I thought I was done writing for the day, but something has been on my mind alot lately, and I just have to write it down. I will not be long, so please bear with me.
I have noticed more and more lately, that Christians are blending into society, into the world if you will, to the point that it's hard to pick them out of a crowd. I know that no one is perfect, and we all make mistakes. I am probably a prime example of this most of the time. But, I remember a time when it was just a given that Christians didn't gamble, use profanity, drink, etc. The scriptures tell us that when we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes in and cleans us up. He takes our old desires away, and makes us a new creation in Christ. I know for me, I used to use very bad language, I drank, smoked, etc. I have talked about this all before. Some of those things were gone immediately after the Lord saved me. Some of them took a little longer. But any time I failed, the Holy Spirit convicted me to the point that I would cry, and pray for God's forgiveness. I still fail Him from time to time, but the conviction is still there, so I try not to make the same mistakes twice.
We just really need to pray for each other, that we will not blend in, we will not conform to this world, but be transformed, by the renewing of our minds. The world will know we are His, when we show His love, and follow His commandments. If we don't experience change, or conviction, we need to seek His help. Okay, I'm done now. I just had to get this off my chest. "God bless us all. Please help us to be different, peculiar even. Amen".
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
First And Foremost? Really?
One of the features of this website, Blogger, is a link at the top of the page that reads "Next Blog". You can click on it, and go to a random blog. Sometimes, you can find interesting people, and interesting things to read. At other times, it will give you a headache. I was doing this last night, when I came upon a blog by a woman who, in her profile, said that "First and foremost, I am a Christian". She went on to say that she wanted to try to live her life through God's eyes. Then, she went on to say that she had another blog that she liked more than this one, but it may not sound to Christian, "Sorry God". What???
Curious, I went to the other blog to see what she was talking about. After reading the first one, I was floored by the kind of language this woman used in the second one. And the anger, and strong emotion in her writing DEFINITELY didn't sound very 'Christian'. I just could not believe this blog was by the same woman.
"First and foremost, I am a Christian". When you hear these words, you expect a certain type of attitude, a different kind of person. At least, I do. When you say you are a Christian, you are saying you are Christ-like. You are trying, with God's help, to be as much like Jesus as you can be. Now, I will be the first to tell you that I am not perfect. FAR from it. None of us are perfect, as a matter of fact. But, COME ON. To say, on the same page mind you, that you are "first and foremost a Christian", and then use language like that, is ridiculous. I know that some people, who call themselves a Christian, do not see any problem using profanity, as long as they don't use the 'bad words'. Am I the only one that sees this as more than a little hypocritical? Before I pound this poor woman into the ground, figuratively, I want to get to my point.
When we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and REPENT of our sins, we are saying we are tired of who we are. We want to change, but we can't without His help. We invite His Holy Spirit in to change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Granted, sometimes, it's a slow change. But we MUST change. There MUST be conviction when we fall back into our old ways. If we can go back to doing things the way we used to, without so much as a backwards glance, there is something terribly wrong. I'm not talking about those times that we slip, we all do this at one time or another. I'm talking about COMFORTABLY using the old language, looking at the old things, listening to those sinful old things we use to listen to, and going to those places we said we were running from. These things just should not be.
The Bible says that when we are saved, TRULY saved, we 'put off' the old man, and 'put on' the new. We take off our old, filthy rags, our righteousness, and put on His righteousness, like a new set of clothes. If all we do is change our title, and not our ways, we deceive ourselves. God is not deceived. He sees our true selves, not the lie we try to pass off on everyone else, including ourselves.
We MUST turn from our old wicked ways. That means giving up the old language. God is not pleased with us when we use profanity. Jesus did not, and could not, use profanity. It is vain language. Empty, useless words. We must be Jesus to the world. We must show them that there is more to this life, than just living and dying. They have tried this world, and they are not impressed. They WANT something more. We have to be something more. God expects it.
Curious, I went to the other blog to see what she was talking about. After reading the first one, I was floored by the kind of language this woman used in the second one. And the anger, and strong emotion in her writing DEFINITELY didn't sound very 'Christian'. I just could not believe this blog was by the same woman.
"First and foremost, I am a Christian". When you hear these words, you expect a certain type of attitude, a different kind of person. At least, I do. When you say you are a Christian, you are saying you are Christ-like. You are trying, with God's help, to be as much like Jesus as you can be. Now, I will be the first to tell you that I am not perfect. FAR from it. None of us are perfect, as a matter of fact. But, COME ON. To say, on the same page mind you, that you are "first and foremost a Christian", and then use language like that, is ridiculous. I know that some people, who call themselves a Christian, do not see any problem using profanity, as long as they don't use the 'bad words'. Am I the only one that sees this as more than a little hypocritical? Before I pound this poor woman into the ground, figuratively, I want to get to my point.
