Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year to All
Hope this New Year will find you well and happy in Christ Jesus!
As I've previously written, I'm researching the subject of Godly mercy for a book that I'm writting about the subject. Maybe it's time that I write down what I've found out so far.
Currently, I'm looking at the Old Testament writings about mercy. Some verse, while they don't specifically mention mercy, they do mention concepts closely related to it, such as Micah 6:8, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
This is what I've come up with so far (with the help of some study aids). Micah 6:8 tells us to remember that God has shown us what is right and good, and in return Jehovah "requires" us to act justly to one another, to "love kindness", and walk in humility before God.
It seems to me the "act justly" is the hardest part of this commandment. We as human beings are well equiped to accuse and curse those whom we see as sinners, but when it comes to our own sin, we turn a blind eye. This is not what God intends however, because this is in direct violation of his requirement to walk humbly before Him. Acting completely justly would entail earnestly examining our own actions and thoughts to see if we have sinned in any capacity even remotely simular to that of the sinner in question, and then showing compassion even when discipline is needed. Sometimes that act of discpline hurts the sinner in the short run, but is meant to pursuade them not to do the act again, or something more dire and destructive might happen to them is not in the physical, than supernatural. If not in the immediate world, than in the eternal. This is an ultimate act of mercy; to show the sinner that their actions deserve a more severe punishment than what they are getting right now. All of this must come with humility, since Christians must always consider that they too were once condemned by the law, but now dwell in Christ's love and mercy.
I'll try posting more on the subject in the upcoming days and weeks a head.
Love in Christ to all my Brother's and Sister's.
As I've previously written, I'm researching the subject of Godly mercy for a book that I'm writting about the subject. Maybe it's time that I write down what I've found out so far.
Currently, I'm looking at the Old Testament writings about mercy. Some verse, while they don't specifically mention mercy, they do mention concepts closely related to it, such as Micah 6:8, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
This is what I've come up with so far (with the help of some study aids). Micah 6:8 tells us to remember that God has shown us what is right and good, and in return Jehovah "requires" us to act justly to one another, to "love kindness", and walk in humility before God.
It seems to me the "act justly" is the hardest part of this commandment. We as human beings are well equiped to accuse and curse those whom we see as sinners, but when it comes to our own sin, we turn a blind eye. This is not what God intends however, because this is in direct violation of his requirement to walk humbly before Him. Acting completely justly would entail earnestly examining our own actions and thoughts to see if we have sinned in any capacity even remotely simular to that of the sinner in question, and then showing compassion even when discipline is needed. Sometimes that act of discpline hurts the sinner in the short run, but is meant to pursuade them not to do the act again, or something more dire and destructive might happen to them is not in the physical, than supernatural. If not in the immediate world, than in the eternal. This is an ultimate act of mercy; to show the sinner that their actions deserve a more severe punishment than what they are getting right now. All of this must come with humility, since Christians must always consider that they too were once condemned by the law, but now dwell in Christ's love and mercy.
I'll try posting more on the subject in the upcoming days and weeks a head.
Love in Christ to all my Brother's and Sister's.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Merry Christmas one and all
I'd like to take this time to wish one and all in blogger land. This has got to one of my favorite time of year. I've had many wonderful memories of Christmas traditions. One of the fondest memory involves putting up the Christmas tree. My mom, dad and I, along with my brother and sister would dutifully make our way to the woods to cut down the best tree. My father usually scoped out the best ones in advance, but would always let the family pick out the one that we wanted. With a lot of labor, my father and brother would inch their way under the tree and cut the trunk. Later, again with a lot of effort, they would drag it to the living room and place it in the stand.
One year while decorating the tree, I asked my mom why we celebrate Christmas with a tree. This is what I learned: the evergreen color symbolizes everlasting love God had shown to us on the first Christmas. He sent His Son to the world to save us from sin and eternal damnation. The string of lights reminds us of the Light of the World came into a place full of darkness and despair. The angel we placed on the top bough represents the Heavenly Host sent to proclaim the Word becoming flesh to save the world. The tree itself also tells us that eventhough He came as a Baby gentle and loved, He would grow to die and horrible death, forsaken by His friends, so that all whom believe would have eternal life with Him.
Curious, I asked, why did we give gifts each year. She told me of the Wise men who gave gold, frankincense and myrrh to the child Jesus. Gold is for His Kingship, frankincense represents His everlasting preisthood, and myrrh tells of the sacrifice He would make for us all. I would later consider them
Please, tell me of your memories of Christmas. They can be anything you'd like to see posted.
God Bless!
One year while decorating the tree, I asked my mom why we celebrate Christmas with a tree. This is what I learned: the evergreen color symbolizes everlasting love God had shown to us on the first Christmas. He sent His Son to the world to save us from sin and eternal damnation. The string of lights reminds us of the Light of the World came into a place full of darkness and despair. The angel we placed on the top bough represents the Heavenly Host sent to proclaim the Word becoming flesh to save the world. The tree itself also tells us that eventhough He came as a Baby gentle and loved, He would grow to die and horrible death, forsaken by His friends, so that all whom believe would have eternal life with Him.
Curious, I asked, why did we give gifts each year. She told me of the Wise men who gave gold, frankincense and myrrh to the child Jesus. Gold is for His Kingship, frankincense represents His everlasting preisthood, and myrrh tells of the sacrifice He would make for us all. I would later consider them
Please, tell me of your memories of Christmas. They can be anything you'd like to see posted.
God Bless!
Friday, November 26, 2010
The Dream that I've had
Several weeks ago I had a very vivid dream. I'll try to relate to you what I saw in this dream, but I'll give you a little background of what happened during that day and the day before, so that you might see that what I saw really didn't come from my experiences earlier. Nothing was out of the ordinary. No extraordinary conversations, didn't read or see anything on TV that even remotely related to my dream.
In order for you to understand my dream, I'll give you some key information. 1. My parents had just finished building a new home a few months earlier. 2. My dream itself took place in two formats, 1st and 2nd perspectives and that these perspectives change frequently in my dream. I'll try to relate to you to the best of my ability what happened in my dream.
Now, for the dream itself... (FIRST PERSON) It was a clear fall day and I was driving down the country road leading to my parents house. I parked my car in the driveway (no other cars there) and immediately got out of my car. Looking down toward the ground I was immediately aware I wasn't alone. To the back of me, I was aware of... well... someone. But this "someone", I knew instinctively, represented everyone. So for clarification I'll refere to this person as "Everyone". By the front of the my car was a man. I remember only partly looking at him. I couldn't look at his face, but still, I asked his name. He said "my name is G..." The rest of his name was garbled. Everyone said "you are God", refering to the man. Without his saying anything, I knew that he wasn't God, and he seemed to agree with me. I say "seemed to" because he and I had a type of communication that was not verbal. I got the sense that he was rather troubled with his beening labeled as God. He said, "no I'm not God. Humans have twisted my name."
I remember saying to the man "I need to go to my father's house." He somehow communicated to me that it was okay to proceed. I started to walk to the garage. I felt as if Everyone, however, was being held back, because prior to that, it seemed as if Everyone was sort of glued to my right shoulder. I started to turn to see if Everyone was coming along (never saw Everyone's face) and immediately I was in a room. I knew instinctively that I was in a holy place and I started to kneel on the carpeted floor in front of me. I could see a narrow carpeted path leading to somewhere in the distance. The rest of the floor was darkened. As soon as I started to kneel, I saw my body via THIRD PERSON perspective. Walking on my knees very slowly, I saw myself proceeding to three steps leading to... I'll get to that later.
As this was happening, Everyone joined me on my right and to the back of me. I heard Everyone say "do you belong here?" After pondering this for awhile, I said "yes, I do". I felt such a relief after saying this. Apparently, I was apprehensive about what was happening. Finally, I saw myself approaching the three steps, and I noticed an intense, holy light to my left. I couldn't look at the light, because it was so light and holy, but I now I saw a figure with light, intense holy light, pouring out of His face and I couldn't look at Him completely. I saw myself stop, and wait, very aware that I was in the presence of God's throne and was infront of the Holy One. Still in the THIRD PERSON, I felt myself aligning with my body. In fact, I was standing behind my own body. I knew it was not okay for me to stand in front of God without His permission. With all humility, I saw myself wait on Him. Without a word said to me I knew deep down in my soul that it was okay to stand in front of Him and to approach the throne. Knees still wobbling a little, I saw myself climbing the steps. He told me in my spirit that it was okay to ask for anything...
Of all the times to wake up! I think I know what the dream means, but if someone who has the spiritual gift of interperatation could confirm it, I would be greatful.
Sorry the retelling is a little choppy. Not used to using first person narrative, so to speak.
Thanks for being patient. God Bless!
In order for you to understand my dream, I'll give you some key information. 1. My parents had just finished building a new home a few months earlier. 2. My dream itself took place in two formats, 1st and 2nd perspectives and that these perspectives change frequently in my dream. I'll try to relate to you to the best of my ability what happened in my dream.
Now, for the dream itself... (FIRST PERSON) It was a clear fall day and I was driving down the country road leading to my parents house. I parked my car in the driveway (no other cars there) and immediately got out of my car. Looking down toward the ground I was immediately aware I wasn't alone. To the back of me, I was aware of... well... someone. But this "someone", I knew instinctively, represented everyone. So for clarification I'll refere to this person as "Everyone". By the front of the my car was a man. I remember only partly looking at him. I couldn't look at his face, but still, I asked his name. He said "my name is G..." The rest of his name was garbled. Everyone said "you are God", refering to the man. Without his saying anything, I knew that he wasn't God, and he seemed to agree with me. I say "seemed to" because he and I had a type of communication that was not verbal. I got the sense that he was rather troubled with his beening labeled as God. He said, "no I'm not God. Humans have twisted my name."
I remember saying to the man "I need to go to my father's house." He somehow communicated to me that it was okay to proceed. I started to walk to the garage. I felt as if Everyone, however, was being held back, because prior to that, it seemed as if Everyone was sort of glued to my right shoulder. I started to turn to see if Everyone was coming along (never saw Everyone's face) and immediately I was in a room. I knew instinctively that I was in a holy place and I started to kneel on the carpeted floor in front of me. I could see a narrow carpeted path leading to somewhere in the distance. The rest of the floor was darkened. As soon as I started to kneel, I saw my body via THIRD PERSON perspective. Walking on my knees very slowly, I saw myself proceeding to three steps leading to... I'll get to that later.
As this was happening, Everyone joined me on my right and to the back of me. I heard Everyone say "do you belong here?" After pondering this for awhile, I said "yes, I do". I felt such a relief after saying this. Apparently, I was apprehensive about what was happening. Finally, I saw myself approaching the three steps, and I noticed an intense, holy light to my left. I couldn't look at the light, because it was so light and holy, but I now I saw a figure with light, intense holy light, pouring out of His face and I couldn't look at Him completely. I saw myself stop, and wait, very aware that I was in the presence of God's throne and was infront of the Holy One. Still in the THIRD PERSON, I felt myself aligning with my body. In fact, I was standing behind my own body. I knew it was not okay for me to stand in front of God without His permission. With all humility, I saw myself wait on Him. Without a word said to me I knew deep down in my soul that it was okay to stand in front of Him and to approach the throne. Knees still wobbling a little, I saw myself climbing the steps. He told me in my spirit that it was okay to ask for anything...
Of all the times to wake up! I think I know what the dream means, but if someone who has the spiritual gift of interperatation could confirm it, I would be greatful.
Sorry the retelling is a little choppy. Not used to using first person narrative, so to speak.
Thanks for being patient. God Bless!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Very Cool, Very Interesting video from our Brothers and Sisters in Christ in China
I found this on Godtube.com. If this is the "real deal", wow, it's amazing! I tend to believe it is possible. The message is so true. I believe the rest of us, by that I mean Christian Brothers and Sisters need to take this message to heart. Spread the word about Christ's love and sacrifice. You don't know when He'll come back, so be ready.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Star of Bethlehem
Can it be over one month since my last post. I apologize for this, dear reader. It's been a pretty interesting few weeks to be sure. My job is in jeopardy, because of health issuses, and I don't know what to think about it. I know that the Good Lord is in control. Whatever He has planned is okay with me. Maybe I'll go back to school, write part time, or work for myself as a care giver to the elderly. I've done that before and liked it very much, and working for myself has great appeal. I plan to get together with the Dept. of Vocational Resources about this in the near future. Please pray for me!
