Good Friday Part II. Carrying Your Cross

So I meant to publish this a few days ago. I failed. But thoughts haven’t ceased to run through my mind about Good Friday. I am constantly finding myself reflecting back to the cross. I never cease to be amazed at the demonstration of love that occurred there 2,000 years ago, especially when I think that it was planned before the earth was made. To think that a God so holy and powerful and perfect, would love me enough to go beyond any boundaries to demonstrate His love for me, absolutely amazes me. 

However, for this post, I hope to reflect on the personal cross that we must carry. Luke 14:25-33 calls Christians to know the cost of following Him. I hope that every day, I count the cost and consider it a joy and privilege to follow Him. I must take God’s Word and live it; absorbing it through reading, deepening it through meditation on it, and applying it through living it. I think to Simon the Cyrene, the man who carried the cross for Christ, as He got to experience one of the greatest privileges in history. To carry the Creator’s cross, from which He would save Simon from his sins as well as you and I. I wonder if he even knew the honor that he was experiencing. However, he carried the cross as Christ commanded. Do we treat carrying our cross and killing our fleshly desires and our own plans and hopes for Christ as an honor and privilege? Maybe if we did, we start picking it up a little more often.

Carry your cross and never let it become a burden to do so.

-Ryan Scott

Good Friday I

Matthew 27:27-54

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

This is Good Friday. At the end of the crucifixion account, but in another gospel, Jesus says two things wile on the cross. The first, the very first statement from the cross was, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The second, and the second to last statement, from the cross was, “It is finished.” 

In these times, a blood sacrifice was required for the cleansing of sin. They would take the best animal with no impurities or defects, and would slice it’s neck and offer it to God on an altar. Yes, it is a graphic picture, but it was reality at that time. Here, in this passage, we see God as a human, who has laid aside His exalted and transcendent position and has become like you and I (Philippians 2:5-8). He has come to save the people who have rebelled against Him since Adam and Eve. He has been rejected by them. They have taken His rules and guidelines that dealt with the heart and transformed them into legalistic laws that dealt solely with the actions, turning a God of love into a God that is condemning and shallow. They spat in His face with acts that they knew He found heinous. They loved the darkness. They did not want to leave it. They took the King of Kings, the Creator, the God that they claimed to love and nailed Him to a cross to die with the lowest of criminals, a death that is the most excruciating (which actually was a word created by the Romans to reflect the torturous manner of the cross that they perfected to execute criminals; in fact, it was so bad, that Roman citizens, even the worst, would not and could not be executed on a cross) and humiliating death of all deaths. You and I, we make up the “they” group that I am referring to as well. We spat in His face, mocked Him, beat Him, whipped Him, rejected Him, and chose death over Him. Yet, He still came and dies for us and has given us the ability to not only be saved from our sins and the punishment that we rightfully deserve, but also has given us the gift to come into a relationship with Him and sit at His feet and talk to Him and read about Him from His Word. How beautiful of a gift that we have been so graciously given. While on the cross, Jesus exemplified love. Love demonstrated by its maker. Jesus, Himself, said “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). The extreme weight of this sacrifice amazes me. The fact that I am loved enough for God to die for me to be able to know Him absolutely leaves me speechless. It blows my mind that God did that for me so that I can know Him and come to live for Him and bring Him glory. As the Jews made sacrifices to God for forgiveness, Jesus was our sacrifice. He is the only sacrifice that we ever need. He was bloodied for us. He was striped for our iniquities (Isaiah 53). May we look at what happened today 2,000 years ago and say, “truly, this is the Son of God.”

This is part I of the Good Friday message that I have coming. Part II coming tonight. Then be looking out for an Easter message also!!!

God bless!!!

