Choosing Friends

 Something has been plaguing me lately, and it's a matter concerning those i call friends. This is not a post intended to share anything that has been learned, but rather a bit of a rant tinged with introspection.
 Second Timothy has a clear warning that, in the "last days," perilous and terrible things will happen.

People will be self-loving, money-loving, proud, arrogant, insulting, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, uncontrolled, brutal, hateful of good, traitorous, headstrong, swollen with conceit, loving pleasure rather than God, as they retain the outer form of religion but deny its power. (v.2-5, CJB)

 What's worse is these things are taught as not only normal, but good.
 "Yes! Love yourself! Be empowered! Do what you want to--" No! This is not the way it's supposed to be.
 And the love of money? Well, golly, nobody loves money, they just want more of it!
 Proud, arrogant, insulting . . . Our society tells us that we should love ourselves, and the result is just these things; we think we're better than everyone else.
 Disobedient to parents. Scarcely in a secular (read: popular) children's program are children actually encouraged to obey their parents. In fact, some actually discourage it. And the generation is evil, wicked, lawless, faithless, and so on.
 I could go on with each topic listed, but i'll cut to the chase.

 One sentence was left out from that passage.

Stay away from these people!

 Other translations (KJV) say, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
 This isn't aimed at heathens--at least not at heathens that don't know Christ. This is aimed at those falsely claiming to be Christians; people that clap their hands on Sunday, pray a prayer, maybe even shed a tear, then go back to their sexual immorality, their vile tongues, their intoxicating drink, their cigarettes, their sports worship, their idolatry, their obsessions with money, their obscene gestures, their crude joking, their filthy forms of entertainment . . .
 Shall i go on, or would that step on even more toes?
 People who claim to follow Christ but ignore the voice of God, are without conviction, teach a false gospel, say something is "innocent enough," make God into a magic genie, repost everything that says to repost it in order for God to bless them (this is a contrary gospel) . . .

"People whose minds no longer function properly and who have been deprived of the truth, so that they imagine that religion is a road to riches." (1 Timothy 6:5, CJB, emphasis mine)

 Stay away from these people (CJB). Have nothing to do with such people (NIV). From such people turn away (NKJV).
 Basically, don't associate with them. Avoid them. Get them out of your life. Purge the contaminate before it makes you sick.

 Again, it does not say to avoid those who don't know any better; Jesus ate with sinners--find me one instance where He chose the company of anyone who claimed to follow Him but only publicly. He didn't. He kept company with sincere hearts and those who had not heard.

 And here we are in the twenty-first century, where ungodliness and vulgarity are praised, where Christ is more often used as a curse than a blessing, where music and movies and television shows openly deny God to the point of portraying anyone who does believe in Him to be stupid. And it has seeped into our churches.
 If a pastor actually condemns sin, he's got a small congregation. If a person speaks of God in daily life, he's laughed at*. If anyone chooses a stricter way of life, they are scorned and people cry, "legalist!*" If one abstains from sexual immorality or from alcohol, they are repeatedly invited to bars and strip clubs*.
 Why?
 Because people hate a Gospel that actually changes you.
 Because it's all supposed to be on the outside.
 Because nothing that flows from the mouth (the overflow of the heart) should have anything to do with God.
 And if it does, it bothers them. They cringe. They don't want to believe that anything is honestly wrong with acting like everyone else. They don't want to see it change someone else because they don't want to have to change themselves. They want to be comfortable with their flesh.
 They're lovers of self.
 Lovers of sin.
 Stay away from these people!

 Who, then, are we left to fellowship with? A circle of honest believers we can count on a single hand? Are we to seek purposeful naivete? Not so! for Christ knew the hearts of those He walked past--He discerned, and yet He chose only eleven (a twelfth that He knew would betray Him).

 And here is a glorious promise, unknowingly fulfilled by the world: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19, ESV)

 We will be hated. Though i have never been beaten nor spit upon nor threatened, merely mocked and ridiculed, for my faith, we should greet it as the apostles; "...overjoyed at having been considered worthy of suffering disgrace on account of Him." (Acts 5:41, CJB)
It is sad for sure when people can insult the idea of Christ dying for them, and that often brings me to tears. But our personal disgrace in the eyes of the world we will count as a grace from God. It means we're doing something right.

 And then there are certainly those who will say, "Well, you know, you have to look at who that was written to," or, "That was for a specific person or group," or, "That doesn't apply anymore because of Christ."
I am taking for granted those same people are discounting the fact that, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living." (2 Timothy 3:16, CJB, emphasis mine)
 All Scripture. That does not have an asterisk, a footnote, a cross-reference, it is just simply put that all Scripture is applicable. That the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the same God who wrought destruction and wrath on Sodom, the same God whose anger makes the earth shake and tremble, the same God who has wrath and fury, is in all actuality the same God that loves us enough to give us Christ as propitiation for sin. Christ did not abolish Scripture, but fulfilled it.
 All Scripture, regardless of who it was written to, is valuable to us for the things mentioned because it is God-breathed.

 *denotes that which i've experienced from Christians

We Stick To Our Guns . . .

 It has been my prayer that God teach me to mourn over those who are perishing, and He has. I can't look at my fellow man, namely those who loosely tout the term, "Christian," while living no differently than the world save for an hour and a half on Sunday. And now my prayer also includes a reputation in Hell.
 This song that's played on the radio where i work ("This Is How We Roll" by Florida Georgia Line--thank you, Google, for supplying lyrics and title) sums up the state of Christianity so well, and it grieves me:

Yeah, we're proud to be young,
We stick to our guns.
We love who we love, and we wanna have fun.
Yeah, we cuss on them Mondays,
And pray on them Sundays.
Pass it around and we dream about one day. 

 That is what Christianity consists of in today's world. "Cuss on them Mondays, pray on them Sundays."
 If this doesn't make your stomach turn and your heart ache, then that song may very well apply to you. "The mix in [your] drink's a little stronger than [i] think." It pains me to see those i respect that call themselves Christians turn around and follow the rest of the world as it heads towards destruction.
 Israel, people of God, Church, Bride! Weep! And do something about it! If people apologize for cussing around you (this is a remark on my own complacency after this past weekend), then by all means apologize to them for not caring enough to impact their lives! Apologize for not desiring to see such a radical change in their lives that they can coexist with a Christian for forty hours a week and not want to experience what you have! Apologize for not caring about their soul enough to show them something real! That's who needs to apologize: you and i, not them.

 God has given each of us mission fields. Yours may be your neighbors, for some of you it may be your families, for others it could be coworkers or friends. That is your mission, and that is your responsibility. You will be held accountable for those put in your path that you don't reach.

 In the name of Christ, make for yourselves a reputation in Hell (Acts 19:15).

 There is a war raging, and Christians have been brainwashed by a very appealing angel of light that we're supposed to be on the defensive, laying down our weapons . . . But gates don't move; they open and close--why, then, will the gates of Hell not prevail against the Kefa, or rock, on which the congregation of Christ is built upon? We are made for siege. The gates of Hell cannot stand up to the battering from the rock of Christ.

 Here are some interesting words in red.

...let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. (Luke 22:36)

 If you are clothed and yet unarmed, you are misprepared. If you have dignity but lack a blade for which to hold against the throat of the devil, you are ill-equipped.

 Our armor of God, which is primarily defensive, conveniently contains a Sword: the Word of God that can separate soul from Spirit, bones from marrow. This is far from defensive; this is a weapon of assault -dare i say, of mass destruction even- in the spiritual realms. This is that Sword which proceeds from the mouth of Christ in Revelation chapter one.

Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishments on the peoples,
to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
to execute on them the judgment written!
This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 149:5-9)

 This is not subtlety, this is not passivity, nor even passive-aggressive tendencies. This is full-on warfare. Capturing kings, imprisoning officials, these are acts of war. We are to be exacting justice swiftly all the while singing praises to God.

