Words

James 3:8-10

but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

2- For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

Words. As kids we used to say “sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me.” How much of a lie is this?? Words can have such an impact on our lives. They can build us up or they can tear us down. We can be told we are worth something and have purpose and that we can succeed and we will more likely feel that we can do these things. However, if someone tells us that we are stupid, not worth anything, that we are in the way, losers, and so much more, we begin to believe it and these thoughts take hold in our minds so easily. WORDS HOLD POWER BEHIND THEM. How do we use this tool? Do we bridle this tool and use it with great discretion? Do we allow ourselves to say things without thinking? The tongue, just like anything else, can be used for good or evil. But, how do we use it? Do we use it for God’s glory at church or chapel, singing praises, but we leave and cuss as someone cuts us off or we complain about how terrible our life is, or we complain about our family or friends or not getting what we want? How often do we interrupt someone as they are pouring themselves out to us? How often do we say something like “I will pray for you” then walk away and forget? How often do we make promises then never intend to fulfill them? How often are we completely fine with deceiving our parents so that we won’t get in trouble? Or how often do we lie to our friends about what we have done, so that they won’t look at us differently? With the same mouth that sings praises to God, we do all these things daily at times. 

Complaints. Life can be so difficult. So many problems can rise up at once. Everything can fall from around us. We feel like God has abandoned us. So, at these times we have a few choices; cry out, hitting our knees, knowing that if we seek God we will find Him, and begging for Him to restore us, to develop us; to rebel, we can just say that God is not there for us and we will no longer follow Him because He does not care; we can deal with it on our own, this won’t always work out, many times we get out of it by God’s grace, but believe that we got out by ourselves; or we can complain, telling God how bad everything is, complaining to friends about our problems, letting our problems take our eyes off of God because they are so huge, unlike God is in our minds. What do we do? What should we do? Family, we need to be people that hit our knees seeking our King. When times get tough, where do we turn? 

Cussing. What comes out of our mouth can de a huge descriptor of who we are. If we talk about sports, we are likely athletic. If we speak about music, we are involved in music or really enjoy it. But how often do our words reflect our God? How often do we talk about Him, about His Word, about how great He is, like Him? But how often are we found using words like cuss words or words of complaint or words of gossip? Does this reflect our God? If we are children of God, our actions and words reflect Him, do these cuss, complaints, criticisms, and gossip bring Him glory?

Gossip. We are ONE body. We are children of God. Yet, so often we are quick to bash on fellow believers, to share their private news, to talk about someone. We need to listen to I Thessalonians 4:11 stating, “that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” We need to not desire to hear or speak about others, rather to focus on developing ourselves and not spreading news of others that is none of our business.

Words of belittlement. How can we walk around and bash on people for what they do and be ok with it? WHY are we able to do this might be the better question. This is a direct reflection of our heart and attitude. We need to encourage and love on people, REGARDLESS of what they have done, what they look like, or who they are. Jesus LOVED. We need to follow His example. 

Our words are a direct reflection of our core self, do they glorify the One we claim to follow? If not, time to change that or decide who we really serve...

Blessings

Guilty Like Others

James 2

1-My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

10-For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 

How often do we build up stereotypes about who needs the gospel, who will get it, who won’t get it from me, and who is too far out from it to have it ever mean anything? We see the guy with all the tattoos on him, including his face, with piercings everywhere, that has his girlfriend all over him, and he looks like he can kill you and might if you talk to him, or we see the homeless person that smells and has nothing, but we assume its a scam because we have seen and heard of so many scammers that we no longer trust any of them. How often do we act as if these people don’t need the gospel, or aren’t worthy of it? Well the fact is, they aren’t worthy of it. BUT NEITHER ARE YOU!!! You are a sinner. You have fallen short of the glory of God- Romans 3:23. Guess what, if you break one part of the Law, you have broken it all, that includes intentions and thoughts also. God demands HOLINESS, not for you to be better than another Christian or some other sinner. He does not grade as a class, just off your individual performance. But you failed, you needed a Savior because you were going to end up in hell, eternal punishment, because of what you did. You failed time and time again, God provided an offer of forgiveness and it would mean that no matter what you did, you were saved. YOU STILL MESSED UP TIME AND TIME AGAIN! Yet, God forgave you instead of just being just and sending you to hell after one mistake, He has such a great compassion and mercy on us, we don’t even comprehend it, we take it for granted every day. Family, we must appreciate what God has done for us. We were unworthy, we did not deserve his sacrifice, but He provided it for us. So next time we see that person caught up in drugs, or sexual sin, or that smells or talks funny, instead of feeling like you are better than them, realize that you have been forgiven of so much, you were in their position, empty, lost, needing a Savior, and you received it, why shouldn’t they? Why should you not be the vessel used to pour out God’s love and tell of His forgiveness, bringing Him glory? We are all in need of a Savior and have been forgiven of a debt that we could not pay, we were completely undeserving of being forgiven. Let’s not act like we are better than anyone else because they have a similar debt and need the same Savior we did.

