Something to think about???

I recently watched a message by Rick Warren and the 2013 Resurgence Conference. It was a so enlightening. He helped me to see how much FAITH I really lack. I would tell anyone to go listen or watch it. The thing that hit me the most was how simply he articulated our sin problem. He uses the terms “Lust of the flesh”,”Pride of life”,and “Lust of the eyes”. These are the three things that every sin is rooted in. The most well known place that we see this is in the Garden of Eden. Eve is temped to by all three. She lusted after the fruit on the tree seeing that it was good to eat. Then desired to be like God. So, she took the fruit and ate it. 

In our culture these three things are intertwined with everything we do. We see it everyday on our TV's, on our billboards,  and in the every day interactions we have with people. It has opened my eyes to the sins that are placed before me everyday. It has challenged me to put to death those things in my life that I see as common place. To be closer to my Savior I must die to the things of this world. Therefore, I am making a complete evaluation of all of the things that I am doing in my life. I am taking the things that are not going to push me closer, or help me to walk closer with Jesus. So, I ask you what are you changing in your life? What can you cut out? What can you put in place to draw you closer to Jesus? 

Colossians 1:21-23

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

     God is in the business of reclaiming and reconciling things back to himself.  This Scripture is letting us know that in spite of ourselves God wants us to be his. He is saying, "Hey you, come here! I have something for you. I did this amazing thing for you. While you where making your own decisions about life I sent my son for you. He went on a rescue mission. Yes, a rescue mission. For you, and yes it hurt. It hurt me so much that I had to turn from it. It pained me to see my son like that." 

     Jesus had to take on and bare the weight of sin. There was nothing in creation that could handle cleansing us from sin. The sacrifice of animals was just a way to show you that nothing could or would clean us from the sin problem that we have. Only someone that was truly without spot or blemish would reconnect us back to God the way we are meant to be. Jesus is the lamb of God that both cleanses us from sin and then by his blood allows us to walk in a new nature. Not by us, or by our actions but by his being in our place. 

Jesus

     I think people today are missing the big picture of the bible. It is Jesus. The Bible is all about Jesus. This might be as simple or fundamental as something could ever be but it is so important. So I look to the book of Colossians. 

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by[f] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

    Paul means that Jesus is the first of us all. Before creation was made he was. If we believe in a God that was before creation why don’t we put him first before us? Our lives were placed under his supremacy. Then WHY do we stress over the trivial things in life? When he has taken care of those trivial things. 

     We have a problem in the Church today. We forget Jesus. He is the cornerstone of the Church. He is in all of scripture. We miss him most often when reading the Old Testament. Shoot we forget him when we teach the New Testament. But, he is all over the book. He is so forgotten. 

     I would love for people to put scripture is such high regards in our lives. We put TV shows, sporting events,  concerts over the Christ. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy some good mindless entertainment once in a while but, we have forgotten our first love. Just like the church in Ephesus in the book of Revelations. The reason that our people are not growing is Jesus is not lifted up as priority in our lives. We are looking for four steps to a better prayer life! Let's just do this. Read the scriptures, sit with Jesus in prayer and plead with him. Maybe if we did that we would see change. The only thing you need to experience is Jesus. If when we lay our heads down at night we have not pursued him, at the end of that day Satan has won the battle. Let our view of Jesus be higher than everything in life. Then we will have peace in him. 

What change can I do???

  I recently finished reading a book by my favorite author Tim Keller. The title is Generous Justice. The book tries to open your eyes to live out a life focused on how you truly do social justice in light of the Gospel. This is a constant struggle we have to deal with everyday. I always come back to Matthew 25:45 ……you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. 

     This verse gets straight to it as Jesus always does. He goes for the heart. He never disappoints when it comes to that. Where is your heart in doing what you are doing? Jesus never looks at the external. He sees the internal matter of the heart. That is what Tim Keller is getting at in his book. Because of the generous God that placed you on this earth in this time and because he wants to love you into a relationship with himself. What will you do for the least of these?

     Will you sit in your box? Would you be willing to not think about yourself and your own self gratification? Or, be consumed by a loving God that sent his son in the most generous act of love to die on a cross for people that did not deserve his love, yet gave it to you for free? Take the free gift and give it to the least of these.

