baal

although the name is no longer around, baal is still prevalent in the world today. people always go to someone or something to help them in their time of need and spend their time with who or what it is and yet it does not work. only by depending on the one true God can anything happen and work out. God will take care of us, for we are more important then the sparrows. God took care of elijah by bringing him food and protecting him from the people of the land and because of his faith in God, God also blessed a poor widow and her son because of the faith shown by elijah.

            application: who knows, God could use anyone like elijah to bless those around us if we are willing to follow Him without question. we must be ready to follow Him though and we must know where we are to go. the only way to know that is to study the Word of God diligently and apply it to our lives. i would like to implement more personal bible study time into my life and i plan on doing this probably starting next week. i am going to start to go through the book of john, looking to learn more about the life of Christ and the person of the Son of God. after or during if I find that time to short, i am going to study ephesians and then probably work through all of the epistles because i like them a lot and they are very applicable, especially for young Christians.

since the creation on the world

since the beginning, God has revealed attributes of Himself through creation. man has done a wonderful job of taking those attributes and worshipping them as gods through out all of history. whether it be the early pagan cultures and their gods or even right now with environmentalist and the like. they all worship the creation instead of the creator. should we not focus on the entity that created the substance rather then focus on the substance? yes, we should. romans 1 talks about the fact that nature reveals aspect of God, so we should look at nature to see God more clearly and to get to know Him better, but nature is not our only focus. scriptures should be our main focus. observations of the world around us will make us love God all the more, but only if we have a right focus on it. a focus that is on God.

grace academy

tonight i helped out with the preview dessert for our school. i would have to say that i totally love my school. there isn't a school that i would rather be at. tonight i got the opportunity to help take a couple of parents on a tour of the school and now looking about on that, i would say that i should have said more, because i really do go to a great school. it is a small school, which is something that i love cuz i basically know everyone in my high school and all the teachers. the classes are generally challenging enough to hold my attention while exciting enough to catch interest. the faculty and staff genuinely care about the students that go there, often giving time to help out and advise students. 

there are plenty other of things that i could say, but i am still kinda sick so i'm going to go to bed now.

the mind is a terrible thing to lose

i had a migraine today and i still haven't quite gotten my mind back completely from it. everything is still a little fuzzy, especially in the whole thinking area. i can't quite focus on anything. kinda sad. oh well though. i got to have a nice relaxing day of sleeping basically all day cuz i couldn't really do anything else. i am hoping to be totally better tomorrow so that i can actually check up on some work that i missed today, but if not, then i am still going to have to check up on the work, it will just take me much longer. 

well, i need to sleep now

theologians

we had some baptism tonight at church and those combined with the songs that we sang got me thinking about all that Jesus does for us. just looking at my own life and how i was before i was saved. the thoughts that i had were completely revolting and yet God chose me and saved me from myself and my sins. i did nothing so there is nothing that i can brag about or show off except for Christ. Christ is the only thing in the world worth showing off and the best way to show Him off is to be more like Him, so that is what we are to strive for, to be more like Christ. the only way to be more like Christ is to get to know Him better, for it is hard to be like something or someone when you know nothing about it, and the only way to really get to know Him is through His Word, so we should be reading more and more with each passing day. we should all be theologians to some degree or another for we should all be working on getting to know Christ and God more.

snow

today i went snowboarding and i would say that the weather was absolutely great and it was beautiful up there. there were clear skies most of the day and the sun was shining bright. it was great. it is amazing to see what God can do with some water and light. it was just great up there. none other can do what He does, which is why he is God and Lord and not someone else. He can do whatever He wants, that is the great thing, cuz what He wants never changes. we have an eternal God who is a rock, never changing.

rally the youth

though the youth of this nation may have little say of things today, tomorrow they will be the voice of the people. so, what will that voice say? the voice will say what it has been taught, what it has seen, and what it have heard. so are the youth under a good influence that will eventually influence this world for the better? looking at my own life, i know that if God had not saved me, i would be in a very sorry state to help this country and world. i would not be the kind of person that people would look up to but one breed of the flesh and driven by the flesh. only through the saving grace of Christ has my life gotten any better, and though my health continues to "change" i am still in a better place then i was back when i was healthy; for though i am sick in this life, i am cured for my disease for the life to come. i am no longer infected by this body of flesh, though it does flare up at times, but i am a child of the most high God, the One who is greatly to be praised. 