-Ryan Scott

Speak Out, Speak Loud

Psalm 119:46

I will also speak of your testimonies before kings
and shall not be put to shame,

Today, one of the largest shortcomings of the Christian church in America is a desire to blend in with the world. We are called not to blend in rather to stand out and to be living according to a higher standard. Christ sets the bar high for us from His example and also from the Commandments (though we are not bound by the law, these laws are direct reflections of the character of God and in order to pursue holiness, as we are called, we must pursue these character traits entering our lives via spending time with God and seeking Him above all else). But, my point is, as Christians, should we not live lives that speak volumes of praise towards our God rather than volumes of worldly living and little towards the calling of God? Should we not share His word with all? Should we not share of the reckless love of God that He has for you and I? I mean, we don’t deserve His love, yet He gives it to us. How much more should we share of that love in order to allow people come to a realization of who God is and be able to make an informed decision concerning who they believe Him to be? Family, may we speak of Christ through our life, and may we speak of Christ through our words with reckless abandon, forsaking all for the one thing that matters, Our King. This task will not be easy, but why keep the message to ourselves? It benefits us more to share it while it benefits others. And if persecution faces you by doing this, remember, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” -Matthew 5:10-12

-Ryan Scott

Turn My Eyes, Give Me Life

Psalm 119:37

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.

A verse that has quickly become one of my favorite passages in Scripture. I’m beginning to consider a side project centered around this verse. “Turn My Eyes, Give Me Life.” This verse is an anthem for Christians. We are to turn our eyes, our focus, from anything and everything that does not bring us eternal life in heaven. We are to turn from anything that will not matter in eternity. Your wealth will not matter, your success will not matter, your extensive traveling will not matter. Your love will matter. Your discipleship will matter. Your utilization of the gifts that God has blessed you with, will matter. That is turning our eyes. Turning our eyes is a lifestyle, not just an action. It is a mentality, not just a physical movement. The second part of this passage says “Give me life in your ways.” This needs to be our prayer as disciples of God. If we are finding life anywhere aside from God and God’s will for us, then we are finding it in the wrong places. In Christ alone do we find life! In Him alone can we find our true meaning and purpose. In Him we receive our name and calling.If we find it anywhere else, it is a waste and is not what God wants for us. Also, only by looking to God’s ways can we find true life. That means that we must be seeking His will for our lives and then follow that will. The verse means that we must know His ways before we can follow them. Only through prayer and the Word of God can one know the ways of God. 

TURN MY EYES GOD, AND GIVE ME LIFE

-Ryan Scott

Finding Answers

Psalm 119:26

When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!

God listens to you when you talk to Him. God also answers you. He may not answer with the answer you are listening for or in the way that you expect Him to answer, but nonetheless, He answers. God works in ways that we can’t understand, but we are just people with limited knowledge. However, God will move, God will answer you. Throughout the Bible, God says to ask Him for whatever it may be. Sometimes He says yes, others He says no, many times it seems like the answer is wait. He has something better in store for us many times. We just can’t see it yet. However, regardless of the answer, we must be willing to conform our will to God’s. Why? Because that is the cost of discipleship. Replacing yourself with Christ. Following Him and His will for you. Jesus conformed His will to the Father’s and if we are called to be Christ-like, we must do the very same. When we seek God out for requests, we must also seek Him out in His word. We must dig into it because the Bible is what God spoke and continues to speak, we just have to listen. Many times, I’ve found that the most common way that God speaks to me is through His word. He reveals things to me, He displays His glory and His plan through His word. When we cry out to God in prayer, may we be seeking God and kneeling before Him in full surrender, when we do, we will grow closer to our King and His will shall become ours. May we seek His will and His ways in His word and on our knees.

-Ryan

Longing

Psalms 119:20

My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.

