"IN" or "OF"

I know what a weird title for a blog! But these 2 words play a huge factor in where your life is right now. I will keep this short and simple! As Christians we have heard it taught that we need Christ IN our lives. And to some extent that is correct, but I would make the argument that we need Christ OF our lives more than we need him IN our lives.

There are entirely too many people who have Christ IN their lives but they are not allowing him to be the Lord of their lives. We try to take Christ and fit him into our plans for life rather than letting him direct us into his plan for our lives. So don’t make the mistake of thinking that Christ just wants a small piece of your life, he wants the whole thing. And guess what? The scripture says he is the head and where the head leads, the body follows. We need to stop trying to be the head and learn to be the body.

It is by allowing him to be OF our lives that we live a truly submissive life to him and his plans for us. When he is OF our lives that shows:
1. He is Lord OF
2. He is Master OF
3. He is the Redeemer OF
4. He is in control OF
5. HE is the Author OF
6. He is Creator OF

He cannot be a lord IN, a master IN, a redeemer IN, a control IN! It only makes sense that He would be all of these OF our lives. I challenge you today to allow Him to be the Christ OF your lives and stop trying to fit him IN. And thats..........

My 2 Cents

Be careful how you judge!

So what gives you the right to cast judgment on someone? Why is it that you think you know someone well enough to determine whether or not they are good or bad?

Fiction: Most people believe they have the right to cast judgment on someone if they do not live up to their expectations.

Truth: God left his throne in heaven to die for you because you did not live up to his expectations, nor do you now live up to his expectations

Fiction: Most Christians believe people who sin should be excluded from the church

Truth: If that is the case then no one would be allowed in the fellowship including you.

Fiction: Sin should be dealt with ever so harshly when confronted

Truth: The person is not the sin so be careful how you deal with them in the process.

The truth of the matter is that most Christians believe they are in a position to cast judgment on the rest of Christians who spend their time trying to work out issues that were created by the judges. The judges of course think God put them here to judge society in general as well. The harsh reality is there is only one time we as Christians have the right to disassociate ourselves from an immoral brother; that is when they refuse to see the error of their ways and refuse the Churches correction. There is a process that must be followed in this circumstance and if not followed as it is laid out, then we are in essence no different than the immoral brother, living in sin. Love is the motivation for everything we do not judgment. We should not be doing things to elevate our status or make us feel powerful, but that is a sad truth about most Christians is they do everything out of a sense power and authority rather than love.
Restoring a Brother

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and rebuke him in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. 17 If he pays no attention to them, tell the church. But if he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.
Matt 18:15-17 (HCSB)

Rebuke or reprove: to scold or correct usually gently or with kindly intent

This is the process outlined in scripture according to Christ, not anyone else. And this does not mean that you go and point your finger in someone’s face while screaming and telling them how horrible they are. It must be done with a gentle spirit! The idea is to let this person know they did slip up, but that does not separate them from the love of Christ. We should be an example of His love when we go to this person or else we are doing it for the wrong reasons. All through scripture we see examples of how we should deal relationally with people. Galatians speaks of the “Fruit of the Spirit”, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self control. Does this sound like the way the church deals with a fallen brother these days? Or we could look over in 1 Corinthians 13;

Love: The Superior Way

1 If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; 5 does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; 6 finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Cor 13:1-7 (HCSB)

Wow! Do we need to go any further to realize the church itself is living in sin by not living up to God’s expectations? I know it kind of puts things in perspective doesn’t it. Now let us look at one more passage before we close.

7 Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be clear-headed and disciplined for prayer. 8 Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Based on the gift they have received, everyone should use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, [his speech should be] like the oracles of God; if anyone serves, [his service should be] from the strength God provides, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:7-11 (HCSB)

Now maybe you get the point. Maybe before you open your mouth you should go to the Spiritual mirror to see that you are not Christ or God and therefore have no right. Short of a choice you are no different than me. So keep in mind while you are sitting in a room by yourself and make the choice to sin where no one can see it, the way you judge everyone else is going to be measured back to you. The key is to glorify God in everything we do, even restoring a brother to the faith.

Another Life down the drain!

