WWJD

     I know that we have all heard, no matter who you are, the term "What would Jesus do?" It's been thrown around so many times that half of the time when you hear it, people laugh or don't even take into account what it really means anymore. Have you ever thought about taking that acronym seriously at some point in your life? What if we all took WWJD to heart and made every single decision based off of that acronym? Well, before we start thinking about taking it seriously, let's find out exactly who Jesus was since we are told to act like Him.

     Let's begin at skin color. White? Black? Hispanic? European? No, no, no, and no. Jesus was born in the modern day middle east. He traveled through and around Jerusalem and all over that location. Jesus was Arabic. He had darker skin, but not too dark. That's just where His life was and what the geography was like. Next, let's hit some of His beliefs. What I'm about to say might be hard to hear, but it is the truth. Many of us have heard this but haven't gone into depth with it, so I'm going to clarify some of it up. The question: was Jesus Jewish? The answer: no. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was not Jewish, He was born into Jewish culture. (Now, I believe Jesus was a Jew inwardly and outwardly, however, His statements in the Sermon on the Mount and many other things He did challenged Jews and did not match up with today's Jewish Culture. Jesus was a Jew then, not one now). In fact, He challenged the religious leaders of His time, who happened to be Jews! (Pharisees). Now that that has been said, we can move on. What was His personality like? Was Jesus the kind of man you see holding a baby in one arm and petting a dove in the other with all types of people just smiling at Him? Or was He this old man with a thick and mangy beard who yelled at people all the time and told them to change their lives? Well, I'm not going to say which one He is, because, well, we don't know. But I"m going to say that Jesus did say things that only God would say. He convicted everyone with what He said. He also had an angry side, when He literally flipped over tables at a temple and told everyone to leave. (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18, Luke 19:45-47, John 2:13-16) In John it even says that Jesus made a whip and drove all of the animals out! So then, what are we supposed to act like when WWJD comes into play?

     I feel like there are different situations that present themselves to us and each one Jesus has something to say about it. If you see people hitting each other, or people are throwing punches are are physically harming one another, WWJD? Calmly approach them and make an attempt at ceasing the fight. What about gossip? Tell the gossipers that the truth can only be found through the source, and that our own accounts of people's lives don't matter. Judgement is wrong. What if someone actually bashes God or disrespects Him in front of you. Are you going to tolerate it and act like nothing has happened? Stand up for your Father, represent Him, respect Him, glorify Him. "For He who denies me before others I will surely deny before my Father." Those are Christ's words, do you think He would let someone get away with throwing God's name around? I think Jesus would have a word or two to say to them. We have to stop tolerating sin, brothers and sisters, and start defending our God and Savior as warriors of the cross. Amen.

Reviving the Church

     Allow me a foreword before you start reading, please. What I write here may be hard to read, and it may challenge your beliefs, and that is totally fine. You are allowed to disagree with me, but keep in mind that everything I write here is truth, and my opinion only comes into play at the very last paragraph. Thank you and enjoy.

     

     I'm currently studying the book of Ephesians, written by Paul. As I look at the verses I've covered so far, there is just so much to share, but I feel compelled to talk about a certain topic that really made me think about how the church (building) should be acting. I feel that the church (building) today is not the way Paul was referring for the church to be, or how Christ sees the church should be.

     Let me ask you some background questions, just to get the message flowing a bit more. It's early in the morning and I need some mind jogging if you will. First of all, who is the church? It's not the building, it's us as believers. We are called the church. Next, who is the head of the church? Well, in Ephesians 1:22, Paul writes that God has placed everything under Christ's feet and has appointed Him to be the head of the church. So, the church is one big body with Christ being the head and us as believers being the rest of the body, correct? Yes, so lets move on!

     If your body were to get an infection somehow, that would corrupt it, right? If you get a cold, your whole body just feels like trash and you need to either take medicine or wait for recovery. Think about the church now. We are a body of believers, led by Christ. What happens if this body becomes infected? It would affect the church! That's not how it's supposed to be, Christ's body is supposed to be pure and united under Him, that doesn't mean we're perfect, Romans says that everyone sins, but it means that we are not to let infection and corruption into our body.

     What's the corruption, since even all believers sin? Well, the infection or corruption is non-believers. The people on this earth who are not saved, or are not a believer will bring an infection to the church. Why? Because they carry worldliness with them. The church is nothing but Godliness, correct? Well, in chapter 2 of Ephesians, Paul says that the spiritually dead (non-believers) follow worldliness and are disobedient. We have godliness, non-believers have worldliness, and the two of them should NEVER become equal, Godliness is always higher than worldliness.

     Does that mean we can't bring our non-believeing friends to church? Of course not! But there is something that needs to take place. The non-believer who attends church, MUST FEEL THAT HE DOES NOT BELONG WITH THE CHURCH. That is a correct statement, am I right? The body/church/believers are all under Christ, we are all a believing body. Non-believers do not belong in the body for they do not follow Christ. They can go to church and feel that they loved, welcomed, and supported, but NOT belonged. Non-believers do not belong in the body of Christ.

     But then why are there so many fake Christians who go to church. Those people who go to church and "claim" to be believers, but go home and curse their parents out, or do drugs, or go to parties, or commit adultery, are NOT believers at all. They are NOT Christians. They would be described as "lukewarm" by Jesus Himself in the book of Revelation. But then, why do they keep going to church? Well, here comes the hard hitter.

     I believe (this is my personal opinion) that today's churches around the U.S. are so focused on numbers of attendance and making sure that more and more people are coming to their church, that the church itself is failing. We are making compromise, something that Jesus NEVER did, nor the church of Acts. We are sacrificing our Godliness for their Worldliness, and that is what is making the church fail. Modern day churches are so focused on making EVERYONE feel comfortable and belonged in the church that it is actually watering down our church as a whole and filling it with infection. This should not be. The church is a place for believers to gather and disciple one another under Christ, not a place for worldliness to make its way through and infect the church. The church's job (as believers) is to disciple one another, so that we can go out on our own and evangelize to the non-believing world and bring them to church once they are saved! That is what Christ told us to do before He left! "Go out and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." The church should not be focused on evangelizing within the church. No no, because then you end up with tens of thousands of lukewarm Christians, rather than 100 strong, fighting ambassadors for Christ. 

Closing Gaps

     Right now I'm reading through the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul's second letter he wrote to the church in Corinth. As I've been reading through, I notice how much emphasis Paul puts on Jesus and who He was and exactly what He did and what we do for Him because of Him. It's truly fascinating to read all of it. So as I'm reading, surely another verse comes, but this one moves me. Here it is:

"God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV (Parenthesis added)

     Re-read that for a second. God made Jesus become sin. When Jesus felt the full separation of the world's sin, He actually became sin. That makes us think though, "How can the Messiah who was and is perfect become something that is imperfect and the complete opposite of God?" Good question, but if we think deep enough we find out something that is very shocking.

     Jesus becoming sin was absolutely necessary. Huh? One more time: in order for everything in God's plan to work out, Jesus had to become sin Himself. It makes total sense, doesn't it? We always hear how sin has died, that Jesus defeated death itself. Death is useless against us. Well, have you ever thought of how Jesus did that? By dying on the cross you say! But what does that mean to us? When the earthly body of Christ was killed, sin died with it. Sin was defeated and destroyed as Christ died on the cross. That is how Jesus beat death.

