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

Faith

Hebrews 11

Faith. One thing that we all have in common is that we have faith. Though that faith is almost never in the same thing, we all have faith in something. Faith is one of the most profound things when you being to think about it. Hebrews 11:1,3 define faith for us. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen... By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” As Christians, we have faith in God, who we call King and Savior, Father and Master, Almighty God and Love. But, do we truly have faith family? By this I mean, do you and I have the faith in God that we claim to have? Faith is fully committing yourself to something. Faith is believing something so completely that it influences what you do and you must do something in order to prove that faith true. Faith is an action. Faith is necessary. We claim that our faith in God has saved us, but Christian, do you really have this faith? I look back on my own life that I claimed these same claims, I even fooled myself into believing that I had faith, but I was so wrong. I had no faith in God, my life was not changed by Him. I was living in the world. I was living for myself. My life was a lie. It was such a lie that I could not even discern the truth from the lies. When I finally began understanding faith, it was when I had to learn how to have faith. My life was crashing down around me. MY plans, MY dreams, MY friends, MY grades, MY leadership positions, MY personal life, everything I worked for was all crumbling apart and I had no where to go. I was broken. I was so in need of a Savior, someone to just hold me and that I could cling to. Then Jesus, the God who I grew up claiming to believe in and have faith in, stepped up and held me so tight. I finally had faith in God. It finally became real to me. It all meant something now. My life had purpose that I found in God. I had direction now instead of my plans, I live for something so much greater than myself. Before I move on, family, before we can discuss anything about Christ you have to have faith in Him. Without that faith, none of this means anything. Knowing the Creator of the Universe in a personal and intimate relationship should drastically change our life. If not, then I have to ask, do you know Him? I have heard the analogy of if someone is hit by a semi or a train, they are permanently changed forever. God is so much bigger than a semi or a train. Why is it that we go through our day to day lives without thinking about Him, without talking to anyone about Him, without praying to Him or reading His word, but being able to live completely in the world, seeking to blend in, to be glorified in the world’s eyes, seeking pleasure? Why is this family? it breaks my heart because I have been there. I know how miserable it is trying to please someone that doesn’t care. Trying to find pleasure but instead finding addiction. It is NEVER too late to come back, but today is the day, now is the time. We don’t have a promise of tomorrow or even the next hour. We could die and face judgement at any time. I would rather have the judge love me and have mercy on me because I personally knew Him than Him look at me and know that I lived a life of hatred towards Him. Because sin is a display of our rebellion against God. So please, talk to Him, seek Him, turn from your sin and cling to Him and never be the same. That is faith in God. In Hebrews 11, AKA the Bible hall of Faith, men and women of the Bible are discussed and used as examples of faith. Family, what is keeping us from a faith like them? I wish I could tell you, but I cannot. We look at them as such amazing people, but the truth is, they are just ordinary people that had faith in God and let Him use them and God blessed them for that. Family, the only thing I see holding us back from faith like that is ourselves. Let’s change that. Let’s be people who truly have faith in the King over all creation.

Faith, its an action that requires everything, even the core of you.

