What is Good?

I was reading in Micah today and was convicted by a passage that asked the question, "With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God?"

"Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, calves a year old?"

"Lots of stuff, my first born?"

It's easy to ask this question in many different ways. Those who struggle with ways of atoning like cutting, sacrificing their first born to pagan gods, etc. are asking this question. They are trying to atone for their sin in ways that are sins in God's eyes.

So what is the answer? "He has shown you, O man, what is good;"

"And what does the Lord require of You"

"But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God"

There it is. God is our gracious Lord. The only thing that we must leave behind is our sin and love Him as penitent sinners, in dependence on the atoning work of Christ. And I pray that I will love the Lord more, day by day, and study His law, that I may be better equipped to humbly obey Him more, do justly, and love mercy.

Dripping Faucet of the Internet

What is this dripping faucet of the internet?

Women who are treating the internet as they do their home.

Yep, that's about it. These women who at one time influenced their three lady friends and the dude who married them have been released into the wilds of the worldwide web. These women have blogs, comment on other blogs, treat their FB friends to their lives, and make me want to go to their house and cut their internet line so they can go back to driving their husband insane instead of the rest of the world.

In a sense, the internet is like a house. And these women roam around it and drive everyone around them, except for the other psychos, insane. It would be better to live in the wilderness, than with these crazy ladies.

Women who are quarrelsome, nagging, and angry are not beautiful. Even though their profile picture may be, avoid them with a ten foot pole.

Which is hard to do on the internet.

And don't let me forget guys. Guys are a little different, they tend to not be as emotional. They're just always angry. Or rude. Here's how you can differentiate a guy and a girl on the internet, if you're not sure.

"@$*(%&@($*%&@#(*&@#(*&$@#($*&" - Guy

"You are an idiot, because etc. etc. etc." - girl

"Your grammar is terrible, therefore I win" - Everybody

;-P Yay for over generalizing. XD

Consumed by Selfishness

If I had to describe Americans with one word, I'd easily use the word SELFISH. The men and women in America are probably the most selfish and proud people in the world. Part of it is being the richest country in the world, but the majority of it, is because of their rejection of God. Ultimately, God is the father of love and sacrifice. When you reject that, you are rejecting self-sacrificing love.

Men and women struggle with selfishness and pride in different areas, but in America it's all across the board. As I perceive it, men spend all their time making a conquest of women (probably mostly in porn, because a real woman would be too much work), not committing to marriage, getting drunk, playing hours upon hours of video games, encouraging their wives/girlfriends to have abortions so they don't have to care for a child, and clicking the up channel button on the television. Women are selfish in other ways: all about me time, chic-flick time, never wanting their house to get dirty, aborting their children (i.e. 70% of down syndrome babies.), birth control, and always needing their happiness to stem from their relationships or stuff they get, etc.

Sure, some of these examples can be interchanged, but I've noticed men are more lazy in their selfishness. Women tend to still get things done, but it's all about them. In a sense, men are more nihilistic and women are more materialistic. However, both sexes are all about themselves. Sure, they manifest themselves in different ways. But the question is, in what areas are you selfish? Where in your life is it all about you? Are you going to be cranky if you don't get your cup of coffee in the morning? Speaking of which, I NEED COFFEEE!!!!!

>_<

Let me just wrap this up with a passage that convicted me this morning.

"In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." ~ 1 John 3:10-24

Let us remember that we should love our brother. Love those who you meet. Love those who hate you. And even though you love them, they will hate you. Just like Cain who murdered his brother because of the very fact that his works were evil and Abel's were righteous. No one who is righteous will ever be truly loved by the world, because in some ways I believe it opens up their eyes to who they are, but rather than wanting change, they become angry and kill their brother, just like Cain.

How about seeing our brother in need? Do we have spare funds to help him? I.e. www.littletait.com -- Here's a good opportunity. ^_^


Our lives need to be about service. It's not about a bunch of words and unbiblical encouraging, it's about showing our love in what we do, and the truth. 