Foreshadow in the Old Testament and Secret Salvation

     Yesterday I read through the book of Jonah. While reading, I noticed a passage, well, a verse, that is a complete foreshadow of Christ's death and resurrection. Here is the verse:

Jonah 1:17 - 

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. (Bolding added by me) (ESV)

     Let's talk about some Bible history now. While Jonah was in the belly of this fish, he had ultimate peace with God. He was able to pray and meditate on his actions and repent from his disobedience. (He didn't want to go to Nineveh but God really wanted him to). Three days later he was then spewed out of the fish and went on to share the love of God with the people of Nineveh. Isn't the story of Christ's resurrection somewhat similar?

     Jonah sinned and was disobediant to God. The people of the earth were sinning and being disobedient to God. Jonah paid the price and was swallowed by a whale. Jesus, then, paid the price and was crucified on the cross. Jonah was spat out of the whale after being there for three days. Christ rose from the grave after being dead for three days. Jonah went out and shared news of repentance to Nineveh. Christ went out and shared news of a new salvation to His disciples. Isn't the Bible clever?

     The second part of this blog is called "Secret Salvation". This may sound confusing, but let me explain.

     While Jonah was "running" from God (you can't outrun God by the way), he was with sailors on a boat to Tarshish. When God threw the brutal storm at the boat, all of the sailors prayed to their own gods. They woke up Jonah and told him to do the same, and when Jonah told them that this was his fault because he was on bad terms with his God, they prayed to Jonah's God. When he was thrown overboard and swallowed the storm stopped.

     You never hear about those sailors again, but if you look really closely at chapter 1 of Jonah, you can see something. These sailors found salvation through Jonah's disobedience. 

     Look at it! The sailors prayed to their own, false gods, but when they saw that Jonah was the cause of this, they fell down and prayed to the real God of the universe and worshipped Him when the storm stopped! They found God through Jonah and his own disobedience. I see a hidden lesson for us in that: when we are struggling or having a hard time with life or with God, sometimes the way we react to it can determine whether or not people loot to God. It's about how we respond to God's calling or His will. If we're obedient and repent the way we should, we serve as an example to others. Pretty cool huh?

What the Title of my Blog Means

     Seeing as Greek isn't the most known language in the US, I decided I should explain what the meaning of my blog is before things get confusing.

     First of all, allow me to show you exactly how the title is pronounced. Here:

Ee-kona too thay-oh

Kinda get that? Okay, good. Now here's the deep part of it.

     The translation for Eikóna tou Theoú in English is "Image of God", which Believers are called to be. We are image bearers, if you will. Knowing this, I decided to call my blog so. Why? Because I use this blog as a tool to reveal a different image of God to outside readers. I am in no way trying to push anything on others, just giving people a chance to make their view of God straight and not crooked from an past experiences. Thank ya!

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." -Genesis 1:27 (ESV)

The Helpless Aren't Very Helpless

     This weekend I went down with my church, Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV), to Rocky Point, Mexico. This isn't the beautiful Rocky Point where one would go on vacation and hang out, this was a different Rocky Point. Specifically, we went to the Barrios, or, the more poverty stricken area of Rocky Point. The uglier part that no one really talks about.

     We went on a missions trip down there to build five homes for five families. I've gone once before and really wanted to go this year for the same reason: seeing the smiles and tears of the grateful family. This year was a lot different, though. The family wasn't your average "poor and homeless family who does nothing but sits in the sand and waits for people to help them." This family was different. 

     The father of the family was Arceleos, and his wife was Victoria. They have four children and one shack for an abode. Victoria stays at home all day and takes care of her four children while Arceleos does masonry work for $10 a day. That is their lifestyle and their background. 

     As my team began working on the construction of their house, we noticed that Arceleos, after returning home from a long day's work, began to help us with the house. And by help, I don't mean he gave us nails. We was on his hands and knees smoothing the concrete, on the roof nailing nails into the boards, and getting is entire body filthy from the stucco we were pasting on the house. He was more involved than one third of the people there.

     That wasn't the only shocker here. On Monday (the final working day), Victoria and her four children presented my entire team of 35 people a meal of two fish tacos per person. WHAT?! After already having their husband/father working all day on the house, they have enough gratefulness and appreciation to make a meal for the entire team?! That absolutely blows my mind, as well as educates it.

     As you have read, this family was in no place to help us at all. they could have watched the whole time and that would have been perfect. But they didn't. No matter what place they were in, they wanted to help and show gratefulness. How much more, then, should we be grateful to people, even when we are in no place to do so. Love is everywhere, it's in America, it's in Africa, it's even in the Barrios of Rocky Point, Mexico; we just need to search and serve. 

Physical and Spiritual Power of Jesus

     There's a section in the book of Matthew that has been pretty heavy on my heart lately and I would just like to share it with my blog. Ready. Set. Go!

     The section is Matthew chapter 8 verses 1-4. This is the part of Christ's life where He heals the man with leprosy. It's so moving to me when I read this. Here's the passage:

"When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold and leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.' And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a proof to them.'"

     Could you imagine how amazing that must have been to see for the people who were watching? Here they are, just walking and following Jesus, and they see Him cure a leper. Boom, just like that. Now, for those of you who don't know what leprosy is, allow me to explain.

     Leprosy is a skin disease that was very common back in the age of Jesus. It was a flesh eating disease that made you a walking abomination. It ate away at your skin, made you unclean, and you were just walking and living trash to everyone else. It was very contagious, so no one would talk to you or even go near you. Leprosy ruined lives back then.

     So imagine this life of the leper. He probably lost his family if he had one. His parents would disown him and leave him. His wife, if he had one, left him so that she wouldn't get infected. If he has children he couldn't see them because their lives would be at stake as well. He probably lost his job as well. This man's life was gone. There was nothing for him. He had no one to love and no one to love him, well, until Jesus came along.

     Jesus did the unspeakable here. He actually touched a leper, and action that could quite possibly ruin His life. What is very important here, is the beginning and the action. The leper came to Jesus, he didn't wait around for Him to come over. Then, he asked if Jesus was willing to cleanse him. He didn't demand it, he waited on Jesus. That takes some humility and courage.

     Then, Jesus touched him. Actually touched him. Now, the Greek translation for "touch" in this verse isn't the kind of touch you might think of. Jesus didn't lightly touch this man or just brush him softly with His hand. The Greek translation for "touch" here translates to "the kind of grip you would need if you were pulling someone up from falling off of a cliff". Jesus didn't touch this man, He gripped him. Jesus squeezed this leper so hard that the leper literally felt the love of Christ in this grip. Jesus gave this man what he had been deprived of for years: love. 

     Physically, Jesus was able to do anything. He casted demons out of people's bodies, He cured illness, and He brought the dead back to life (He also came back to life Himself). If Jesus was capable of doing all of that, imagine the spiritual power He has. He has authority over everything, literally everything, including death. This passage is my favorite about Jesus, it reveals so much about who He was as a person. If Jesus could cleanse a leper, He can cleanse us of our sins, we just need to say, "Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean." 