Blessings

Graciously Forgiven

Hebrews 10:17

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

This promise has to be one of the most amazing promises that scripture has given to us. God tells us that He will forgive us. I love what my friend Randall Creasey had to say on forgiveness, “forgiveness is limited, not by the amount of sin, but by our willingness to repent.” Basically, this means that we can only be forgiven for what we repent, or literally turn away from. God does not have a scale and if we surpass a limit for sin, then we are eternally punished. But this is so amazing for me, that God, the Creator of everything we know and don’t know, who made us for His glory and witnessed our rebellion against Him, then witnessed generation after generation grow more and more wicked, then humbled Himself from His position of power to become like His creation, live among us, being a normal person born of a lower or middle class family, then having a public ministry that people sought Him in order that they might be healed, then He was cheered and celebrated as He rode into town on a donkey, but He knew that this was short-lived as soon they would be shouting for His death rather than praise, He was betrayed by one of His closest friends for 30 pieces of silver, He was tried and lied against, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, He was then beaten, whipped time after time again, punched, kicked, mocked, spat upon, He had a crown of thorns forcefully thrust onto His head, piercing His skull, then was forced to carry a solid wooden cross beam that would be used in His execution for something that He was not guilty of, He had nails driven through Him, He was being crucified with criminals, He was physically dying of suffocation while also taking upon punishment for our rebellion against Him, He hung there for hours, forgiving people while He was being killed by those people. How can we go on living our lives as if we are our own and that God owes us? I don’t understand. We treat God like a genie, but we say that we serve Him. He has forgiven us so greatly. When we mess up one time, we are sentenced to an eternity of punishment in hell, yet, we have messed up as many times as there are stars. Yet, He died to provide forgiveness to those who desire it. We have been forgiven of so much, how come it does not affect our lives as it should? Should we not feel eternal gratitude to our Father for forgiving our heinous acts? We did nothing to deserve forgiveness. Why are we not indebted slaves to the King? We either serve Him or Death. We can only serve one master, you must choose. This decision is all or nothing either way. Your life literally depends on it. Without God, hell is in our future. This is not me being condemning, just stating a fact. The indescribable tortures of hell were in my future until I was forgiven. With God, we have hope. We know that we will spend all of eternity with Him, serving and praising Him, giving Him the glory for every aspect of our lives. It will be the best place we will ever be. It is my prayer that no one has hell in their future, but it is reality. God does not want to have anyone go to hell, but people are choosing hell over God. He loves us and offers us forgiveness and another chance at this race. Let’s take it. Let’s become pure in His sight and be lights in this world. Let’s be servants of the most high King, I can’t think of anything better.

Let God purify you to the core of who you are, turn from your rebellion and turn to Him. 

Blessings

Conversing With The King

Prayer....

What is it? Well, we should begin with what it isn’t. Prayer is not some rambling or chanting repetitious lines in hopes that some god will hear our halfhearted remarks. Prayer is not summoning demon possession as some people think. Prayer is not talking to the walls, prayer is not a time to sleep. Prayer is not, which might surprise some people, a time to just ask God for stuff. Prayer is about bringing God the glory in our lives. It builds up our relationship with Him and is a private demonstration of our brokeness before Him. Yes, sometimes our prayer is corporate, but that does not mean it is less personal. Also just because you have a corporate prayer life, it does not give you excuse to ignore your private prayer life! Instead of praying just for our own needs, we are to praise God with our innermost being, believing EVERY word that we say. Jesus gave us such a profound sample to pray by in the Lord’s prayer.

"This, then, is how you should pray:
   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
 your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.
 Give us today our daily bread.
 Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.
 And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.'”

This concept of God being our father amazes me. It so amazing to think that the King loves us rebellious people enough to not only adopt us as His own but also die for us to pay our death sentence to sin.

Hollowed be your name, or God, may your name be exalted. Let’s give God the glory and all our praise. As Hillsong’s “With Everything” says, “With everything we will shout forth Your glory. With everything we will shout forth His praise. Our hearts they cry, be glorified high above all names.” Does this ring true in our life?  Do we praise God with everything we are and have and do? 

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.... Some majorly profound statements are being made here. If we pray this, and truly desire to see God’s will being done it begins in our life. We have to open up ourselves and let God do his will in our life. It may be painful, but sin is so deeply rooted in who we are that God has to pull hard in order to get it out of us. Then after He has begun that work in us, we have to begin serving Him and proclaiming His word and living a life that glorifies Him.  In heaven, God’s will is done completely. The angels obey His every command, even Satan has to obey God’s commands. When God told Satan in Job not to harm Job physically, Satan had to listen. Yet, we humans, made in God’s own image, who blatantly rebelled against the King, committing high treason,  yet God, Himself, had compassion and mercy upon us and humbled Himself to become a human, like us, live here with us, be beaten and abused beyond comprehension and die a death that we could never imagine the extreme weight of it, we were forgiven through His sacrifice if we seek God, and yet so often we still ignore His will and don’t obey. We don’t allow His will to be done in our life. Why? Can we not put ourselves aside each day and just let God take control? Are we scared that we might actually be used to bring Him glory? Or are we scared of what the world thinks about us? Matthew 10:28 says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” This means that we are not to fear the thoughts of man, but rather the thoughts of God. We are not to fear what man does to us, but rather God who holds our eternity. Let’s be like Isaiah and just say, “Lord, Here I am, send me.” Let God use you, just as you are. He will transform you into the man or woman that He desires you to be, if you just seek Him and let Him take control.