To quote a song ("Devastator," by For Today),
Hell, fear me. I am the one that will bring you down.
And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on the battleground.
Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Savior,
The One that died to buy my victory, and gave me a new name.
Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Savior,
In the name of the Holy One of God!
I will cast you down at the foot of the cross He hung from.

 This is a proper stance in the realm of spiritual warfare; taking the fight to Satan, all the while exalting Christ.
 Weep, friends, and groan over the abominations committed within the Church (Ezekiel 9). We can't sit idly by and watch the world perish--not while twiddling our thumbs and whistling a catchy, trendy worship song. If the world is going to perish, it must only be allowed to do so as we rush in without care to our reputation while dragging others out.

Pride and Love

 We should never discount love as the greatest tool to win hearts to Christ. Our love for people should be our wordless proof of faith. Without love, we surely have only pride which was the very cause of Satan's fall. Sadly, these two, though opposites (love being submission of the 'self' in order to elevate others, whereas pride, not hate, is the glorification of the 'self' in order to put down others), can tread a very thin line.

 Allow me to quote the second verse of a song much more eloquent on the subject than i could ever hope to be ("Failing In Love" by Cool Hand Luke).

"Would you tell me if you knew that I was dying,
Some sort of parasite that got into my brain?
Would I tell you that I thought that you were lying,
Ignoring evidence, ignoring all the pain?
There’s too much sugar, too much water."

 In the first verse, Mr. Nicks (the lyricist/vocalist) even goes so far as to say that if we don't speak the truth, if we don't proclaim the whispers in our ears from the rooftops, we have become the enemy of those perishing, not by saying the unsaved are dying.
 In that second verse, love takes an entirely new light, one where we plead with people for caution.

 Instead of tolerance for sin, we have an urgency. We must not lose tolerance for people, but culture is entirely different. We can love individuals and still remain vehemently opposed to the culture they come from--that we come from. More often than not, anger towards society is seen as self-righteous and hypocritical. After all, who hasn't sinned? Christ alone.
 If hypocrisy is about me, it is born of fury against the state of society. I am not claiming to be perfect. God knows how terribly flawed and vile i have been and am. It's human nature.
 If i am a garden, and Song of Songs says i am, and God is a Gardener, and i think He is, and my flesh is a weed, and i know it is, i must apologize for how busy He must be from pulling weeds.

 Love, again, i say is our surest vessel of bringing hope to a world dying. Love is what caused the men in Jerusalem to "sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed [there]" (Ezekiel 9:4). These men are the ones who were not sentenced to execution. These men received a mark on their foreheads (perhaps like the seal of God on the foreheads of those who were to remain untouched mentioned in Revelation 9?).
 Love scarcely comes without a word of caution. In fact, it's not a great dare to say most acts of love are a word of caution.
 So here is a word of caution to those who are in Christ: Weep. Mourn. Rend garments in your sorrow for the souls who do not know the hope that lies in you.
 A word of caution to those not in Christ: "Go and sin no more." We (Christians) do not condemn you because we are all as guilty as you; we are forgiven, and beg of you to turn from your sin and ask forgiveness from God as well.
 Condemning a person's sin is not condemning a person, and this brings me back to the first paragraph.

 Love and pride sometimes walk so close together as to be confused with one another, and we must daily kill our pride lest our love become self-motivated and, therefore, prideful. It is easy to condemn the sin as though we had never committed the same. It's easy to confuse the sinner with the sin. This is where love and pride are contrasted; love is the desire to see someone become like Christ, pride is the desire to see someone become like us. I do not parrot the boldness of Paul by saying, "Imitate me," for i know my sins and shame (i would, however, when he calls himself bolder in written word than face-to-face). I would rather point to Christ's actions in my life through God's children, and say, "Imitate them." This may be shucking responsibility, but i have a lot harder time resolving myself to sin than God has absolving me . . . Actually, it was much more difficult and painful for God to absolve me of sins. I know because i know what Christ looked like on the cross, bearing no longer any human likeness or semblance. And i know that's what i should look like. This creates a great well of sadness in me, matched only by gratitude.

 Pride and love are often hard to tell apart when it comes from Christians. With that said, woe to those who would use Christ for their own gain, for their reward has already come, and they have stored up treasures not in Heaven but in Hell.
 For them, we should surely pray.

My God Is Mine, And I Am His

There are times where i've said things that have been rather legalistic, and have decided to try and hold less Levitical opinions, and to stagger trivial things as being less than absolute. I take it back. All of it.
And i pray God allows me to make this as least condemnational as possible because, as is taught more often than the wrongfulness of sin, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)

If something is not wrong, that makes it right. Likewise, if something is not right, that makes it wrong.
What is not right is not good, what's not good is bad, and what's bad is, well, sick. If there is one time that something is neither good nor bad in the Bible, i have not found it. The Bible draws all things as absolutes, right or wrong, blessed or cursed, living or dead, righteous or sinner; there is no halfway right thing, there is no barely blessed person, no one is only kind of alive, and there is none righteous.
And it's about time there were some things set as absolute again.

Sin is sin is sin is sin.

Now, to put this a little step forward, the Ten Commandments.
How do we reconcile them to Romans 8:1?
Simple. Do not condemn. This includes yourself. Do not condemn yourself by breaking the Law of God.
Yes, we are set free from the law of sin and death. Yet at the same time, a mere two verses later, Paul says that "[God] condemned sin in the flesh."
We are set free from the law because it could not free us. If we are in Christ, we are not condemned because He freed us by being the catalyst through which God condemned the flesh.

Despite this freedom from the law and condemnation, i feel that seeing a Levitical stand would be an act through which the glory of God could shine all the more unhindered through a set apart people.

Moses asked the camp of the Israelites, "Who is on the Lord's side?" and it was the sons of Levi who gathered around him.
It was the tribe of Levi that said, in essence, "We will do anything the Lord asks of us, no matter the cost to us or those around us." This stand was against any and every institution of man and it was for God alone. Then, in the same chapter, it was Moses, another Levite, who said to God (paraphrasing), "These people have sinned against You, but I am asking for forgiveness on their behalf. And if they are still to perish, as the one You have designated to be their leader, I must die with them."
Levites were the first, as far as i can tell, to make intercession.

When taking a census of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Levi was overlooked, because these people were not to be counted, but to be kept apart. They were to stay at the Tabernacle, to set it up, take it down, to guard it; the Tabernacle had been given unto them, this place where the Spirit of God would come down and rest was under the watch of these men. Under their watch was the presence of the Lord.
The man that guards to Tomb of The Unknown Soldier; this tribe was comprised of men with that sort of zeal.

"Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle. The Levites shall be mine: I am the Lord." (Numbers 3:45)
God made a special claim to the people of Levi; He chose them as His own. What greater statement could be made of a people over God saying, "[They] shall be Mine: I am the Lord"? Through Christ, all nations come unto Him, and He calls us all His.

Here's a personal favorite of mine regarding them; "At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day." (Deuteronomy 10:8)

The Lord set them apart. They were the firstfruits, the wave offering, the choice grain, however you want to put it, they were just that. The best of the crop were they, and God set them apart to carry the Ark of the Covenant. In other words, He chose them to carry His promise to mankind among the people of Israel. They were the ones who had been entrusted with the Law, the pre-destination of Christ, the future hope of grace and glory was on their shoulders as they marched, and God set them apart for this specific act. In our lives, if we are to be Levites, we must be so overwhelmingly fascinated by God as to completely succumb to His will such that He can call us carriers of His promise. They had wholly died to self in order to become vessels of God's purpose--just as we're to do as Christians.
Not only this, they were called to stand before the Lord and to minister to Him and to bless in His name. Just as angels ministered to Christ after He was tempted, Levites were called to minister to God, to proclaim His glory, to pray without ceasing, to constantly offer up praise of pleasing aroma. With the New Covenant, Christ, we are all called to minister to each other and to God, and to bless in Jesus' name.

"Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him." (Deuteronomy 10:9)

And here, Levi has no portion with the rest of God's people. Because God called them His, they would call Him theirs. If you want to be set apart, it requires a call, but it also requires an answer. The only answer to the call of Christ, as i believe it was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who put it, "is an unconditional yes."

We can't say, "Well, God, we will carry the Ark so long as You have someone else relieve us sometimes. That thing is heavy, You know!"

No, this isn't a burdensome statement, this is freedom. God called them unto Himself, away from the material, and into sanctification. The liberties therein are boundless. Instead of worldly things that "moth and rust destroy," they were given something transcendental yet profound, and eternal. They were given the very presence of God.

This would be something to boast about for sure; to look at your neighbors and see them satisfied with their big houses, fancy clothes, and luxury cars, yet know in your heart of hearts that what you have will never be out of style, will not fade, can not be shaken or destroyed or taken from you, and will accompany you every day of your life, and being satisfied with it.

They were set upon things the other tribes could not see except through their lifestyle; the abundance of grace flowing to them and through them, the glory billowing from them like stacks in a furnace.

That is the Levitical order. That is God choosing His people, and choosing a people who would make Him theirs. That is resting in absolutes.

Christ offers this same prestigious honor to us all. He is calling, He is standing at the door, He is knocking.
God is looking for a Church set apart for Himself, of which He can say, "They are Mine." He's looking for a Church that will say, "God is ours at any cost."
And the first step towards seeing God's vision for His Church come to be is by saying, "Yes!" in your own life, and encouraging others to take that same step while interceding for them. The Church needs changed from the inside out, and this is how we do it; by letting God first change us from the inside out.
To quote Mahatma Gandhi, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." And the same goes for the Church. To see a Church set apart, be set apart in the Church.

Never again will i strive to be less Levitical in my words or actions.

Cliché Jesus

There was an interesting image that came to mind earlier at work. It was like a very short scene played out in front of me, and it seems that it could make others think about their own personal idea of Christ.

There were two men before me, and there was a choice that had to be made; follow one, or follow the other.
The first one was the idea i all-too-often have of Christ: handsome face, chiseled jaw, groomed facial hair, you name it. His hair was immaculate, long and tangle-free, wavy and smooth. He was quite muscular, wearing a royal purple sash, a brilliant crown on his head, and he had thousands of followers in nice clothes, preachers and well-to-do people all rather urbanely dressed, and he told me that he was Christ. From his voice and manner, it seemed wasn't a decision for me to make, he simply was the Messiah, and he said it with authority.
The second man was really ragged looking. He was skinny, like a homeless man. His hands were cut up, scabbed, scarred, blistered and calloused, with split fingernails to top them off. His face was weak and feeble, covered mostly by a muddy and matted beard, His face had all manner of sun-damage and weariness. His clothes were torn and stained like a mechanic's favorite t-shirt, His hair was shaggy, and He somewhat ugly in the way that you'd walk around this person while purposefully avoiding eye-contact. His followers were few, but looked much like Him. He asked me who i believed He was.

I've actually thought of this quite a bit and always figured Jesus was of the more lowly type, but until this came to mind, it never struck me just how lowly.
He was a carpenter, which results in lots of cuts and scrapes, many callouses, splinters, and the like. Foxes (these are wild scavengers, mind you), have holes, but the King has no place for His head; He was homeless. When the disciples asked what there was for Him to eat, He said doing the will of His Father was His food. He walked from town to town, not always on a donkey. He was without money, and so most likely without clean water the majority of the time.
We glamorize Jesus, even when we attempt to portray Him as a "nobody" from that time--clean (or at least without tear) clothes, clean face, soft beard, flowing hair. These things were for those in the houses of royalty of that era, not workers, carpenters, wanderers.

The thing that hit me most about that little image was that the one stated He was Christ, the other asked who I said He was.
After all, it doesn't matter to the non-believer whether or not Jesus was the Christ; it matters to those who call Him the Son of God. It matters who I say He is. It matters who you say He is. He could walk around proclaiming to be the Christ all day long, and yet it wouldn't matter if nobody else said He was the Christ.
In the same way, we can proclaim to be Christians day in and day out, bumper stickers plastered on our cars, t-shirts with "edgy" Christian slogans or Bible verse, cross and fish jewelry adorning our necks and fingers, and it won't matter. It won't matter one bit.
If someone can't look at our lives and tell who we follow, are we actually following Him? Does His light really shine from us, or are we just perpetuating the Christianity Machine?

Here's a question i am asking, paraphrasing a question Christ presented His disciples, and i implore each and every one of you to ask it to a close friend, preferably a non-believing one; aside from my shouting, aside from my claims, aside from my apparel, who do you say that i follow?

Still Small Voice Pt. I

 Then He [God] said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NKJV)

 We often look so hard for God that we miss Him entirely.
 He can be in the earthquakes, He can be in the forest fires, He can be in the raging of the seas, the hurricanes or tidal waves. But sometimes, He wants us to look for Him. He knows we get bored if everything is spoon-fed to us, so He hides. He almost plays with us. And He does this so we don't lose interest in the pursuit.
 Yes, sometimes it would be easier if He would stand in front of us and say, "Hey, you, kiddo, I'm right here."
 But would that really be any better for us? Would the finding still be finding if there was no seeking? And even if so, isn't the seeking the part where we learn the most?
 You can learn more about a person by seeking them rather than having them tell everything to you.

 Shakespeare would've answered the question, "What are you like?" with something akin to (i won't even attempteth to imitate his style) "I'm a playwright and poet, namely of the iambic pentameter variety." Does that do him justice? Hardly.

"In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note;
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who in despite of view is pleased to dote..."

 Measure the stressed syllables, hear the rhymes, count the steps; it's beautiful, and it flows with grace and rhythm and measure. Upon first hearing it, it might just seem lovely, but after seeking, an entirely new level of wonderment is revealed.
 God is kind of like that, too. And He knows it. He knows we'll find out more about Him if He sets us into His Word if He puts us in a place where we need to open the Bible and pray than if He appeared before us and said, "I'm God, follow Me this way."
 He wants your attention, but He wants to be sought, so there's a whisper instead of a shout, a glimmer instead of a flash.

 This is incredibly off-track from the original intent.

Still Small Voice Pt. II

 Then He [God] said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13, NKJV)

 Convictions are not just a series of don't-do-thats in our heart. They are also a series a do-thats. We often overlook that, thinking God only tells us what not to do According to John 12:49-50 (and various other places in the Gospel accounts), Christ only spoke what the Father told Him to speak, and so He tell us, "Go." That's not a "thou-shalt-not," but rather a "thou-shalt." And Jesus didn't often flat-out tell people, "You're sinning, stop that." He asked questions.
 You want to stir up someone's heart to do right, then ask them about it, don't just say they're in the wrong. If a Christian is being obscene, ask them how they feel about it, how God would feel about it (remember the all-too-cliché, WWJD bracelets?). Ask them what God has called them to, and then ask them if that behavior fits their calling. Even when His parents found Him in the temple, He asked them two things; why they were looking for Him, and whether or not they knew He would be about His Father's business. Asking is as good, if not better than telling.

 We only notice our convictions if they're loud, but we must listen for the whisper He puts in our soul. These are often the most important. The loud ones are the do-nots, such as not stealing something, not hurting someone, and the like. The ones everyone knows.
 The small ones are those He's wanting us to hear so that we can learn what He's like inside ourselves. These small ones are the dos. They make us miss stride for a step or two. Ever felt the inexplicable urge to offer someone a few cents when they're short on change? That's probably Him convicting you. Ever seen someone upset and had a compulsion to ask what's wrong? That could be Him as well. The ones compelling us to love, even in small gestures, instead of to merely not sin; these are the convictions of the intimate, loving heart of God working inside of us.