with out Christ, i would be a mess, as any one would be with out Christ. so we must try to save this world from the infectious disease of the flesh. we are so eager to help those who have health problems with money and support, but why can't we, or why don't we try to help their real need. we must be the vaccine of this world, we are the white blood cells and antibodies that God uses to cure the body. the antibodies though must be in good health themselves, or else they can't fight off disease for they are diseased and out of order themselves. so learn what you believe, and then go and and tell people, tell the whole world. infect this world with and new disease, the disease of Christ.

singularly addicted to the word of God

for those of you who know me, you should know that i really enjoy reading, especially books about the reformers and puritans. william tyndale was a man who was said to be singularly addicted to the word of God, so much so that he was eventually hung and then burned for his beliefs. now that is wicked awesome, not to be burned but to have people say that you are singularly addicted to God's word. i would love for my life to be summed up like that. tyndale was the first to translate the whole bible into english. he has actually finished the first 5 books, and on his way to england, i believe, he was shipwrecked and lost all of his work. so he simply started over again. that is called dedication and addiction. i like that, i respect that. 

now, how many of you who are reading this could say that you are addicted to scripture? i know  that i couldn't say that, at least not yet. but this is something to shoot for, to be so in love with God and His word that you spend all your time thinking and pondering and reading what it says, that would be a good thing to shoot for in your life. it is hard to sin when you are thinking about God and all that He does, for you and for everyone and everything. so love God, spend time getting to know Him, and He will make your path straight.

done

unfortunately, i am now done with my message for one 28, so it is now back to "normal" life for me, which i am going to kinda miss studying. so, to fix that, i am going to start to write a commentary on the book of john some time in the next couple of weeks. i may wait until after shepherd's conference in the hopes of getting a different commentary on john to compare mine to. i am looking forward to getting some normal hours of sleep though, i am kinda tired. i will try to pick up my other reading again too, i haven't read to much lately cuz i have been kinda busy, so i need to pick that back up again as well. there are to many good books out there to not be reading all the time, so that is something i am going to try and catch up on.  

well, i am very tired now, so i am going to bed now

bug to a light

earlier tonight i was reading "mortification of sin" by john owen and a new thought about mortification came to me from the book. it is that the first action in mortification is not turning from sin, but turning towards God. if we first turn to God, turning from sin will be a natural action and work of the Holy Spirit in us. the closer we are to God, the less we will sin and the more our mortification is complete. 

it is like walking towards a giant light, like the sun. when we first turn towards it, we cast a huge shadow, but the closer we get to the light, the less of a shadow we cast until eventually, we are one with the light and cast no shadow for the light envelopes us. 

God is the light while the shadow is the sin the still holds some hold over us. 

we should pursue the light like a bug does, flying towards it out of shock and awe of it, going towards it out of obsession; though instead of meeting our death at the light, we meet our life, God and Christ Jesus and oh what a wonderful day that will be when we finally do meet Them. 

the blood of bulls and goats

i started to read leviticus tonight and it was shocking to read of all the animals that had to be sacrificed for the israelites sins. blood would have to be a normal thing for those people back then. reading about those sacrifices and then looking to our sacrifice, it is all the worst. our sacrifice is more removed so it is not in our minds as much when we sin, for if it were, i think that we would not sin as flippantly as we do now. it is still our sin that hangs Christ to the cross though, we are the ones who are beating Him, pounding the nails into His hands and feet, killing Him. our stomachs should churn and feel nauseated over our own sin, yet we feel fine about, even revel in it.

we should be broken and feel broken

filthiness

in the first verses of psalm 38, david is talking about his own sin. david has a pretty good view of his own sin. if we see our sin, it should make us sick. yet we still revel in it. how can a man do that? they shouldn't, that is for sure, and yet we all do it. we all return back to our vomit and sins. we need reform. we need to see sin for what it is and to life a live for Christ instead of our several

other more worldly interest that simple seem to distract us from Christ.

forsake our sinful lives and turn to Christ

rest

after a week that seemed like 3 weeks, i was very glad to get some rest today. i actually probably was up for enough hours this week to equal that of how many hours i stay up in a normal 3 weeks. so i was a little tired and needed some rest, which was nice. the only "work" that i did today was that i washed my car, which this was actually the first time i have ever washed my car since i have had it, so for about a year. i had no clue that the wheels were silver, i thought that they were black. 

as much as i like rest though, i don't do well without a schedule. i just don't get anything done. but it doesn't happen that often, so oh well. 

i tired now, so i am going to bed

jimminey cricket

in acts 24, paul is speaking to felix the governor. felix soon becomes convicted and sends paul away. 

now, while we may not be able to send people away, often times we simply tune out the source of our conviction. conviction is good though, it is what shows us our sins and is what tells us what is right. it is our little cricket, hence the title. as people who enjoy the things of this world to often, i believe that we dismiss our conviction and may even be encouraged to dismiss them because they aren't "relative" to us. that's crap. there is one law, one way, and one truth, and we must follow that one way. 

