"By this we know love..."

so tonight i was closing my eyes to go to bed and my mind was kinda sleepy but i wanted to go to sleep thinking of something good so i thought about a verse that i am studying to teach this wednesday.

1 John 3:16 "By this we know love, the he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers"

the first phrase really got me thinking and after a hour of thinking and 600 words, i figured i would write down some of my thoughts here.

"By this we know love..." how amazing is it that we know what love is because of what the Father and the Son has done for us. just as children learn to live and love from their parents, so we learn to live and love from our heavenly Father. we are His sons, we are like Him and so we should live and love like Him. in Matthew, we learn the greatest commandment, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strengthen, while the second greatest commandment is like it, that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.
as Christ gave up His life for us, so we should give our life to Him. if we give our life to Him, then we should live our life the way that He would want us to live it.

my mind is seriously going in a million different directions a million miles per hour because of this phrase. this verse reveals a trait of God in it's entirety and it is the trait that means that most to us because this trait is what saves us from ourselves and brings us back to God.
i'm having a hard time writing my thoughts down because of how awesome this verse is and what it means to us. we get to know and see God's love for us and we also get to know how we are to live our lives. this is what it is to be Christian, to live and love as Christ.

first public day on the job

a few hours ago (i would say earlier today but it is no longer the same day so yeah) i taught for the first time this summer in one28. i am very surprised as to how comfortable i was speaking. it seemed normal and i wasn't really nervous to speak though i am always nervous about the content of my messages. i would say that i could have known my passage better. i think for this next time i will spend much more time mediating on the passage before i start to read about it and then mediate on it some more after i researched some. i just need to know the passage better. i have heard positive reports as to my delivery of it though it will be interesting to hopefully hear about the students response to the message after a small group or something. i hope that the message itself will draw much conversation because it probably does hit so close to home on so many of the students. i want to see people fall radically in love with Christ and with living for Him. this was my message in a nut shell.
well, i need to get up in a few hours so i am going to bed now. there is never enough time in a day.

problems with rain

well, i got up with morning and when i got out of the shower around 4, i could hear this very annoying buzzing sound but i could NOT find where it was coming from. so i just ignored it. i thought the neighbor has left some of the work equipment or something, oh well.
well, when i went outside to get a propane tank from the back so that my dad could fill it at work, i found the source of the rather annoying sound. there was a little box on the back wall of our house and when i went up and looked at it, it says TANK ALARM. hmmm.... i wonder which tank this is? so it was about 5 in the morning at this time and i had to leave and i knew my dad would be getting up any minute so i went and told him what was going on. he came out to turn off the alarm, which was a relief, and then went inside to do something or other. i then left for my morning meeting.
the ironic thing about all this is that just last night, we were talking about how we were hoping that we wouldn't have troubles with our septic tank, bam! we got a wee bit of trouble. oh well though, at least it isn't the morning of the wedding, right.

MY call

Psalms 24:3-6
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
5He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

so i am currently interning for one28, our church youth ministry, and one of the responsibilities i have is to teach on corporate one28 wednesday nights, so i have been studying to do so. perhaps the most annoying and amazing parts about this studying and work is the fact that you have to have a constant clear conscience before God in order to do it right. i have worked at another job this past school year and it never really matter what mood i was in at work. i could be mad, happy, or whatever and i could still polish granite to the same standard. studying and teaching God Word is not at all like this. i have to be pure. i have to have confessed and repented of everything i can think of that is sin in my life. i can't hold on to anything in this life in order to simply do my job, which is what makes this job difficult and at the same time, completely worth it. this job is not enjoyable when i want to sin or have just sinned, but it is enjoyable cuz it makes it so that i feel like i can't/shouldn't sin. i am compelled to do this job, and there is little else that i think is worth doing. i wish that i could do an easy job, i am the laziest person alive, i think. i wish i could do a job that doesn't take my whole being. yet i know that there is no other job that i can do and feel whole doing. there is nothing else that i prefer/want to do. i get to do what i want to do. are you?

great cloud of witnesses

i must say that there is little better for the use of encouragement then christian fellowship and brotherly love. i started a new job this week at the church as the intern and while everyone around me is super busy with graduation and such, they are always quick to help me or offer me advice or to tell me something that i probably don't know or remember. it has been great thus far and i am excited for the rest of the summer. this is something that i could get used to, working with people who love their job, love God, and love you. it has been great.

