Spirit and Truth

2007-03-13T10:21:00.001-04:00

Good times.

Living Ahead

2006-12-11T21:20:00.001-05:00

Lately, I find myself nostalgic and yet eager for the future. A yearn for a time where I am at peace and without worry, a time that should be upon me in the next few days. Otherwise, I find myself wishing that it was the beginning of the semester, or better yet, the beginning of my high school experience. Every day, I consider that magnitude of approaches and decisions I would have altered. While I can only think of many minor modifications now, each one would have had a lasting effect on my personality today. No matter how futile this thinking, I find it impossible to avoid it altogether.
I find it surprising the many people as well as I crave the future and the past and rarely find themselves content with the present. Interestingly enough, the time and age we wish we had comes, and brings no happiness. Perhaps, we people are inevitably doomed to remain forever discontent with our situations. Why is this? Is this God’s way of keeping us running into his arms? Is it the devils plot to occupy our minds? Ah, an even better explanations! It’s the devils plan to keep us from being happy. Personally, I find our discontent to be a failure on our part. In these situations we fail to realize and capitalize on the grace that God has given us. This semester I spent much of my time dreading the work that I was assigned. I did not realize how grateful I should have been that I was able to struggle with these concepts or even discover new things. Rather than viewing the work as an arduous impossible effort, I could have looked at them as an opportunity to sharpen my skills. Even so, there is no reason why I could not have enjoyed that time fellowshipping with God.
Living ahead accomplishes one things, wasting time. It does allow us to appreciate the moment. For example, how many people realized the trees turned a bright red color during fall this year before wilting, or realized that almost all of the trees are bare? Better yet, how many people truly appreciate the last breathe they just took. I know that I constantly take that for granted, and yet that very moment is as precious as any other in life. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who said, “Without school, I’m is not one. It’s who I am.” This student said in a fit to finish the college applications, which are all due in a little less than a month. Now understand, she has already written much of her essays and had them proofread. Even though there is much to comment on, I would like to address that he/she was defining herself by the school she will not attend for at least another 8 to 9 months. While ambition is important, this ambition interferes with living in and enjoying the moment.
I’ve heard the common comment that people work hard now so that they can have fun later. I believe that procrastination is always bad, because it’s difficult to stop procrastinating at the perfect time. Sometimes I have little appreciation for each moment, worry about the future, and thereby procrastinate. It’s important to live a balanced wholesome life, one with fun and hard work, one where God is center, and while we persevere in all endeavors. Seize each moment, make it joyful, make it precious, and harness its greatness.

Other Limits?

2006-12-10T21:36:00.001-05:00

Have you ever gotten to a point in your life where you felt completely uninspired? It’s a time when you were deferring something important and yet, all the while God was on your mind. I’m at that point right now. I think I may leave this blog title null or simply write it uninspired. I have never felt so close to God, but unable to reach him until now. There is so much that I would like to share with him, and yet I’m afraid he doesn’t hear or he doesn’t care. Lately I've felt as if God was or at least should be angry with you. I feel that excessively now. I have put school and everything else before him in the past few weeks in a struggle to survive, in school anyway. I’m currently listing to the song, Take My Life by Passion Worship Band:
Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee
Take my moment and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise
Take my hands and let them move, at the impulse of thy love
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee
Take my voice and let me see always only for thy king
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages for me
Take my silver and my gold not a might would I withhold
Take my intellect and muse, every power as you choose

Here am I, All of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee

Take my world, and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine
take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal thrown
take my love, my Lord I pour, at your feet its treasure store
Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee
Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee
Here am I, all of me
take my life, it’s all for thee
here am I, all of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee
Here am I, all of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee
Take my life, here am I
Take my life, Lord, Take my life

Here am I, All of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee
Here am I, All of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee
Here Am I, all of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee
Here Am I, all of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee
Here Am I, all of me
Take my life, it’s all for thee

