He Is Unchanging

The other day I was listening to a new album I received for christmas. The album is comprised of mostly instrumentals and one of the sings is Hot N' Cold by Katy Perry. Which of course reminded me of the original version and the lyrics.

'Cause you're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in then you're out
You're up then you're down
You're wrong when it's right

Why am I mentioning a secular artist's lyrics? The reason is because the chorus reminds me of how People change and they change their mind, but God doesn't change. God is unchanging. His grace is always sufficient. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He loves us unconditionally.

Katy Perry was singing about a relationship with a person. She was tired of this guy who was always changing his mind. We are human and therefore we are not perfect and we aren't always the same. Our relationship with God is much different though.

God's love is unconditional so it doesn't matter if we messed up again. He will still love us the same. He will never leave us either. He won't just one day decide to stop loving and caring for us.

It shouldn't be hard for us to trust someone who doesn't change, will always love us, and will always be there for us. Do we really let God have control of our life or do we still have one hand on our life because we are afraid to trust Him? We should realize that the truth that God is profoundly unchanging is a very important truth and it lets us know that we are in good hands.

He Gave His Life For You

The other week just like many other times I was driving to Williamsport and listening to a cd by an artist I haven't listened to for a while. The next song came on and it was always one I never liked too much because the music wasn't my favorite and slightly repetitive, but this time I listened to the lyrics and my opinion of the song completely changed.

Savior - By PureNRG
Let me introduce you to Jesus
Let me introduce you to Jesus
He's got so much love for you
That He opened up His arms 
and gave His life for you

That chorus right there explains everything about why I love Jesus and live for Him. I want to write more about those lyrics, but to me they explain just about everything.

Its crazy to think of how Jesus came down here to earth, but not to just dwell among us and try and make the world a better place by His love and example. He came down to earth to give the strongest and greatest display of His amazing and great love for us by dying for our sins.

Think about it. How high would you rate your life's importance to you? Would your life have any importance if you were dead or never given life? Life and death is a big deal.

God's son Jesus came and gave His life away so that we may receive everlasting life. He did not just give His love or words of truth, but He gave His life. Do we realize that He profoundly loves us so much that He gave His life for us?

Too Many Words

A while ago we read a proverb in Sunday school that for some reason has stuck with me for awhile. I guess its mainly because its something I feel like I struggle with and maybe others do too. Recently I have thought about the verse more and how if I head what it says I may get closer to being who I want to be.

Proverbs 17:27-28
The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.
Often times I know that there are things I say that I shouldn't have. I say things when I think of them unless I somehow have the mind to think enough to stop my tongue. This proverb also makes me think about how if I talked less I would be seen as if I was wise. If I didn't say too much, if I didn't voice my opinions so much, if I didn't have the nerve to say what I write on this blog would people think I'm more wise? When do we say something and when do we be silent? When is too much too much?

Now I don't mean to hate or attack those of whom argue or post unimportant or useless stuff on the Internet. However, whether it be on YouTube, twitter, Facebook, or whatever I think we have the tendency to say things we shouldn't. We want to say what we think and want others to think like we do, but is what we think good to say? Does what we think have wisdom in it? The second question is should others think like we do? If we think that others should think like we do because our way is best that is quite conceited if I may say so.

Like the proverb says, one with knowledge is careful of what he says and even if you are one who doesn't always say the best things if you learn to hold your tongue you will be thought of as wise. We should be careful of what we say, where, and when we do because the profound implications of our words can hold or take our reputation for knowledge, wisdom, or respect.

God vs. Sleep

This may be more of a teenager thing, but for me I know there are mornings, most mornings in fact, that when my alarm goes off I don't want to get up because I was up too late the night before. Well it so happens that in the morning is the best time for me to get into God's word and talk to Him.

In the morning my mind is more fresh, can think better, and is less distracted. Also there is nothing like being able to talk to God, the creator of everything, and being able to learn from what He says.

The thing is none of this happens if when my alarm goes off I don't get up, turn my light on, and start to read the Bible. I'm sure most of us have struggled with this at some point. Do we get up and talk to God  or do we get some more "needed" sleep?

A few weeks ago I was struggling with getting up early enough to talk to my maker. Then one day as I was driving it hit me, I'm comparing spending time with God to getting a little bit more sleep. Does it make sense that if I were to make an actual list of what is most important in my life based off of my daily actions God and maybe thirty extra minutes of sleep would be quite close?

I find that fact pathetic. What that pretty much means is based off of my actions I would rather do nothing and sleep a little than spend time with God.

I don't know about you, but I wonder if we all do the same thing, but in different ways. Do we do something of little importance instead of spending time with God? Are we going to do something about that? Is spending time with God and getting to know Him most important in your life? We should realize that spending time with God is profoundly so much more important, live changing, and exciting than spending a few more minutes asleep.

Forest Fires

Ever since you were little you have heard the phrase "Only you can prevent forest fires" which as you know was said by Smokey the bear. Even though that statement is true that doesn't mean that all forest fires are started by humans.

God created the world to have natural forest fires so that the undergrowth and dead trees can be eliminated. That way the forest isn't completely made up of old trees, there is more room for other trees, and there is new healthy growth. Even though it seams that the fire is killing that which is good and just destroying creation, in reality the killing allows for new healthier growth.

Sometimes we must experience the occasional forest fire to learn and grow. What I mean is that sometimes God allows for troubles and trials to come our way like a forest fire so that the bad unhealthy things are killed and new growth can flourish.

For us as human beings sometimes we have our dead trees, our sin that gets in the way and doesn't allow new growth to happen in our lives. God may send that fire or tragedy in our lives to help us kill that sin that is keeping us from growing in Him. We have sin in our lives that looks like the undergrowth it doesn't seem like much of a problem, but when God sends the fire we are able to see that our sin is a problem. We then see that our sin in our lives is keeping new healthy growth from happening.

We shouldn't just try and get through the fires in life we should be looking for ways to grow and learn because of them. We must realize that the fire allows us to see and learn that there are certain sins in our lives that are inhibiting new growth. Are we going to complain and blame God for sending trials or are we going to see that God is trying to teach about something and desire to learn. Are we going to just try and get though the fire alright or are we going to profoundly see that the fire will help us to learn and grow?

What Am I Doing?

So as some of you know my youth group hosted Coastal Rise this fall in concert. However, some of you may have not known that I was actually the one who contacted Coastal Rise and got the process started. Anyways the concert day comes and near the end of the concert my friend came up to me and mentioned how crazy it is that the main singer is only eighteen.

My first thought was "You got to be kidding me!?" but then my next thought was "What am I doing!?"

I mean like he is only eighteen and is performing and singing before many people. He is out there singing and spreading the love of God. And me, what am I doing? In what ways am I doing great things for God?

I guess the place to start is do we care about doing what God has called us to do? Are you willing to do whatever God calls you to do? If we aren't willing to do what God calls us to do and are only willing to follow our own selfish plans and desires we won't get very far and we won't be doing great things for Him. If we are following our own desires God is probably not going to have any part in that desire.

So in reality my question would be better phrased as is God radiating from me? Is Christ's love flowing through and from me to others around? If I am showing Christ's love to others that would be pretty much the same as being the leader of a christian band expressing God's love to the people they play for.

See in when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter how famous we are or how many people we are speaking to, but if we are doing what God desires for us to be doing. If we are always looking at ourselves and how we could do better or do greater things we won't be allowing God to work in His special and perfect ways through us. Yes we should be always wanting to be doing greater things for God, but we must not forget to allow God to do His profound work through us. Just like I talked about in post "God Is Great" We don't have to be great because our God is.

Growing Up

If your like me all throughout growing up I have always looked forward to something. When your in first grade you wish you could be in second, but when you hit second grade you see its not that much different and great so you then look forward to third grade or middle school as the time when the fun begins. However, when you get to middle school all you want to do is get to high school and then once you become a freshman all you want to be is a senior and graduate. But, when you have finally become a senior just like you have desired to be for about four years you get bored and hear about your friends in college having amazing experiences and great fun.

What this ends up being is a never ending cycle of wanting to be older or get somewhere, but when you get there you only find out that the next year is probably much better.

Living in constant anticipation of the future isn't really a good thing because you end up forgetting to live right now at the moment your at. If your always waiting to get to the better older age you will reach it eventually, but it probably won't be as good as you hoped. See if you don't focus on making your life better now adding time to the equation probably won't get you far. So if your always just looking for the better older age and not working on improving your life now it won't be improved when you reach that desired age.

