Why I Write

     So I have this blog, cool. I've given myself a schedule and I've stuck to it so far, great. I'm looking into ways to produce more content and generate more page views and hopefully make a bit of income with it, nice...but what am I saying? It occurred to me the other day that I have to be careful not to loose the message amidst the business.

     When I started this blog it was more random than it is now but I've since decided to try and write about actual Biblical issues which puts me into an interesting situation. I've made myself a teacher and God has a warning for teachers.

James 3:1 “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”

See that? Now that I've taken upon this mantle I am going to be held accountable for the things I write about, for the things that I've taught to others. I better take this seriously don't you think?

Fact checking...kind of important.

     I feel that God is reminding me that even this tiny unnoticed blog is a chance for His Word to make it into someone's mind, into their heart. What is important is that I write the truth and remember that I am not here to increase my own renown or even to become some famous blogger with hundreds in ad-revenue, I am here to see God's kingdom expanded, to spread God.

     Ultimately it leads me back to the verse at the top of the page..go ahead and scroll up and read it. I'll wait ... … … ok fine here:

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Everything we do in life is to give Him glory, from our rising in the morning to our laying down at night our every action should bring Him praise! We can't let any aspect of our lives be separate from Him. It's funny but I can't even play “evil” on games with a morality system nowadays, it's just not enjoyable because I know it's wrong.

Besides, vampires are so mainstream...

     When you're at work do you behave ethically and honorably? When you're at play do you follow the rules and play fair? When you're just inside your own head what do you allow to roam your mind-scape? Our lives are His lives, our ways should be His ways. So I'll keep prayin' and keep tryin' to let God speak through me, to use this blog to tell the world (or the handful of people who currently read this blog!) what He has to say. Keep me in check won't you? If you see me stray from truth, if I start sounding like it's all about me, if stray from God on this small piece of the internet, let me know. 

I'll keep praying for you to.

Beauty in the Public Eye

     I remember an ad I saw once. I was working for a certain retail chain and on one of their cosmetics counters stood a relatively small placard with three woman displayed on it. The women display were, shall we say, devoid of apparel and between the three of them their arms did a pretty good job of covering themselves. What really struck me, besides the fact that a popular retail chain had a picture of three essentially naked women openly displayed on their counter, was that the advert was for some kind make-up. Not for underclothing or outer clothing or even for cosmetic surgery but for cosmetics! It really bothered me. Even now I wonder, was that really necessary?

     Our culture is obsessed with sex. Not a new thing to say I know. Sex has taken over so much of what we think about and how we think about things that it's difficult to think of many of those things in any other way. Take beauty for example. Can you separate 'beautiful' from 'sexy'? Is there a difference? Well, as always, lets look at the Bible and look for some clues. We'll start with a familiar passage, the later part of what's often called the “Proverbs 31 woman” conveniently found, in Proverbs chapter 31.

Proverbs 31:25-30 “Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come.  She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.  She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness.  Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.”

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”

Now this passage says a lot of things and much obviously no one is expected to live up perfectly to the “superwoman” depicted here. That being said there is a lot we can take from this. The woman here is described as: strong, honorable, wise, kind, not idle, and watchful. We read about this wonderful woman in a passage describing the attributes of a desirable wife, so these are things to look for in a mate! Pay special attention also to the last verse, which I'm sure many of you know; “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.” Charm will lie to you, drawing you in with what may be false promises and beauty passes with time. Ultimately the true test of a woman -and of anyone- is their dedication and obedience to God.

     You might be thinking “That's all well and good but that doesn't really have much to say about physical appearance. Isn't all physical attraction basically just degrees of sexual attraction?” Well, yes and no. Beauty is a part of sexual attraction but I don't think that attraction even when physical is necessarily sexual. Everyday physical beauty has to be seen through the filter of what we know about a person. A lovely women with no other favorable qualities won't seem very attractive for long, while a more homely women with a kind and loving heart can seem all the more wonderful. In the same way someone very alluring can blind you to seeing what really matters.

Proverbs 11:22 “As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, So is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.”

