The OT and me!

So lately the more I read the OT, the more a certain thing happens.  The more I realize its not just a history book and its not just pointing towards the cross.  But it has become more and more clear that it is a finger pointing towards me.  I am Israel.  The nation of Israel keeps betraying God, straying from Him despite everything he has done for them.  They fall away from God and feel separation from God.  But then they repent and God forgives them, welcoming them back home to Him.  Then they stumble and fall again and the cycle of separation and ultimately repentance starts all over again.  This is a major theme through the OT and I see it as a major theme in my own life.  Often I stumble, it causes separation in my relationship with God and when I repent, God is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins.  It is a lifelong struggle to follow and trust God all the days of my life, not depending on myself and my pride, but on God and God alone.  Israel had the same struggle.  It is amazing the parallel I see in the OT to my own life and is helping me to see the OT in a new and different light, just thought I'd share!

Tim

Sex, The Great American Pastime

So here it is, it took me awhile, but the topic of sex before marriage is a big issue and one that has been brought up to me quite a bit at work due to the fact that I am no longer sexually active and am trying to save anything else for marriage.  So to start, I will tell you all some of my history without going into the gory details.  I am not a virgin I lost that at the age of 19, I wanted to save myself for marriage, but when I got into college I fell away from my beliefs for a couple crazy years and was far to active during that time.  So in no way shape or for am I trying to judge any non christians who are sexually active, my only goal for those who do not claim Christ as their personal savior is to preach Christ and Christ crucified.  What this is, is what the Bible teaches on sex before marriage, and the reasons, as Christians we should wait till we are married.  I am not going to use the conventional, oh its what God wants, we need to obey God.  I am going to explain our relationship with God a little more and why, if we have that relationship, we should have a desire to wait for marriage.  The other precursor is that sex is a beautiful gift God has given us, and in the right context should be practiced, and should be practiced quite often as a why to deepen the relationship with the person God has given us to spend our life with.  SO!  With that said, here goes!

God offers us an intensely personal relationship with Him, He offers us comfort, safety, true happiness.  He created us and thus knows what makes us happy, how to make us happy, and that is being satisfied in Him, in our relationship with Him.  He does not need us, but we need Him.  Without Him we have a hole in our lives that cannot be filled.  You see this all the time, wether its a christian who has strayed from our relationship with God or a non believer who is trying to find something to make this life worth living.  I will give you an example of a friend I have who, before he welcomed Jesus into his life couldn't find anything to fill that hole, he had no friends, he was an outcast to society, he had tried to fill the void in his life with just about everything but couldn't.  He had reached a level of total and complete dispair in which he could find no reason to go on living.  He tried to end his life several times, once he even put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.  The bullet was in the wrong tube, God had a reason for him to go on living.  He started going to this church youth group, though he hated it and everyone there, he kept going because for some reason, the people there seemed happy, seemed like the hole was filled in their life and he wanted to know why.  Well when he was there one night, God moved in him, saved him and there has been such a huge change in his life, he is now the most bubbly, joyful person you would ever meet, you would not  dream that he was diagnost as having a chemical imbalance that would always make him that way, unhappy and depressed.  God filled the void in his life, gave him something to live for, made him happy.  His life isn't easy, no ones life is, but a personal relationship with God makes it worth living, shows us what we are made for, we no longer have to fill the void with things that don't last, sex, drugs, drinking and whatever other functional savior someone might have.  So then, here is it:

IF your a Christian, then sex is something that gets in the way of your relationship with God.  It is like any relationship you have here on earth, think of the best, most intimate relationship you have with a human, if you do something directly against what they tell you to do, they aren't going to be pleased, and there will be a wedge in the intimacy you have with that person, the relationship will be damaged.  God tells us for many very good reasons not to have sex until we are married.  If we disobey Him and become sexually active, there is a huge wedge put in our relationship with God.  The relationship is badly damaged and we do feel this.  When I was sexually active I was at a spiritual low, I was still a christian, but my relationship with God was greatly damaged as sex was a huge wedge inbetween us.  I no longer had the comfort and joy that relationship offered and started looking for other things to get that joy and comfort.  I tried a lot of things and they made me happen in the moment, but always brought emptiness after, I had to go to the next thing, or do something again and again to keep the happiness, because it was empty.  When God brought me back to Him, I stopped having sex, I turned my life back over to Him and began to experience that intimacy, comfort and joy He offers.  And I have come to a clear knowledge of how much greater that relationship with God is then sex, or any other thing that gets in my way of having intimacy with Him, of having Him fill that void in my life that only He can fill.  Now again, in marriage, where He created sex for, it is a great thing that He has given us and does not put a wedge between us at all, if anything, it gives us a greater appreciation for all the things He has given us.  