Christology

Philippians 2:1-11
"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

i want to look at verse 6-11 specifically because, as far as i know, these sum up the infinite person of Christ and His deity fairly well (haha, sum up infinity, but yeah, i said it).

first, Jesus is in the form of God meaning that He is God. then He became a man through the virgin birth. by becoming a man, he became the ultimate servant for the more power that you give up, the greater the servant you become. the creator served the creation, you can't lower yourself much more and yet Christ did. He submitted to the Father's will towards us, to serve us so that we may have life with Him. to serve us, He sacrificed Himself on the cross. since He did this, the Father has greatly exalted Him and made it so that He is the only way for us to get to the Father. He is the only one to save. only through Him do we have eternal life for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. one day, every person and thing will confess that Jesus is Lord and this is all for the glory of the Father. so the Father glorified the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, the Son glorifies the Spirit and they all work together to show each other off. they are the epitome of love, for they love each person as much as themselves, serve each other, glorifying each other, and we, mankind, get to share in this in the fact that we were created for the glory of God. we were created so that the triune God could show Himself off through and to us. we are the example to the angels for how to act and worship. what a glorious thing. we are not robots or mindless zombies, but people who have wills that we are allowed to use to glorify God with.

we only have one life, are you going to use it the way the great triune God intended us to use it, for His glory and our satisfaction?

yes, God created us so that we would be most satisfied in this life when we are most saturated with Him. what a marvelous thing. our best life is the life that we are meant to live. the best thing that we can do is also the thing that we are supposed to do.

well, i can just keep going on this topic probably for eternity for God is infinite so i will end this here this time.

looming judgement

James 3:1 "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."

this verse has been in the back of my mind for awhile now and today, it is seriously looming over me. tomorrow i start my internship at the church and i have to finalize what passage i'm going to be teaching on this summer. just thinking through it all is seriously nerve racking. i feel very small, unlearned, and unqualified. "lucky" for me, i have an infinite God whom i can go do in prayer who will comfort and guide me as well as many older man around me who would love to help me if i asked. God is good to encourage we who are weak so that we can handle our small burdens of life for after He takes our burden of sin away, we have so little to worry about. all we must do is be faithful, which, in and of itself, is impossible for us, but through Christ, all things are possible.

here i stand, i can do no other

with the discussion of membership and apostasy, i would like to discuss offense and where we draw the line. i know i am young, but this is how i understand it and how i believe the bible stands on the topic and how i am going to live my life till proved otherwise.

the bible clearly says that the world will hate us, but not because of us (or at least it shouldn't be because of us, they should love us) but because of our message. we are to present our message the best we can so as to win men but men will still hate us unless God calls them. it is a very bad thing if the brethren has a problem with our message because they are to help us by way of accountability. so, what if a brother has a problem with our message? we are to sit down together and reason through scripture to either be reconciled or to agree that it is a minor doctrine and that there are 2 ways to understand it and that we are to both be fully convinced in our minds so that our conscience is clear.

where is the line though? where can we stop arguing and to live and differ in peace? the bible clearly draws lines as to where we can not fudge. the doctrine of Christ and of salvation and of the Trinity. i'm sure there are a few others but they escape me at the moment.

these things though are very much linked and important. they pertain to the kingdom of heaven:
- Christ: He is the Holy Son of God who is fully God and became fully man through the virgin birth. He then died on the cross and was buried and rose again on the third day. He was then taken up to heaven at the appointed time.
- salvation: when Christ died, He died for the sins of the world, taking all that sin upon Himself. He then defeated death by rising again, thus allowing us to rise again with Him in the last day.
- Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: all separate and yet still one God. the Father is judge, the Son is the sacrifice and advocate for the elect, while the Spirit works salvation in the believer and works sanctification in him.

these things can not be altered

personal holiness, but for who's sake?

i often find myself thinking about how i should be acting for my future congregation (if God gives me one) or future wife (again, if God gives me one :). i think about things like personal holiness, purity, knowing the bible, and things like these and how i need to have them in my life for their sakes, which is true, i should have them in my life for them, but truer still, i must have these sorts of things in my life for my sake and God's sake for i must desire a relationship with Him first BEFORE i can think of others.

when i say "before", so as to dispel some wrong notions, this "before" is not a measure of time but of importance. the first thing on a believer's mind should be God and how they (believer and God) are doing, and then second should be other people.

this comes back to the greatest commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" all commandments can be summed up in this one and the next one, "Love your neighbor as yourself" if you do these things perfectly, you fulfill the whole law. what a glorious thought! this shows that God had all male disciple (at least one thing) because God summed everything up into 2 things so that we could remember them :)

all things boil down to love so compare all that you do, if it is FIRST loving towards God and then loving towards ALL men, then you should do it.