Availability of God

     Lately in my life, I've been wondering and, well, sort of struggling with something that's been my "wall" in my faith. I've been thinking to myself, Is God really paying attention to me and all of the small things that I do? I know it may sound dumb to some of you, but it's been on my mind for a while now. When I'm driving by myself somewhere and I just start praying, I begin to ask myself if God really cares enough to listen to my jargon I'm talking about. Isn't there more important things for Him to be focused on other than my little self?

     I know what I've been thinking is wrong, obviously. God is big enough to know and love every single one of us. But it still just makes me curious that there are billions of other Christians around the world that are in so much more need than me that shouldn't God be focused on them and answering their prayers rather than listening to mine?

     By wondering this it's begin to grow stronger in me the real truth about this topic. God is God, He is the end all be all of this universe, and He is big enough to do whatever He wants whenever He wants however He wants. With that being said, He is more than capable of caring and loving all of His children simultaneously. It's just really hard for me to rap my mind around that, and I guess I'm not supposed to fully comprehend God, none of us are.

     I've come to this conclusion: God is everywhere; He's inside of us, living among us, and watching over us. Why wouldn't He too busy to listen to a prayer or 5 million at once? He is God after all. He's always available, and always here to listen to you no matter what the time of day is. He's willing to listen and hear about your dirt and all of the sin you've committed that day, and He's also there to rejoice with you whenever something really great has happened in your life. He is always and forever available to us and will never forsake us.

     "Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20

     "Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

The Second Mission and the Hope of Jesus' Return

Hebrews 9:28

     In chapter 9 of the book of Hebrews, the author of the letter states a command that will leave us in hope by saying, "So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."

The Breakdown

     It was really hard to choose which verse I wanted to study today, but this one just gave me a lesson right away. So we'll break it down to get right to the learning part! "So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many..." So in the beginning the author is referring to Christ as the subject of this verse. He then states that Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. Back in the Old Testament, there were multiple sacrifices of animals on a daily basis just to cleanse one person at a time. The author here is telling us that Jesus wasn't just another type of offering that needed to be offered more than once. Since He was the Messiah, His single sacrifice cleansed the sins of all who have sinned. Everyone. "...will appear a second time..." This is our hope in the verse. The author is not telling us if Jesus appears a second time, or hopefully He appears a second time, but the author says He will appear a second time. That should be absolutely comfortable for us to hear. "...not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." Next the author goes as far to say exactly what Jesus' mission is going to be in His second coming. The first time Jesus was sent on earth, His goal and mission was to die the death all deserved, and in the process save the souls of all who have sinned. That's not the case this time; this time, Jesus already gave us the task, so now, He's coming back to save those who have been living on this Earth in His name. He will rescue them from the sin and secularity that they've been living in for so long, and bring them to perfect peace. It requires eager waiting, but Hebrews says that He is going to come back for us. All of us.

The Application

     So like I told you, when I very first read this verse, a lesson immediately stuck out to me, so now I'm going to share it with you: patience is the key here, we are told that Jesus is going to come back, so there's no need to question it, the main challenge is going to be waiting for the right time when He does come back for us. We don't need to be skeptical or question whether Jesus really will come for us a second time, it's said all over the Bible that He will, so we can throw that doubt away. What we really need to focus on is trusting that He is currently here with us in Spirit and that when the time is absolutely perfect, He is going to return to save us. Eager patience and endurance is what is going to prepare us to be joyful and full of the Spirit when Christ does return. Hold on steadfastly to this verse, cling to it, it'll be our hope that Jesus returns.

Decisions That Endure Forever

Ecclesiastes 3:14

     Here in chapter three of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher explains what he has drawn from his time on earth, "I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people will fear before him."

The Breakdown

     I feel like this verse speaks so strongly to us, and it is informative when we dive into it. "I perceived that whatever God does endures forever..." Right here it's pretty easy to see that the Preacher (author) says that anything that God decides to do, it lasts forever. In the Old Testament, God decided not to flood the earth again, and so far, that has been everlasting, enduring forever. God also promised a messiah, a savior; then came along Jesus Christ who still endures forever in Heaven with God. God's decisions are permanent, not temporary. "...nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken form it..." God is God, He is the end all be all. There is none equal or higher than Him. He has no editor, no accountability partner. He is everything there needs to be. Nothing and no one can add to or take away from what God has set in stone because, well, He has the last word and He's God. "...God has done it, so that people will fear before him." The Preacher says that the purpose for God's enduring actions and promises are so that people will fear Him. Now, fear isn't the kind of fear we know. Fearing God means respecting Him, honoring Him, acknowledging his sovereignty. So, God does what He does and sets it in stone so that people will acknowledge His glory and honor Him.

The Application

     This verse is a verse calling for humility, the way I see it. Whatever happens here on earth is something God has done, and since what God does endures forever, we can't change it. We need to be accepting and surrender to what He wants so people will see His glory. That's what I get from this verse. I feel like this lesson keeps coming up, but it's true. We can't change what happens here on earth, we honestly can't. So instead of arguing about the eternal, why not just submit to it and show respect and honor to the One who allows us to be here in the first place? Who are we to argue with the Maker? The least we can do is respect what He has decided to do and submit to His will, that way people will see His glory in us and we will serve as beacons of light in our secular world. When we argue, all we do is act the way Satan wants us to, and we will not serve as examples of Christ to people. We cannot argue, it's meaningless. Good ol' C.S. Lewis puts arguing this way: "The problem with arguing with God is that you are arguing with the very Being that gave you the ability to argue." Let's submit to the will of God because we can't change it, and we will be acting in a way Christ wants us to. 

Humbly Admitting We are Not Perfect

Hebrews 8:7

     Here in chapter 8 of Hebrews, the author gives us a reason as to why there is a new covenant by saying, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second."

The Breakdown

     This verse serves as a good reminder for us and it also serves as a great explanation for the entire New Testament. "For if that first covenant had been faultless..." The author is giving a scenario, and "what if" moment if you will. He is setting the stage for the explanation. "...there would have been no occasion to look for a second." Summing the whole verse up, the author finishes with a logical statement. No one is perfect, the old law became ineffective. If everyone was perfect based off of the Mosaic law (first covenant), then God wouldn't have needed to send down Jesus (second covenant) to rescue us from our sins. We are human, so we sin. We are not perfect, in any way. I enjoy how the author lets us know that even though humanity was nearing such a hopeless point in time, God still went out of His way to send down His only Son, Jesus (the new covenant), to rescue us from our sins. That is true love.

The Application

     This one is a tough for me to point out, it took me a while to figure out exactly what God is trying to say to me here. He spoke to me though, and this is what I got to say: we are in desperate need of Jesus, no matter what we think. God gave us mercy by giving us Jesus to look two, He didn't have to, so we need to be humble about admitting that we are helpless without Jesus. That is what I have. We all sin, we all fall short of the glory of God, and we all need Jesus Christ to save us. It is foolish and selfish to think that we can make it on our own, because God saw that there needed to be a second covenant, that means that we need o accept that we need it as well. As soon as we are able to acknowledge our sin and that we can't live life on our own without Jesus, the sooner we will be able to live meaningful lives in His presence. Now, don't think this is easy, because it's not. I know for a fact that it is so hard for me to admit that I'm wrong at times, ask my girlfriend. But I need to learn to do that, it's for the good. If we were all perfect and didn't need Jesus, then we would have no purpose to live. Outside of Jesus, we are lost in sin; inside of Jesus, we are made perfect. 