So, if Jesus has saved you, and you are not expierencing that intimate, personal relationship He offers, maybe it is time to look at your life, what are you doing that is getting in the way, putting a wedge between you and Him?  Even if it isn't sex, what is it?  It is not worth not being close to Him, being held in His arms, feeling the joy and comfort He offers, so guys, lets get back to God!  Lets break down the things in our life that are getting in the way of God!

Tim

To hell with hell, why don't we all go to heaven?

So lately I have been asked this question a lot from guys at work, and if you've been a christian for a decent amount of time, you have probably heard this question yourself, it is the proverbial question:  So since I am not a christian, am I going to hell?  Sometimes people will be asking to ask the question just to get you uncomfortable and to instigate something, others will be legitimately asking the question.  The easy thing to do is to take the easy way out and say something to the effect of, well I am not sure, or if you live a good life, I dunno or something to that extent.  So tonight I am going to address the issue of hell and heaven.  Is there a hell?  What is it like?  What is heaven like and why would a loving God send anyone to hell?

First issue, is there a hell?  Yes, there is. Why do I believe this?  Because God  tells us this. There are many referances throughought the Bible to hell, such as one in Matthew 10:28 where Jesus tells us "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell".  This verse is very clear, there is a hell, and both our body and soul will be destroyed in hell.  So then this begs the question:

What is hell like??  Obviously no one living can know the answer fully to this question, but I am going to try my best to biblically show what hell is going to be like.  The verse I am going to be using is from Mark 9:47b-48,  Jesus quotes Isaiah, he says "to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched".  This gives us a clear picture of one of the torments of hell, a worm that does not die, something eating at you, meaning a constant pain, the worm eats from inside, thus I believe it means something eating at your soul.  And a fire that is not quenched, a burning searing pain to your person, it might not be literal fire, but the picture is intense pain at all times.  But to me, the scariest thing the eternal separation from God we would endure in hell, let me explain exactly what this would mean;  everything good thing we see or experience in this world is from God.  Every time we enjoy the simplest things like how a flower looks or smells, every time we feel joy or pleasure, every time we laugh, every time anything good happens to us, its from God, its the small glimpse of heaven we will see on this earth.  It is why this is a true saying, "for those who do not have Jesus as their Lord and savior, earth is the closest thing to heaven they will experience".  So in hell, where we would experience eternal separation from God, we lose all of this.  The parts of our personality that can feel any pleasure or joy would fade away.  We could not enjoy anyones company, we would despise everyone, including ourselves.  We would hate everything and everyone.  We would have no good thoughts, they would all be evil and of despair, we would want every second of every day to be able to die and end this torment, but it would end.  This separation from God would last for all eternity.  We would spend the rest of our eternity, miserable, incapable of any enjoyment and pleasure.  And this, scares me.  This is why, if we are followers of Christ, we should be taking Gods word to everyone we can, because we should have a passion for them, a desire to be used by God to keep as many people as we can out of hell.

So what is heaven like then??  Heaven is the exact opposite of hell, we will spend eternity with God, doing exactly what God made us to do, living in perfect harmony with God.  To spend eternity with God doing exactly what we were created for will give us perfect peace, happiness and comfort.  No more sorrows, no more suffering, only joy and peace with our God for all eternity.  This is why the saying "the earth is the closest thing believers will ever experience to hell".  Again, if we care about others, we should be bringing Christ, preaching Christ and Christ crucified to them so that we can be used by God to help bring them to heaven.

