Got Fruit ?

CHRISTmas is 18 days away.  Wow!  It only seems like a few weeks ago that we were preparing for our annual Fall Festival.  Though I gave up on believing in Santa Clause a few years ago I’m still reminded of that joy felt as a kid come Christmas morning from receiving presents.  For the holiday season Acura Motors has come up with some neat ads that capture the essence of those moments of exhilaration felt as a child on CHRISTmas morning.

Saturday afternoon I was again reminded of the joy felt as a recipient of a "gift".  The past week had been craptastic (I think it’s ok to say "craptastic".  )  I missed work Tuesday and Friday due to nagging pain in my back, which I then let develop into a funky attitude.  Both days were spent in bed with covers over my head as I tried to avoid God and the world.  God hadn’t done anything that He should deserve such an attitude from me, yet there I was not only turning away from Him because I felt miserable, but actually feeling a bit ticked at Him.. and for what reason!?!?

I finally managed to return to the land of the living after noon on Saturday and was "presented" with two gifts.  The first gift was an email from an old room mate from my days served in the Army while stationed in Germany.  The second "gift" was also of the digital age variety, an invite to be friends on Facebook by a fellow blogger.  Where some might see these two gestures as trivial, I  saw them as something special.  Though I didn’t deserve any blessing especially considering my funky attitude toward God, He sent me what I needed at the time which was a pick me up in the form of someone simply saying: "Hey, I was thinking about you."

All of this causes me to appreciate even more the importance of listening to God’s Holy Spirit when He prompts me to do something such as to visit a friend or write someone, or maybe it’s to just make myself available. As a teen I used to have this notion that serving God meant that you either had to have some grand ministry, or served as a missionary in some desolate part of the world.  Ultimately, God may have that type of plan for some of us, but it has to start somewhere "small".

Philemon 1:7 (See also: Romans 12:3-8, 1st Thessalonians 5:11,Hebrews 3:13) (All 3 verses)
7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Grace and peace be with you.

Ezekiel 18:32
32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

These are the final words of Ezekiel 18, uttered by God.  A simple command which with compliance offers life. "Repent and live!"

On Friday thoughts from Ezekiel 18 were shared regarding how God makes it clear that every man is responsible for his actions, he will suffer the consequences of his sin, not his offspring, as will he also be acknowledged for his righteousness which no one else can take nor receive credit for.

Throughout the bulk of Ezekiel 18 (verses 3-28), God explicitly tells us that the wicked man that repents from all his sinful ways will have life, while the righteous man that turns from the path of righteousness to that of the wicked man will lose his life.

Reading through this chapter of Ezekiel some thoughts and ideas concerning the  "doctrine (?)" of "once saved always saved" crossed my mind.   As New Testament believers, I know that God’s grace is the mechanism by which we are saved, in spite of our past sins and ongoing struggles with sin.  It occurs to me that we have a problem however if we take God’s grace and not properly apply the stipulation of repentance earnestly,honestly and continually to our lives.  Text from Ezekiel 18 clearly points out both the benefit of repentance as well as the consequences of not repenting.  A broader view of the book of Ezekiel in fact pointing to the impending judgement by God as an example of the consequences suffered by Israel for not turning from it’s sinful ways.

Ezekiel 14:6
6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!

In the New Testament of the Bible we have numerous examples from Jesus Christ Himself as well as Paul exhorting us to walk the righteous walk, to not fall into the deception of living a sinful life.  Below is a brief view of some of those exhortations.

Matthew 7:13
13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.

Romans 6:1-5
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

Galatians 5:16-21
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1st Thessalonians 4:7
7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

From the previous examples, and with exception to Jesus speaking in Matthew 7:13, Scripture seems to be emphatically speaking to believers in Christ.  Given that this message of repentance is repeatedly preached, I can’t help but take it to heart that our salvation is an ongoing process.  A process of being strengthened in the Lord and in His Word (the building of the relationship with Christ),versus a false implication drawn from the "once saved, always saved" idea that no matter what one’s conduct is, salvation can’t be lost. (See Matthew 7:21-23)

• We continually wrestle with the flesh (Ephesians 6:10-12)
• Our faith is constantly being challenged by Satan’s deceptions (1st Timothy 4:1)
• Doctrine is constantly under attack  (1st Timothy 4:16)
• Christians are not immune to temptation (1st Corinthians 10:13)
• Righteousness is a product of laboring in Christ (Hebrews 5:11-14, Hebrews 6:1-4)

From the Gospel of Mark, Jesus calls to the people…

Mark 1:15
15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

Grace and peace be with you.