Well, anyway, I found this on youtube and thought my readers might like it. Hopeful, I can paste it. The presenter is Rick Larson and is very knowledgeable about the Star of Behthlehem.
Well, anyway, I found this on youtube and thought my readers might like it. Hopeful, I can paste it. The presenter is Rick Larson and is very knowledgeable about the Star of Behthlehem.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
False teaching is being exposed
New age philosophy is inundating Christian thought. We as believers and followers of Christ need to put on the full armor of God each and everyday to prevent ourselves from be led away from our first love. False teaching and New Age thinking can sneak into faith in very sneaky ways. For instance, those who are media (and I'm not just talking about the religion that revolves around Oprah) hold incredible sway over how we interpret the world and faith in Jesus Christ. The only way to keep from becoming sheep to these false shepherd's is by reading the Bible, knowing that it is God inspired. I'll post about this later, and how I was deceived by wolves in sheep's clothing.
God Bless!
God Bless!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sharing personal information
Hi all, and especially Sonshine :) ,
I'm willing to give out my email, but here's the thing... Several months ago I almost had a stalking situation at work. I thought this person was getting a little too friendly, so a co-worker that I trusted followed me home to make sure I was safe. Good thing she did, because the person in question was waiting for me in the parking lot, in his car, ready to follow me home! Scary to say the least. If you email I consider emailing you. I moderate all posts, so I'll copy the email down and not publish the comment. I don't twitter, facebook, myspace or things like that for this very reason. A girl can't be too careful these days! I'm sure all of you are perfectly normal, but it'll take me sometime to trust "stranger's" again.
God Bless,
I'm willing to give out my email, but here's the thing... Several months ago I almost had a stalking situation at work. I thought this person was getting a little too friendly, so a co-worker that I trusted followed me home to make sure I was safe. Good thing she did, because the person in question was waiting for me in the parking lot, in his car, ready to follow me home! Scary to say the least. If you email I consider emailing you. I moderate all posts, so I'll copy the email down and not publish the comment. I don't twitter, facebook, myspace or things like that for this very reason. A girl can't be too careful these days! I'm sure all of you are perfectly normal, but it'll take me sometime to trust "stranger's" again.
God Bless,
Saturday, October 2, 2010
I got the chance to finally read www.godandscience.org webpage. It seems to be very good, for the most part at least. Very good explanation of the Gospel. It seems as if they don't believe in the once-saved-always-saved theology that I believe in or pre-tribulation rapture, but that's okay. I have to do more research and see if they believe that a follower and believer in Christ can lose salvation.
I do believe that Christian's all over the world will be persecuted to a much greater extent than they are today, and that we must ALL be ready to give an account for why we know that Jesus is the risen Lord. They still seem to be orthodox in the important stuff, like Jesus is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life and that salvation comes by faith alone (then comes works)!
God Bless!
I do believe that Christian's all over the world will be persecuted to a much greater extent than they are today, and that we must ALL be ready to give an account for why we know that Jesus is the risen Lord. They still seem to be orthodox in the important stuff, like Jesus is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life and that salvation comes by faith alone (then comes works)!
God Bless!
John MacArthur Sermon
I don't know if this the actual sermon I heard when I accepted Christ, but if it isn't, it's very close.
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/42-109_The-Maniac-Who-Became-a-Missionary-Part-1?q=spiritual+oppression
http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/42-109_The-Maniac-Who-Became-a-Missionary-Part-1?q=spiritual+oppression
Friday, October 1, 2010
How I became a Christian
Hi y'all in blogland!
It's come to my attention that I've not given my "testimony", that is to say, the reason why I gave my life over to the One who could save me. I'm talking about Jesus Christ and His sacrificial life, death and resurrection.
This is NOT for the faint of heart!
I was born into a Christian household. My mom and dad are both Christian's, as well as my maternal grandmother and grandfather. Some of my earliest memories involve going to church, listening to Christian radio, etc. In spite of my upbringing, I had a relatively difficult childhood. I didn't feel I like I fit into the social mode at school (learning disability in math and social interaction problems separated me from my peers) or at home (fighting and abuse from extended family members). To compound measures, there was intense spiritual activity in my house (more on that later on). In general, according to some people, I "had it bad". Looking back on my formative years, I realize that it could have been worse. Much worse! But being young means being ignorant of things that are bigger than oneself. Being young also means you are the center of your own little universe. I had a lot of ego, but a low opinion of myself, if that makes any sense. All of this accumulated into a moderate to severe depression.
Most in the general populace, and that includes Christians, have no idea of the spiritual war that looms around us. I have first hand knowledge of what the powers of darkness are capable of. Earlier in this post, I stated one of my earliest memories involves going to church. That's all well and good, but I also have a memory of something I will never, ever forget. It's forever etched into my memory, and it's not a good memory. I was around 5 years old and was sitting on the edge my single bed in my small bedroom, no bigger than a walk in closet really, which was located on the second level of my family's 150 year old homestead. I had just placed my favorite toy, a stuffed white toy dog that had a turbine and shorts made out of red parsley clothe, at the head of my bed where my pillow should have been. I remember looking at my wall, facing away from beloved Genie, as I called him, thinking about what I was going to do next. Suddenly, I had this strange sensation at the back of my head and neck. It seemed as if my neck hairs stood up and a strange tingling sensation, similar to the ones you get when you sense someone is intently watching you. I turned around, knowing that no one could have been there, but needing to see all the same. I looked, and to my horror, I saw a puppet arm (similar to Bert and Ernie on Seasame Street, neither of which I owned I might add)grab Genie and quickly snatch him under the bed, or so I thought. I really wanted to know what happened to my Genie, so got on my hands and knees and looked under the bed. There was absolute NOTHING there! No toys of any sort to be seen! Puzzled, I went downstairs, but said nothing to my mom and dad. Even back then I knew that they might think me rather odd. I mean let's face it, the common misconception is that something like that doesn't happen everyday. At least not to sane people!
I remember quite vividly that my bedroom terrified me. Every night I would dread walking up the stairs, (which frightened me because there seemed to be an oppressive air around it) and laying down on my own bed. More often than not, I would ask my big sister (who is 8 years older than me) if I could sleep in her bed. She'd take pity on her scared sister and reluctantly (well, maybe not as reluctant as I had thought)move over. She'd ask me why I didn't like sleeping alone in my own bed and I told her I was afraid of the "monsters". There is something I have to admit though. Her bedroom was just as scary as my own. I remember feeling and seeing things that were not part of the natural world. I'll comment on those later on. It's just that it seemed safer to have someone with me, sort as a safety in numbers thing.
As I aged, I would see more and experience even stranger events. There was one hallway/storage room that I would under no circumstances cross by myself at night. I would, for lack of a better term, "see" a pair of gigantic red eyes staring at me. It wasn't like I was imagining them, because, for some reason I knew that they weren't physically there at all. I guess one might say I saw them with my spiritual "eyes" instead. And they always seemed to communicate with me that they wanted to harm me and my family. I never said a word why I had to ask some family member to escort me across the hall. They just chalked it up to one of my idiosyncrasies.
The next events that cross my mind happened in the living room. There was a space in the living room that I would in no way cross. I remember it clearly. It measured approximately 6 feet long by 3 feet wide and was almost in middle of room. I would walk around that area but never through it. My mother would later place a coffee table there, but I still hated that space and would avoid it like the plague. I would also hear strange knocking noises from one of the end tables. Other family members would hear it, but dismiss it thinking that it was mice in the wall. One day, while I was by myself, I heard the knocking sound again. This time, I investigated it. The noise was definitely not coming from the wall, but from the INSIDE of end table. I opened up the door, looked in past the piles of old magazines, placed my hand on the top of the table and felt the vibrations and steady knocks. I closed the door and again said nothing to my parents. On a somewhat funnier note, we could not, for the life of us, keep a Christmas tree vertical in that room unless we tied it to the windowsill. It was a standing joke that somehow, someway that tree was going to fall over. Perhaps there was something more to it than we thought...
Another time, my sister was babysitting me and I must have really agitated her, because she told me to go upstairs and take a nap. Reluctantly, I complied, and laid down on her bed. I wasn't sleepy at all, and I remember looking at the ceiling and counting the cracks in the plaster. Suddenly, I heard three voices, a woman's, a man's and a child's. The woman said "isn't she beautiful," to which the man replied, "yes, she is," and to that the child said something I couldn't make out. Terrified, I couldn't move. My sister came running up the stairs a minute or two later and said "are you okay?" All I did was run out of the bedroom. Some people might say that the voices weren't bad ones, but let me tell you, there is nothing good about hearing disembodied voices over your head (except for one time, more on that later).
There were a few places in the house that I did feel safe. They were the TV room, located next to my parents room. My parents room was not safe because it share a door that lead to the frightening hallway/storage room. The kitchen was the only other place in the house where I felt at ease. Guess where I spent most of my time in my early childhood. That's right! One time however, being in the kitchen alone frightened me. I was older now, probably 8 or 9 years old. My parents were out doing farm stuff and my siblings were no where around. My brother, who's 10 years my senior was at college and my sister was with friends. The kitchen leads to a hallway, which in turn, leads to a flight of stairs going to the basement. The kitchen has an octagonal window in which one can see the hallway. On the night in question, I was taking the pet Labrador into the dining room and was preparing to enter the TV room. I always felt safer with the dog around, so when I was alone, I had her come with me and of course, I left nearly every light on. My parents didn't like the electrical bill, but they tolerated it. Well, anyway, we were walking away from the kitchen when she suddenly and violent turned around, facing the window. I glanced at her for a second, noticing her fur standing on edge and bearing her teeth, ready to attack. I looked at the window to see a huge black column that stretched the entire length of the window walk (or maybe glide) from one part of the window to the next. Frightened, but still curious, I walked with the dog into the kitchen. The dog, still agitated, went as far as the middle of the kitchen, but went no further. I thought it could possibly be a black garbage bag, but saw nothing that would remotely act like that. Needless to say, the dog and I hightailed it to the TV room and stayed there until my parents returned.
The next scary memory takes us to a few years into the future around 10 or 11. I was upstairs in my brothers old bedroom. I had claimed it for myself thinking it was much safer than my sisters room and my old bedroom. Boy, was I wrong. I would see this "man" who looked more like a shadow than a human being, walk across the room sideways, between the foot of my bed and vanity mirror. I would sit up and watch "him" silently move back and forth in front of me, visible in the mirror, than mysteriously disappear out my door. I never saw him walk down the stairs, but just vanish. I say "man" because he wore what looked a Fedora hat. "He" never touched the floor, "he" had no legs! Just a head, torso and sometimes arms! "He" never said a word, but I new in my spirit that if "he" could, "he'd" kill me! It was also around this time, that I saw what I thought was the tail end of a black dog cross in front of me. I was leaving my brothers old room, now my room, to watch TV in the kitchen. In a flash, I saw a tail end of a big black dog run in front of me, coming from my right side, past a chest of draws, and run right into a closet. Curious, I came downstairs and asked if our black lab had gone upstairs. My mom said no, she had stayed in the kitchen the entire time I was upstairs. Besides, she said, Maggie was too old (and too frightened) to climb upstairs! We had no other pet that was that large.
Another incident in my brother's old bedroom caused me to question its safety. I was laying down on my bed. The head of my bed rests sitting up against a wall. On the other side of the wall is a closet that mom used to store old blanks. I was around 13 to 14 years old when one night I had finished reading a book in my bed and was about go back downstairs to go to the bathroom when my hand accidentally knocked against the wall. A few seconds passed, and then I heard "shave and a hair cut" knocked, coming from the closet. I quickly grabbed a flashlight that I kept by my bed for emergencies and ran to the closet door, flung it open, hoping to catch the trickster in the act. THERE WAS NOBODY IN THE CLOSET OR HALLWAY! I remember then my mother was downstairs, dad was sawing wood, my brother and sister were both at college and there was nobody else in the house. I said nothing to my parents or siblings about this.
I also remember several incidents where I was upstairs, just about to walk downstairs when I was violently pushed. A couple of the times I had to grab the banister to keep myself from falling. There was NOBODY up there with me on any of the occasions. SomeTHING wanted me dead!