If we are always looking to the future age so much so that we don't enjoy where we are at right now we will end up never reaching the pinnacle of life we are searching for. We will eventually reach the age we want to be at, but then we won't enjoy being that age because we again just turn and look at the next best age to be.

Life doesn't improve all by itself we got to do something to improve it. We got to work hard and put time and effort into our life to make it better instead of just waiting for time to hopefully make it better. We should understand that there are some profound problems that can be caused by not living in the present enough.

Materialism

I have this thing about losing things or forgetting things that extremely annoys me. Like if I lose something and just can't figure out where it is or where it should be it in a way eats at me. Its almost as if I can't rest until I find that item no matter its importance. Just a few weeks ago I lost something quite important to me, but in reality doesn't have too much importance.

This experience made me think about how we live in a world now days of materialism. The world is always saying that stuff is what enriches your life and makes it better. I personally don't like being told that I really don't need the latest and best thing out there because I'm one of those people who desires to have the best or almost best. Those times when I got my new iPod or camera and they come out with a new better version a few months later always annoyed me because I want the new version, but I don't have the money to spend on it and I should be learning to be happy with the good version I have.

All this needing of the best though is quite unhealthy. If I'm obsessed with having these possessions and it takes up much of my thinking time I'm sure there is some sort of "idol" worship going on. The main question to ask regarding your desire to own things is will this benefit those around me, my family, and my spiritual walk with God? Yes there are things we need for ourselves, but when it comes to materialism that is when the things are no longer necessary to us.

The item I lost a few weeks ago I still haven't found and that fact still annoys me a little. However, when I think about it does it really matter? The question we should be asking ourselves is does this item really make that much of a important difference in my life?

The point I'm trying to make here is that stuff is just stuff. Stuff can get torn, stained, lost, and messed up just like our soul. Are we trying to find our stuff that was lost or messed up? Or are we focused more on things that really matter like letting Jesus patch, clean, and fix our messed up souls? Are we more worried about getting back in-touch with what we lost or do we want to get back in touch with God. Are we stuck in materialism that keeps us from seeing what is really actually profoundly important?

Do You Want To Get Well?

One Saturday morning I was at guitar lessons just like I have many Saturdays before. One thing that I really appreciate about my teacher is that to him music isn't just music. Yes it is really good to be able to play amazingly well, but it is also important to know about the lives of the people who wrote the music and what the song signifies. Music isn't just notes put together to make a song to listen to. Music is a way of communicating a thought, idea, or feeling. One thing I have noticed now that I have gotten older is that now my guitar teacher not only takes the time to talk about the non-musical part of music but, about about life and Christianity as well. 

Well this particular Saturday was no exception. My guitar teacher said something about a passage of Scripture that really made check myself and think deeply. My teacher was talking about the passage where Jesus goes to the pool and sees the invalid lying far away from the waters edge unable to get himself to the healing waters.

John 5:1-9

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

It was amazing how Jesus told him to get up and the man did so even though the man had laid there lame for thirty-eight years. His bones where probably weak and his leg muscles where probably nonexistent, but instantly he walked. 

Now that is amazing, but what my guitar teacher picked out of the verses was that Jesus asked the man "Do you want to get well?". Do we want to get well? Do we want help? This man was willing to have a stranger pick him up and move him closer to the pool so that he could get in first and be healed, but Jesus gave him more He healed the man instantly and gave him the strength to walk. 

Do we want to get well? Or even before that question is do we know we are sick? Are we willing to let Jesus help us and heal us? He gives us more than just healing from our sins, He gives love, life, and so much more. We should ask the profoundly simple question, "Do you want to get well?" of ourselves because if we are not well do we really want to be? Are we tired of our sin? 

The Story of Humanity and Time

There is a really good song by Lecrae I was listening to the one day and later I got one line stuck in my head. I kept on having this one line looping in my head, but it took me awhile for it to finally hit me with how much meaning it had.

Lecrae - Killa
I'm doing myself dirty, flirting with what's perverted
I should follow the word but I guess I'd rather be murdered
Excuse me I mean martyred 'cause I'm killing myself
My sin conceived a baby, and we gon name it death, breath
(Gasps) -Taker, she take my breath away
Replaces it with poison and I'm so swept away

The main line I had stuck in my head was "My sin conceived a baby, and we gon name it death." It just hit me thats the way it always is. Thats what sin does. The reason we have death is because sin entered earth and man. 

When Adam and Eve sinned they weren't just kicked out of the garden, cursed, and separated from God. They also received the anticipation of death because of sin. No longer was humanity and creation perfect and therefore things eventually wear out and you die.

Sin conceived a baby and that baby is death. Ever time we sin punishment is due and the punishment that is due is death. Now when we think about how death entered the world by Adam and Eve's sin we think of how someday we will be put in a box and lowered into the earth but, that isn't just physical death, but eternal spiritual death as well. Don't just take my word for it though.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The best part of this verse is how everything is changed around by the "but". Sin causes death, but Christ gives life. Its all really simple and I think thats sometimes what we miss. We get caught up in a lot of other things and make Christianity complicated when really its quite simple. 

Are we living in the realization of our everyday sin causing death, but that Jesus saves us from that death? Its really profound how God the one who created us was willing to not only pay for our mistakes, but to also do it by his own sacrifice.

Mini-post Sunday - Thankfulness

So the other day I was eating ice-cream and thinking about what I am thankful for and what I would say I am thankful for if I was asked. Personally I am thankful of many things, God, life, joy, plenty, love, and Jesus. However, that is not at all a list near as long as it would be if I were to mention everything. Yea everything, am I thankful for everything. Can I be thankful for everything because that would include death, sin, and other not so nice things?

So that causes me to ask the question am I thankful for everything like including sin coming into the world? I never really thought about it before and I know its crazy to say, but I kinda feel like I'm thankful that sin did entered the world. Yea I know that because sin entered the world death, pain, and suffering entered as well. However, would we love God as much as we do with sin if sin never existed on earth? Would we know of God's love for us and His desire for us to love Him as much if sin never entered the world?

Are we profoundly thankful for even the bad things that happen because we know that you often learn most from the bad things that happen? Do we see the lessons that can be learned from the worst of situations or do we just see how we have been hurt?

Fear

You know a lot of times I think the world lives in fear, in fear of many things; debt, losing a friend, pain, disease, and death to name a few. A website had this as a definition of fear.

"An unpleasant emotion caused by being aware of danger."

However I don't really think that is a sufficient or really good definition. I think that a better definition of fear would be; An unpleasant emotion of worry or terror caused by a possible unpleasant result. If you think about it one of the main reasons we fear debt, losing a friend, pain, disease, death, etc is because each one of those things causes pain or unfavorable results.

Now there are a bunch of different types of fear, excessive, irrational, worrisome, beneficial, and rational. Now I think that each of the listed types of fear above really aren't types of fear. If they aren't types of fear what are they? They are the results and extension of original fear. These different "types" of fear are just a result of how you react to fear and danger. One of the reasons you may have excessive fear is because you may be a worrier. Irrational fear is typically a fear caused by the anticipation of a possible occurrence created by your imagination. Worrisome fear is very closely related to excessive fear and is based off of your worries. Rational fear is pretty much the same as original fear and comes from a real threat to your life. Almost all the time fear is not good to have, but there are times when you can have beneficial fear. Beneficial fear is a warning of a high probability of danger. This fear can warn you when your about to do something stupid or when your close to a cliff edge.

One of the biggest fears for humanity because it is eminent and will happen to everyone is death. Death is a legitimate fear if you don't know God because you don't know what will happen. Do you just die, or do you live on in some sort of different universe, are you reincarnated, or what?  However, if we know Christ we need not fear death. Death has been defeated by the death and resurrection of Christ.

I know its kinda odd, but I actually look forward to dying. Its not because I want to end my life, but because I want to be with my God in heaven.

What fears can we get rid of? If we live in fear we live in a way as if we are paralyzed. We can give our fears over to God and let Him control our life. Are you going to let go of fear and worry so that you can live a profoundly freer life God intended for you instead of letting fear control your life?

I AM WHO I AM

Just recently our church has started a sermon series about the names of God. The one week my pastor talked about a verse in Exodus where God is talking to Moses about what to say when he goes to tell the Israelites that God has sent him.

Exodus 3:13-14
Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Lets focus on the name that God gave to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM". My pastor said he can't really simplify the name to make more sense because it is kinda out there.