(when i say "all men" i mean all but God does give some other laws about which men we are to follow at certain time, i.e. authority)

fill your mind with unseen things

of late, i have struggled upon the notion of having joy in life when there is so much sin, past and possible future, in my Mind that grieves me. How do you enjoy a person, God, when you know that you have and will continue to cause them pain?
i believe i have found a solution to beat the joy and the sin problem in my life and mind by way of a message given by SKH yesterday.
i must look at this in a logical progression.
first, how do we not sin? there is only one way that i see this could happen and that is if sin is removed from our minds. to have no sin in our thoughts would make it impossible for us to do, would it not? so then, the next question must be how do we remove sin from our mins? by replacing it with something else. so what can we put into our minds to replace the sin in our minds with something that is not sin? the only thing that is right and commanded to fill our minds (Mt. 22:34-40) is, in fact, God. He is the only one who can drive out sin and replace it with something better. but, what ho! Christ/God is also the thing that will bring us joy. by allowing Him to pervade our thoughts, we are filling our minds with what they were meant to be filled with. what a glorious and simple truth!
God created us so that He would be the greatest "thing" for us. this isn't arrogant but great, for He is infinite, eternal, and omnipotent. so He is always with us and we can't get away from Him. so to enjoy Him is good for He is always there to be enjoyed.

JUMP

i was thinking about it today, why don't we have more evangelist? the most common answer that most "christians" would give you if you were to ask them is, "well, i wasn't called to be an evangelist." how the devil do you know that? did God tell you? if you are hearing from God then you should be an evangelist.
no, i don't think it is a lack of calling. i think it is a lack of listening which is produced by a quantity of fear.
fear is a great motivator. if someone is afraid of me, i can make them do all sorts of things for me as long as i don't push them to far. now, replace me with the devil. he can make you not do many things (evangelize) by filling you with fear. he stops the kingdom of God from advancing because you are too afraid to do what you should be doing. the devil realizes that he has lost you but as long as he can make you not see the need to save everyone else, he doesn't lose any more. so he fills you with fear of people and gets you to focus only on yourself (i know God is sovereign, i am merely speaking on a human level here).
however, fear has an even worst cause and this should scare us more. fear is also the by-product of lack of faith, faith in God. we don't trust Him with many things, and if we don't trust Him with everything, then we have a fear of something. this fear produces sin, or possible could be or is sin on it's own.
i see this in myself as i think about witnessing to someone. i fear the unknown. i am scared of what might happen. this is how i know that other people are the same way, for there is nothign new under the sun.
so then, what are we to do? JUMP! and pray like crazy. watch as God does crazy good things through you as you trust in Him and do what He wants you to do.
He cares for the little birds and they are not made in His image as you are. so don't worry, be happy. trust God. Pray. He'll be faithful. stop sinning and ignoring the Spirit. do what is right. trust and obey. follow Christ. pick up your cross. leave father and mother and follow after Him.

thoughts on a public ministry

as many people know and to those of you who don't, i want to be a pastor. it is the only thing that i can possible do with my life that i know that i would not be wasting my life doing and i don't want to waste my life so i must be a pastor.
i have heard other pastors so that the greatest need of their congregation is their pastor's personal holiness. while i think that is needful, i would go a step further and so that the greatest thing for a pastor's soul is his personal holiness. a pastor is held responsible for the souls of his congregation. if he doesn't teach the truth to the best of his ability and do as much as he can for his flock, then it is on his soul in the end of time. so then what is the best thing for the congregation? by what means will they get the purest form of the truth? if the pastor is personally holy.
so, a pastor must seek to be holy for his congregation's sake and because of their sake, it is then for the pastor's own sake. so a teacher must first be holy for his congregation, and then for himself.
i have much work to do. i am so far away. there is so much time that i waste that i could be doing things that will help me. i must put off my childish acts so that i may be personally holy as i teach this summer and then through out my life. one thing is that i must spend way less time doing silly things on the computer, mostly on facebook and hulu. i must stop. it is fruitless. there is one thing, one book that i must know above all and that is what i must be spending my time in. at this stage in my life, i am in the desert as paul spent his 3 years in the desert. this is my time to learn all that i can so that in the days to come, i will be able to teach and not labor to study as i must now. reading and studying will always be an essential part of my life, but not near to the point that it must be now.
it's time to kill some flesh

