Month: September 2014

Overwhelming sin

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Overcoming what one can call an overwhelming sin is one of the toughest things any person can face in their life. But what is an overwhelming sin? It is a sin that can change your life. The most extreme example I can think of is murder. Taking the life of another human being changes your life as well as the life of those that loved the one that was taken away. It also affects those that would have been influenced and helped by the person that is no longer there. So as you can see in this example an overwhelming sin affects you, as well as anyone that could be affected by its presents in your life. Overwhelming sins are those sins that change your very nature.
I have no doubt that all struggle with an overwhelming sin. I know I have had to deal with one since I was a teenager. A sin that rears its ugly head in times when my spirit is at its most vulnerable. It occurs in a time when other events in the world take up most of your time and effort. Then suddenly it appears, unexpectedly. At times, the sin over powers you to a degree, but soon guilt starts to hit you, then remorse, then repentance. This is how all sins work, but the overwhelming sin as mentioned above can affect your entire life as well as those about you. It is not a minor sin like saying a curse word. But one that reaches deep inside your very soul and causes the person that you should be in God’s eyes into someone that is not even recognizable.
The core of the problem I have found in my own personal experience is selfishness. It all boils down to this one simple fact. I was thinking only of myself. I gave no care to anyone or anything. I must satisfy myself and I do not care what anyone says, thinks or feels. It is this one feeling that dictates all. The very fact that all must revolve and be only for me is the foundation to all sin, especially the overwhelming one.
We are to be humble. We are to make ourselves the servant, especially those that are in a place of leadership. We are to place everything ahead of ourselves. It is this, which is one of the biggest struggles that any person has to go through. When someone finally realizes that they are not the focal point of the world. That they are merely one of the cogs inside the watch and not the watch itself that true change can take place. It is here that the overwhelming sin can be driven back and bury. If not forever for at least long enough to allow you to grow into what God wants you to grow into.
Many in today’s world are surrendering to selfishness. In many cases, even the government is encouraging this behavior. All need to think, all need to realize, that we are not here to satisfy only your own selfish wants or desires. We are here to address the needs of others. We need to be humble and not seek to please ourselves, but to help those in pain and suffering. Pain and suffering that in many cases was thrust upon them by the act of someone thinking only of themselves and their own satisfaction. Someone who has lost the battle to overcome their overwhelming sin.

Chaos is not the way

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How is it possible to go through life in a world that is always in chaos? Each day is something different. Each encounter is always different. Someone that is friendly today is mean to you the next. To me not having something solid to stand upon leaves you vulnerable and weak. You are pulled with the latest fad. In today’s world it spirals ever faster. Not giving you time to think. You are exposed to others that are going through the same thing. How has the human race lasted so long?
I know the answer, but most either do not want to hear it, have turned away from it or downright hate it. They live in their little worlds. In some cases, they let the world overwhelm them. They ask over and over is there more, but due to other in the world, the “more” is being torn away so they do not see it. Places where the “more” could easily be found is void of the “more” even being there. All because they think they know more than the “more” does.
The “more” is the only true constant in reality of the world about us all. Many say the only true constant is chaos, even I have said that, but there is something that is truly constant. It is so constant that it stays in one place, just waiting for you to find it.
What is this constant? It is God, and you can find Him through His Son Jesus Christ who took your sins, your sorrows, your pains upon Himself Just so you can have something that is constant, true, and unyielding. THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. The creator of the universe and of you.

Should Christianity change?

