Thoughts and Prayers of the day

First off... Thanks Stefan for campaigning for my blog; completely unnecessary but you the man! (1000 or bust!)  Now to the meat of this post - I have a couple different thoughts I would like to hit on:

1) Dealing with a thought Mr. Billy Menkhaus sent to me last night.  His thought suggested that our sinful nature actually is in some cases more of a blessing than a curse. Now before one would say "WHAT!" I think he has a very valid statement. First i'll deal with a couple butchered quotes I've heard in the last yearish:  "In the end whatever decision we have made about God, he will be Glorified" and this one from C.S. Lewis

"All God does in the end is give people what they most want, including freedom from Himself. What could be more fair?" To expound on these - If we are in the end forgiven by Grace through Jesus God is glorified in his amazing Grace and Mercy. Should we condemned to Hell based on our own independence and sin, God is glorified in his Holiness and Justice. So in the end the sinful nature within us WILL give God glory, whether it has been destroyed in us or absolutely consumed us.  What about now though? It seems so much more like a curse than a blessing trying to live a life for Jesus now. If you read the title of this blog, however, Paul in Romans 3-6 is pretty clear about the law.... ...Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin... The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord...

In the midst of our Sin - Grace ABOUNDS - Gods mercy is clearly seen, and we can rejoice and praise Him for this grace!

2) So the other day and this morning I was listening to the song "Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay. The end of the song is humbling reminder not to turn the cross into just an image, and a beautiful prayer for God to direct our lives:

I look beyond the empty cross, Forgetting what my life has cost;
And wipe away the crimson stains; And dull the nails that still remains;
More and more I need you now, I owe you more each passing hour;
The battle between grace and pride, I gave up not so long ago,
So steal my heart and take the pain, And wash the feet and cleanse my pride;
Take the selfish, take the weak, And all the things I cannot hide;
Take the beauty, take my tears, The sin-soaked heart and make it yours;
Take my world all apart, Take it now, take it now;
And serve the ones that I despise; Speak the words I can't deny;
Watch the world I used to love, Fall to dust and thrown away.....
Take my world apart.

This brings me to the thought: How much do we really want to pray for God to "Take our worlds apart"? I know for me it is super scary to pray that my life, dreams, goals, ambitions, etc... be stripped away so that in everything I will rely only on Him. To live in such a way that should God not show up, I would be in trouble. But as I think of it, and examine the men and women who did live like this (Read Acts or read things about the first Christians) I begin to see this was their prayer. That in all things they would know only Jesus, and in all they did He would receive glory. While this is a very scary thought (in a worldly sense) and would seem like foolishness to the world (See 2nd blog post) this is the prayer I will pray: That at all costs, Jesus will become my life. That at all costs I will know Him. That at all costs He will bring me into himself. Amen.

Convinced or Crazy?

So as a bible study this past week we decided to read through 1 Corinthians.  The book is full of awesome application and encouragements Paul uses to instruct and reform the church in Corinth.  Towards the end of the letter, however, you find some very awesome passages about the Resurrection.  When looking at the context, it appeared some of the Corinthians didn't believe in bodily resurrection, thus denying Christ's actual resurrection (which could possibly relate to our skeptical Christian society).


1 Corinthians 15:3-8 | 12-19
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born....
 ...But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.


As I've grown in my faith over the years there has been one undeniable, apologetic-al point which I have held on to and go back to frequently: The Apostles and eyewitnesses to Jesus were ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED of who Jesus was. Paul knew one thing to be true; Jesus died, bore our sin, and was resurrected. That was it. This of course is when a modern skeptic would say "oh well they were just stupid" or the "oh they were just deceived". How does one see deception or stupidity within Paul's argument? Why would he die for a lie? He even points out those who have seen Jesus resurrected, almost challenging skeptics of the day to go visit those men and women. And Not only was he very educated, he later says in verses 30-32


And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”


He knew full well what he was doing. He knew what it was going to cost him. Peter in his second letter says "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." Then details the event of the Transfiguration. These men weren't stupid, they weren't insane (why would thousands die for the crazy ramblings of crazy men?) They were convinced of what they saw, and of the 11 disciples (minus Judas) and the many who were so key to the early churches spread almost all were Martyred because they couldn't, and wouldn't deny their Jesus.  Paul follows verse 19 with "But Christ indeed has been raised from the dead..." This for me has been a solid point in what I believe. It secures in my mind that Jesus was who he said he was, and did what he said he would do.

Foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:18

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

If you search for the definition of foolishness you will get "folly: the trait of acting stupidly or rashly" I've read this verse many times but today it just stuck out to me.  The first two Chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul kind of harps on this idea a lot.  While this would have definitely applied for those living in the Roman empire, but is this true of our Gospel within United States.  For those living in Rome accepting the gospel and living for Jesus meant physical persecution, it meant losing status, money, and in many cases your lives.   Some of Jesus' most profound statements were filled with this idea of worldly foolishness:

Luke 9:23-25

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 

For that time in itself this statement was shocking, but what about today?  Looking around the world we see this very much to be true in places like the Middle East and China, where Christians are being heavily persecuted for their acceptance of Christ. I've read multiple times of governments. not just religious leaders, sentencing men and women to death because of this Gospel. So I ask, is this true of us in the U.S.?  Are we preaching this same Gospel, the one in which Paul throughout scripture says is "The power of God" or are we preaching a Gospel of safety and prosperity?  If we are preaching this gospel that is the power of God, that is foolishness to those who are perishing, what would our country begin to look like?  Preaching the Gospel should not create lukewarmness.  As a young life leader I find it odd when other "christians" consider it foolish giving up time as a college student to hang with high schoolers. It upsets me to hear so many "christians" consider it foolish to give up money, time, and comfort to bring the gospel to dangerous places. If the Gospel is truth, and 90% of us say it is, why are we so stagnant?  Only the unbeliever considers the Gospel foolish. So how much do we consider this gospel to be the power of God? I know if you would ask the thousands of people (throughout history as well) who have/are giving their lives to this gospel, I dont think the word foolish would appear in their description of what they were doing. So lets do something about it, lets not hold back truth, lets love radically, lets pray continually, and lets go kick this world in the butt with the Gospel of Power!

(As a note of this post, I very much feel in many aspects of my life that I do not live a life which I fully consider the gospel as the power of God (for example being bold in moments which are hard to be bold in). This scripture is quite convicting and I thought I would share thoughts. Also Im not the best person at writing down and organizing thoughts... so if this is jumbled and in some parts doesnt flow well im sorry)

First ever blog post!!!!!

So I've finally succumbed to the urge to create a blog. I'm actually really excited to get this going and start getting more involved in the community of bloggers on the internets (yes with an s). So I guess with this first post I should get right down to business and explain what this blog will be and why i'm doing it.

First: Dealing with the title, although it sounds like a fairly generic Christian title it actually took me some thought to figure out what I would call this.  The title comes from Romans 5:20-21 in which Paul states: "...but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more..." In the last year this verse has really stuck out to me as just a HUGE reminder of God's indelible grace for us. Though our sin is so large HIS GRACE ABOUNDS!!!! (just meditate on that!)

Secondly: After reading other's blogs and receiving much insight/encouragement from postings I thought doing one myself would be neat. Along with that I find myself throughout different points of my week reading/hearing/seeing things that I feel are worth sharing, or archiving in some way (for myself, if not for others).

Finally: I really want this to be something which for me grows me in my relationship with Christ, specifically dealing with scripture study and discussion.  It is a way for me to look at my thoughts on something and truly analyze them almost in a Berean-like mannor. It also gives others the ability to comment/correct me where I might be wrong or misinformed. 

So..... Yeah..... I have a blog now!!!!