Month: October 2016

because the days are evil

From here:

https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/thabitianyabwile/2008/06/27/use-time-wisely-because-days-are-evil/

To use time wisely “because the days are evil” is a curious phrase embedded in the inspired language of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:15-16: “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (NASB). Paul may have exhorted the Christians at Ephesus to make the most of their time because he and/or the Ephesians were experiencing persecution or opposition (such as in Acts 19:23-20:1). In any event, we need to use every moment with wisdom “because the days are evil” still.

Even without the kind of persecution or opposition known by the Christians of Paul’s day, the world we live in is not conducive to using time wisely, especially for purposes of spirituality and Godliness. In fact, our days are days of active evil. There are great thieves of time that are minions of the world, the flesh, and the Devil. They may range in form from high-tech, socially acceptable preoccupations to simple, idle talk or ungoverned thoughts. But the natural course of our minds, our bodies, our world, and our days leads us toward evil, not toward Christlikeness.

“Thoughts must be disciplined, otherwise, like water, they tend to flow downhill or stand stagnant. That’s why in Colossians 3:2 we’re commanded, “Set your mind on the things above.” Without this conscious, active, disciplined setting of the direction of our thoughts, they will be unproductive at best, evil at worst. Our bodies are inclined to ease, pleasure, gluttony, and sloth. Unless we practice self-control, our bodies will tend to serve evil more than God. We must carefully discipline ourselves in how we “walk” in this world, else we will conform more to its ways rather than to the ways of Christ. Finally, our days are days of active evil because every temptation and evil force are active in them. The use of time is important because time is the stuff of which days are made. If we do not discipline our use of time for the purpose of Godliness in these evil days, these evil days will keep us from becoming Godly.”

from here:

https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/thabitianyabwile/2008/06/27/use-time-wisely-because-days-are-evil/

meet people where they are

Responsability is to meet people where they are just like Jesus did.

Done by building relationships.

Relationship – characteristics of great relationships:

  • Love & Respect
  • Sacrificial service
  • Honest communication (based on trust)
  • Patience
  • Loyalty
  • Common Purpose (that results in fun, joy)

How do you get there?

Must “know” the person.

I know people when I can answer these questions:

What do they love? (cars, houses, money, job, kids, wife, God, god, nature, environment, activity, skiing, camping, vacations, travelling)

What are they experiencing?

What is the world through their eyes?

How are they feeling?  (Angry, joy, peace, love, envy, hatred, frustration, disspointment, injustice,

What is important to them? (family, religion, politics,   )

What is the basis for their big decisions?

What is the big life goal they are driving towards?

Do they have a plan to get there?

Are they conciously aware that the decisions they make today define who they will be tomorrow?

 

 

 

Who fights depression?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Reznor

Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965),[9] known professionally as Trent Reznor, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and film score composer.

Personal life[edit]

During the five years following the release of The Downward Spiral, Reznor struggled with depression, social anxiety disorder, and the death of his grandmother (who raised him). During this period of intense grief, he began abusing alcohol, cocaine, and other drugs. He eventually became addicted to alcohol and cocaine. He reached his darkest moment with substance abuse while touring in London for The Fragile, when he mistakenly purchased china white heroin, which he believed to be cocaine; he consequently overdosed and was resuscitated at a local hospital.[127]

In 2001, Reznor successfully completed rehab, and eventually moved from New Orleans to Los Angeles. In a 2005 interview with Kerrang, he reflected on his self-destructive past: “There was a persona that had run its course. I needed to get my priorities straight, my head screwed on. Instead of always working, I took a couple of years off, just to figure out who I was and working out if I wanted to keep doing this or not. I had become a terrible addict; I needed to get my shit together, figure out what had happened.”[34] In contrast to his former suicidal tendencies, he admitted in another interview that he is “pretty happy”.[128] Nine Inch Nails’ next full-length album, With Teeth (2005), reached number one on the Billboard 200.[129][130]

Reznor married Filipino American singer-songwriter Mariqueen Maandig in October 2009.[131] They have 3 children: sons Lazarus Echo (born October 10, 2010),[132] Balthazar Venn (born December 31, 2011),[133][134] a third child whose name has not been revealed (born November 1, 2015).[135]

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/once-upon-a-time-in-bruce-springsteens-america/article32469925/

Bruce Springsteen

He was 60 years old, and in the jaws of a blackness without end, and his old friends were dying, and one autumn morning Bruce Springsteen found himself alone on a beach in New Jersey with his paddle board and his tears. Not just any tears, either: “Bambi tears,” as he writes in his new autobiography, Born to Run. “Old Yeller tears. … Fried Green Tomato tears.”