The next topic is on trusting God. We know that He will provide. We need to have total trust in Him. This does not mean being stupid and giving up means to provide because God has likely provided that job for you so that you can provide for yourself and your family (if applicable). Trusting God is hard. BUT, it is proof in your faith. Faith requires action to be proved. Whether you are trusting God in finances and tithing, even though money is very limited, whether it be with college and where you will go or what you will do, whether it be with relationships and finding the One that God has for you instead of taking matters into your own hands, you must trust God. He will provide, but you must seek Him  with everything.

We next ask God for forgiveness. This demonstrates our need for forgiveness from God all the time. I heard it said by Randall Creasey that “forgiveness is based upon the willingness of repentance of the transgressor.” God will forgive you as much as you are willing to turn from. If you turn from it all, God will completely forgive you. If you are not, God will forgive you for what you do repent from. Also, we are to forgive in unlimited amounts to people. We have been forgiven of so much by God, let’s forgive others even more. Who are we to judge or condemn them while we are so guilty, even if we think that their sin is worse than ours, it does not justify any of what we have done. We were under the same slavery to sin that they are or were. What makes us any better?

This prayer closes with the statement of keeping us from the evil one. We need to not only ask God to keep us from evil, to keep us from falling, but also to prepare us to fight temptation. We need to be armed with the armor of salvation, prepared to fight off temptation and stand firm for our King and His rule of our life in every area of our life.

Prayer is also seen as crying of to God. Persistence in prayer is so important. God wants us to be persistent in prayer so that we pursue Him so much more. Philippians 4 talks about us presenting our requests to God and not being anxious in these requests, but waiting on God’s timing and praying that His will be done, not our own. We are not to give up after praying one time. God wants to see us pursuing Him by hitting our knees as much as possible. Also, we don’t pray to get stuff from God. We pray to grow closer to Him. So often we treat God like a magic genie, asking Him to grant our every wish. It is like we do not understand that we are the Creation and He is the Creator. He deserves respect. We need to come humbly before our God for He is worthy while we are so unworthy. We do not deserve to be allowed to approach His throne. We have no right to be able to speak to Him or even have a relationship with Him since we have fallen short of His standards, but He has mercy on us and allows it and loves every second that He can spend with us. Let’s spend time on our knees, crying out to the King, seeking that His will be done in our lives, that it not be us, but God living through us. 

When I look at the prayer life of people in the Bible, aside from Christ, I see Elijah, who called out to the Lord in I Kings 18 and God responded mightily. I see men like Daniel, that had were so passionate about prayer that they would rather die than give up their prayer life. Abraham sought God, pleading with God to grant Him a son, and sure enough after years of prayer and even once God promised Abraham a son, Abraham still had to wait, yet God fulfilled His promise! Are we this passionate about prayer? Do we have a firm belief that God can move mightily in our lives if we just allow Him? In comparison to these great men of faith, do we have a prayer life? 

Family, let’s truly learn how to make prayer a core part of our life.