We often hunger for food. Especially in America, when we haven’t had food in the last 6 hours, we feel like we are dying. Our bodies ache, we are tired, maybe even get dizzy, are irritable, overall not good. My question is, do we long more for physical food to satisfy our bodily hunger, or do we hunger more for spiritual food? Our hunger for God’s word should be so immense that we are never satisfied. We should be thinking about it, searching through it, reading it all the time. In this Psalm, the writer says that his hunger for God’s law consumes his soul at all times. Is this a way that we could describe our walk? One that is consumed in God? I fully believe that if this was true, Christians would be under a new reputation in this world, not for blending in and condemning others, but for loving limitlessly and always being focused on God. I know which reputation I want. However, when we are blocking out God’s voice with TV, Facebook, our busy schedules, etc. We also are blocking out our hunger for Him. Those things are not bad at all. They can be used for God’s glory or simply for entertainment. But, when these things consume us more than God, we have an issue. When we “can’t find time” for God’s Word (as we spend 3 hours on Facebook, 1-4 watching tv, and the entire time that we are awake doing what WE need to do), there is a problem. When we hunger and long more for earthly food than we do for God’s Word, a change is needed. When we can go for days or weeks without being plugged into God’s word and aren’t striving to change that, there is a problem. What is a Christian without the message of Christ? They are nothing. We need to be CHRISTians. Seeking God with all that we are, longing for Him and His word, never being able to get enough of it. Plug in to His word daily. Crucify yourself daily and sacrifice for Him because He gave His life for you. 

Blessings,

-Ryan

The LORD is my shepherd, but do I let Him guide me through the reading of His Word?

Bending the Rules

You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!

-Psalms 119:4-5

“Rules were made to be broken” is the theme of our generation basically.... We all know it’s true. We love to break or bend the rules; speeding rules, school rules, rules prohibiting phones, ignore common etiquette, whatever it may be, we love to bend the rules at some time or another (or all the time).  However, with God’s rules it should be different. God should be feared in our life. We picture Him as this cute and cuddly teddy bear so often without remembering that He is capable of enforcing His rules to any extent because He demands us to honor them. God is powerful. We need to remember that. He loves us beyond all comprehension, but He has sooooo much power that we can’t begin to even describe or imagine it.  However, the real point of this post is to say that if we don’t know God in true way, how can we know His rules? If we don’t understand the intentions behind each rule, what good does the rule do us? We would end up like the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, knowing and obeying the law, but missing the point. Let us not miss the point of the One who ought to be our Master. His words need to flow through us. We need to meditate on His law day and night (Psalms 1). We need to give Him all of us. We need to surrender to Him completely. However, if we don’t know what to live like, how can we do it? We need to dig into the Word all the time to know what God wants from us in order to bring glory to Him. This life is about Him. Time was created for His glory. Yet we so often live as if time was made for us to be glorified. We live to be immortal through fame and success. However, we forget that the biggest icon of immortality is our God and He created time. We live to be remembered, He gave you life to remember Him. His intentions were not wrong, so it must be ours. We need to seek His intentions out. We can start by making Him center of our life. We are lost without Him. We need His precepts (laws, direction) in our life. How else can we live as He calls us to? It starts in the heart. You have to want Him to take control and you need to seek Him out, crying out to Him to satisfy you. 

Let Him take control and cling to His precepts

-Ryan Scott

Whole Heartedly

Psalm 119:9-11

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.

the question is, do we seek God with our WHOLE HEART, or do we let anything and everything stand in the way? Only when we seek God with our entire life can we keep our ways pure. Only when we are seeking God completely does scripture truly become guarded in our hearts because it is treasured and is more than words to memorize or small sayings to attempt to validate our faith in the eyes of the world. This has been something that I have been seeing more and more in scripture. This theme of completely giving yourself over to God, yet how often do we actually do it? The Christian life needs to be more than a fad or a part time commitment to us, however, reality is that we often look to ourselves and the world more than God and his word. The Bible says "blessed is he that endures" many times through scripture but I have seen it frequently in revelation. The question is, do we seek God with our WHOLE HEART (as opposed to most or none of us) and do we FIGHT TILL THE END EVERYDAY (as opposed to a Sunday, Wednesday, or partial commitment)? Everyday and every part of your life matters to God, does it matter to you enough to give it to your King?

-Ryan Scott

Willing to Travel?