Whatever our little god is, replace it with God and His commandments. And when we abide in Christ, he will abide in us. And that's amazing!

Friendships in Christ

Our love for Christ must reach beyond ourselves and those who are beautiful in our eyes. We are all attracted to certain people, whether they are beautiful, funny, interesting, etc. but what love is, is reaching out and loving those who aren't easy for us to love. Everyone likes to interact with people who jive with them, but how about those that are hard to love? The next door neighbor lady who is always grumpy, the guy who never has a kind word to say, or how about the girl who is more often than not depressed, these are all people that may not be easy for us to become friends with, but why?

If our goals in friendship are self focused, which I have to admit I am guilty of :-(, then ultimately we will never be able to have friends who we don't jive with, or who we feel uncomfortable around. But why do you feel comfortable? Is it because your friendships have no depth? Is it because you aren't encouraging your friends towards Christ? 

When our mission in life is to encourage others to love God more, then having friendships with those who are not our "groupies" will not be a problem. When friendship is no longer purely about us, then our ability to reach out and disciple will grow. Jesus ate with all types. He ate with publicans and sinners. Our God is a God who reaches out to those who are hurting and heals them. May we follow his example in our daily lives all the more. 

Care

Caring for another means loving God more than them. Caring for your parents, siblings, church friends, is about putting Christ at the head of every one of those friendships. If your friendship doesn't depend on the other person serving you and making you perfectly happy, then friendships can go long term. Remember, all people are sinners. ALL people are sinners. They will always fail you at some point. They will always say the wrong thing, do the wrong things, and generally not keep you completely happy (which is probably a good thing, hopefully they're exhorting you towards Him). You will disagree. You will have fights. But if Christ is the anchor in your friendships, then you won't be running off and pouting in your corner all the time.

Disingenuous Christian

I read a post by a musician awhile ago, about how Christians aren't being real, specifically in the music industry. The post really spoke to me as something I've been convicted of, in my life. That feeling of being disingenuous. I don't want to be the person who is hypocritical and disingenuous. I want to be passionate about God and show it. When I struggle with sin, I don't want to sweep it under a rug. I want to confess my sins and cry out to God for more mercy and grace. I don't want to live in a fear of men. God is the only one to fear, and He doesn't take kindly to this hypocrisy. I think my fear of man, and the hypocrisy has come in alot of ways from my disregard of God's word. The words of one of our elders has been very helpful to me. He told me, "Pray for a passion for God and His Word." You can't replace something with nothing. You can't replace your passion for tv shows, video games, etc with nothing. And that's where in many ways I feel that element in my life has really been missing. I've always asked the Lord to help me put off sins, but not really cried out for more passion for Him. And I pray that God continues to give me more and more passion for Him my entire life. We must in a very genuine way put off our old man, and put on the new man. It won't be perfect, and we will fall. But the gift of repentance from God and His forgiveness is an amazing healing for those wounds. Be encouraged. :-) I pray we will all be more passionate for Him as the years go by.

"Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." ~ Romans 13:11-14

Simplicity is Beautiful

In a very real sense, one of the most beautiful things about Christianity is the very beauty of simplicity. Being able to sum up the gospel into one phrase, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." That's the beauty of the gospel. When you ask an unbeliever how they determine their ethics, they'll hammer around the issue and they have no real answer. It's complicated. It's full of holes. Ask a Christian, and you get, I love God and His word, he determines my ethics. Again, simple and beautiful. Yes, there are elements of Christianity that are complex. But that's the beauty of it. Simple to explain, and yet complex. It's like design. Creating a product that is beautiful and simple but with lots of texture and intricacies. We all hate products that are complex and difficult to understand from the outset. And this is how humanist forms of thought are. They are complex and utterly miserable to listen to. They are complicated and confusing. They change every 15 years. God doesn't change. The ethics that he gave us in His word don't change. He is immovable. He keeps His word. And we can rest in Him.