However, for me though the whole "I AM WHO I AM" makes a lot of sense to me. I am able to understand the whole self defining and reciprocation going on there. What God seems to be saying there is I am who I am, I am myself, I am what I am, I am God. God is who I am so therefore I am God.

 Its a whole self defining thing. Because God cannot be defined or put under any sort of system you have to define God by defining himself. Its a reciprocating and recycling definition. God must be defined by himself because there is no set of definition to be put on him. He is undefinably definable.

Now I don't know if any of my attempted explaining made any sense. It makes sense in my head because I'm ok with defining by self defining, but I don't know if my thoughts in words make any sense. Hopefully somehow something I said made sense so that you can understand one of the names of God better. The profound name of "I AM WHO I AM" is somehow profoundly out of the scale of profoundness.

Pollution Credits

Back awhile ago when the whole global warming craze was started my dad and I started joking about how "awful" it is and how we are going to burn up and die from all the heat. Apparently at some point someone proposed that we should create a system where you buy carbon credits to offset your pollution. How it would work is that the money you pay for the carbon credits go to people who would plant trees, get rid of waste, or whatever.

Well my dad and I had a brilliant idea that we should create a similar product called pollution credits. It would work in a lot the same way as the carbon credits program. What you would do is buy pollution credits so it would be ok for you to pollute some. For example if you have a shop and wanted to get rid of your oil easily by dumping it in the nearby stream you would just by pollution credits so your could dump it into the steam. The more credits you buy the more oil you could dump into the stream because the money you paid for the pollution credits would go to a crew devoted to reducing the pollution. The crew would get the money from the credits you bought so that they could be the ones farther down the stream cleaning the oil out of the stream.

So it would be a system of paying to pollute so that the money would be paying for the offset of that pollution.

Sounds pretty stupid right? Couldn't you just not pollute in the first place so that you wouldn't have to deal with trying to offset the pollution?

You see the whole reason we came up with this is because of the irony of it. How ridiculous it is, but how convincing or real it could become. Even though this is quite a crazy concept I wouldn't put it past the environmental people to actually use it or consider it because of their over zealousness for the protection of earth. We shouldn't become so zealous about something that our vision and thoughts are blurred to the point of losing the ability to use logic. Unless its a profound zeal for God.

Real Life

Something I have realized lately is that this life is real we are here and what we do matters. We are not just here to have a fun time and hopefully make a "good" impact on the world. We are here for a purpose and we are at war. Whether we like it or not we are in war, a war of evil and righteousness.

Ephesians 6:12-15
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

When I wake up and start to go about my daily activities what ever they are I should not be just trying to become successful and live a happy life. Life isn't just another day. In this life we are at war. We are fighting against the evil powers around us and we are fighting against ourselves as well. Our own personal sinful nature can easily pull us down.

But, take heart like it says later in Ephesians 6 we have the armor of God to help us. We are not alone in this war though, we have God inside us who reigns and will reign forever no matter how bleak it may look right now. We also are not naked and unprotected, God has given us armor to protect us from the spiritual forces of evil.

This life is real, its not some fairly tale where we are born, hopefully life a happy life, then die. This is war, what we do matters. We should profoundly understand that we are fighting against Satan daily, but we can rejoice and be glad because we have God on our side as our king and protector.

The Simplistically Complicated Equality of Prayers

Ever since City challenge last year I have been thinking about prayer much more than I ever did before, but as of recent I have thought about how different people pray differently. The result of a different kind of prayer can be influenced by many things, age, how they grew up, their vocabulary, how they think, what they are praying about, and how they view God.

One thing that struck me one day was how the prayer of a faithful and trusting child and the prayer of a revering and proper priest or saint are both beautiful in their own ways.

The prayer of a child can be so amazing because it can be simple, worded wrong, and the child probably doesn't even understand all that he should, but still his heart is for the Lord. He sees God on His throne in heaven which is a beautiful palace where everything is fantastic. The child does not understand how awful and unholy his sin makes him, but he knows that God loves him and we wants that love. The child has a very simplistic understanding that is just so raw and real in his heart.

The prayer of a saint inside of a great cathedral is very proper, revering, and understanding. The saint doesn't know everything about God or the whole Bible, but he understands that he doesn't know everything and therefore knows much. A saint can understand how unworthy of God's grace or love he is. The saint sees God as the highest being in this world and himself as one of the lowliest. From that understanding comes the reverent, praising, and humble prayer a of saint. The saint presents himself before God as a servant would to his king because God is his king and he is God's servant.

One of the prayers is simple and innocent the other is long and revering, but I think both are equally beautiful. Both are accepted by God and neither one is greater than the other. No matter how well you say what you pray God will see your heart. A ''good sounding" prayer doesn't mean much if you don't mean what your saying in your heart.

We should profoundly understand that when we pray we don't have to be perfect or say the "right words" its about the heart. The immaculate and extensive prayer of a priest isn't any better than the simple and fervent prayer of a child.

Verseinsanity II

Awhile ago I posted a post called Verseinsanity that showcased some really good, meaningful, and profound verses. The reason behind this showcasing is to offer verses to think about and hopefully relate to. Versinsanity II is merely more of these meaningful verses.

James 1:19-25
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Galatians 5:24-25
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Psalm 33:4-5
For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.

James 1:13-15
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Cross references:

1. Galatians 5:22 : Mt 7:16-20; Eph 5:9
2. Galatians 5:22 : Col 3:12-15
3. Galatians 5:22 : Mal 2:6
4. Galatians 5:23 : S Ac 24:25
5. Galatians 5:23 : ver 18
6. Galatians 5:24 : ver 13, 16-21; S Ro 6:6; 7:5, 18; 8:3-5, 8, 9, 12, 13; 13:14; Gal 6:8; Col 2:11
7. Galatians 5:24 : ver 16, 17
8. Galatians 5:25 : S ver 16

 Matthew 15:46
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Proverbs 15:33
Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the Lord, and humility comes before honor.

Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Jonah 2:8-9
“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you.
What I have vowed I will make good.
I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”

Daniel 4:37
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

I'm Ready to Meet You

So I had gotten an album from my brother this summer, but never really listened to it much because it was a band I didn't really know. However, recently I was listing to one of the songs and near the end of the song the lyrics hit me, hard. Now every time I listen to that part of that song I have to stop and sing because there is something inside of my heart that that just longs for what the lyrics say.

Parachute band - Run To You ( + Meet You )

You will chase me
No matter where I run to
So I’m ready to meet you, I am
Ready to meet you, I am

You will chase me
No matter where I run to
So I’m ready to meet you, I’ll be
Ready to meet you, woho

I know I have written about this subject often like in post I Just Want to go There and others, but this subject keeps on coming up. For some reason I'm just so ready to meet my maker and Lord. Yea I guess "life is good", but there is sin plaguing this life. To meet God face to face will be incredibly amazingly indescribable! I just want to meet God! What more do I need to say? I just hope that all of you reading this want to meet God as much and more.

God profoundly desires to meet us, do we want to meet Him?

My Hypocriticalness

So I must admit my hypocriticalness to you who read this blog. I often write about how we should be doing something more, less, differently or whatever else. Well even though I say we should do these things and that includes me I often don't. Even though they are sometimes my thoughts and ideas I forget about them. Its not that later on I disagree with what I have written, but that I have so many ideas and things to try to keep in line I often forget them. Firstly there are God's laws for me to obey, then there are my thoughts written about on here so don't always get around to acting my ideas out.

Yes I am a hypocrite to my own writings because there are a lot of them to act out and remember. This is one of my faults that helps to remind me of how much I am flawed. You can read about that in Fault-Full.

Sometimes I just can't believe how much of a hypocrite I am. One week I have an amazing life changing learning experience or realization and around two weeks later I'm doing pretty much the exact opposite of what I learned. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I make mistakes, I forget, often times I am very hypocritical, but God isn't any of those things.

We are all hypocrites in our own ways regarding different things, but most importantly we must not be hypocrites when it comes to our relationship with God. Either we are for God or against Him, there is no middle ground. Its ok to mess up and make mistakes, but whether your for God or not is not something you want to be unsure about.

Andy Mineo - Every Word
Want to know the fast track to look stupid?
Talk about obedience and never go do it
Lord I'm a hypocrite and I'm sick of it
I need Your spirit to come help me live different

We must all learn from our mistakes and try to not be hypocrites. Profoundly throw away hypocriticalness with the help of God. I say that not just to you, but to myself.