Living With Fulfillment

Ecclesiastes 2:25

     Here in chapter two of Ecclesiastes, the author writes in verse 25, "For apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"

The Breakdown

     This is such a great verse that I read over in chapter 2 today. I love it, so let's begin! "For apart from him..." The "him" in this verse refers to God, just to clear things up. So right here the author is just stating that whoever is apart from God, whoever is not saved, whoever is living their life absent of God. That is what the author is saying. "...who can eat or who can have enjoyment?" When he says, who can eat? That is the key phrase here. When you eat, you obviously eat to satisfy your hunger. If humans never ate, then we would all starve to death. Eating is something that allows us to live. So when the verse says, "who can eat?", he is really saying who can live? "...who can have enjoyment?" is the next phrase. Here that's just saying how it's practically impossible to have any type of true joy in your life if you are separated from God. If you don't have the Father, then you will never experience true happiness.

The Application

     So here, I feel like this verse is telling me that until i acknowledge God in my life on a daily basis and know that I am only here because of Him, my life will utterly be meaningless. God is the key to meaning in our lives. We are powered off of Him alone! If we ignore Him daily, never talk to Him and never acknowledge His presence in our lives, then we will not have happiness! No joy, no meaning. We will be lost that day and days to come if we don't recognize Him in our lives. The challenge I feel like this verse in Ecclesiastes is giving us is that in order to fully and successfully live life, we need to live life with God, then we will have that sense of fulfillment. We need to feed our spiritual stomachs. That is a perfect metaphor for this. We can't live without eating food. We can't live spiritually without digesting the Word. We need to feed our spirituality by investing in the Word and truly examining it. The Word of God is the only thing that can fill that craving, it is the only Divine Word that can give us insight to God and see what He wants for us. Living according to the Bible is what will allow us to fully live our lives for God, and keep us safe in Him. The Bible will keep us from sin, and sin will keep us from the Bible. We have to be careful with where we spend our time. 

Embrace the Bad

Ecclesiastes 1:3

     Here in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, the author writes in verse 3, "What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?"

  The Breakdown  

     Ecclesiastes is a book that can be directed toward the cynical or doubtful or such and such, so I think it would be interesting to study it. Let us begin. The verse is short, so we'll just go through it as one section. When the author says "sun" in the verse, He is referring to anything under Heaven, meaning the earth. Toil would be defined here as trouble, or fighting, or bad situations or circumstances. So what the verse is saying is "What does man get from all of the bad things that he fights with on earth?" In other words, trying to fight the bad circumstances, or trying to argue that what is happening to you is unfair, is pointless. 

     The Application

     The last sentence in the above paragraph almost sums up what the application of this verse is. There is no point in trying to argue or fight the bad that happens to us here on earth. We can't help what happens to us, we are in no control of what is thrown our way in life, only God is. And when God allows hard situations to come our way, it is our duty as Believers to look to Him for support and help. He won't leave us on our own, there is a lesson to be learned in everything that happens to us, whether good or bad. It will be a challenge, but it will pay off in the end. There is no satisfaction or good in arguing what cannot be changed, so embrace the bad and let God show you what He wants to so that something can be learned on our part.

Having Hope We Don't Deserve

     Imagine living a life where you have no hope. No hope that gives you motivation to complete what you are working through. No hope to tell you that you're going to make it, that everything will be okay soon. Imagine having no hope in your life.

     How hard would that be? How how would it be to have to deal with something that you weren't prepared for by yourself? That would be miserable, and practically impossible emotionally. We wouldn't be able to handle that kind of stuff on our own.

     The good news, is that we don't.

     Christianity gives us that hope. We have that light at the end of the tunnel to see and know that everything will get better and that everything will be okay. We have a hope of eternal life in Heaven. We have the hope that there is a God who loves us so much that He is willing to take us in as His own children. We have hope given to us through Jesus Christ, and that is something to be thankful for.

     This post is just a little acknowledgement that we should be thankful for so much that has been given to us. We don't deserve anything that has been given to us, yet God still gave it to us. How thankful should we be just to have a new day approach us every morning? Just to know that how hard things are getting right now, there is is still a God who loves us and in no way wants to hurt us. We have hope.

     I'm working on being thankful myself daily, instead of just when things are good. It's a hard thing to do, but I'm working on it. I'm learning to be grateful for everything, not just the good. We could all give thanks daily too. It's a hard thing to do, but it will be totally worth it in the end. Jesus never told us that it would be easy, He just said that it would be worth it. The least we could do is be thankful.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The Image We're SUPPOSED To Be Bearing

     I'd like to share something that again has been on my heart today. It's a situation, not a testimony this time.

     For school, I'm reading a book called Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded by John Scalzi. The book is about John's blog called "Whatever" and all of the hate mail he gets from it. He is a very opinionated man with strong beliefs and morals. He talks about politics, parenting, book writing, and religion. I bolded religion because of his first chapter.

     Since John uses a nasty word, we're going to replace it with the word "butt", okay? The first chapter in this book is called "Jesus Buttheads". That immediately made me go, "Oh great, here we go." As I begin reading this chapter, John is very logical in his sentences. He talks about how he has no hatred for Christians or any believers. But what he hates are the majority. You see, he has the image that all Christians are, well, what the title of the chapter says. He explains how he has been corrected and reprimanded and talked down on by multiple "Christians" because of the way he lives his life. He even goes on to say that because of these actions all Christians are butts. Here are some quotes:

"Whatever the rationale, they're being butts."

"At no point in the Bible does Jesus say 'be a butt in My name'"

"Lots of other Christians seem to get through life without feeling called upon to be a butt in the service of Christ."

     And there's plenty more you can tell. Although he is being irrational by assuming all Christians are this word, it still disappoints me that John has been rubbed the wrong way by people who are supposed to be representing Jesus on this earth.

     It almost makes me irritated that fellow believers have made John feel this way. We are supposed to be Christ-like, not buttheads. And now because of the selfish way some believers have been acting, John has an anger towards all Christians. This makes me mad.

     Come on! We are supposed to be living our lives as Christ would, not as jerks or rude or arrogant or self-glorifying fools! We turned off a talented writer of a man from following Jesus because of our selfishness. This makes me so sad to see this happening. If Christians rubbed one man the wrong way by acting arrogant or prideful, I don't even want to know how many other people have a hatred for Christians because of our selfish acts or our prideful speech. We are no better than ANYONE. NOT ONE! We can't earn the Love we've been given so we have no right to treat others improperly because the Love is not ours to sell! The thin lines that divide the sinner from the saint leave me no pride when it all comes down to grace. Right and wrong are both missing mark. We have no right to treat non-believeers differently than we treat other believers. Sometimes I think that we all need to re-read the Gospels to see exactly what Christ stood for instead of pushing it aside.