Blessings

A Forgiven And Adopted People

Hebrews 8:10b

“I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Does this describe us? Are we familiar with God’s law? Is it written in our minds and on our hearts that we constantly go back to Him for everything we do? Is everything action we do lined up with God’s law? Maybe one of the greatest things to remember is that though we are not held to the law anymore, instead to grace, we should not sin increasingly so that grace may abound (Romans 6:1). We are not to take advantage of God’s grace in a disrespectful way. We should be so thankful to God for His grace that we seek to please Him in all we do, that sin may no longer have any part of our life, but that God may dwell in every corner of our life. I know that I have sinned many times with the thought racing through my head saying “You will be forgiven if you confess afterwards so just do it and have fun.” This is such a powerful way to tempt Christians, but family, I must ask, is it true repentance if you go half heartedly to God after sinning full heartedly? No matter how fancy the words used, your intentions must be correct in order to be forgiven. God looks at the heart of man, He sees right through us, a facade will not fool Him for a second. I feel that, at least in my own life, that God has had so much in store for me and could have saved me from so many of the depths that I have gone through, had I only truly gone to Him in repentance, seeking to abandon my sin and my chains and instead of holding my memories of my past as who I am, looking at them as who I was and how great and merciful God is for saving a wretch such as me. I missed so many chances to grow because I was half in the world, half in God. This is being lukewarm, as discussed in Revelation 3:16. God literally desires to vomit lukewarm people of His mouth. It is just so gross before Him. Its like drinking out of that water bottle that has been sitting in the 100 degree heat for a day and now tastes gross and repugnant. As a former lukewarm man, I was repugnant before God. I grossed out the Creator of the universe because of my facade and lies about who I am. I was trying to serve 2 masters when Christ is clear numerous times that I can only serve one. Either Death or Life, either Misery or Joy, either Hate or Love, vanity or purpose, condemnation or mercy, hell or heaven (yes, they both are real places), either darkness or light, either lies or truth, either idolatry (in following lies, Satan, my own will, rejecting God, placing a relationship or good deeds or a job or school in front of God) or God, the One who demonstrated true love when He hung from a rigid wooden cross, suffering a death of suffocation, experiencing the punishment that I deserved because of my mistakes, paying my debt, the Righteous One dying for the unrighteous. I think the choice is simple. Now the question is in front of you and you must choose, Life or Death? Regardless of if you choose or not, that alone is a choice. If you say “maybe another time or when i’m older,” you have made a choice to say no, we don’t know when we will die, but I promise that we will die. If you are living a life like I was, you must make a choice between your masters. I pray that you choose God and the life that He offers. Be a man or woman of God, live for Someone greater than you, something that will last forever, find peace in the midst of your world crumbling apart, be changed into a respectable person, find love like never before, it will be hard, but He will be there for you and will change you like never before if you just seek Him. I find it amazing that we who had no one to show us that perfect love we desire, except for God. We were people without direction, but He gives us purpose. We were people that didn’t have a home, we ran from the only place we knew as home and spat in our father’s face, then came back, broken, miserable, ready for change and He took us and embraced us and called us His children. We went from rebels, transgressors of the law, scum, disgusting, and so much more, only then to be adopted by the King over ALL creation.

If you do decide to repent and to follow God or to continue on and to seek Him more passionately (which I pray that all who see this decide to do one of these two), just talk to God, let Him touch your heart, then get in the Word. Dig into it! And mostly, bring glory to God in all that you do!!!

Blessings

Promised With Intentions To Fulfill

Hebrews 6:15

And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

Promises. Something we have all made or received at one time. But how often do we hold firm to our word? How often does our yes mean yes and our no mean no? So often I tell someone that I will try to do something or go somewhere and not do it or go there. I have done what many others have done and told people that I will pray for them and not do it, so often I have no intention of even doing it. I am so often unreliable. I think many of us are. How does this reflect our God if we are to be imitators of God? We are to be reflections of Him on this earth! We are CHRISTians, Followers of Christ, mini-Jesus’.  Would Jesus promise something and not give it? If so, we have a big problem with the God we follow. We could never trust Him. BUT, He is good, He is faithful, He is a fulfiller of promises. We can trust Him. We can depend on Him more than anyone or anything else. Abraham understood this. He and His wife waited decades upon decades for God to fulfill His promise to give them a descendant and make his descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky. They finally had a son when they were close to 100 years old. That is such a mind-blowing concept. Such a miracle. It is beyond human comprehension how this could happen, but God made it happen. What is impossible for man is simple for God. He can do anything, He is omnipotent (all powerful). So often, we may pray for something half-heartedly or only a couple times, I wonder how much we would grow and God would reveal HImself to us if we diligently and persistently sought after Him instead of giving up. Abraham waited for decades for God to fulfill His promise, but the fact of the matter is that God fulfilled it. When God makes a promise, He keeps it, it will happen. We don’t have to doubt. We have no reason to doubt the Almighty God, yet so often we do and then take things into our own hands. THAT is when things go wrong. Not when God promises, but when we take control. What so often happens is that we don’t seek God enough concerning the matter, we don’t cry out to Him for that answered prayer. We give up on God so quickly. I wonder how many times God was about to bless us beyond belief and then we just took matters into our own hands and messed it up? Or how many times God wanted us to come before Him in PERSISTENT prayer, but we decide that because He didn’t answer us after one or two prayers that we should take control to reach our desires. We hear and say the phrase “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), but how often do we mean this? As Christians this needs to be one of our largest desires, that GOD’S WILL IS DONE. In heaven God’s will is done 100%, but on earth how often do we get impatient and attempt to take matters into our own hands only to end up somewhere that we don’t want to be? We need to have our lives reflect this prayer. May God’s will be done 100%, completely, on earth, in our lives everyday, as it is in heaven. His promises are trustworthy. He cannot lie. Believe that because when he promises something, He does not go back on His word. So be patient, seek HIS will, seek Him. I believe that some of the most impacting promises from God is His promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and also that He will never give us more than we can deal with and that we are not alone in our temptations (I Corinthians 10:13) and that His burden is easy and His yoke is light (Matthew 11:30). But one of the most amazing promises we have received is that God has promised salvation to those who respond to His call. We can be saved from an eternity of suffering, we can be connected with God. This is a sweet promise.