The Cutural Differentiation - A Story

There is a tale taken from the expanse of time of a young lad who lived in outreaches of Seattle Washington. This lad was the son of two very nice and responsible parents. Ever since he was born he was in church every Sunday, so all throughout growing up God was always a huge part of his life. After growing up a little he started to really think intellectually and started to really read the Bible as more than just a book with stories. The stories had an overall moral and meaning, but throughout the stories there are many other important lessons that he really started to notice. For him it really seamed like he was getting somewhere new and real in his walk with God that he never really had when he was younger even though he knew God most his life. differentiation

As I said before his parents were responsible and wanted to train their son well in the ways of God. So to benefit his education and keep him from being exposed to all the evil influences that lie in the public schools they decided to homeschool him. Yes it did seem to limit his number of friends and some would call him "sheltered", but by the time he got to highschool we was glad his parents decided to homeschool him. When he turned 16 it was time for him to have the responsibility and experience of a job. It wasn't that the young lad was irresponsible because his parents had taught him much about responsibility it was just that getting a job was a part of that teaching.

The lad put in applications for a few restaurants, but never heard much of anything back. Eventually he was forced to apply at the one place in town he really didn't want to apply at, but they were hiring so he went ahead and applied. A few weeks later he was interviewed and got the job.

This restaurant in Seattle Washington was a place which was mostly filled with people that definitely  were not the desired crowed of people for a Christian. However, because of his parents desire for him to get a job he had to try working there and stick with it for a little while.

The next days he worked were days where he was exposed to pretty much everything he had always tried to stay away from. Most of the people he worked with had bad language problems, smoked, had tattoos, were not Christians, and made sinful connotations with the words they said. For the lad who had been kept away from most of those things most of the time during his life it was a culture shock and just a huge burden to constantly be bombarded with these sins he wasn't used to. The lad had to constantly make sure he didn't let the words seep into his mind, change his heart, and then become like them. Which was a big burden besides having a real job for the first time.

Often times the lad wondered why he a fine breed of Christians had to be with people that were totally not on his level. In a sense the lad felt like he was higher up on the imaginative American caste system. Then why did he have to be with these people and work with them he often asked himself.

Then one day he was listening to a new band he was introduced to and found one of the songs to be quite good sounding. However, when he actually started to listen to the words in the song they really hit him because it explained exactly how he felt about his experiences at his job. The lyrics also showed him where to find hope and he was finally able to start to understand why he had to work with those people. Its wasn't just because his parents made him do it, but because it was God's plan for him at that time. The song went something like this -

Broken hearted friends of mine
Lives of a lost and wasted time
And I stand watching with hot tears
Longing for you hearts to hear

And Jesus, Jesus don't you feel this pain?
They think I'm insane
I call on your name, Lord

The journey how to be that friend
For out of me you love for them
Cause they don't seam to understand
And I can not relate to them

And Jesus, Jesus don't you feel this pain?
They think I'm insane
I call on your name

And the greatest cry will rise from hell
Since Satan and his angels fell
Cause you take back the world you dreamed
Perfected for eternity

And I know that some will not come home
And that it hurts your heart more than mine own
But, you my God are in control
You'll never give up on my soul
In that I finally find my hope

The lad felt like he worked with those who waste their time and he could not relate to them at all because he had always been a "good kid." The lad knew that some of his workers would not make it to heaven when the time came for them to leave earth, but because God is always in control the lad knew that he had hope. Hope that he could keep from being influenced in bad ways and hope that he could influence others in good ways with God's help. Whatever the outcome of his work at his job he knew that he would not lose God or his love.

This tale is based on a true story. The song was written by Coastal Rise, is called Of Mine, and can be found on iTunes.

What is This Life all About?

I am no scientist, but I believe that I can reduce the equations of the whole universe that is known down to one word, love. God decided to create us so he could have domination over us, but he decided to give us the choice to love Him because he wanted real love. Now God doesn't need our love, but He wants our love. God wants our love so much that he sent His son to die for us to that we could live on after death with Him and praise His name forever. God did not send a "special" human, or one of his angels, but He sent His son who was as much a part of Himself as your are to yourself.

If you think about it Lucifer falling from heaven, Adam and Eve sinning, and Jesus dying for us on the cross was all God's plan to be able to show us His love so that we would love Him by choice not because we must. I just think that it's insane to think about how God was willing to see sin enter his creation, mess it all up, see many men who were made very good die, and worst of all see His son die painfully so that He could get our love. That is an insane amount of love for us and desire for our love.

Suppose you went through what Job went through willingly so that you could show love to and get love from someone who you had complete power over and ability to destroy and recreate them. I mean a fair amount of people have said that they would die for their loved one. However, that is only one person to die for and death (if you know God) really isn't that bad.

Christ died for all people that have ever lived and took on all their sin! God is so righteous that He can't even have sin near Him! And yet He chose to take on all our sin just so that He could show His love for us and so that we could love Him.

People describe God's love as indescribable, incredible, or whatever else, but I think that there is no way that we can somehow put a word to how much God loves us. Therefore, I measure God's amount of love for us as unmeasurable. Profoundly come to partial realization of how much God loves you and your mind will be blown away. God did all of this around us for us so that we may love Him more and more each moment.

Lyrical Weaknesses

Proclaimer: The content in this blog post may be slightly offending to some people or some people may not agree, but I am just merely trying to state what I think.

So lately I have been thinking about worship songs. A lot of times I feel like we sometimes end up singing worship songs without really realizing what were singing. I know that we know that we are worshiping God, but are we thinking about what the words we say really mean?

Because of this realization of possible unrealisation of meanings I decided to start thinking about what I am actually singing when worshiping. Sadly what I have realized happens to not always be very good. I have listened and read the lyrics of some of our worship songs and realized that sometimes either the words and phrases are grammatically incorrect, confusing, or not always saying something correct.

I don't want to specifically pick out a song and explain what I think is wrong about the lyrics because I don't want to be going around critiquing and putting down people's work. However, I will say that I think that we should start to put real meanings into our worship songs. Put lyrics straight from the scriptures in, I don't want to be singing words that aren't correct to my savior. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I feel like there are a lot of Christian rap songs out there that are much more meaningful and doctrinally sound than most worship songs out there. However, this doesn't really fix our lyric problems because rap doesn't really work for congregational worship.

I think we should really evaluate the lyrics of the songs that we sing in church. If the words are not doctrinally sound I personally don't what to be singing them. Why waste my time singing songs that don't make sense or are not quite correct. However, I must say that even if the words are not exactly correct much more of worship is really about the heart and what we mean to say to God. To be honest I don't really think that its too much of a problem if the lyrics aren't exactly grammatically correct if our hearts are in the right place. Having good lyrics are very beneficial, but not exactly crucial.

Know what your saying when you worship, don't be just haphazardly sing the words. Profoundly examine what your singing so that you are not just "singing words".

Disclaimer: Now I'm not saying that all worship songs have problems or that the ones you play at your church do, but I'm saying that this is what I have realized from some of my observations of songs around me. I'm not trying to hate on worship songs, but just to examine them.

Mistakenlightenment

Every once in awhile I sorta feel like if I'm not suffering or going through a hard time I'm not learning something. Like probably almost all of the inspiration I get for my blog posts come from going through a period of trouble or questioning.

Everybody knows the phrase "You learn most from your mistakes." I feel like that statement is just so true. I know its sounds really weird, but when I feel like I'm not going through a hard time or have a difficult question I'm trying to get answered, I don't feel like I'm growing closer to God. If I don't feel like I need to fix anything I can't really push forward to find growth.

Now I must say that when I feel like I don't have and troubles or questions to get answered I am sadly being very hypocritical and prideful of myself. Seriously we are human and have faults, we are not like God who is faultless. So many times we must search out our hearts and minds for things that are amiss.

So what this really all comes down to is that when I feel like I'm "alright" and everything is going well, everything is not. There is no way I can think that I don't have a problem and not be prideful. So a lot of times the first step of being able to learn from your mistakes is knowing and realizing what your mistakes are. Only until you diagnose the problem can you fix it.

We must learn from our troubles and mistakes if we are going to gain knowledge and understanding.
Rejoice in the pain, sorrow, hardships, and times of struggle because they can produce much knowledge and wisdom if you learn from what those times teach. We should profoundly understand that there are great learning opportunities hidden in struggles.

God is Enough

You know I feel like a lot of times I think we all struggle with having enough. And yet having enough in a material sense just sounds impossible and ridiculous to us who know that the nicest, clothes, car, house, phone, and girl won't be enough for those that don't have God.