Here is an update on the following post! It has come to my attention that there are several stories floating around about how this happened and what all was involved. Far be it from me to post something that is not true and I do not want this in anyway to be disrespectful to the family. Here is what I do know about the situation. A young man's life is now over long before it should have been. A family is grieving the loss of a son and brother and the hurt associated with this loss is unlike any other you could know. My condolences to the family and I pray that God will be with you during this time to comfort you. As for those who may have been there, I pray that this young man's life not be in vain and that God has your attention now.

My point in writing this was not to make light of the circumstance, but to learn from it. Everything can be a tool to learn from and that is my hope here. We should, everyone should take this situation and try to find something to learn from it. I have done ignorant things in my life that have produced undesireable circumstances and consequences, but after seeing the results I learned not to put myself in that situation ever again.

So I have pulled the majority of the post out for respect of the family and because there could be some very incorrect information in this story. The point is not how it happened, but why and what can we do to help prevent anyone else from having to experience this tragedy.

Original Post: (Edited)

I really hate to be the one who has to say this but, I guess I will since everyone else is too self involved. I heard a story today about a young man who lost his life in the area where I live. It hurts my heart when any young person loses their life and I understand some things cannot be controlled, but some things can.


Okay so they won't let us teach Jesus in the schools, but what if we added firearm safety as part of the high school carriculum and it was mandatory you had to score a 90% or higher. I am not talking about a basic safety course, I mean an advanced course that teaches you all parts of a weapon and shows pictures of what guns can do if allowed to be in the wrong hands. I remember to this day when the "Just say no" campaighn came out and they introduced alcohol as a drug and pulled a twisted piece of metal that used to be a car in and placed right in front of the school.They began to explain to us how the person driving the car was highly intoxicated according to the coroners report and they driver had been decapitated in this accident. That scarred me for life! That is the point, we need to make an impact on these young people while they are young and let them see the dangers involved in actions they take.


So here is my 2 cents as if anyone cared! To my government, stop trying to ban and take things away and start teaching Americans to use the things we have. If people were taught the proper way to use things it would cut down on ignorance. We need to begin taking a proactive approach to things rather than a reactive approach.

A Personal God

Should we expect others to always be on the same level as us despite their discipleship maturity? Is it right for me to tell others who may have just come to know Christ that they should over night, be as I am after 24 years of Christianity? I think not! God is a personal God, and a God who deals with people on an individual basis. He is not going to deal with someone on their spiritual growth issue, the same as he would me. We as Christians have to learn not to accept sin, but accept the fact that it is the Holy Spirit's job to change the hearts of believers. The only thing we are required to do is to teach the truth of the Word and allow that to happen. When we start offering our opinions and our harsh rebuking, we tend to muddy the water for some people and they lose their desire to even be a part of the fellowship.

Although, God has placed people in teaching and pastoral positions to do the majority of the rebuking and exhorting. But he has not called everyone to do it the manner in which it is being done. We are called to go to our brothers and sisters in love to restore them to the fellowship. Not to kick them in the ribs while they are already down. Again, this does not mean that we have to condone the sin, but we can approach them in such a way to show them that we care. Is it possible to approach a fallen brother or sister and restore them without ever mentioning their sin? I say yes! If we approach them in love with a caring attitude it will show them that we are not coming to beat them up, but to care for them. What does Jesus say about caring for the sick. A healthy person has no need of a doctor. A doctor will care for a sick person, and we should carry that same attitude around. These are our friends and we should grieve over their sin and nurture them back to health. To be continued..........


Okay....! So this subject can go deeper than just looking at the surface of someone living in sin. We can then get into the process of church discipline, and that is not even where I am going here. We have not even reached a point where we are considering that in this post. Yes I know the Bible lays out a process for disciplining unrepenant sin in a Christians life, but again not going there yet. My main point is focusing on love, mercy and grace which by the way are the reason you can call yourself a child of God today. If we would spend more time loving and caring for people and less time worrying about finding the wrong with what they do, we would be much better off.

8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 (NASB)

I mean what else do I need to say! It was through the LOVE of God that Christ came to purify us from a MULTITUDE of sin, and I mean a MULTITUDE. So if it is possible for the love of God to purify us and do away with our sin, isn't it also possible for us to love each other into restoration from sin, rather than judging, condemning and casting out? Again, I will address church discipline in another post, but for now, think about this!

