Yesterday when I got home from work, I found my mom had made some delicious looking cheese ravioli on the stove, and some sauce to go with it. I really wanted to have some but alas I resisted and went on my daily run instead. When I got back I took a nice hot shower, and then headed back to the kitchen to have some ravioli. To my dismay my mom had already put the left-overs in the fridge. “You can warm it”, she said. I didn’t really want to warm up food, but that was a small price to pay to have some. So I grabbed the bowl of ravioli out of the fridge and uncovered the plastic wrap. I grabbed a fork out of the drawer and began dishing out some ravioli onto my plate. But unfortunately the ravioli had started to stick together, so as I was trying to pick them up with the fork, they were just tearing and falling apart. So I ended up with a pile of torn apart ravioli and cheese on my plate. Then I tried to pour on the sauce from another bowl, and the sauce, as it was pouring out, stuck to the side of the bowl. That got messy fast. Somewhere between the ravioli falling apart and the sauce not pouring right I thought to myself, “…Man, this is not how I had planned this to go.”

Although this is a pretty small case, it can be related to big plans in our everyday lives. We plan to go places, do things, see people, and it doesn’t always go how we planned. The Bible says in Proverbs 16:9, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” We may have an idea of what we want to do, but in the end God ultimately determines the steps we will take. But take heart, the Bible also says, “If the Lord delights in a man’s ways, He makes his steps firm.” - Psalm 37:23. So keep pressing after Him, and He will make your steps firm, and hopefully even your ravioli.

As far as I know, none of us has truly been a Christian our entire life. Sure, maybe some of us grew up in Christian families and went to Church all of our lives, but we all have a dark past; things we wish we never did and wish we could have changed.

Romans 6:20-22 says, “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

At first I thought, “What does he mean, free in regard to righteousness?” Then I realized that he was simply making a reference to the fact that we cannot serve two masters. If we are slaves to sin, we are free in regard to righteousness. We do what sins says, yet we are free to ignore the callings of righteousness.

After this Paul asks us to take a look back at our dark past and ask ourselves: “What did I get from that?” He doesn’t say, “Well, when you did this you caused suffering to those around you, and when you did that, you only ended up hurting yourself more.” No, in fact he gets straight to the point. He says, “For the end of those things is DEATH.” Someone could easily argue the instant gratification of many of those things we’ve done that we are ashamed of, but Paul skips right past that and talks about the end game.

He continues in the same manner, speaking about being slaves of God. The fruit we get leads to sanctification and it’s end, which is eternal life. Again Paul jumps to the end! Notice he didn’t say, “The fruit you get will always be satisfying and happy, and then you’ll get eternal life.” I think the case is quite the contrary a lot of the time. When chasing a life after Christ, how often is the fruit we produce hard to swallow? How often does God choose to give us trials that are hard, but will bring us out stronger on the other end? When I say stronger, I mean they sanctify us and bring us closer to Him. The fruit we get from being slaves of God is not always satisfying to our human nature, but it will sanctify us.

Our lives are guaranteed to be a roller coaster of good times and bad; no one one has a flat line life. But what comes at the end? Will it be death, or eternal life? I pray that you are all slaves to God, and you recognize the sanctification that His fruit is producing in you.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Romans 6:23

“What is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?”
?Psalm 8:4

When you imagine the thought process behind a statement like this, it may involve recognizing the things God has put your life, how He has taken care of you, or even helped you in your time of need. It probably also includes recognizing that Christ, being God Himself, died on the cross for our sins. But the more I think about it, I believe the implications of this thought, though written before the time of Christ, go even further.

Paul writes in the 5th Chapter of Romans, verses 11-12: “More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned–”

The story of Adam is well known. The disobedience of one man caused sin to enter this world, and that sin has spread to all, because all have sinned.

Verses 16-19: “And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

We see the difference between the disobedience of Adam and the sacrifice of Christ. One act caused condemnation for all men, and the other leads to justification and life for all men.

Now, knowing that man is not God, I don’t think it is difficult for us to wrap our heads around the idea of a man screwing up and thus causing sin to enter this world. But for a man to do something that has the power of righteousness and justification for all men? We know that Christ was fully God yet also fully MAN! Philippians 2 says He existed in the form of God, but was also made in the likeness of men. So we can conclude here that although through man sin entered the world, God rescued us - through man!

There is an age old argument we’ve all heard where a question is asked: “Why doesn’t God just wave His hand and make everything better?” First off, we know God is a just God, so by making everything better, He’d probably be wiping us out pretty quickly. Second, could God have somehow come to earth in simply a divine form, and somehow made a sacrifice to cover over our sins? Is there some other sort of deal or other act He could have pulled to fix this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into? Honestly I can’t answer that question, I do not know the vast power of an almighty God nearly well enough.

