Fame is a thing that many people of this Earth aspire to. Everyone wants to be noticed and to have friends and to be popular, and they think they can find that in fame. But let me ask you a question: How many people have real friends when they are famous? How many famous people are remembered after 20 years of their deaths? Not many, so what is the point of being famous hear when you can be famous in a much better place.
Fame in this world in another word for being great, so, how would you like to be great in heaven? A lot eh? Well, there is one catch. That is: Instead of being famous here on this Earth, you have to be a servant. A servant which serves everyone without complaint or even a bad thought about it. On this Earth we must serve gracefully and live for God. There is on other way to be famous in heaven.
How do we do it though? Being a servant of God is more than continually praying to him and admiring him, alought we should =, but we also have to take action. If God asks you to do something, you would do it right? Well, we have to be like that to the people all around us. How? We have to serve them with the power of God to help us. Without Him, we will trash the service and be lost in sin forever, Not to happy eh? We need to serve people better with Him to help us. I can think of something that he can help me with to help my service. Submission. WE need to submit to God before he can work with us, and that is hard enough, but submitting to humans who we see as no better or worse than ourselves, it is no easy thing.
We are at His grace and mercy when it comes to this. Without Him we would burn in Hell forevermore and I don't want to end up like that, so what do we do? We need to follow Him into service as Jesus served us by taking away our sins. We need His grace to do it though because without him we are nothing. We also need to show grace to the people we are serving though. We need to show grace to the people who we serve but we also need to love them. Not "love" as in romantic, but "love" as in friendship. We need to love those we need in friendship. Our hearts must pour the love out to the people just as they also need to pour out the grace. We need to be "full of grace and generated by love."
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Christian life: Flat as a pancake?
Christian life may seem easy for some people, but it is hard for everyone. It is never easy to leave everything you have and follow a God that you can't see. It is hard to leave everything behind. And this is the excuse of most Christians. They all have all the "God" paraphanalia with the fish on the bumber and the braclects that say WWJD but do they really live it? What's the point of having it if you don't live it? And if you don't live it, do you really have it?
Like the story in the article, Christians tend to act as Kevin did. We say "You! You be Jesus today!" And it keeps going on like this until everyone expects everyone else to be Jesus. Out of Kevin and Ryan, Kevin wanting a pancake and claiming it by getting his brother to be "Jesus" and Ryan wanting it but excepting the second pancake, which one would you be? As a whole, Christians tend to be Kevin. We all try to be Ryan but we are really Kevin. I aspire to being Ryan, but in reality, I am Kevin... and that is desturbing.
There are certain situations which can tip our judgement and decisions about being or not being "Jesus" though. If something we really want is at stake we will push everything else aside and rush ahead to be Kevin and to leave the Ryans to be "Jesus." If it is something we don't particularily care about though, we tend to pretend to be the "Righteous one" and let the other one be Kevin as we play Ryan. We have to always be Ryan though, not only when we don't want or feel like being Kevin.
This applies to be too. Especially for books. I am an avid reader and there are two books which both my sister and I seriously want to read. We haven't gotten them yet, but I do believe that we both will push to be Kevin and since she is the younger one and sees me as the "Alpha" out of the two of us, she will probably relent. This has to change though. I have to curbs my desires for what I want and step down and let her have them. These are the kinds of things that I need help with from God, and without God in on it, the equation is like, 60 against 0. My desires being 60 and me falling in with the 0. The equation would change though if you add God. It would then look more like, 10000000000000000000000 (infinity) to .5. You get the picture right? Compare the odds and take a guess at who is who in this equation. Without Him, we are nothing, but things change drastically when he is on our side.
Like the story in the article, Christians tend to act as Kevin did. We say "You! You be Jesus today!" And it keeps going on like this until everyone expects everyone else to be Jesus. Out of Kevin and Ryan, Kevin wanting a pancake and claiming it by getting his brother to be "Jesus" and Ryan wanting it but excepting the second pancake, which one would you be? As a whole, Christians tend to be Kevin. We all try to be Ryan but we are really Kevin. I aspire to being Ryan, but in reality, I am Kevin... and that is desturbing.
