I think a lot of times as Christians we are on both extremes of this question. There's times where we have this view of God that he is a wrathful God who enjoys sending his creation to Hell. However, we forget what Psalm 145:8 says that God is merciful and slow to anger. On the other side of that coin we see things going so well that we acquire this independent mindset and that Jesus' only place in this world is on the felt board in Sunday School.
God loves us no matter what, so he has held up his promise that was given to us so graciously. However do we respect him, submit to him, and love him as a bride, should? Are we faithful by putting him ahead of our money, computers, jobs, and our own physical families? Finally do we act like we are joined as one body, doing what the head directs us to do?
According to the Bible, a man is supposed to love his wife and protect her, as well as provide for her. God has done this and continues to do this for us. However, also according to the bible, the wife is supposed to submit to him, love him, and serve him. So family I encourage you, before you do or think anything, realize and remember that you are the bride, and your actions should fall in line with his will. Not behind because of fear, or in front of because of pride.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
How do we fight for our purity?
Purity. It's probably the hardest thing in the world to keep, and especially in today's society. There are so many different outlets to breaking the covenant of purity that you made when you became a Christian. You have the media which not only pressures you to break this covenant but also provides the means to do so.
To show you how all-inclusive the word "media" truly is we are going to count the number of outlets. You have countless number of magazines, an unlimited number of websites that can not only be accessed by computers but also by phones now. There is also the television that has shows that you don't even have to pay for that promote promiscuity and breaking purity. The media has created this idea that purity is just something that was upheld by previous generations, but they say that that time is gone. Our society has planted this seed in our head by asking one question. "Why is keeping your purity so important?" with less and less parents and mentors informing their mentees and children on the subject they think the media is right and end up going down a road that is wide and heavily traveled. So I want to share some suggestions for both mentees, mentors, children, and parents on how to remain pure, and also teach purity and its importance to each other.
So why is purity important? From a Christian standpoint you would think it would be obvious, but there has been so much black and white that has been faded into gray which in turn, leads to people trying to justify an action that they end up making. 1st Thessalonians 5:22 says "Abstain from ALL appearance of evil." Brothers and sisters in Christ this means if you have to try and justify it, it is wrong!
Now as children and as mentees we know how to deal with it, but what about mentors and/or parents?
Mentors the main thing your mentees need from you is accountability. Especially your younger mentees. In a society that does nothing but preach impurity and our hormones are raging it is impossible to fight it alone! So mentors be there for your students and mentees so they can stay pure and be more effective in being used by God
Parents, as children of you and our father, we need you to be bold! As children we need courageous men and women of God to lead us and teach us about purity and about its importance. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance leads to wrong decisions that even though we may not know that the decisions are wrong, they still are.
Everything I have said is out of experience. I know what it's like to fight for your purity. I know what we need as mentees and as children. I have figured out to the best of my ability how to stay pure as a teenager. Ecclesiastes 4:12 "A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken." Therefore, men and women of God let us stand together and fight alongside each other with our God in the middle and nothing can hold us back!
Love you brothers and sisters!
To show you how all-inclusive the word "media" truly is we are going to count the number of outlets. You have countless number of magazines, an unlimited number of websites that can not only be accessed by computers but also by phones now. There is also the television that has shows that you don't even have to pay for that promote promiscuity and breaking purity. The media has created this idea that purity is just something that was upheld by previous generations, but they say that that time is gone. Our society has planted this seed in our head by asking one question. "Why is keeping your purity so important?" with less and less parents and mentors informing their mentees and children on the subject they think the media is right and end up going down a road that is wide and heavily traveled. So I want to share some suggestions for both mentees, mentors, children, and parents on how to remain pure, and also teach purity and its importance to each other.
So why is purity important? From a Christian standpoint you would think it would be obvious, but there has been so much black and white that has been faded into gray which in turn, leads to people trying to justify an action that they end up making. 1st Thessalonians 5:22 says "Abstain from ALL appearance of evil." Brothers and sisters in Christ this means if you have to try and justify it, it is wrong!
Now as children and as mentees we know how to deal with it, but what about mentors and/or parents?
Mentors the main thing your mentees need from you is accountability. Especially your younger mentees. In a society that does nothing but preach impurity and our hormones are raging it is impossible to fight it alone! So mentors be there for your students and mentees so they can stay pure and be more effective in being used by God
Parents, as children of you and our father, we need you to be bold! As children we need courageous men and women of God to lead us and teach us about purity and about its importance. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance leads to wrong decisions that even though we may not know that the decisions are wrong, they still are.