There was an incident that happened in my sister's room that I will never forget. I was about 16 or so and mom had asked me to go and get some supplies from my sister's room. I complied, walked upstairs and went over to a chest of drawers located near the sloping ceiling that shared a huge attic. My sister's room and the attic shared a door no bigger than 3 feet high. I felt that familiar tingling sensation on the back of my head, turned and saw a small beam of light glide from one side of the door to the other, coming from the attic. Then the doorknob and door, which was very, very difficult to open because of the carpeting and slope of the house, pop open by itself. The doorknob itself was difficult to turn because it was only and small knob, hard to grasp. I must also tell you that my mom and asked dad, a licensed electrician to wire a light so she could see to get the Christmas decorations out safely (none of us kids wanted to go into that attic). He never got around to it and to this day, there is no light in there.
I had mention earlier in my post that I was moderately to severely depressed during my teen years. I had basically given up at school and home life was difficult. I had started diving into the occult, reading Dungeons & Dragons books, wearing amulets, reading about ghosts and stories about witchcraft. Something had stopped me from going all out into to occult though. It wasn't my parents and grandparents beliefs that stopped me, because, even though I didn't admit it to them, I thought the God of the Bible was dead, or at the very least didn't care about me. What I didn't know at the time was that they, especially my grandparents, were praying fervently for my soul and for me to be healed/delivered from depression. My parents ended up taking me to a psychologist because I wouldn't tell them about what was going on at school and with an extended family member (molestation, but not rape). Sometimes, my grandparents would take me to my appointments, and all the while, they would tell me that while it was okay to see a psychologist, the only One who could really heal me was Jesus and that I needed Him to save me from sin. I heard it all before. I blew them off, thinking that they were fanatics and that He didn't exist or if He did, He didn't care. My psychologist had told me to keep a journal and to set goals on making friends at school. I wrote I was talking to kids and being friendly with them. Basically, I lied!. I was shutting the world out and signing my own death warrant.
The depression did nothing but worsen, until I wasn't even talking to my parents much. I spent most of my time in my room not even caring about the things I saw up there. The enemy of my soul had desensitized me so much that the "monsters" were now almost like friends. That's how bad it got, folks. Demons became almost everyday occurrences, almost welcomed by me. The enemy wants to isolate and destroy the very thing God Himself holds dear, our souls. I had even gone so far as to plan my own suicide. But, how did I get from a depressed teen to typing to you here and now? I'll tell you, dear reader.
I was in my room (formerly belonging to my brothers) laying on my bed. It had been a long day, tiring day. I was sick of being in pain, not belonging anywhere. I had had enough. I had made up my mind. I was going to end it right then and there. I was going to take a bottle of aspirin, eat food so I wouldn't throw it up, crawl in the shower and slit my wrists. I got up from bed, wiped the tears from my eyes and proceeded to the stairs. I was halfway to the banister, when I felt something in front of me, stopping me from going any further. I looked, and I couldn't see anything all the while trying to get to the stairs. I heard a masculine voice in front of me, above my head (I was at that time around 6' 1" tall and the voice was over higher) and slightly to the left say, "Stop! What do you think you're doing?" I said, "Well... Voice... I'm going to go and kill myself." I pressed one putting my weight against the unseen force stopping me from reaching the stairs. I actually remember leaning into the force, trying to push it out of the way. I was that desperate to kill myself. The voice replied even more forcefully, "STOP! WHAT do you THINK your DOING?!" And with that, I stopped, turned around sat down on the edge of my bed and thought about what had just happened. I sat and thought for about 4 hours. I went downstairs, my parents must have noticed a difference in my appearance, because they asked what happened. I didn't tell them, because I wasn't even sure.
Two weeks went by, and everyday I thought about what had happened. It was 10:30 pm and I was in my bed having a terrible fight with myself. Why was I at war with myself? I'll tell you. Part of me wanted to turn on my radio and listen to WRVM 102.7 (Wisconsin's Radio Voice of the Master), a local Christian station. The other part of me wanted nothing to do with listening to anything with a Christian message, especially to the program I knew would be on. You see, reader, my mom left 102.7 on in the kitchen from the time she got up to the time she went to bed. I knew that John MacArthur would be on with his Grace to You program. Part of me wanted desperately to listen to what he had to say, but the other part of me desperately resisted. That side of me eventually got ignored, and with some effort, I turned the radio on. As a little aside, the only two rooms that regularly received 102.7 with any certainty were the kitchen and my then current bedroom. All others, you'd most likely get static.
I listened intently as Pastor MacArthur talked about....Drum roll please.... Spiritual oppression! Of all the topics in the world, he would be talking about demons and the oppression they can cause! The voice inside me that resisted listening to Pastor MacArthur was now screaming for me to turn it off, but the other voice said, no and demanded that I listen. These voices sounded like me... The closest thing I can compare it to is the old cartoon where the devil appears on the left shoulder and the angel appears on the right and the angel comes over and beats the devil with his harp. Basically, that's what happened. If memory serves, at the end of the broadcast he told listeners that Jesus could set the captive free of both sin and demons. All the person had to do is believe in their hearts that Jesus died to redeem them from sins and confess with their mouth that Jesus is risen Lord. I listen intently to the entire broadcast and had to admit, that much of what had happened to me could only be explained as demonic. There was no physical explanation for what happened and I'm as sane as the next person (other people have experienced things in that house, and I may tell about it later on). I said "this has to be true". Pastor MacArthur said I must admit that I am a sinner, in need of redemption. What's more, I remembered, the Bible said I needed Jesus as Savior... I shouted out loud, "Jesus, please save me! Your the only One who can save me!" and "Jesus is Lord!"
I felt a weighed that had pressed me down had immediately been lifted off my body. I felt so light, almost as if my soul had been lifted up. For the first time in my LIFE, I felt peace wash over me! I shouted over and over again "I'm FREE, I'm FREE!" Immediately, I felt energized. I literally ran down the stairs, into the kitchen, picked up a Bible that grandma had recently given me and read almost the ENTIRE New Testament (I got to Jude)that night. What's so amazing is that before I accepted Jesus as my Redeemer and Savior, I would pick up the Bible, read it, and not comprehend what I was reading. I understood the words, but without the Holy Spirit, they were absolutely meaningless. I now read the Scripture and understood, for the first time when Jesus said, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)
My mom was in the habit of getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning. She found me, sitting at the kitchen table, in my nightgown. She asked me "what are you doing up?" All I could say to her was, "I'm FREE! I'm FREE!" She stumbled back a little, then walked forward the bewildered look on her face. She asked me with a slight hint of anticipation, "what are you reading?" I nearly shouted "THE BIBLE!" Mom was beaming, a smile reaching from ear to ear! She asked me if I understood what I was reading. "Yes, I have Jesus as my Savior now!" I think I saw tears in her eyes. I told her she didn't need to worry about me anymore and she told me she was my mother and she'd always worry about me. We laughed! She asked me why I accepted Jesus, and not sure exactly how to tell her about what had happened, I just told her that I'd tell them both what had happened (which I did).
Now, my life since then has not been perfect. I still stuggled socially in school and my grades weren't always the best. I've had my ups and downs and sins since that time of amazing grace. But there is one thing that made all the difference in this world and the next. I know now beyond a shadow of a doubt Jesus is merciful, compassionate, forgiving, the only Way to a kind and beautiful Father who loved us so much that even while we sinned He sent His Son to die on the cross to forgive our sins (Romans 5:8). No matter what we've done in the past, His Son's precious blood can cover any iniquity, any sin, past, present and future, if we only admit that we need a Lord and Savior. What will you do now? Accept Him, or reject Him? The choice is yours!
Hallelujah!
It's come to my attention that I've not given my "testimony", that is to say, the reason why I gave my life over to the One who could save me. I'm talking about Jesus Christ and His sacrificial life, death and resurrection.
This is NOT for the faint of heart!
I was born into a Christian household. My mom and dad are both Christian's, as well as my maternal grandmother and grandfather. Some of my earliest memories involve going to church, listening to Christian radio, etc. In spite of my upbringing, I had a relatively difficult childhood. I didn't feel I like I fit into the social mode at school (learning disability in math and social interaction problems separated me from my peers) or at home (fighting and abuse from extended family members). To compound measures, there was intense spiritual activity in my house (more on that later on). In general, according to some people, I "had it bad". Looking back on my formative years, I realize that it could have been worse. Much worse! But being young means being ignorant of things that are bigger than oneself. Being young also means you are the center of your own little universe. I had a lot of ego, but a low opinion of myself, if that makes any sense. All of this accumulated into a moderate to severe depression.
Most in the general populace, and that includes Christians, have no idea of the spiritual war that looms around us. I have first hand knowledge of what the powers of darkness are capable of. Earlier in this post, I stated one of my earliest memories involves going to church. That's all well and good, but I also have a memory of something I will never, ever forget. It's forever etched into my memory, and it's not a good memory. I was around 5 years old and was sitting on the edge my single bed in my small bedroom, no bigger than a walk in closet really, which was located on the second level of my family's 150 year old homestead. I had just placed my favorite toy, a stuffed white toy dog that had a turbine and shorts made out of red parsley clothe, at the head of my bed where my pillow should have been. I remember looking at my wall, facing away from beloved Genie, as I called him, thinking about what I was going to do next. Suddenly, I had this strange sensation at the back of my head and neck. It seemed as if my neck hairs stood up and a strange tingling sensation, similar to the ones you get when you sense someone is intently watching you. I turned around, knowing that no one could have been there, but needing to see all the same. I looked, and to my horror, I saw a puppet arm (similar to Bert and Ernie on Seasame Street, neither of which I owned I might add)grab Genie and quickly snatch him under the bed, or so I thought. I really wanted to know what happened to my Genie, so got on my hands and knees and looked under the bed. There was absolute NOTHING there! No toys of any sort to be seen! Puzzled, I went downstairs, but said nothing to my mom and dad. Even back then I knew that they might think me rather odd. I mean let's face it, the common misconception is that something like that doesn't happen everyday. At least not to sane people!
I remember quite vividly that my bedroom terrified me. Every night I would dread walking up the stairs, (which frightened me because there seemed to be an oppressive air around it) and laying down on my own bed. More often than not, I would ask my big sister (who is 8 years older than me) if I could sleep in her bed. She'd take pity on her scared sister and reluctantly (well, maybe not as reluctant as I had thought)move over. She'd ask me why I didn't like sleeping alone in my own bed and I told her I was afraid of the "monsters". There is something I have to admit though. Her bedroom was just as scary as my own. I remember feeling and seeing things that were not part of the natural world. I'll comment on those later on. It's just that it seemed safer to have someone with me, sort as a safety in numbers thing.
As I aged, I would see more and experience even stranger events. There was one hallway/storage room that I would under no circumstances cross by myself at night. I would, for lack of a better term, "see" a pair of gigantic red eyes staring at me. It wasn't like I was imagining them, because, for some reason I knew that they weren't physically there at all. I guess one might say I saw them with my spiritual "eyes" instead. And they always seemed to communicate with me that they wanted to harm me and my family. I never said a word why I had to ask some family member to escort me across the hall. They just chalked it up to one of my idiosyncrasies.
The next events that cross my mind happened in the living room. There was a space in the living room that I would in no way cross. I remember it clearly. It measured approximately 6 feet long by 3 feet wide and was almost in middle of room. I would walk around that area but never through it. My mother would later place a coffee table there, but I still hated that space and would avoid it like the plague. I would also hear strange knocking noises from one of the end tables. Other family members would hear it, but dismiss it thinking that it was mice in the wall. One day, while I was by myself, I heard the knocking sound again. This time, I investigated it. The noise was definitely not coming from the wall, but from the INSIDE of end table. I opened up the door, looked in past the piles of old magazines, placed my hand on the top of the table and felt the vibrations and steady knocks. I closed the door and again said nothing to my parents. On a somewhat funnier note, we could not, for the life of us, keep a Christmas tree vertical in that room unless we tied it to the windowsill. It was a standing joke that somehow, someway that tree was going to fall over. Perhaps there was something more to it than we thought...
Another time, my sister was babysitting me and I must have really agitated her, because she told me to go upstairs and take a nap. Reluctantly, I complied, and laid down on her bed. I wasn't sleepy at all, and I remember looking at the ceiling and counting the cracks in the plaster. Suddenly, I heard three voices, a woman's, a man's and a child's. The woman said "isn't she beautiful," to which the man replied, "yes, she is," and to that the child said something I couldn't make out. Terrified, I couldn't move. My sister came running up the stairs a minute or two later and said "are you okay?" All I did was run out of the bedroom. Some people might say that the voices weren't bad ones, but let me tell you, there is nothing good about hearing disembodied voices over your head (except for one time, more on that later).