stop living your life for yourself and live for something that is better. live for Christ; live for God and He will make life worth living. the world will seem empty until we turn to the one and only thing that can fill us, which is Christ. 

this is not a partial turn though, this must be a full turn. our entire self must be turn towards and running to Christ. He deserves all of our love, passion, actions, and desires. He is worth it too.

rest

reading in exodus  34 tonight, it talks about how the people of israel would not work on the sabbath, even during harvest time. while the church today doesn't observe the sabbath, but only the idea of the sabbath, i find myself at times not really even doing that. i often save my home work to do on sunday and i will stay up late sunday night and such, while one of the reasons for the idea of the sabbath is to give a day of rest. so, i am going to try and do my home work earlier so that i can rest on sunday. now resting on sunday does not constitute watching tv and sleeping all day, but i think of it as a time to read the bible and other books while spending the day in thought about and prayer to God.

slow down

one of the things that i love to do is to drive fast. i love to accelerate fast, turn fast, and stop fast. whatever it is in a car, i like to do fast. no, i have thinking about this and was convicted on something. speed limits - they were put into place by the government, which means we are to obey them. obeying them doesn't mean that we do what we don't get caught for, but what is posted. so, driving 40 in a 35 because the cops won't pull you over is still wrong. it is still breaking the law, and sorry that they give us some grace and not pull everyone over who is not going exactly the speed limit, maybe they should crack down and go to within 1 mph of the speed limit to get a ticket. God has raised up governments and we, as christians, should follow them and if they say that we can only do a certain speed on a road, then that is what we are to do to the best of our abilities. this will be something that i struggle with, so i will have to go really fast and then stop accelerating right before i get to the speed limit so that i don't go over but i am going to try and do the speed limit, even though i will get tailgated the whole time.

protected by God

today kim got rear-ended on her way to garrett's bball game. everyone who was in the car is fine, so that is great. it is great to see who God protected them too. the car that hit her and the car that hit the guy who hit her are in really bad shape, yet kim's car had nothing wrong with it as far as we could tell. no damage what so ever, no even scratched paint. that is an awesome thing. i am glad that my sister is alright, but it is even more great to see who caring our God is through this whole thing. we have a Great Protector who wants the best for us. it is an awesome and humbling thing, to know that we have no control, but also that we have a sovereign God who is in control and who loves His children.

glory be to God

the glory of God as seen through the human body

today, i had a research paper due, so of course, i did it all last night. something really cool though, is that i have never been more awake and more alert at 2 in the morning as i was last night. when i finally finished at  2:30, i got into bed and i wasn't tired but actually sat in bed for a bit waiting to fall asleep. i am never like that, i can generally fall asleep in a matter in minutes no matter what. it was a great thing to see that i could be awake at that time. 

from that, i believe that it was only because of God that i could have been as awake as i was because He gave me an interest in the topic that i was doing (the importance of personal bible study as seen through the lives of edwards, luther, and tyndale) and then from that desire, that ability for the body to do things that it normally couldn't do because of excitement and the such. i was shocked by it all last night.

we serve a great and awesome God

pray

being a christian is all about being like Christ. while, i believe, most christians understand this, i know that i have been missing a huge part of it and i am sure other people have too, which is why i am choosing to post this. i totally get the whole sanctification part, doesn't mean i do it correctly, but yeah, but the huge part that i have been missing is the relationship part, mostly in the form of prayer. i hardly ever just talk with God. i have been working on praising Him more, but i still need to just spend time communing with Him. even if someone were to live a perfect life, they would not be Christ-like unless they prayed continually with the Father, for that is something that Christ did. we must have a relationship which means that communication goes both ways.

show your emotions

while it is not desirable to be controlled by emotions, it seems to me that in the means to not be controlled we forsake our emotions completely, or at least silence the ones that really matter. for how can a man, saved from the wretchedness of his sins, not cry out to the whole world what his great God has done for him? i see none of this. now imagine, if all those who are saved start to go out and share this great thing that has happened to us, how would the world react? i can not say for certain, but they would have to make some choice and the more that they must make this choice, the more likely that they will choose the right choice. now, this choice is that of salvation. we must and should be acting like it is all up to us, but still remember that it is truly up to God. for if we act like it is up to us, then we should be sharing the good news with everyone, like we should be. also, if we believe that it is truly up to God, then we can sleep well at night knowing that it is up to God and that we have done our best and that is it really the Spirit that does the work, through us. the key is through us, meaning that we are to be used and that little will happen without us. this is a battle and a battle is hard to win when the foot solders do nothing. so, get ready and go share the word, be used by God. fulfill our purpose. let the world see our God through us, let them see the change that has occurred in you by Him. show your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control, for these are the workings of God in your life and they should make your life to shine in this dark world that we are all a part of.

