new posts

Seeing as how the only response I had was from someone who has a MySpace, I will no longer be posting any new entries on this particular site. However, if you read my past entries and want to read more, I will still be posting on my myspace which is; http://www.myspace.com/differentkindofalien
Thank you for taking your time to read this and I hope you'll check out my myspace. God bless.

Interested

If you actually read my blogs please respond to this one. Just a simple 'I do' would be great. I am trying to decide if it's worth my time posting anything.

REAL worship!

"Worship is the act of the abandoned heart adoring it's God. It is the union that we crave...Simply showing up on Sunday is not even close to worship. Neither does singing songs with religious content pass for worship. What counts is the posture of the soul involved, the open heart pouring forth its love toward God and communing with Him. It is a question of desire."

- John Eldredge (The Journey of Desire)

Faith?

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
- Ephesians 2:8-9

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
- James 2:26

So then what is faith? Answer that question and we begin to unravel the meaning of these two passages. For many we would say that it is believing in something that you cannot see. This is correct but not complete. Faith without works is dead, you are saved through faith, and your salvation is not the result of your works. Quite the riddle huh? Well let me take a crack at it. It is my belief that (biblical) faith is not just a declartion that you make but is literally a part of your life. It is the reason behind your existence, what you live for. It is the purpose behind all that you do. If we have faith in God we can't help but have works because God is at the root of our existence. He is our meaning in life? Everybody has faith in someone or something and it is seen in how they live their lives. If I have faith in me instead of God I will center my existence around myself, which is one of the biggest problems in the church. We concentrate so much on our works that it becomes about us more than Him. I'm not saying that if we have faith in God that we will be perfect, but I am saying that we will continue to pattern our lives around His will. Based on the very definition of faith it would be impossible for someone with genuine faith to do otherwise.

Who is my brother/sister?

"I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all." (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Do you believe in one Spirit? Do you have one hope? Do you believe in one Lord? Do you have one faith? Do you believe in one baptism (literally immersion)? Do you believe in one God and Father? If so, then you are my brother/sister. The only one of these that may enter into debate is what "one baptism" means. I personally believe that the Bible teaches immersion in water, but I also believe that the point is more than a technical matter. As long as you are doing you're best to discover and fulfill the true meaning of baptism in the Bible I consider you to be my brother/sister.

Does the thought of Heaven excite you? Really?

A thought from John Eldredge:
"Nearly every Christian I have spoken with has some idea that eternity is an unending church service...we have settled on an image of the never-ending sing-along in the sky, one great hymn after another, forever and ever...And our heart sinks. Forever and ever? That's it? That's the good news? And then we sigh and feel guilty that we are not more 'spiritual.'...What (really) happens when we find ourselves in the kingdom of God? The disabled jump to their feet and start doing a jig. The deaf go out and buy themselves stereo equipment. The blind are headed to the movies. The dead are not at all dead anymore, but very much alive...In other words, human brokenness in all its forms is healed...Life is restored to what it was meant to be." Now that's something to get excited about!

LISTENtoYOURheart?

To those whom it may concern...due to a former "conversation" on myspace (among other things) I have been thinking quite a bit about the heart and its "guidance". The conversation was in reference to someone asking for Bible study materials and the very unhelpful responses he was getting. Many of the responses pretty much said forget about studying God's Word, just listen to your heart (these are "Christians" commenting by the way). Is it just me or does anybody else have things in their heart that aren't right and may lead them in the wrong direction. Colossians 3:1 says, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above." SET YOUR HEARTS, how can I do that without going to God's Word to find out exactly how it needs to be set. I believe that God put His laws in our hearts (Heb. 8:10) in a way that when we see the truth in scripture we recognize it, it connects with something inside of us. I also believe that our hearts have been tainted by the world so we can't follow them blindly, we need God's Word for guidance. I love the line in Third Day's song "Blind" that says, "My heart I could not trust, 'cause it lies to me too much." If your not shaking your head in agreeance with that then you're either lying to yourself or your perfect. Paul knew the struggle with desires all to well, just ask him about it, of course that requires opening your Bible. Don't get me wrong, I think God can use our hearts to guide us, but only after they have been circumcised (broken down) and even then they need to be guided by scripture. Why do these people think God gave us the Bible, as a coaster, or maybe to level out a table. Let us never down-play the importance of God's Word in our lives. God is trying to speak to you through His Word, will you listen? I pray you will. God bless you.