Matthew 2:1-2

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 

In job applications, many times a question will be “are you willing to travel if needed?” The wise men, rich rulers that lived a great deal away, came to seek out Jesus. They did not have luxurious travel accommodations. They likely rode camels through the scorching hot desert. This was no easy trek. Often times, this passage is glanced over and only one part is remembered, the wise men saw Jesus and were almost tricked by Herod. However, when I read this, I thought about our willingness to seek God. I must ask myself, and hopefully you will do the same, “How far am I willing to go to find God?” I have to be willing to go through long spells through the desert, I have to be willing to go for lengthy periods of time, I have to be willing to give all of my effort in order to find Him at times. Life will throw every possible distraction towards us to prevent us looking for/to God, the question is, how do we compensate? Do we cave under the pressure, evaluating the costs and deciding that they are too great for our liking, or do we put more effort in, striving to find the Creator of the Universe in order to experience Him and His presence and to have the hope of being able to bless Him with our gifts, just like the wise men did. This question of one’s willingness to abandon all for God is what determines where we stand with Him. Do we pursue Him with reckless abandon and seek Him even though the cost may seem ridiculous to everyone around us at times? If not, what is holding us back, and why? Let’s bless Jesus by going to whatever lengths needed to find Him in our lives.

-Ryan

Accepting and Clinging to Forgiveness

Matthew 1:21

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Mary, a young woman, probably around 14-16 years old, becomes pregnant without ever having sex. She had been visited by an angel of God (Luke 1:26-38) telling her that she would be the mother of God incarnate (God in flesh). She was told that she would serve a great purpose for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom. She was destined by God to be the mother of His Son, the savior of the world. However I will address this in more detail in Luke. I want to focus on the second half of this passage stating that He (Jesus) would save His people from their sins. Immediately as I read this, I asked myself, “have I completely accepted this freedom from my sin? Have I turned from it and given it all over to Him and taken that passion that I had for sin and turned it into passion for Him? Have I given it up?” I think that these questions need to be asked in our lives frequently, especially for our generation. Our world raises us up to be impulsive, passionate, and ill-informed people. We give into our desires the second that they arise often. We get hungry and immediately search for a fast food joint. We want something and we seek how we can get it and the faster the better. We have the ability to find any information we want, but don’t access hardly any of it. Our greatest master has become our misplaced passion. We have a desire for Facebook, for food, for drink, for meaning, for acceptance, for ignorance of who we are at times, for love, for intimacy, for money, for maintaining a busy lifestyle. However, most of these are not inherently wrong. Facebook can be a great tool for Christians to spread the word of God and to be representatives of Him, however when we take time away from devotions and prayer in order to check our statuses and Facebook stalk people is when it becomes an idol. Nothing is wrong with being physically hungry, nor is there anything wrong with eating, but do we do it for God’s glory first of all, and has our hunger for physical food brought us more pain than our spiritual hunger that we continually ignore? We seek meaning, but where better to find meaning than the One who made us with a purpose? Why would a pencil ask another item that has no idea what it is, what the pencil’s purpose is? We do the same thing. We seek meaning from people that often don’t even know their own meaning in life. God created us with a purpose that we are to live out, but do we are we willing to give ourselves up in order to find it in Him? The list for these things goes on, but the purpose of it all is to say “what do you live for more, God or anyone or anything else?” If you live for God, you will cling to the freedom from sin because you will be freed from sin. I could not imagine what God’s reaction to people will be that rejected Him but I know He will be frank with them. I can picture that He will look at them in the eyes and say that He gave His beloved son for them, but to them, that was not good enough and now they should depart from Him.  That would be devastating to hear. I pray no one reading this hears that in the final day. I pray that none of us hear that we did not seek to embrace the forgiveness that God made avail to us because we were unwilling to give up our sin. A lightbulb cannot be partly darkness and partly lit (yes, I know there are dimmers, but a basic switch is my reference here) it is either lit or not. Which are you? We are called to be a light on a hill, demonstrating God and His love to the world (Matt 6:14). It starts with embracing His forgiveness.

May we take off our clothes of sinfulness and evil and heinous acts towards God and replace them with His grace each and every day. May we take our plans and wills and lay them aside for His. May we be His people.