Tim Keller #1

     I've decided to take a little bit of a break from the Genesis Series and do something a bit different. I enjoy reading books about our faith. I am always highlighting sentences that really stand out to me. So, I was thinking about how I could take that little sentence and really expand on the thought of the author and speak about how it would effect me as I walk out my faith in Jesus. So, lets start with my favorite author Tim Keller.

     The quote is "Jesus must become more beautiful than our idols." I found the quote by following the twitter handle @DailyKeller. I can't say exactly what book this came from. My research suggests that it came from Reason for God.

     I find this quote to be such a beautiful explanation of what Jesus wants for us. We must put Jesus before the things of this world that come to take our time, money, and attention. This is really the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:2). Idols are not always bad things. They are good things that can become God things. We need to see Jesus as more desirable than the idols that we place in front of Jesus everyday.

     Here are some questions to ask yourself. What idols am I placing in front of Jesus? Is Jesus even beautiful to me? Why don't I see Jesus as beautiful? How can Jesus become beautiful to me? Am I constantly placing Jesus first everyday?

Blind

     I posted something on Facebook about this just to let people know the sadness that I see in our society. We makes stances on things but we don't back up our opinions. We bandstand about something and then go back to our pretty life and do nothing about it. 

     We as Americans have bought into the HYPE. Not me. The media feeds us information about this and that and we make stands on Facebook but get off of our soapbox as soon as we post our voice. We vent our frustrations about injustice but don't do anything about it. In a nation of such abundance, we are unwilling to sacrifice to make a change. Our life is consumed by the idea that we can make a change but nobody is making that change. We Need Change is what I heard but is there true change. I'm not trying to make it political so don't take it that way. 

     I looked at my most of my friends on Facebook make such ignorant statements. I was so disappointed in people. Should I not be disappointed? We are flawed people leaving in an imperfect world. We are naturally going to say things like this. With an imperfect justice system why should we be surprised? The thing about justice is people want to preach justice until it does not agree with their cause. Funny how people feel when the shoe is on the other foot. 

     Now to the race/color thing. I am a looked at in the world as a Black/African American male. Truth be told my father/sperm donor is a Hispanic male. My mother is an African American woman. Now if I came out looking like my dad a fair skinned male verse looking like my mother a dark skinned woman that changes the way people would look at me. How sad is that? Are we ignorant enough to believe the lie? The lie that depending on the color of someones skin they are either one way or the other. Have people not died to stop this?  Yes, we continue the cycle when we spew hate on the inner webs and then out into the world with our words and actions. 

      In conclusion, we as a people must be the change that we want to see in the world. That is what I live by. We show people that change can come. Change will come when you step out to be that change. We must educate people about the ignorance that they put out in this world. I know that there will be people that will not want to receive it but that must not stop us from doing it. So, what do you think? 

Baptized

So, today I got baptized. This won't be long. After many years of being a follower of Jesus I decided to make the plunge. A long long time ago..... I was baptized as a baby. But, when I became a believer at the age of 19 I understood what I was doing to be a follower Christ but never felt that I "Had" to be baptized. I wasn't saved by baptism I was saved by the inner workings of the spirit. After many years of back and forth discussion I never felt that there was a necessity for me to be baptized. But, after listening to multiple sermons about baptism I became convicted. But, stubborn ole me said forget about it. But then on Wednesday God/Dorrien was speaking to me again. Now without a doubt my I knew this is what I had to do. Then I said today would be the day June 2 2013. I would be baptized as an adult professing my faith. 