 To be good, as we see in Luke 18 (i think . . . The rich young man part), is not simply not doing bad things; he had kept all the commandments, mostly a series of donts, from childhood. To be good (only God is good; to exercise His heart and, therefore, His goodness), he had to do. He had to sell everything and give it to the poor. But he instead settled with going back to the donts because the dos are sometimes a whole lot harder. But his conviction was loud--it was standing in front of him. Christ, telling him, essentially, "Do an act of love."
 He didn't get the adventurous, beautiful pursuit of God's heart from that gentle tugging at him that the rest of us get. He, apparently a follower of Judaism because he kept the Torah, and also a believer in Christ since he called Him "Good Teacher," knowing full-well that God alone is good, got what so many of us say we need in order to do God's will; a physical manifestation of God standing in front of us, saying what we must do. And even so, he still went away sad because he said no.
 Convictions, more than not doing what is wrong, encourage us to do what is good, what is the will of the Father.

All Or Nothing

 God is a complete God. He does nothing part-way, and expects nothing left unfinished by us, either.
Now, when i say that He is a "complete" God, that is taking into account the partial sentence in Genesis 3:22 (unless you read from certain translations such as the NIV). That's a topic for another day, lest i digress. But even that is resolved by His next action.

 It would be easy to get far more in-depth than i'm planning with this, and so will refrain, using few examples.

 Joshua 6 contains my first example; the fall of Jericho. God gives rather strange, albeit specific directions for the Israelites to follow, which includes a week of marching around a city. It wasn't until they had fulfilled all the commands that the walls finally fell. It wasn't until everything God commanded had been fully completed.
And this presents the question of why they had to march instead of God just destroying the stronghold outright. It's a matter of discovering one's level of faith.
And a further question could arise; "If God knows all things, He knows how much faith we have, so He doesn't have to test us." And that's true. He does know how much faith we have. We don't. Job's story is one not of God discovering Job's faith in God, but Job discovering his own faith in God, as well as God's confidence in His faithful ones.
Digressing again.

 The next i'd like to bring up is Abraham and Isaac's encounter at Moriah in Genesis 22.

"After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'"

 Abraham gets the trying directive to go to a place that isn't shown to him at the time of his departure. This isn't the first time, either; in Genesis 12:1, he's told to go to a land that God would show him. That in itself begs more faith than many would be capable of displaying.
But in this, he's told to take his only son (to address the elder brother, Ishmael, born to Hagar, would be another digression), whom he loved, and offer him as a burnt offering. This required Isaac to be tied and placed on a pile of branches, his throat slit, and then burned.
Isaac asked where the lamb was for the offering. How it must have grieved Abraham to tell him that Lord would provide it. Like pouring salt on a wound, or twisting a knife.
He bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, the wood for which Isaac carried himself. Abraham was a hundred years old at Isaac's birth. It's unlikely that Abraham could have tied him up had he resisted, without consent.
And Abraham even gets as far as holding the blade to his son before the angel stops him.
It wasn't enough to just say, "Okay, God, you're most important to me." It took a days-long venture with his son to go and sacrifice his son, all the way unto putting the knife to his son's throat.
There was no doubt in God's mind, no doubt in Abraham's at this point, that God was first in his life.

 There are many other references that could be made on this topic, but those are the only two i have the time (or energy) to read up on and type.
Here's the thing, however; He asks us to do things as completely as He does. He wants utter submission to His commands. He wants us to be limitless on what we'd do in order to serve Him.
We often get into the mindset of, "If I just set myself up to do something, He'll bless me like I did it completely," but that's not how it works. If He asks you to give something up, be it a specific behavior, friends, family, a job, dreams, anything, He means for you to do so without thinking of how to get around it. He is intending to bless you however He intends; the grace part is giving you the chance and conviction to give up something for Him, to act recklessly for Him, to lose everything for Him. That is a grace in itself. Cherish it. Everything you have gained should be counted as loss for His sake. Our glory comes from what He asks of us, the sacrifices He calls us to make; not by our means, but by His grace.

 I'm sure, at times, we'll say, "God, what on earth are You thinking?" And His answer will probably be silence. The more you ask that, the more silent He may seem to be. But that's perhaps good. The more reason for doubt there is in something that we persevere through, the more wondrous the glory we see.

 There are no partials in Christ. There is all in Christ, or not in Christ. He loves entirely, wants to be loved entirely. Better to be hot or cold than lukewarm.
Surely, the greatest case against a belief in God's grace is seeing someone living the same after meeting Him as before. Someone who is one way in church and another outside of it; this is the greatest representation of why someone should not believe their testimony.
He wants living sacrifices of our human nature to be fully engulfed in the flame on the altar so that there is nothing left of it. He wants everything we are to die there, so that everything He is can live where it was.
The opportunity -and calling- to lay myself down in such a way is the greatest grace i can imagine Him asking of me.
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

The Friction of Faith and Fear

“Jesus didn’t warn us of prophets. He warned of false prophets. He didn’t warn of signs and wonders. He warned of false signs and wonders. Knowing the real helps us to recognize the false. For this reason those with little to no fire think all fire is strange fire.”

 Bill Johnson is credited with that quote.
Take a moment to let that last sentence really sink in. "...those with little to no fire think all fire is strange fire." Many Christians have given themselves over to submission that makes them comfortable. Hands are raised, tears are shed, praises sung, prayers whispered, and these are some of the most beautiful things. We should never give these up. Every Sunday, there are people with wet eyes, dabbing their cheeks with tissues, and it makes my heart swell knowing that they're experiencing God in such a profound way. At times i envy them, and other times have found me with the same fogginess of vision.
But still, even with this, we (i at the very least) cling to our inhibitions.

 When i was younger (does that make me sound too old?), people would dance in the aisles. Not choreographed movements, but undignified, carefree dancing. Foolish dancing. And it egged others on. This is rare to see anymore, it seems. Now we're content to stand at our seat.
It was once a common occurrence to hear someone speaking in tongues. Not to themselves, but shouting, for all the congregation to hear, and nearly as often someone else give translation. There's much to be said on the gift of tongues, such that it could fill volumes, so this will be as in-depth as this post gets on the matter.
Healing took place not just in mega-churches where thousands attended and factors of that viewed on television, nor was it confined to revivals the masses flocked to. Many churches, varying in size, attendance, and denomination, nurtured witnesses of miraculous touches from God.
There was prophecy, genuine divine perspective; insight of not only modern application of the Word of God, but also of God Himself as He is, not just as He was two-thousand years ago (this may seem like a statement against Sola Scriptura, but i do believe the Holy Bible to be the complete and living Word of God).

 These things were not uncommon, but rather typical. And that wasn't but a mere decade ago.
Because "those with little to no fire think all fire is strange fire."
To a non-believer, or even to a new believer, these things may seem frightening, mystical even, or it might just weird them out to the point they want no part of it. However, the passion of new Christians almost invariably exceeds that of "seasoned" Christians. A new Christian, from what i have witnessed, sees their conversion to be a miracle as massive as moving a mountain. It's we, those who grew up with our faith, who have become "comfortable" with it and, therefore, see the newly reborn as a strange fire.

 We (again, i at the very least) hold back. We fear . . . Something.
Embarrassment? David danced naked in the street.
Lack of education? "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13) (Note that they "recognized that they had been with Jesus")
No authority? Jeremiah was told not to say that he was improper to speak due to being young.
Poor ability to speak/act with that kind of attention? A man with a slow tongue was told to have congress with Pharaoh, ruler of the largest and most powerful nation in the world at the time, who was seen also as an embodiment of a god. Not just that, but he was told to make demands. And to lead an entire nation out of Egypt.
Perhaps that we can't succeed? Adam and Eve were told to fill the earth. Two people, given the task of populating an entire planet. And here we are.

 Our/my excuses are frail. Surely, we must remain willfully blind to hold onto that fear.