There are certain situations which can tip our judgement and decisions about being or not being "Jesus" though. If something we really want is at stake we will push everything else aside and rush ahead to be Kevin and to leave the Ryans to be "Jesus." If it is something we don't particularily care about though, we tend to pretend to be the "Righteous one" and let the other one be Kevin as we play Ryan. We have to always be Ryan though, not only when we don't want or feel like being Kevin.
This applies to be too. Especially for books. I am an avid reader and there are two books which both my sister and I seriously want to read. We haven't gotten them yet, but I do believe that we both will push to be Kevin and since she is the younger one and sees me as the "Alpha" out of the two of us, she will probably relent. This has to change though. I have to curbs my desires for what I want and step down and let her have them. These are the kinds of things that I need help with from God, and without God in on it, the equation is like, 60 against 0. My desires being 60 and me falling in with the 0. The equation would change though if you add God. It would then look more like, 10000000000000000000000 (infinity) to .5. You get the picture right? Compare the odds and take a guess at who is who in this equation. Without Him, we are nothing, but things change drastically when he is on our side.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Christian Cover Ups
There is alot of pressure on Christians today because of fitting in. Everyone wants to fit in, but most Christians try to fit in with the wrong groups. The cool groups. That is wrong for a Christian though because most cool groups tend to shame Christ. So what do the Christians do about it? Well, they might try to defend Him and then get kicked out or they might just do what lots of other people do.They might just put up masks.
The masks are the things that we think hide us from God. We feel like we can do anything and no one will know that it is us. God knows of course, but the masks seem to make us feel better about it. Almost all Christians have masks but it is not a good thing. I have a mask to. I call it the "Invisible faith" mask. The "invisible faith" mask is one in which you believe in Christ and yet you don't show him. You read your bible and you pray but you don't let anyone ever see you. You might share His word on the rare occasion but usually you will live your spiritual life in silence. That is the kind of mask I have and it is pretty popular.
Pretty popular with the people that is. With God,... not so much. God wants us to never be ashamed of Him and to always proclaim him to the nations. It says in His word, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you." We don't want that. We want God to be proud of us while we are humble in our deeds. We want him to say "Well done my good and faithful servant. Welcome into thine rest." That is the kind of thing we want. He wouldn't be very proud of our masks though so what do we do about it?
That answer can vary. It really depends on what mask you are wearing, for me, I wear the "invisible faith" mask, so how can I get rid of it? Well, I can, most importantly, ask God to help me. We can do nothing without Christ so the first thing we need to do is get His help on this. We need to ask Him to help us to share our fath and to make it visible ot the people around us and not just stuff it in our pockets when people on the street walk by. As my pastor says "If being a Christian was against the law, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" With the "Invisible faith" mask on, there wouldn't be.
That's why we need to ask God to help us change that. We need His help to get sent to the worldly prison so we can roam heaven free when that day comes.
The masks are the things that we think hide us from God. We feel like we can do anything and no one will know that it is us. God knows of course, but the masks seem to make us feel better about it. Almost all Christians have masks but it is not a good thing. I have a mask to. I call it the "Invisible faith" mask. The "invisible faith" mask is one in which you believe in Christ and yet you don't show him. You read your bible and you pray but you don't let anyone ever see you. You might share His word on the rare occasion but usually you will live your spiritual life in silence. That is the kind of mask I have and it is pretty popular.
Pretty popular with the people that is. With God,... not so much. God wants us to never be ashamed of Him and to always proclaim him to the nations. It says in His word, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you." We don't want that. We want God to be proud of us while we are humble in our deeds. We want him to say "Well done my good and faithful servant. Welcome into thine rest." That is the kind of thing we want. He wouldn't be very proud of our masks though so what do we do about it?
That answer can vary. It really depends on what mask you are wearing, for me, I wear the "invisible faith" mask, so how can I get rid of it? Well, I can, most importantly, ask God to help me. We can do nothing without Christ so the first thing we need to do is get His help on this. We need to ask Him to help us to share our fath and to make it visible ot the people around us and not just stuff it in our pockets when people on the street walk by. As my pastor says "If being a Christian was against the law, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" With the "Invisible faith" mask on, there wouldn't be.