Take my life
Take my life, and let it be consecrated lord to thee
What a sincere prayer. I am sitting down and considering what it means to offer God your life. When you are truly living solely for him, every decisions, moment, and thought becomes focused on God. Most importantly, it’s like letting something powerful and amazing out of a box and allowing it to places you never thought you would visit. It is removing the limit from God and finally allowing God to do everything he plans to do. Many of us fear giving our lives totally to God or making it totally to God because of several reasons:
1.) Unsure what that means
2.) Afraid you will lose yourself
3.) Don’t believe you can live a life that is “perfect”
4.) Don’t really want to give in to God just yet
5.) You don’t know God
The first one is easy. Begin to sincerely pray that God will begin to infiltrate you life and begin to make him more like him. Most importantly, pray that he’ll take control of your life. Sincerity is probably the most important part of that statement. God knows our hearts and empty words does not “move” him and therefore your prayer will accomplish nothing. Once you pray you should begin to believe that God would do this for you. Most times God will begin to work in your life without you faith, but it’s always more fun to trust God. Perhaps I will deal with the latter 4 at a later date, but for right now, I’m going to explain what all of this has to do with limits.
Imagine you are going on a maze. Suddenly, you find a map in the middle of that scavenger hunt. The map does not show you where you are going, but it vaguely capture where you have been. At the top of map, a note says it will lead you to the end of the maze. You begin to walk forward with the map and you come to a fork in the road, you have some natural inclination to go right, and suddenly something appears on the map that tells you go left rather than go right. Unfamiliar with the map and its markings, you choose to follow your natural inclination. After hours of trying to find your ways back, it turns out that the left turn brings you to the first checkpoint. You repeat the mistake of ignoring the map two more times. You have one of three options of this point:
1.) You will continue to follow your inclinations (temptations)
2.) You will depend solely on the map and follow it religiously
3.) You will continue with your inclinations at times and other times just follow the map
Option and 1 and 3 put a huge limit on God. Number 3 will inevitably leave you stranded and so far astray that you will find it nearly impossible to get back to following the map. Notice in the analogy, when you are off track, it does not show you the way back, so you will inevitably get lost in your lukewarm tendencies and not being able to find your way back. For number 1, you are doomed to wonder the maze endlessly, forever, or long enough to lose yourself. If you ever find the exit to the maze, you it will be of no benefit to you. It turns out person number 2, makes it through the maze with little difficulty, simply because you set the map free to direct. He did not question its authority, he did not do this on blind faith, the map had proven itself and so he followed the device. Although you spent a long time in the maze, he knew, without doubt, he would one day find the end.
How many people know that they will one day find the end? How many people are following the direction and taking the proper route through life? Mainly, option 2 allows the map no limits. He could lead the man anywhere and he would follow. Do you have that much trust and faith in God? Are you allowing him to lead you anywhere or are there limits? Can God only dictate a portion of your life? To be honest, number 1, 2, and 3 exist on a continuum where 1 and 2 are at opposing ends and number 3 is directly in the middle. Few people reach 3, 1, and even fewer reach number 2. Most people, saved or unsaved, could probably find themselves somewhere between 1 and 3. We tend to follow our inclinations than we follow God’s commands. I’m really encouraging you to Take the Limits OFF and to RELEASE God to Direct your Life.
NO LIMITS

No Limits

2006-12-09T23:58:00.001-05:00

What limits have we put on God? Whether conscious or de facto, the limits we place on God can negatively affect our relationship. If you’ll bear with me, follow this analogy. You have been separated from you father for a long time. You were separated early in life because of circumstances out of both of your control and you have finally gotten the opportunity to rebuild your relationship. You finally get the opportunity to meet him and you suddenly begin to speculate what he will be like. You will use what you understand about other fathers, the circumstnace that split you apart, and the opinions of others in forming a general assessment of this man. When you meet him, he will either surpass or corroborate your speculations. You suddenly find yourself in a situation where you expect many terrible things, but all he ever does are great things. At times, you misinterpret his motivations and the efforts he contributes because you have already formed a generalization of this man. You have put him in a box, a prison, a place full of limits.
In many ways, this is similar to what we do with God. We each have our preconceived notions of God and rather than experiencing him for ourselves. It makes no sense to place these limits on God. God at times will respect our artificial limits. Because he has given us the privilege of choice, he will not help or bless us because our limits on him ask him not to do so. God has made it clear that he has no limits. He says that he can do immeasurably more than and above all that we can imagine. I have decided to extinguish the limits that I have put on God. If we put limits on God, we do more damage that we do good. We cannot comprehend the extent of God’s justice, mercy, beneficence, or majesty. Most important we should not try to constrain it.