There were a few places in the house that I did feel safe. They were the TV room, located next to my parents room. My parents room was not safe because it share a door that lead to the frightening hallway/storage room. The kitchen was the only other place in the house where I felt at ease. Guess where I spent most of my time in my early childhood. That's right! One time however, being in the kitchen alone frightened me. I was older now, probably 8 or 9 years old. My parents were out doing farm stuff and my siblings were no where around. My brother, who's 10 years my senior was at college and my sister was with friends. The kitchen leads to a hallway, which in turn, leads to a flight of stairs going to the basement. The kitchen has an octagonal window in which one can see the hallway. On the night in question, I was taking the pet Labrador into the dining room and was preparing to enter the TV room. I always felt safer with the dog around, so when I was alone, I had her come with me and of course, I left nearly every light on. My parents didn't like the electrical bill, but they tolerated it. Well, anyway, we were walking away from the kitchen when she suddenly and violent turned around, facing the window. I glanced at her for a second, noticing her fur standing on edge and bearing her teeth, ready to attack. I looked at the window to see a huge black column that stretched the entire length of the window walk (or maybe glide) from one part of the window to the next. Frightened, but still curious, I walked with the dog into the kitchen. The dog, still agitated, went as far as the middle of the kitchen, but went no further. I thought it could possibly be a black garbage bag, but saw nothing that would remotely act like that. Needless to say, the dog and I hightailed it to the TV room and stayed there until my parents returned.
The next scary memory takes us to a few years into the future around 10 or 11. I was upstairs in my brothers old bedroom. I had claimed it for myself thinking it was much safer than my sisters room and my old bedroom. Boy, was I wrong. I would see this "man" who looked more like a shadow than a human being, walk across the room sideways, between the foot of my bed and vanity mirror. I would sit up and watch "him" silently move back and forth in front of me, visible in the mirror, than mysteriously disappear out my door. I never saw him walk down the stairs, but just vanish. I say "man" because he wore what looked a Fedora hat. "He" never touched the floor, "he" had no legs! Just a head, torso and sometimes arms! "He" never said a word, but I new in my spirit that if "he" could, "he'd" kill me! It was also around this time, that I saw what I thought was the tail end of a black dog cross in front of me. I was leaving my brothers old room, now my room, to watch TV in the kitchen. In a flash, I saw a tail end of a big black dog run in front of me, coming from my right side, past a chest of draws, and run right into a closet. Curious, I came downstairs and asked if our black lab had gone upstairs. My mom said no, she had stayed in the kitchen the entire time I was upstairs. Besides, she said, Maggie was too old (and too frightened) to climb upstairs! We had no other pet that was that large.
Another incident in my brother's old bedroom caused me to question its safety. I was laying down on my bed. The head of my bed rests sitting up against a wall. On the other side of the wall is a closet that mom used to store old blanks. I was around 13 to 14 years old when one night I had finished reading a book in my bed and was about go back downstairs to go to the bathroom when my hand accidentally knocked against the wall. A few seconds passed, and then I heard "shave and a hair cut" knocked, coming from the closet. I quickly grabbed a flashlight that I kept by my bed for emergencies and ran to the closet door, flung it open, hoping to catch the trickster in the act. THERE WAS NOBODY IN THE CLOSET OR HALLWAY! I remember then my mother was downstairs, dad was sawing wood, my brother and sister were both at college and there was nobody else in the house. I said nothing to my parents or siblings about this.
I also remember several incidents where I was upstairs, just about to walk downstairs when I was violently pushed. A couple of the times I had to grab the banister to keep myself from falling. There was NOBODY up there with me on any of the occasions. SomeTHING wanted me dead!
There was an incident that happened in my sister's room that I will never forget. I was about 16 or so and mom had asked me to go and get some supplies from my sister's room. I complied, walked upstairs and went over to a chest of drawers located near the sloping ceiling that shared a huge attic. My sister's room and the attic shared a door no bigger than 3 feet high. I felt that familiar tingling sensation on the back of my head, turned and saw a small beam of light glide from one side of the door to the other, coming from the attic. Then the doorknob and door, which was very, very difficult to open because of the carpeting and slope of the house, pop open by itself. The doorknob itself was difficult to turn because it was only and small knob, hard to grasp. I must also tell you that my mom and asked dad, a licensed electrician to wire a light so she could see to get the Christmas decorations out safely (none of us kids wanted to go into that attic). He never got around to it and to this day, there is no light in there.
I had mention earlier in my post that I was moderately to severely depressed during my teen years. I had basically given up at school and home life was difficult. I had started diving into the occult, reading Dungeons & Dragons books, wearing amulets, reading about ghosts and stories about witchcraft. Something had stopped me from going all out into to occult though. It wasn't my parents and grandparents beliefs that stopped me, because, even though I didn't admit it to them, I thought the God of the Bible was dead, or at the very least didn't care about me. What I didn't know at the time was that they, especially my grandparents, were praying fervently for my soul and for me to be healed/delivered from depression. My parents ended up taking me to a psychologist because I wouldn't tell them about what was going on at school and with an extended family member (molestation, but not rape). Sometimes, my grandparents would take me to my appointments, and all the while, they would tell me that while it was okay to see a psychologist, the only One who could really heal me was Jesus and that I needed Him to save me from sin. I heard it all before. I blew them off, thinking that they were fanatics and that He didn't exist or if He did, He didn't care. My psychologist had told me to keep a journal and to set goals on making friends at school. I wrote I was talking to kids and being friendly with them. Basically, I lied!. I was shutting the world out and signing my own death warrant.
The depression did nothing but worsen, until I wasn't even talking to my parents much. I spent most of my time in my room not even caring about the things I saw up there. The enemy of my soul had desensitized me so much that the "monsters" were now almost like friends. That's how bad it got, folks. Demons became almost everyday occurrences, almost welcomed by me. The enemy wants to isolate and destroy the very thing God Himself holds dear, our souls. I had even gone so far as to plan my own suicide. But, how did I get from a depressed teen to typing to you here and now? I'll tell you, dear reader.
I was in my room (formerly belonging to my brothers) laying on my bed. It had been a long day, tiring day. I was sick of being in pain, not belonging anywhere. I had had enough. I had made up my mind. I was going to end it right then and there. I was going to take a bottle of aspirin, eat food so I wouldn't throw it up, crawl in the shower and slit my wrists. I got up from bed, wiped the tears from my eyes and proceeded to the stairs. I was halfway to the banister, when I felt something in front of me, stopping me from going any further. I looked, and I couldn't see anything all the while trying to get to the stairs. I heard a masculine voice in front of me, above my head (I was at that time around 6' 1" tall and the voice was over higher) and slightly to the left say, "Stop! What do you think you're doing?" I said, "Well... Voice... I'm going to go and kill myself." I pressed one putting my weight against the unseen force stopping me from reaching the stairs. I actually remember leaning into the force, trying to push it out of the way. I was that desperate to kill myself. The voice replied even more forcefully, "STOP! WHAT do you THINK your DOING?!" And with that, I stopped, turned around sat down on the edge of my bed and thought about what had just happened. I sat and thought for about 4 hours. I went downstairs, my parents must have noticed a difference in my appearance, because they asked what happened. I didn't tell them, because I wasn't even sure.
Two weeks went by, and everyday I thought about what had happened. It was 10:30 pm and I was in my bed having a terrible fight with myself. Why was I at war with myself? I'll tell you. Part of me wanted to turn on my radio and listen to WRVM 102.7 (Wisconsin's Radio Voice of the Master), a local Christian station. The other part of me wanted nothing to do with listening to anything with a Christian message, especially to the program I knew would be on. You see, reader, my mom left 102.7 on in the kitchen from the time she got up to the time she went to bed. I knew that John MacArthur would be on with his Grace to You program. Part of me wanted desperately to listen to what he had to say, but the other part of me desperately resisted. That side of me eventually got ignored, and with some effort, I turned the radio on. As a little aside, the only two rooms that regularly received 102.7 with any certainty were the kitchen and my then current bedroom. All others, you'd most likely get static.
I listened intently as Pastor MacArthur talked about....Drum roll please.... Spiritual oppression! Of all the topics in the world, he would be talking about demons and the oppression they can cause! The voice inside me that resisted listening to Pastor MacArthur was now screaming for me to turn it off, but the other voice said, no and demanded that I listen. These voices sounded like me... The closest thing I can compare it to is the old cartoon where the devil appears on the left shoulder and the angel appears on the right and the angel comes over and beats the devil with his harp. Basically, that's what happened. If memory serves, at the end of the broadcast he told listeners that Jesus could set the captive free of both sin and demons. All the person had to do is believe in their hearts that Jesus died to redeem them from sins and confess with their mouth that Jesus is risen Lord. I listen intently to the entire broadcast and had to admit, that much of what had happened to me could only be explained as demonic. There was no physical explanation for what happened and I'm as sane as the next person (other people have experienced things in that house, and I may tell about it later on). I said "this has to be true". Pastor MacArthur said I must admit that I am a sinner, in need of redemption. What's more, I remembered, the Bible said I needed Jesus as Savior... I shouted out loud, "Jesus, please save me! Your the only One who can save me!" and "Jesus is Lord!"
I felt a weighed that had pressed me down had immediately been lifted off my body. I felt so light, almost as if my soul had been lifted up. For the first time in my LIFE, I felt peace wash over me! I shouted over and over again "I'm FREE, I'm FREE!" Immediately, I felt energized. I literally ran down the stairs, into the kitchen, picked up a Bible that grandma had recently given me and read almost the ENTIRE New Testament (I got to Jude)that night. What's so amazing is that before I accepted Jesus as my Redeemer and Savior, I would pick up the Bible, read it, and not comprehend what I was reading. I understood the words, but without the Holy Spirit, they were absolutely meaningless. I now read the Scripture and understood, for the first time when Jesus said, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)
My mom was in the habit of getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning. She found me, sitting at the kitchen table, in my nightgown. She asked me "what are you doing up?" All I could say to her was, "I'm FREE! I'm FREE!" She stumbled back a little, then walked forward the bewildered look on her face. She asked me with a slight hint of anticipation, "what are you reading?" I nearly shouted "THE BIBLE!" Mom was beaming, a smile reaching from ear to ear! She asked me if I understood what I was reading. "Yes, I have Jesus as my Savior now!" I think I saw tears in her eyes. I told her she didn't need to worry about me anymore and she told me she was my mother and she'd always worry about me. We laughed! She asked me why I accepted Jesus, and not sure exactly how to tell her about what had happened, I just told her that I'd tell them both what had happened (which I did).
Now, my life since then has not been perfect. I still stuggled socially in school and my grades weren't always the best. I've had my ups and downs and sins since that time of amazing grace. But there is one thing that made all the difference in this world and the next. I know now beyond a shadow of a doubt Jesus is merciful, compassionate, forgiving, the only Way to a kind and beautiful Father who loved us so much that even while we sinned He sent His Son to die on the cross to forgive our sins (Romans 5:8). No matter what we've done in the past, His Son's precious blood can cover any iniquity, any sin, past, present and future, if we only admit that we need a Lord and Savior. What will you do now? Accept Him, or reject Him? The choice is yours!
Hallelujah!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Some very interesting websites
One reader has directed my attention to a very good, Biblically based website. She listed another, but I tried http://www.gotquestions.org. I'm briefly looking at it right now, but just looking at their faith statemen, and I'm already impressed. I'll visit the other site sometime later.
I'll post a link for my church's website. Just for the record, I belong to a church who belongs to the Evangelical Free Churches of America, a smaller, but mainline denomination which has pretty much the same faith statement of http://www.gotquestions.org. The wording is a little different, but the ideas are the same. If you want to know more about EFCA, please visit http://www.efca.org. The church I belong to also has a website, http://www.springlakechurch.org. You can listen to past sermons, look at some of our media, contact the pastors/staff, etc. What kind of sermons will you find, dear reader. Well, as an example, starting on October 23 and 24, a study of the entire Bible, book by book, and I believe starting on the diety of Christ although I could be mistaken about the series timeline. It will take an entire year, but it should be, to say the least, very informative. I look forward to it!
God Bless!