What I do know is that first God created us in His image. Right off the bat we’ve got a special connection with Him that not even the angels have. Then after the fall, He didn’t just push us aside and say, “Stand back, I’ll clean this up myself.” He created a relationship with us through a nation. Through that nation He brought Himself down to earth, as one of us. He became one of US. He experienced everything we did, He knew us at our level. Finally, through one of us He created a way to Him.

Who am I that you are mindful of me?

What I mean by that is, who am I that you would reduce yourself down to my level, and through my own kind, save me; that you would leave your heavens and become like me? Who am I that you would even bother to relate to me on my own level and desire to be so close to my kind?

I am man, and I’m so glad You mind this much.

I’ve never been good at drawing.

I take that back; I’m really good at drawing stick figures. I could draw them all day long. But if you ask me to draw something complicated (maybe a dog, a ship, or a mountain range) I’d fail miserably. I remember being in elementary school and we had a visitor come; an artist. He drew this really old ship. He took his time and explained everything he was doing. All of us kids had big pieces of paper and we were drawing along. Every line the artist put down, I tried my best to mimic. Every curve, every shade, every slight touch. In the end he had this beautiful portrait of an old ship, and mine looked like the same picture had gone through a blender.

The artist was a professional and I was just a kid, but their picture served to show my inadequacy to measure up to their level.

In Romans 3 Paul is speaking about the unrighteousness of man, and the sovereignty of God. Verse 20 says, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” God is the artist, and the picture He draws for us is His law. We can try so hard to follow it, and we should, but the law is not meant to save us. Just like the picture the artist drew, in the end the law shows our inadequacy. It is by this picture that we come to the knowledge of our need for a savior. This is why we can say that Christianity is not about rules; although we may have a list of rules, they are not meant to funnel us into this state of perfection that grants us favor with the almighty because we followed them all, but instead they are meant to funnel us into a holy knowledge that we are utter failures. We are hopeless, helpless, falling down, can’t get up, in need of crutches, and we can’t even light a match to see in this darkness.

What I am good at is debate and argument.

I have a good knowledge of most things and for those things I don’t, I can probably make it sound like I do. I can scheme and sly my way through a conversation and sound convincing at the same time if I really want to. Most of us have this ability to some extent. If you’ve ever gotten a speeding ticket or any other type of ticket, you’ve probably thought up so many things you could say to the judge to get around paying a fine or getting points. We make up excuses until the sun goes down. But what if you ran into an argument so sound, so incredibly conclusive and dominating that you can’t even open your mouth to respond? These types of arguments are so rare in reality, if they even exist. Jumping back a verse to Romans 3:19 it says, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

In short, there is no getting around the law. Sorry, you can’t argue this one. The law is clear and concise, the judge is all-knowing, and the verdict is always guilty.

Of course after reminding us of these things Paul doesn’t leave us hanging for very long. Romans 3:21-24 says, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it–the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” Jesus Christ is our way around the law. He is the one who takes our hand with the pen in it and says, “Let me draw a picture for you.” He steps in front of us and speaks to the judge on our behalf. He has the argument that nullifies the verdict the law has rendered on us.

If you are desperately trying to paint that perfect picture for you life, may I suggest you just get the perfect artist to do it instead? You can’t buy His services, but He is offering them to you right now. If you are trying to slip through every situation with excuses and trying to sweet talk every judge, can I recommend my divine lawyer to you instead? He’s never lost a case, and He has a connection with the judge.

Are you going to heaven? Have you done enough? Obeyed enough laws? Served enough people? Is your faith strong enough? Do you pray long enough?

So often in scripture we find people just wanting the glory without the sacrifice. Sometimes it’s a man asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life or get into heaven. Sometimes it’s someone asking Jesus if they may be at His right hand, or discussing what their mighty position may be in this new kingdom. Other times it may be trying to obtain some power that the Spirit gives, because that power means you truly have salvation and Christ. It’s a heaven entry checklist, or trump card they’re looking for.

My friends, let me tell you that is not what the heart of Christ is about. Although some may tell you that you need to do certain things to obtain salvation, and others may tell you if you don’t have some divine ability then you aren’t saved, none of these are true.

You have salvation purely through believing in Christ as your savior and pursuing His heart. This does not mean pursuing some power or position, it means simply being a servant to others and doing the good you know you should do, giving the glory to God.