-Ryan

Core Examination

Psalms 53:2-3

God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

I read this passage today and my heart turned. I was distraught by the words that haunted my sight. The thought invaded my mind, is this true today or could God say this today? Though the world is corrupt and man is defiled, I wondered what God thinks of us. Is He pleased with our lives or is He disappointed? Do we strive to know Him a fraction of how well He knows us or are we content with a distant relationship at best? For those who are doing well in their walks and getting to know God in a real and passionate relationship, good job. If it is real, and I pray it is, then you are making your King proud because, though sin disappoints God greatly and breaks His heart, you are seeking Him and getting to know Him and that blesses His soul as it blesses yours. To you I say, keep up the work, cling to Him and become the man/woman He desires you to be. To others, is God proud of how you live? Do you put Him first? I will be the first to say that it’s tough. Life throws everything imaginable in your way so that God is not first in your life. Do you cling to the bait or to God? Can the last half of this verse be said about you? If you are abiding in Christ, your soul has been redeemed and you are pure in His sight. However, to abide in Christ, you must constantly and consistently be in His word and before His throne, you must love Him, you must put Him first in your life and live as He calls you to. This is no small calling. This is no calling to mediocrity. This is a radical calling for the Christian. There is no mediocre Christian. May we be a people that seek after God first and foremost with no limits and no hinderances, and seek to understanding from His word. May we abide in Christ and experience Him as we ought. May we live the John 15, Luke 14:25-33, 1 Cor 10:31, Deut 6:5, Exodus 20 (just to name a few) lifestyle to please our Lord. 

Theodoulos (servant of God)

-Ryan

Total Worship

Revelation 22:9b

Worship God

While reading this chapter, the closing passages of the Bible, these two words caught my eye more than anything else. One of the last messages of the Bible is not some grandiose theological theory. It is our mission statement. Do we worship God? Does our life bring Him glory in ALL the areas of our life? Or are we withholding parts of our life from God’s penetrating light? It is easy to say “I am giving God so much of my life, I can keep some for myself,” but God calls us to give Him all of it. He does not call us to give Him most of us, He calls us to give all of us like He gave Himself for us. Worship is a lifestyle, not solely a song. Worship is seeking to please God by coming before His throne, by following Him full-heartedly. Do we worship God or is our worship found elsewhere? Does something come before God in our life? Does our love or search for something come close to our love and search for God? Do we seek God with all of our life? It is what we are called to do. Nothing can be hidden from God. There can not be our own little corner of sin and hell in heaven and we cannot continue to seek that sin until we are in heaven without changing or doing our best to change. If we begin to refuse to desire to change from our sin, we are placing that sin between us and God, whether we want to admit to it or not. Do we truly worship God? 

Worship is a consuming lifestyle that must invade every aspect of our life. Live it out from the core of who you are. Worship is an essential concept and practice in the life of a Christian.

-Ryan

PS- This concludes our study through the New Testament. However, I plan on going back through it again soon to have fresh devotions. Now onto the Old testament and revisiting the gospels.

Change Your Clothes

Revelation 19:7-8

Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—

We are to bring God glory through our life. From our actions to our words to our thoughts, it all should bring Him glory. Though this task is impossible because we will fail, we will sin, we will love our fleshly desires, we have to strive to bring Him as much glory as possible. Not out of a requirement, but from desire. As we walk with Him, we become more like Him and fall more in love with Him. As this happens, we desire to please Him more and more. From this desire comes our passion and calling to bring Him glory. But, this cannot become confused with trying to earn salvation. It is a very fine line between serving God out of love and serving God to earn salvation as compensation. 

The last half of this verse stimulated my thoughts the most. “and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— Family, have we made ourselves ready for His return? If we truly know God, He gives us new, clean clothes instead of the heinous, torn up, shattered, and repugnant clothes that were our past, our sins, our rebellious acts of hatred towards God, our acts of self gratification and self exaltation. Have we put these new clothes on though? Have we put purity as our clothing? Have we grown closer to our King and Lover? Have we removed our old desires, old way of thought, old actions, etc and replaced it with God and His calling on our life? However, it is NECESSARY to take off the old

I pray that we take off the old and put on the new.