I'll post a link for my church's website. Just for the record, I belong to a church who belongs to the Evangelical Free Churches of America, a smaller, but mainline denomination which has pretty much the same faith statement of http://www.gotquestions.org. The wording is a little different, but the ideas are the same. If you want to know more about EFCA, please visit http://www.efca.org. The church I belong to also has a website, http://www.springlakechurch.org. You can listen to past sermons, look at some of our media, contact the pastors/staff, etc. What kind of sermons will you find, dear reader. Well, as an example, starting on October 23 and 24, a study of the entire Bible, book by book, and I believe starting on the diety of Christ although I could be mistaken about the series timeline. It will take an entire year, but it should be, to say the least, very informative. I look forward to it!
God Bless!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Previous Comments
In a comment made by one of my readers, he pointed out that I made a mistake when I compared universal unitarianism and biblical unitarianism. I meant to use the word universal unitarianism in my post. I apologize for this confusion and will try to edit my previous post. They both seem to have a common conception of who God really is… That He doesn’t exist as three persons of the Trinity, but rather in a one God and from what I’ve researched (just briefly, mind you), they have a related background in Arianism (not associated with the Nazi political system). For a starting point, visit wikipedia on Unitarianism and Arianism. As for “Paul referenced the Sacrifice of Jesus as being a complete sacrifice because he was both Man and God”, I was referencing Hebrews (which many scholars attribute to Paul, although some attribute it to other writers of the Bible, or some unknown preacher). I was actually reading this Scripture, which hangs on my wall as a reminder that God in the form of Jesu, stepped down from eternity to experience what I’m going through, so he could feel the full effects of sin and therefore be trusted by me with the work that was set before Him because of the fall. In Hebrews 2:17-18 it states “For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” The reasoning behind why I used this argument is simply this; why would a mere man, exalted though he may be, be able to emphathize with those of us who are being tempted today? He can’t, because he’s not God! I also used this verse because it references the fact that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every way”. If something has “to be made[…]” than it must have existed in some form before it had to conformed to something else. I use the word “it” in this manner to demonstrate and communicate an idea. Unfortunately, modern English does not have many choices for gender nuetral personal pronouns. Basically, we only have “she”, “he”, “it”, “they” and variations of these forms. We used to have more but various invasions in the mother country (England), rejection of certain forms of English by kings and rulers in favor of others, and trade with other nations got rid of the other forms and thus created even more ambiguity in the English language. I, by no means, meant any disrespect!
Gods Peace be with you!
Gods Peace be with you!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Trinity, yet again. Sorry it took so long to blog… been working and have had other issues.
I’m sorry if my previous post makes some think that I believe Jesus was a flawed individual. He was sinless, a perfect sacrifice for our sin and sinful nature, because he was not only a man, but God Himself, coming to live and dwell with us. He was tempted as a man to sin, but because He Himself had God’s perfect nature, and because He was to be the perfect, holy sacrifice for our sins. He remained pure in the flesh (didn’t commit any sin at all) to fulfill what the Father had set in motion before time began. Which by the way, proves that He’s was and is more than just a mere human, since given a chance, those of us who are just human give way to sin. ALL of us who are merely human give into temptation. Jesus did not give into temptation, which means that although Jesus was part of creation, something about Him had to be special, something more than human. He had to live among us imperfect people and feel what it was like to be tempted, yet still retain His perfection in order to be a complete and perfect sacrifice! The only one in creation that is completely holy and perfect is God! So, it’s not too much of stretch in logic to believe that Jesus must also be God, since God is the only one capable of pulling this off.
I’m merely stating that some people believe that a flawed individual, someone who is just merely human could have saved us from sin. Think about it… People born into this world are tainted by sin. Correct? Something must have happened to Jesus before He was born in order to keep that orginal sin from tainting Him, or else God’s plan of salvation would not work. God demands a perfect sacrifice to cover sin. God must of held back that orginal sin stain from His Son so he wouldn’t be a tainted sacrifice (like a lamb, ox, dove etc. because they were affected by the fall and a temporary fix to the problem). He had never done this through another human during the course of history (even in the Old Testament, and most Christians believe that the references to sacrifice et al in the OT point to Jesus in the New Testament).
God sent His Son…
In order to start finding the answer of who Jesus really was, we must ask the following: when was Jesus sent by the Father? Remember when Mary the mother of Jesus asked to help in Cana (Gospel of John). He was asked by her to help with the little trouble of wine running out before the wedding feast was completed. He told her that His time had not come. It wasn’t the time nor the place to perform miracles, even though He was capable of doing so at any moment. But, in order to be obedient to His mother and follow the commandent to honor His parents, He did what He was asked. This was before His baptism (which was a public acknowledgment by the Father and Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Son of God) and before the Holy Spirit sent Him into the wilderness to fast for 40 days/nights.
So, Jesus must have been sent before His baptism. Let’s travel further back in Jesus’s earthly history. Jesus was at the temple at the age of 12 (Luke 2:41). His parents had taken Him there for the festival and realized on the way home that He was not with them. He was back at the temple, teaching the teachers, and they marveled at His wisdom and understanding of the Law and Prophets. Was He sent at this time? No. Let’s go back even further to around the age of 2 or 3 (Matt 2) when the three wise men visited Him. They pronounced Him “king of the Jews” and they had “come to worship Him (Matt 2:1). This is important even though they were probably Zoroastrians (one god with a nature for good and evil, both equally balanced), they recognized this Baby, who was God enough to be worshiped. These men were well educated, though completely pagan, but worshiped Him as God. They risked life and limb, crossing into enemy terratory to worship Jesus. But, back to the question at hand. Was it at this time that Jesus was sent by the Father? No. Go back even further, to the Gospel of Luke chapter 1. The angel of God came to Mary and says that she will have a Son. Mary asks, rightly so, “how can this be, since I am still a virgin?”. The angel says that the Holy Spirit will come to her, and the power of the Most High God will overshadow her, so the one to be born to her would be called the Son of God. Now as stated before, the only one Being that could be called legitamately holy (set apart from humans and not defiled, not to be confused with a title, such as “holy mountain”. Rather, it’s a state of being.), especially when said by an angel (Isaiah 6:3 and aforementioned). Is the angel committing blasphemy? By no means! Then the message that he just delivered about the Son of God would be false and would tarnish the validity of the entire salvation plan of God! No Godly angel in his right mind would do such a thing!
Let’s go back even further. In order for something to be sent, it must have existed at some point in time. We cannot send something unless it has existed in the first place. We are created beings, part of creation. Right? God will not and cannot not violate the Rules that He has set up for His creation, or there would be chaos. That would go against His divine nature. Then it would stand to reason that Jesus must have existed before His birth, since God would not send something that didn’t exist because He will not violate His own laws. God does communicate ideas, via the Scriptures, but He doesn’t send them, just like we don’t send ideas, but communicate these ideas with each other in logical, identifiable formats or patterns.
I hope this clarifies things a little. I’m sorry if anyone took my previous postings as an attack. It wasn’t meant to be… I just wanted (and will continue) to point out what I believe to be true and what other people believe to be true the light of Scripture. I’ll post more later on, but now, it’s getting late, and I’m rather tired.
Good night, and God Bless!
I’m merely stating that some people believe that a flawed individual, someone who is just merely human could have saved us from sin. Think about it… People born into this world are tainted by sin. Correct? Something must have happened to Jesus before He was born in order to keep that orginal sin from tainting Him, or else God’s plan of salvation would not work. God demands a perfect sacrifice to cover sin. God must of held back that orginal sin stain from His Son so he wouldn’t be a tainted sacrifice (like a lamb, ox, dove etc. because they were affected by the fall and a temporary fix to the problem). He had never done this through another human during the course of history (even in the Old Testament, and most Christians believe that the references to sacrifice et al in the OT point to Jesus in the New Testament).
God sent His Son…
In order to start finding the answer of who Jesus really was, we must ask the following: when was Jesus sent by the Father? Remember when Mary the mother of Jesus asked to help in Cana (Gospel of John). He was asked by her to help with the little trouble of wine running out before the wedding feast was completed. He told her that His time had not come. It wasn’t the time nor the place to perform miracles, even though He was capable of doing so at any moment. But, in order to be obedient to His mother and follow the commandent to honor His parents, He did what He was asked. This was before His baptism (which was a public acknowledgment by the Father and Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Son of God) and before the Holy Spirit sent Him into the wilderness to fast for 40 days/nights.
So, Jesus must have been sent before His baptism. Let’s travel further back in Jesus’s earthly history. Jesus was at the temple at the age of 12 (Luke 2:41). His parents had taken Him there for the festival and realized on the way home that He was not with them. He was back at the temple, teaching the teachers, and they marveled at His wisdom and understanding of the Law and Prophets. Was He sent at this time? No. Let’s go back even further to around the age of 2 or 3 (Matt 2) when the three wise men visited Him. They pronounced Him “king of the Jews” and they had “come to worship Him (Matt 2:1). This is important even though they were probably Zoroastrians (one god with a nature for good and evil, both equally balanced), they recognized this Baby, who was God enough to be worshiped. These men were well educated, though completely pagan, but worshiped Him as God. They risked life and limb, crossing into enemy terratory to worship Jesus. But, back to the question at hand. Was it at this time that Jesus was sent by the Father? No. Go back even further, to the Gospel of Luke chapter 1. The angel of God came to Mary and says that she will have a Son. Mary asks, rightly so, “how can this be, since I am still a virgin?”. The angel says that the Holy Spirit will come to her, and the power of the Most High God will overshadow her, so the one to be born to her would be called the Son of God. Now as stated before, the only one Being that could be called legitamately holy (set apart from humans and not defiled, not to be confused with a title, such as “holy mountain”. Rather, it’s a state of being.), especially when said by an angel (Isaiah 6:3 and aforementioned). Is the angel committing blasphemy? By no means! Then the message that he just delivered about the Son of God would be false and would tarnish the validity of the entire salvation plan of God! No Godly angel in his right mind would do such a thing!
Let’s go back even further. In order for something to be sent, it must have existed at some point in time. We cannot send something unless it has existed in the first place. We are created beings, part of creation. Right? God will not and cannot not violate the Rules that He has set up for His creation, or there would be chaos. That would go against His divine nature. Then it would stand to reason that Jesus must have existed before His birth, since God would not send something that didn’t exist because He will not violate His own laws. God does communicate ideas, via the Scriptures, but He doesn’t send them, just like we don’t send ideas, but communicate these ideas with each other in logical, identifiable formats or patterns.
I hope this clarifies things a little. I’m sorry if anyone took my previous postings as an attack. It wasn’t meant to be… I just wanted (and will continue) to point out what I believe to be true and what other people believe to be true the light of Scripture. I’ll post more later on, but now, it’s getting late, and I’m rather tired.
Good night, and God Bless!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Trinity revisted
Adam Pastor,
Thank you for posting your comment. I did as you asked and prayerfully considered the video. I've listened to "The Human Jesus" and I'm glad that it's addressing the Trinity. However, I do have some major issues with the documentary. First of all most orthodox Christian believe in the Trinity do not believe that there are three separate gods (video spot or around 15:00). One God Three Person. It can be reduced to logic. Think of it as this way. How can a flawed human individual (supposing Jesus was just truly a human - which is the logical conclusion hinted in the video) be the perfect sacrifice for sins if He is not fully God as well? He couldn't because His sacrifice would be tainted. Univeral Unitarianism (not be confused with biblical Unitarianism, although through my brief research, they have the same roots) belief system falls apart when it comes to the creation of the world as well. For example, nothing existed before God. It was only God and God alone (visited other websites, both pro and con, about universal Unitarianism). How can He be perfect sacrifice if he was only just a flawed sinful human. The Gospel of John clearly states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us AND was in the beginning of the world. He actually was active in creating the world. He actually claimed this in His interrogation (spelling?). He stated, before Abraham, I was. This is a term reserved in religious writing reserved for God. God in the Old Testament referenced Himself as "I AM", and Christ said before religious authorities the same statement. That is one of the reasons why the authorities wanted to curse Him by hanging Him on a cross. He said that He was the God of the Old Testament. This wasn't the only time He did this. It's just one example. He did the same thing numerous times in the Gospel of John. He knew what He was doing when He said this. He knew He was comparing Himself to God. The only way He could do was a. He was insane. or b. He was what He claimed to be. Other books of the Bible also attest to Him being God. Paul did this repeatedly in his letters (not only in the questioned). Paul referenced the Sacrifice of Jesus as being a complete sacrifice because he was both Man and God.
He (Jesus) did believe in the schema "Hear oh Israel, the is God, the Lord is One." But as stated earlier, He made Himself to be God by the I AM statements.
