Well life is just crazy sometimes. A lot of people seem to be dying or be on the verge of dying and it hasn't really soaked in yet. Carmen had her great grandma die on Monday. My whole family minus me left abruptly for St. Louis to see my grandma because it could be the last time my dad gets to see his mom. We just found out that my grandpa (my moms dad) has alzheimer's and right now, it doesn't look good.
On a much, much happier note, I got to see my favorite preacher in the world speak this past Thursday and it was incredible. Paul Washer is by far the most Godly preacher I have ever met. Most preachers do their thing and then leave because they are tired or need to spend time with their family( not that their is anything wrong with spending time with your family. In fact biblically, your family takes priority over everything but God Himself) but this man was very selfless. After he spoke he took a group of us into a small room and hung out with us for two and a half hours. It was awesome. He told us if he needed to he would stay there all night.
Also on a brighter note, the interim pastor at my church has resigned. (PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!) I hope that we have someone who will really preach the Word of God come to take his place.
That is all for now.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
God rocks my world, literally
God has made me realize or caused me to think about things differently over the past several months. Here are a few examples.
1. A great number of people who claim to be saved are not truly born again. This is something that I should have realized a long time ago because there are many Scriptures that talk about this like this one in the book of Hebrews chapter 6.
4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
2. I glorify God most when I am most satisfied in Him. God wants to conform us to the image of His Son. That is why He saved us. This is where we will be most satisfied because the more we are like Christ the more intimate we will be with God.
3. When seeking God people put their circumstances before Scripture. This is very foolish because circumstances can be very misleading. For example, (this one happened like 8 months ago but i remember it pretty well) My fiance' and me were talking to a young lady who said that she was called of God to marry someone in ministry. Carmen asked this young lady how God had spoken to her through His Word about this and she said He hadn't but that she just knew. That is unbelievable but not uncommon in our churches. Most people that I have ever talked to about how they knew God was speaking to them about something said very little, if anything, about Scripture and a whole lot about how they "weighed the pro's and con's" or how"I cannot deny all the things that are coming together that point to this" or how "I prayed over it" (I am not trying to take away from the importance of prayer at all. I also believe prayer to be an improtant part when trying to discern God's will but this person said nothing about Scripture along with their praying). This brings me to the next thing I have learned.
4. God speaks, primarily, through His Word. If you want to know God's Will, read His Word and until you hear from Him through His Word forget about your stupid circumstances.
5. God loves His glory
11"For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another
6. God has given me a new view about my future marriage. I will love her with everything I am because God has called me to lay down my life for His precious daughter.
7. There is no greater truth than the Gospel and everything in our lives should be centered around that truth.
1. A great number of people who claim to be saved are not truly born again. This is something that I should have realized a long time ago because there are many Scriptures that talk about this like this one in the book of Hebrews chapter 6.
4For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
2. I glorify God most when I am most satisfied in Him. God wants to conform us to the image of His Son. That is why He saved us. This is where we will be most satisfied because the more we are like Christ the more intimate we will be with God.
3. When seeking God people put their circumstances before Scripture. This is very foolish because circumstances can be very misleading. For example, (this one happened like 8 months ago but i remember it pretty well) My fiance' and me were talking to a young lady who said that she was called of God to marry someone in ministry. Carmen asked this young lady how God had spoken to her through His Word about this and she said He hadn't but that she just knew. That is unbelievable but not uncommon in our churches. Most people that I have ever talked to about how they knew God was speaking to them about something said very little, if anything, about Scripture and a whole lot about how they "weighed the pro's and con's" or how"I cannot deny all the things that are coming together that point to this" or how "I prayed over it" (I am not trying to take away from the importance of prayer at all. I also believe prayer to be an improtant part when trying to discern God's will but this person said nothing about Scripture along with their praying). This brings me to the next thing I have learned.
4. God speaks, primarily, through His Word. If you want to know God's Will, read His Word and until you hear from Him through His Word forget about your stupid circumstances.
