God is Good All The Time!!!!

God is good all the time. he is trust worthy and faithful when we are not. he is strong when i am weak, and so he does carry me by his precious Grace. this past winter was a very dark time for me in just about every way possible. my life outside of church, my life in church and any other point that has just about anything to do with me in anyway was bad. i was struggling just to stay afloat.
But why?
i had no real clue who God was and so i could not tell what was what. when your vision of God is so far off i think everything you learn about him is just a bit off to the left. i had way to much head knowledge, not all good, not all right (and it never will be)but what was worse yet i had no application of it. i never took time to ask God who are you, what do you want from me, and so on... i have asked those questions now and im still working on who God is. i know I shall be working on that one for all of forever (praise him for that), for i can think of no better thing to do with ones time then to spend it in the study of God. i think it is most important to have a God entranced vision of all things. for once i take my eyes off of how God relates to everything i may be putting my hands to; i run the risk of doing that thing in my own strength or worse yet trusting in the strength of some other thing and committing spiritual fornication. this is just how i have lived my first two years of Christianity. it almost crushed me. the burden of walking in ones own strength is one that is to grievous to be borne. God has moved me from the city to a small town, from a job i hated to a job i love, and has been most gracious in opening doors for me to minister to other Christians as well as evangelize to the lost. yes, God is good all the time. no, not just when things are good. for had he not let me stay in the fire i would never have learned the things i have. i must love and glory in him when things are grand, And not only so, but glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

what kind of love is this?

Joh 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
Joh 11:2 (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
Joh 11:3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Joh 11:4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Joh 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
Joh 11:6 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

Jesus gets news of his dear friends sickness, the man whom thou lovest it sayes of him, and goes on to say not only did he love him but also martha, and her sister (mary). now the passage says that he loved them all and because he loved them he abode two days still in the same place where he was. this is implied by the therefore. he loved them, "so" when he heard he was sick he stayed put? what kind of love is this? this is not the love that we know. this is not human love........ it is so much deeper then that. so then what is it? why did he remain.

it is because this suffering was not worthy to be compared to the joy, and the vision of God that they should have at the completion of the event. he had something greater in mind then just the easing of the pain. we as humans are so focused on our pain we will give up all knowledge of God, every vision of him because we can not see past it. but Jesus could see, and he loved them so much he stayed put. even though it brought him no joy in the moment. for when he got there he wept. but he loved them more then we can know. enough to let them suffer this pain so that they could see God work right before their eyes. you see that was true love, love we know so little of, he could have ran to him and stopped the suffering right then and there. but he loved them, he loved them so he stayed. he stayed long enough that when he came they would see God more clearly.

easing suffering is not the highest love, it's bearing with it and holding tight in it if need be!! that the people may see God more clearly when he shows up. that is the kind of love that God loves.

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

all praise and honor and glory be unto his name, for he and he alone is worthy of it!!

i was left behind.

Ok, well not really. i finally watched the movie "left behind", about time right i know!! this movie is based on the book left behind that started the left behind series ( authors Dr. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins). i have never gotten into Christian fiction books so it goes with out saying i never read any from the series. but i must say, i did enjoy the flick. even for those of us who may not agree with the order of the events that take place in this movie, i think if we keep in mind that it's just a movie and not a documentary.... it can be enjoyed. so, i hope if there are any Christians out there who have not seen this move because they do not agree with the rapture or when it will come or anything like that.... i say, go rent it anyway. it was good fun, and it's not everyday they make good movies that name the name of Jesus!! ok well thats all for now, i have yet to finish my study on colossians 1 so.... ill be working on that next.

how sweet it is

as a Christian there is nothing better then when we are doing what we are meant to do. with that said what is it we are meant to do? Go! right? yeah thats right, i never feel better in my daily life then when im telling others about my saviour. there is however other times we as spiritual beings are in a time of joy. worship and real biblical fellowship. im not just talking about hanging out with other Christians. what im talking about is when you can get together with other believers and spend all of the time together just focusing on God. i do not know of a better past time short of preaching Christ and him crucified. there is something so sweet about time spent pondering God, his Word, his ways, and how he deals with us in his mercy and grace. along with that is worship as i said, and no matter if your in your prayer closet alone or in a church with hundreds of people, this is a time of pure joy and sweet communion with our Lord. tonight after a short class, i sat with two brothers in Christ. as the lesson was coming to close we began to just talk openly amongst our selves. i have not been so blessed in nothing more then just conversation in who knows how long. now just think, as fun as it is now to talk of God and worship him. the day is coming when we shall see him as we worship, and we will have all of forever to get to know more and more about him. praise be to God for his wonderful mercies and grace beyond grace!!!

tattoos anyone?

