Christ Centered

One of the temptations that we, as Christians, will face throughout life is to settle into a nice set of established rules...be nice...and yet remember not why we live the way we do. Elders can go into a home and ask a thousand different questions.
How are things in the church? Are you tithing? How is your marriage, engagement, or single life going? But what is the reason why I go to church? Or why is it that things are either good or not good at church? Why do I give, or not give, a portion of my income to the Lord [His Body, the church]? Why do I treat my wife good?

The Christian life goes beyond following certain principals that I read in a self help book.

The Christian life is a relationship with the Triune God!

Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should be doing this for the glory of God.

Do you go to church because you love God, and because you are so thankful that He has saved you from all of your sins...or is it something that you just do?

Jesus should consume us. Every decision in life should be made with God in mind.

If you think this a bit fanatic then unfortunately you have allowed the world to shape your thoughts about the Christian life, instead of God shaping and molding them.

Close to God

Have you ever stopped and thought about God's omnipresence?

If you have tried to do this and have thought of God as air or gas, spread out everywhere, across the universe, then you haven't really grasped the truth of His everywhere presence.

Air or gas are material things. God is Spirit [immaterial]

God is not extended in space and time.

God transcends His creation. He is infinitely above it.

God omnipresence teaches us that God's power and authority is equal in all parts of His creation.

Since God has created and continues to uphold all things His influence is everywhere simultaneously.

Fount of Every Blessing

I know this is hard to imagine, but try.

Imagine what life would be like if there were no hope of salvation?

People often scoff at Christianity because it claims to be "the", "only" way.

They act like their rebellion is trifle.

That God who is perfect in Himself should just be happy to bring back His rebellious creation in a multitude of ways [according to whatever the creatures decide].

You never hear anyone say, "salvation, why would God save anyone"?

Imagine if God didn't send His Only Begotten Son, to suffer, die, raise the third day, and ascend into heaven for His peoples salvation?

Think of all the happy and sad times in your life...then imagine knowing that when your life ended all the happy things would be taken away...forever.

Oh ya...now go back throughout your whole life on earth and totally remove any happiness, joy, love, peace, kindness, beauty, contentment,or anything of goodness or truth.

We must always keep in mind that Jesus Christ is the Fount of Every Blessing.

Just because the wicked refuse to give thanks for God's good gifts doesn't change the fact that He is the Giver of all good gifts.

Ever Growing, Ever the Same

In every relationship you have [except one] the more you grow to know as much as your teacher, the less in awe of your teacher you will be.

I can remember the early days of my body building, looking at some of the guys at the gym...and being in awe at their bodies shape and size.

As the years went by and I grew and matured as a body builder I passed some of these men, and closed the gap between others. As this happened my awe of these men ceased or became less.

But the very opposite is true of the creatures relationship with the Triune God!

The more we grow to know our God [An Infinite Being, Perfect in all His ways] the more understand the infinite gap between us.

What this means is the more we grow to know our God, the Bigger and greater He appears to be to us.

God doesn't change! What this means is that we are the ones who change. As we grow to know God more we understand more deeply how much greater His is then us.

This will continue for all eternity!

Praise the Lord, for He is worthy of our praise!

Peace, Peace...

As I was praying for our nation this morning I had a very unsettling thought or picture that went through my head. I saw our country, all fat and lazy with all of our luxeries and wealth. We see the enonomy doing well [in Alberta] and think that it could be no different. And then I saw the Babylonians come to "fatsville". All of our wealth and luxeries would end in a moment if a war-like culture were to come and attack us, full scale. When we look at history we see that is has happened often.

What would we do? Would we fight for our freedom?

Or would we be like many Romans when the Barbarian hordes overcame them?

Too busy, watching T.V or sitting before the X-Box or any one of another million forms of entertainment that we consume our lives with, to even be "remotely" concerned.

How Many Times Have I Told You...

How many times does God have to tell us something before it becomes binding in our beliefs and actions?

The correct answer is once.

Many people read the Bible with the mind set of "show me in the New Testament where it says this or that".

This type of Biblical interpretation is flawed because it fails to take into mind that God may have commanded something in the Old Testament and UNLESS He has annulled it in the New it is still binding.

So...something NOT being mentioned in the New Testament may actually be a case for it and not against it.

For those of you who get your ethical code from a "New Testament only" view I would like to ask you a question.

Is it wrong to have sex with animals?

And surely you will say "of course it is wrong"!!!

But the New Testament NOWHERE speaks specifically about beastiality.
It speaks about sexual immorality generally and when it gets into specifics it mentions fornication, adultery, homosexuality, but it doesn't speak about beastiality.

But God has said that beastiality is an ABOMINATION in the Old Testament...and He hasn't stated otherwise in the New...therefore it is still true and binding today!!

A Rose By Any Other Name.

The secular mind "sciences" [if you can call it that] has a definition for someone who is afraid to work, they call them an "ergasiophobe".

The Bible calls them a sluggard...someone who is lazy and is making up the most wild excuses not to be responsible.