children

while working with the kindergartners at grace i noticed that many of them have similar traits. looking back on myself, i noticed many of my flaws are in the generation to come. we must work to correct them now, when they are easiest to correct. someone who can think and reason with is much harder to conform then someone who is young. so, while they are still moldable, let us work the kids into godly men and women.

flesh

being tired, i find myself wanting to just relax and sit and watch tv so that i don't have to think for an allotted time. however, i find myself gaining nothing, not even relaxation from this vain indulgence and i am starting to wonder why i even give in to it. i am already watching less and less tv and such since SR, and i am glad of that, and i am even more glad that i am not really enjoying that which i am watching. i just have a hard time watching that which i will get no spiritual help out of and which will probably only make me sink back further from my sanctification.

something that i do need to do is to pray more. so, i am going to end this a pray, for there is much that needs prayer in my life now, so that is what i am going to do. for God is the only one that can make anything different, so shouldn't we bring our problems to Him.

grammatically incorrect

so, a friend of mine asked me today if i would please capitalize some of the words on my post, such as "i" or the beginning of sentences. i had to decline and reply "no" however. there is, in fact, a reason for my lack of punctuation. which i guess wasn't completely obvious, and i think that it should be obvious.

as well as i can remember, i have left every name and word uncapitalized except for those relating to Christ and God. i am not writing a paper or anything, so i do not need to capitalize and i believe that the only things that are worth capitalizing at all times are those things which are truly important, which rules out all things except the various names and persons of God.

hate me for this is you like, though my conscience is clear before God, but i don't really care if you do hate me :) in the nicest possible way of not caring.

we serve a great God who deserves all respect, and i shall do my best to give it to Him. if i can downplay all other things and raise Him up by the simple use of capitalization, then i will, for He is worth it all.

transformed by the renewing of your mind

romans 12:2 "and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

"transformed" is a complete and utter change from what we once were, to what we are to be in Christ. once saved, we should be changed from our sinful flesh to be more like Christ with each passing day.

i have seen people who have claimed Christ and no change has occurred and i have seen people who have claimed Christ and it is a complete night and day comparison between what they were and what they are. it is great to see who people dramatically changed by Christ. their entire outlook on life can be altered in a matter of days or even hours with belief in Jesus Christ. it is a great thing to see.

however, it is incredibly sad to see people who claim Christ, and no change happens. eternity is no small matter, but something that should be considered with respect.

we are not of this world, so we should not look as if we are. we are to be different. so live different

alien and strangers

a friend of mine recently became saved and she and her siblings decided to tell their parents about their new found faith. the parents did not respond well and told them to recant, or they would be removed from all christian influences. from what i know, they did not recant and they still are going to be allowed to return to grace. all praise be to God for truly saving these people and for working through them. may they bless their parents and may the Lord work through them to save their parents.

it is all providence that God placed these kids into a christian school and that they were saved through it all. now God is working through them to get to their parents. it is so great to see our great God working in the lives of the people around us.

this story is true, and it should do one, or many, things to our lives. it should challenge us all to stand up to the people of this world and proclaim Christ all the more. for how can a new believer stand up to their parents while we who have been saved, for a while, can not even stand up to a stranger about our faith. shame on us. we should be all the more zealous by now with our time to grow in Christ.

pray that you may be convicted on your half-hearted evangelism so that you may have boldness as these new believers do. i see this even in my own life as i often fail to see opportunities to share the gospel as i should share it to the unbelievers around me. i pray that God will give me opportunities to share so that He might work through me and so that He may be shown off and gloried in. nothing to do with me, i just want to be used.

joy through trials

paul is one of the most influential people in the church to this day, yet even he wasn't exempt in suffering. on the contrary, he suffered greatly for the cross and the message of Christ. so, if Christ suffered, and paul suffered, peter, stephen, and many others who professed Christ in the early church, shouldn't we too be suffering in the world today? yes, we should. some may say that we are suffering in the world, but we really aren't. being made fun of for your belief isn't suffering. no, we are mere children compared to the men of the early church. we should be fully ready to died for Christ, yet we will barely give anything up for Him. how wrong is this? completely. if we know Christ, we should love Him and know Him well enough to tell other people and then we should go out and tell other people. we should not be lazy and scared of this world but go out and evangelize it.