Ordinary Day, but unOrdinary Thoughts

2006-12-05T20:40:00.001-05:00

I had one of those days, today, a day where I feel as though I did not accomplish much. Actually, a few minutes ago, I felt a little defeated. At times, I feel immature and somewhat small when others are watching me. Let us recap a little about today so that those claims can make sense.
Time I spend at school:
I spend a lot of time at school and many people speculate my motivation for doing this. At times, it is annoying, other times it is frustrating. Someone created a rumor about how I spent the night at school at one point. While these sayings and rumors are harmless, it bothers me that people have prematurely made conclusions about why I spend so much time at school. No one has considered that I need to be at school all the time, or that I may be having problems at home, or that I feel safer and secure all the time, or that it is just a place where I can think, or than I’m taking classes when others are gone, or that I just like the school environment. Perhaps, school is the only place I can do homework or study for a test. Instead, everyone has made it a point to highlight the amount of time that I spend at school and comment on it. I have grown weary of their comments, and yet I still adore these people. Actually, I do not think that many people could imagine how highly I view them.
Have you ever had a friend who constantly pointed out how awkward it was for him/her to say something about him/her self while you were around? I have that all the time. I think it is one of the most awkward things in the world. One day I walked into the room of my counselor’s office and she abruptly took up her papers and covered up whatever was on the desk. I did not really intend to look at it. I was stopping by to say “hi” and briefly speak to the counselor. She wasted no time in communicating the exclusivity of whatever item were on the desk. The next day, I decided to do the same thing to her once she looked on my computer so that she could realize how awkward her actions made me feel (bad idea). She instantly took the defensive side and started arguing about how she was not going to read it and that she thought it was something pertinent to her lab. The point is she became upset because I did to her what she did to me.
Today, I went to alternate seminar. I think it is funny that so many early college students thought they had a right to know why I went to the seminar. Honestly, I have to right to go to any class to which the professor invites me. It is hard to believe that my presence could have been that annoying or distracting to other students. Laura-Beth agreed with me (you have to love Laura-Beth). I hate having to justify my actions to everyone. I do not ask others to justify their actions and expect the same courteously from others. That really bothered me today. I think it bothered me because the people who comment and do these things are suppose to be my friends. I think I may have a loose interpretation of friendship. The people I am talking about are really acquaintances and see me as an acquaintance. It may actually be time that I just sever the bonds or at least change the way I view these people. I should not give them the opportunity to offend me. Either way, I believe will take care of it, because he has already begun to help me cope with this issue.
I have already prayed about it. After praying, I have just decided to dissolve some of my opinions and just remove some of my commentary. I believe that my comments at times can be far too extravagant and that I should limit my criticism to those who ask for it rather than freely extending it. Sometimes, just stopping pray, and singing to God can fix a problem that seems to have no solution. Today seemed like an ordinary day, but it has sparked some unordinary thoughts.

Faults: Comon, yet frustrating

2006-11-21T19:16:00.000-05:00

Few things happened today, yet they seemed eternally significant. I had my third organic test and I probably did not do as well as I did on the first or the second one. Perhaps, it was Anne’s fault for teaching us insufficient information, or worse, for making the test too difficult. Conversely, my insufficient studying (over 5 hours) left me hopelessly unprepared for this test. Maybe, I simply got lucky during the past two tests and this test is the accurate measure of my abilities.
In a little time, I have spent an entire paragraph, 95 words and counting, dwelling my performance and trying to rationalize yet. Simultaneously, I spent the past three minutes of typing this paragraph futility lamenting something unchangeable and arriving at no conclusion. Perhaps, if I thought for the rest of the life, or the next 10 minutes, I would truly contrive the reason for my slack performance, but is it worth the time. I believe our live follow this pattern, especially in our relationships with God.
Generally, in our eagerness, we set unattainable goals, such as perfection. Failure is not an option. In the presence of failure, we berate ourselves and emphasize our worthless qualities. Rather than considering how to proceed from this point, we dwell on the events that led to our failure. All the time, God realizes that we will make mistakes and appreciates our recognition of that mistake more than our steps to isolate the cause of the mistake.
It is difficult to realize the dangers of lingering on our faults. In the example above, it captured my attention. Generally this leaves me depressed upset or distracts me from other present tasks. Consequently, my attention shifted from God to my problems. Where do I find hope or a solution? Actually, yesterday I woke up considering the abundance of tasks I needed to complete that day. I find it difficult to sort out my day and guilty when I leave God out of the picture. It was when I started to diminish my concentration on my problems and start the day systematically that my day started to progress.
As I began to reflect on my distraught state, I began to realize my tradeoffs. I never realized the expenses that accompanied this contemplation and analysis. For the past two years, I have lost countless hours of sleeps and time with God. I began to realize that neither God nor I truly controlled my life. Some combination of my perfectionist urge and my schoolwork controlled it instead. I have challenged myself to change this. Naturally, a life where God takes second place does not fulfill me as much a life with him in the primary seat. It is important that we assess or mistakes, but more important that we allows God to help us up and life a life where we will not repeat the mistake. Do not trade God for anything, no even your problems. He would prefer you to have problems, work each day to fix them and fail, than to exclude him from you life because you have become obsessed with your fault. As proverbs, 24:16 says, “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” Remember that Christ makes us righteous, not our acts (Romans 3:21-24).

(The first person pluralities are creepy, but bear with me.)

Faith Works: Now or Later?

