Looking in a mirror

Acts 1:7-8: "And He said unto them 'It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority. But you will recieve power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

These words were from Jesus himself in His final hours with the disciples. It wasn't Paul or Peter writing to the romans or anyone else. Jesus said this to the disciples so it was written down for us because He was speaking to us as well when saying these words. These words were given to us in the bible so we can understand our place as examples of Christ Jesus.

It's really easy during our daily lives and schedules to forget that we are examples of Jesus. Alot of people that see us go to church and know us personally see "CHRISTIAN" stamped across our foreheads...lets put it this way if you were thinking about joining a tobacco awareness group at school or in your community and you saw the group leader hide a pack of cigarettes, would you still be drawn to that group? The same goes for us...whether we like the title or not, we have it. Every day we are faced with people that dont want to hear about what our Lord has done for them. I know alot of people that dont usually curse, but "slip every now and then". Alot of people give into sex because they want to date someone so bad and are pressured for it. These are temptations we face day to day and God understands it's not easy.

Being in the military does NOT make it easy to follow Christ's example. The phrase "cussin like a sailor" didnt just all of a sudden materialize from nothing. I kicked the bad language habit a while ago and i am tempted by it every day. Religion isn't popular. I don't know why but there's not a high number of people who put their faith in God. There are so many people that shut me out because they see "CHRISTIAN" written across my forehead and they dont want to hear it. It's part of life and i understand it's going to be like that everywhere i go. But there is something that we, as a band of workers for God, can do about it.

These factors are just few of the many that make it hard to stand up and be examples of the one we truely love: Our Heavenly Father. As direct representatives of Christ, all we can really do is show God's love through our actions, words, and just overall the way we live our lives. Invite them to church and PRAY that they come. Not every person you pray for will come through because some people are really too far gone to help, but never give up on someone. I have a friend that i've known since i was in fifth grade (close to seven years) and i prayed that God would change him...he had one of those "screw everything" attitudes and i was begging that something would hit him and he and his family would start going to church. They made a New Years Resolution this year JAN2006, to attend church and they have been there almost every sunday since. This particular young man even asked me to walk to the foot of the cross with him cause he needed someone to go with him. A tragic event had struck his family and he was ready to give up on everything after losing his twin neices and brother-in-law (and almost his sister too!) in a house fire. I was about ready to give up and say 'he's never gonna come to church so it's wasting my time' but God was waiting for the right time.

Inviting someone to church is not the only way to witness. You could suggest your favorite christian band. Everyone i come in contact with i tell them about my "rap group" i have called Pottie Skippen. It's just me and some of my friends making loud the name of Jesus. If something is bothering someone, ask them if they want to talk about it and tell them you will pray for them. Don't just say you will but ACTUALLY PRAY for that individual. If they will request prayer for it they really need it. These are some more indirect ways of showing some of God's love and light to people. Just remember, it's not easy to work for the Lord, but we cant give up no matter how hard it gets. We're not doing this for us, we're doing it for Him and He deserves 100% of our efforts.

PS- check out Pottie Skippen at www.myspace.com/pottieskippen !

The Final Stand

Matthew 4:1-11 “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. After He had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. Then the tempter came and said “If You are the Son of God, make these stones into bread.” But Jesus answered “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Then satan took Him to the holy city, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him “If You are the Son of God, throw yourself down because it is written “He will give His angels concerning You and they will support you with their hands so that your foot does not strike against a single stone.” Jesus told him “But it is also written “Do not test the Lord”. But again the devil took Him to a high mountain and showed Him all the great kingdoms of the land, saying “If You fall down and worship me, I will give you all of this. Jesus told him “Get away from me satan, for it is written “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” And satan departed from Him and immediately, angels began tending to Him.

Message: That is some strong scripture. I have fought with this before. Satan tried to get the Son of God to forget who He was. He does that to each of us everyday as well. Satan sees it as if we forget that we are children of God, then we wont worship Him and we can become consumed in our sin, and worshipping satan instead. So what happens when the tempter comes at you and backs you into a corner? We all know we’re not as strong as Jesus or life would be a lot easier and we wouldn’t make as many mistakes. And we wont know what to throw back at him when he says things like “forget it, you know you want to have sex with him/her….they really love you” or what about “look at your neighbor…he’s got all that money and he’s not even a Christian. You should take some from him!” What do we do? What do we say?

Jesus tells us that when we are faces with adversity, we need to call upon the Lord for strength. Psalms 91:4 says “He will cover you with His feathers; you will take refuge in His wings; His faithfulness will be a protective shield.” All we have to do is remember that when the devil comes our way and wants to start a fight that he KNOWS he can’t finish without us on his side. That’s what we can throw in his face. If he had any real power, he could defeat God by himself but he doesn’t without us. They say there’s always strength in numbers and that is what he’s going for. When it all comes down to it, he’s just going to use us to go against God. But if you think about it, satan has no more power than you or i. I could persuade you to do something if I was good enough at it. Satan has played this game since the beginning of time…he’s got a lot of practice and so he’s good at turning things around and making them seem like something they’re not. God is our Lord, Creator, Heavenly Father, I could go on and on but He is our God and the only one we serve.

So this is our escape plan for the devil’s attack:
”Heavenly Father, I need strength. Your strength is the only strength that can save me and deliver me into Your kingdom. Please bless me and strengthen me against the foolish devil and his persistant lies. I love You, Lord and all I want is to be Yours. Thank You so much for being a merciful and amazing Lord. Amen. Now satan, depart from me. You have no strength over me and my mind. I belong to my Lord and Savior in heaven and you are NOT Him.