We all have the same core needs

Blessings

Active Listeners

James 1:22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

This is such a rich chapter, if you have a chance family, check it out. 

James, the half brother of Jesus Christ. James, the man who refers to himself as a slave of Jesus Christ in the opening verse. James, a man who had refused to believe that his brother was the Messiah, only to fall to his knees later in realization. James throws out some hefty challenges to believers. James seriously drops some heavy stuff on anyone who calls themselves a disciple of God, a Christian. The verses listed above were some of the most impacting verses I know of in this book. “Be doers of the Word, not just hearers.” Do we just take in, never to apply or share? The Bible does us no good if it is not believed and applied in our life. If we hear all the verses on Christ’s forgiveness and sacrifice and on how we need to be like God and be holy and how we Christians just have to love everyone and trust God, but yet we never are willing to actually to apply these principles, these commands, in our lives, what good does it do? If we hear/read verses on purity (any type of purity, not just sexual purity), but we are excited about sin, or even just not willing to give it up, what good does that do to us? What type of faith are we living out? What does that say about our God? That we are too good for His commands but just live off His grace? That we take advantage of the King of Kings who holds the Universe in His hands? Christian, let it not be so in your life. Whether it be Jesus restating the commandments of loving God first with our everything and loving our neighbors as ourselves in Matthew 22, or whether it be a verse speaking on unity of the church and not abandoning fellowship as a body of believers, we must have every part of the Bible be applied, we must seek to do it. Not because works save us, but because works are a sign of our faith. Faith without works is dead, works without faith are well intentioned but pointless. Faith and works go hand in hand. Jesus did not just say that He is God and leave it at that with nothing to prove it, no, He demonstrated that He was God through the life He lived, the words He spoke, and the example He led. Paul did not just say he was a Christian, he lived it out! He applied the fact that he was unworthy to be allowed to know such a perfect and holy God, but yet God had grace on Him and gave him a purpose and meaning. Paul lived that purpose out. Family, what do we do with the words of God? When the Bible is being read, at church, by a friend, or personally, do we just skim over it, only half paying attention, willing to forget what we learned. We will not remember it unless we put forth the effort to remember it. James tells us that if we apply the Word to our lives, it won’t be easy, we must persevere. God will get us through it though if we focus on Him and not the storm. 

Be doers, not just hearers

Blessings

Unchangeable

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

I change all the time. My likes and dislikes. My passions. My priorities. My promises. My maturity. So many things are not permanent. Thankfully there is always room to improve because that is what I need to do. I am never where I need to be or even where I want to be. I have so much going on in life that so often I feel that I can’t even keep track of it. I make promises I don’t keep. I mess up time after time. I have lived for pleasure one day and God the next. The fact that I change though is not a bad thing though. What I do with the change is what can be bad. If I live in a manner that rebels against the King, then I am utilizing the ability to change for evil. But, thanks to God and His amazing sacrifice for me, I can change for the better. I always have potential to do better in life. To be the person that I want to be, but most importantly the man that God desires me to be. That is such a sweet opportunity. To be able to change from a criminal (because sin is committing treason against God and the punishment is death), and become a new person, adopted by that King, given the chance to be a completely different person, the way I was designed to be. The reason I bring this up, is 1-to say that it is never too late to turn from your sin and start fresh. God would love it. and 2- because GOD NEVER CHANGES HIS MIND ABOUT ALLOWING THIS CHANGE TO HAPPEN IN US! That is so amazing that God, the Creator, the Savior, the KING, allows us to change and be a new creation in Him, and He doesn’t change His mind about it. He doesn’t just decide one day that the people that followed Him are no longer His children, that they are no longer saved. He means it when you are saved. God, who is merciful, loving, perfect, holy, almighty, all knowing, always there, He can perfectly relate to anything you are going through, and He does not change His mind about you and how much He loves you as His child. This does not mean to take advantage of His grace, because that is a demonstration of a lack of love towards Him. It shows that you truly don’t care about what He has done for you. You are not disgusted with your sin, instead, you love it when you have this attitude.