BELIEVE THESE WITH ALL OF YOU, FROM THE CORE OF WHO YOU ARE TO YOUR ACTIONS AND SPEECH

Blessings family

A Spiritual Maturity

Hebrews 5:14

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Solid food is for the mature.... These words echo in my head as I am thinking about this passage.. The author uses this analogy to put our spiritual growth in terms we can comprehend. Babies eat baby food, obviously. A baby does not have the capability to eat steak. They don’t have teeth. Similarly, as new-borns into the Christian walk, we can’t dig deep yet.You have to get the basics down before you can grow in something. You walk before you run, talk before you give speeches, practice before you play. All typical steps in a process. We need to grow out of our baby stage in order to continue furthering our walks. Getting “older” in our walks is not a bad thing by any means, it is a great thing. The only problem is that many Christians desire to only stay in their baby phase. They never dig deep into the Word, they never hit their knees in complete submission to God, they never truly cry out to Him and seek Him, they never get involved in ministry, they rarely share their faith, they are contempt with what they know and staying shallow in their knowledge of God. God does not like this! We are to grow in our walks, not seek to remain where we are. We are to continue walking, not sit and be happy with how far we made it, even though we have so much more potential. This is being lukewarm (Revelation 3:16). It is REPULSIVE to God. I sat in this phase for years. I never sought growth, I claimed I did, but never applied it, I never truly looked to seek God and His purpose for me. Family, this is a huge problem I see. I am not saying this as a condemnation by any means, but rather as an encouragement and challenge to grow. We need to seek out growth, rather than stunt it. We are to walk the walk with God, not walk, then give up and be happy with where we are. I have used the analogy before of running opposite the direction of an escalator. If you keep pushing and striving and growing, you will at some point reach your goal. You may start to lose ground and get tired, but you get through it and regain progress thus, growing in strength. If you stop to rest, you will be swept all the way back. If we sit as baby Christians, it does no benefit for our spiritual lives! We CANNOT remain baby Christians forever! We MUST mature and grow. We need to dig deep into the Word, we need to diligently seek HIm in everything we do. How we mature is discussed in this verse also, we are told that spiritual maturity comes from CONSTANT practice distinguishing good and evil. We are to know the Word so that we can be workers that show themselves approved, rightly dividing truth from lies (2 Tim 2:15). We need to grow. It is time to grow up! It is time for Christians to grow and to not be complacent. We need to become mature men and women of God. The man or woman that He desires for us to be. We cannot settle with where we are in our spiritual lives. We need to progress. In a race, a runner does not stop midway and say that they were happy that they did well, no, they instead desire to improve, they desire to do better and get to the finish, to reach the finish line. They are not complacent. They are not happy with just “getting by” in the race. But in contrast, how often are we contempt with “getting by” in our Walks?? Let’s no longer be contempt, but let’s seek God, seek growth in Him, and let’s be His people that are more and more like Him every single day that we live. 

Let God have all of you. Your core being, your life, your everything. 

Blessings