I am in no way calling anyone out in this blog. This is just my opinion and my feelings towards a topic that hurts me.

Guarantor of the New Covenant

Hebrews 7:20-22

The author of Hebrews here shows us why the new covenant made with Jesus is superior and true: "And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:

'The Lord has sworn

and will not change his mind,

You are a priest forever.'

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant."

Yes, there's a lot of writing there and probably a lot to digest, but we're gong to get through it! "And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath..." his is just some Old Testament history here. Back in the Old Testament, priests were just chosen as priests. There were no promises made and no oaths said. Yes they were in a higher spiritual position, but there was nothing official about it. The author here writes that unlike most other priests in the past, Jesus actually took an oath when He was chosen as High Priest. "...but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, You are a priest forever.'" Again, the author states that there actually was an oath made between God and Jesus when Jesus was chosen! God sealed the deal with this priest above all others, He actually made an oath saying that Jesus will be the true high priest forever! "This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant." With all of that said, making an oath truly made Jesus the guarantor to all people that this new covenant made by Him with His people is true and will not fail, for He made an oath by it, and Jesus is not one to break promises.

So, what does this really mean? Well, I think of this more as an acknowledgement rather than an action. I encourage all who read this to take some time today and just be thankful and actually think about the efforts Jesus made for you. For all of us. He didn't just come to this earth and then die because it was all in God's plan. He sealed is truth to us through an oath, and gave up His life because He knew that He would be freeing everybody from death's grasp. Just take some time today and be thankful for the lengths our Savior went for us.

Having a Truthful Reputation

James 5:12

James leaves us with a challenge that he says is "above all" when he says, "But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation." (ESV)

This is such a great challenge for all of us, it is such a strong command that was first given by Jesus in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount. Let's start! "But above all, my brothers,..." Clearly James says that what he is about to say is most important above all things he said previously in this chapter. "...do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath..." This is the beginning of the command. He tells us not to swear by anything. That means no "I swear to God" or "I swear on my mother's grave" or "I swear on the Bible." Taking no oaths, making no promises, and not swearing is how James is telling us to live. "...but ket your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no..." This is the challenging part. If you look deep enough into it, this right here says that we need to build up a reputation of honestly. We'll go deeper into that later. "...so that you may not fall under condemnation." By letting our yes's and our no's be truly meaningful, then we will avoid being falsely accused of lying or not sticking to our word.

The challenge here is slightly hidden and calls for deeper thought, but here it is: we need to be living an honest life and have been honest in the past so that people accept our word as yes or no, they don'y need to hear us swear by anything. If we have been honest with everyone and have kept to our simple promise of "yes" or "no", then all we have to do is say those words. We need to be honest enough so that people naturally know that we stick to whatever we say. If people question our word or our promises, then we should be worried. We want others to think that "Oh Dominic, he's so honest. Whatever he says he sticks to." Or whoever else. That's our goals guys, we need to be living honest lives so that when we speak about the Gospel, people will know that we are truthful and that our word is good.

The Anchor That Brings Hope

Hebrews 6:18-19

The author of Hebrews gives us our true hope when he describes the type of hope God has given us, saying, "So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain." (ESV)

That's a lot to digest, but we're going to do it! "So that by two unchangeable things..." Previously the author referred to the covenant with Abraham that God man: God promised to do something and He also took an oath on Himself. The author of Hebrews here is saying that those two things are unchangeable. God's promises cannot be changed and neither can His oaths. He is true to His word. "...in which it is impossible for God to lie..." The author just ensures us on exactly why those two things are unchangeable. He says that it is impossible for God to lie! He can't even lie if He wanted to, He is, what we call, dedicated. "...we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us." When the author refers to the "we who have fled", that's us, the people who are having a hard time during temptation or the people who are going through pain for some other reason. The "hope set before us" is Jesus Christ. He is our hope that God has so generously given us to take for keeps and hold onto when the struggles in life get too hard for us. "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul..." Jesus Christ is our anchor. Not only that He is a sure and steadfast anchor, meaning He will always be there and cannot be shaken by any type of problem that comes. He is the foundation and the hope of our souls. "...a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain." Here I feel like the author is referring to the Holy Spirit when he says "the inner place behind the curtain", meaning He is with us always by dwelling inside of us. 

So, what exactly are we supposed to do no with this? Well, I feel like the author of Hebrews here just gave us perfectly legitimate reasons as to why we should cling to Jesus in the hard times and never think that God is ignoring us. God's oaths and promises are everlasting and cannot be broken! He has told us many promises in the Bible, all of those are staying true until the end of time! He is no liar, so He is a reliable and healthy source to run to. Just think about the concept of Jesus being the anchor of our souls. He holds us in place, He doesn't let sin shake us up or move us to a new direction, He keeps us where He wants us to be, for the good of the Kingdom. We can't run from Him and we can't make Him let go. He is an unmoving anchor. It's time we start trusting our Lord with our souls, seeing as He already is the foundation of them.

The Testimony of Nature

     I would like to write something that has been on my heart lately as I've been reading about Theology. 

     A friend of mine lent me a book called Coffeehouse Theology. As I've been reading it, I got to the chapter about proving, or, suggesting the evidence that God is in fact real. Keep in mind as you read this that this does not secure the fact that God is real, but gives very reasonable evidence that He indeed does. This evidence is called the Testimony of Nature.

     The Testimony of Nature goes as follows. Take a minute to think about all of wondrous beauty there is on this earth. Think of all of the necessary ingredients needed to build a pine tree. Think of the trillions of gallons of water that there needs to be to keep the ocean flowing. Think of all of those sea creatures that inhabit that very ocean. Now dig deeper and smaller, insect small. Inside a caterpillar, there lies a brain like all of us. Inside that brain, there is 356 muscles that function in order to keep that millimeter wide brain working. Just in one caterpillar!

     Let's take it just one more step deeper. The magnificent creation of human DNA. We as humans have discovered that our entire being and who we are is described in one single strand of DNA. Every single piece of us, that describes us and builds, is inside one strand of DNA. And that single piece of DNA is able to carefully and intelligently wrap itself up into one microscopic dot that is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. There, that period. Your entire person is built into a strand of DNA smaller than that period. How mind blowing!

     How could any of this be possible with just an accident happening in space? The Big Bang theory is described as an accident between chemicals in space. If those little chemicals accidentally exploding created this earth, are they really capable of creating all of those few things described in the above paragraphs?! How can an accident create those 356 muscles inside a caterpillar's brain? Or the trillions of gallons of water in the ocean? Or the complexity and perfection of our DNA? Only an intelligence far more intelligent than our own could have perfectly created such amazing pieces of artwork. And that intelligence is not a what, but a who!

     I just wanted to share that with you all. I am in no way trying to teach you or press anything on anyone, but I am just trying to get you all to think for a bit and understand this testimony. Just admire how much we don't know and how much we have been given to know.

     "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and domination of an intelligent and powerful Being." -Sir Isaac Newton

We Are Not the Wielders of Time

James 4:16

James calls us out in verse 16 when he says, "As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."