 Personally, i believe Jesus Christ was being quite literal when He said, "Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him." (Mark 11:23)
I don't have to tell a geographical station to become mobile to know the ends of my faith. I trust God for the small things, and it's a hard thing to admit that the monumental things are another story.
I've never told a mountain to jump into the sea because i'm afraid that it won't happen. And it's not so much that i doubt God's power, but rather that i doubt that He would use me.
Minute or massive, the scale has no matter to God; to trust Him to grant me safe journey to work in the morning takes no more faith than to trust Him to move, say, Denali . . . It's somehow easier to believe one over the other.
And surely, i must remain willfully blind, because to the One that simply spoke the universe into being, Whose power is still left largely unfathomed, surely stopping the sun from setting would be no harder than causing a drizzle of rain.

But the fire is not quenched.
It will never be quenched, not even when the whole of creation has reached its fullness. The Holy Spirit is an All-Consuming Fire. He does nothing partially. He will not be put out, will not be satisfied. He is restless. He is fervent, wild, and savage. And the more a fire burns, the bigger, the hotter, the wilder, the more dangerous it becomes.
And while those with little to no fire think all fire is strange fire, they will know also that He is an All-Consuming One.

Some Thoughts On The Holy Spirit

Not everyone cares to talk about the Holy Spirit all that much, but i feel we must. As a community of believers, as Christians, as the burning light of God in this world, we must speak not only of God and Christ, but the power that drives us, that fuels us, that energetically sets our hearts aflame and leads us.
I'm not sure the reason the Christian community overlooks the Holy Spirit. It could be due to fear of blasphemy, as blasphemy against the Spirit is said to be the only unforgivable sin.
But think thusly; if speaking ill of your father would get you kicked out of the house and left on the streets, would you do it? Of course not. Would you not talk about them for fear of it? Unlikely. You would act as though they were your parents.
Why then, when speaking about the infinitely merciful and gracious God, do we speak of His Spirit with such reluctance? We should speak of the Holy Spirit all the more, that we have not been kicked out of the house for all the other wrongs we've committed against Him!

Now, the Holy Spirit is an "all-consuming" Fire. He's not "somewhat-consuming," or even "mostly-consuming." He is "all-consuming." Beginning to end, He is there.
We speak of God, of Christ, of salvation, even of the gifts of the Spirit, but we do not speak enough -could not speak enough!- of the Holy Spirit. Speaking of the gifts but not of the source is like saying "I got a guitar," but not saying it was from your friend. It's a massive overlook.
He wants us to give Him glory, but the accreditation is often left out, or worse, given unto ourselves (especially when speaking of words of knowledge or wisdom, or of faith or of love, which are gifts of the Spirit). This attitude is a disgrace. All He wants is for us to recognize Him and say "He gave me this guitar--and He's giving me lessons on it, too."

Again i say, He is an all-consuming Fire. He burns within us passionately, and with the same passion and power as that which was in the Word that said "Let there be light!"
That kind of power is frightening. It can create or destroy with but a single word. That is where the fear of God flows from; not in a terror that pushes us away, but a fear of being on the wrong side of the power behind creation (that is often initially what drives us to Him, but love does not come from being "scared to" something). He does not align Himself with you; you align yourself with Him. And we don't always fear being on the wrong side of this force, you fear being away from this force. This fear is a dependency. And it develops into love; just as a bear cub is terrified of being away from its mother, we should be infinitely more terrified of being separated from the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not some strange, shy thing. He is bold. He is perhaps the boldest characteristic of God.
God reigns. Christ atones. The Holy Spirit links the two together inside of us.
I say He is bold because it is the characteristic of God that makes Him real to us. Faith is a gift of the Spirit.
It's bold because it drives us to be like Christ, it drives us to love God, and it drives us to live for God. Whether or not we give this credit to the Holy Spirit, it is the reason we can preach, we can teach, we can love, we can hope, we can live.
The Holy Spirit is the invisible qualities of God mentioned in Romans 1, the undeniable aspect that makes us to be without excuse.
He's not something to tip-toe around while avoiding eye contact. It is the living force of God living within us, His Spirit, His "Breath of Life" given to Adam and Eve. It is what makes a son of man into a child of God, and transforms the dried-up bones scattering about the valley into a standing army of flesh-and-bone.

Distortions of Truths

Satan is a tempter and a deceiver. He twists everything out of context and corrupts.

As a preacher by the name of Mattie Montgomery points out in one of his sermons, Satan doesn't tempt Jesus to break His morals, he says "If You are the Son of God..." and so he tries to get Jesus to doubt who He is.
He also refers back to the Garden of Eden, when Eve was tempted to eat the fruit, and how he told her that she would be like God in knowing good and evil, but God created Adam in His likeness, and so Eve, being formed after Adam, is of divine design.
But this has led me to consider other thoughts along this same line.

It's not just Jesus and Eve that he does this to. It's all of us.
How many Christians can say without presenting a falsehood that they've never felt like they're not a child of God?
None. That's how many.
Satan is good at what he does. He's been sinning from the beginning--he's got experience. Jesus, however, came to destroy the works of Satan. Here's a flipside: through Christ, all things that exist were made (John 1:3). Jesus has more experience creating than Satan has destroying.

Nonetheless, Satan is a pretty good deceiver. I'd be lying to say i've not come under the influence of his lies from time-to-time.
He uses truth to back his deception, though. As seen in the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, he calls out scripture (And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Luke 4, ESV).

A similar kind of temptation has been used against me, though to a lesser degree. Satan has twisted my hearing of the Word of God to his own will, and he does this with many.
Though i believe all who confess and forsake their sins, believe Christ was crucified for their sins and was resurrected by God is a Christian, it's hard to deny the fact that there's dissension within the Church. Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, and the list goes on. All part of the Body of Christ, but also far from the unified Church He seeks. I believe denominations are where Satan has come in and caused division, though i don't count any of these more or less Christian sects than another. We're all children of God, but we have strife between us, and that comes from Satan.
Are you Methodist? You're a Christian.*
Are you of an Assembly of God? You're a Christian.*
Are you a Baptist? You're a Christian.*
Denominations aren't bad in themselves, so long as the focus is set solely upon Christ. It's the separation that's bad.

I've been convinced at times by Satan that i could never be worthy of the kingdom of God.
He used a very blatant truth to discourage me.
I agree with Satan here; i am unworthy of the kingdom of God. That doesn't mean i should give up, though, but rather that i should press on all the more to imitate Christ.
If you feel you're unworthy of the kingdom of God, embrace that. Accept it as fact and utilize his words as motivation.
When trying to get in shape, one who is out of shape will convince themselves one of two things: 1) "I'm out of shape, i can't work out," or 2) "I'm out of shape, i must work out."
Will you use this attack to motivate yourself, or become lackadaisical from it?

Here's where the Gospel can be used against us; Jesus, talking to the Rich Ruler in Luke 18, ended by saying "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Sounds pretty tough. Ought to earn us our way into Heaven, right?
Wrong.
That doesn't earn us a thing. Satan has come to me through verses like this to try and tell me that i can inherit the kingdom of God by earning it, and i want everyone to know that no sacrifice, no work that you do, can make you deserving of Heaven. The act of Christ did earn you Heaven. It's His grace alone. It's not by anything you can do. You are a sinner. What right have you to enter the kingdom of God? No, it's only by Christ's actions that we can be saved.
"What is impossible with man is possible with God." (Luke 18:27)
Soli Cristo!
All He asks is that we adhere to His Word.

* Minding that you do the will of God, which is confession and repentance, belief in Jesus as the Son of God, and so on.

Emptying Of Self

What does it mean to be empty of oneself? There are books and books about overcoming greed, pride, ego, and the like.
Getting over the "evil" of "self," is a simple act. It's called love.

When the social stereotypes of Christians come to mind, the world thinks of either Ned Flanders, or else a hypocrite that forces their beliefs on others, condemning sinners and portraying themselves as self-righteous.

After some recent experiences, i've realized why the world thinks we're all self-righteous bigots. Because many are, and because those are the ones they have contact with; the ones telling them, personally, "You're going to Hell!" The one bad apple spoils the bunch.
Sin does condemn. There's no denying that. But the thing we are to do, instead of beating them with religious rhetoric, is to break the religion of it and fall into the personal love that Jesus displayed (and embodied). Sin condemns, Christ does not. Christ builds, sin destroys, simple as that. To be like Christ, we must encourage, welcome, and above all, love sinners.