Our God never changes. He will never let you down, He will NEVER leave you. He is always there for you and always loves you. Give yourself to Him.

Blessings 

Seek and You Will Find

Jeremiah 33:3

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Matthew 7:7

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

These verses are some of the greatest promises in the Bible. The opportunity to be able to know the King in a real way, an intimate way is so great. That if we look for the King of the Universe, we will find Him. Do we understand what this means? Really? We have the ability and privilege to know the One who created us, who is above everything, who holds the universe in His hands, who came and lived a perfect life, died a horrific death to redeem us, rose again, and He will reign for all eternity. WE CAN KNOW THIS GOD. We boast that as Christians, we can know our Creator in a real relationship, but how many of us really take advantage of this? How many of us actually seek God with all of our heart, soul, mind, strength, energy, OUR LIFE? Christian, as a follower of God should you not passionately seek the one you follow? Should you not know the King of your life? Should you not love your redeemer who saved you from an eternity of punishment? I pray that we all look at this and feel conviction, because none of us are where we need to be. We are perfect, we make mistakes, but we all need to grow, we all need to seek Him more. Family, are we seeking God with all of our heart? Are we hitting our knees in prayer, crying out to Him, seeking His face? We can talk with Him at any time, but so often we never truly take Him up on this offer? He desires to talk to you, HE WANTS TO REVEAL HIMSELF TO YOU. Family, maybe the reason why life is so tough, it has such a tiring effect on us, why it never makes sense, never has certainty, why it destroys us, why sin has such a power over us, all this can be because we don’t seek God with our everything, we hold onto that sin, we put that passion above God. Why do we not just simply seek Him with our everything? We discussed faith earlier and how it is a full commitment to give Him everything in our life, to fully trust that He is God and has control over our lives. Do we have faith like this? Why not? What is holding us back from that faith? What is it that controls our life? What has power over us? Think about this and pray about it family. This is so important to do. WE MUST BE A PEOPLE THAT SEEKS THE KING WITH ALL WE ARE.

Think about this family, what do you seek more, God or sin/ yourself? We go days without God, but can’t go a day without sin. This NEEDS TO CHANGE!

I pray that God completely impacts the core of our life today on from this passionate seeking of Him.

Blessings family

Broken Chains

We all serve something.. We are slaves to something.. What we serve is what matters.. We can only serve one master as I pointed out in “Sin” and “One Master.” I truly believe that we are held by our desires and our lusts more than we will admit. I think that we don’t believe that we can be free from our addiction, so we don’t try to escape. We have let our past reign over us and tell us that we can never be better than that sin. It echoes in our head, never letting us forget what we did. It begins to separate us from God, because we don’t believe that He can save us from it. We don’t believe that we are worth it. Though we do not deserve His sacrifice, He sees us as worth it. He values you and me so greatly that He wanted to die for us. He wanted to be able to have an intimate relationship with us. I have found myself caught up in my sin.. Not wanting an escape from it. Growing further and further away from God. Disgusted with myself but unwilling to change. Unhappy with everything about my life, but not feeling that change would be worth it. I felt as if I would never be able to escape from my sin, my addiction, my master. I looked at verses like Philippians 4:13 and didn’t believe them. “Through God I can do all things” is what the verse says, but I felt that escaping from addiction was the exception. I felt as if that verse only meant something along the lines of healings, angels appearing, old testament miracles, I never believed that it meant that I could escape from my sin. The thing that clung onto me so tightly. I was so wrong. God took me when I was broken beyond belief, I was beaten down, rejected, and felt so alone. He took me then and knew that I was done trying to fight. I began to see the way that God views sin to an extent. I began to understand His will for my life and only that He satisfies. Though I knew these things, I never believed them. It was never real to me. It never changed my life. I pray family, that you are not where I was. That you are not feeling like you have no escape from sin, that you are alone, that you will never be any better than what you were, that you are not worth Christ’s sacrifice. Family, I hope and pray that regardless of where you are in your walk, how big or how little amounts of sin you have, that you just completely give it to God. We are not meant to only give Him parts of our lives, He wants all of it. The verse “my grace is perfected in your weakness” rings true in my life. I have seen it. I know that God has used my brokeness and weakness and inability to do much well on my own for His glory. But family, I want to challenge you that you realize that you are not held captive by your sins anymore, you are not held to those thoughts that race through your mind, you are not a slave of sin anymore, you are a servant of the King, bought with a high price. Why then is it we so easily forget this and so willingly run back to our chains in sin? 