That's why we need to ask God to help us change that. We need His help to get sent to the worldly prison so we can roam heaven free when that day comes.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Luke Chapter 6
Luke chapter 6 is a very powreful chapter. It talks about how Jesus teaches us to love each other and to take care of ourselves before critizizing others. This, in my opinion, is one of the greatest teachings of the Lord, especially when he said " But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend without hoping to get anything back" (Luke 6: 35) This is telling us, the Christians, how we should act and how we should be as the Lord in this and love and lend without wanting anything back. As our sinful nature, people go against that and we reject the people who follow Jesus and what he says. We as Christians, though, need to follow Jesus and so as he says. We need to follow Jesus with all of our hearts and this is a good place to start.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Check your watch
There are many peopel who get distressed about the end of the world. There are constant panics and discussions about it all over the world, but we need not be alarmed. As Christians we are to be ready when he comes but we are also to spread the word of God so others will be ready when he comes. Everyone knows someone who isn't a Christian, and I think it is time to change that. "Go and baptize nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." says the Lord. It is our job to spread the word and to make diciples for Christ. My sister has a friend who desperatly needs the Lord but she cannot see that. We all have someone like that and we need to spread the Good News to them.
Just as I said before, there are many things happening in the world today that get people to thinking that the end of the world is nigh upon us. Nay, it is not. Pastors and preachers and religious leaders thing they know when he is coming back but they do not. Only the Father knows for sure. It even says in the bible that the earthquakes and famines are only birth pains for what is to come. We need to be ready for what is to come. We need to be watchful and alert at all times and never fall away. We need to stay soiritually awake. If it feels like nothing is happening, we tend ot fall asleep, but we need to stay awake! For how else will we know when he arrives. We must read our bibles and pray continually to know him and to be awake and ready for when he returns to our lost world.
What must we do to be ready? We must read our bibles and understand the word. We must pray always to our Lord on high! Things get in the way of that though. Worldly things. Parties, and busy lives, and pretty much anything that is a distraction and pulls us away from God, usually, sooner or later, pulls us away from God. That is why he tells us not to get attached to the worldly things. And what are worldly things compared to the glory and splendor of God?!! We must be ready and space us from the things of this world as to be ready when he comes. I am not perfect in this. I spend more time in earthly things than with God but with God's help, I will change this and become ready for His return. AMEN!
Just as I said before, there are many things happening in the world today that get people to thinking that the end of the world is nigh upon us. Nay, it is not. Pastors and preachers and religious leaders thing they know when he is coming back but they do not. Only the Father knows for sure. It even says in the bible that the earthquakes and famines are only birth pains for what is to come. We need to be ready for what is to come. We need to be watchful and alert at all times and never fall away. We need to stay soiritually awake. If it feels like nothing is happening, we tend ot fall asleep, but we need to stay awake! For how else will we know when he arrives. We must read our bibles and pray continually to know him and to be awake and ready for when he returns to our lost world.
What must we do to be ready? We must read our bibles and understand the word. We must pray always to our Lord on high! Things get in the way of that though. Worldly things. Parties, and busy lives, and pretty much anything that is a distraction and pulls us away from God, usually, sooner or later, pulls us away from God. That is why he tells us not to get attached to the worldly things. And what are worldly things compared to the glory and splendor of God?!! We must be ready and space us from the things of this world as to be ready when he comes. I am not perfect in this. I spend more time in earthly things than with God but with God's help, I will change this and become ready for His return. AMEN!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Luck of the Irish
In this world there are many different Saints and important people in our past. Probably the most accomplished of these is ST. Patrick. He converted an entire nation! And he did it because God told him to. Lot's of Christians admire him for his obedience there, but we have to have the same obedience. How can we do that? Well,... we ask God. We ask Him what we should do with our lives, and then we listen. Not with our ears or any human thing but we listen to the Spirit of God who lives in us. Then we full heartedly agree and do what he asks of us. This way we are more for Christ and less of us. That's a good thing. We all need to be committed and passionate about Christ and to do it, we need to ask, and listen. Really listen.