2006-11-20T21:39:00.000-05:00

Why do I believe in God? Why do I believe he deserves worship? Is life without God worth living? All of these questions have surfaced in my mind sometime in the past week. They came back to me as I watched a christian inspirational movie. Rob Bell, in his NOOMA series, commented on the throught that salvation exists as a waiting period, a holding tank for a better life to come. You try to introduce more people to that concept because younhope that person will share this destination. However, they do not believe that their life should be dedicated to creating a better life.

This reminds me of a comment that my grandmother always makes. She declares that the bible is fulfilling itself and that the world will only get worse. An "all we can do is pray" comment usually follows this saying. Both comments drive me crazy. First, I don't believe God put us in a world so that we could lose all hope for it and condemn it, and secondly, prayer is a powerful tool in a relationship with God, it shouldn't be treated so lightly. I think God desires us to change the world, but to do so now, not later. I've already jumpd the gun; i've assumed God wants something from me/you or a relationship with any of us.

I believe in faith now. Most importantly, I value my relationshipwith God. Once again, it's not an easy concept to explain, but it exists. I briefly reflected on my decision to make God the priority instead of my first priority. I think that idea! Why should God merely be another item on the list, he should be more than that. It's time for me to continue this philosophy. Lately, I've become more acustomed to depending on God, but he never lets me down.

Last:

Faith Now, Praise Now, Worship Now, Laugh Now, Cry Now, Pray Now, Sing Now, anything you want to give to God, do it now.

The song for last week was "To Worship You I Live (Away)" by Israel & New Breed. It's actually a simple song. The lyrics are as follows:

Away away from the noise alone with you away away to hear your voice and meet with you nothing else matters my one desire is To worship you I live to worship you I live I live to worship you oh oh.

As I began to think about the words of this song, I realized that I want a God-centered life. It's a life that I find uplifting and fulfilling because it offers guidance and direction. God-centrisim can be a lifestyle. I want to use my faith now to give Glory and Honor to my King.

Love Without End

2006-11-19T20:21:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've posted on blogspot. I think it's time that I start again. I like this site.

There has been a lot that's happened in my life recently, especially with my relationship with God. I feel like i've grown alot in the past month or two. Go Figure. I'm reading my bible more...Go ME!!

So anyway, back to the subject at hand. I've been listening to this song called You've been a friend by Israel and New Breed for the past day and 1/2. The lyrics are as follows:

Thank you for all you've done through your Son thank you for all you do you've brought me through when I look around and see where I've been you've been a friend

Glory honor exaltation power blessing worship love without end you've been a friend wo wo wo wo wo wo wo there's not a friend like you wo wo wo wo wo wo

For protecting me when I could not see thank you for hiding me under the shadow of your wings when I look around and see you again you've been a friend

Glory honor exaltation power blessing worship love without end you've been a friend wo wo wo wo wo wo wo there's not a friend like you wo wo wo wo wo wo

Oh, oh what a friend I have in you

Love without end, love without end, love without end: You've been a friend.

If you've read through all the lyrics, you'e probably discovered that this song is the inspiration for the name of today's blog. I stopped for a second to think about the concept of unconditionarlly eternal love. It brings me back to Roman 8:35 where we are reminded that, first, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and that we are more than conquerors through him. More importantly, I love the fact that this song highlights a relationship with God. I believe that everyone can and should have a relationship with God (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Matthew 7:21-23). I began to consider what does it mean to have a friendship with God. The best example I can give is, perhaps, the most cliché, son father relationship.

For contextual purposes, I'm going to describe my idealistic version of a father-son relationship. I imagine that a father love his son, plays with his son, teachers his son, and disciplines his son - one big molding process. I imagine a father playing baseball, or some sport, with his son early on saturdays (as mine use to do). He does this because it's a perfect way to bond with his child while engaging in some activity, in a sense its something they can mutually appreciate. Similarly a father takes time to find out how his son's day has done, congratulates him for accomplishments, picks him up when he falls, rebuffs him for his flaws, and comforts him when he's distraught. A father talks to his son everyday, and his son speaks back. Occasionally they get angry with one another, but eventually they solve the issue. The father genearlly has directions/advice for his son, and the son obeys. Through all of this, the son loves and admires the son. Afterall, a dad is irreplacable, right?

I see God as a father figure. We share, conceptaully, many of these things. As I begin to think about a father, I started to see the concept of true love. Reguardless of what that child does, or says a father still loves his son unconditionally. I'm challenging myself to show love without end for as many people as possible this week. It's the only way to be a true fiend.

Finishing things Promised

2006-07-12T18:27:00.000-04:00

Wow, I'm about a week and a half behind on posting messages. Let's see if I can say a few of the things i promised to say.