-Ryan

Lifelong Battle/Sacred Marriage

Revelation 16:14

For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

This life is a battle. The first question is, which side will you be on? You will be fighting for your god(God). Will it be for the God of the Universe, the Creator, or will it be for yourself and your flesh or whatever other god it may be? The second question is, will you be ready? As Christians, we are called to be workers that study to ourselves approved (worthy) (2 Timothy 2:15). How much time do we spend studying? How much time do we spend getting orders from our King? Seeking His guidance and strength? The effects of not spending time with God is evident. When you separate yourself from Him, you will draw closer to sin, closer to idolatry, closer to rebellion, closer to bondage. We truly separate ourselves from our God. We move away, not Him. So often we find ourselves or others in dark places, places of brokeness, places of shame, places of loneliness, often times left to shout out to God “where are you,” feeling that God has left them. The thing is, many times we end up in those spots because we have walked away. We have drifted off, most likely gradually, but we walked away from God and begin to feel the repercussions of it and feel his absence and fall into sin. Though this is a majority of the situations, there are times like Job experienced, times that you haven’t walked away, but you need to be tried, you need to be refined, you need to be purified by God. It is a test of your love for Him, not His love for you. His love never changes, but He wants proof that yours is firm, that whether good or bad, you will love Him and seek Him. The Christian life is echoed throughout society. Marriage itself is a direct echo of the Christian’s commitment to God and visa versa. To love Him regardless of situations, to spend time with Him, to seek to please Him. The problem is, we fail miserably at this in life. We seek other pleasures. We say that His satisfaction is not enough for us and that we need sin to find pleasure, we need to worry to succeed... The list goes on and on. We have been unfaithful in this marriage to God, He never has been unfaithful, He is always there. But family, I raise this because often we think of our relationship with God as a friendship. It’s a marriage. It is a lifelong commitment. It is a promise to spend time with Him and to grow with Him everyday. We are to ABIDE in God. We are to become imitators of Him. We are to echo His nature. We are to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:16). 

Which side do we choose? 

And are we faithful to our eternal commitment with God? May we strive to do our best at it.

-Ryan

Through God's Eyes

Revelation 15:4a

Who will not fear, O Lord,

and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy.

The Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom... (Proverbs 1:7)... Do we fear God? 

This question that so often is answer hastily by us.. In deep thought about this question, may His light expose our lives as they truly are.

God is perfect, meaning He has no fault in Him. By nature God cannot commune with imperfection. We have been tainted because we have rebelled against Him. We are unholy due to sin. Through Christ’s sacrifice we who are chosen by God and chose Him are redeemed and have been given Christ’s holiness upon our lives, however, the question remains, do we fear God? Fearing God is not to be scared to him like a monster, but to be afraid to disappoint Him because we want to make Him proud. We should view sin in a similar manner as He does. Sin is repugnant in His eyes, yet so often it is desirable in ours. As a sign of walking with God and growing in a relationship with Him, we become more like Him, if this is the case, our perspective on sin needs to change. We need to be disgusted by the sin in our life, and we must strive to repel it from our lives. If we truly fear God, we will keep His commandments and live as we would desire. We are indebted to Him, may we live daily as if we are gladly slaves of the King. Furthermore, may we bring Him the glory from our lives in every manner. For we do nothing on our own, but we can do all things through Christ who is our strength (Phil 4:13)... Family, God’s glory is not found in our sin, but our victories. May we continue, and for some begin, to fight the sin in our life for our King and conquer in His name, out of love for Him. 

May we see with God's eyes and not our own

-Ryan

Endure

Revelation 14:12

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 

Paul told Christians many times to “run the race set before them.” He told us to run hard and finish strong. Here in Revelation, we are reminded to finish. We are reminded to persevere. We are reminded of what our mission is: to run this race, to seek God and abide in Him and know Him intimately, and to finish this life serving our King. We are told to endure. We are to give it our all. We are to fight our hardest, relying on the strength of God to get us through. Do we cave under pressure or do we fight to stand and stand strong for our King? We are to run hard and to finish. Running hard does us no good if we don’t finish. We need to rely upon God as he is our strength and we truly “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13).” Family, I really pray that we all fight to grow in our walks. Our walks with God can be compared to running up an escalator, backwards. If you lower the effort being put into achieving the goal, progress is lost and you regress, however if you push harder and run faster you will eventually reach the goal. When faced with a challenge, we are to push harder and run faster, having God guide us and provide us with the strength needed to get through this race. 