When we come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, accept Him as our Lord and Savior, and REPENT of our sins, we are saying we are tired of who we are. We want to change, but we can't without His help. We invite His Holy Spirit in to change us into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Granted, sometimes, it's a slow change. But we MUST change. There MUST be conviction when we fall back into our old ways. If we can go back to doing things the way we used to, without so much as a backwards glance, there is something terribly wrong. I'm not talking about those times that we slip, we all do this at one time or another. I'm talking about COMFORTABLY using the old language, looking at the old things, listening to those sinful old things we use to listen to, and going to those places we said we were running from. These things just should not be.
The Bible says that when we are saved, TRULY saved, we 'put off' the old man, and 'put on' the new. We take off our old, filthy rags, our righteousness, and put on His righteousness, like a new set of clothes. If all we do is change our title, and not our ways, we deceive ourselves. God is not deceived. He sees our true selves, not the lie we try to pass off on everyone else, including ourselves.
We MUST turn from our old wicked ways. That means giving up the old language. God is not pleased with us when we use profanity. Jesus did not, and could not, use profanity. It is vain language. Empty, useless words. We must be Jesus to the world. We must show them that there is more to this life, than just living and dying. They have tried this world, and they are not impressed. They WANT something more. We have to be something more. God expects it.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
National Day Of Prayer
Today was the National Day Of Prayer. There are certain people who are trying to get rid of this, but God let us have another one, despite what they want. I'm sure lots of churches had services planned for today, but between work, and work, I didn't attend any of them. I know it's important to have a day set aside to remind people to pray, but it won't be the end of the world if some judge gets rid of it. As Christians, we are told to pray without ceasing, everyday. Prayer is the most important thing we can do. Period. Nothing else comes close. Make every day a day of prayer.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Jennifer Knapp
I found out yesterday that one of my favorite Christian singers, Jennifer Knapp, admitted publicly to being a homosexual, and in a relationship. I was devastated, to say the least. I felt sick to my stomach. I have listened to everything I could find, that she has done. Her lyrics were very Bible based, and they really helped me when I listened to them.
She had sold over 1 million records, and received several Christian music awards, when she suddenly dropped out of sight. Her record company, nor her fans, knew what had happened to her. She now says that she moved to Australia for five years, living with her 'partner', and staying away from music. She finally decided to come back to the states and record another album, which comes out this month. I will try to listen to it, but don't know if I will actually purchase it. In a way, I think it would show approval of what she has done.
In case you haven't figured it out, I do not approve of the homosexual lifestyle, at all. I believe it to be a sin against God. He created us to be coupled, man and woman. Any other way is an abomination. I still have love for the woman and her music, but cannot condone the lifestyle. I will continue to pray for her, that God might prick her heart, and she might repent of this sin. With God, all things are possible.
She had sold over 1 million records, and received several Christian music awards, when she suddenly dropped out of sight. Her record company, nor her fans, knew what had happened to her. She now says that she moved to Australia for five years, living with her 'partner', and staying away from music. She finally decided to come back to the states and record another album, which comes out this month. I will try to listen to it, but don't know if I will actually purchase it. In a way, I think it would show approval of what she has done.
In case you haven't figured it out, I do not approve of the homosexual lifestyle, at all. I believe it to be a sin against God. He created us to be coupled, man and woman. Any other way is an abomination. I still have love for the woman and her music, but cannot condone the lifestyle. I will continue to pray for her, that God might prick her heart, and she might repent of this sin. With God, all things are possible.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sick and tired
Today was not my best day. I started the day with a stomach-ache, wondering if I was going to be able to go to work or not. I prayed alot, and went. Because I was sick, I didn't get much rest last night, so I spent the day in a haze, wandering around like a zombie. Work wasn't much fun either. I work in a foundry, making brake parts. We look for defects, and sort out the bad parts. We had TONS of them today. It seemed like there were more bad than good castings, although I'm sure there weren't. To sum it up, I spent my day sick, and tired, and frustrated. Yippee, what a day.
As a Christian, I know I can pray for God to take all this junk away, and He will, if He wants. I must have needed to go through all this, because He didn't take it away. What He DID do, was walk with me through it. I prayed for peace, and joy, and calmness, in my soul. And even though my body was sick, all was well with my soul. Our God is an awesome God. Before I knew it, it was time to go home. Now, I am going to chill out, in my pajamas, and try to get some rest tonight. Tomorrow is another day. Who knows what God has in store for us?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Some new things
I am doing some new things on my blog. As I've mentioned before, God is leading me and Carolyn to leave our home church, and visit other churches. As we visit these churches, God is moving me to take note of some of the things in these churches. I have started a page titled "Church Visitation", which can be found to the left of this post. I don't know what God will do with this, but I will let Him take care of that. I have also added a music player at the bottom of the page. I have some Christian music on it, and you can listen to any or all of the songs. I hope these things can be of some help to someone.
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