There is a song written my Lecrae called God Is Enough that I had playing in the back on my mind the one day. I kept on singing it and then all of a sudden it hit me. I no it might sound cliché, but really God is Enough.

Used to want a lotta things
All the stuff that's on TV
Education, cars, and clothes
Fashion lights and jewelry
(Focused on the wrong stuff)
Now I got my eyes on you
And now I know that

God is enough
God is enough
God is enough
You are enough
Never too much
More than enough
God is enough
You are enough for me

See God is enough, even more than enough, but never too much. I guess what I'm trying to say it that if I have God I have all that I need. God can give me the strength to get through anything. God is capable of taking on my sin so that I may live when I die. I can't do anything to try and cover up or get rid of my sin. I can't get anything done by my one strength because the strength I have has been given to me and a result of my own actions.

One of the reasons my God is great is because He is enough for me. Because He is enough I don't have to worry about the little trials and problems of this world. If God is enough why do I need anything else? If I don't need to have anything else that takes time or money, what can I do with that time and money to serve God? If we profoundly realize and know that our God is enough everything else just seams pointless, unneeded, and unimportant.

Bill Watterson's - Calvin and Hobbes

Recently I had been looking at my collection of Calvin and Hobbes strips and I realized how in the later days of Bill Watterson's strips he really started to put incredible meanings behind his words. What I did is combed through the later third of His works and picked out five I liked the best and spoke the most about life.



This first strip I find to be one of the most deep strips he ever wrote. All of it is pretty straight forward until the end where Calvin says "It's a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them." I feel like a lot of times this is exactly just what politics is. When there is a scapegoat to put the blame onto why bother fixing the problem? If we know who caused the problem, for some reason it is no longer our responsibility to fix it.





















Concerning this comic I feel like what Hobbes says at the end really shines a bright light onto what our culture can be like today. Sometimes we just throw morals and the things that are put into place to keep us safe out the window just to do something faster, easier, or a little better.



This one is just hilarious and speaks for itself if you read into it.



This is the reason we need God, we do make messes and we have to try again, without His help we will never be cleaned up and have the strength to persevere.



Accept new challenges and except the fear that comes along with new challenges. Only a new experience or mindset allow us to grow. Now that I think about it probably one of the big reasons Steve Jobs and others like him have been able to come up with great things is because they want to grow and learn so they take on challenges.

I know I didn't say to much in this post, but that's because I wanted the genius of the words to speak instead of me. The fact that we can learn important things from comic strips is a pretty profound fact. We can learn from a lot of experiences and things we take in, just like Calvin's dad would say "It builds character," hopefully these things will help us to gain wisdom and understanding.

The Dinner Prayer

Recently I have been thinking about the prayer we say before we eat each day. Now I understand its a good routine to thank God for the food we are blessed with and whatever else we may receive from Him, but I feel like maybe that's what it has sometimes been reduced to, routine. However, I also understand that sometimes even a practice that has become too much of a routine can still be beneficial.

Often times I feel like we just close our eyes and say a few words that we have probably said before without a thought towards why were doing it and even caring. Now I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, but I feel like we should probably revaluate what we say and why we say it every once in awhile.

The other thing I don't really like about it is that we are in the middle of a conversation interrupt it the name of love, thankfulness, or respect for God then as soon as the prayer is over we go back to what we were talking about. I just feel like talking to God isn't something we can just "jump" in and out of.

From what I have learned one of the main reasons we pray before we eat is to thank God for the food. However, I feel like to be able to be truly thankful and not just be saying words we need to have a realization of how much God has done for us and be thankful for those things. The dinner prayer is a expression of thanks just like worship is, so the dinner prayer is in a way pretty much worship. Just like I feel like we can't just "jump" into a spirit of worship I feel like we can't just "jump" into a spirit of thankfulness in prayer. The reason that is, is because there is a difference between knowing you should be thankful and actually being thankful.

I guess what this all boils down to is weather you are truly thankful when you are thanking God for the food. I think we should profoundly evaluate what and why we pray before we eat. If we are to do everything wholeheartedly for the Lord I don't think we should treat it as some sort of routine.

Why do we love?

This past winter I was able to go to a concert that featured Moriah Peters, The Rend Collective Experiment, and Tenth Avenue North. The singer of Tenth Avenue North, Mike Donehey, is really good at speaking and explaining things he has struggled with in his life and how he was able to get past those troubles.

Mike mentioned something that I really related to. He mentioned how often times he felt like he didn't love God enough. He just wanted to just tell his heart to love God more, but that's not how it works. Mike said something along the lines of:

If I'm not loving God enough its because we don't know God's love for us enough.

I have felt like I didn't love God enough many times. Being in a relationship with God revolves around loving God, but why would you love God? I feel like we don't just love to love, but often we love with a reason behind that love. If we have no reason to love God we won't love Him. So what is our reason behind loving God?

We have a reason to love God and not just one, but many reasons to love God. The main overarching reason is that He first loved us. If your unsure of how much God loves us look at what Jesus did on the cross and look at what He does for us each day. However, God's love is uncomprehendable so we will never really understand just how much He loves us until we meat Him in heaven.

The point is simple, if you want to love God more gain more of an understanding of His great love for you. 1 John 4:19 profoundly expresses all that this post is about.

"We love because he first loved us."

God Is Great

The other day I was singing the lyrics of a song and then all of a sudden I was struck by the words and their meaning.

Superhuman - Andy Mineo
I am not a star,
I'm just a product of grace that's still in the process,
and I don't gotta be great, because my God is,

Andy Mineo is trying to say to his fans that being a man who stands on a stage and sings to a crowed of people doesn't make him a superhero. Our worth isn't a result of what we can do that can produce money and fame. Our worth and greatness is found in Christ.

The really cool thing about Christianity is that we don't have to be anything, actually we aren't anything. None of us have any worth on our own, our worth is in Christ. Plus because God never changes, we never have to worry about whether or not He is great enough.

I find this truth to be every reliving because I now realize that I don't have to become something I never can be. I don't have to be a superhero because my God is greater than any superhero. I'm actually so bad that I'm still being fixed up and forgiven by God through His amazing grace.

God is glorified by my failures, because when I mess up it just shows how much better and great my God is. God is great isn't some cliché thing that all Christians say at dinner time, the truth is that God is truly profoundly great.

Socrates Meets Jesus

I read a book this year called Socrates Meets Jesus. Basically what happens is Socrates gets time jockeyed to the year 1987 and is enrolled at a college in Massachusetts. After many days of conversation filled with logical content and classes Socrates reads both the New Testament and Old Testaments of the Bible to learn about this thing called Christianity. Since Socrates lived before Christ he never knew about Jesus and what He did. Near the end of the book Socrates is in a Christology class debating with the professor and classmates about the validity of Christianity. By that time Socrates had met Jesus and come to know Him as  His savior and wanted the others in the class to know that Jesus was real and what He did was really true.

Socrates was fervently debating with the professor about the resurrection of Jesus. The professor thought that the disciples stole Jesus' body to make it seem like He was raised for the dead. However, Socrates asked:

"What did these disciples get out of their lie? When someone deceives another, the deceiver is always motivated by some thought of advantage. What advantage did the disciples gain by their conspiracy?"

One of the classmates names, Ahmen, responded with:

"I will answer that question for you, Socrates. I'll tell you what they got out of it. They got mocked, hated, sneered at, jeered at, exiled, deprived of their property, their reputation and their civil rights; they got imprisoned, whipped, tortured, clubbed to a pulp, stoned, beheaded, sawed in pieces, boiled in oil, crucified, fed to lions and cut to ribbons by gladiators. That's what they got out of it."

I really liked this statement because its so true. People don't die for a lie. People don't go through torture for what they know is myth. God is real, what He did happened, and it has a lasting affect on our lives. We wouldn't follow God and become martyrs if He didn't do anything for us.

We don't live for a lie. God is real and He is profoundly moving in this world. Would you die for what you believe in?

I Have No Idea What to Call This

The whole experience of driving is interesting for me because its not like I really enjoy driving, but the time I have in the car alone just patiently looking around waiting to get to my destination can be very enjoyable. Many times when I am troubled I can just start talking to God to try and sort out what to do while driving somewhere. Sometimes I have an inspirational moment where my mind grabs something and comes up with something really cool.

When driving home one night I just started to pretty much preach a sermon in verse. What I said sounded so good that I don't think it really came from me. Later I wrote down what I said as best as I could remember with a little more added to it and this is what I got.