Ultimately the Bible doesn't really spend much time telling men or women how to dress or how to look, but it spends a lot of time telling us that God desires us to live a holy righteous life.

1Timothy 2:9-10 “in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”

What this passage really means is that women -and men- are to cover themselves with good works, with righteousness. It's not against braided hair as we see it now anyway, nor against jewelry but against showing off with what we have, making a spectacle of ourselves, and distracting others from focusing on God and his desires for our lives.

     In my opinion one of the most misleading ideas in popular media and culture is the obsession (especially with how the media talks about women) with “feeling” sexy. In the popular mindset feeling attractive and feeling beautiful to a woman are linked seemingly permanently to feeling sexy. Is that supposed to be the way of things? Sex is a gift and a responsibility from God. It's a wonderful thing with wonderful meaning but it also has some specific rules and a specific context. There is a time and a place for sex in our lives and by extension for 'sexiness' as well. So what is the proper setting and context for 'sexiness'? The same place for sex itself, marriage. When a person says they want to feel 'sexy' their really saying they want to feel desirable which is another way of saying they want the people around themselves to desire them. They want to be the center of attention. Following this line of thought brings us back once again to the age old enemy of humanity, pride. When we seek to play our sexuality out in the public realm we're really looking for a way to place ourselves on a pillar, to feel good about ourselves because of ourselves and for the sake of ourselves. Ultimately there is only one person that we need to 'feel' sexy for, our spouse. Knowing that our spouse desires us is an important part a healthy relationship but it has no meaning outside of a relationship other than to fuel our pride!

     Ask someone who's been married a long time, though age has changed them both they remain attracted to each other. Age plays no favorites and all things being equal we all lose our looks as we get on in years, but to those who spend a lifetime together every wrinkle is smoothed out by a memory of the life they've shared and the relationship formed makes their partner all the sweeter to them. We don't need to flaunt our sexuality, we don't need to cheapen it by making it available to so many people. We need to remember that a beautiful person is a Godly person and that beauty doesn't have to be sexy.

Of Joy and Sorrow

Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

     Today I'm going to talk about grief and regret. This may leave you wondering, “Well, what's up with the starting verse then?” I've chosen this verse to start with because I'm not going to break down and discuss grief and regret, I'm going to discuss how they can actually be harmful to us if not kept in their proper place.

     We cannot escape the Biblical truth that we are far from perfect, we all know the famous verse.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Every one of us has failed utterly at one time or another and this should breed a strong sense of humility in us. Humility is also something that we are told to work on. The Bible commands again and again that we are to humble ourselves before the Lord. It's not an easy thing to lower ourselves or to debase ourselves before another, we like to lift ourselves up! Pride however, is a dangerous thing. Thinking too highly of ourselves sets us up for failure.

Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Knowing that we are fallible and prone to sin and failure is good, we must understand that we cannot live this life by our own strength but we cannot let our remorse over our sin bind us.

     Now, back to the first verse. Though our lives are touched by the remorse over past deeds we should have joy -exceeding joy- because of what God has done for us! We are the sinners saved, the slaves set free, the lost who were found, the fallen lifted up, the broken mended, the ailing healed, the dumb given voices to sing, the blind made to see; how great is this thing God has done for us! Our sin is grievous indeed but even the horror of our failures and disobedience pales in the light of God!

Psalms 32:11 “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”

John 15:11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Job 33:26 “He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, He shall see His face with joy, For He restores to man His righteousness.”

Psalms 5:11 “But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them; Let those also who love Your name Be joyful in You.”

I think that although we must never forget where we came from, we dishonor God when we let our lives become ruled by the sorrow of remembrance. Our past is past and God through Christ has put that old man to death, why should we carry him around?

     Another facet of this is our pride and more specifically how sneaky sin can be. Take a look at this verse from Proverbs.

Proverbs 11:2 “When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom.”