Oh what grace we do not understand When one man made a stand 

That man was Christ who was there for thee  

For the blind and lost he died for me  

The Tower of Babel

If you have been reading all of my posts on the this Genesis series my posting might start to sound like I'm repeating myself. I am. Don't get me wrong idea about what is going on. My goal in all of these postings is to show you how Jesus is consistent throughout the scriptures. I would be doing a disservice to the writing of the scriptures if I was not showing how Jesus is at the heart of the Old Testament. We see that the people are trying to make a tower to God. Genesis 11:4 is the verse that I want to park at for a little bit. ";i[-Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." They are trying to build a tower to reach the heavens. They are trying to work their way to God. This might not be looked at as a big deal. Sometimes we look over verses as if they are just little details in the scriptures. This is not just a little detail. We are reading an essential piece of our faith. We must live out of our faith and not out of our works. They are doing some thing that only God can do through Jesus. This is what we do practically everyday. We try to save ourselves. It is Jesus that saves us. If we go to verse 5 it talks about God going down. Does God come down to us from the heavens? Yes, Jesus came down to us. Jesus came down to unite us. He made us one nation. In Genesis he confused our speech but, on the cross Jesus makes us a nation united by God. The Tower of Babel is just one more illustration of the Gospel. It is shows us how we can not do this by ourselves. It is by the grace of God. I could go longer but I just want you to grab some pieces to think about. I hope that this has been beneficial for you. 

The Sons of Noah(Genesis 9:18-29)

This is a portion of scripture that I have never heard anyone teach about so here we go. This is the story about the sons of Noah. I think I need to state this before I continue further. As I write this I assume that you have looked at or have some basic understanding about these scriptures. I am not really providing an outline or back story on most of these.  So, as we see Noah has become drunk off of  wine. This is a repeated theme that happens throughout the bible. God blesses someone and starts new but they then can not walk completely in that blessing placed on them. Adam did it and now Noah is continuing the cycle. This further illustrates our need for a savour in Jesus. Because Noah could not sustain the covenant that he made with God, his sons had to cover his nakedness(SIN). Noah's sons are being like Jesus by covering him up. Jesus blood covered all our sins. Sometimes I really have to search long and hard to see Jesus in all scripture, but this one really stands out.

The Flood

      The topic now is the flood. This is not the first promise that God gave us but it is one that we often remember. The story of the flood is more that just a man and his family in a boat for months on end. It is a story about the gospel. Yes, the gospel is in the old testament. If you don't learn anything while reading this Genesis series I want you to learn that there is no real difference between God in the New or Old Testament. Our God is the same yesterday today and forever. So lets jump in. I really struggled about writing this post. Should I break this up into chapters, themes, or should I just do a character study. I decided to just take this massive chunk of scripture. There are two pieces of this story I want to focus on. It is Genesis chapter 6 and Genesis 9:4-6. In chapter 6 he starts to talk about the bloting out of man a whom he had created. So, God was so grieved that he was willing to sacrifice the thing that he created in his own image and likeness. But, as soon as that verse was over it says in Genesis 6:8, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." This is the thing that puts us, you and I into the place that God has put us in. But, Jim found favor, but Alex found favor, but Leah found favor. This favor is not just because that particular person is special; this favor is grace. The grace of God fell on us but not on Jesus on the cross. God placed our sin on Jesus. We receive the favor/grace that did not fall on Jesus. The covenant that God makes with Noah is not just a covenant with him and for that time and place. It represents the new covenant that Jesus talks about at the Last Supper. The cleansing of the earth is not just killing all of the wicked people. It shows us how by the grace of God he will cleanse us of all iniquity and sin in our life.

     We also see in chapter 9 starting at verse 4-6, God is talking to Noah about the covenant again that he promised to Noah. What we don't realize is that the reckoning God is calling for is what he will do on the cross by reckoning his son in our place for our sins. His life blood will cleanse us from our separation with God. The lifeblood that we will drink of is the new covenant. Walk in the new covenant that was paid for us on the cross by Jesus. Drink from his cup the cup of life, not death. 

Cain and Abel

I am going to be going through the whole book of Genesis and pointing out all of the parts that point to Jesus. Now, I'm not the greatest at doing this but I will try to do my best by the grace of God. Today we are in chapter 4 of Genesis. Looking at the story of Cain and Abel. This is the first recorded murder in the Bible so we have to take great detail in looking a these two people. The story of Cain and Abel is about two brothers that give an offering to God and God accepts one offering and not the other. So, Cain murders his brother out of rage. But, what we don't see is how this murder spells the Gospel out to us. Both of them go to God and present offerings but, Abel's offering is received by God and Cain's offering is not. It is because Abel brought the first portion of everything as the offering whereas Cain did not. So, Cain becomes mad and kills his brother. The best part of this is that God already knew what Cain planned on doing but still gave him a choice to decide what to do. And so we know that he murders Abel. Abel's blood cried out to God as Jesus' blood cleanses us while crying out on the cross to his father. Abel is just a depiction of how the blood of Christ washes us. We, you and me, are Cain killing Abel and Jesus out of our anger and discontent towards Jesus and each other. Now God in his mercy and love gives GRACE to Cain by allowing him to live as a restless wanderer on the earth. We are restless wanderers on this earth until we meet our savior Jesus Christ. Till next time let the peace of Christ dwell in you richly. 

