It's Got To Be Us

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort,  a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. ACTS 10:1-5

Here in Acts 10 we see a man named Cornelius who feared God. Yet one thing was missing his salvation, for he did not know about Jesus and his work on the cross. Even though he worshiped God, he did not know the means by which he was to be saved.

The most interesting thing that was pointed out to me in this passage is that in order to save Cornelius he had to know and believe in Jesus Christ. And a angel was sent to him to give instruction for his salvation. But, isn't it interesting that the angel did not tell Cornelius about Jesus only about Peter who had answers for Cornelius.

Angels have not been given the task of proclamation of the gospel, we have. We are called to spread the name and fame of our savior. So, don't be content letting others do God's work, we are all called to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19).

Angels aren't going to do it. It's got to be us!

Radical Christian Sacrifice

God doesn't owe us anything, and yet he gave us everything. Let's not waste our lives living our own way but let us go to Jesus and give our lives for the glory of God. Jesus calls us to be fishers of men. How will we answer that call?

That Makes No Sense!

While listening to David Platt, Pastor of Brook Hills in Birmingham Alabama, on Abortion. He told a story of a little girl named Rachel who was born 24 weeks premature. This is her story.

Rachel is 2 months old but she is still 6 weeks away from being a full term baby. She was born prematurely at 24 weeks in the middle of her mothers second trimester. On the day of her birth Rachel weighed 1 pound 9 ounces but dropped to just under a pound soon after, she was so small she could rest in the palm of her daddy's hand. She was a tiny living human person. 

Heroic measures were taken to save this child's life. Why? Because, we have a obligation to protect, to nurture, and care for other humans who would die without our help, especially little children. Rachel was a vulnerable and valuable human being. 

But get this, if a doctor came into the hospital room and instead of caring for little Rachel, took the life of this little girl as she lay quietly nursing at her mothers breast. That would be homicide. however if this same little girl this very same Rachel had been inches away resting in her mothers womb she could be legally killed by abortion. That makes no sense. That is utterly ludicrous.

I totally recommend listening to the rest of this sermon called "The Child Yet Unborn"

Lunatic, Liar, or Lord

This is an excerpt of C.S. Lewis's book "Mere Christianity" I just like this quote and thought I'd share it.

Christ says that He is 'humble and meek' and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to

Genesis 23 Sarah's Death

This past Sunday I listened to a sermon on Genesis 23:1-20 which is all about Sarah's death, the wife of Abraham, and the land Abraham purchased to bury her on. Exciting stuff right? Well Thanks to my Pastor I found that this passage has great implications for us.

First of all it is important to note that Genesis was written by Moses to the nation of Israel and was probably being read to them as they were about to enter the promised land.

Another interesting thing about this passage is that Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose and age and death are recorded.

Abraham being a stranger in the land of the Hittites had no land of which to bury his wife and attempted to purchase a cave, however the Hittites wanted to force Abraham to buy a piece of actual land so he would be forced to pay taxes.

Abraham buys this land but for an exorbitant amount, much more than what it is worth. And in future all patriarchs are buried on this land.

So what is the significance of this chapter in the bible? I'm glad you asked as I have learned and as my pastor continues to point out as he is walking through genesis, the Bible is always pointing to Jesus and the gospel.


In the same way Abraham paid a exorbitant amount for a small bit of land so has God the father paid an exorbitant amount in Jesus Christ in order to redeem his people. 


Also we see that Abraham was promised the promised land but he never was able to see control of all the land promised to him in his life time, but here we see a deposit that Abraham was given, to know that his descendants will take hold of all the Promised land. And that is also what the Israelites are realizing as this passage is being read to them, that they are now going to see the promise fulfilled that was given to Abraham.


In the same way Christ has redeemed us by the blood of Christ and is reconciling us to Himself, we are not yet perfect and will not see the finished work in our lifetime but we have been given a deposit of that promise of total reconciliation and redemption in the form of the Holy Spirit. 


We must not lose heart that we don't have our inheritance yet. Just because we may not ever see the return of Christ that does not mean that we will not see and be part of the new heavens and new earth. 


Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!

Multnomah Book Review

As I do not own the book "Every Man's Battle" giving a great review for its study guide will be difficult. Yet as I have read through this guide I have been pleasantly surprised as it offers much more read then the normal guide. I found that i was nearly possible to be able to read through this guide without the book being totally necessary.

There were many Bible verses used stories told that brought the seriousness of this subject into full view. I felt that though I did not have the book and couldn't answer all questions in the guide the questions given were well thought out and thought provoking and heart probing questions.

I would however suggest that you get "Every Man's Battle" before reading through it's study guide "Every Single Man's Battle". I am unsure of how to properly rank this book so I'll leave it up to you.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

We Can't Afford to Get This Wrong.

Love Wins was kind of a big thing a couple months ago and I think that it had good and bad effects. For bad it was Rob Bell leading astray thousands of people but also for many it was a wake up call to get in your Bibles and really read the words of God for yourself.

In this video, Francis Chan brings up the problem of people who think "well I don't think God would...." Really? You are seriously fitting God into your box because it is not conceivable for you for God to have a much more developed sense of love, or mercy, or justice.

I think that we very easily agree with Chan on this subject, particularly in light of Rob Bell's book "Love Wins," and we are very indignant to see someone limit God because he/she can't fathom it. We become so angry and annoyed at the arrogance of some men.

But,

I think this is much more than just Rob Bell's problem. I think this is YOUR problem. As I reflect on this, I have realized this is also MY problem. We can so easily place our reasoning over the sound word of God and not even realize we do it. I know that I am not right 100% of the time, but most of the day my pride tells me I'm always right.

We lean so heavily on our experiences and our teaching from other fallen human beings rather than on the word of God and I think that more than we realize we say I don't think God would do this or that and therefore he wouldn't.

So, why is our reasoning so off? I think it is because we aren't putting the infallible word of God as the core for our beliefs but rather putting our own experiences and teachings as the base. We have built our house on the sand rather than the rock and we will be swept away if we don't change.

Get in the Holy Bible today and let it direct your life rather than you. Also, pray. Pray that God would grant you understanding of His words so that you can allow the Bible to be the rock you stand on. Pray that you would not cage God in your own ideas and emotions but allow Him to permeate your lives through Christ as He is the message of the Bible. And pray for others, we are all struggling together.

We Can't Afford to Get This Wrong.