There is only one God and He is Holy. The only one who could be Holy is God. Holiness can only be attributed to God. So how can the Spirit not be God since the Scripture itself attributes Holiness to the Spirit. I know that's an impacted statement, but it would take much more space... I'll finish with this. God (the second person in the Trinity) made Himself man to complete God the Father's (First person of the Trinity) plan for our salvation. He came to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was Holy (therefore God because only God is Holy) before He was born through the Holy Spirit can do Holy things (I'm hoping that makes sense to you I can't think of any other way of putting just off the top of my head).
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/u07.html This is a definition of Universal Unitarianism, for those who are interested.
Thank you for you interested in my blog. I hope we can have more discussions about the basics of Christian faith.
Thank you for posting your comment. I did as you asked and prayerfully considered the video. I've listened to "The Human Jesus" and I'm glad that it's addressing the Trinity. However, I do have some major issues with the documentary. First of all most orthodox Christian believe in the Trinity do not believe that there are three separate gods (video spot or around 15:00). One God Three Person. It can be reduced to logic. Think of it as this way. How can a flawed human individual (supposing Jesus was just truly a human - which is the logical conclusion hinted in the video) be the perfect sacrifice for sins if He is not fully God as well? He couldn't because His sacrifice would be tainted. Univeral Unitarianism (not be confused with biblical Unitarianism, although through my brief research, they have the same roots) belief system falls apart when it comes to the creation of the world as well. For example, nothing existed before God. It was only God and God alone (visited other websites, both pro and con, about universal Unitarianism). How can He be perfect sacrifice if he was only just a flawed sinful human. The Gospel of John clearly states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us AND was in the beginning of the world. He actually was active in creating the world. He actually claimed this in His interrogation (spelling?). He stated, before Abraham, I was. This is a term reserved in religious writing reserved for God. God in the Old Testament referenced Himself as "I AM", and Christ said before religious authorities the same statement. That is one of the reasons why the authorities wanted to curse Him by hanging Him on a cross. He said that He was the God of the Old Testament. This wasn't the only time He did this. It's just one example. He did the same thing numerous times in the Gospel of John. He knew what He was doing when He said this. He knew He was comparing Himself to God. The only way He could do was a. He was insane. or b. He was what He claimed to be. Other books of the Bible also attest to Him being God. Paul did this repeatedly in his letters (not only in the questioned). Paul referenced the Sacrifice of Jesus as being a complete sacrifice because he was both Man and God.
He (Jesus) did believe in the schema "Hear oh Israel, the is God, the Lord is One." But as stated earlier, He made Himself to be God by the I AM statements.
There is only one God and He is Holy. The only one who could be Holy is God. Holiness can only be attributed to God. So how can the Spirit not be God since the Scripture itself attributes Holiness to the Spirit. I know that's an impacted statement, but it would take much more space... I'll finish with this. God (the second person in the Trinity) made Himself man to complete God the Father's (First person of the Trinity) plan for our salvation. He came to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was Holy (therefore God because only God is Holy) before He was born through the Holy Spirit can do Holy things (I'm hoping that makes sense to you I can't think of any other way of putting just off the top of my head).
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/u07.html This is a definition of Universal Unitarianism, for those who are interested.
Thank you for you interested in my blog. I hope we can have more discussions about the basics of Christian faith.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Three in One
I was channel surfing the other day, and came across "Christianity 101". The premise of the show is this; pastors team up to help young Christians as well as mature followers, find their way through complicated theology. Interested, I paused long enough to hear the word "Trinity". Wow, I thought, these pastors are taking on a heavy duty topic. Intrigued, I decided to watch, not expecting too much. After all, I've been a Christian for many years now, and even though I'm not theologian, I've got this Trinity thing down. Boy, was I wrong! I've heard the doctrine of the Trinity before, but not quite like this. It was explained in such a way that was easy to understand.
One of the principle doctrines of Christianity is that God exsists in three Persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit (yep, just like the song says they are all Holy). They've always existed and are so united that they are all one God. That's pretty much a mind bender, isn't it. How can three people exist in one, and yet are separate from each other. This is were I would traditionally insert trite explanations like "God is like an apple... God the Holy Spirit is the skin, He leads us to the Son, the meat of the apple, who in turn leads us to the Father, the core of the apple. All are united ..." Yes, they are united, however, the guys on Christianity 101 brought up a good point... The skin, meat and core are just part of the apple, but not the whole! I can't say that I'm going to eat the entire apple, and just eat the meat! In order for me to eat an apple, I have to eat everything. Well, okay, okay maybe not the core! EWWWWWWE!
But that's beside the point. I was guilty of a version of "modalism", a heresy (even though I didn't know I was guilty of it at the time). Basically, modalist believe there is only one God who expressed Himself at different times. God the Father was expressed in the Old Testament, Christ was in the new until His resurrection, and then God was expressed in the Spirit after the resurrection. However, that cannot be true if thought out logically. So as not to take the text out of context, I'll tell you briefly what had transpired before hand. Jesus, knowing it was time to start His ministry, approaches his distant cousin John to be baptized. John looking at Him, testifies that he is not worth to baptize Him, because He is the Lamb of God. Jesus tells him it must be this way, and that John must continue with the ritual. He is baptize and look what follows in Luke 3:22;
22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
How can God "express" Himself at the same time? Yes, He is all powerful and eternal, however, He will not transgress His own natural law, the laws of physics. If we were to view He'd have to time travel from the past in the form of the Father, while simultaneously traveling from the future, to meet with Himself in the form of Jesus. I'm not saying that He couldn't do this, but look at the nature of God Himself. He is not one to disobey His own law (in this case the law of physics) because the law that He created would be open to, for lack of a better term, interpretation. What chaos would ensue!
Let's look at another passage. This time, I'll include the entire text chapter.
Psalm 51 For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts [a] ; you teach [b] me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
In verse 11, David ask God to not take "your Holy Spirit from me". First of all the term Holy in the bible is a term exclusively used to label God. If David had the Holy Spirit (God), how could he have obtained Him if He wasn't in existence at Old Testament times? If it were true that God expressed Himself at different times as Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit, than David himself would have to be eternal (existed before time began) to know and have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit wasn't expressed or present until the New Testament.
People in the modalist camp will say that these are just isolated verses. However there are over 100 verses in the Old and New Testaments that reference God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit coexisting. If you want research and read about the Trinity (and yes, I do know that the word isn't found in the Bible, but it's still a good and orthodox way of describing God), use http://www.biblegateway.com/ to look up the Holy Spirit. Also, CARM also has a good definition of modalism on there website (www.carm.org/modalism). I'm still learning about the Trinity, and I hope you will too.
God Bless!
One of the principle doctrines of Christianity is that God exsists in three Persons; Father, Son, Holy Spirit (yep, just like the song says they are all Holy). They've always existed and are so united that they are all one God. That's pretty much a mind bender, isn't it. How can three people exist in one, and yet are separate from each other. This is were I would traditionally insert trite explanations like "God is like an apple... God the Holy Spirit is the skin, He leads us to the Son, the meat of the apple, who in turn leads us to the Father, the core of the apple. All are united ..." Yes, they are united, however, the guys on Christianity 101 brought up a good point... The skin, meat and core are just part of the apple, but not the whole! I can't say that I'm going to eat the entire apple, and just eat the meat! In order for me to eat an apple, I have to eat everything. Well, okay, okay maybe not the core! EWWWWWWE!
But that's beside the point. I was guilty of a version of "modalism", a heresy (even though I didn't know I was guilty of it at the time). Basically, modalist believe there is only one God who expressed Himself at different times. God the Father was expressed in the Old Testament, Christ was in the new until His resurrection, and then God was expressed in the Spirit after the resurrection. However, that cannot be true if thought out logically. So as not to take the text out of context, I'll tell you briefly what had transpired before hand. Jesus, knowing it was time to start His ministry, approaches his distant cousin John to be baptized. John looking at Him, testifies that he is not worth to baptize Him, because He is the Lamb of God. Jesus tells him it must be this way, and that John must continue with the ritual. He is baptize and look what follows in Luke 3:22;
22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
How can God "express" Himself at the same time? Yes, He is all powerful and eternal, however, He will not transgress His own natural law, the laws of physics. If we were to view He'd have to time travel from the past in the form of the Father, while simultaneously traveling from the future, to meet with Himself in the form of Jesus. I'm not saying that He couldn't do this, but look at the nature of God Himself. He is not one to disobey His own law (in this case the law of physics) because the law that He created would be open to, for lack of a better term, interpretation. What chaos would ensue!
Let's look at another passage. This time, I'll include the entire text chapter.
Psalm 51 For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts [a] ; you teach [b] me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are [c] a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
In verse 11, David ask God to not take "your Holy Spirit from me". First of all the term Holy in the bible is a term exclusively used to label God. If David had the Holy Spirit (God), how could he have obtained Him if He wasn't in existence at Old Testament times? If it were true that God expressed Himself at different times as Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit, than David himself would have to be eternal (existed before time began) to know and have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit wasn't expressed or present until the New Testament.
People in the modalist camp will say that these are just isolated verses. However there are over 100 verses in the Old and New Testaments that reference God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit coexisting. If you want research and read about the Trinity (and yes, I do know that the word isn't found in the Bible, but it's still a good and orthodox way of describing God), use http://www.biblegateway.com/ to look up the Holy Spirit. Also, CARM also has a good definition of modalism on there website (www.carm.org/modalism). I'm still learning about the Trinity, and I hope you will too.
God Bless!
Thanks for hanging in there with me
The job interview went better than expected. They actually called me back for a second interview. Very cool, but during the meeting I started to guess whether or not I was the right fit for the job. Basically, it's selling insurance. There is nothing wrong with this profession, it just seems rather unrealistic for me. I can't foresee myself selling with high pressure tactics.
As for my health; I still have vertigo, and got FMLA for it. I tried going back to work this week, and for a few hours, I was fine, but had to go home do to dizziness. I'll try again next week. One day at a time, as it were.
The story I'm working on is slowly going forward. Will publish it soon, I hope.
As for my health; I still have vertigo, and got FMLA for it. I tried going back to work this week, and for a few hours, I was fine, but had to go home do to dizziness. I'll try again next week. One day at a time, as it were.
The story I'm working on is slowly going forward. Will publish it soon, I hope.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Job interview
I have a job interview with an insurance company this week. Please pray for me (specifically for physical strength, knowing what to say when to say it, and speaking the truth in love). I also have another doctor's appointment tomorrow for a bout of vertigo that I've been having for the past 2 weeks or so, it's really very annoying to have another person escort me to appointments because I'm so dizzy it's hard to drive.
So... Please pray for me! Thanks,
P.S. I'll be posting another story soon!
So... Please pray for me! Thanks,
P.S. I'll be posting another story soon!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Here it is!
My new almost flash-fiction-but true short story. I hope you like it. Please tell me if it needs improvement, I'm open to constructive criticism. I don't know why, but it won't allow me to indent. Could someone tell me how to indent. I copy and pasted from a Word document. Thanks!
Yours in Christ!
The Garden
I see a garden, stretching for miles to infinity. Every vegetable plausible, rows of tomatoes, beans and a few unknown to me grace the earth. Peas, pumpkins reach with viny expectation across the expanse, skipping intertwining with each other. I reach out while walking, caressing leaves of corn, listening as they rub against their neighbors. Wind lifts my hair throwing it dancing, twirling just as it does the corn silk. Lifting my face to the sun, feeling love and warmth caress my face, sudden rain falls from a source unseen and the earth responds with this blessing with joy. A sense of peace plows deep within me and I know the God who cares for each plant cares for me as well.
Looking down at the ground again, I marvel at the at the frond-like carrot stems. Stooping closer, their softness caresses my hand; I’m remembering a happier time of innocence and trust long forgotten because of hurt and dreams lost. Something catches my eye as I examine wondrous creations God has made. Expecting to once again to feel the Lord’s incredible gift of joy of lovely times, I experience an unexpected pain. I’m compelled to pull out the unwanted plant, knowing this weed with spread its vileness throughout the garden. I cannot, will not let this happen. Grabbing the plant at its base with both hands I wrench as hard as possible, and yet it doesn’t move. My hand is now covered with penetrating cuts, blood and spasms of pain.
Tears of frustration stream from reddened eyes splash and water the ground. I try again and fail again, and the weeds multiply as if to mock my efforts. God’s graceful creation is tarnished by my inability to fulfill a simple task. Darkness begins to enclose the garden and my mind.
But through it all, a Voice slices through that darkness. I do not know how I know this, but with certainty I recognize this is the Voice of my Creator.