Blogging

From Slice of Laodicea, hosted by Ingrid Schlueter: an interview with Pastor Dustin Segers of Shepherd’s Fellowship concerning Christian bloggers maintaining balance,focus and righteousness in their lives with regards to blogging in general and as a ministry, specifically anyone called into discernment.  I do hope readers take the time to listen to this interview in full, Pastor Segers has in my opinion some solid advice for us all to consider and take to heart.

File under: Avoiding Distractions

Christian doctrine etc;

The Marshian Chronicles  and Lindsay Brooks of Apologetics.com have posts from earlier in the week that personally speak to and challenge me to step up even more in proclaiming my faith in Christ.  Part 1 of the post from The Marshain Chronicles is here and Part 2 is here.  I mentioned a few days ago about working on a friend of a friend’s PC.  Well the back story to this "friend of a friend" is that they are Mormon, and during our interaction,I felt a need to witness to this young man about the true Jesus of the Bible (sans John Smith), I didn’t though because of not "feeling" that the timing was right.  I don’t know, maybe there’s truth to it, maybe me just dragging my feet in this particular instance since I didn’t have an established relationship with the young man.  As I’m making this entry though, it does occur to me that somehow, some way, I do need to talk to this young man about his involvement with the Mormon church and His relationship with Christ.   

Lindsay Brooks offers his 2 cents worth regarding proclaiming the Gospel, and The Marshian Chronicles also gives some practical advise and words to ponder to go along with what the believer is told in 1st Thessalonians 5:

1st Thessalonians 5:19-22
19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.

Technology

As much as I enjoy technology, be it computers or AV equipment, I am a slow adopter.  For example, I’s only been in the past 3-4 years that I’ve fully embraced Windows XP as my preferred Windows OS (a long time Windows 2000 holdout).    Likewise, I was a diehard fan of the Musicmatch Media Player.  Even after Yahoo acquired the software and "reinvented" it, I held out on the legacy version as my default media player, forsaking Windows Media Player.  Over the past six months or so Musicmatch has become less and less appealing to use, as Yahoo has made efforts to migrate users to it’s home branded media player.

After a day of frustrations with installing Musicmatch about a month ago, I finally gave in and abandoned the app for Winamp.  For the old Musicmatch fanboys that are looking for a comparable replacement, I highly suggest giving  Winamp a try.

Need a tool to convert your media files or graphics to different formats? Check out the freeware media converter know as Format Factory.  The interface is a little buggy/quirky, but the utility itself has performed wonderfully.

Grace and peace be with you.

Just thought I’d share the outline from Part 1of last night’s Bible study for the Young Adults group available…

Acts 17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

I. What is Discernment?

From a Biblical perspective discernment implies scrutinizing for accuracy, validity or truthfulness, etc;.

Webster’s Dictionary defines discernment as:

1. To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish.

2. To see or understand the difference; to make distinction; as, to discern between good and evil, truth and falsehood.

John MacArthur’s definition of discernment:

In its simplest definition, discernment is nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think biblically.

First Thessalonians 5:21-22 teaches that it is the responsibility of every Christian to be discerning: “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.” The apostle John issues a similar warning when he says, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). According to the New Testament, discernment is not optional for the believer-it is required.

Citation from “The Vital Importance of Biblical Discernment” by John MacArthur (http://bible.lightsource.com/11531806/)

II. Biblically speaking, what is the purpose of discernment?

1. To avoid being deceived

• 1st Timothy 1:3-4
• 1st Timothy 1:8-11 (Note verse 10! “contrary to sound doctrine”)
• Mark 13:5,22-23 (warnings directly from Jesus!)