Another commonly asked question, why would a loving God send anyone to hell?  The answer is simple, God is a loving God, but he is also just.  We all sin, none of us are perfect, so the better question would be, how could a just God send anyone to heaven?  In Romans 1, Paul tells us of the true depravity of man, how we knew God but we turned our backs on Him.  We have all turned our backs on God at points in our lives.  We all sin against Him, far to many times to even put a number on.  Thus, since God is a just, righteous God, then He has to send us to hell, or He would not be just.  How would it be if a judge just started letting guilty men go free all the time?  Well God is a perfect judge, He makes no mistakes, he cannot let guilty men go free, He has to send us to hell.  But then comes His incredible love for us.  He sent His son, Jesus Christ to earth, Jesus lived a perfect life, no sin at all.  Then He took all our sin upon Himself on the Cross, dying for us in the most grusome way possible.  He was perfect, not worthy of death, but He died for us, so that as long as we put our trust and faith in Him, our sins are forgiven.  Incredible.  So if we believe and trust in Jesus Christ as our savior and perfect sacrifice, the one who took all of Gods wrath and anger for our sins, then our sins are forgiven and we are free from our bondage to sin.  We can look forward to spending eternity with God in heaven.  But if we do not except the work Jesus did for us on the Cross, if we do not except Him as the one who willingly gave us His perfect life to take our sins away, then as a just, righteous God, He has to put us away from Him in hell.

So in conclusion, if someone asks you if they are going to hell, you cannot duck the question, if you are not willing to tell the truth about God, then you will offend God!  We have to be willing to say, if Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior, the ultimate destination is hell.  But then this opens up an opportunity for us to share the good news of what Christ did for us on the cross.  We HAVE to be willing to share the good news if we have the chance, if we don't, then we are doing our parts to send people to hell.  This sounds harsh, and it is, but it is true.  God uses us to reach the lost, and if we are to cowardly, or do not care enough to share the good news with those who have not experienced Jesus Christ, then we are doing our part to to send them to hell since we are not allowing God to use us to reach others.  I am as guilty of this as the next person of not taking every chance I have, but now, we have a chance to change, to do everything in our power to bring others to Christ, we know the good news, lets share it in love, with Gods love, because of our love for the lost.

Tim

What are we "Married" to?

So tonight I wanted to write a bit about something that has been on my mind.  After going to college group a few nights ago and hearing a very convicting message I have been pondering the notion of what am I "married" to?  By this I do not mean literally married, as I am still waiting for God to lead me to that right girl, however, I digress as this is a completely different topic.  But after reading a friends post  the other day  I sat down and started to read the book of Hosea.  For those of you who do not open these old, seemingly irrelevant books (like me) try them out you will be surprised at what God can teach you by going "old school."  So here is what is addressed in the opening chapters and what God brought to my attention through His Word.

God calls Hosea to go and marry a harlot and to have children with her.  She was of course unfaithful and turned to other men.  What was God's purpose for this, what did he intend to teach?  Ultimately His purpose was for Hosea (and us) to see and realize some of the pain in watching the one you love turn their back and seek after something else.    This was representative of the actions of Israel, and how they had turned their backs on God in order to serve idols and worship things other than the Lord.  This brought Him great heartache, to watch His people turn away from Him.  This is also How God feels every time we forsake our relationship with Him for other things.

So what does God want from us?  Does He want us to be Good and Follow Him?  Yes!  Of course He does.  However, God does not want us to simply "be good" and follow rules.  I am not saying that being moral and following His commandments is by any means indispensable.  However, he wants more than that!  He wants an undiluted relationship with us.  By this I mean He wants us to be completely focused on Him and seeking to grow and further our relationship.  He does not want us to be mere "acquaintances" on Sunday morning, or when we need Him to "work a miracle" in our lives.  He wants to have a personal, intimate relationship with us.  One like a marriage.  In Hosea 2:19-20 God says "And I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.  Then you will know the Lord."  With our "marriage" to Him we can experience God's righteousness, compassion, mercy, loving kindness, and grow in spiritual knowledge!  Thus, we must be in an intimate relationship with Him.  We must give Him our attention.  This brings in that question, what am I married to?  So often I forsake the richness of my relationship with God for trivial things that do not sustain.  So my prayer and and desire is to pursue this "marriage" with God above all else.  I want to grow in the knowledge of who He is and what His desire is for my life, that I might ultimately glorify Him above all else!