A life full of sin never has a good fin
I had a life full of sin, but then I gave it all to Him
Him who hung there on that cross for me
You know often times we see the symbol of the cross many places
On churches, on hills, and around people's necks
Because we seem to think that the cross has power

The cross is just two boards nailed together that represent the painful death it offers
The cross has no Power!
The power lies inside the man who hung on it!
My sin was put upon Jesus, The Son of God, so that I may be cleansed
A symbol around your neck isn't going to save you from damnation in a lake of fire and sulfur

That right there is what I deserve
I deserve to eternally die for my sins
But, because of the indescribable love of God
He was willing to take not only pain, but sin, death, and rejection from the very ones He loved
I don't look to the cross, but to the Jesus
Because it is by His grace and power that I am set free from death

I have no idea how to wrap this post up except to say that we should not elevate things to a higher level than they really are. That is pretty much the profound essence of idols.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying the cross is a bad symbol to put at different places, I personally think its a great one, but we shouldn't make it into something it is not.

60m=1h, 24h=1d and 360d=1y

Over the years we get older eventually when we have the time we will look over our life and wonder what happened to the time. The reason we have not seen the time passing is because of ignorance. We have ignorance because of the fall and our busy everyday lives. Yes our culture is quite rigid and in a way revolves around time. However, its that rigidness of time that allows us to obtain that ignorance.

Time is interesting, we can't change it, turn it back, slow it down, or speed it up. However, what we can change and affect is what we do with that time.

Time is often a restraint, but how would we make time freeing? From my point of view I see the end of my time here on earth as a line of freedom. When I'm raised from this planet I will no-longer be under the restraint of earth's laws. Time will not effect me because time will not exist where I will be. However, that point doesn't really offer anything that can be applied right here where I am to make time a freedom not a restraint.

The main thing I can get from the fact that time is limited here on earth is motivation. We can be motivated by the fact that we may not be here tomorrow. If we are to get everything out of this life possible in the time we have we must make our moves quickly.

Switchfoot - Gone
We are not infinite
We are not permanent
Nothing is immediate
We're so confident
In our accomplishments
Look at our decadence

Over the past few days I really felt down because I felt like what I was doing wasn't really doing anything. What I was doing didn't seem like it had any purpose, but then Sunday came and I again felt like my life had purpose because what I did that day was something lasting.

Are you using the time you have or just letting it slip by? Don't live life with regrets. Be profound and take action doing something for God, something that lasts. Time always moves on and we can't stop it, but that shouldn't hold us back from taking action.

Speakology

At City Challenge and Creation Festival last summer I was thinking about how as a society it seems that we are using our brains less. What spurs this to happen is laziness and technology. Now I'm not downing technology, but what it can do to you if you let it. The brain is insane! Its power and capacity is huge! If we stop using our brain more and more and become ruled by our technology and laziness we will soon be unable to learn. Learning and coming upon new knowledge by what you already know is one of the great things we can do. I'm saying this to give you the reasoning behind my decision to start talking in such a way that surprises people and pretty much forces them to think. This method isn't dependent upon correct English, actually sometimes I use wrong wordage to try and get people to think. That is ultimately why I use weird words and wording in my blog posts. I don't know if my way of talking does what I want it to do or even if I use it, but in a way it defines me. Language does that, its one reason why we think about southerners and northerners differently. Their language defines them on the surface.

One who had the most impressive way of talking was Jesus. Jesus asked a lot of questions when he was on earth. Jason Ostrander wrote a book about 99 questions he picked out of the Bible that Jesus asked. The thing I found that was so cool about the way Jesus asked questions was how they were perfect. Obviously they would be perfect, but its just so cool how much you can get out of His questions. No one could have asked the questions like He did. One quite interesting and great question is in Matthew.

Matthew 19:17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?"

In this verse Jesus was having a conversation with a rich man who had obeyed all the commandments, but knew he was still missing something. Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. However, the man couldn't do that because he loved his possessions to much. You see there was one thing getting in the way of the man focusing on God. That one thing was his possessions. We can't let the things of this world get in the way of our relationship with God.  However, the point Jesus was probably trying to make in verse 17 was that we need to focus on God more than doing good because He is most important. Knowing and loving God is more important than obeying all the commandments.

From that question asked by Jesus in Matthew you can find a couple of points you can take from it. The question is quite different, thought provoking, and what Jesus has said stays true forever. The words that Jesus spoke while on earth offer so much for us to learn from. God's way of speaking is and was very profound. I can't explain how perfect God's words are because they are not on the human scale of perfect. Why don't we use His words more often if the are so perfect?

My Testimony

I think most people normally think their testimony is boring and not impressive. However, I would say the opposite is more true.

I wasn't into drugs or an alcoholic and got saved, but I did get saved from my life of sin. I'm not perfect now though, my sinning continues on just like everybody else's does. I was saved at 5 years old and my parents have always been helping me in my walk with God. However, it wasn't until the past few years that I really started chasing God.

Growing up in a Christian family can easily make you go to church and to talk to God out of habit instead of out of love for God. I would say that it is almost harder for a kid growing up in a Christian family to become serious with God more than someone who did not. Yes it may be hard for non-Christian raised kids to find Jesus, but when they do they don't know Him because of what others said. Being raised in a Christian family you may not think you need help, but at some point all kids eventually must choose God because they want to know Him and they need Him.

I'm not really sure what changed me, but it happened. Maybe it was partially from my learning experience about pride from snowboarding that I wrote about in My Story- The Little Snowboarder in me. Either way during the time I was starting to grow much closer to God my youth group and I went to City Challenge in Ohio. During the time there I was stretched not only in my comfort zone physically, but also spiritually.

When I was there I learned that raising hands during worship wasn't a religious thing to do or show of goodness, but that when you truly love and are worshiping God raising your hands is just one more thing you can offer to God in worship. I also learned about silent prayer. Before City challenge I never really I understood prayer, for me it was just me presenting requests to God and thanking Him because that's what you do. What I learned there was that prayer is a conversation between me and God. I never really thought about the fact that prayer is conversation, not a verbalizing of requests to give to someone like Santa. I also later on developed a real realization of all the things God does for me. Now I really want to thank Him because I love Him and I know He deserves it. No more was the fact that I should thank God a mere "what your supposed to do" thing. Because I know realize what God has done for me, I feel like my thanks is not enough and it isn't.

The time when I was at City Challenge was the moment I really started to think deeply about things. I guess that since last summer I have changed greatly and it's written not only in this testimony, but on every page of this blog. Even though I'm calling this post "My Testimony" a more in depth display of my testimony or testimonies would be in all my blog posts. I hope my testimony keeps on traveling to a greater more profound relationship with God and that I can impact peoples lives with God's love.

Disclaimer: I'm sure some of you think your testimony isn't exciting or great because you grew up in a Christian home, were saved at a young age, and never did any thing "really bad". However, your testimony is developing into something great as you read this. The important thing about a testimony is how close you are to God not how far away you are from your sin.

Our Fantasized Lives

The other day I realized how much we has a human race just want to be done with things so we can move on to something better or the next thing on our list. So often we are searching, longing for an end. We are always looking for an end result. What about the plowing, pushing forward and getting through the hard stuff that brings the results?

When I'm moving snow for snowboarding or dirt for bike trails, I'm always pushing forward through the pain and tiredness to receive and end result. I dream a lot so I dream about that end result and what I may be able to accomplish on the finished product. That fantasizing and dreaming of what may be is so strong and exciting. Why is the fake or what may never be more exciting than really living? Why are the books we read, movies we watch, and stories we hear that are completely fiction more exciting than our real life? It seams to me that we have regarded our dreams as unreachable. We may be very well be living in our minds our own fantasy, not living the real life we have been given.

What has happened to actually knowing you are human? Do we realize we are bones and flesh given free will too choose life?

So instead of me just dreaming about the tricks I'm going to learn and do I should stop fantasizing and start doing. Besides, often the work and time that goes into making something is better and more fun than enjoying the finished product. Don't skip the pain and go straight to the exciting stuff at the end. Pain, sweat, and hard work are just as much a part of the story and worth of the end result.

Live a real life, don't live in a fantasy. Is what is not true worth anything? Don't just skip the pain and move to the "good stuff". Pain lets us know we are alive. Profoundly stop fantasizing and start living.

The Journey of Purpose

This blog post is actually a short story I wrote for my logic and debate class. My desire is that as you read this you would be able to take something away from it that can greatly affect your life and way of thinking.