2. To know and recognize the true Jesus Christ from the false christs (antichrists)

3. To distinguish Biblical fact from “fiction”, to recognize Orthodox Christian doctrine from worldview “religion”/man made doctrines

4. To be obedient to God and His Word

• 1st John 4:1
• Ephesians 5:6-7
• Colossians 2:8

5. To become matured Christians

• Wisdom - James 3:13-17
• Discipline
• Discretion
• Knowledge - Ephesians 4:12-16

6. Love (1st Timothy 1:3-5 Note verse 5!)

1st Timothy 1:3-5
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

III. Why study and discuss discernment?

1. The Bible tells us to be discerning (1st Thessalonians 5:21-22, 1st John 4:1)
2. To be obedient to God and His Word (1st John 4:1, Ephesians 5:6-7, Colossians 2:8)
3. To become matured Christians (Ephesians 4:12-16, 1st Timothy 1:3-5)
4. Concerns over the many misleading spiritual leaders, sects, movements, and religions masquerading as being of God and “Christian” in the Orthodox sense.

IV. Warnings directly from Jesus!

Matthew 24:4
4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you.

Mark 13:22-23
22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

Luke 21:8
8 He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.

V. How does one become a discerning Christian?

1. Discernment is imparted by the Holy Spirit - 1st Corinthians 2:12-14

• Not “learned” or “taught” from self-help or self-esteem books
• Not based on our wisdom (human intellect) nor solely on our experiences See: Proverbs 3:5-6

1. Referring to the Bible for direction & spiritual nurturing
2. Relying on God’s wisdom, not ours - 1st Corinthians 1:25-30
3. Habitual prayer and reading of God’s Word - it’s vital that this is a regular part of your daily walk with Christ
4. Application of what God’s Word says, to your life
   These are components of spiritual nurturing which result in spiritual maturation.

Grace and peace be with you

I need a break from the study and research I’m prepping for Wednesday night’s class over discernment, so I thought I’d just comment a bit on what’s going on with the preparation (not H) process plus whatever else comes to mind from the past few days.

I had a chance to chat briefly with a friend this weekend and I was sharing with my friend about the "teaching" opportunities put before me; and about how for the past few months I really felt this urging to address the young adults group about discernment.  My friend who serves in a ministry capacity informed me that discernment is a big subject but gave encouragement.

Well let me tell you, I can definitely appreciate my friends outlook.  I must have spent at least 3 hours yesterday evening just trying to weed through notes and information gathered to come up with an outline of the materiel to be presented.   Keep in mind this is a subject that I hope will cover the next 6 to 8 weeks of 1 hour Bible Study/discussion.

Initially my ideas were born more out of concern to specifically inform the young adults about some of the teachings and movements that are Biblically unsound or at least cause me to look on them with a skeptical eye.  Thankfully, I quickly realized (thank you Lord, for your wisdom) that unless approached systematically, there was the potential for any study and or discussion to turn into several non-constructive and distracting practices such as:

• joy derived from witch hunting versus truth seeking
• us vs. them mentality
• an hour of self-righteousness and haughtiness
• discussion of a word with no weight to it (because no one understands from a Biblical perspective what, discernment is)

The last bullet is therefore going to be the base, with everything else discussed in the weeks to come originating from principles disclosed in that base topic (Discernment: What is it?).  Below is an outline (for the curious or for anyone else considering engaging a similar study time)… for what it’s worth.  This is simply a skeleton view of general ideas and questions to develop a broader study upon as it relates to defining discernment before jumping into examining doctrines and beliefs.

 Discernment: What is it?

• What is discernment
• What is the purpose of discernment
• Why study the subject of discernment
• How does one become a discerning Christian

The Gospel and Christian Doctrines defined (via CARM resources)

• Essentials
• Secondary Essentials

Comparison of doctrines (not all inclusive nor exhaustive)

• Prosperity Gospel (Name it Claim It):
• Emergent Church/Social Gospel:
• New Age mysticism/spirituality/Contemplative prayer:
• Humanism
• Charismatic Movement
• Classic cults: Mormonism, Catholicism, Jehovah’s Witnesses

Anywho…  just a few thoughts and ideas being kicked around the ‘ole noodle that I felt like sharing.

Proverbs 15:14
14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
       but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.

folly:
1: lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight
2 a: criminally or tragically foolish actions or conduct obsolete : evil, wickedness; especially : lewd behavior
3: a foolish act or idea
4: an excessively costly or unprofitable undertaking
5: an often extravagant picturesque building erected to suit a fanciful taste

Grace and peace be with you.