This week I received a question from someone asking why they loved their sin and what would happen to them if they died right now, loving their sin instead of God? They felt great not having that authority over them, only seeking their own pleasure. This is the mentality of our world right now. That they don’t care whether it is right or wrong, but that there is pleasure involved. Many of us are even caught in this mindset. Many Christians have been taken captive by this type of thinking. They think that they can sin and then repent and then sin again and go back and repeat this cycle till they are sick of that sin. Family, is this Christianity? Seeking pleasure, abusing the forgiveness of God to willingly return to that sin... NO! This is not Christianity, this is hypocrisy. This is where I was many times. Though we are all hypocrites, this is a lukewarm person. The type that Revelations 3:16 speaks of. God is repulsed by these people. If God is repulsed with an attitude, should we not run to that attitude? Family, we must be careful of this mindset. Sin is not ok! Sin is not fine with God. He knows our troubles, He knows our weakness, but this does not give us permission to abuse His grace! Though I do not judge one’s soul, only God can, I feel that “Christians” that find themselves loving sin more than God must seriously check their lives. No more spiritual splits. Time to take a side. I pray you choose forgiveness and direction and love and purpose. I pray that we no longer allow sin to have any reign in our lives. Family, can we begin this today? Working towards the goal set before us, not letting sin hold us back, not allowing addiction to keep puling us in, instead realizing that we are forgiven and God has broken our chains of addiction and freed us IF we follow Him. 

Family, let’s be a generation that lives 100% for our King, every single day.

Blessings

Holiness

Holiness

J.C. Ryle in his book Holiness says that “we have too often been content with zeal for orthodoxy, and have neglected the sober realities of daily practical godliness.... There has been of late years a lower standard of personal holiness among believers than there used to be in the days of our fathers. The result is that the Spirit is grieved! and the matter calls for much humiliation and searching of the heart.”

In church we hear so often, ministers saying that we need to strive for holiness. We hear I Peter 1:16 saying “‘be holy for I am holy,’ says the Lord.” We hear how holy God is time and time again. But how many of us have ever wondered to ourselves about what it means to be holy. What does holiness look like in our society? 

If we are to seek to be holy like God, as we are commanded, we must understand what this even means. Holy as defined in a dictionary is to be without blemish, or untainted. We are to be pure. Like white cloths that have no dirt, no stains, no imperfections on them. Since we established in the last post that we are impure, we have sinned, we are no longer holy. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross paid for our debt if we repented. He washed away our sins with OXY Clean on steroids (lame analogy but paints a good picture). We have been made holy in His sight because we have been claimed as little Christs. We are to be like Him. He gives us His name, so we have that holiness that Jesus had. God looks at us and see His Son. We are completely pure in God’s sight, IF WE REPENT. When we come to faith in God, we then begin the process of sanctification, or being set apart. Basically we are becoming less and less like the world and becoming people that are not of this world. I Thessalonians 4:3 says “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality.” But another version also says “God's will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.” Essentially, sanctification leads to holiness. It is the process by which we become holy. Though this will not be completed on earth, in heaven it will be finished. “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”- Ephesians 4:22-24... This is the change that needs to take place in our life! We need to be transformed by God. We should never be the same again. We are to seek to be like Him, loving, merciful, gracious, holy, and so much more. The fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5 sum this up well, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” All of these things should be found in our lives as Christians. Notice that it is the FRUIT of the Spirit not the FRUITS of the Spirit. You need all of them. One without the other does you some good but no where near as much as all of them together. they all go hand-in-hand. All are necessary in a Christian’s life. We need to work on these things everyday and ask God to teach and develop us in these subjects. 