5. God loves His glory
11"For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another
6. God has given me a new view about my future marriage. I will love her with everything I am because God has called me to lay down my life for His precious daughter.
7. There is no greater truth than the Gospel and everything in our lives should be centered around that truth.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Pray for our leadership
Please pray for the leadership of our country. Many, many of them are having to make really hard decisions and/or fight to make sure that people have a right to life...etc. Right now the Supreme Court is hearing a case that might give federal funding to conduct embryonic stem cell research which is nothing more than the destruction of human life. It will pass, and the President will have to use a veto.
I encourage all of you to keep up with what is going on around our country and i encourage you to pray for our leaders, and pray that God gives us a decent choice for a President in the up and coming election because right now all of our choices suck!!!!!!!!!!! Good ole Hillary(that is a scary thought), Obama, Giuliani(his views on abortion and many other issues are jacked up), Romney(HE IS A MORMON), Mccain(he is weak, we can't have him run our country during a time of war, or any other time for that matter). Just pray hard. Just pray hard. Just pray hard.
I encourage all of you to keep up with what is going on around our country and i encourage you to pray for our leaders, and pray that God gives us a decent choice for a President in the up and coming election because right now all of our choices suck!!!!!!!!!!! Good ole Hillary(that is a scary thought), Obama, Giuliani(his views on abortion and many other issues are jacked up), Romney(HE IS A MORMON), Mccain(he is weak, we can't have him run our country during a time of war, or any other time for that matter). Just pray hard. Just pray hard. Just pray hard.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
God is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!
God continues to rock my world every single day!!! He is showing me so much in Scripture and it is very exciting when God is the one doing that.
Many of you don't really know how this whole journey started out. I thought i was saved on Oct. 17, 2001 because I prayed a prayer and my life was outwardly different but i soon found out that it doesn't matter very much how the outside looks if i wasn't changed inside. Then I heard a message on March 17, 2004 and again prayed a prayer and again thought i was saved. (this pray a prayer thing can be very misleading)and (the prayer of salvation wasn't even around until the 1950's- interesting that Paul and John and Jesus did not do this.) Anyways, after a couple of years i began to get really frustrated about my supposed relationship with God and i prayed that God would help me have a desire for Him and for His Word. The next morning i woke up changed, God had done a miracle in my life and all of a sudden I desired to know God and had a deep desire to read His Word. This is one of the main things that has caused me to question my old view of salvation and God's sovereignty. I made no decision, God simply did a work in my heart.
Then God began to show me things in His Word and things have been very different since then. That is the first time that i had any real assurance of my salvation because God showed me that 1 John was written so that i may know and that the only way to know that you are saved is to examine your life by Scripture.
God has turned my entire world upside down. He had to. I had to throw out a lot of things that i had learned from many teachers and allow God to reveal truth to me. All of that to say that our God is awesome and He still is changing lives.
Many of you don't really know how this whole journey started out. I thought i was saved on Oct. 17, 2001 because I prayed a prayer and my life was outwardly different but i soon found out that it doesn't matter very much how the outside looks if i wasn't changed inside. Then I heard a message on March 17, 2004 and again prayed a prayer and again thought i was saved. (this pray a prayer thing can be very misleading)and (the prayer of salvation wasn't even around until the 1950's- interesting that Paul and John and Jesus did not do this.) Anyways, after a couple of years i began to get really frustrated about my supposed relationship with God and i prayed that God would help me have a desire for Him and for His Word. The next morning i woke up changed, God had done a miracle in my life and all of a sudden I desired to know God and had a deep desire to read His Word. This is one of the main things that has caused me to question my old view of salvation and God's sovereignty. I made no decision, God simply did a work in my heart.
Then God began to show me things in His Word and things have been very different since then. That is the first time that i had any real assurance of my salvation because God showed me that 1 John was written so that i may know and that the only way to know that you are saved is to examine your life by Scripture.
God has turned my entire world upside down. He had to. I had to throw out a lot of things that i had learned from many teachers and allow God to reveal truth to me. All of that to say that our God is awesome and He still is changing lives.
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