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| Just to keep all this stuff available, I am making a useless post so my site doesn't get closed down. If you want to read more current thoughts from me, go to my RRJ22 site
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| It has come to my attention that it is hard for people to find this site sometimes, so I wanted to change the name. Unfortunately, that is impossible at this time according to xanga. Instead, they recommend starting a new site, so that is what I did. I will start posting as RRJ22 from now on.
If you would like to read some other uplifting, original Christian work, go to www.inhisservicealone.org. This is the site of a good friend of mine.
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| I was talking to someone the other day, and she made the comment that witnessing was really hard. My immediate response was that for me, witnessing is very easy, nothing in life is easier. I can't help but witness to those around me, and I even go out to make sure I find more people to witness to. Now don't get me wrong, my concept of witnessing and yours may be two very different things. I don't go tell people that Jesus makes their life better, the scriptures teaches something entirely different. If this is my message, the first time something bad happens they feel that I lied, and they would be right! The message that Jesus is the cure for life and that He fixes everything for you doesn't really fit with the list of prayer requests I hear almost daily. I see Christians getting sick, getting cancer, dying in car wrecks, how is their life better??? It is not!!
I have a different message altogether. My message is simple, God is going to judge each of us according to what we have done, and his judgment is just. The penalty for crimes committed against Him is death. If you died today, are you 100% assured you would go to heaven? Most people aren't sure where they would go, but they figure that they are pretty good people, so a loving God would never send them to hell. Think about this, if someone raped and killed your mother, was arrested, showed up in court, and faced the judge, what kind of defense would this be? "Well judge, I am a pretty good person, I only raped and killed this one person. Since then I have been a model citizen." Any good judge would dismiss anything else he had done because it couldn't change the fact that he was guilty of this crime and justice demands a penalty. God is no different, for every sin, crime against Him, there will be a penalty. The wages of sin is death, our sin earns us the penalty of death and eternal damnation in hell. It doesn't matter what else you have done, your sin must be paid for. The good news is that while He is just, He is also loving and merciful. Merciful because He has withheld judgment until now, we have not been struck dead already. Loving because He came to earth as a man named Jesus, and willingly accepted death on my behalf. Greater love hath no man than this, that he give up his life for his friend. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall never die, but have everlasting life. He literally died for every lie I ever told, for every girl I ever lusted after. I am incredibly humbled by the love He showed me. He who is forgiven much loves much. Because of the impending judgment my friends and family will have to face God on judgment day, how can I not warn them of the sin that is killing them? In fact, how can I not tell everyone I meet about the coming judgment? This is witnessing. I love those around me too much to let them face God that day without being warned. My heart aches for those who don't know Jesus as the one who loved them enough to accept the penalty of their sin Himself.
Talking about a Savior doesn't make much sense unless I need saved from something. If I don't see any danger, I don't see a need to be saved from it. Being a Christian has not made my life better by the standards of the world, but it does give me the assurance that on the day of judgment I will not be condemned. Better todays is false hope, hope of salvation on judgment day is real. My greatest desire is that when I get to heaven, I am surrounded by people I know. The only way I know that will happen is if I let them see themselves as God sees them, through the filter of the Law of Moses, or through the atoning blood of His Son. Jesus came to save sinners, of which I am the greatest.
If you are convicted of sin, (you have broken the ten commandments), there is an answer. The price has been paid, do you believe it, or are you trying to live good enough to escape judgment?
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| We serve communion every Sunday at the church I attend, and it is served by men from the church. Men that are willing are placed on a list and are called on to serve in alphabetical order. Two men serve each Sunday, one gives a short devotional of his choosing, and one prays. I am occasionally asked to fill in for men that are on vacation when their turn comes around, and serve willingly. This morning was one of those times, a friend was celebrating twenty years of marriage with his wife. I gladly took his place. I chose for my text an Old Testament passage that means much to me, Deut. 24:18.
| Deu 24:18 |
"But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and that the
LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I am commanding you to
do this thing. |
"Slave in Egypt" is a metaphor for slave to sin. This hits me hard every time I read it, because I understand a bit of what it means to God. We don't think about sin very often it seems, and when we do it doesn't come across as a very big deal. God defined sin with the Ten Commandments, and Jesus condensed them into just two... Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. When I looked at myself through the filter of the Law, I was a liar, thief, murderer, adulterer, idolater, etc. The Bible clearly states that the penalty of any of these crimes is death, and eternal damnation in the lake of fire. I had no excuse, I was guilty. All I could do was hang my head, and accept God's righteous judgment. It was at the point of despair that I finally understood the message of the cross, that God loved me enough to make a way to atone for my sin. This atonement still had to satisfy His righteous judgment though. For His justice to be righteous death was required by the Law, so He sent His Son, as an innocent man, to die in my place. In return all I had to do was believe that He was able to pay my debt, and accept His payment on my behalf. Well, for Him to be able to pay my debt meant that He is actually the God of the universe, and that means that I am not. If I really believe that He is the God of the universe then He also has to be my Lord and my God. There is no atonement for sin if He is not God, perfect, and the ruler of my life. I can look back today and say that I was a slave to sin, and that the LORD my God redeemed me. Because He redeemed me, He commanded me to do something, which is laid out in the next several verses.
| Deu 24:19 |
"When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in
the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien,
for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the LORD your God may
bless you in all the work of your hands. |
| Deu 24:20 |
"When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again;
it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. |
| Deu 24:21 |
"When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it
again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. |
| Deu 24:22 | "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this thing. |
Don't get carried away with the harvest references, this is just God's way of providing welfare. The point I want to get through to you today is this: If you recognize your previous state of bondage to sin, and you recognize God's redemption, then you are commanded to share the blessing with those who have no hope. The only hope I can offer is a hope of redemption of sin, and eternal life with God after we die. If I don't share what God did for me then I am guilty of not loving my neighbor, because if I let my neighbor die in sin he goes to hell for eternity. How is that loving??? If I am not loving my neighbor, then I am not following the express command of Jesus in the great commission which would demonstrate my lack of His rule or Lordship in my life. Hell is very real, sin is an incredibly big deal to God, and is killing my friends and family. There is a way, God made a way, and it is very simple. He paid my debt for me... who will pay yours?
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| One of the most incredible blessings I have ever received as a Christian is the privilege of seeing God do wonderful things in the lives of those He has placed in my life. I went to a high school musical last night to watch a kid I have mentored for a couple of years and to also watch the director, whom I also know. I would rather watch them glorify God by using their talents than to be the one in front, and I like to be in front. :) I know part of the challenges they faced last night for their opening, and by the grace of God it was a great performance. I talked to both of my friends afterward separately, and each of them expressed how God had prepared them for this moment by allowing circumstances prior to this that grew them, and prepared them specifically for the challenges posed by this production.
Someone commented yesterday that I like semantics, and he is right. Words mean so much, and precision is important to God. Leviticus should remove any doubt of that. God left nothing to chance when it came to those He chose to represent Him before the assembly. Accurately handling the word of God is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of diligent study. (2 Tim. 2:15) One thing I have learned is this: spiritual growth is more apparent in me when I seek to know God's truth, and align myself with it, than when I seek to align God to myself by twisting the interpretation to suit my own desires. Case in point: We are told to love our neighbor, and men are told to love their wives. Both should feel the love, but if you love your neighbor the way you love your wife then you are failing to love your wife as Christ loved you. (My guess is she would be VERY displeased.)
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