Life Update

           I have never been a blogger and I never will be. I simply wish to read other blogs of varying topics. You may notice that I have a few posts from a few years back. They are mostly the poorly thought out ramblings of a 19 year old who thought of himself as the next Mark Driscoll. Though I still love Jesus, and I now work in full time ministry, I have learned much about what it is to love Jesus and to love people since these original posts.

Who was Christ?

When you think of Jesus, what comes to mind? Long hair? dainty or frail body? A petite Gandhi like man who was interested in telling nice stories and feeding little children? When many people think of Jesus, these are just a few attributes that come to mind. However, if we investigate deeper into scripture we see that Jesus is portrayed a bit differently than the picture your grandparents had in their living room of a middle age white man with long soft hair and smooth skin.

Jesus was from Galilea a small town north of Bethlehem. This means, that Jesus would have been of middle eastern descent, thus his skin would be much darker then our imagination would lead us to believe. Jesus was also a carpenter, basically he was a man’s man. I know a few carpenters and these guys dont mess around. If Jesus were here today, I believe he would be wearing Carhartt jackets, Wrangler Jeans, and Rock Mountain work boots while driving a Ford F-250 and drinking black coffee. Yes, I believe that Jesus was a man who loved orphans and widows but I refuse to believe that He was a coward or a weak scrawny man.

Christ loves us so dearly that He gave His life for us on the cross, so that we may be able to celebrate eternity with Him. These actions don’t exactly sound like something that a coward would participate in. I did not write this to compare Jesus to modern day trends or fads, but to remind us that Jesus is the Son of God and we should show him the reverence and respect that as the creator of the universe He rightfully deserves. Next time that you bow your head to pray don’t think of a guy in a white robe sitting on a cloud while playing a harp, remember that He is the God of the universe, and He has control over anything and everything, and He loves you more that you will ever know, no matter what you have done in your life.

Sinless Perfection

Recently I was in a group discussion for a class here at MBI. We were talking about how since we have regenerated hearts, we can now go on living with the power of Christ on our side. The discussion quickly fell apart after one student added, "Since we have a new heart in Christ it must be possible to quite sinning." The student was unaware of what he was suggesting.
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In James 3:2 we read, "For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body." From this verse it would be easier to come away with the Doctrine of Sinless Perfection. But, later on in verse 8 James writes, "But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil ful off deadly poison." So what we can ascertain from this is that a perfect life is indeed impossible, and that the Doctrine of Sinless Perfection is not a Biblical concept at all. 1 final verse to slam this issue home is found in 1 John 1:8-10 and it reads, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse uf from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
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I believe that the Doctrine of Sinless Perfection is a lie that many followers of Christ have chosen to believe and are now in danger of falling further away from Christ, when they themselves believe they are closer than ever. Yet again the pride of man has prevailed in blinding many with its devastating lies and temptations.

Grace and Legalism

The difference between legalism and grace is the latter is Christ like and the former is not. To be a Christian is to love others, help others, and to spread the Gospel. Christianity is not obeying rules with a false hope that in some way rule abiding will get us into heaven or that we will find favor with God through obeying the law. When Legalism is ruling, egos start to inflate and increase while our view of Christ begins to slowly deflate and wither away to the point where our relationship with Christ takes a back seat to our own selfish desires. When we allow Legalism to take over we no longer preach the gospel we no longer yearn for Jesus, again we search only for ways to build up ourselves and not the church. A young pastor from Texas named Matt Chandler once spoke at a conference and gave a message concerning the generations and what happens when we stop preaching the gospel and we start adopting rules with no explanation or biblical background. He stated, “we grew up in this do this, but don't do this, but thats moralistic deism at its best! It doesn’t transform” (Chandler). Chandler’s point was that if we give rules for the sake of giving rules, that we will raise up Pharisees who are more interested in external views instead of internal transformation.

The Emergent Church

Over the past month I have been doing a little reading about the Emergent Church. For someone who has no idea about what the Emergent or what they stand for, a good book on the topic is, "Why were not Emergent (by two guys who should be)" This book was great for a basic understanding of the Emergent church and it's beliefs. This book uses quotes of many Emergent leaders such as Rob Bell who was quoted saying, "Our words aren't absolutes. Only God is absolute, and God has no intention of sharing this absoluteness with anything, especially words people have come up to talk about Him." This mentality is something that is in no way supported biblically. Yet many people continue to, "give up," on theology and the understanding of theological terms. Men of God who use theological terms in sermons who were once seen as respected theologians, are now being seen as pious men who use big words to distance themselves from the, "common," christian. When in reality, it is our own attempts to be, "cool," this entails not studying stuffy theology, but raising our hands during a worship service, or experimenting with spiritual gifts that due to our own spiritual maturity we have no business, "testing." C.S Lewis in his book mere Christianity says this, "They all say the ordinary reader does not want Theology, give him plain practical religion. I have rejected their advice. I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means the science of God; and I think any man who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about Him which are available. You are not children why should you be treated like children." I could not agree with Mr. Lewis more. If Mr. Lewis were to meet Rob Bell today what do you think he would say to him? Would he comment on his wonderful use of colorful blog style books? Or would he ask why do you Mr. Bell thinks were all idiots? In

1 Corinthians Paul addresses the church in Corinth and informs them on their infancy in Christ. Paul was upset because the people of Corinth were not taking the steps needed to grow spiritually. Likewise we need to be ever vigilant and prepared to learn and grow at all times.

Valleys

Valleys....

It's that time of year graduation parties, college visits, summer jobs, and no school. What about when you feel that everything is going well? You've got everything going for you. Your have plans and hopes and dreams that you can not wait to attain. Recently it has come to my attention that even when we get accepted to college, we graduate from our previous schools, we earn a bunch of money, we meet a bunch of new friends, everything seems to be going well but inside something feels low. The feeling of being alone, neglected, ignored, or even unwanted by our friends whom we hold most dear. It's times like these that we need to cling to Christ with devotion and remember his sacrifice for us. But we feel unable, unworthy, unloved, or uncared for. We have doubts, struggles and hardships. Valleys are times we wish we could avoid. I look in psalm 42 and I feel that I can relate with this. At times when we feel so far from God we forget about the Holiness and righteousness of God our father. How his sovereign love and flowing mercy have been given to us by Grace and Grace alone. Grace what an amazing thing. Doing nothing to deserve such a gift. Thank You Lord for your steadfast love. As I seek you Lord I will find you.

Romans 8:28

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

Pride

Lately I have discovered...

Lately I have discovered that pride is a big struggle in today's culture. Not only with other humans but with God as well. At times we feel that God owes us for our works or deeds that we claim to be done in His name. I believe that Matt Chandler puts it best in his sermon titled,

"The Gospel to the de-churched." check it out in the embedded video below!!!!