If we're walking around lost in our own shame, thinking about how horrible we are and assuming God can never use us...are we really just holding on to a perverse form of pride? Why do we feel so bad that our whole lives are shadowed, we were sinners what else would we do but sin? That knowledge should remind us of the mercy and grace of God more than it hurts our feelings. And again, yes, we should feel humbled by our pasts and by all the sins that even now conflict with our new spirit but God is not a god of sorrow and somberness! If we live without joy or without peace we'll notice something else, we're all the more susceptible to sin. You would think that being constantly aware of and lamenting our sin would keep us on the keen edge of awareness but more often than not it just keeps us from having power over it. Look at what Nehemiah says:

Nehemiah 8:10 “Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our LORD. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

     Do you see that? “The joy of the LORD is your strength.” If we refuse to have joy from what God has done for us, where is our strength? We must stand firm in the promises of God, knowing that when He says we are forgiven that we ARE FORGIVEN! We're free! Not yet fully, not yet finally, but we are free from the punishment of our sins and at the end of days we will rejoice as sin is put to death once and for all!

     So don't let your humility become pride turned backward, don't let your regret rule your life. Be glad, smile, praise God for the wonder of his mercy and love. Let the light of truth banish the shadows and walk boldly down the path to heaven.

(I couldn't find a link that would work on here.....so just you'll have to follow it to YouTube and watch it there haha.)

Foundations Part 1

     What are the primary foundations of our faith? Have you taken the time to think about that? There are a great many ideas and philosophies that make up Christianity, but ultimately I think it comes down to a few basics that are the heart of it all. Today is the first of what I hope to be several looks at what makes up the primary basis for our lives and faith.

So what is first? Well -cue drum roll- I'm going to start with … Love! Love more than anything else stands as an unmistakable pillar of all we believe.

1Corinthians 13:13 “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;

but the greatest of these is love.”

Psalms 40:16 “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

Let such as love Your salvation say continually, "The LORD be magnified!"

     Of course love has many aspects as I believe I've mentioned before. Today however I'm going to focus on one very specific love, our love for God. God is our Father, our Savior, our Friend, He is so many things that we love here on earth but I don't think we take the time to truly understand what it is to love Him. This is the being who DIED for us and yet many of us (myself included) often give very little thought to how we are loving Him every day. Our days can slip right past us and we give Him only a cursory glance. However the Bible tells us to love God and to do it actively! It's important to remember that this isn't optional, it's a command.

Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Deuteronomy 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you,

but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways

and to love Him, to serve the LORD

your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

Mark 12:30 “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.”

Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good;

And what does the LORD require of you

But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”

     So faced with the knowledge that to love God is not a suggestion, how do we go about it? Well here again (as always) we have the Bible to inform us.

John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

John 14:23 “Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me,

he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,

and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”

John 14:24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words;

and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.”

Psalms 119:10 “With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!”

Now I know some people are rather put off by this. They think it odd that to love God means doing what He says, but think about it; I love my fiance by speaking and listening to her, by giving her gifts, by spending time with her, by trying to fulfill her desires, etc. Why does this suddenly seem shocking when we hear it about God? Look at it another way, we claim to believe that God is the ultimate good. We claim that He wants only whats best for us. If that's all true than shouldn't we want to follow His commands? Shouldn't we realize that the commands given to us by our all loving Father who wants only our best and who is incapable of evil, are good? So if we believe what He has told us, if we trust Him, if we LOVE Him, we SHOULD be listening to Him right? So our obedience becomes the outward expression of our love, the physical proof that our hearts and minds are bent in His direction.

     One more thing. God is (among many things) a God of promises. We are commanded to love Him but that's not all!

Psalms 31:23 “Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! For the LORD

preserves the faithful, And fully repays the proud person.”

Psalms 145:20 “The LORD preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.”

Deuteronomy 11:13-15“And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.”

When we place God first He will take care of the rest. God blesses those who seek Him.

     Finally, like everything else in the Christian walk, loving God perfectly is difficult if not impossible to do alone. While we are here on earth and trapped in the presence of sin we will continue to fail and falter. God knows this and gives us His strength and it is through His Spirit that we can succeed. At the end of days when we again bask in His presence, all the shadows will melt away and our struggling striving love will be perfected.