I believe that this is a tough verse to comprehend at times. It is short, but does carry a powerful meaning. So let us begin. "As it is..." In the beginning of this paragraph, James was previously saying how we shouldn't take our days for granted. So here, when he says that "As it is", he is referring to expecting tomorrow to come without a thought about it. "...you boast in your arrogance." Right here, James tells that as soon as we boast, we are being arrogant. Any type of boasting is a slight revealing of arrogance in our hearts. That is something that is detesting to others as well as God, for her then says "All such boasting is evil." We are showing evil in our hearts when we boast and reveal arrogance. By expecting tomorrow to come and to boast about anything in our lives, we are showing evil and arrogance inside of us.

The meaning here might be obvious now; take nothing for granted, for by doing so, you are being boastful and arrogant. James straight up tells us that when we expect things to work our way and put no thought in God changing our plans, we become arrogant and boastful. We need to be thankful just for the time God is giving us to read this blog. Thankful for the time He has given us to rest our bodies and sleep. Thankful for the mornings and the days He let's us get to a from locations safely in our cars. We need to be thankful for everything. We are not the holders of time nor do we have control over the days given to us, so who are we to expect tomorrow to come and to make plans when we don't even know if we will live though today? We must learn to be humble and be graciously thankful  for what has been given to us by the true wielder of time. 

Learning Obedience Through Our Suffering

Hebrews 5:8

The author of Hebrews reminds us of obedience through suffering when he describes Jesus in verse 8: "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered."

This is a very solid verse, so let's begin. "Although he was a son..." Even though Jesus was a son and was taught everything He knew by learning from His father and reading the bible, He also learned more through suffering. That's what this is leading to. Since Jesus was a son, there was a lot of room for other people to teach Him obedience and for Him to read about it in God's word. "...he learned obedience through what he suffered." Jesus learned to have more and more controlling obedience through His sufferings here on earth. He was tempted just as any human was because, well, He was a human! He went through the life of a man, though He was the son of God. He wasn't spoon-fed obedience and He didn't learn how to be obedient by reading, He learned to be obedient through the hardships of being a man and being tempted by Satan.

So what exactly is the author of Hebrews teaching us here? Wen need to experience temptation and suffering in order to practice full and complete obedience to God. It says right there that Jesus learned obedience that way! It requires suffering to fully trust God and to fully obey what He has set for us. How else are we supposed to show trust and obedience anyway? During our worst times, when we are going through a really bad situation, turning to Him, trusting Him, and allowing Him to work is the best way to show how much you fully put your faith in God. Not allowing suffering to take over and putting forth faith in God is what will show ultimate trust in Him. 

How to Tame the Untamable Poison Within Us

James 3:7-10

James brings down the hammer and convicts us all when he clearly and boldly says, "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (ESV)

Before we start I would just like to mention that these verses are my top three favorite verses in the bible for reasons you shall see. It's time to start. "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue." This bluntly says that it is impossible for us to control what we say! We have been able to domesticate and tame every single kind of animal, but we cannot tame our own human tongue. and never will be able to. "It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Wow, our own tongue, the part of our body that we use to speak, is restless and full of lethal poison. So, we are being told that we are not able to control the one part of our body that is full of killing poison and is also unable to sleep. Our tongues are the source of evil in our bodies and we cannot control it, no human can. "With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." This is how James shows how the tongue makes us all to be hypocrites. He says that we sing praises to God and pray to Him and worship Him, while on the side we are slandering our fellow human beings; the very creatures God made in His likeness. That sounds absolutely terrible when you really take it in: we are worshipping our God with the same instrument that we are cursing His image with. How dare we?! "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." James wraps it up here by summing up what was said above and strictly tells us that "this ought not to be so." He commands us saying that what we are doing needs to go, NOW!

So when you read all of that, it seems like we're pretty helpless, right? We contain a restless and deadly poison that makes us to be living hypocrites, and worst of all, we can't control it. What are we supposed to do then? Well, it's hard, but it is the true solution: we need to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through us and take control of our tongue at all times. In the text, it is said that no human can tame the tongue, James never said that God can't tame it. The only way for our tongues to be tamed is not by our own doing, but by the Spirit talking through us and keeping control of our tongues. This requires major obedience along with total submission to God's will, and in order to know God's will we must pray. God will tell us what He wants, He will take over when we are unable to do so. By communing with God as much as we possibly can, we will soon lose control of our tongue, not for it to go into darkness, but for God to take hold when we lose hold. Let the Spirit speak, He certainly has more wisdom and knowledge to share then we do.

Understanding and Comprehending the Full Power of the Sharpest Sword

Hebrews 4:12

The author of the letter to the Hebrews really brings out the full meaning of the Word of God when he says, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Dang, it's time to get crackin' with this one. "For the word of God is living and active..." The word of God, meaning the entire Bible, every word, is living and is active in our lives. It is obviously called the Word of God, and since God is living and active, so therefore wouldn't His words be too? "...sharper than any two-edged sword..." I'm not sure who knows what a two-edged sword is ad what not, so I'll explain. A regular sword has one end that is sharp and the other that is slightly dull, sort of like a kitchen knife, but bigger. A two-edged sword is sharpened on both sides of the blade, making it very dangerous and leaving room for many injuries if the wielder does not know how to properly use it. The author of Hebrews here is saying that the word of God is even more powerful than a two-edged sword! It is lethal when used correctly, and can convict anyone. "...piercing to the division of soul and of spirit..." Do any of you know where the division line is between someone's soul and someone's spirit? I have absolutely no clue. We can't even see a soul or a spirit, yet, God's word is capable of drawing a fine line between the two. "...of joints and of marrow..." A joint is where two bones collide and create a bend, such as our knuckles, our elbows, our fingers, etc. Marrow is inside of our bones, marrow is part of the bone itself, it's what makes up the bone. How is it possible to take one without the other? Or, let alone, separate the two? You can't take a bone without the marrow and you certainly can't just have the marrow without have the bone in there also. BUT, God's word is capable of easily dividing the two components. It has that power, metaphorically. It can do the impossible, accomplish what has never happened. "...and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." By reading the word of God, any difficult decisions or choices you're about to make can easily be settled in it. Discernment is the knowledge of what is good compared to what is evil. By reading the Word, we are able to be shown and told what is good in our hearts and what is bad in our hearts.

Guys, this take away is a matter of salvation: READ THE BIBLE. Read read read read read!!! After reading all of that depth about what the Word can do, why don't we read it?! It's been a gift FREELY given to us, and it has IMMENSE power to do the IMPOSSIBLE! We can accomplish so much by staying in the Word and by reading it daily. IT IS GOD'S WORDS SPOKEN BY HIM TO US. So why don't we USE it?!?! I feel like if this entry doesn't convict of SOMETHING, then I have failed. Guys, use the power God has given us, it can accomplish the impossible and can discern the toughest of choices; use God's words.