My hope is that this is encouraging to you as well.  Take a moment to think about the many things that you let get in the way of your relationship with God.  What are you "married" to?  Then pray and ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and help to pursue your relationship with God above everything else.  Because we cannot simply desire to change and then follow through on our own.  We need to Holy Spirit to come upon us and help us, because it is by that power that we can change.

May you grow ever more in the grace and knowledge of of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.  Amen.  -2 Peter 3:18

Grace and Peace, 

Peter    

The next few days!!

So I don't have time to post them tonight, but in the next couple of nights I am going to be posting a couple of blogs based on a couple of issues I have been asked about quite a bit recently, mostly at work.  Issue one, Heaven and Hell, Issue two?  Sex before marriage verses saving yourself.  Two deep issues that as I mentioned I have been asked a lot about lately, so I decided to think through my answers carefully and post them here.  A lot of times my blogs will be about things that have been in my life recently, and these two will be no exception, so bear with me as I attempt to tackle these two big issues in the next couple of nights!

Tuesday off?

So its tuesday and I had the day off from work, it is so weird to have a tuesday off, it seems to have thrown my entire week off kilter.  I can accept a monday or a friday off, but a tuesday?  May it never be!!  Oh, and don't ask me why I am complaining about a day off.

Missing home

It is true what they say, home is where the heart is.  I don't miss the area I am from(Bay Area) one bit, but every time I hear or think about the people I left there, I find myself becoming nostalgic about home, and wishing I could be back there and see everyone.  I am a bit jealous of my roommate Peter as he gets to spend the entire week back home with everyone!  I am really looking forward to christmas time when I will be able to go home and spend some time with my family and see my friends.  To everyone I have left behind, I love you all and can't wait to see you!

The curse of the feet

So tonights blog is a wee bit different, I am sitting at the apartment on a friday night due to the fact that my feet hurt enough that I really have no desire to go out.  After a long week and many overtime hours, I find myself wondering, why the heck do we have to have nerve endings in our feet?  Why can't our feet just be numb all the time so that we don't have to feel soreness when we have been using them for nearly 50 hours a work week?    Oh well, other then that, I am going to enjoy a nice quiet evening of putting the feet up and chillaxing for a change!  See?  Told you this blog was different from most of mine!

Cultural relevance verse Biblical truth, can they coexist?

So there are two camps in the world of christianity right now that stand on two very opposite shores.  One camp holds cultural relevance in a very high regard, they are in the world, very active but they seem to have lost a lot of the truth of the word.  The other group stands on the opposite end, its the church that stands for truth, and nothing else, that isn't in the world, isn't making an impact, isn't loving and fighting for the lost, they are more worried about checking off their boxes of what they do right.  Both of these camps have good aspects, but both also have damaging aspects.  Tonight I would like to take a closer look at them, and in a nutshell, see what, in my opinion, we can take and what we should leave from them.

First off, concerning the emergent church.  I have always strongly disliked the emergent church, but lately my view of them has softened quite a bit.  I have been doing a lot of reading on the emergent church and am currently reading one of their more respected "leaders" books and have a much better grasp on what they are pursuing and where their heart is.  While I certainly don't have it nailed down(not sure they really have nailed down what they are doing either)  I do have a much better grasp and much more respect for where they are now.  So that said, they are very culturally relevant and in their community, helping and really trying to show Gods love to their community.  They have a fire and a passion for those things, and that is something we as christians have to take away, and should be trying to apply to our own lives.  

The negative is that they say they are on a journey to get to know Christ, and that you cannot know for sure any truths about Him, we cannot truly know what the Bible means and one persons interpretation can be right for them while another persons is right for them.  They are correct when they say we are on a journey to get to know Christ to further our relationship with Him.  But what they forget is every relationship we have, is based on learning truth about that person, we cannot further our relationship with them(think of your girl friend or boy friend, you best friend, your parents) without knowing concrete truths about them.  Developing a relationship with them is all about learning more and more truths.  Not truths that are right for one person but maybe not right for another one, but consistent truths that hold to for everyone.  Jesus is no different, there are many things we can know for sure about Him, and we must fight to hold this truth.  The holding that we cannot know for sure what the Bible means, suggests that God is not capable or not caring enough to impart clear truth to us, which neither one of those choices seems very wise.  The truth?   The Bible has many areas that are gray areas, that are left open to interpretation, these areas while we should study, and be able to have an opinion on, cannot be know for sure.  But there are also many areas the Bible does not leave open to interpretation, God did not intend it to.  So we have to hold strong to the truth found in Gods word.