We should not encourage anyone to sin--grace is grace, and just because God makes a greater display of grace with a worse sinner, we should not all strive to be the worst sinner and, therefore, the greatest display of grace. We should strive to be the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son, when God says "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." We should strive to be the one that needs no grace, but has it nonetheless. We should encourage by being examples of a life with a purpose, hope, and love. We should encourage by being Christ-like, and it wasn't the lowly that He rebuked in the Gospels; religious people and demons. All others, adulterers, thieves, tax collectors, and anyone that would call on Him, He received at the price of their "self."

If we're to welcome someone, we have to make the first move. We have to be accommodating. We have to meet people where they are and work with them in their situations. To the Romans, we must become Romans. To the sinner, we must become a person with a sinful past. We must acknowledge the need they have for a Savior by first acknowledging to them that we need a Savior ourselves, and that we were sinful as well, but have reconciliation through Christ, that very Savior we need.

And what good is anything without love?
None.
If we have religious or selfish motivation for spreading the Gospel, we have gained nothing because we failed to do it out of love. If we prophesy, even, and not out of love, its benefit is null.
We are unable to do anything worthwhile for ourselves if we do it for ourselves. Only when we bless others out of love can it be counted as a blessing to us, because we are otherwise a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. To love is to put others first--to humble yourself. And when you humble yourself, you will be exalted.
The heart is a tricky piece of equipment; difficult to convince, and even moreso to understand the motives of. But one way to overcome this issue is by seeking Christ first. Seek above all things the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. When He becomes your motivation, you don't have to understand your heart because it will not be the same thing as it was before. God will put a new heart in you, and put His Spirit within you. Only that can alter the motivation of the heart to a loving motivation.
When we abandon any hope of our own righteousness and cast it away like dirty garments, searching instead for God's righteousness; only then can we become righteous. Not because of our own righteousness, but because of Christ's. When we set ourselves as the tax collector in the parable in Luke 18, beating our chests, knowing ourselves to be unworthy to even look up to Heaven, crying out "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" we are acknowledging that we are unworthy and that our only hope rests in mercy, which is, by definition, undeserved.

When we become nothing, we gain everything. That may not be material things that perish and rot away. I'm talking of eternal things, things that are permanent and will outlast the sun itself.
A Christian is not self-righteous. A Christian is a sinner, forgiven by grace, righteous not in his/her own eyes, humble, and striving to embody love as Christ did.

That's what it means to be empty of oneself.

Woe To Worthless Salvation . . .

You know, i find it interesting that so many people see their salvation as being for them. They say "I'm saved." That's a result of salvation, sure, but that's not the purpose of it. Something that a lot of people don't seem to realize is that the Holy Spirit wasn't sent for our good.
I think the newly redeemed know this without knowing it consciously. They are fervent; they're excited to spread the news about what God has done for them. That is true salvation. It's glorifying God for what He's done for us. That's the reason the Holy Spirit was sent. Not so we could say "I'm saved," but more specifically that "God saved me."

I don't know that this is even making sense, so i'll put up a passage to emphasize this point.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel."

That's Ezekiel 26:22-32, ESV.

That's a little clearer. He cleanses us, gives us definition of holiness, so that we can see that we were not holy nor righteous, and it causes us to be disgusted with who we were without Him. But it's for His sake that He puts the Holy Spirit in us; so we glorify Him. Being saved from damnation is only a benefit of it, something for us to look at and say "Hey, see? That's what we deserve, but He saved us from it so that we would be inclined to do anything for His glory."
But here we are, in a state of spiritual decline because we're slowly allowing the world into our hearts, turning us back to stone. Are we truly so vain that we can have salvation and not be exuberant about it forevermore?

This is going to sound rather harsh, but i think it needs to be said. Yes, you're a Christian. Shut up, and act like it. Stop convincing people you are by your words and prove it with your actions. If you have faith, you will not be content to merely stand with hands raised saying in your heart "Thank You," but you will be compelled beyond your ability to resist to help others. If you have driven faith, you will not have to say "I'm a Christian," because people will know by how you love others--and act upon that love.

"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?" (James 2:14)

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?" (James 2:18-20)

"For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." (James 2:26)

Nothing we can do can earn us salvation. Only God has secured that for us, and He made Christ the only way so that we would be dependent on His grace, dependent on giving Him glory. Works alone cannot save. Faith alone withers and dies. Faith needs revitalized; it needs kicked every now and then.

See, doing good will do nothing for us if we do nothing out of faith.

Show me what your faith is without action, and you show me nothing. If i show you a good work, it's only because of my faith.
And even at this, it's not for our sake that we have faith and works; it's for the glory of God, and God alone. All glory we receive is due Him.

Therefore, i end with this single woe: "Woe to the sluggard in faith, the bestowed upon of inactive Salvation!"

All Things Work Together for Good . . .

Romans 8:28.
Many of us have it memorized without knowing what verse of what chapter of what book it's in.
"Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose;"

That's the CJB translation. That verse doesn't apply to everyone, obviously. "Those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose."

This verse is speaking specifically to the "called" to God. Some have a natural tendency towards faith, and what a blessing that must be.

But let's look at the two promises in this.

"We know that God causes everything to work together for the good . . ."

That is only one statement, but two things are actually being promised here.

First, we have things working out for the good of God's people. This seems a joyous promise -and oh, how it is!- but we must look at what good is when it comes to humanity. Good is the fruit of the Spirit. Good is loving, good is humility, good is being gentle, good is having hope, good is . . . Good is such matters.

Now look at some other verses for the second promise of this.

Romans 5:3-5;

"But not only that, let us also boast in our troubles; because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope; and this hope does not let us down, because God’s love for us has already been poured out in our hearts through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) who has been given to us."

2 Corinthians 12:7;

"Therefore, to keep me from becoming overly proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from the Adversary to pound away at me, so that I wouldn’t grow conceited."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7;

"Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful,

not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered,
and it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not gloat over other people’s sins
but takes its delight in the truth.
Love always bears up, always trusts,
always hopes, always endures."

Now, look at those verses. These are how we gain hope, humility, and love (for many years, I did not know that 1 Corinthians 13 was a poem), respectively.

1) Hope; through tribulation, trouble, suffering, pain, misery . . . Despair! The very antonym of hope is the means by which we achieve it. We must suffer to gain hope.

We must suffer to achieve this good--and not by our own means, but by the Holy Spirit. Not only are we to accept our trials, but we're to delight in them because they will be used by God for our good.

2) Humility; through a thorn in the flesh, through a messenger of Satan himself. It was likely a constant reminder of his past (it could be anything, but i perceive it to be a memory, possibly of a Christian he'd killed "in the name of God." But that's just my imagination). It was this very thing, this demon, this tormentor, this thing "pound[ing] away" at him that kept him humble.

Humility achieved through, again, suffering. God used this suffering for good.

3) Love; we often think of this passage as being all kind and sweet and soft and mellow . . . But it should be applied to us.

Someone getting on your nerves and not leaving you alone? Be patient (or, literally, long-suffering; suffer endlessly through what you're being put through; that is love).
Return evil with kindness. Don't be jealous that someone who has wronged you is being promoted over you--be happy for them. Don't boast that you have this certain skill, or you have achieved something great. Don't build yourself up in the eyes of others, but elevate them. If someone insults you, hold your tongue; don't be rude, but rather, again, kind.
So on and so forth.

This isn't so easy when it's seen as an application for your own life. Are you living in love?
Do you forgive completely, keeping no record of wrongs (not seven times, but seventy times seven; that's how often we're to forgive a person in a single day--losing track of their sins against us probably around the fourth or fifth)? Do you always bear up, though you have little encouragement to offer? Are you always trusting, to the point of naivete? Do you always have a hopeful perspective to a situation, confident that God is in control, even to the loss of a loved one? Do you persevere, enduring to the end, despite being in a sea where the end is a horizon that is retreating at the exact same pace in which you pursue it?