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Many ask that question. What is to follow is my opinion on the matter.
My answer to this question. NO. It should not change. Christianity has had its difficulties ever since Jesus. Even in the early days, many of the things that are present in the church today were present in the church when Paul was teaching unto the Gentiles.
If you are willing to go with what is popular today than your heart is not where it should be. We are not to be a part of the world but separate from it as an example of what is good in the eyes of God. If you go about saying that it is okay to sin then you are turning your back on God. This goes for any sin. If the Bible states it is a sin it cannot change. It is still the same sin it was when it is called a sin when God on Mount Sinai gave Moses the laws. It was a sin when Jesus walked upon the earth. It was a sin when our ancestors came to America so they could worship God as the Bible taught, not as a King said it was to be done. It is a sin today.
I will help and befriend someone who chooses to live in sin, but I will still try to get him or her to realize that they are living in sin. It is not my place to force them to change. It is my place to be the light of God upon the world and expose those acts as sin.
If that person rejects God that is their choice as it should be, but I will still let them know that “if” there is a God then they are destine to an eternal life that is more hideous then what ISIS (ISIL) is doing to my fellow Christians in the Middle East. An ETERNAL LIVE of pain and suffering by their own choice.
As Christians, we are meant to be an example of what is true, right and clean. If your church allows those that sin within it. Then that church has turned it back on God and is no longer a church. A prime example is the Presbyterian Church, which first stated it would no longer acknowledge Israel, but then said it would accept homosexuality. That organization is no longer Christian and so if you call yourself Christian you must leave this group and find a place that is still Christian and follow the teaching of the Bible. We are told that Israel is the promised nation of God so to deny Israel is to deny God. We are told in the Bible that homosexuality is a sin. Therefore, if you allow sin into your buildings you allow Satan to have dominion and not God.
The basic principles of Christianity have lasted since 33 A.D. until now. That is one thousand nine hundred and eight plus years. Not counting the years from Mount Sinai. Nearly two thousand years that these rules, laws and teachings have endured yet now they are wrong? Sorry, but those that say they are wrong are the ones that are in the wrong.
People are dying more than ever for calling themselves Christian. Are you willing to have someone saw off your head as they did or are you a hypocrite? I already now the answer. I am willing to die a martyr for God. Are you?

Confessions of a screwed up middle-aged man: The countdown clock moves closer

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In just a few days a milestone will be reached in my life. It is one many cross, but as you get closer to that time when doing what you want to do really starts to come into play. What is it? The anniversary of my hire date at my current job. Due to this, I will soon be able to say I plan to retire in eight years.

I miss the road. I miss seeing different things as you travel. Most of all I miss seeing different animals. I have seen Mountain Goats, Moose, Bison, Bear, Deer, Pierre Dogs, Roadrunners, Regular and Jack Rabbits, and my most favorite Pronghorn Antelope. Yet that still does cover them all.

I miss the mountains, the smell of pine forests in the spring. I miss exploring and discovering new things. It is something I truly wish to do once again, but I must wait, for it is not yet my time to have those adventures once again. Now I must work and wait for that special person that will be my friend and companion. For what good is it to look upon the wonders of God’s creation without someone to share it with.

The Greatest Commandments

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In Mark 12: 29-31 Jesus states that there are two great commandments.
The first to wholeheartedly love God. Not partly. Not today and then tomorrow, you do not feel like it. Not Sunday and the rest of the week you do not care. All the time. Everyday, every hour. Giving praise unto God.
Sure time-to-time you have to deal with the world, your job, kids, and wife. Other drivers on the road, but it does not stop you from praising God in between. I do it. So I know you can do it.
The second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. In Luke 10 someone asked who is his neighbor. Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
For those that do not know this. In the time that Jesus walked upon the earth, the Samaritans were reviled. Hated by everyone. Jesus also mentioned a priest, which represented religious holiness and a Levite, which represented religious wisdom. They were supposed to know the teachings of the Bible. Yet they acted selfishly and arrogantly. They chose to ignore the man that had just been robbed, beaten, and left the man dying upon the road.
It took someone who has been humiliated and humbled to show true love for his neighbor for most likely he had suffered as the man that had been robbed had been treated.
When you treat your neighbor as yourself, you are following the golden rule of do unto others, as you would have others do unto you. Anyone that you see in a day of your life is your neighbor. Be they Atheist, Agnostic, hypocrite or a fellow Christian. Even the person in the home next to you, or the car or truck beside you on the road.
You are an example of God. You are a part of the Holy Body. Through you, people see Jesus. Do they see a loving, caring Jesus, or an arrogant self-serving putts? If they see the latter then you are not following the teaching of Christ and need to rethink your faith and believes within that faith. Do not be Revelation 3:16