Intro
The funny thing about being human is that we are well, human. However, what if we were not human, but thought and acted as if we were?

Chapter 1

A world of many artificially living things that acted as humans, but were not human, lived in Chrome City and a few others lived beyond in the countryside. These artificially living things were machines made of metal and oil. It was as if instead of industry being a part of the world the world was an industry. Everything was rigid, but happy and everyone did things just like humans even though it was completely unnecessary. To be human and have a soul is a gift given by God that is so great in and of itself that it made other living things on this planet jealous. That is why these living things living in Chrome City were called human hypocrites.

The human hypocrites were happy and lived comfortable lives, but there was always a feeling of little self worth inside themselves because they would never have a soul. They somehow thought they would get the satisfaction of possessing a soul from being like humans and doing everything humans do. The human hypocrites slept, ate, traveled to work, and had families just to feel human. The human hypocrites were powered by fuel, not food, never needed sleep because they did not tire, did not need to go to work because there was no work to be done, and their families were just a group of human hypocrites not a result of a marriage between two individuals. All of these actions were completely unnecessary for the survival of the human hypocrites. Now, it wasn't a bad thing to be a human hypocrite. It just meant that you were not human and strongly desired to be one.

Mr. Glockspiel was around the same size as humans, having two legs, two arms and a head, but instead of being skin and bones he was made of metal and quite square. He had the ability to do everything a human can do, but didn't really look like one. Every morning after the sun had risen and the rooster crowed over Chrome City, Mr. Glockspiel got out of bed, got dressed, and ate breakfast all of which were unnecessary actions for a metal machine to perform. Then at precisely 68:47 Chrome time, Mr. Glockspiel joined the mass of working human hypocrites on their way to work. After work, he went home for supper and then left for his meeting with his alumni at the Reason Emporium. At the Reason Emporium, they would reason about what humans do and for what purpose they did what they did. However, they never asked the question of why human hypocrites did what humans do, which is where our story begins.

Hardlamb, a young human hypocrite, from a past of bad decisions had finally made a good decision. He had joined the Reason Emporium. Just before dark, as he opened the door hesitantly and stepped inside, he saw a large group of human hypocrites that looked welcoming, but was suddenly grabbed and given a seat without a word spoken! He looked over to see whom he was beside and found a kind looking hypocrite that was well dressed in a black suit and plain white tie. However, he had a very disturbed expression that he was trying to hide under a face of contentment. Without warning, the human hypocrite started talking, but in such a way that Hardlamb was even unsure that he was talking to anyone in particular. "For the first time in the 578 years of my attendance here I have never thought about how messed up this club is." "Messed up?" asked Hardlamb. "Definitely, almost all of these other members sitting around us are greedy human hypocrites looking for fame and power in this club. After all these years of observing I have finally realized that this place that is to produce good things by means of reason actually is the root of the biggest problem in our society. As I’m sure you're well aware we are without a soul and we try to be like humans because we think humans are superior. We want what they have. So instead of focusing on what we have and being thankful for it, we have thought about and chased after what we do not have. We were given a special purpose just like the humans, but we think the humans are more important and do more important jobs. We have decided to throw away our important jobs and take on the humans' jobs that were made for them, not us." "Sir, why are you telling me this?" replied Hardlamb. "Because all of us must know that there is a big problem growing inside of ourselves. If we do what the humans do to have purpose, but what the humans do has no purpose for us, why do we do what the humans do? How I am living here is not right or logical. I guess I shall be leaving. Do you care to come along and chase true destiny and purpose, whatever that may be?" In response, Hardlamb looked around hesitantly and unsure of what had just happened. He had only been at the Reason Emporium a few minutes and already he had been asked by a seemingly wise hypocrite to join him in leaving Chrome City for who knows where. "Yea, yea I will join you," replied Hardlamb "but could I know your name?" "Certainly, I’m Mr. Glockspiel." "Its nice to have met you Mr. Glockspiel, I am Hardlamb."

"Hardlamb, you should know that I am leaving to go find my purpose in life. If you're coming along you'd better bet against your best hopes of an easy adventure. Just like it is a war zone at the Reason Emporium for fame and money, it will be a war zone inside of us and around us to reach our end goal of purpose."

"So, Glockspiel where do we start?!" asked Hardlamb. Mr. Glockspiel chuckled as he said; "From where we now stand. Chrome City symbolizes everything that we once were and what we wish to get away from. Chrome is shiny on the outside, but easily tarnishes and rusts. The hypocrites living in this city also have a nice appearance on the outside, but are tarnished and rusty inside."


Chapter 2
The next morning as the light started to reflect off the shiny sides of Chrome City, Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb started their journey out of Chrome City. Both couldn't help, but look back at what they had always known. Hardlamb was almost pulled apart, he wanted to go back to his home to where he had friends and family. However, he was quite sure his newfound friend had much knowledge and would not lead him somewhere without a good purpose. Besides what more could he lose? He had given himself up to many bad decisions before this adventure.

Mr. Glockspiel knew he was walking away from everything he knew he should have fixed. He knew he shouldn't always run from problems, but Mr. Glockspiel knew that to fix the world around him he had to fix himself first. How could he get rid of the human hypocrisy when he was being a hypocrite himself?

As Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb were nearing the small fresh water source of Chrome City just outside its walls, Hardlamb began to question his decision. "How much farther Mr. Glockspiel?" asked Hardlamb, "What? Are you tired already?!" responded Mr. Glockspiel. "I just want to know how long this will take." said Hardlamb. Both stopped in the middle of a crumbling bridge with flourishing moss covering its underside that traversed a trickling stream below. "Hardlamb, you see the sunset over there on the horizon? Well, it bleeds red at the thought of second guessing its departure below the horizon. However, after the darkness and all the trials, it passes through during the night and rises up again to bring us light and a new future of a new day filled with hope. This journey may take many days or many years, but even though we are sad at leaving home after all the pain we will come back filled with light that will burst out of us and fill others." We will come back and fill others... That’s pretty cool, thought Hardlamb. "Look, there is a light up ahead that looks like it is coming from a sort of shack or house, said Mr. Glockspiel. Hopefully we can stay there tonight."


Chapter 3
  The two arrived near dusk at the newly built inn that appeared as if it had seen many years of weather. The door creaked loudly and the inside was lined with hard maple on the walls, ceiling, and floor. The air was musty, but contained a hint of peach perfume. "What is this place?" whispered Hardlamb. From behind the heavily marked cherry counter appeared a human hypocrite with a nice hat and expensive jewelry, but tattered clothes. "This is the Peachy Inn, said the human hypocrite. the place that was once the most used building around. Now it’s just a place where dust grows... Sorry, I should have introduced myself, I’m the innkeeper, and you are whom?" "This is Hardlamb and I am Mr. Glockspiel," said Mr. Glockspiel. We are searching for purpose." "Yeah? This place used to have purpose, but that died many years ago when Chrome City was built," said the innkeeper. "What was this place like when it had purpose?" asked Hardlamb, "Well people from all over were coming to this area to help build Chrome City and later to live there. Here at the inn it was always packed with hypocrites. I was actually working at the time on building onto the side of the inn to accommodate more human hypocrites. Half of the time hypocrites stayed here just to have fun because this was the place to be. Money was to be made and fun to be had with newly made friends. However, soon after business grew it was gone and became what it is now. I guess the purpose this place had wasn’t really lasting purpose." "Maybe it has some sort of purpose though!" said Hardlamb hopefully. "Maybe it did, but not enough, now the inn is just a square piece of rotting wood… take any room you desire, the bathroom is at the end of the hall."


The next morning began pleasant and clear, but that had nothing to do with the state of Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb’s expedition. Mr. Glockspiel had walked outside of the Peachy Inn early that morning and looked at the sign and building trying to look for anything that might give him a tiny glimpse of purpose. However, all he found that was purposeful about the dirty old place was a roof that kept most of the rain out.

Mr. Glockspiel headed back into the inn and woke Hardlamb for another day of travel. However, as Hardlamb listened to Glockspiel telling him to pack up, Hardlamb was saddened at the thought of leaving. "Mr. Glockspiel, why can’t we stay longer and see what was so fun about this place. It is called the Peachy Inn you know!" "Hardlamb, I have looked at this place and listened to the innkeeper and neither of them had any lasting purpose in them. Come on, let's go find our purpose!"