Are you holy? Do you love your sin? If you love your sin AT ALL, you aren’t there. Keep striving towards the goal. Keep pushing on to be the man/woman God wants you to be. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”-I Peter 2:9-10... Do we live our lives in a way that would resemble that we are a holy nation, or a chosen race? Do we proclaim His name in our lives? He has done so much for us, yet we often treat Him as an inconvenience. Why is this family? Let’s be a generation that lives with God’s purpose and direction and is a holy nation, and a chosen people! Let’s seek to live holy lives from this day forth, sinning less and less. Breaking away from our lusts and addictions and turning to the Savior. 

Family, holiness has to be something that is in your core and works its way outward not the other way. Attitude before actions.

Blessings

Sin

For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God- Romans 3:23

Sin... What is it??? What are its effects? What qualifies as sin? 

Essentially, sin is rebellion against God. Rebellion against the King. Rebellion against the Creator of the universe. Rebellion against our Father. Sin is a term derived from archery that means “missing the mark.” It is anything that is against God’s nature or even just short of it. It is imperfection. Sin is either commission or omission. You can commit sin by doing something or even not doing something. We are to do what God would do, if we don’t follow His will, or if we rebel against His commands, this is sin. Sin has dangerous consequences. It separates us from the King. It prevents us from having the intimate relationship that we were meant to have. It labels us as rebels, imperfect. It is our willing decision to rebel against the King, committing high treason, and worthy of the death penalty. We fully qualify for an eternal death penalty. We all at some point have sinned, whether we stole a pack of gum when we were a kid, or we killed someone, or we cheated on homework, or we lied to someone. We all have sinned. We all are imperfect. We all suffer sins consequences. Because of sin, there is disease, there is physical death, there is suffering, there is a debt that all men pay. Because of sin, we are not going to heaven. Because of sin there was a chasm between God and man. Because of our blatant rebellion against God, we needed redemption, we needed a savior. But WE DID NOT DESERVE A SAVIOR!!! We did not deserve grace so that we could be saved. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”-Romans 5:8... God, Himself, becoming a sacrifice for a rebellious, selfish, heinous, wicked, fallen people. The King giving Himself to pay the debt of the treasonous rebel. What an amazing love!!! I don’t know how you can look at this and not be changed completely! This love is something that we do not deserve, did not earn, or anything, we deserved wrath yet receive love and grave. We can have hope, freedom, purpose, direction, love, grace, mercy, satisfaction, peace, and so much more if we just turn to God. I have so often found my actions reflecting a belief that I somehow deserved this sacrifice. My life does not change when thinking about His sacrifice. Why? This should completely change my life. I should not be the same. I should be permanently impacted in every way just as if I had been hit with a freight train. I should continually seek to distance myself from sin. I should abandon my addictions and never go back. I should seek to be more and more like my Father and know Him intimately. Better than I know anyone or anything. I should seek Him with all I am, and all I will be. I should live in His will. I need to have the prayer of “God, I need to be like you, I am sorry for my rebellion, and I turn from it. But make me your masterpiece. Make me the person you want me to be. Use me God. Here I am, unworthy of being used, but willing to go wherever you send me.” 

A while ago, I wrote a message called “One Master,” I ask that after you read this message, you look at that message. These two go hand-in-hand. You have one life, 2 options, but can serve only one master with your life. 

So often I hear Christians saying that they cannot stop sinning, they cannot escape their addictions, they love their sin! I have to wonder to myself, how can you claim to love sin, but also claim to love God and serve Him? I propose that we often spend more time sinning than we do with God. If this is the case, then who do you really truly serve? I have been here many many times in my life. Trent Shirk spoke at Woodcrest last year delivering a message that asked us, “if we say we are Christians, how can we go days or weeks, or even months without touching our Bible or spending real time crying out to God, but we can’t even go one day without sin.” Truly dwell on this family.... It’s time to realize how serious sin is... Its time to be a people that do not live for sin, but live full-heartedly and fully devoted to our King and not to sin. You can only serve one master.... Who will it be?

Family, sin destroys you. Why do we love it? Let God change you and form you into the masterpiece He desires you to be.

Blessings.