First: House of David
I had a lose interpretation of "house". House could easily stand for church or composite body. This word refers to all of the people who are unified in under David. Once again, David's concept means more to this phrase than his actual existence. During his years as King in the old testament, he did what most, in that time, could not have accomplished: created a personal relationship with God. This name came mainly out of the book of Psalms. In this book David talks about pleasures of finding God and living with him. He describes the benefits of living a God filled life in respects to his enemies and his needs. He aslo put great emphasis on Worship and celebrating God. David's worship wasn't traditional or vain. Instead, he shared a personal celebration of God's goodness. Through Davids celebration and obedience, God annointed him. I want this blog to be something similar. It should capture pieces of my personal relationship with God, celebrate his greatness, and inspire personal obedience to his word.
That was the reason behind naming the blog House of David.

Todays Stuff-
In the past week, and a half, many things have happened, many good things, some bad things, but most of it's a blur.

Faith and Politics

2006-06-28T23:42:00.000-04:00

Today's post will be somewhat atypical. I am going to focus on one subject rather than recounting the actions of the day.

Let's start off by posing the question that I have pondered for a few hours now: Is it possible for political philosophy and religion to coexist?

If Jesus were back on the planet, I'm pretty sure he would laugh at the politicians. Neither party actually lives up to Christ's moral standard. Because of this I'm going to write my thoughts in respects to a liberalism-conservatism spectrum rather than basing it on the political parties. Would Christ identify as a current day conservative or liberal. Whatever whatever let's move on

I identify as a conservative. The more I think about my philosophy on life, the more identify with conservative beliefs. I am a Christian Conservative. That's a crazy phrase these days. I think this may be the last time I share my political philosophy for a while. I am tired of talking about it. Some people call me a super conservative. Personally, I must admit that I don't know what I would consider myself. I tend to be conservative on almost all issues. If there were a way to make the United States a Godfull nation instead of the "nearly Godless" country it is now, I'd be all over it. I did not realize that there were so many Christian liberals and until recently. I suppose I understand how a Christian could be liberal. Jesus did stress love. He never really stressed tolerance or acceptance. Actually, the interesting thing was that Jesus ate and drank with anyone who wanted his company. He shared the good news with everyone. He taught us how to be loving and respectful of others, but I think many people overlook Jesus’ stressed the importance of seeking righteousness.

I want to post this later, perhaps tomorrow. I haven't appropriately organized my thoughts. I admit that I'm a little confused myself right now. I'll just put down my basic political profile.

Social Issues: Super Conservative :-)
Economic Issues: Very Conservative
Foreign Affairs: Very Conservative
Political: Somewhere between Very and Super Conservative

I have to admit, I'm a hardcore conservative. I have no idea how I became one, I just know that I am one.

So I'll have a Faith aand Politics post part 2 that's much more organized.

Now for the scripture of the days: Wow, it suddenly came to me.
The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
1 Kings 19:11-13

Song of the Day:
Strong Tower by Newsboys

Religion or Faith

2006-06-28T00:28:00.000-04:00

Today was an interesting day. I got up late today, around 9 am. I did a read the bible a little. I didn't do all the reading I intended to doing. I will do some later in the night. When I finish that reading I will post the verse of the day. This morning I came across an interesting verse in the bible a second time: John 14:28. In this verse Jesus says he's going back to the Father and the father is greater than he is. This challenges the trinity, so I sent an e-mail to my youth pastor and Mr. Burger. I'm sure they'll be able to shed a little light onto my confusion.

I did by biblical Hebrew studies today. Hebrew is a lot of fun. I have finally memorized the alphabet and the vowels. Perhaps I will learn this language faster now. I need to practice recognition now. I have to assimilate each word on site. I cannot recognize any units, I’m sure that will merely take a few years of practice. After that I should be able to pick up more and more Hebrew. It would also be cool to learn to speak and write in Arabic. I’m going to be a Middle Eastern expert. If my college offers Arabic, I will definitely take that language.

We had this interesting religious and political argument at work. It was kinda funny. There was a republican at work who believed in an American Empire. I thought that was a little interesting since that's the Republican Party’s goal. I didn't really argue with him. I would prefer the United States not try to deal with all world affairs, but I suppose politics is no longer my focus. Besides, I don't think there is much one nation can do about the actions of everyone else.

My co-worker asked me what type of Christian I was. That's a funny question to ask. I suppose it's a legitimate question these days. Everyone has their own beliefs. I told him I was non-sectarian, not non-denominational, but non-sectarian. He told me that he was catholic. He told me a little about Catholicism. They believe that everyone else, the Protestants, left the true "religion." He told me he also believe that the bible was the "basis" of Christianity, but that God gave man the intelligence to rationalize things. Both of these comments were interesting. I had not time to comment on these statements because we became increasingly busy for the next fear hours. I'm glad I didn't have the opportunity. There was no potential for that conversation. I could just see a terrible fight breaking out. Am a protestant? Good question, I suppose it depends on the definition. If the definition of protestant is any person who identifies with the Christian faith who is not catholic, then I am a protestant. Otherwise I wouldn't say that I'm a protestant.