Then we have the "modern church", you all know it, the church that only cares about "the truth", the church that you don't see loving the community, but judging the community, the "frozen chosen" as some would call them.  They have the check list of do's and don'ts and if you do the don't, oh man, your in for a world of judging and finger wagging at you.  This is a church where you don't see any real life change or spiritual growth, just legalistic, hypocritical christians that give christianity a bad name.

The good of this church is the high esteem they hold the truth of Gods word in, they fight for it, they revere it, as it should be, they just don't do it very lovingly.

The negative, you don't see the real spiritual growth, just the list of do's and don'ts.  Life as a christian is not about do's and don'ts, its about a relationship with Jesus Christ, an intimate, real relationship, where we love Him and desire to do anything and everything He desires us to do.  This church tends to drive a lot of non christians, and christians away from the church as they don't see any love, just legalism and hypocritical christians.  

Both extremes have good parts, both have bad parts, what we have to do is sift the good from the bad.  Here is my try at it:

1.  The truth of Gods word is of utmost importance, and we must protect and defend it.

2.  We have to be culturally relevant so that we might reach all that we can.

3.  We should be filled with a fire, a desire to obey and follow Christ, a desire to get to know Him more, a desire to obey Him, not because its a list of do's and don'ts, but because we love Him with all our hearts and want to obey Him.

So how do we combine all three areas?  How are we to be in the culture, loving it and reaching it for Christ, holding Gods word and truth in utmost regard, and ultimate respect, fighting for the truth, and have the desire to follow God, to love him and the world he has created?  Its not easy, and no one has that fireproof plan, but these are the things we have to be fighting for.  How do we do it?  I am trying to learn this myself, I know that neither extreme is right, the answer is in the middle, how do we get there?  I am trying to learn this!  So in closing tonight, I am going to leave you with a quote that I like, that for most of you that know me, will be kind of surprised to see me quoting:

"Your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be.  And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it".  -Rob Bell

The end of a nail

So, though I don't know why, I decided to share with you all that today at worked, I smashed my left pinky finger.  There is quite a bit of blood under the finger nail and it looks really gross and hurts quite a lot!!  I spent half of the day praying that God would give me the strength to make it through the work day despite the pain, pretty sure I am gonna lose the nail, and now I am sitting here typing on the finger.  Oh life is so annoying sometimes.  But if the worst thing I have to deal with is a little pain and a lost fingernail, then I guess I am not doing to bad after all!

Tim

My faults, my problems and my salvation

So tonight, I have a confession to make, I am arrogant, I can be a jerk, I can be selfish, unloving, uncaring, ignorant, a hypocrite and the list goes on and on.  Lately I have really been convicted of my arrogant and sometimes unloving attitude.  I am really tired of it and its something I truly desire to change. 

 It is at times like these when I take comfort and refuge when Paul tells us that "Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am the chief".  Here is a guy who wrote nearly half of the NT, but he calls himself chief of sinners.  A look into his past shows us that he persecuted and killed christians before God saved him, a look into his Christian life shows a Godly man, but also a man who struggles with his temper and another unknown "thorn in his side".  Yet God used this man for incredible things in His church.  

I take great comfort from this knowing that God can use me despite all my deficiencies, despite all my sins and shortcomings.  I know that for me to change my attitude and actions to a more Godly attitude and more God centered actions I have to be humble, willing to bow the knee to God and give myself over to Him.  He has saved me from my sins, He has given me the power to overcome my sinful nature with Him by my side.  So with Him by my side, I am going to work on my arrogance, on my unloving nature, and God willing, I will change, one day at a time.  This is my confession, this is my struggle.