That is what good is. It's self-sacrifice. It's loss of self for the benefit of others. Our love is good, because it is selfless.

Now, let's look again at Romans 8:28; "Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with His purpose;"

See the second promise in this? God is promising we will be tested, we will be stressed, we will suffer, we will know despair and pain and torment.

But the first promise, the obvious one, says that He will work it together for our good, if we wait it out. If we trust. If we hope. If we endure.

He Makes All Things New

This came to me while listening to "My Soul Longs For You" by Misty Edwards.

"Behold, I am making all things new.”

Many know this quote well. It's from Revelation 21:5. A lot of people going through recoveries from eating disorders and depression and various emotional/traumatic issues use this verse.
It's a wonderful quote, it truly is. And it is hopeful.
But notice how He doesn't say "I will make all things new," as the verses surrounding this one imply things that will happen, not things that are happening.
"He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
He will dwell with us. We will be His people. He will wipe away our tears . . . But He is making all things new.

Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, states that all things break down over time. But here, the Word of God says something that seems to go against what is a law of physics.
It seems a contradiction. It seems one must be false if one is true. I'm not a physicist or a person of high intellect, so i can't say that one of those is wrong and present evidence to support such a claim . . .
God is making all things new. He is. Right now, as i'm typing this, not just some things, but all things are. Yet a law of physics says that all things are breaking down, getting old, and falling apart.
Entropy is actually one of the most interesting ideas supporting a young earth--and universe, for that matter. But i won't go there today.
God is making all things new . . . By means of entropy.

Your skin. It's new. You're in a constant state of shedding. What's on the surface is dead skin, and what's underneath, working its way to the surface, is the new. You're being made new from the inside out.
Trees lose their leaves and crops in the Fall. In the Spring, they grow new leaves, and the crops they drop begin to sprout. He's making the trees new.
Things die . . . How is He making all things new if things are dying right now? By entropy. Things die, they break down to their core materials. Dead plants rot into dark compost, fertile soil for new plants to thrive in. Animals die, they decompose and fertilize the ground. Even the waste/leavings of animals feeds the ground to nourish the plants so the animal that consumes the plants will have something to eat. He's making all things new by breaking down and building again.

Same goes for broken lives; scarcely has someone changed the world that did not at some point change their heart because of a broken life. It may've been something that drove them to a certain career or field of study, but it often comes from a tragedy that seems to be tearing apart someone's life.
He picks up the pieces of a broken soul and makes something more beautiful than before with them.
Ever seen a great painter paint (i've had the opportunity to watch my dad, the best painter i've ever seen, many times)? Ever try to figure out what they're painting right after they start? It's hard. In fact, they're not looking at the detail they're working on at that moment, but instead they see a picture that's already there . . . But if you're watching their hand/brush, you're going to be left thinking "This isn't going to work out, this isn't going to look very good." But if you could see the picture before it's painted like the painter can, you'd see that the current detail may be minute and not look like anything but a blotch, but it's part of a big picture soon to be revealed.
When God lets us fall apart or break down, He's washing the canvas, so to speak, in order to have a clean slate to work with. I've said it before and will say it again, He's an artist. All of creation is a work of art, and so is whatever trial you may be facing.
Are you watching the Painter's hand as He paints what seems to be random strokes, or are you willing to trust that He has a finished masterpiece in mind already?
He is making all things new. In nature. In the cosmos. In me. In you.

Paradise City . . .

And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
That's Matthew 15:10-11.
While not referring specifically to interests and music and the like, it struck me in such a way. But not until last week did it really hit me.

"Take me down to the Paradise City, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty."
Yes, i was singing that. Not an overly perverse song compared to a lot of stuff out there, but if you went through my music library, you'd find nothing of the sort.
Now, i don't listen to Guns 'N Roses or whoever wrote that. It's the theme to a video game i used to play all the time called Burnout Paradise, set in a fictional town called "Paradise City."
But this went into my ears. A lot. And it's a terrifyingly catchy song.

But the reason that verse hit me so hard is because i sang that after coming across that video game's case the other day, and my mom heard me and said "Josh, what are you singing?"
The reason for her shock was because i don't listen to that kind of music aside from in that game. But it was constantly going into me.

Now let's go back to the words Jesus spoke; “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
It hadn't defiled me by my exposure. But i gave it room in my mind, and because i let that seed take root, it came out of my mouth - the overflow of the heart.
It was given room in my mind by ingestion. It then flowed into my heart, and eventually came out my mouth.

While there are things worse to have flow out of my mouth than a simple remark about pretty girls, it was still below my standards. That's precisely why i don't make a practice of listening to secular music. Because what we entertain ourselves with is merely seeds to either plants or to weeds. And if we let them take root, they can be the "inch" that we give the devil. Next thing we know, we've lost all standards that set us apart from the rest of the world.

Discipleship

What's it mean to "make disciples of all the nations?"

A disciple, defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is "one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another."

So, in that light, think of what it means to "make disciple of all the nations." It's not merely spreading the Word of God, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ (the power for salvation unto the Gentiles), and leading others to Christ; it's teaching others to teach others. It means our faith should be viral.
A disciple is not merely a follower, but also a leader; a disciple leads others to Christ. Be a disciple, and make disciples of all the nations. Teach them not just to follow Christ, but to do as you do; teach them to spread the Gospel as well.

I've recently ordered a book and have high expectations for it. It's called "Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples," and it's by Francis Chan.
Hopefully it will live up to my hope.
Regardless, i know it's not about the size of any ministry i may be a part of, but my heart and motivation. If it's for personal glory, i have already failed--however, if it's for God's glory, to know Him better, to be able to relate to Him as a friend in this very room, then i am succeeding. If i touch His heart, and if He touches mine, if my life is as Christ and i am abundant in life and my death would be as personal gain, then i am succeeding.

Miracles . . .

In Matthew 12, Jesus heals a man who was blind, mute, and possessed by demons. It doesn't say how long it took this man to recover sight, but i'm assuming it was rather instant.

In Matthew 15, crowds brought the lame, crippled, blind, etc., and set them at Jesus' feet. It says He healed them. It doesn't say how long, it merely says that He healed them.

In John 9, however, there's a variation. People thought this particular man or his parents had sinned, as he was born blind. Jesus said “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him." This man was born blind for the purpose of becoming an example of God's ability to heal later in his life.
Not only this, there was action, though minor, required by this man. He had to go to a certain pool and wash his eyes. After that, he was healed. This strikes me as an act of faith; he could've just touched this man, said "be healed" and it be done. But no. The blind man had to keep the mud in his eyes and wash it out in that specific pool. If i were blind and someone spit in some dirt and put the mud from it in my eyes, i'd probably think they were crazy and wipe it off as soon as possible. But this required a demonstration of faith.

In Luke 18:35-43, He heals one such man who was a beggar. He told the man “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” It also says the man received his sight immediately.
"Receive your sight," He said. This man's faith in Jesus healed him. But the way Jesus commanded him, it was as though the man had sight within his grasp, he merely had to take hold of it. And Jesus told him to, so he did, and he could see that very moment.

There's a woman mentioned in Luke 8 who had a discharge of blood for 12 years. She'd spent all her money on trying to be healed by doctors, but none could help her. She approached Jesus and told herself, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.”
She had enough faith in Jesus that she believed touching His very clothes would be enough to heal her when every physician she could ever afford had been unable to. And her faith was fulfilled, seeing as she was healed the moment she touched his garment.
This is what i find interesting; Jesus had people swarming Him, and the NIV even says "the crowds almost crushed Him." He wasn't merely surrounded, He was being mobbed; people pressing against Him and crowding Him. When she did touch His garment, He asked who touched Him. Peter responded with “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!”
If you were the reason a crowd had formed, and people "almost crushed [you]," it'd be pretty hard to discern one single contact of your shirt. And Peter knew that. But Jesus said this: “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”
He felt this woman's faith.
After she had fessed up to it, knowing it was she He was speaking of because her malady had been immediately healed, Jesus said “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
When this happened, it was actually while He was going to heal a dying girl, the only daughter of a man named Jairus (a ruler of the synagogue). Before Jesus had made His way to Jairus' house, the girl had died. He told them she wasn't dead, but sleeping. He took her hand, told her to rise, and her spirit returned, and she woke up.