and here we go

i just finished habakkuk this morning as i am reading through the bible and it struck how these men where prophesying about the destruction of nations and how the people alway thought that they were fine and that the end was not near. then the end came and they were killed and basically all went to hell.
it is interesting to read this about something that happened 2700 years ago (i'm guess at the date, i'm not really sure how long ago it was but i should be in the ballpark for the date) and it happened back then, meaning that the destruction did come. so what of today? in the NT there are multiple references about how we are in the last days and that was over 2000 years ago, so what are we in now, the moments? so if we are in the last moments, shouldn't we be using our last moments for what really matters and what really counts? we need to step up and live like it is our last day because it could very well be our last day. we have no idea when the lord will be coming back so we should get up and do the work that we are told to do.
we must be active

who is God?

i got up at my normal wake up time today so that i could get ready for church today as i do on most every sunday. today i have some extra time though because i don't have any extra sound tech work to do before church (which i just remembered in writing this that i do, so i will have to leave a few minutes early but that is fine). so because i have extra time, i thought that i would spend it in prayer for that is something that i struggle with, praying for long periods of set time. i thought that i would try to write it down to help me better stay focus, but a curious thought hit me. i enjoy writing. i like to spin words to make them sound nice or poetic or whatever. i like to write. so while thinking about writing out a prayer, i thought that if i were to do this, i would be writing and not praying. it would quickly turn into how do i want to state this rather than a conversation with God. i would be writing something nice but not sincere.
how often do we do this any ways in our normal day-to-day prayers? we talk one way in life and then we talk a different way to God, no, they should be the same. we first need to elevate our daily conversations but we also need to truthfully pray to God. it isn't good to say the "right" words and yet not even know what or possible even who you are talk to or about. we need to know the God we are praying to and we need to pray to the God that we know. we should look at our prayers and ask, "do we really believe that?" and go from there. there is also the other side, if we do believe it, does our lives show it? do we live as to the God that we pray to?
both sides of this is something that i am guilty of, which probably means that most people out there are guilty of at least half of this sin (which is really a whole sin but i won't get into that).
so then pray to the God that you know, and know the God that you pray to

the frailty of my soul

while looking to this easter season that we are now coming into, i look to myself to see how i am while in this graceful season of my life. as i look into my own soul, i am scared at what i find. i see a young man who, instead of living for God, i live for myself. i follow the laws of God that are convenient at the time for me and i am scared that i am like that. i want to be a man after the heart of God, not one who pleases self.
i see the problem and i pray that God will give me the strength to do what i must. i can't live like the world. i am set apart; i am different; i am alive; i am saved, yet i live just like the world. this is not to be. i see my heart and i see filth, not Christ. what am i to do? i am so weak, there is nothing i can do. i always fail. no matter how long i stop a sin, i eventually fail. there is much fighting, much parrying and many wounds in this battle for my soul, but i see little victory, only failure. how can i cleanse my heart? there seems to be no end to the rags that are needed to cleanse my heart. i trample on the robe that i am clothed with, that Christ gave me to cover my sins.
i do not make little of Christ's sacrifice. i know i am perfectly clean in Christ. this is not the point. the point is that i am to live like Christ now that i am save and i see myself falling short here. the only reason i fail is because i choose sin over God and nothing else. the good that is worked in my i know is only of God because of how black my heart is. i need more Christ in my life, the problem is that i already have Christ and Him to the fullest for he withholds no good thing from His children. i am just so sinful. my past sins are forgiven but it is my future sins that i am worried about. i see the sin that my flesh wants to do and i am afraid that i might do it. what am i to do about a soul that is run by it's flesh, for my flesh is so weak thus making it strong.
i pray that i my surpass paul and do the things that i want to do and not do the things that i don't want to do.