Think of any place you were at today. Any place will do. Remember the faces you may have seen there. Granted, you don't know the life of the person if they are a complete stranger. Here's the reality of the situation. Even here in America, there are people who don't know who Jesus is and what He means for them.
This is a continuation of my last blog post. I went through a lot of things. This is another thing that I think we are all guilty of as a part of the church. As a people, we would much rather ignore the fact of hell. There are two eternities. One is heaven, where we will sing praises of the King forever and things will happen that I can't even comprehend. The point is this, we will be with God forever. The God who created us and shaped us to be with Him forever.
The other eternity is hell. It's not nearly as nice of a place though. For one, it means being separated from God forever. Then there is the eternal torment part too... Can't forget that. Honestly, as I write this I am shaking. I don't like the idea of hell... It scares me. In all reality though, hell is the reason why Christians can't go through life complacently. It is the reason why we cannot sit back and wait until we go to heaven. There are lives at stake here. If people don't accept Him as their Savior then they will go hell and face something that is worse then death.
"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved - and that by God." Philippians 1:27-28
There are two things that I want to bring up in this passage. This is not the first time that opposition is ever mentioned in the New Testament. Jesus himself gets into an altercation with some Pharisees, which really isn't anything new. Jesus and the Pharisees had words many times during His lifetime. The Pharisees were saying that Jesus drove out demons by the power of Beelzebub, who is the devil. Jesus goes into a long winded answer to this but I think one thing in this passage could pertain to the passage above.
"Whoever is not with is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." Matthew 12:30
This sentence is very clear. It's fairly easy to see that there are two ways to go about life, without Jesus or with Him. Against is a synonym of oppose. They mean basically the same thing. So therefore, the believers that Paul was talking to were with Christ whereas there were some people who opposed them. These people were against Him or not with Him.
Later in the Philippians letter, Paul talks about how there are two different ways for believers and nonbelievers to go.
"For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." Philippians 3:18-21
This passage clearly shows a divergence. Jesus spoke a lot when He was on earth of a place where "weeping and gnashing of teeth," occurred. It is so clear that hell exists. Jesus, God in the flesh, Creator among the created, spoke about it with purpose. He wanted us to know that it was there, that it is a threat. I do this too sometimes. I will ignore the fact that hell exists sometimes. Honestly, an existence without hell is very appealing. I don't make the rules though. God does. There is one way and that is through Jesus. He is "the Way the Truth and the Life." Jesus talks about two roads, one that is narrow and hard to travel. The other is wide and easy to travel. The first leads to heaven and an eternity with the One who created everything. The second leads to hell and to travel it, simply ignore Jesus. Do not travel this road. If you believe in Christ, do not let other people go down the wide road that leads to hell.
Let it be known, that I am not trying to scare anyone with this post. I am simply trying to remind everyone that may have forgotten. There are lives at stake during this life. There are people who need Jesus. Erasing hell in our minds won't help those people. Acknowledging the reality of it and continuing on with the fight to win people for His kingdom will help them though.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Recent Thoughts
Hey everyone. Just have been having a lot of thoughts that I want to share with you all. Before I can share them though I must tell you a lot things that have an influence on these thoughts. I have been reading through Isaiah and I've seen a lot of really cool things God can do and things He did do. There are so many instances where God does something that could only be done by Him. I have read of how angry God got at Israel and yet for whatever reason He decides to keep loving them. He wants to keep showing them how much He loves them. He also talks over and over again about Jesus. Like this:
Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. (Isaiah 7:13-16 NIV)
This evidently points to my Savior. I'm just stuck sitting here like "This is the God I serve and I am no where near worthy to care His name." Yet He has called me and saved me. Just as He's saved us all. Which is why Jesus came in the first place. Jesus came to mind in another passage that didn't even mention Him. Remember how Jesus said He could summon legions of angels if He needed them? Yeah check this out:
“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord. “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! (Isaiah 37:33-36 NIV)
That was ONE angel. I don't want to imagine a legion and what they could... It's impressive that Jesus commands such creatures that can do that sort of damage. Anyway, I feel like Jesus didn't come just to save us. He came to set up a church that would last through the time that He would be gone. This church that we are a part of is only here because of the work of thirteen men and what their actions meant for the world. I say thirteen because I'm including the eleven of the original twelve, Matthias and later on Paul. These men started spreading the word of Jesus. They started to carry out one of Jesus' last commands, which was:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)
They used all of their lives and poured out all of themselves in order to try to get the message to all nations. We have to continue getting it to all nation of course but let's face it they took care of a lot of the hard stuff. They got it across oceans. Here we are now with so many resources and so much potential. The church today has so much potential. Especially in the United States. There's a ton of room to improve.
The biggest problem we've done is to make it individualized. The church was never about individuals. Look at this next passage I'm going to post. It's perhaps one of the passages that's bothered me the most in my walk.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 NIV)
There's no mention of how one person did any of that. Sure it has to start on that level but they did everything together. In Jesus' example of prayer, He never uses the word, I. Instead He uses words that deal with multiple people. I honestly feel like we need to get back to how the first church did things. They're devotion was about more then just one or two days a week. It was everyday. That would change so many things here and all over the world. I want to be devoted to the teachings of a God, devoted to fellowship with fellow believers, to breaking of bread and prayer. There's a lot of things that need to change in order for that to happen though. I will be going through some things that I feel need to change in the American churches.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for reading, Send me any feedback or anything I should think about.
Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. (Isaiah 7:13-16 NIV)
This evidently points to my Savior. I'm just stuck sitting here like "This is the God I serve and I am no where near worthy to care His name." Yet He has called me and saved me. Just as He's saved us all. Which is why Jesus came in the first place. Jesus came to mind in another passage that didn't even mention Him. Remember how Jesus said He could summon legions of angels if He needed them? Yeah check this out:
“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord. “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! (Isaiah 37:33-36 NIV)
That was ONE angel. I don't want to imagine a legion and what they could... It's impressive that Jesus commands such creatures that can do that sort of damage. Anyway, I feel like Jesus didn't come just to save us. He came to set up a church that would last through the time that He would be gone. This church that we are a part of is only here because of the work of thirteen men and what their actions meant for the world. I say thirteen because I'm including the eleven of the original twelve, Matthias and later on Paul. These men started spreading the word of Jesus. They started to carry out one of Jesus' last commands, which was:
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV)
They used all of their lives and poured out all of themselves in order to try to get the message to all nations. We have to continue getting it to all nation of course but let's face it they took care of a lot of the hard stuff. They got it across oceans. Here we are now with so many resources and so much potential. The church today has so much potential. Especially in the United States. There's a ton of room to improve.
The biggest problem we've done is to make it individualized. The church was never about individuals. Look at this next passage I'm going to post. It's perhaps one of the passages that's bothered me the most in my walk.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 NIV)
There's no mention of how one person did any of that. Sure it has to start on that level but they did everything together. In Jesus' example of prayer, He never uses the word, I. Instead He uses words that deal with multiple people. I honestly feel like we need to get back to how the first church did things. They're devotion was about more then just one or two days a week. It was everyday. That would change so many things here and all over the world. I want to be devoted to the teachings of a God, devoted to fellowship with fellow believers, to breaking of bread and prayer. There's a lot of things that need to change in order for that to happen though. I will be going through some things that I feel need to change in the American churches.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for reading, Send me any feedback or anything I should think about.
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