Christianity

Christianity.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Is the only requirement to become a Christian saying a prayer? Is it more? Is it less? Jesus’ call to the disciples was a simple one, “follow me.” In this, I mean that it was simple in wording, but difficult to execute. Jesus was calling people to leave everything, their jobs, families, comforts, home, and friends for a man that they did not know. To obey this call required that they step out in faith. Luke 14:24-32 talks about the cost of discipleship. “Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” 

Jesus starts with the statement that if you do not hate your family you cannot follow Him. The word used here does not mean hate as we think of it, it means to have such a great love for one that all else pale in comparison. We are to love God so much more than anyone or anything else that He is all that matters to us. That our relationship with Him is absolutely essential in our lives. That no one can come between us and God because we love Him so much. 

He then follows up that line with one of the worst sale pitches of all time, He tells us that we cannot follow Him if we don’t carry up our own cross and follow Him. We are not to carry a literal cross, but we are to put to death our own desires, our own plans, and make this life about Him. We are to put ourselves to death. We are not to live our own lives, we are to live to have God live through us, a life to bring Him glory. As Paul says in Philippians 1:21, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Whether we live or die, we are to give God the glory. If we live, then amen and may we seek the King and bring Him glory through having Him live through us. And if we die, then amen and we have eternity with our Father and King! We are to be excited to be with Him. We should desire His return. Death has no sting over us. Christ has conquered death. This is also to say that we must be willing to give it our all for Christ. Even to death. This is one of the cores of Christianity. If we are not willing to listen to this command we cannot be disciples of Christ. Jesus Himself says this. 

The last part of this is that we must count the cost of Christianity. Christianity is not free. It costs something. It costs your life. Your messed up, miserable, life that does not ever leave you satisfied. No matter how successful you are on this world, you always seek a little more. You always want or need a little more money, you always want a little more alcohol, you always want a little more drugs, a little more self inflicted pain, a little more reputation, a few more friends, a little more sex, a little more fun, a few more good deeds, a little more knowledge. You desire more in your life, you are never satisfied. Only the One who made you can satisfy you. 

Romans 10:9- “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is a requirement to be saved. But, confession and belief are actions, you must put this faith in action. You cannot say you believe, you must believe fully, with everything you are and do. This belief must shape your life. Jesus must be King of your life. You must have an intimate relationship with Him. You cannot possibly know Christ and not be changed. He must change your life in such a powerful way. You cannot be the same as you were. Regardless of how “good” you were before you came to faith in Christ, you still need to change. You still need a Savior because you have failed at least once in your life. 

The name of Christianity means to be a follower of Christ, we are His people. We boast a relationship with the King of Kings. We boast freedom from sin. Yet, we so often live lives in sin, disconnected from our King, following our lusts and our plans rather than the holy God. We rarely spend times in prayer, we rarely read the Word, we love our sin, we live for ourselves. I have to wonder, family, are we truly Christians if this is what we do and live like? Truly think and pray about this as to see what God shows you. Examine your own life and see where you are. If you are on track then AMEN! Continue in the faith my brothers and sisters. God has some sick plans for you, continue to seek Him and open yourself to being used by Him for His glory. If you are not where you need to be, you must figure out if you are willing to fulfill the costs that are required, if you are then amen, today is the day of salvation and now is the time to change and grow in Him. It is time to be sold out for Him. However, some will choose not to follow, for you, my soul aches, because I know what you are missing out on. I know you won’t find what you seek unless you seek a lack of satisfaction and emptiness. For you myself and many others pray for. But you will follow your way. Just know that God loves you and desires a relationship with you, there is a reason you are reading this. There is a message that God has for you. I challenge you to challenge God, see what He does in your life and how He reveals Himself to you. See what happens then go from there. 

Belief in God needs to completely impact your life. It needs to change everything about and your belief in God needs to be your core belief. Everything you do needs to reflect this belief.

Blessings family

Q&A

Blog Q&A

This blog is not meant to just be somewhere that Christians go to to read a devotional, it is meant to help you understand Scripture, grow in your walks, apply God’s word to our lives. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them. You can reach me via email at rwelshy@hotmail.com and please title the message core christianity so that I can know what it pertains to. Please, feel free to do this.

I received this question about a week ago and its been on my mind a lot. DISCLAIMER: This is a very very touchy subject and some content may not be appropriate, I apologize, but in this post you have to talk about some uncomfortable things. Also, different people would argue this, I am more than open to listen to other perspectives and reasoning, but please, pray about what you believe God would think of this topic and how He would respond to this and research through scripture for yourself to see what God has to say.