In a whisper, the Voice asks “What are you doing?”
I answer, “I’m trying to remove these weeds.”
A rumble of thunder peels across the garden, “Where did this weed come from?”
I reply ashamed, “You know, Lord.”
Silence, all encompassing silence follows as I run up the rows of vegetables, hoping to sprint out of the once beautiful garden. Fear and disgrace flood my heart as I reflect upon the answer to the question I know will be asked of me.
The wind stirs and blows, violently throws those precious leaves. “Where do these weeds come from?” the Voice demands again.
I must answer. It is time. “They come from me, Lord,” I weep “they come from me!”
The Voice, now very loud, ripping through my being, shouts, “What will you do about it?!”
Without hesitation, I grab the weed, determined to get rid of the ugliness. I pull and feel the pain in my hands, but also in my heart. I continue to pull, only glancing and the hole that appears in my chest. I pull until the only thing I feel is numbness. No more joy, just emptiness. I look at the garden around me and see the desolation caused by the evermore multiplying weeds. Tired of trying to do the impossible, I sink to the earth, hoping it would consume me. I feel abandoned and want to be left alone to die.
The Voice, now a whisper again, gently asks “Where do these weeds come from?”
Mustering up what little strength left, I reply “They… Are... My… Sins.”
Time passes. Perhaps, He really has given up on me, and left me to face my fate. I am now consumed by loneliness and lowliness of my state. But, in my despair, I hear the Voice again.
“You are not strong enough. I will do it for you.”
My strength completely ebbs, as my thoughts wander to the past. The hole in my chest, once deaden feels aflame. It is worse than the pain faced when pulling the weeds, so in desperation, I grab hold of the closest weed, hoping it will block the pain of my emptiness. It does for awhile, but the hole grows deeper and wider, more painful than before, but still I cling to the weed. Faces of people I have purposely hurt, lusts and greed I’ve felt, lies I have told long enough that I believe them flood to the deepest part of me, surrounding and crushing my soul. My sin has robbed me of my strength. Shame overtakes me and I hardly notice that the Voice, now made Man, walking toward me.
He kneels down, and I can feel His intense eyes on me. He reaches, and touches my shoulder. I cringe, not even daring to look at Him, for He is whole, and I am not.
“I must do it for you,” He says.
“I know,” and weep.
“Look at me,” He commands.
“I cannot.” I think to myself, You are whole, and I am… Not.
“You cannot look at Me because you are not whole. Look at My hands, child.”
I glance at His hands, then the ground, and then back to His hands again. They have scars deeper than the ones I bear. How can this be, since He is complete and has no holes? I look at my own hands, still bleeding and deep, but not as deep as His had been. I marvel at the mystery.
“My child, these scars you see now were there before the dawn of creation. I bear them now because I love you.”
What?! I think.
“I love you. I always have and always will.”
Speechless, I say to myself; but my sin... I clutch the weed harder and cringe at the pain.
“Your sin is nothing compared to Me. You must let go and never hold onto it again.”
Staring at my hand, slowly, I will my fingers to uncurl and they respond, save the last one. This finger will not comply.
“Help,” I whisper, “I cannot do this alone.”
He mercifully but firmly pulls my finger. I do not know why, but I resist.
“You must let go or you will die,” He says.
Yielding, sobbing, I let go and give the weed up to Him because I know it to be true.
“Watch,” He commands.
Trembling, I gaze as His strong hands seize the weed and rip it out from the ground. I feel a tough of pain from the hole in my chest and am about the cry to Him when He stops me.
“Wait,” He commands.
Pain is slowly replaced with a sensation never truly felt before. Peace! Enveloping, comforting peace, all because that weed is gone. The hole is filled with peace. But then, I stare at all the weeds to come, and a fear tries to steal it away.
The Lord, knowing his creature says, “Child, why do you fear?”
“Lord, I see all of these weeds. There are a lot of them and it scares me. What if You grow tired and leave me.”
“Whatever I start, I always complete,” He says, “I will not leave you to do something you will never be able to do if left by yourself. You are still incomplete, but not for long.”
How long will this take, I wonder? I ask myself.
“A lifetime,” He replies. “Look at My hands, and then look at your own.”
His hands are covered with cuts work confidently on the next weed. This one is stubborn, but soon gives way to His strength. Pain, than peace flood me again, but this time instead of looking at the rows of vegetables and weeds, I gaze at my hands. One by one, the once gapping cuts begin to heal.
Amazed, I look at Him, the Voice who became Man. He smiles broadly at me and touches my hand. I no longer feel my incompleteness, but His wholeness. I cry, not because of fear, but gratitude.
“It is because I took your wounds and made them my own that you can be healed.”
Unable, and not wanting to control myself, I reach over the row and hug Him, whispering “thank You.”
I can feel Him smile as He says “you are my child and you are certainly welcome!”
Letting go, I glimpse back what is left behind. “Never look back,” He says, “but keep your eyes on Me. Before you know, it the work will be done. You will be finished, completed work of beauty and art.”
Emboldened, I ask, “What will happen to the vegetables in my garden?”
“Others will come along and marvel at it. Some may even eat. They will know that it was tended by Me.”
“But, what will I eat, if not my vegetables?” I ask.
“Child, you will enjoy my Garden. It has always been complete and never needed weeding.”
Before long, I notice we have come to the very last weed, and my garden has come to an end. His scared hand lovingly grabs my healed hand and we walk into the Garden, my new home.
Yours in Christ!
The Garden
I see a garden, stretching for miles to infinity. Every vegetable plausible, rows of tomatoes, beans and a few unknown to me grace the earth. Peas, pumpkins reach with viny expectation across the expanse, skipping intertwining with each other. I reach out while walking, caressing leaves of corn, listening as they rub against their neighbors. Wind lifts my hair throwing it dancing, twirling just as it does the corn silk. Lifting my face to the sun, feeling love and warmth caress my face, sudden rain falls from a source unseen and the earth responds with this blessing with joy. A sense of peace plows deep within me and I know the God who cares for each plant cares for me as well.
Looking down at the ground again, I marvel at the at the frond-like carrot stems. Stooping closer, their softness caresses my hand; I’m remembering a happier time of innocence and trust long forgotten because of hurt and dreams lost. Something catches my eye as I examine wondrous creations God has made. Expecting to once again to feel the Lord’s incredible gift of joy of lovely times, I experience an unexpected pain. I’m compelled to pull out the unwanted plant, knowing this weed with spread its vileness throughout the garden. I cannot, will not let this happen. Grabbing the plant at its base with both hands I wrench as hard as possible, and yet it doesn’t move. My hand is now covered with penetrating cuts, blood and spasms of pain.
Tears of frustration stream from reddened eyes splash and water the ground. I try again and fail again, and the weeds multiply as if to mock my efforts. God’s graceful creation is tarnished by my inability to fulfill a simple task. Darkness begins to enclose the garden and my mind.
But through it all, a Voice slices through that darkness. I do not know how I know this, but with certainty I recognize this is the Voice of my Creator.
In a whisper, the Voice asks “What are you doing?”
I answer, “I’m trying to remove these weeds.”
A rumble of thunder peels across the garden, “Where did this weed come from?”
I reply ashamed, “You know, Lord.”
Silence, all encompassing silence follows as I run up the rows of vegetables, hoping to sprint out of the once beautiful garden. Fear and disgrace flood my heart as I reflect upon the answer to the question I know will be asked of me.
The wind stirs and blows, violently throws those precious leaves. “Where do these weeds come from?” the Voice demands again.
I must answer. It is time. “They come from me, Lord,” I weep “they come from me!”
The Voice, now very loud, ripping through my being, shouts, “What will you do about it?!”
Without hesitation, I grab the weed, determined to get rid of the ugliness. I pull and feel the pain in my hands, but also in my heart. I continue to pull, only glancing and the hole that appears in my chest. I pull until the only thing I feel is numbness. No more joy, just emptiness. I look at the garden around me and see the desolation caused by the evermore multiplying weeds. Tired of trying to do the impossible, I sink to the earth, hoping it would consume me. I feel abandoned and want to be left alone to die.
The Voice, now a whisper again, gently asks “Where do these weeds come from?”
Mustering up what little strength left, I reply “They… Are... My… Sins.”
Time passes. Perhaps, He really has given up on me, and left me to face my fate. I am now consumed by loneliness and lowliness of my state. But, in my despair, I hear the Voice again.
“You are not strong enough. I will do it for you.”
My strength completely ebbs, as my thoughts wander to the past. The hole in my chest, once deaden feels aflame. It is worse than the pain faced when pulling the weeds, so in desperation, I grab hold of the closest weed, hoping it will block the pain of my emptiness. It does for awhile, but the hole grows deeper and wider, more painful than before, but still I cling to the weed. Faces of people I have purposely hurt, lusts and greed I’ve felt, lies I have told long enough that I believe them flood to the deepest part of me, surrounding and crushing my soul. My sin has robbed me of my strength. Shame overtakes me and I hardly notice that the Voice, now made Man, walking toward me.
He kneels down, and I can feel His intense eyes on me. He reaches, and touches my shoulder. I cringe, not even daring to look at Him, for He is whole, and I am not.
“I must do it for you,” He says.
“I know,” and weep.
“Look at me,” He commands.
“I cannot.” I think to myself, You are whole, and I am… Not.
“You cannot look at Me because you are not whole. Look at My hands, child.”
I glance at His hands, then the ground, and then back to His hands again. They have scars deeper than the ones I bear. How can this be, since He is complete and has no holes? I look at my own hands, still bleeding and deep, but not as deep as His had been. I marvel at the mystery.
“My child, these scars you see now were there before the dawn of creation. I bear them now because I love you.”
What?! I think.
“I love you. I always have and always will.”
Speechless, I say to myself; but my sin... I clutch the weed harder and cringe at the pain.
“Your sin is nothing compared to Me. You must let go and never hold onto it again.”
Staring at my hand, slowly, I will my fingers to uncurl and they respond, save the last one. This finger will not comply.
“Help,” I whisper, “I cannot do this alone.”
He mercifully but firmly pulls my finger. I do not know why, but I resist.
“You must let go or you will die,” He says.
Yielding, sobbing, I let go and give the weed up to Him because I know it to be true.
“Watch,” He commands.
Trembling, I gaze as His strong hands seize the weed and rip it out from the ground. I feel a tough of pain from the hole in my chest and am about the cry to Him when He stops me.
“Wait,” He commands.
Pain is slowly replaced with a sensation never truly felt before. Peace! Enveloping, comforting peace, all because that weed is gone. The hole is filled with peace. But then, I stare at all the weeds to come, and a fear tries to steal it away.
The Lord, knowing his creature says, “Child, why do you fear?”
“Lord, I see all of these weeds. There are a lot of them and it scares me. What if You grow tired and leave me.”
“Whatever I start, I always complete,” He says, “I will not leave you to do something you will never be able to do if left by yourself. You are still incomplete, but not for long.”
How long will this take, I wonder? I ask myself.
“A lifetime,” He replies. “Look at My hands, and then look at your own.”
His hands are covered with cuts work confidently on the next weed. This one is stubborn, but soon gives way to His strength. Pain, than peace flood me again, but this time instead of looking at the rows of vegetables and weeds, I gaze at my hands. One by one, the once gapping cuts begin to heal.
Amazed, I look at Him, the Voice who became Man. He smiles broadly at me and touches my hand. I no longer feel my incompleteness, but His wholeness. I cry, not because of fear, but gratitude.
“It is because I took your wounds and made them my own that you can be healed.”
Unable, and not wanting to control myself, I reach over the row and hug Him, whispering “thank You.”
I can feel Him smile as He says “you are my child and you are certainly welcome!”
Letting go, I glimpse back what is left behind. “Never look back,” He says, “but keep your eyes on Me. Before you know, it the work will be done. You will be finished, completed work of beauty and art.”
Emboldened, I ask, “What will happen to the vegetables in my garden?”
“Others will come along and marvel at it. Some may even eat. They will know that it was tended by Me.”
“But, what will I eat, if not my vegetables?” I ask.
“Child, you will enjoy my Garden. It has always been complete and never needed weeding.”
Before long, I notice we have come to the very last weed, and my garden has come to an end. His scared hand lovingly grabs my healed hand and we walk into the Garden, my new home.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Hi sorry it's been so long
It's been a few weeks since my last blog and I am afraid this will be a relatively short communication. Just a quick overview of what's been going on.