Those Who've Never Heard

What happens to those who've died before ever hearing the Word of God? Do they go to hell because they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time? How do we deal with this question? We certainly can't keep ignoring it. Surprisingly I've met plenty of people who don't hesitate at all to say that these people go straight to hell. Maybe you're one of those people. If you are, I want you to know that I love and respect you, but I think you're wrong on this matter. I just don't see how that line of thinking fits in with the character of God. That's not just or loving. I tend to believe that God judges everyone according to their life experiences. I am from a Church of Christ background so many of the people I know argue that these people would go to hell because they've never been baptized. Again, however, I believe that a just and fair God would not send someone to hell because it didn't occur to them in the middle of nowhere to confess their belief in God in front of others and then get dunked in water. Do I have scripture to back-up what I am saying? I think so, and several other well respected Christian professors agree with me. "All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified. When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all." (Romans 2:12-16) The Bible speaks often of God revealing Himself through nature and also says that "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." I believe that those who have never heard God's word are judged accordingly. In other words, they are judged based on whether or not they decided to follow what God had placed in their hearts. (Those who have heard are responsible for holding up everything against scripture.) You may be asking now, why have missionaries and practice evangelism then? Time permitted, there is much more to the GOOD NEWS than saving people from hell. I may go into that further at a later date. God bless you and have a great day/night.

Who's Driving?

On the way home from church tonight I noticed a bumper sticker on the back of someone's car that said "Jesus is my co-pilot." At first glance I just thought, well isn't that nice, and I'm sure that the owner of the car had "nice" intentions, but as I thought about it more (because I have a tendency to over analyze things) I began to think, what a sad concept of our savior. And this would probably not have occured to me if it wasn't so close to reality. Many of us do use Jesus as our co-pilot. Throughout most of our lives we drive and we place Jesus in the passenger seat. Sure we talk to Him from time to time to keep ourselves awake on long trips but most of the time our focus has to be on the road. It's really only when we find ourselves in a real bind that we pull over and put Jesus in the driver's seat. This is probably why we can all relate so well to the lyrics in Carrie Underwood's song Jesus Take The Wheel: "Jesus take the wheel, take it from my hands, cause I can't do this all on my own, I'm letting go, so give me one more chance, to save me from this road I'm on, Jesus take the wheel." My initial thought about this bumper sticker was one of disgust, shouldn't these guys think a little more before they go around selling bumper stickers with such bad theological statements on them. Then after a little more over analyzing, I realized that the slogan, whether intentionally or not, had simply stated a truth about most of our lives, that we should probably pay a little more attention to.

The Lord's Supper

Is the bread and "wine" served in the Lord's supper sacred or snack food? The answer, BOTH. For many years the Lord's Supper has been portrayed as a sacred feast held only for those who have been immersed in water (baptized). For some, the bread and wine are thought to miraculously turn into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. But I think our focus needs to go back to where this practice began. When the apostles and other believers in the New Testament ate the "Lord's Supper" they didn't sit in neatly arranged pews passing the fancy silver plates or line up at the front of the building as their bread and wine were given to them. They sat down to an actual meal and broke bread together and drank together, it was in actuality, a supper. And the last thing that I imagine the apostles did was refuse to let visitors dine with them. Can you imagine it?
Hey you, have you been baptized? Get out of here you can't dine with us, go find a seat in the corner until we're through.
Now of course this meal would hold less significance for those who did not believe, but that wouldn't take away anything from those who did. For those who believed it was a time to remember all that God had done for them. For the others, it was a time for food and fellowship. In all actuality, when Jesus was telling the apostles to take these things in remembrance of Him he was probably saying the same thing that Paul was saying when he said "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Is the Lord's Supper sacred to those who believe? Yes! But so should every breath we take. Our whole lives are His. An offering. A remembrance with thanksgiving for all He's done. What is sacred is not found in the bread or the wine, but what's in your heart instead.