Living a Dead Faith

James 2:17

Near the middle of the second chapter of James' letter, he writes, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (ESV)

When you read that, I pray that this verse shakes some people. This verse is very short and can be broken down easily, so we'll get into it. In this chapter James was talking about doing good works, and then he throws this verse in the mix. Looking at the overall verse, James is pretty much saying that if you talk the talk but don't walk the walk, then your faith is worthless. And that's true! What kind of Savior would Jesus be if all He did was walk around and say He's the Son of God without performing miracles or traveling or allowing Himself to be crucified? He wouldn't be a Savior! The main goal for believers is to go out and share the Gospel to the ends of the earth, you can't do that if you're sitting on your couch all day and not doing anything to benefit the Kingdom. That is our goal: building up the Kingdom and sharing what God has to say.

So what is James ultimately saying here? If you are living a faith without works, you are a hypocrite, you're lukewarm, you are not building up the Kingdom of God, and Jesus will ultimately spit you out of His MOUTH! By sitting down playing XBOX all day or gossiping and partying every night (No judgement intended at all), you are not glorifying God, you are being idle. James says your faith is dead. If you are doing nothing physically to go out and live your life dedicated to Jesus, your faith may as well be dead, and a dead faith is a faith that God won't accept. This verse is simple and hard to the punch, but has the most truest of words. If you talk the talk then you better walk the walk, because Jesus won't have a lukewarm attendee in His Kingdom.

Praise Is the Key to Kicking Satan Out

Hebrews 3:13

The author of the letter to the Hebrews gives us a sort of "final call" by saying, "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today', that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

This is really good stuff. You ready? Let's go. "But exhort one another every day." The word exhort means to give praise to, or encourage. The author is telling us that encouraging, loving, and uplifting our brothers and sisters is something that is considered very important. "as long as it is called today..." Right here the author is referring to the end of history, or, "Judgement Day." He is saying that we need to start showing more love and encouraging each other before times runs out here. "...that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." By encouraging others and showing love to them, it will give them another reason not to fall into the temptations of Satan. If we are constantly encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ, then there is no room for Satan to come in and mess things up.

What is the author trying to tell us here? The same thing we've been hearing in Roman's a lot: by constant encouragement and love, Satan cannot make his way into the hearts of believers. We need to be always uplifting each other so that we all feel loved. That is Satan's lie, isn't it? He tells us that we're not loved and that God has forgotten us. But if we are always showing love on our fellow believers, then they won't believe Satan's lie! How can you believe one false lie from Satan when you have hundreds of believers showing love on you? It cancels him out. So let's start encouraging and loving our brothers and sisters in order to keep Satan OUT.

Don't Get Mad Over Spilt Milk

As you all should know, we finished Romans! Which now means that it is time for another book to be studied through; and that book is James! My personal favorite book. Let's start!

James 1:20

In the beginning chapter of James' letter, he pours out much wisdom and informs us that, "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

That is such a deep verse when you really read into it. Think about it for a moment: how often do we angry? Whether we're mad for a second because we hit our toe against the wall or we are in the midst of holding a grudge because someone betrayed us. No matter how it comes up or how long it lasts for, anger is anger. "The anger of man." Anger comes from man. God does not hold anger in His emotional chest, it's not His! Since anger is of man, it is of the flesh, and as we know, anything being of the flesh is sin created by Satan. Anger is from Satan and is a sin. "...does not produce the righteousness of God." Isn't that our goal though? To be showing the righteousness of God throughout the earth? But, James is saying here that if we are angry, we are doing the exact opposite of what we are aiming for! We're not helping God when we are revealing angry, we are working against Him! We are just showing more and more proof that Satan is active with the more anger we show. 

I think this is a gimme with the take away: we need to develop patience and relaxation in our lives. Instead of instantly getting upset and angry over your jammed toe, just take a moment to wonder if screaming a curse word and yelling is going to help. Is it? No. So then why do it? Why not just sit right on the ground and hold it to try and muffle the pain? That requires patience. Same thing goes for speech. If someone says something that would normally anger us, just sit back, relax, and think about if that is really something worth getting mad about. Just lightly brush it off, or lovingly react to what they said. Praying for patience and peace is a genuine prayer that will be answered. Letting go of anger and holding onto love and peace is something we all need to do. This is something everyone struggles with, and it can be solved. Living a life more surrounded by peace, patience and love is the key to flourishing God's righteousness.

Calling on the Power of the One Who Overcame

Hebrews 2:18

The author of the book of Hebrews explains a little about Jesus' compassion through this verse in the end of chapter two by saying, "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." (ESV)

When I read this verse just now, it was almost like a "Oh wow, that actually makes sense," moments, if you know what I mean. We shall see. When the author says "he" or "himself", he is referring to Jesus, keep note. "For because he himself (Jesus) has suffered when tempted." Jesus was a human. We was man. He was also God in the form of man. We know that. Seeing as He was a man though, He was open to be tempted, which He was, by Satan. The author here also gives us information that Jesus suffered when He was tempted! He suffered. He wasn't invulnerable to temptation, He was a man. He suffered just like we suffer and struggle with our temptations. The only difference? He always overcame them. He was a man that was able to overcome any temptation that was thrown His way. So, by knowing that, the author finishes up by saying, "he is able to help those who are being tempted." He has been there. Jesus has gone through temptations that are worse than what we have to go through today. It's one of those "been there done that" situations. Whenever we are going through a hard time or are struggling with a temptation, Jesus is compassionate on us and tells that He has gone through temptation, and since He has, He can help us through it! We are not alone in temptation, He is capable of helping us seeing as He is God and has gone through His very own temptations.

The gist? When we are going through tough times and are in the midst of being tempted, we need to call on Jesus for help. He offers help to us! He can and will help us because He has been able to overcome temptations 1,000,000 times worse! When we admit that we can't fight through this temptation on our own strength and call on Him for help, He will rescue us out of it. It's even said here in verse 18. He can help those who are also being tempted. Let's start doing that then, huh? Since we are only human and can't overcome temptations on our own, why not ask the God who went through the worst temptations of all and overcame them for help?

Being Wise as to What is Good and Innocent of Evil

Roman's 16:19-20

To finish up the letter that he wrote to the Roman's, Paul brings down the final gist of his writings in two verses: "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." (ESV)

Dang, what a statement. I just want to dig right in! So, in the beginning, he says, "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you..." Paul is giving them encouragement here. He is telling the Romans that their obedience to God is making him happy and he is proud to rejoice over them. Everyone loves a little encouragement, and that's what Paul is doing here. Then, though, he reminds them of something he wants them to stand by when he says, "But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil." That's a children's song that I remember singing! "Be excellent, of what is good; be innocent, of evil." That's a great status or statement to stand by. He is telling them to master, to know, to live by everything that is good, and to stray, and avoid, and block out everything that is evil. So that when Christ comes back, we will be blameless and be called innocent of all that is evil; because, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Satan obviously has everything to do with evil. He is called "The Prince of the Earth", or otherwise known has the prince of evil. He thrives off of sin. So when it is said that God will crush Satan, that means all of evil will be crushed as well, which is why we must be innocent of evil. If we are innocent of evil, we will not be crushed, but will be saved. But, if we are not innocent of evil, we will be crushed with Satan as well. Then Paul just closes that paragraph with his normal letter closing.

