I believe..

I believe that there is one way to salvation and that way is only through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that to please God I must be perfect and the only way to obtain such perfection is through Jesus Christ Himself. I believe that if we lived for Him with the same fervency that He died for us there would be no stopping the Kingdom of God upon this earth. I believe that my family is the most precious gift my Heavenly Father could give me this side of salvation. I believe that there is not a single solitary thing that I could ever begin to do to justify myself without Jesus Christ. I believe that I have spent far to long living in the shadows of tradition when I am called to stand in the spotlight of grace. I believe that we can transform this world through Jesus Christ if we are only willing to get out of the way and let God be God. I believe that I stand in the way of His plans more than I move in the direction He is leading. I believe it is time to stop being the guy who waits for things to happen and it is time to be the man who follows His leading and makes things happen. I believe that Satan has convinced us that our sins make us useless in His will, when in reality the battles have made us stronger and Satan's arrows weaker. I believe if we stopped judging people and loved them as Christ loved us that the changes he wants to occur in their lives would happpen naturally by His time. I believe that it is time for God's people to stand up and be the shinning light in our homes, neighborhoods and communities. I believe that there is a movement of God going on and if we would stop and listen to the still small voice that is HIM we would see and hear it. I believe its time I put my beliefs down somewhere so the next time the god of this world tries to say I am unworthy I can say "Yes I am, but He who lives through me is not!!!" I believe its time....

Blogging The Nines

I saw the Kingdom of God expressed today in nine minute videos. I heard and watched many different viewpoints from many different people. The main theme throughout the day while watching "The Nines" was equipping church leaders to lead. Many people were passionate about a range of things from the practical to the personal piety and I quote "Don't get in the hottub!!". The pastor at Mars Hill implored us not to make the good things God things. He was saying dont make the things that are essentially good in your life , ie your sevice, worship even kids, become idolatry. This was a unique and different event to watch entirely online. Twitters tweeted about how cool and uncool their clothes looked, to what truly touched them in the nine minute speeches. If we could all unite for one day online think of the ramifications we could make in the world if all Christians choose to put aside differences and came together more.

Living life with out fear.

Everyone today has reason to fear something, whether it be stock market crash, fear of the unknown, fear of heights, fear of terrorism, or fear of death. We live in a world that feeds on these fears, one needs only to open a paper or watch the news at night to see that this is true. There have been political agendas set forth because of our fears.

Max Lucado tackles this subject head on in Fearless. He takes the reader back 2000 plus years to the days of Jesus and shows the reader some of the most fear inducing times in the Bible. He talks about the disciples and the fear they faced in a raging storm, before the demon possessed man, and after his death. He writes about Jesus and the most fearful agonizing time of His life as he prayed in the Garden before His very death on the cross.

Max expertly relates the fears of today with those from antiquity and shows how we are not that diffrent from those in the 1st century. The reoccuring thought throughout Fearless is the many verses Jesus says "Do not be afraid"

This book is perfect for anyone,( and lets be honest that is all of us) going through or about to go through major storms in your life. Just as the storm raged on the lake the disciples and Jesus were on. So does the storms rage in our lives. We may feel that just like the 1st century disciples that we do not understand why God chooses to sleep while the waves crash around us. We see that Jesus steps out on the water when the storm is at its worst and calms the sea in our lives. Lucado gives us examples of fear inducing times and storms that may rage in our lives and how our Savior the one who made the clouds can calm them in your life.

Max also relates how storms and trouble in our lives serve a purpose. Though we may feel we are forgotten or alone in our storms we see how they are there to work for our good, just as a prenatal infant must struggle in the womb so must the Christian who has not seen the after life.
Max expertly gives examples of people through out history and his own life stories to relate the reader to Jesus Christ

Lucado's book "Grip of Grace" is a book that I go back to many times in my life for advice, instruction and encouragement. This has been a very important book in my library. I will now have to put "Fearless" next to that book as an important book to refer to for situations in my life. I highly reccomend this book to everyone that reads this blog.