skeletons in the closet

if we are alive in Christ, why do so many "christians" today hold on to the dead flesh that is cursing their spiritual life to stink and rot? we must let go of this world so that we may live for God and not be slaves to the sins of this world and of the flesh. we must forsake this world and the meager, banal pleasures that it has to offer and look to Christ for the true joy of heaven and worshiping Him for eternity. when we look to Christ, the things of this world go away and we receive true joy. that is what i would love for my life. so that i may live for Him and bring glory to His name.

vain

when i look at my life and see the vain things that i enjoy, i am grieved. i have wasted great portions of my life in the attempt to amuse myself. the very meaning of the word amuse is terrible. "a" means no, while "muse" means thinking. so basically, "no thinking" that is not a good thing and that is something that i don't want my life to be about. i need to make reforms so that i may live a life that i may be proud of when i am old. to see the things that typify my generation are not things that i want to be apart of my life. we are known for our laziness and our lack of seriousness, that is wrong, we should be the leaders and we are the leaders of the future and we should be working forward to that.

what He reveals

the bible is God's Holy word and the way that He communicates with us humans. through it, He reveals Himself, His character, and so forth. but how can a book hold all of what is about an infinite God? it can't. the bible is just what is written about God, never contradicting and always accurate and true. that doesn't mean that is all of what sums up God. through study of scripture, we get much of God, but also through life we get some, but i believe that we will be eternally learning more about the character of God is heaven. we can never know the full extent of God. how can infinite be fully known? He can't He is to great.

i glory in a God that i will never fully know for i will always have to depend upon Him, which is great.

God will have His glory

through out all of history, man has done vile and wicked things, as well as great and marvelous things, all the while though, God has worked so that all things point to Him. everything that happens result in revealing some of His character and attributes. from knowledge of Him, we can better praise and worship Him, for you must know about whatever you are praising. our praise must be informed or else it is ignorant praise. ignorant praise is still better then no praise, though would it be better to worship something if you know exact what and how it all came about? yes, it would be and is, so take time and learn about our great God so that you may have informed worship.

all glory and praise be to our sovereign God, who is magnificent and all praise belongs to Him

God is in control over all

knowing that God is sovereign should bring us great joy.

knowing that God is in total control of everyone and does all things to bring Him the upmost glory should encourage us in that everything we do, no matter the manner we do it, will be used to bring God glory. anything that man does, no matter how bad, will eventually bring god the glory. it is a great thing that we serve such a great awesome God.

however, just because everything will bring Him glory, doesn't mean that we can sin all that we want. sin still grieves Him, and if we sin unchecked, then we may not be saved, and if we are not saved, then God could be hardening us as vessels of wraith, fit only for destruction. that is a scary thought. 

so, live for God

strive to be like Christ

do your own work

while i love to read books by men of old and even some authors that are still alive, i really don't like to read commentaries. to me, it is like not doing the work to find out what the author is intending. with a commentary, you get the author's opinion of what the passage is saying. i find that there is great satisfaction in struggling with a passage to find out what is meant by it. it brings a closeness to God and an ownership of the passage itself. prayer, before, after and during study, a quiet place, an awake mind, and the want to know what the bible says are the things, that i believe, are needed for bible study. i am saying all this to Christians though. no matter how long you study and "pray", a non-believer will not make sense of what the scriptures are saying. they may interpret it correctly, though they will not truly be able to grasp what it is saying. only the Holy Spirit can reveal what scripture says, which is why prayer is needed. the only way to get and receive the Holy Spirit is through a saving faith in Christ Jesus, who came, lived, died, and rose again to conquer death. only through Christ sacrifice may we come to Christ.

by the grace of God

for some reason, in my mind, i like to go through things that could happen and think about how i would and should react, and if different, what i should do to change so that they are the same. in Acts 14, paul and barnabas go to iconium and preach. the people, hearing them, call them gods and try to offer sacrifices to them. paul and barnabas are completely beside them selves by this. they tear their clothes and cry out, NO, for we are men like you (paraphrase).

after reading that, i was thinking about what i should and would do if someone were to do something like that to me. which led my mind to the fact that people have said things to me about maturing in Christ and such, and it made me realize that i don't give enough to God. my first reaction should be, "it's all God and the work that He has done through me. i have done nothing except to do what God has laid on my heart to do." i wish i could say that i only do what God has laid on my heart but i still fail and fall miserable, way to often. i must work and hope that God moves in me to be more like His Son. for that is all there is in life. yes, i realize that there are other aspects in life that we must have, but truly, deep down, i believe that everything boils down to being more like Christ. it should be our chief concern