Everything I have said is out of experience. I know what it's like to fight for your purity. I know what we need as mentees and as children. I have figured out to the best of my ability how to stay pure as a teenager. Ecclesiastes 4:12 "A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken." Therefore, men and women of God let us stand together and fight alongside each other with our God in the middle and nothing can hold us back!
Love you brothers and sisters!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
What Is Love?
As much as I hate to sound like Lil Wayne and Eminem, this really is quite a popular question. We live in a world that is broken and loves all the wrong things and for all the wrong reasons. We live in a world where selfishness is popular, therefore, loving with all your heart is not the most famous idea ever. At times it seems as if there truly is no love.
So how do we fix this problem? Well it is a very long road to fixing it, but I think the beginning of that road begins with these to questions. "What is love?" and "Why should we love?" First let us begin with the question, "What is Love?" The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines love as strong affection for another, arising out of kinship or personal ties, or attraction based on desire. Now this is all fine and dandy as long as you are not talking about loving with all your ability and all heart. As long as your talking about loving with just your body. However, last time I checked, wasn't attraction based on desire another four letter word that starts with "L"? See that is the problem. The world has fused together the two words, love and lust, and created their own concoction and version of love where it doesn't hurt as badly to get your heart broken because your not putting your all into it, but you are putting in enough to sustain what may appear to be a healthy relationship.
Next, I want to answer the question of "Why should we love?"Many of you may have caught the fact that I said this is what the world does. Many of you who did catch it probably thought "well the world is going to be the world and they are always going to live in sin." For those of you who are Christians and who did have this selfish, closed-minded thought I have one simple question for
you, "If that is true, then why are you here?" Contrary to popular belief you are not here on this Earth to make money or even leave a legacy. The reason you are here on this Earth is to praise, glorify, and bring honor to your creator's name. This includes bringing those who are lost back into the family of God, and the lost include everybody who is living in sin A.K.A. "the world." Yes the world has mixed up love and lust. However, it is our job as children of God to reach out to the world, through love, and show them that there is a God not just somewhere out there, but a God who created you! A God who loves you unconditionally with all his heart! And a God who was nailed to a piece of splintered wood for roughly six hours until his internal organs collapsed.
The bottom line is love is not selfish, and neither is our God with his love. So lets go out there and show what love truly is in its purest form so lives can be radically changed, and the family of God can continue to grow! Love you brothers and sisters!
So how do we fix this problem? Well it is a very long road to fixing it, but I think the beginning of that road begins with these to questions. "What is love?" and "Why should we love?" First let us begin with the question, "What is Love?" The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines love as strong affection for another, arising out of kinship or personal ties, or attraction based on desire. Now this is all fine and dandy as long as you are not talking about loving with all your ability and all heart. As long as your talking about loving with just your body. However, last time I checked, wasn't attraction based on desire another four letter word that starts with "L"? See that is the problem. The world has fused together the two words, love and lust, and created their own concoction and version of love where it doesn't hurt as badly to get your heart broken because your not putting your all into it, but you are putting in enough to sustain what may appear to be a healthy relationship.
Next, I want to answer the question of "Why should we love?"Many of you may have caught the fact that I said this is what the world does. Many of you who did catch it probably thought "well the world is going to be the world and they are always going to live in sin." For those of you who are Christians and who did have this selfish, closed-minded thought I have one simple question for
you, "If that is true, then why are you here?" Contrary to popular belief you are not here on this Earth to make money or even leave a legacy. The reason you are here on this Earth is to praise, glorify, and bring honor to your creator's name. This includes bringing those who are lost back into the family of God, and the lost include everybody who is living in sin A.K.A. "the world." Yes the world has mixed up love and lust. However, it is our job as children of God to reach out to the world, through love, and show them that there is a God not just somewhere out there, but a God who created you! A God who loves you unconditionally with all his heart! And a God who was nailed to a piece of splintered wood for roughly six hours until his internal organs collapsed.
The bottom line is love is not selfish, and neither is our God with his love. So lets go out there and show what love truly is in its purest form so lives can be radically changed, and the family of God can continue to grow! Love you brothers and sisters!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
What If?