The Fall

Hello everyone I said that my goal was to post something once a month. Now I have this constant urge to start writing again so, I'm not going to hold myself back. I'm going to be continuing on my new favorite thing to talk about the Old Testament. I want to focus on the book of Genesis. In the book of beginnings would be the best place to begin. Chapter three will be my main focus. This chapter is all about the Fall. At the end of the chapter we see the first sacrifice. It is never mentioned that God had to sacrifice an animal for the garments for Adam and Eve. But, if we think about this a little more we have to realize that this animal was most likely without blemish. That animal had to cover them from the nakedness that they were ashamed of. Not just that but the sins that they had committed. God covered them in more that one way. He covers us from our shame, our sin and our nakedness. This is just a foreshadow of Jesus. The one that cleanses us for all of those things. I think that the idea of God covering them from their nakedness is very important. We must try to be naked spiritually. He wants us to be free to be the people that he created us to be. Without that we are just covering ourselves in a mask. We are all participants in the grand masquerade party. But, God is asking us to come from behind the mask and come to the real party. The great banquet that Jesus talks about in Luke 14. 

Devotion Time

Recently I have found it extremely hard to get a consistent devotional time.  With two kids working full time and all of the many things that have to get done on an everyday basis. As I do this I am on my way to a job site and typing this on my phone. But, I have been having some of the most amazing God moments in my life these past few weeks. I have been having some of the greatest revelations about scripture. I have had the most amazing God moments are on my way to the gym in the morning and in the shower. Not to be funny or anything. I said all of that to say that what time you have can be redeemed if you open up the time to allow God to minister to you. Allow God to speak into your life in those cracks of your life that you don't think he can get into.

The Bible

I know that I have not been on here in a long time. My new goal is to do a post at least once a month. Life is just really crazy and I would like to use this as a place of discussion about whatever may be going on in my life. It could be about parenting church stuff anything that comes up in my life. Anything that I might think people would like to discuss.

So, with that being said I would like to talk about the Bible. Yes, the Bible. I was listening to a message recently and it was about the Bible and why we have it. It was done well but there was something missing for me. We come to the scriptures and look for what is being said and what is going on. Most of the time we are looking for application. It is the most practical way to read the Bible. But a lot of the time we miss Jesus. Yes, Jesus. He is why the book is here. He is the living word of God. Often times we read a text in the Old Testament and we see David and characters like him and we see stories about people. They are tales of how they made it through a troubling time with the help of God. I think that we are missing Jesus in the story. If the Bible is God's love letter to us why do we not see the "Word" the second part of the trinity Jesus in his word? I think this is missed most commonly in the Old Testament. In Luke after Jesus has been resurrected Jesus tells his disciples how all of the scriptures are about him. The law,and the prophets all of it is about him. Each main character in the Old Testament is a picture of Jesus. Moses leading the people out of the bondage and slavery of the Egyptians is Jesus leading us out of the bondage and slavery of our sins. Jonah is the prophet that was in the belly of a whale for three days. Jesus laid in the belly of the earth but rose from the grave in three days. Job was blameless just as Jesus was but was put through suffering to receive all of the riches back that God had taken from him. Just as Abel's blood cried out to God. It is Jesus blood crying out to us cleaning us for all sin and iniquity. There is so much more to the scriptures than just at first glance. Jesus is prophet priest and king. Each prophet priest or king in the Old Testament are pictures of Jesus. This is just a small glimpse into seeing Christ in the Old Testament. This is just a little piece. I would love to see if this helps anyone while looking they study the scriptures. Please let me know if this helps your study.