For his second statement, it took me by surprise when he said that men had the intellectual capacity to "rationalize". I love how philosophy can easily creep into religion. I think it interesting that we can purport God's sayings to monument proportions. We like to change everything so that it fits us perfectly, when the first step of following Christ is to deny yourself. I always have a problem with someone who calls himself/herself a Christian, but they don't believe in the bible. The bible is the only concrete form of Christianity that we have it. It's the basis of the teaching within our faith, but we refuse to believe it. I also think it interesting that we can "rationalize". In other words, we can add anything to the faith whenever we see it fit. Now I understand why the Catholic Church had no problem with killing people in the name of Jesus Christ for conquest. I find the concept of purgatory interesting when I've never seen scriptural support for it. I want to know where they get all of this "stuff" from. I now understand why the book of Revelations is written to the church. It seems like the church is doing the most damage to God's word. Now people don't believe it's God's word, rather it's more of an anthology. I have to admit that was a bit disconcerting. I have always held the Catholic Church in high regards for their ability to maintain the important parts of the faith for centuries. I hope this really doesn't offend anyone, but I'm starting to see Catholics similar to how I see the Pharisees. At least the Pharisees believe the Holy Scriptures were the absolute truth. One must admit that most churches today are either self-righteous and/or focused on maintaining the traditions of their "denomination", rather than focusing completely on Christ. What will God say? I feel or at least I wish I am wrong at times so that it will be me alone and no the many others. It's just sad that we've added so much over the years.

We now have this new age believed that the scriptures provide many different "truths". Many people believe that you don't have to be one religion you just have to believe in something. They believe that good deeds are enough. It's almost like a giant compromise. It basically says you can buy your way into heaven just like you can buy anything you need/want in life. I think it interesting Jesus stress that the mindset/function of his Kingdom is far different from that of this world, yet we refuse to remember that. We try to take the rationality and reasoning of our world and apply it to his kingdom and pretend like it fits perfectly into the hole. It's just sad now! I wish the best for everyone. I feel almost arrogant in saying that I hope everyone comes to Know and understand God better than we already do.

As I wrap this up, I just want to say I'm going to post the reasoning behind titling this blog the House of David this weekend. If you want to guess why I titled it House of David, go ahead. Have a blessed day, night, life!

Scripture of the Day:
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8

My interpretation: God doesn't need our religion! He doesn't need our additions or our thoughts. He needs us!

Song I'm currently listening to:
My Jesus Todd Agnew

Spring Cleaning

2006-06-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

OK, so I know it's almost July and it's already summer, but today it came to my attention that I haven't done my spring cleaning. I have a lot of trash to take out and "stuff" to organize. I guess we'll start with the general apology.

General Apology:
I know in the past few months I've probably burned a few people badly: crushed their ideas, reacted insensitively, or saying something mean about them. I'm guess I'm sorry about that. I'm especially sorry about the Fwop joke I came up with. Regardless of its validity, it was cruel and inappropriate. I'm apologize people to all the people who listen to me tell the joke and writhe with mirth on the floor of Founders. My sister and I were talking today and she told me that I have two different personalities. Apparently, with strangers I'm much more reserved in social environment. I barely speak, and when I do you cannot hear me. I rarely smile and my words are few. I figured this was a once in a while thing. Everyone's a little more apprehensive when they are at in unfamiliar situations. Then I realized that I demonstrate these characteristics more often than I think. Actually, I found I was only truly outgoing in the academic environment or a place where I had a friend from school present. If neither of those two requirements were met, I was more likely to act shyly in that situation. It leaves me with a question, am I a more shy and apprehensive person, or am I the happy excited image I present to school friends. I have to admit, the former was more characteristic of me during pre-7th grade years. During and after 7th grade, I because much more outgoing and willing to share my ideas. I'm afraid I may have hit a critical point, since the summer I’ve felt a lot more introverted. I need much more time to myself to recharge and I have shifted many priorities. I have to admit, the whole process has been rather strange. Enough about that...

I'm not going to say why I decided to title today's entry spring cleaning. If you want to guess, you can. :-). I will post the reasoning behind the title in the next few days. Let’s get on to the point then.