Depend on Him for strength, your own will never allow you to finish victorious.

-Ryan

In regards to chapters 6-13 of Revelation, I encourage reading those chapters and truly diving into them. I really was blown away at the amazing display of power that God demonstrates. It can be so easy to forget that God has so much power and even everything in this chapters is just a fraction of His power. Check the chapters out and be amazed at the power of our King!

Our Heart Song To God

Revelation 5:13

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come....” (Revelation 4:8b, repeated)

Is this our heart’s song to God? Do we desire to praise Him because HE IS HOLY? Because He is LORD? Because He is MIGHTY? Because He is ETERNAL? Because He is GOD? May we dwell upon this verse and see the levity of it. This verse can be restated as such, “So holy is God. Holy beyond comprehension. Holy describes Him, because He is perfectly and completely Holy. When I dwell upon the thought of His holiness, I cannot begin to fathom it. I tremor with remorse because I know how disgusting and unholy I am. However, great is the Holy One who REDEEMED me and made me as He is, holy. He is the beginning of all. He made us. He is the Creator and never leaves. He is near to me and knows everything about me, past, present and future. He holds me in His hands, ALWAYS.”

We are told in Scripture that on a day every tongue will confess and every knee will bow because God is the Lord over all Creation. Since that day is coming, I pray that we sing this song to Him every day and we confess Him every day starting now. May we not wait to sing this song when it is too late. May we live lives that reflect this now. May our lives revolve around God and His precepts. May we abide in Him. May we seek Him above all else. May we give our all for Him our of crazy love, because He loved us with CRAZIER love. May our lives give Him all the glory and all of the honor and all of the might in us. May we sing praises to His name. May we love Him with all of our hearts. This life is the training ground for eternity. If we sing praises to God now, we will sing them in eternity. However, if we praise ourselves or sin, we will praise sin for all eternity with a hardened heart towards God and a deep seeded hatred towards Him and all that is good. We truly do reap what we sow.

Blessings,

-Ryan

Conquering

Revelation 3:5

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 

A theme that is very distinct in this chapter was conquering and this is one instance of its recurrence. To conquer is defined by dictionary.com as “to gain, win, or obtain by effort, personal appeal, etc.; to overcome by force; subdue; or to win in war.” I like to define conquer as “to see out a mission to its entirety with success.” Our mission as followers of Christ is 1) to love Him above all else (Matthew 22:37-38) 2) Love others above ourselves as Christ loved them (Matthew 22:39) and 3) to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) and 4) to do this throughout our life. This is the job of a Christian. Do we conquer these tasks? If not (which none of us completely conquer these tasks), then how can we improve on them and will we do them for the glory of our King? To conquer in its truest sense is not to win one battle or overcome an obstacle, it is to finish the war being victorious. Though we may stumble in our walks and make mistakes, God looks toward our victory and desires to see us striving for improvement so that we can find victory. Though we have said a prayer to give our lives to God, this is not victory, victory is found in conquering and conquering in the Christian is found by dying to oneself daily (Luke 14:25-33) and seeking the Lord above all else and knowing Him and making Him known. 

Family, this is war, will we conquer or be conquered? It’s one or the other, there is no in between. May we not let any aspect of our life slip through without being claimed for the Lord. 

May the Lord be proud of us as conquerors in His name, children of the most High God.

-Ryan

First Love

Revelation 2:4

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

A life desires God more and more, will gain Him more. One that desires Him less and less is getting exactly what they seek.