I feel like the call of this verse is pretty clear: "Stray from evil and thrive off of what is good." God is good, Satan is evil. If we live off of what is good and "be wise as to what is good," we will be living with God. But if we live with evil, we will not be innocent of it and we will be crushed by the living God. Guys, we need to start throwing away the addictions or the parts in our lives where Satan has control and where there is no good. We will be crushed if we are living by evil, it is said so here. Here is a good statement someone told me: Do you believe in God? Yes. Do you believe in Satan? Yes. Do you believe God? Yes. Do you believe Satan? NO! There is a HUGE difference between believing something and believing in something! We need to stop falling for Satan's lies, and start falling God's arms.

Since we just finished Romans, I would like to close in another prayer:

God, thank you so much for the wisdom You poured out into us through the apostle Paul. We thank you for his letter to the Romans and all of the knowledge we can gain from it. We are thankful to be reading and writing this blog and understanding key concepts you want us to understand. I pray that somewhere in these 16 chapters in these 16 verses that we will be convicted and understand a change that needs to happen. I pray for renewing through the book of Romans and Paul's writing. We love You so much and couldn't be anymore thankful for all that You have blessed us with. Amen.

Getting a Glimpse of What Angels are About

Since we finished 1 Thessalonians two days ago, that means it's time for another book to be studied through. Through prayer, Hebrews was the chosen book. Keep in mind as well that there is no definite author for this book, so we will not be mentioning who wrote it or exactly to whom it was directed towards.

Hebrews 1:14

The author in Hebrews gives us some insight about angels in the beginning chapter when he says, "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" (ESV)

The concept of angels has always interested me. Finding out exactly who they are and what they are and what purpose they have and what they look like. It's just so fascinating. And angels are the topic of this verse here. In the beginning of the verse, it is said, "Are they not all ministering spirits..." That's the beginning information. So what we were just told is that angels are meant to be ministers. They teach us about God, they deliver us messages. Throughout the entire Bible angels deliver messages to prophets and people. They are spirits that are purposed to be ministering. "...sent out to serve..." They are servants. So, they are of no authority is what this author is saying. They are servants, meaning they are serving a person, or a being, known as, well, God! They serve God just like we do, so we are somewhat near the same level perhaps? We serve God on earth, they serve God by delivering messages for Him. That's pretty interesting. "...for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation." There it is, boom. They are ministering servants who are meant to serve the ones who are heirs to salvation, or, in other words, US! They are sent out by God to give us information about God. They serve both God first, and then us! Isn't that a cool and unique feeling? God has created angels and sends them out to preach messages given by Him and they serve us by creating that message system. So interesting.

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out how we should go about living off of this. I've come to one of probably many conclusions: we need to listen carefully in the quietness of our lives. I'll explain. So one, we need to be able to spend time in quietness for God to hear what He has to say. Angels came to prophets and people in the Bible in softness. There was never chaos and havoc happening when all of a sudden an angel came! It was in peaceful moments, moments of quiet time. Then, we need to listen. Prayer. Praying is our key and our direct communication to God. By praying, we understand what His will is and what He has to say to us, whether it is form an angel or from the Spirit inside of us. Let's devote silence to God and hear what message needs to be delivered. 

Roman's 15

Roman's 15:20

When Paul is talking about his ministry in the mid eastern areas, he makes it clear what his aim is when he says, "And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation."

Paul has made a great and clear goal with this verse to us. This verse also speaks to us in the sense of preaching the Gospel. Firstly he says that "I make it my ambition to preach the gospel." That should be everyone's ambition. Whether we are pastors or garbage truck drivers, it is our goal to be preaching the Gospel to everyone that we meet or come in contact with! Then he says, "not where Christ has already been named, lest i build one someone else's foundation." This is a big one. He is saying here that he does not want to go to different cities and countries that already know Christ and have heard the Gospel. That would be a waste of time, no? Why spend your time trying to preach the Gospel to a zone that already knows it and is living by it's standards? Paul makes the metaphor that he would be "building on someone else's foundation." Why build a water fountain at a park that already has seven? Go to a new park that has none and build one there! Same thing, why build and raise up a church in an area that already loves Jesus, when there are hundreds of countries that are filled with people who have never even heard of the name Jesus!

So what is this calling us to exactly? Well, Paul is telling us to not waste the time we have here on Earth and make the most of it by spreading the Gospel. Why would a pastor go to school and get a major in Christian Ministries and then go to a church that is fully functional and already succeeding? That's a waste of time! Instead, he should go out to poverty stricken cities in the U.S. or countries in Africa or Asia where there is poverty everywhere and Jesus no where. We need to check our priorities here and understand that there is still work to be done everywhere else on EARTH, not just in our neighborhood! So let's go out and start planting the seeds of Christ in people's lives who have never thought of having a relationship with Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

To finish up the book of Thessalonians, Paul gives us another command to help our fellowship with God by saying, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (ESV)

What powerful words! Let's go through them, shall we? "Rejoice always." That's something we never do. Do we rejoice if our car gets hit by another? Do we rejoice when we jam our toe on the table leg? Do we rejoice when we find out that our credit cards have been denied? No! But Paul is telling us to do so. Back in the days when Paul wrote this letter, the Thessalonians were going through horrible persecution on a daily basis. The last thing they wanted to do was rejoice! But Paul told them to do so, because it will matter in the end. "Pray without ceasing." That's another tough one for us. I can tell you honestly that I do not pray every chance that I get. What Paul is telling to do, though, is just that. If we are killing time or waiting for something, why not say a quick prayer? It'll do nothing bad but grow our fellowship with God, and that is something that He loves. Lastly, "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Paul retouches the same concept of rejoicing always. Give thanks in all circumstances! That's nearly impossible for us! As humans, it isn't normal to give thanks for the death of a family member or a friend. It's hard to give thanks when our house burns down, or we lose a job. There is a key component here though: THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR US!!! God's will is for us to always give thanks, no matter the situation! Whether we are happy about it or sad about it, we are to always give thanks and continue on. It is His will after all.

The take away can be really hard to apply, but here it is: we need to obey God's will, no matter what it consists of. If He wants us to be happy, then we must be happy. If He wants us to rejoice, then rejoice. If it will make Him delighted when we talk to Him through prayer, then let's start praying more. Somehow or someway, by doing these things it will benefit us or others for the greater Good. By constantly showing happiness, it will inspire others to be just as happy or to ask us why we are always happy and give us a chance to share our faith. If we rejoice in pretty bad situations, then people will notice that and ask us the same thing. The more we pray, the more we will get to know God's will, which is never bad thing. Prayer grows our fellowship with Him, so we need to be taking advantage of that. Let's start doing what the Earth tells us is wrong, so that we will be given opportunities to share our relationship with Jesus.

Since this is the end of the book of 1 Thessalonians, I'd like to finish off with a prayer below:

God, I pray that throughout these 5 chapters of 1 Thessalonians, somewhere we were all convicted of something. I pray that everyone who reads this blog will get a new and different taste of what You have to say to us, and allow us to apply radical changes in our lives. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to write blogs like these and continue to analyze your Word. I love you so much and continue to pray for more comprehension and more blogs to be written in the future. Amen.