Because i have been asked a few times about my tattoos, i am doing this study. The first verse I looked at is the one in Leviticus.

Lev 19:28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD."

this verse is the only one that I know of that says anything about making marks on your flesh, of course you can never make a doctrine from one verse but single commands I think can stand. This verse though, is often used as a proof of God's anti tattooing command that does not exist. Let’s see what it says. Do not cut your flesh for the dead. This was a time when that was something that people (believe it or not) did. As a loved one died they would in the memory of this person makes cuts in their flesh. This was not ok for the Hebrew people as it was a pagan practice. He goes on to expound even deeper by saying "nor print any marks" but again this is in the context of marks for the dead. The "nor" in the statement is a conjunction joining the first statement to the last. This would in turn completely wipe out any usage of this text against tattooing. Unless of course it is a tattoo for the dead you might say. (Which I happen to have) but again we look at the context and this law was given to the Jews and all of the commandments before and after this one would in no way ever be followed by Christians. Exc...

Lev 19:26 “Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times."

Lev 19:27 “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard."

There is good advice is these words (Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment ) and I think we can see what pleases God by his mosaic law. But it was not given to us.

So again I draw the conclusion that this verse can not be used to oppose tattooing.

We must look else where to see if the bible has anything to say about this topic.

1Co 6:12 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."

We have the freedom in Christ that the Jew did not enjoy. We have been set free from the law as it is only a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. Paul will not be brought under the power of anything, this I feel would apply to drugs, food, smoking, and so on, all though, tattooing can be addictive, so this would apply there.

1Co 10:23 "All things are lawfull for me, but all things are not expedient: All things are lawfull for me, but all things edify not."

Like the verse before it, Paul says all things are lawful unto him, BUT!! Not all things edify. So the things we do should edify one another.
Does a tattoo edify?
I don't see how, if anything it stumbles people.

1Co 3:17 “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

Here we have to settle the fact of whether a tattoo is defiling or not.

Im willing to bet that they are. God made us with this skin not full of

Ink, and so to put ink into it would be a defilement. That makes sense right? Hmm... now this is getting somewhere. Let’s be sure to always use the text of the bible in its context. I hear so many messages where verses like our first one here are used for something it was never meant to be used for. And as you can see it's not even necessary. Taking the whole counsel of God is all that is needed.

1Co 6:19 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

Ye are not your own. That’s a strong statement, and holds much to this point. The context of the verse is talking about sexual sin. Still it conveys a truth we must look at again. Our body is Gods temple, bought with the blood of Gods son, he purchased us, gave a down payment (the Holy Spirit) until Jesus comes for the redemption of the purchased possession. In light of this, we do not have the right to do anything with this body that God may not approve of.

we now can see that tattoos have the potential to bring us under their power, we know they are not edifying, there is a very very strong case that they are defiling and our bodies are not our own but have been purchased with the holy blood of Christ Jesus.

With all this in mind I strongly suggest Christians take these things into consideration before getting a tattoo.

oh and cuz they do not wash off!!!

john calvin

“There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice”

the mark???

freedomtofascism.com
this video really got me thinking about this chip stuff, not to mention alot of other things!, but i have seen this before, and just like then they where saying how we will all be getting a card that will have the same chip in it. we should all be getting one of these in the next year or so according to this video( no idea if it's true) but it would be a card that has all your info on it, and would work as money and i.d. together as well as a pass port to move around within the u.s. because of the check points that will be in place(no idea if this is true). the card is not the goal though, it's just to get people used to the idea of it all being in one place. the next step they say is this ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
it's a chip that goes just under the skin, and no this is not for your dog! it's for humans, in fact a family in FLA. has already received their new chips and say they are all the rave. this guy loves his new chip! here is a little quote from his article, ''No one is forcing you to have a VeriChip. If you want a chip in your right arm you are going to know it is there because you will see it injected. When you look at the events of 9/11 and the way people measure their own personal security today versus the way they did a few years ago, there is a much higher concern to make sure that family members are safe and sound, and some people now put that above privacy rights.'' did you hear that!! they put it in his right arm!!!!!!

Rev 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

also, "This company has already come under scrutiny for initially calling this chip the 'digital angel', so they later changed it to verichip."

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

it's coming my friends, if this is not it then it's leading to it. but it does not get more "right on" in my eyes!

till then we keep our hand to the plow and our eyes on the sky's!
even so come Lord Jesus!