Just like St. Patrick. He really listened to God and he did what was asked of him. I don't know if I could do what he did. Especially if it involed public speaking. I am terrified of public speaking! He wasn't though, and if he was, it didn't really matter for him because he put aside his fear and did what God asked of him. That is one thing that many of us Christians don't have. When God asks us to do something, most of us nod in agreeance and then do nothing. St. Patrick saw life for what it was. God's creation in which he lives everything and everything matters. We tend to see it as a dark world and want to have nothing to do with it.
So what would you do if God asked you to do what St. Patrick did? Would you go whole heartedly or would you stand back in the shadows and point at someone else. Kind of like Moses did, come to think of it. My pastor likes to refer to it as "Here I am Lord, send Aaron." That's kind of what the world is like. We always want to send someone else to do the work. So, back to the question. Would you go and do what he did? I don't know if I would. It is possible to do what he did, bcause he did it!, but we need to be willing to do it.God can change the nations for Him, but he needs us to be willing to do it. Are you willing?
Just like St. Patrick. He really listened to God and he did what was asked of him. I don't know if I could do what he did. Especially if it involed public speaking. I am terrified of public speaking! He wasn't though, and if he was, it didn't really matter for him because he put aside his fear and did what God asked of him. That is one thing that many of us Christians don't have. When God asks us to do something, most of us nod in agreeance and then do nothing. St. Patrick saw life for what it was. God's creation in which he lives everything and everything matters. We tend to see it as a dark world and want to have nothing to do with it.
So what would you do if God asked you to do what St. Patrick did? Would you go whole heartedly or would you stand back in the shadows and point at someone else. Kind of like Moses did, come to think of it. My pastor likes to refer to it as "Here I am Lord, send Aaron." That's kind of what the world is like. We always want to send someone else to do the work. So, back to the question. Would you go and do what he did? I don't know if I would. It is possible to do what he did, bcause he did it!, but we need to be willing to do it.God can change the nations for Him, but he needs us to be willing to do it. Are you willing?
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Cheater
There are many different aspects of my life. Some are easy to talk about and others, not so much. God knows about each and every one of them though. If that is true, then why do we Christians seem to believe that God is only looking at certain things in our lives, the good things? Christians seem to think that since God loves us, he forgives us of our sins and forgets, and this is true, but they also end up thinking that God doesn't look at the things they do bad. They seem to divide their lives into two different categories. The "Spiritual" and the "Non-Spiritual" sides. The "Spiritual" side is the one that they spend with God, learned and talkign to him, and praying and reading the bible. The "Non-Spiritual" side is everything else. We all have both sides but I think we need to change the names and do somehting else. I think we should call them, "Time with God in the right," and "Everything else that's bad!" Entertainment and other things aren't nessecarily bad, but God knows what we do. We can't hide from him.
As it says in Genisis, "And God created man in his own image." That it pretty deep stuff. We are created in the image of God!! We were created period! And all he wants back is from us to know and love him! Good deal eh? Well, what do we do with that life which he gave us? Most of us squarder in for not even half of what it was worth! We are cheating ourselves and God in this! It says many times in the bible that we should obey God! We all find that hard to do, but we need to seriously work on it.
One way to do that it to read the bible more! We need to study the bible and to read the words of God, for how can we be his followers if we know not his own words!! We need to spend more time with our "Daddy" and really get to know him. A great way to do that is to read the bible and apply it!
As it says in Genisis, "And God created man in his own image." That it pretty deep stuff. We are created in the image of God!! We were created period! And all he wants back is from us to know and love him! Good deal eh? Well, what do we do with that life which he gave us? Most of us squarder in for not even half of what it was worth! We are cheating ourselves and God in this! It says many times in the bible that we should obey God! We all find that hard to do, but we need to seriously work on it.
One way to do that it to read the bible more! We need to study the bible and to read the words of God, for how can we be his followers if we know not his own words!! We need to spend more time with our "Daddy" and really get to know him. A great way to do that is to read the bible and apply it!
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