my thoughts….

No the first thing you are going to ask when you read Ephesians below is; WHERE IS THE SUBMIT? And yes Wives submit to your husbands is important, but did you know that God gave the husband more instructions in Ephesians, than he did the wife.

EPH 5:25-31
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…

How did Christ love the church? He served it and sacrificed for it ultimately giving his life.

26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless

If I lead as I should she will follow me to Christ, ensuring her salvation to God. Husbands are to lead their wives to Christ by example.

28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.

Pretty self explanatory; Husbands are to care and provide for their wives just as they would care for themselves. No only in the physical sense, but also spiritually. Husbands are responsible to make sure their wife’s faith is growing, and her relationship with God becomes stronger.

31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.” Paul is drawing from Genesis, which in the The King James translation says:

Genesis
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

First leave, old ways behind, and make new your relationship with your wife, and unite (CLEAVE), to her. When I think of the word cleave I think of holding on to something as tight as I can, so tight that the hold can’t be broken.

To unite in one flesh has finality to it. One can not be divided, if you do divide one you have fractions or pieces. As C.S. Lewis described it, a lock and a key are one mechanism, a bow and a violin one instrument. Only, those pieces together can make one. Niva is the Hebrew word for one. Meaning: Only one. or Echad in Greek: for Only once, or a certain. To become only one certain flesh.

So now back to Submit…. Instead of thinking about it as the dirty word the world has made it, think of it this way. See, to lead is to serve, to be humble, thinking of others better than you. Phil 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than your selves.

And so if husbands lead their wives in that fashion, they are not submitting to a tyrannical leader, no they are submitting to being served by there husbands. Eph 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

God places so much value on Marriage that he gave Christ’s relationship with the church, as a model for the relationship of the husband and wife.

Here is what I wrote for my wife on Valentines day….

Dawn,

I just wanted to take a second to tell you how in love I am with you.

I know I tell you everyday that I love you, but I hope you know that it is so much more than words that I express.

I can not think of where my life would be today with out you there every step of the way. I truly believe we are united by God and that covenant can not be broken.
Genesis 24: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
God has truly blessed me, he knew it was not good for me to be alone, and I pray daily for him to continue to strengthen our marriage.
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
You are a wonderful wife and mother, and I am excited to be able to raise our children with you.
You’re Loving Husband

Ikanoo

It was good to get back to class today. The group is blessed by two good leaders, and the men in the group are picking up where we left off. God truly is amazing, and is doing amazing things with our group of men.

So I started reading through Colossians today, and God put me in a box. The verse that got me is: Col 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

I started to wonder what he Paul meant by qualified. So I decided to do a word study on it.

Qualified comes from the Greek, ikanoo, meaning:
1. to make sufficient, render fit
a. to equip one with adequate power to perform duties of one

Also used in 2 Co 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Digging deeper ikanoo comes from ikanoß meaning :
1. sufficient
a. many enough, enough
b. sufficient in ability, i.e. meet, fit

Because God qualified us through his Son, he gave us the Sprit so that we can be competent in the teaching of his word. He wants to equip us with is word, that is more the adequate, to be men of God.

MV Week 2: Eph 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.