Be Careful

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1

There are 2 types of "spiritual" people I have noticed emerging and both are causing chaos with Christians, especially young Christians and also those who are non-believers who are looking for answers. One is the professed Christian that thinks just believing in God and Jesus is enough to get you to heaven. The other, which is more disturbing to me is the "former" Christian that now calls all things God, Jesus, and scripture to be a "delusional fairy-tale".

Those who claim to be Christians by just believing in God are pushing people away left and right from receiving the ONLY pass into Heaven, that being the Salvation on Jesus. Sure I believe in God and Jesus, Satan and all his demons do as well. Scripture says in the end ALL will bow and profess God as Lord of all. After you accept Christ, then you do good works for Him. Thats where this group fails off. They want to believe in God yet live how they want, say what they want, and go where they want without giving any thought to the God who created them. Those young Christians and Non-believers see this and think since that group claims to be heading to Heaven and are having "fun" I am going to just stay where I am. Thats where Churches are falling apart and no one takes a stand against the things God calls abominations to Him.

The second group that claim to be former Christians are disturbing in the fact that they have either grown up in church or have even been ordained ministers. They have heard every story and know the Bible better than most good professed Christians. Just recently I was on a message board debating with one of these people and it was heart breaking to see how someone who once claimed Christ and was studying in seminary to just back off completely and call Christ a fairy-tale. These people could be lumped with this first group because they still have the live how you want demeanor, but they have a whole different side. They denounce Christ all together. Since they appear to have been on the "inside" they could influence those young believers and those who are seeking Christ into turning away all together and living for themselves.

I say all that just to remind us who are trying to live for Christ to be VERY careful in what we do and say. Its our actions that show God's existence and love. To whose young Christians and those unbelievers seeking truth, PLEASE BE CAREFUL who you follow. God's Word is final and if you are learning from someone who is not teaching scripture properly, you will head down a bad path to living as you want and missing out on blessings from the King.

Leviticus and my Scriptural Journey

I started January 1st reading through the Bible in a year, I had never done this before. I can honestly say there are a couple books towards the end of the Old Testament I have never read. So this will be a cool thing to do, plus I get a chance to read some of my favorite events from the scriptures. Now I have gotten behind a little but I am catching up and continuing on.

The book I got hung on was Leviticus, I have not finished it yet, still like 4 chapters. (I have moved on to Numbers to stay with the days) I can say that this book, so far, has made me appreciate grace. If you have not read Leviticus all the way through, then you should pick you Bible up and at least read through it, you will understand what I mean.

In a nutshell, Leviticus is a book of laws. Laws on living, laws of offerings\sacrifices, and laws of who can perform offerings and sacrifices.

But back to my main thought, Leviticus makes me appreciate grace. Without Christ coming to earth, living a sinless life, dying for our sins and his ultimate resurrection there would be no grace. The state of the world would make it near impossible to ever provide the sacrifices God required of Israel after the were freed from Egyptian slavery.

Imagine every time you committed a sin, you would have to get you BEST calf, lamb, bird, etc. Go to your nearest Tabernacle. Wait in a line that would reach from here to forever(because everyone else would be in line as well), when you finally make it to the front of the line the High Priest would offer that up to God as a sacrifice for that sin. You probably sinned while standing in line, so guess what? BACK TO THE END OF THE LINE. Now it might not go exactly like that but you get the picture, we would all be laying sacrifices ALL THE TIME.

Praise God He had an ultimate plan. God knew we could never live up to his hundreds of laws that He laid out for Israel. Thats why Jesus came. He was the PERFECT sacrifice. Not a blemish, never sinned, lived as God asked Him. AND Jesus is also our High Priest. So through Christ, God cut out 2 pieces of a very complicated puzzle.

I am looking forward to what God has for me as I journey through His word. My hope is I learn to appreciate what Christ did for me on the cross more and more. Ultimately leading me to Love God more and more. Thats the relationship He wants with me, I want that relationship.

The REAL Love

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13


February 14th, St. Valentines Day.....The day of love. For many years I have come to loath that date. It started out because I got so tired of all the "lovey-dovey" acts of boyfriends\girlfriends, fiances, and spouses. I was, and still am, single and thought if I couldn't experience those feelings then no one else should. That dislike turned more towards the commercialization of the holiday as I got older. It seemed like a joke to put aside one day a year to tell people you love them by purchasing cards, flowers, candy, expensive jewelry. Heaven forbid for a lot if you neglected to do such thing because you would be in the "dog house" for awhile. So adding those reasonings together I just flat out hated the thought of Valentines Day.

If not for the comments of some good friends and God working on that part of my heart, I would not have the thoughts I now have for this day. While I am still not a fan of it. I am going to think on the REAL love, this year. The scriptures above are just a glimpse into the Love our God has for us. If not for the love He had by sending His ONLY son to live in the evil world and endure what no man before or after Him has endured and died on a cross, there would be no love at all.
1 John 4:7-8 says that God is love and those who do not know Him can NEVER love. Those couples out there who are calling what they are doing love, but have not accepted the REAL love that God gives, are doing nothing but lusting. You must know the REAL love Christ gives and love Him before you can even begin to know what loving others is all about.

I want to say I love my family, I love my church family, I love my friends, but most importantly I LOVE MY LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS and the FATHER!

If you do not know the REAL love, I hope and pray you do that before it is everlasting too late. Once you find the Love of God, the love you have for others will be so much more than you could ever imagine.