Sometime after the sun had reached its highpoint, Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb finally came upon another glimmer of light in a small grove of trees alongside the road. Leaning against one of the trees was a hypocrite with a guitar in his hands and a soccer ball at his feet. Instead of a hypocrite with a nice smile and greeting to give, they saw one with eyes that were somehow distant as if he was looking back to a time of good memories. This hypocrite, Flynn, once had a very good soccer career and played for the best teams in the land. Later when his career was finished in soccer, he grabbed a guitar and played like a pro instantly. Then from that time on he played in the most famous band around until the band fell apart and he was kicked into the streets. During his years of prosperity, Flynn had a happy life, but when his fun and fame vanished he didn’t know what to do. No longer did he have people looking out for him and he could barely get enough money for a crumb of food. Now he was just a poor hypocrite walking around looking for a popularity high again. After hearing what Flynn had experienced, Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb grew silent and continued, knowing that they had learned a lot from his story. His life was a testimony to them that fame and abilities are not a lasting purpose.

The weather and landscape around Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb reminded them of how they were feeling inside. The sky was filling up with clouds, loosing its light, and the land looked like it was getting its life sucked out. Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb questioned more and more if they would ever find what they were looking for with each step they took. If there wasn’t purpose in being a human hypocrite in Chrome City, having fun at the Peachy Inn, or being a famous soccer player and guitarist, did real purpose even exist? Even Mr. Glockspiel started to question if it was worth it to continue to walk

After they had left the small wooded area they soon came upon an endless chasm that was about eleven miles wide and contained a flowing cloudlike mass down below that was so thick that they couldn't even see the bottom. "So what do we do now? said Hardlamb. Its not like we can pass over that Mr. Glockspiel!" "But what if our goal, real lasting purpose, lies just on the other side of this great chasm, Hardlamb?" "Well either way, I'm tired. Mr. Glockspiel, I wish to rest." "Very well, we shall rest here until morning when we will make a decision."


Chapter 4
As soon as the sun's rays flowed over the horizon the next morning, Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb were instantly ready to debate their next move. Neither of them wanted to waste a moment of time. Almost rudely and without a "Good morning," Hardlamb started to argue what their next move would be. "I think we should just turn back. If we haven't found even a glimpse of purpose on the way here, what hope do we have we will find it on the other side of this uncrossable chasm that may be an unending hole." "Now don't be ridiculous Hardlamb, possibly the very reason we haven't found purpose yet is because the people we met haven't found it or weren't even searching for it. In addition everyone who has found their purpose could be stuck on the other side." "That's just it, they are stuck, Mr. Glockspiel. If they can't get over here to show us purpose and we can't get over there to find it, maybe we must find purpose for ourselves. Maybe this chasm is a closed door telling us to travel back and find something we somehow passed-over on the way here." "I must say that is a very good point for a hypocrite of your age Hardlamb and I am inclined to take your stance, but I think we must first look over what we have learned on the way here to make sure you're right."

"We human hypocrites are hypocrites because we do the things humans do to feel important and purposeful, started Mr. Glockspiel. We feel we are unimportant because we are without souls and think that what the humans do is fulfilling. It is fulfilling, but only for humans, because it is their purpose, not ours. Our society runs on these premises: what the humans do is important; we want to be important and therefore we do what the humans do. The members of the Reason Emporium were only looking for fame and power for themselves, that made the Reason Emporium a place of arguing, not of truth. We have noticed that this hypocrisy isn't fulfilling, so we left our home to search for purpose. The owner of the Peachy Inn was trying to get more money by adding on and being able to hold more people, but the people left when the fun left. Flynn was out to have fun and get fame for himself, but that ended when his amazing qualities failed. And now we are here at the edge of a chasm thinking of turning back. I see only one theme in this whole analysis. All of the people we met were only helping themselves. To me the most logical move would be to do the opposite."

"Hardlamb, I think I may have just stumbled upon our purpose! Instead of getting stuff for ourselves we should be trying to help others and not ourselves," said Mr. Glockspiel. "You mean like selflessness is the goal we have been searching for the whole time?" asked Hardlamb "I believe so, Hardlamb," responded Mr. Glockspiel.

Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb could finally go back home now that they knew their purpose! However, home would bring its own troubles because they would be traveling back into a society of human hypocrites. As they packed up for their journey back home they knew without a doubt their purpose in life and were happy to help all, not just themselves.

Two days from the time they had turned back from the Chasm they were nearing Chrome City, which was now only eight miles away. As they were passing through a rocky section of the path littered with large boulders, some the size of elephants, two ghastly hypocrites were suddenly upon them. These two hypocrites were from a group famous for their cannibalistic attacks on those who passed by. They sought new parts for replacement of their own rusting ones. As Mr. Glockspiel and Hardlamb were running away from their near grasp, Hardlamb was grabbed by the shoulder and pulled down. Hardlamb struggled as hard as he could to get free, but the cannibal's grasp was firm. Then Hardlamb was tackled by the other hypocrite into submission. Because of Mr. Glockspiel's wise, quick thinking, he scrambled to the higher ground and escaped capture by the cannibals.

Then as the one cannibal was holding down Hardlamb, the two started arguing about whether they should go after the other one, but eventually gave up, thinking that he was already a mile away. However, Mr. Glockspiel was sitting silent just on the other side of a large boulder wondering how to save his dear friend. Out of desperation to see Hardlamb live, Mr. Glockpsiel cried out to the cannibals. "If you let my friend go free I will give myself to you as payment." The cannibals responded in disgust in their uneducated way, saying. "And what worth are ya over your friend we have?" "I have nearly new shoulder and knee plates." Said Mr. Glockspiel. "Alright then, give yerself up if that what you wish and then we will let yer friend go," said the one as they turned and grinned towards each other. "Don't Mr. Glockspiel, they want us both!! they won't give me up!" cried Hardlamb as he was again held back and muffled by the thieves. As Mr. Glockpsiel moved out into the open he called for them to show themselves and set Hardlamb free, but they insisted they must have him first before they let his friend free. However, Mr. Glockspiel knew better than to let criminals get the best of him and insisted they must come out into the open and let Hardlamb go first. Reluctantly as the two cautiously stepped out into the bright path they saw Mr. Glockspiel, his shining expensive body parts, and agreed to let Hardlamb go as payment. As soon as Hardlamb was set free, Mr. Glockspiel being the sincere hypocrite he was, calmly gave himself to the cannibals without a fight. In desperation and love for his companion Hardlamb cried out for Mr. Glockspiel to run, but Mr. Glockspiel knew it was for the best and responded with. "Hardlamb I have found my purpose and am now ready to go, don't mourn for me. Go into Chrome City and tell all about real purpose, about selflessness!"

Hardlamb felt sick to his stomach and could hardly breathe after what had just happened to his friend. How could he just let the best hypocrite he had ever known be destroyed? For the next seventeen minutes, Hardlamb just sat there on a rock crying, as emotions flowed as fast as a swift moving river though his head. He felt anger at the loss of his friend and then peace because he knew Mr. Glockspiel desired that his friend would live. The whole time he felt a nagging inside of him to do what Mr. Glockspiel asked.

By the time Hardlamb reached the gates of Chrome City near nightfall he was ready to step up and proclaim selflessnss as the purpose of all human hypocrites. This had been Mr. Glockspiel's desire. During the following months, Hardlamb went to all in Chrome City teaching selflessness. He even went to the children in the park at the square and taught them about sharing and helping others.
Eventually the city was filled with human hypocrites that were no longer hypocrites doing what humans do because they had found their real purpose. They were now a society ready to give a helpful hand, which was what they were meant to do. The human hypocrites were machines and that is what machines do, they help. This meant the human hypocrites were no longer hypocrites and their name was changed to lambs. Not only was it Hardlamb who had led them to become a selfless society, but they also were always ready to offer a gentle hand of assistance.

                   The End
To commemorate his dear companion's chivalrous acts of selflessness Hardlamb had a memorial chiseled out of granite and placed at the center of Chrome City with this dissertation engraved into the side.

As Mr. Glockspiel waited through the pain and humiliation of the cannibalistic human hypocrites ripping his body parts off, he knew that his life had finished well. He had found his life purpose and acted it out by giving up himself for his friend so that his friend could live out that purpose and so express it to others. This is how the life of our respected pioneer Mr. Glockspiel ended.

"The journey of purpose isn’t only a walk to some destination it is also a journey in the mind." – Peter Charles

One thing I realized about this story is how it really doesn't differ too much from people and society today. We are very methodical, mechanical, and have lost our purpose.

Go search and find a life of true and profound purpose with God's help.