But then he discovered, as many of us do at a particularly low point, or sometimes in a Bruce Springsteen song, that he was not alone. An old woman walking her dog happened across this bawling man, having no idea who he was – that he was the Brruuuuuccee of legend, the rock stud of a million dreams – and she did a simple thing: She asked if there was anything she could do to help

“I was sinking pretty low, and the beach was empty,” Springsteen says over the phone from New York. “It was in September. I’ll swim into November sometimes. I was going through a period of serious depression. This lovely woman saw me in some duress, and just started up a conversation. It was pretty sweet.”

It was a reversal of the usual course of things. Normally, he was the musclebound shoulder people leaned on: the members of his E Street Band, for 40 years. His audience, for just as long, getting high on those three-hour shows. The guy leaning out the window of his car on the morning of 9/11, yelling, “Bruce, we need you!” But even strong men crumble; they often do in his songs. So, to thank the elderly woman, he did the one thing he could think of: He promised her tickets to his concert. Rock ’n’ roll had saved his life, over and over; why wouldn’t he share the gift?

Lacey Sturm Found Jesus & Left Suicide, Drugs, and Homosexuality Behind; Died to Self and was Spiritually Reborn

http://www.breathecast.com/articles/lacey-sturm-found-jesus-left-suicide-drugs-homosexuality-behind-died-19694/

Christian rock vocalist Lacey Sturm spoke to BreatheCast about her autobiography ‘The Reason: How I Discovered a Life Worth Living’, and in part one of this interview she speaks about her depression and desire to commit suicide. In this article Sturm opens up about discovering Jesus just as she was ready to end her life.

 

 

 

A poor marital choice is like a debt you can NEVER pay off.

Humility is the preserver of happyness.

  • Being humble means sharing the area that you are stumbling in today.
  • If I am not humble I cannot grow.  If I am not humble I think I am already good.  I think there is no need to change.

All stumble in many ways.

God opposes the proud but give grace to the humble.

Addictions STAMP a paths into our neural pathways.  Once they are made, they are hard to avoid going back to them.

 

 

 

Bible on Gay

consider this:

http://www.upworthy.com/there-are-6-scriptures-about-homosexuality-in-the-bible-heres-what-they-really-say

The six specific passages on gay… :

The Story of Sodom & Gomorrah (Genesis 19)

This story in Genesis 19:

“God sends two angels disguised as men into the City of Sodom where the men of Sodom threatened to rape them. The angels blind the men, and God destroys the city. For centuries, this story was interpreted as God’s judgment on same-sex relations, but the only form of same-sex behavior described is a threatened gang rape. “

So gang rape (not the same thing as homosexuality). But the recap of Sodom & Gomorrah found in Ezekial 16:49 highlights what Vines believes is the real point of the story:

“Now, this was the sin of your sister, Sodom. She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, they did not help the poor and needy.”

Everyone using this story as evidence of the sin of homosexuality, might be missing the point entirely.

When God calls homosexuality an abomination
(Leviticus 18:22) (Leviticus 20:13)

Leviticus 18:22   —   22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13   —   13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Leviticus is where the Bible says that homosexual behavior is an abomination. It also says that homosexuals should receive the death penalty (like all sinners deserve the death penalty). It also says the same thing about eating pork or shellfish, charging interest on loans, and a whole bunch of other restrictions that were a part of the Old Testament Law Code. NOTE: RE the law, Romans 10:4 says that Christ is the end of the law. Which is probably why most Christians today eat meat, use credit cards, wear makeup, and support equality for women. Because, as Hebrews 8:13 says, the old law is obsolete and aging.

When people turn away from God (Romans 1:26-27)

Romans 1:18-30

God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[a] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, tothe dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

 

Uses of the Greek works “Malakoi” and “Arsenokoitai”
(1 Corinthians 6:9-10) (1 Timothy 1:10)

These words are included in the New Testament’s lists of people who will not inherit God’s kingdom. And there has been much debate over their original meaning.  Some believe them to mean homosexuality and sodomy, whereas others have said that the closest modern translation would be “dirty old men.”

Many modern translators have rendered these terms as sweeping statements about gay people, but the concept of sexual orientation didn’t even exist in the ancient world. Yes, Paul did not take a positive view of same-sex relations.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous[a] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,[b] 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

 

1 Timothy 1:8-13

8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers,[a]liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound[b] doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners   (Gay, greedy, drunk, liars, pork eaters, shellfish eaters, people who charge interest on loans, etc.)

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,

http://www.upworthy.com/there-are-6-scriptures-about-homosexuality-in-the-bible-heres-what-they-really-say

 

Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit

 

 

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

Imagine the Spirit – as a dove.  9 feathers on each wing… what happens when there are only feathers on one side?

dove-of-church000

 

Picture is from here… http://sermonfromthefastlane.blogspot.ca/2013/06/metaphor-for-church-dove-of-power.html

The gifts and the fruit of the spirit are not for ourselfs.  They are not for self glorification.  They are for ” the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:”.

What have I given away today?