T.J. Lane. Some of you might know who this 17 year old boy is. He is a broken young man who walked into school in Ohio and snapped. Lane walked into the cafeteria of his alternative school with a .22 pistol that was owned by his grandfather and shot four kids of whom three have died. This breaks my heart for the simple fact that three families have to bury their sons - sons who hadn't even lived for two decades. Sons who might have made a huge difference in the world and who had their whole lives ahead of them.
My heart breaks for the families who have to go through this, and I pray that comfort, love, and strength would be given to these families so graciously by our Lord. I pray that these individuals' faith would multiply exponentially. However, I also want to focus on Lane. Now what he did was wrong, unruly, and shocking. In no way am I defending him, but what would have happened had the unconditional love of our God, that is shown to us as Christians, been shown to this boy? What if someone went up to this broken young man, who was an outsider at school and abused at home, and genuinely asked him how are you? What if instead of the verbal or non-verbal messages of "Your worthless and you'll never amount anything," he was told that there is a God who created you, loves you, died for you, and knows you, and with Him you can literally do anything! If these questions that were just stated were not just hypothetical, and these actions were actually taken, then there might be three more world changers still alive, and another one was not in prison.
Now before you write this post off as "Well that's sad," or "This is a new perspective, but it doesn't have anything to do with me," quit being selfish, get off your religious pedestal, quit pointing the finger at the students and parents who didn't do these things and listen. How many times have you gone to church and said, "Hey how are you?" and walked past the person before they even had the chance to take a breath to respond. Or what about the times you responded with the nice, churchy, feel-good answer of "Blessed and highly favored, brother." Please men and women of God, I strongly encourage you to love people as much as you love yourself. It's the second greatest commandment in God's word!
As Matthew recorded in his Gospel, Jesus said, "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." Lane wasn't shown an adequate amount of love and therefore, acted out of anger. Now as I said before, it was brash and wrong. However, you as men and women of God have the ability and responsibility to keep this from happening again. So, please love your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength first, and second, love people so that one day there might be a generation of your children and grandchildren who are leaders that are stronger than anyone before them. Not because of the turmoil that they have survived, but because their peers have acted as iron to them and sharpened them! Love you brothers and sisters!
My heart breaks for the families who have to go through this, and I pray that comfort, love, and strength would be given to these families so graciously by our Lord. I pray that these individuals' faith would multiply exponentially. However, I also want to focus on Lane. Now what he did was wrong, unruly, and shocking. In no way am I defending him, but what would have happened had the unconditional love of our God, that is shown to us as Christians, been shown to this boy? What if someone went up to this broken young man, who was an outsider at school and abused at home, and genuinely asked him how are you? What if instead of the verbal or non-verbal messages of "Your worthless and you'll never amount anything," he was told that there is a God who created you, loves you, died for you, and knows you, and with Him you can literally do anything! If these questions that were just stated were not just hypothetical, and these actions were actually taken, then there might be three more world changers still alive, and another one was not in prison.
Now before you write this post off as "Well that's sad," or "This is a new perspective, but it doesn't have anything to do with me," quit being selfish, get off your religious pedestal, quit pointing the finger at the students and parents who didn't do these things and listen. How many times have you gone to church and said, "Hey how are you?" and walked past the person before they even had the chance to take a breath to respond. Or what about the times you responded with the nice, churchy, feel-good answer of "Blessed and highly favored, brother." Please men and women of God, I strongly encourage you to love people as much as you love yourself. It's the second greatest commandment in God's word!
As Matthew recorded in his Gospel, Jesus said, "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." Lane wasn't shown an adequate amount of love and therefore, acted out of anger. Now as I said before, it was brash and wrong. However, you as men and women of God have the ability and responsibility to keep this from happening again. So, please love your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength first, and second, love people so that one day there might be a generation of your children and grandchildren who are leaders that are stronger than anyone before them. Not because of the turmoil that they have survived, but because their peers have acted as iron to them and sharpened them! Love you brothers and sisters!
Friday, March 2, 2012
I'm Back
For those of you who followed me and my blog on wordpress.com you know it's been a LONG minute since I've blogged. for that I must apologize but I have created a new blog here with Google, and I want you to know that I will be blogging once a week on weekends (usually Friday and Saturday.) It will be the same type blog where I will be sharing my experience and what little bit of wisdom that I have on how to Love Out Loud like Jesus did. Thanks every body for your support!!!
P.S. I will be blogging again either tonight or tomorrow on an actual love out loud topic!
P.S. I will be blogging again either tonight or tomorrow on an actual love out loud topic!
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