Jesus has your back through ANY storm

Scripture- Mark 4:37-41 “A fierce windstorm arose and the waves were breaking over the boat so that the boat was already being swamped. But He was in the stern sleeping on the cushion so they woke Him up saying ‘Teacher! Teacher! Don’t You care that we are going to die?’ And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea ‘Quiet! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased and there was a great calm. He turned and said to them ‘Why are you so fearful? Do you still have no faith?’ They were terrified and asked among each other ‘Who is this? Even the sea and the wind obey Him!”

Kind of a long scripture I know but you need the WHOLE story to understand. Jesus and His disciples were tired and decided to cross the lake to rest. While they were traveling, a huge storm arose and these huge waves were crashing against they’re little fishing boat. There were boats around theirs and some were being sunk. Jesus is asleep through all of this, even the flooding of their own vessel, so they wake Him up cause after all, the Son of God might want to be let in on what’s taking place, right? Jesus sees how frightened they all are so He commands the wind and water to stop at once and they did. When He sees the confused and fearful expressions on His disciple’s faces, He asks them if they still don’t have faith in who He is.

We have to examine the disciple’s reaction to the situation. They had the Son of God, the Father in the flesh, in the boat WITH them and yet they still were afraid to sink. Jesus was right there and yet the fear of dying still consumed them. We have to remember when we get in a situation like that, when we are afraid we’re going down and this time we’re not getting back up, that Jesus isn’t gonna let it happen! We might have lost our job or gotten a divorce, but there is something that is coming that is going to more than make up for the bad things in life. We might be out at the middle of the roughest seas and our big boat might be flooded with ocean water and there’s some huge waves crashing into the side of that boat, but we gotta keep in mind that Jesus is in that boat with us. It won’t sink!

Whenever we feel like we can’t handle the storm anymore, all we have to do is come to Jesus. The disciples came to Jesus saying “Teacher! Don’t You care? We’re dying here and You are sleeping! What are You going to do about it, Jesus?” That is not the way to ask for help. Show God you’re sincere. Here’s what I say:

     “Heavenly Father, I’m traveling some rough seas and the waves are coming down on me. I need Your help, Lord. I know You are the only one who can calm this strong wind and crashing water. You are the only one that can keep my boat from sinking and me from drowning. You are merciful and mighty and I love You. I ask You to strengthen my boat against these waves of sinful desires and temptation. Please weaken these waves from their weight and strength against my small boat. Thank You so much for Your help, Father. I love You. Amen.

Is That Your Final Solution?

       Philippians 3:3-4 “For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus and don’t put confidence in the flesh, although I once had confidence in the flesh too.”

       Philippians 3:8 “…Because of Him, I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth so that I may gain Christ.”

 Knowing Christ is very important. To KNOW Christ is not just to know of Him or know what He is, but more of understanding who He is and putting confidence in who He is. Let’s face it: we’d have to be perfect to go to heaven if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ! He did all the work for us.  Sometimes, being the crazy people we are, we tend to forget that God CREATED us. He knows what He is doing with our lives even if we don’t have a clue what’s going on. But even knowing this, we do some crazy things like putting faith in those “8 steps to success” guides that we always see advertised on the tv. For some reason, and I’ve done it before too, we believe that if we use these manmade things to improve our lifestyles, that we could be used better by God.

This is all a big wall of nasty smog that gets in between us and God. The amazing thing about our relationship with Christ is that we don’t have to change before we come to Him. He’ll accept us just as we are and use us with our many gifts and talents. Some people are good athletically, others are good artistically and still others have wonderful musical talents. Some people paint their testimonies while others record them with instruments. My point is, we all have ways of glorifying Jesus, our Savior. We need to use them instead of thinking we have to be able to speak like Billy Graham.

As much as we want to think that buying expensive workout machines, plastic surgery, and the chapter in that book about how to make a million dollars online is going to make God want us more, it wont. God wants us right now. We need to lay aside all these earthly “success machines” and achieve our success through Christ and His love. Paul admitted in his letter to Philippi, that he once put all his faith in “the flesh” or things of this world. He realized that Jesus is all he needs and so he put all that other stuff behind him and focused on the only real thing that mattered. We should have that same outlook because only God can strengthen us, not anything of this world.

“Jesus, I know I’ve been putting my faith in the wrong things. All along I thought that just knowing what You did for me was going to save me. I didn’t realize that if I didn’t put my confidence in Your ability to save me and wash me clean, that I wasn’t going to survive my judgment day. Thank You for pinning Yourself on that cross so long ago. You didn’t even know me, but yet You told God to set me free and that You would pay for MY mistakes! I don’t understand why You would do that for someone like me, but I do know that I understand my mistake and from now on, my faith is in You! You are my Savior and I love You. Amen.”

Your Reputation: The Light of the World

Matthew 4:13-16 - "You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses it's taste what more is it good for other than to be thrown out and trampled by men? You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts in under a basket, but rather on a lamp stand and it before men so that they may see your works and give glory to your FATHER in HEAVEN."

   It's critical that we understand God's calling. Again, this verse does NOT mean, "go out and get ordained and minister". All this is saying is "Don't be a weekend warrior". You guys know what I'm talking about. The guys that go to church on Sunday but then put the bible back on the shelf for decoration.

   Living for Christ is a fulltime thing. It can't just be our "weekend job" because just think of how many people we come in contact with throughout the week that we don't see on the weekend! I only come in contact with maybe 10-15 people I want to school with. When we reflect God's love all week, that's that many people we can have an influence on.

   On the other side, we can't do good works in the sight of others so that they think we're good people. For Jesus said in Matthew 6, "Be careful not to practice righteousness in front of people to be seen by them... When  you give to the poor, don't sound a trumpet and don't expect applause from the people." Basically it's saying don't do things to get rewarded by your peers, because if you do it for the right reasons (for God and HIS glory) then He will reward you!