Return from the dead....

Okay, so I know I have not updated in several months. I have no excuse except that I have been extremely busy with many different things. I am back and ready to tell you what God has been doing in my life for the past several months. Please check back frequently as you can never tell what might get posted.

Love as Christ,
Sam

NoShame - Mark 8:38

Put the "S" in Parent's

The word parent has become the way we indentify the father or mother of a child. very rarely do you hear the word spoken with an "S" on the end. The school sends home a memo and you see what? Dear Parent(s)! As if the standard now is only one parent is present. It is sad to me that we have come to that and what is even worse is these single parents have an attitude that they can do it alone and they need noone. How wrong we are to assume that we can do it alone and have a normal child.

For the record, I grew up in this environment and how unfortunate it is that we wonder why so many kids are messed up and do not understand who they are. It does not take Oprah, Dr. Phil, or a licensed doctor to tell us what is wrong with these children. I can tell you! Just a normal guy with no college degree who knows from experience what the problem is. The "S" is missing! It has been for the most part the male "S" that has been missing, but over the past decade, the female "S" has grown more prominent to be missing. We have to understand that both must be present and active in the child's life if there is any chance for them to experience normality. We were all created to play certain roles in our childs life and how the are raised. The mother has been given certain qualities to pass on to the child, and the father has in the same be given qualities. Why is it that single parents think they do not need a spouse to help them, and more importantly we have same gender couples adopting children and think they can raise a child in normality. I for one will tell you that neither the single parent, nor the same gender parents are going to produce a normal child. Stop fooling yourself! Genesis says it like this, He created them in His image, male and femal He created them. For this reason they will leave their mother and father and become one, male and female. And then if you want to go to 1 Corinthians 11:11, 1 Corinthians 11:11 (NASB) However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. We are made to be together, male and female. You cannot expect to pass on important qualities of a man if he is not present in that childs life, and in the same way, you canot pass on the important qualities of a woman if sheis not present in the child's life.

If you are one who is trying to do this, don't be suprised if the child grows up confused, and disconnected from reality. If your child grows to have a hard time engaging in society as their gender should, it is because they are very confused. There is one reason and one reason alone that only a man's and woman's connectivity can cause a child to be concieved. You can not put a man and a man, or woman and a woman together and it result in a child. Scientificly impossible! We can only do this together because we must both be a part of the child raising process in order that child receives the important needed attributes to live life as he/she should. Like or not, this is the only way to raise a child. Let's all make sure we find the "S" our children need.

The Image of God

He created them male and female, in His image he created them.

We are all fairly familiar with this particular verse in Genesis. Many use it to battle with in certain forums, but I hope to show you something new today. As I am teaching the men at church, God is leading us to a completely new outlook on marriage and what it is supposed to be. If man and woman both were created in the image of The Great I AM, then why different genders?

Look at some differences between men and women:

1. Men - Rough, Tough, Strong, Protective, Competitive
2. Women - Caring, Compassionate, Loving, Embracing

This may not be true in all circumstances, but in 75% - 85%, these are significant differences in the genders. So, what does that mean? Well it means that the man and woman in the marriage need each other in order to bear the complete image of God. We are meant to compliment each other and be cohesive as one. Once you take the vows, the two become one in Gods eyes, and there is no way to bear His image in marriage except that the two work together in all things as equal partners. Without one trying to maintain control over the other. When God said that the man would be considered the Head of the house, we thought he gave the man control. Wrong! God gave him the responsibility over the household. The men are responsible in every way to protect, provide, teach, and sustain the family. The woman has another list of duanting things she needs to be doing rather than taking care of the husbands respnsibility. Men, we need to begin to understand that the only leading we are allowed to do under Gods plan, is Godly leading, not selfish leading. And always remember that your wife was given you by God for a reason, if you feel like she is telling you your choices are not Godly, maybe you should listen.

Another thing we need to learn, is that neither partner in the marriage can be independent of the other, you are not seperate, but together now. As 1 Corinthians 11:11-12 says, However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.
1 Cor 11:11-12 (NASB)

I think we would do good to practice these things together and we would probably see a dramatic change with attitudes in the marriage. God's Image is the goal, let us put aside our independence and come together.

Love as Christ