Let's start from the beginning of the story. My parents recently switched our phone service to digital phone, so an ADT security system guy had to come over and make sure our device was compatible with the phone service (it was). My grandmother visited today; she was here when the ADT guy got here. It was about noon and she was watching the news while I was on my laptop. Something happened about Duke Lacrosse team and the War in Iraq, and something, and the man said that the media can be so deceptive at times. He shared a few anecdotes with us about his military experience and his friends', who are in the military, experience in Iraq. As a "fellow" South Carolinian, it's needless to say he was a conservative :-). It was really enlightening to hear him speak. I inserted a few thoughts and ideas into, but for the most part it was a one way conversation. It was great just to sit and listen for a while instead of rambling about something stupid. He brought in a few religious incidents into the conversation and I began to realize a few things. Through this realization I came up with the title spring cleaning.

I flashed back to the Old Testament again today. I want to study about a man called Elijah, but I want to read about his predecessors first. I started from the beginning of the book of Leviticus. I pried through 4 chapters today and wrote down the different offering procedures. I have no comment on the procedures. All I'm going to say is I'm glad we don't have to do that stuff anymore. Thank You Jesus! There was so much that you had to do in order to gain forgiveness and animals had to atone for you sins. It brings up the question that I asked about last night. I had a conversation with a friend that kinda answered it. Here's the conversation:

Friend1 (12:35:34 AM): I think its cause [the error] the action doesn’t tear u away from God
Friend1 (12:35:37 AM): its the lie
Friend1 (12:35:45 AM): and its the lie that hurts him
Me (12:35:50 AM): I think that actions still tear you awak
Me (12:35:51 AM): away*
Me (12:35:58 AM): but I guess you cannot fix a tear
Friend1 (12:35:59 AM): doesnt have to
Me (12:36:03 AM): if you dont' recognize it
Me (12:36:24 AM): if you pretend like you are not tearing a sheet of paper [that's falling apart], it will continue to rip
Friend1 (12:36:32 AM): uh huh
Me (12:36:42 AM): but if you admit and confront the fact that it's happening then you have to do something abou tit
Friend1 (12:37:02 AM): very good point
Me (12:37:04 AM): it's harder to continue to do something you truely believe is wrong if you admit [it] to yourself and others that it's wrong whole heartedly
Friend1 (12:37:18 AM): yeah

This brings me to one of the great scriptures I like in Jeremiah.

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, “declares the LORD. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
Jeremiah 31:31-34

Let's put this into context. God has just given the land of Judah and Israel many opportunities to return to him and warned them of their wrath. He displays his wrath upon them. As a result of them breaking the first covenant established under Moses, he asserts he will create a new covenant that will allow each man to have a relationship with him. He says that the law will be written in our "hearts". Essentially, we broke the contract so God gave a new one that was better for us and gave us much more of his grace and mercy. Come one...you must admit that's love. Instead of killing us all, he gives us a new better contract. NO one else will ever do that for us. The joy that received from this made me chose Psalms 40 as the scripture for today.

Psalms 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

Song of the Day: Newsong by Newsong

Ending the Weekend

2006-06-25T23:35:00.000-04:00

I definitely enjoyed this weekend! I've had better weekends, but I can't really complain about this one. Uhmm. I didn't post yesterday because everything kinda happened spontaneously. I didn't get home until 11:20 pm or so. I think I went straight to bed. Today was a better day as far as time goes. I had time to simply stop and think. I had breakfast with the family this morning. For some reason I didn't go to church. I'm not sure why...I suppose I just decided not to go. I can't say I regret the decision, but I think I would make a different decision right now. Oh well, no good comes from lamenting the past.

Right now it's about 11:30 pm and I haven't decided what I'll do for the rest of the night. I had a chance to read a few chapters out of my bible tonight. I was reading the book of Jeremiah from the Old Testament and it sorta depressed me so I stopped reading it. I think I would like to revisit the book in the future; perhaps, I read it a little slower the next time. Maybe I’ll only read a one or two chapters a day the next time. I read about three or four chapter a day, if not more, this time. I found the whole thing a little disturbing. Faithless Israel and sinful Judah! God passed judgment on both places because they would not turn from their ways.

Jeremiah scares me. I think it can be really misleading as well. If I read this book a few years ago, I would have only concentrated on the judgment God passed on the two cities. Now when I look at the verses I see the reasoning involved. In context, God gave the "children of Israel" ample time to confess their sins, repent, but they chose not to do so. I think it interesting that God would punish Israel and Judah because they would not admit to sinning. It seems as if God should be more upset about the errors of his children, than their failure to acknowledge their sins. That concept puzzles me. If you think you know why, tell me! It seems like the activity itself would be the upsetting factor. The second thing I notices is that God always talked about how the people of Israel and Judah left him to serve other gods. God says that the gods his people serve aren't real gods; he thinks they are just being foolish. You can start to see the appearance of New Testament ideals from the Old Testament, such as the confession of sins and a relationship with God. Christ did say that if any man come after me he must deny himself daily pick up his cross and follow me (Luke 9:23 I think). It still requires us to forget our other gods (things that we idolize and put on a pedestal in our lives) and allow God to be the pilot.