- I'm writing a story about biblical mercy
- Possibly looking for a new job
- Contending with health issues
- Writing a short story which I may post here
I might be off work for a few weeks... so working on the story during that time will help with the boredom. Looking for a new job in this economy is hard, but with the Lord's help it is possible. The health issues, well I'm still healing from the celiac's, but the Lord is helping me overcome that as well. Still praying for courage to post the short story here, it's almost finished and it may help others. Please pray for me, I need courage, health, and procrastination problems big time.
Blessings until next time!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Just a note to say hi to ya'll! Was surging the web as usual and came across this website. Seemed very interesting and thought others might like it as well. http://www.apologeticsindex.org/.
Still yours in Christ!
Still yours in Christ!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Mercy 2 Me
Hi all,
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I hope this post finds you well. Been kind of busy the last few days, and this post, regrettably, is going to be short.
The company that I work for is increasing production time. It means more money of course, and that's all ways a plus, especially since I've had cause to use a few sick days. Nothing too serious, just my celiac's acting up again. My bosses have been very understanding and have done a remarkable job reassigning me due to certain health limitations. I especially thank my co-workers who have helped me by taking on extra duties. I guess, in this way, they've shown a special type of mercy towards me; they've reserved judgment. It sort of reminds me of James 2:13, "For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glories against judgment." What does this verse have to do with my co-workers being kind? Well, they could justifiably say that they have too much to do at work to be bothered, and that I should do my work, even if it could hurt my health. Instead, they try to emphathize with my condition and try to keep me safe. Thanks guys, I hope to some day do the same for you.
God Bless you all, and have a safe and happy weekend. Happy 4th of July!
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I hope this post finds you well. Been kind of busy the last few days, and this post, regrettably, is going to be short.
The company that I work for is increasing production time. It means more money of course, and that's all ways a plus, especially since I've had cause to use a few sick days. Nothing too serious, just my celiac's acting up again. My bosses have been very understanding and have done a remarkable job reassigning me due to certain health limitations. I especially thank my co-workers who have helped me by taking on extra duties. I guess, in this way, they've shown a special type of mercy towards me; they've reserved judgment. It sort of reminds me of James 2:13, "For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glories against judgment." What does this verse have to do with my co-workers being kind? Well, they could justifiably say that they have too much to do at work to be bothered, and that I should do my work, even if it could hurt my health. Instead, they try to emphathize with my condition and try to keep me safe. Thanks guys, I hope to some day do the same for you.
God Bless you all, and have a safe and happy weekend. Happy 4th of July!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Mercy me, it's Baking Time
This is the day that the Lord has made... Let me rejoice and get... Baking. Yep that's right, it's baking day in my household. I think I'll tackle the insurmountable task of baking either cookies or brownies. Why, you might ask, is this an "insurmountable" task? It's the first (well actually second, my cake experiment didn't turn out so well), since being diagnosed with celiac's disease. Baking without gluten, well, it has it's challenges. Bread bake differently, cakes don't rise, just to name a few of the problems gluten free baking causes. Not many people know about the disease, so I'll get a very, very short overview of the disease. Basically speaking, someone with celiacs cannot ingest or be exposed to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley or rye. If I do get exposed, my symptoms can range in the extreme, from annoying to debilitating (hives, brain fog, edema, asthma attacks, depression, among others, as well as intense abdomen and stomach pain and all the joy that goes with it).
Basically, it's what some call the "the mother of autoimmune diseases". It's been linked to lupus, lymphoma and other cancers, diabetes and assortment of other nasty disease. In my part of the woods, 1 out of 99 people have the disease and don't even know it. For the rest of the U.S.A., it's about 1 out of 133. If a celiac ingest or is exposed to gluten, the body literally starts attacking itself. Every single organ is affected. I feel absolutely awful. I've had symptoms all my life, went to doctors to find out what went wrong, and no one could help me. Finally after decades of frustration, a G.I doctor told me what I had, and now I can controll the disease through following a strict gluten free diet. If you have any questions about what the disease really is, go to http://www.csaceliacs.org/, an incredibly insightful, helpful webpage.
Celiac's disease is not fun to be sure. I mean, celiacs disease not cancer (although it often does lead to it), but it encompasses every aspect of my life. I have to be careful of what lipstick,shampoo/conditioners, soaps, even how I eat my lunch at work (because of cross-contamination). My job is affected, because when I accidentally ingest (by that I mean ingesting cross contaminated food or other products), I miss work. In short, it stinks!
I could be bitter and blame God and my parents for my faulty genes, but what would be merciful about that. I choose to be merciful to God. Yep, that's right, I choose to believe God has a wonderful plan for me, even if it includes disease. I choose to bless Him and not curse Him. He is still my God and I will trust Him. I don't blame Him for letting me have this disease. I have this because we live in a fallen world. Bad things happen. They just do and there are somethings we just can't control. Having a disease like this has taught me to look at those with disabilities and diagnosed health issues in a different light. I mean, I wasn't inconsiderate to them or anything, but at the same time, I couldn't really empathize. I now know what it feels like to wait at home for test results, and am aquinted with that horrible feeling of not knowing what the doctor found until receiving a phone call. At least I know what I have and can take actions to protect myself. I thank God for that! 1 out 133 people, remember, have "something wrong" with them and don't the name of the disease that haunts them.
I thank God for sending me to a doctor that knows the signs of celiacs disease like: stomach discomfort, diarhea, constipation, anemia, edema, hives, anxiety and depression, brain fog, and that's just the short list. Many people are diagnosed in their 50's and 60's.
One of the things I'm grateful for is that eventually, I will be healed, either in this life, or in the next. That is only possible because of the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ. Thank you, God my Father, who gave up Your Son, for me! I can't wait to eat all the gluten containing bread I want!
God's peace be with you, and wish me good luck.
Basically, it's what some call the "the mother of autoimmune diseases". It's been linked to lupus, lymphoma and other cancers, diabetes and assortment of other nasty disease. In my part of the woods, 1 out of 99 people have the disease and don't even know it. For the rest of the U.S.A., it's about 1 out of 133. If a celiac ingest or is exposed to gluten, the body literally starts attacking itself. Every single organ is affected. I feel absolutely awful. I've had symptoms all my life, went to doctors to find out what went wrong, and no one could help me. Finally after decades of frustration, a G.I doctor told me what I had, and now I can controll the disease through following a strict gluten free diet. If you have any questions about what the disease really is, go to http://www.csaceliacs.org/, an incredibly insightful, helpful webpage.
Celiac's disease is not fun to be sure. I mean, celiacs disease not cancer (although it often does lead to it), but it encompasses every aspect of my life. I have to be careful of what lipstick,shampoo/conditioners, soaps, even how I eat my lunch at work (because of cross-contamination). My job is affected, because when I accidentally ingest (by that I mean ingesting cross contaminated food or other products), I miss work. In short, it stinks!
I could be bitter and blame God and my parents for my faulty genes, but what would be merciful about that. I choose to be merciful to God. Yep, that's right, I choose to believe God has a wonderful plan for me, even if it includes disease. I choose to bless Him and not curse Him. He is still my God and I will trust Him. I don't blame Him for letting me have this disease. I have this because we live in a fallen world. Bad things happen. They just do and there are somethings we just can't control. Having a disease like this has taught me to look at those with disabilities and diagnosed health issues in a different light. I mean, I wasn't inconsiderate to them or anything, but at the same time, I couldn't really empathize. I now know what it feels like to wait at home for test results, and am aquinted with that horrible feeling of not knowing what the doctor found until receiving a phone call. At least I know what I have and can take actions to protect myself. I thank God for that! 1 out 133 people, remember, have "something wrong" with them and don't the name of the disease that haunts them.
I thank God for sending me to a doctor that knows the signs of celiacs disease like: stomach discomfort, diarhea, constipation, anemia, edema, hives, anxiety and depression, brain fog, and that's just the short list. Many people are diagnosed in their 50's and 60's.
One of the things I'm grateful for is that eventually, I will be healed, either in this life, or in the next. That is only possible because of the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ. Thank you, God my Father, who gave up Your Son, for me! I can't wait to eat all the gluten containing bread I want!
God's peace be with you, and wish me good luck.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
My introduction; Why Mercy?
Hello and good evening and God's blessings to you all,
My name is E.A. (I'm currently using initials for security purposes), and must confess that I'm a little excited. This is my very first blog! It probably isn't a big thing for most, but it's rather soul affirming in a way, to be able to share my ideas with you. Personally, being able to communicate the way one thinks and feels about something important to them is a sort of affirmation of existence.
Let me introduce myself even further. I live in Wisconsin, U.S.A., in a very picturesque part of the state. I cannot walk ten feet without seeing a tree and that's my idea of beauty. Some of you who have been raised in the Plains states, for example, might disagree. For you, the sight of rolling grain might stir your heart. I guess it's all in how you look at it, some people like trees while others grain. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as the saying goes.
You might be asking yourself, why is this lady writing a blog at all, especially about mercy. One of the reasons I'm writing about it is because I believe it to be sorely lacking in this world. It seems mankind is too enthralled with itself to care about the hardship of others, even when that hardship is brought on by their own actions. I found myself guilty of this past week. One of my co-workers made a mistake that set us back a few hours. This person has made a similar mistake earlier and cost the company quite a bit of money and forced us into overtime. Our schedule was already full, and more overtime meant time away from friends and family. I found myself comparing my actions to my co-workers, and of course in my fallen nature, I came out ahead. Not only that, but I started to criticize this person openly to my other co-workers. I lost sight of the fact that I make mistake too, and in my imperfect nature, I elevated myself over another human being. In short, I was unmerciful.
Mercy is one of the key tenants of Christianity. God, who is not only the Judge, but the lover of our souls, didn't spare His Son, but instead, sent Him on the ultimate mission of mercy. He chose to die in our place. We wouldn't feel desolation after death. How merciful He is, that he should be thinking of us, who have done everything in our power to separate ourselves from His holiness. We, (myself definitely included) deserve to feel His judgement, but because of the sin we (I) have committed. But thank the Lord, I have accepted His mercy through Jesus Christ. I am free! I no longer am bound by my sins, even though I am quite capable of falling into old ways. Mercy is abounding in me because I'm no longer under the judgment of God! I can be at peace with myself and I'm free!
1 Peter 1:3
I'll try to post more about mercy tomorrow. God bless.
My name is E.A. (I'm currently using initials for security purposes), and must confess that I'm a little excited. This is my very first blog! It probably isn't a big thing for most, but it's rather soul affirming in a way, to be able to share my ideas with you. Personally, being able to communicate the way one thinks and feels about something important to them is a sort of affirmation of existence.
Let me introduce myself even further. I live in Wisconsin, U.S.A., in a very picturesque part of the state. I cannot walk ten feet without seeing a tree and that's my idea of beauty. Some of you who have been raised in the Plains states, for example, might disagree. For you, the sight of rolling grain might stir your heart. I guess it's all in how you look at it, some people like trees while others grain. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as the saying goes.
You might be asking yourself, why is this lady writing a blog at all, especially about mercy. One of the reasons I'm writing about it is because I believe it to be sorely lacking in this world. It seems mankind is too enthralled with itself to care about the hardship of others, even when that hardship is brought on by their own actions. I found myself guilty of this past week. One of my co-workers made a mistake that set us back a few hours. This person has made a similar mistake earlier and cost the company quite a bit of money and forced us into overtime. Our schedule was already full, and more overtime meant time away from friends and family. I found myself comparing my actions to my co-workers, and of course in my fallen nature, I came out ahead. Not only that, but I started to criticize this person openly to my other co-workers. I lost sight of the fact that I make mistake too, and in my imperfect nature, I elevated myself over another human being. In short, I was unmerciful.
Mercy is one of the key tenants of Christianity. God, who is not only the Judge, but the lover of our souls, didn't spare His Son, but instead, sent Him on the ultimate mission of mercy. He chose to die in our place. We wouldn't feel desolation after death. How merciful He is, that he should be thinking of us, who have done everything in our power to separate ourselves from His holiness. We, (myself definitely included) deserve to feel His judgement, but because of the sin we (I) have committed. But thank the Lord, I have accepted His mercy through Jesus Christ. I am free! I no longer am bound by my sins, even though I am quite capable of falling into old ways. Mercy is abounding in me because I'm no longer under the judgment of God! I can be at peace with myself and I'm free!
1 Peter 1:3
I'll try to post more about mercy tomorrow. God bless.
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