God is a wimp

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This is how most people treat God. Be they Atheist, Agnostic, and especially if they are Christian.
It may be because people cannot wrap their minds about truly how great God is. What is the first thing God is known to have done? He created. He created the universe.
Within the universe is billions of galaxies. Within a galaxy is millions of solar systems. Within these solar systems are planets. This has all been scientifically confirmed and yet people limit God.
We are told we turn over our problems unto God through His Son Jesus. He will address these problems, which He does. The thing is people want one outcome, but God’s plans for you may require a different outcome.
As example, I give you my life. I had unwillingly been divorced for ten years. I got tired of waiting for God to guide me to a new wife or back to my first. So I met a woman and literally said to myself “She’s a keeper.”
This started me down a path that took me around the United States then ultimately it took me to a new city to live in. As time went on events deteriorated in my marriage and after several devastating events, which led to the loss of all my personal property. I turned full back to where my eyes should have been towards….. God.
I turned it over to Him, even though I have still slipped in the endeavor. However when I keep God center of my life things improve. Not with personal possessions or money, but with my existence within this life. It is through this that I fully realize that God made everything about all of us. He controls everything, but allows us the free-will to choose how we to either follow Him or even deny He even exists, but how can you when every day you are surrounded by all that He made. A tree, the atmosphere you breathe and through which clouds float by above you as the sunlight of the very sun He made. A bird, a spider, a deer, all created by the all powerful, all knowing, GOD.

Even on rough days, you must praise Him

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I was abruptly reminded to day on how hard it can be to sing praises unto God during the hard times that occur in this life. I was writing to someone about the wonders hidden within the Book of Revelation, but at the same time working through depression due to events within this temporal life.
It took me back to my year of Job when Satan threw boulders upon my narrow road to God. I feel as I prayed and thought and re-thought and prayed again that I focused on God once again and was able to convey His Glory to the person I was writing too.
This world we live in. Filled with all others truly identical to us, the corruption is a challenge to strife through at times. It is something we must prevail through. God knows our spiritual strength. He knows what we can handle and so we must struggle on to take that next step. To see though the next hour. To make it to the next day, then the next week, month and year. Till the day God says your work is done in this life and He calls us unto Him and His Son.

Why is the Bible so big?

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First, it must be said that it is not as big as it could be. When King James made his commission to make the Bible we now use today, several books were not included. What is left per the commission was deemed to be the core elements required to teach Christianity.
Two verses need to be stated.
Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The commission found that not only the New Testament, but as well the Old Testament was and is required to teach someone in the faith of Christianity. There are those that feel that calling themselves Christian makes them exempt to follow the teaching found within the older books of the Bible. Now one must understand one important fact about the second book of Timothy. The letter of what is now called the book of Timothy were letters written in the first century of Christianity, many scholars say by a follower or followers of Paul. So what scriptures are being referred to within this letter? None other than what is now called the Old Testament.
Then the commission of King James came to the same conclusion. Therefore, those that are ignoring these books of the Bible are in violation of these two verses in second Timothy. Especially since Jesus stated very clearly that, He is in fact fulfillment of the Old Testament.
It is also important to realize something else. To be a disciple of Christ he must be chosen by Jesus’ Himself. All recognize that those twelve that walked with Jesus before His crucifixion are in fact disciples. Well there was one other that was called by Jesus. His name was Saul, which became Paul, and he was tasked by Christ to preach and welcome all gentiles into the fold. This is the full creation of Christianity and also the making of the thirteenth disciple of Jesus.
Since each disciple represent each of the twelve tribes of Israel that then makes Christians, as I call it, the thirteenth tribe of Israel. This comparison, to me, magnifies statements directed at Israel to also include Christians. This is simplistic I admit, but at the same time logical. Anyway, no matter my suggestion here, being Christian and accepting that we must use the Old Testament as a guide then we should read it. Understand and where fitting in a Christian aspect follow what it teaches for that is its purpose. To deny its teaching is to deny what we have been told to do and in so doing deny God.
Now back on the main topic. There are those that call themselves Christian that seem to display an attitude that they are better than those that do not accept Christianity. They feel they must direct all their attention only to those in their little click of purity. That is against the teaching of Jesus and the entire Bible.
Matthew 28:19 – Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Matthew 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
We are also to be humble.
Philippians Chapter 2: 3-5 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
This means to all not just fellow Christians. For you cannot convince someone you are sincere if you have an attitude of superiority, which we should never have, because there is only one being worthy of such a placement and adoration, and He is God. And not to desire to share God with any willing to follow and worship Him is the ultimate act of selfishness there would ever be.