I decided I would flip back to the New Testament for a while. The story about Israel and Judah did depress me. I read the first 5 and 1/2 chapters of John before calling it quits. It's a great book in the bible but it confuses me. One of the biggest debates in Christianity is over the Holy Trinity. I have to confess, I understand the ability for one entity to have three separate personalities and responsibilities 3 distinct persons, but it seems like the bible supports this concept in some places and negates it in others. Jesus always calls "God the Father" Father. I realized that Jesus never calls him Lord or God. There are a few things that I find really interesting. First, Jesus claims in the book of Matthew that no one knows when the end will be. Only the father knows, but not he son. That's crazy...it's hard to believe the Son and the Father can be the same essence if they don't have equal knowledge, especially if both are suppose to be omniscient. I'll probably shoot an e-mail to a friend's dad who will probably know the answer. The second thing that driving me crazy I found today. In John 14:28, Jesus says something to the effect of I'm going away now my father who is greater than I. We all know the father is a separate person or persona, but how is he supposed to be greater than Jesus. I know in Hebrews it says that Jesus had the form of God, but emptied himself, and thereby humbled himself to death. It just confuses me a bit. I personally believe in the Trinity. This doesn't really shake my faith, but it's kinda hard to justify something seemly conflicts with the "Holy Scriptures."

On a lighter note, I googled Trinity and John 14:28. Somehow I came to this site for a guy who tried to explain the scripture, but it failed to elucidate the statement. I started flipping through the articles, and I came to a few interesting ones about the vacillation of the watchtower. Then I came to an article about a man who wrote his dissertation on Jesus Christ being gay. Wow, I think that's kinda crazy. The "world" cannot seem to agree, was he married or was he gay. I suppose will eventually write about the homosexuality of Christ, and then everyone will believe and someone will make a movie about it and it will make it to the top of the box office. Apparently, astrologers can tell if someone is gay based on their date of birth. I think that's a little laughable statement, but that's just me. It's midnight now so I think I’ll wrap this up. Have a blessed day, night, and life. I think that covers it. Thanks for reading my blog. Be well:

Scripture of the day:
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.
John 4:21-24

Song I'm Listening to: What If His Poeple Prayed by Casting Crowns (GREAT SONG, prayer is amazing).

New Day, New Blog

2006-06-24T15:54:00.000-04:00

Sorry Guys if there are a lot of typoes, i'm typing this really late and i'm not going to proof because i want to go to bed.

I'm finally starting a new blog. I have a live journal, but i don't really like it. I suppose the live journal reflects much of my old thoughts and actions. It's not really suitable for many of my new thoughts and feelings. That, I suppose, was my motivation for finding a new blogger. I want this space to be an acurrate reflection of my thoughts and feelings, which means that God will inevitably be all over the place. I didn't really feel like it was appropriate to put God on my live journal. Something just felt wrong about it. I'm glad i have a new blog, on which I can put great things about me, my friends, family, and God.

It's almost 1 o'clock in the morning and I'm toying with that thought of going to sleep. I just wrong my sister this long e-mail that covers, what i consider the five most important things to consider when growing in christ. I can't really say I'm an expert. I've heard about Jesus all my life, and I've been saved for several years now, but you never feel like an expert. I just thought i would share a few things that helped me a lot of the past few years. Things that i wish I knew when i was her age. Perhaps she'll take my advice, maybe she won't. Either way, she's still an amazing person to me.

The five topics I posted on were called: 1.) No one is good, 2.) By faith, we are all made perfect and righteous through Jesus Christ, 3.) God doesn’t need your stuff, and he doesn’t need you to do a lot, he just needs your heart, 4.) Every moment counts, 5.)THERE ARE NO RULES ABOUT HOW TO SERVE GOD; THE CHURCH AND OTHER PEOPLE HAVE LIED TO YOU. Maybe I'll post on these thigns later. I suppose each title can be a bit misleading, especially the last one. I am a huge pro-church person. I'm not really self-righteous and am very thankful that God loves me for who I am. Overall, these are the concepts that I felt she needed to share.

Overall, i'm happy that i started this. Maybe tomorrow I will explian the title House of David. If anyone knows what it means, you should post it as a comment. I always think it's really cool when people can figure out your thought process behind something. Until later, have a blessed life: filled with joy, happiness, and God.

Song I'm listenig to right now: Heart of Worship by Matt Redman