“hey in your blog do you think you could discuss the verse leviticus 18:22 and go in depth with it? im a little confused on how its saying that homosexuality is an abomination, but just a few chapters before in chapter 11 verse 12 it is telling us to hate any sea creature born without scales or fins... how can we hate things that have no control over how they are made? and if that verse doesn't apply any more does, then does that mean that Leviticus 18:22 still does?”

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.- Leviticus 18:22

These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. But anything in the seas or the rivers that has not fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you. You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses. Everything in the waters that has not fins and scales is detestable to you. -Leviticus 11:9-12

Ok, after looking at the passages used for this, Leviticus 11 does not have any correlation with Leviticus 18 as used for this question. Context is key. You must examine scripture as a whole in order to understand it. Leviticus 11 is discussing what the Israeli people can and cannot eat. God told them that anything in the water that has no scales is detestable to them, as food. A lot of those creatures would be crustaceans, crabs lobsters and such, that were bottom feeders. God was very specific as to what He would let His people eat, it set His people apart from others.. Also, many of the creatures God called unclean for the Jewish people have been found to cause diseases and other things.. 

But on to the main part of this question, what does God say about homosexuality and how should we respond to homosexuals? That is the core of this question. In the verses surrounding verse 22, God is telling the Israelite people, His people, what He has called them from in regards to sexual relations. I will admit, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that “God hates them and so should I.” But, let me ask you, what makes you any better than them? What makes your sin less than theirs? They are living in sin. Homosexuality is a sin as defined in the Bible, it is sexual immorality, just as sex before marriage, adultery, lust, self gratification, and other things. God has instituted sex as a sacred thing. Between one man and one woman. That we would be knit together solely with that one person. God’s design is perfect. Man has taken that design and has twisted it to look like all of these, men with men, women with women, sexual promiscuity, sexual foreplay, pornography, self gratification, mankind having sexual relations with an animal, lust, etc. None of these were God’s design. Anything that falls short of God’s standard is considered sin. Homosexuality is not sufficient in order to have children asides from adoption, God has made man and woman able to create a child between them, that is the only way. That is God’s design. Now, though homosexuality is a sin, this does not give us any right to condemn them. They are people, just like us. They are people that God created and loves. He wants a relationship with them, just as He does with us. They need Him just like we do. We too have been caught in sin, we have been in addictions (whether or not we even realized it), we fell short of God’s standard of being perfect, yet we have been loved and have been forgiven, they just have a different sin that is in their life. Is not any sin complete rebellion against God in its most basic form? I propose that we Christians are like God, in that we seek to treat people the way He did, with love! Pure, unadulterated love. Unconditional love. This is what we are called to. Not hatred. We are not to surpass our role and try to be the judge. We have been forgiven of much, why should we not forgive? We were indebted to the same judge that they are, and we were forgiven, and so can they, if they choose so. Whether or not they have control over their sexual lifestyles is open for debate (I would argue that they do), but regardless, we are to treat them in a way that glorifies God and of which they would see Him in us. We are to treat them how Christ would treat them. 

On a side note, Christians, before we can ever judge anyone else’s life, we must examine our own. I have to ask, is there any sexual sin that is holding you back from growing in God? Sexual sin is said to be one of the most addicting sins out there. Lust is almost built into all we see and hear. Love no longer is known by its true meaning anymore, it is confused with lust all the time. Examine your own life, see what is holding you back from God, pray about it, and let Him change you. He wants ALL of you, not just some parts. You only can serve one master. Realize though, that you are not alone, you have others that have been in the same position that you are in. Also, know that your chains of addiction have been broken when Christ died on the cross. YOU are the one clinging to the chains, not the chains to you. Please family, let’s not be of this world, instead let’s be pure for our God and King and for our future spouse. If you have messed up in this area, it is not too late to change and give it another try. God is just as happy with you if you turn from that sin or that lifestyle and cling to Him as if you had never done it before. But, today is the day to resolve that change, not tomorrow because tomorrow becomes next week and next week becomes never. Then, before you know it, you will never want to leave, even though you are miserable, because you have calloused yourself to God’s call and your desire to repent. Today is the day for change. Commit to God, and keep it.

I hope this answers your question.

Blessings family