If you have taken Christ as your personal savior and the only way to salvation, you should have this heart, but what I wanted to say to you was if you have Christ, you have heaven. Therefore do not worry about heaven because it has been guaranteed to you by the blood of Christ on the cross, but take comfort in it, and focus solely on being the heart of Christ to others.

Do we realize how comfortable we are?

How comfortable are you? This is a serious question, as it has serious implications that connect to the reality of Christ and the cross. There is a serious examination that we need to go through.

Most of us have grown up in a society without need. We’ve always had a roof over our heads, clean water, good friends and family around us. We’ve gone through schools, we are educated, we are taken care of, we have few real worries. Are we blessed?

We can praise God every day for the things we have, and we do, but what if they were taken from us? Where does your comfort end and your faith begin? Is there a gap that needs to be closed?

Lets say you got into a car accident. That would be a bad day. It’s probably going to cost you some money to repair the car, possibly some for medical bills. Then, you’re also not going to have a car for a bit; it may be hard to get around. What if your pet died? You’ve had it most of your life; it’s practically a part of the family. Can your faith survive these misfortunes? Really, these are pathetic examples. If your faith can’t survive these situations, then there may be other issues at play in your life.

The situations I’m speaking to are much more serious. I’m talking about the situations you can’t stand in. The ones that make you drop to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. The ones that make you seriously question, “Why God, why?!” The situations so life shattering that they rip you to the very core of your being and bring your world to a screeching halt. I don’t even have to list examples because I’m sure you’re already listing them in your head.

Is your comfort such that you believe deep down these events would never take place? If they did, where would your faith in Christ stand?

Please don’t misunderstand me: I’m not minimizing these situations. They should cause you all the pain in the world. But at the end of your grieving, would you be able to stand and say “God is in control”? Would you understand and proclaim that whatever God has planned is for the forwarding of His kingdom?

There were so many times in the Bible where God took something away from a person or group of people because they were putting it before Him, and many times where Jesus would hit people hard about the things they were keeping back from God, but the obvious example to use is really Job. Put yourself in Job’s place. You have a great home, health, everything you need, a fantastic family. Life is good. Then God takes it ALL away. If, after serious consideration, any of these events would cause you to curse the name of God and turn your back to Him, I urge you to re-examine where your faith stands and what the Cross of Christ really means to you.

Immediately after being informed of all the tragedies that had befallen him, this is what Job said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.” - Job 1:21

Honestly I struggle with the idea of losing some things in my life. But when the reality of Christ hits me, and the cause of His Kingdom, it eclipses all other things. I encourage you to take comfort in the cross and the cross alone in this world, as it is the only thing assured, by the blood of a holy God who loves us unconditionally and eternally. It is the only link to salvation from all the tragedies of this life and the only access to an eternal life with God.

That little voice inside your head. Making suggestions, claims, or simply giving advice. Do you listen to it? Avoid it? Love it? Hate it? Is it helpful? Hurtful? Do you even hear it at all anymore?

Our conscious is about as ever-changing as we are, and it is just about as perfect as we are too. But when you decide to live your life for Christ that little voice starts to change. A heavy influence is gained by The Holy Spirit. He starts to whisper His truths to us through our own thoughts. It’s really a gift the world cannot even begin to understand. Unfortunately the sin within us still likes to fight for control of this tiny voice in our heads.

In Romans 2, Paul is speaking to the Jews about being circumcised. He explains to them that simply a physical circumcision is pointless unless you obey the law, and even someone who is not circumcised yet obeys the law condemns those who are yet don’t obey the law. He really lays out the point in the last verse, “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.“

The change that happens inside of us is by the Spirit, it’s what comes out of our heart that is important, not the facade we put on to make us look good. So what does this have to do with our conscious?

Well, our conscious comes straight from our hearts. It is our raw, unfiltered, immediate reaction to our thought life and the world around us. But our hearts have been circumcised for Christ now so we need to make sure the conscious we are listening to is the one controlled by the Spirit and not our selfish sin. If you read my last blog I talked about trying with all our might to do things on our own. It’s pretty apparent that with our sinfulness we can’t take control of our hearts on our own; we need The Spirit, and there is only one way to make sure The Spirit is what surfaces as our conscious and not our sin. That is constant meditation on God’s word. Psalms 119:15 says “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways”, and 119:97 says “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” Verse 99 says “I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.”

I’ve noticed in my own life that there is a direct correlation between how much time I spend in The Word, and how often my conscious is more likely to say things like “Is that Christ-like? You should read your bible. You shouldn’t give into this temptation.” The less time I spend in The Word, the more often I give in to things like, “There’s nothing wrong with that,” or, “What’s one more screw up?”