For many Christians, when they first enter into the lifelong walk with Christ, they have such a passion and zeal for Him. However, as time goes on we begin to lose that love and passion. We desire Him less and that is exactly what we are getting. Jesus is calling many of us out. Family, it is so easy to lose sight of our first love. In a relationship  that takes place over many years between two people, there is an initial rush of emotion, they long for each other’s company, they love everything about each other and they can’t wait to hear each other’s voice, etc. But as time passes, they don’t have that same passion for each other. We have all seen or experienced relationships like this. May we not let this type of attitude invade our relationship with God. His love is all we need family. He is all we need. Yet we find ourselves living for everything else many times. God is our second, third, fourth love. Why not our first? Why, when we are honest with ourselves, do we find that other things and people are contending for the position of most importance in our lives? God should have no competition for that position! In comparison to our love for Him, it should seem that we hate everyone and everything else and even ourselves, as it talks about in Luke 14:25-33. Do we love God like this? If not, why? In the passage in Luke, Jesus CLEARLY states that in order to be a disciple of Him, we must count the costs of following Him, which are to love Him above ALL else and to replace us with Him by carrying our cross daily for Him, allowing no humiliation, personal plans, personal will, or anything else to obstruct our relationship to Him. Basically we must give Him our life and make Him first in our life in order to follow Him. Family, may we not forsake our first love, but may we come back to Him and His open arms and carry on with Him being faithful until death (Revelation 2:26), bringing Him pleasure in us.

To our first true love we must return. To God we must run back to. To the cross we must embrace persistently.

-Ryan

Leaving Bondage and Loving Love

Revelation 1:5b-6

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen

Simply stated this verse is amazing. I get hung up on the first few words: “to him that loves us.” How often do we really think about the love of God? This love that is so pure, that it isn’t shallow and doesn’t have any fault in it, a love that is undeserved, that after WE rebelled and left Him He still loves us and demonstrated that love by humbling Himself and dying on the cross so that we could be redeemed and spend eternity with Him, a love that never stops, no matter what we have done or will do He still loves us, and a love that is perfect, never ending, never failing, never stopping, never bears a grudge, never turns its back, never leaves. We have all faced disappointment in life, many of us have received much disappointment from the people that we have loved and do love, family, may we remember that God’s love never, NEVER, leaves any disappointment when it is truly experienced. He will never let you down if you keep in respect to your end goal, to finish the race on earth well to hear Him say “well done my good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21)” and to know God more than you know anything else. Family, may we long to better know this love. 

The next few words are some of the most amazing words I know in scripture, “and has freed us from our sins by his blood.” We chose bondage to sin, bondage to death over life ruling with the King. Needless to say, we chose the wrong side! However, though that could have and should have been the end of the story and we should receive justice for the actions we have committed and the thoughts that have gone through our mind, we have been given an offer to accept or refuse. We have been offered to start over and our mistakes will be erased from past, present and future, or we can choose to refuse this offer and take our punishment of eternity in hell, separated from God. May we all choose forgiveness! For those of us who have chosen forgiveness, may I ask, how differently do we live from people that choose to cary on in their ways? So often, there is very little difference from modern “Christians” to the people of this world, aside from saying a prayer to give one’s heart to the Lord, HOWEVER, salvation does not come from a prayer! Salvation comes from believing in God with all of one’s heart and loving Him and living life with Him and confessing Him (Romans 10:9). That is how one is saved. By grace through faith have we been saved (Ephesians 2:8). Faith is the total casting upon of all of the trust that you have, it revolutionizes your life because you are throwing everything that you are onto that choice. Has our faith in God completely changed our life? If not, how much faith do we have? We are told that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains (a mustard seed is extremely small, about equivalent to a fine point marker dot on paper), family, why is that all the faith that we have? Imagine if we each had faith larger than a mustard seed, imagine how this world would be changed for our King. 

This verse ends by telling us that we are part of God’s kingdom. Family, we matter to God and as His children, as part of His kingdom, may we live to please Him, may we live to know Him and to bring Him glory.

May God’s love abound more and more in us and as we abandon our chains to sin that broke with Christ’s sacrifice for us, may we love more and more.

-Ryan