There may be scientific explanations for many of the miracles He performed, such as maybe His saliva reacting with a mineral in that one specific pool that caused the blind man to see, maybe the woman's issue was working out and it just so happened that it stopped the moment she touched His cloak, maybe the girl was temporarily comatose and woke when He took her by the hand . . . I honestly believe most miracles to be scientifically explainable, but i don't really care if they are or not.
Just because we know the science of a child being formed in the womb doesn't mean it's any less of a miracle. Just because we breath in and know how the oxygen is dispersed into our bloodstream, that doesn't make it less miraculous. Just because there may have been a particular barometric phenomenon causing a cloud to be in front of the Israelites during the day and a fire by night, that doesn't mean it was less of a miracle. Just because we can explain how capillaries burst doesn't mean that Jesus sweating blood in Gethsemane couldn't be supernatural.
I'm not exactly the kind to have the reasoning of a child, as in unquestioning faith. I require proof in most instances. Sometimes there are scientific explanations of how things happen. Sometimes there is none. That doesn't mean they're any less wondrous or miraculous because we can understand them.

When God has the wind gathered into His fists, who am i to ask for explanation of His methods? Yet here i am . . . To quote the NKJV of Proverbs 30:2, "Surely I am more stupid than any man, And do not have the understanding of a man."

Are You A Child Of God?

I'm going to start off rather bluntly.
I am a sinner. I can't call myself a child of God. As hard as i try, i just can't.

I won't put the verses here, because i want to encourage you to open your own Bible and read it for yourself, not to have me spoon-feed you a select few verses and give you my interpretation of them. Read them, read them in context, and come to your own conclusions. Meditate on them.

Firstly, i do ask you to turn to 1 John chapter 3. I'm not going to give specific verses; please at least skim the chapter for yourself before continuing. Draw your own conclusions, your own convictions, your own personal revelations. Whatever you get from it, go ahead and get. What i'm putting is merely how it affects my life. I beg you to find out how it affects yours.

In fact, to make it even easier for you, here's a link to the ESV translation of that chapter on BibleGateway. You don't even have to grab your Bible. You don't even have to search for the chapter. There it is. Just click it.

Matthew 7 says that many who proclaim His name will be turned away for He never knew them.

What i get from 1 John 3 is this: if a person knows God, they follow Him. If they don't follow Him, if they keep sinning, they have not seen or known God.
It gets pretty harsh. It goes on to say that we're either children of God, or we're children of the devil. It says that whoever doesn't practice righteousness is not born of God . . . They're a child of the devil.

Here's why i said i can't call myself a child of God: i have issues with anger, resentment, unforgiveness, bitterness, impatience, and . . . Well, the list goes on. At the pinnacle of this pile of manure within me is hate.

There. I said it. I harbor hate within me. I don't want to, but it's made a home. It's like that friend who lives on your couch; you really want them to leave, but you can't quite kick 'em out, right? That's me and hate. I don't want it staying here, but i don't have the heart to sever it.
Now, you may be saying to yourself that i'm not that bad of a guy, and that i'm being too critical of myself. But no. Let me explain (despite what i said, i am quoting a verse, and will again by the end of this entry; if you want to know which verse, you'll have to read through the chapter yourself in order to find it--that way you'll read it in context, i hope).
"By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."
So here i am, admitting there are those whom i don't love (Christians, even) yet . . . Yet the Bible clearly says that if i don't love my brother, i am not of God . . . I'm a child of the devil.

I think this proves i'm not afraid to admit my failures and faults, and apply Biblical standards to myself, even ones that may crush me.

We're not to just say that we love, but to actually show it. We're supposed to act on our love for others, we're supposed to show compassion, even if none is shown to us. We're supposed to build up those who would tear us down. We're supposed to actually love, and to love in honesty. In truth.

We're supposed to take action based on love. In a moment, without hesitation, we could make a witty and hurtful comment to someone who's said something hurtful to us. That's precisely when we're supposed to, without hesitation, show them kindness and patience.

We know we're to love one another. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says several examples of what love is (the antonym of many of the things i just said i have issues with), and says, out of faith, hope, and love, that love is the greatest of the three. As long as the three abide, love is the greatest to possess.

But how serious is it to not only be without hate, but to actually love? Well . . . There is the whole "children of the devil" thing. But also, if you don't love, what is left? Nothing? If we don't love, we feel nothing. It's apathy. It's lukewarm. We make our home with death if we do not love. In fact, we're to love to the point of laying down our lives for our brethren in Christ.
Would you put yourself in front of a moving vehicle in order to get someone else out of the way of it? Are you willing to climb onto train tracks to lift another off while knowing you couldn't escape calamity yourself, only spare them?
If the answer is a complacent one, you've taken too long. They've already been hit by the car/bus/train.
If someone knows to do good and doesn't do it, they've sinned, right? You know that saving them is the right thing to do. Anything less than right is wrong.
Again i ask, would you put yourself in the way of danger for someone else, knowing that there's no way for you to escape death yourself?
Now i inquire, are you still a child of God?

I'm not saying this to hurt anyone, but to encourage.
Be filled with love, and be filled with God. I adjure you to love! Love so that you may know God! Love so that you may see God! Love so that you may not walk in the path of sinners, so that you may be a child of God!
Whatever the circumstances, show love, care, concern, compassion, patience . . . Always love.

(here's the other quote i said would be put in):

"By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us."
After reading this chapter a few times and pressuring myself by it, the closing verses are a much needed sigh of relief. It doesn't excuse my wrongs, but i am trying.
I might not be getting better about it, but i am trying, and i know that God is greater than my heart; i know God knows what is in my heart. I know God knows i don't want this to be a part of me. I know God is helping me along. I know God believes in me, and will help me to love wholly if i ask Him to.
God knows i can love. I know i can love.
And i thank Him that He's not given up on me.

I am Crucified

(most of my quotations are from the ESV translation)

"We know that our old self as crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin."
Romans 6:6

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2:20

"And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Galatians 5:24

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
Galatians 6:14

So, Galatians pretty much covers this topic; we must 'die' to the world.
I've heard that a lot in my life, but it never really stuck out to me until i found myself saying "How i was" and "How i used to be." When i said that, what flashed through my mind was a paraphrase of Romans 6:6; the old man has died, and a new one has risen.

But what happens? So, you might have a different lifestyle after you get saved. But what truly happens is not just a change in lifestyle. It's a change of life.

To die, everything that we are is severed. It ceases to be, and we're left an empty shell--the spirit has flown.

To die to the world means to leave all the ways you lived behind. Not just the big sins like thievery and violence, but all sins. It's not the 'big' sins that keep people out of Heaven, it's the little ones, because sin is sin. A murderer and a person who steals a pack of gum might be seen different in humanity's eyes, and rightly so. But the spiritual effects are equal--utterly damning.
Everything about us has died; our way of thinking, our way of talking, our way of looking at people and things, our desires, our mannerisms. Everything about us dies and becomes no more; it is crucified and buried as Christ was.
From there, we are given a new life; we are born again. A new person, a new heart, a renewed mind, a new spirit, new desires, new hopes, new dreams, new life. Everything that was is dead and gone. We have a new identification (truly so, as God has a name for us each; my name is not necessarily Josh Isaacs to God. No, He has a name for me that i don't know yet).

And as we die to the world because we are crucified with Christ, so also does the world and its ways die to us.

"How i was" might not be the correct way of putting it . . . Rather, "the person that used to inhabit this body," might be slightly more accurate.