If you are serious about the circumcision that has taken place in your heart, I recommend spending some serious time in your Bible, often. The words of the Spirit will be so much clearer and louder in your conscious that they will drown out that other guy who just wants to harm you.

After the last supper, Jesus and the eleven disciples (minus Judas) went out to the Mount of Olives and Jesus said to them:

“You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

Peter could not accept this. He answered, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”

Jesus replied with, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

Yet Peter still said, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

I think this was really Peter’s statement that the other disciples simply agreed with, but Peter seems to be the very zealous one here. With his strong statements against Jesus’ very word I can’t help but think Peter probably thought he was going to accomplish this under his own strength.

The rest of the story is very familiar. After Jesus is taken to the high priest, Peter follows, and after Jesus is condemned to death, some people start recognizing Peter and asking him if he was with Jesus. Peter denies it three consecutive times, as Jesus said, and then the rooster crowd, as if to cement the fact into Peter’s head, “FAIL.”

I think about my own life and how many countless times I’ve made statements and said I was going to accomplish things, no matter what. I was going to put all my muscle behind it and be victorious, despite anyone who said it would never happen. There may have been times I succeeded, but I guarantee the failures were more abundant.

But there is good news for those who are like me and Peter. That is, despite all my failures and shortcomings, that is not the end. The morning will come, there will be a new day. His mercies are new EVERY morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). After the rooster crowed, it says Peter went and wept bitterly. But shortly after came the brightest morning of all time, the morning Christ rose from the dead, conquering the grave and our sin. Peter had failed that night, struggling under his own sin, but in the end he wins. I win. We win.

If you find yourself being bogged down with you failures, take yourself back to the cross. Remember, it is DONE. Christ has won, and we are His. Our failures do not define us, and although they may cause us to weep bitterly, that is ok. The morning will be even brighter.

Remember: Jesus, for the win!

In the first 13 verses of Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of the ten virgins. The story goes that ten virgins took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom, and five of them were foolish, while five of them were wise. The foolish took no no oil with them, and the wise took flasks of oil. As the bridegroom was delayed, they fell asleep. When they awoke, the foolish did not have enough oil to keep their lamps burning. They even asked the wise for their oil! So they had to go get more, and while they were gone the bridegroom came and those who were ready (the wise) went in to the marriage feast and the door was shut. When the foolish came they said “Lord Lord, open to us”, but he said, “Truly I say to you I do not know you.”

So what does this parable mean? Who do the wise and the foolish virgins represent? Well, I think the answer lies in the oil. So often in scripture The Spirit is represented by oil. One particular example is a vision given to Zechariah (4:1-14) of a golden bowl of oil, continually feeding down seven golden pipes into a golden lamp-stand to keep it burning.

But both the foolish and the wise had oil at first, the foolish just ran out, so what gives?

At first glance my thought was that perhaps the amount of oil represents preparation, and being ready for the coming of the bridegroom, or Christ. But with the relation to the oil I have to change my tune. If the oil truly represents the spirit, than what kind of spirit runs out and cannot stand when the bridegroom comes?

The oil that the wise had represents the never ending supply of the Spirit of Christ, and is the secret to enduring character. The oil that the foolish had was anything but, and thus ran out and did not stand when the bridegroom came. It’s interesting to see that both were the very same up until the oil ran out. Both the wise and foolish rose and trimmed their lamps at the sound of the bridegroom coming. The real difference is only apparent when we see that one group has an everlasting spirit and the other only has a want for it.

Do you have the everlasting oil? Or are you burning on a finite supply of something else?

As Christians it is important for us to stand up for what is right and defend our God. Right? I mean, when someone says there is no God, we’ve got to stand up and say, “No, you’re wrong!” Correct? What about when someone says there is nothing wrong with abortion - we should say “No, it’s murder!” Right?

I think it’s important to stand up for our God, but at the same time to do it in love and to take the conversation with a grain of salt. Remember, Jesus did not attack the person for their sin; He was able to look deeper and see the real reason in their heart for their actions and their attitude, and that is where He aimed. When someone comes against you, say, as a staunch defender is atheism, instead of immediately pulling out your vast knowledge on the formation of the universe, the laws of physics, and the reliability of the Bible, maybe it would be more helpful to sit down and learn a little bit about that person and where their heart is first.

God made us in His image. We have a specific place for Him, but there are things and events in this life that can blind us from Him and cover our eyes to any amount of knowledge. Perhaps at this point the key to taking the blinders off isn’t vast knowledge, but another soul that is full of light?