Friday, February 29, 2008

Joshua wasn't a wimp!

The Old Testament is not my strong point, so I figured I would study it a little more. I have been hanging out in Leviticus and Psalms and decided to take a look at Joshua. My goal in the study was to see what happens in communication between God and whomever He is calling to do something. I narrowed my study to Joshua 1:1-9. Here are some things that I noticed.

God said: (verses 1-3)
1. The time has come - Has the time come in my life to do something?
2. Lead the people -Who am I leading?
3. I will be with you. - God is with me.

Basically through observations I found, God encourages Joshua, empowers Joshua, and backs up Joshua(I am with you), and commands him to stay in the Book of Instruction and in the things Moses has given him and he will succeed in all he does. We need to realize that we will succeed, if we stay in God's Word, not just on our own good idea's.

God totally encourages and empowers Joshua, so how does Joshua respond to what te Lord said? Verse 9: He told the leaders to tell the people to get ready because in three days they will go and possess the land God has promised them. He immediately got up and responded in a strong and courageous way.
-note: He got other people to spread the word (good at delegating).

Application:
1. God has enpowered us and speaks through His Word to us. Do we immediately follow like Joshua follwed after hearing from God?
2. It is good to encourage people and empower them like God did with Joshua, then they will feel confident in carrying out any situation life has to offer.
3. Just as God has said 3 times to Joshua "Be strong and courageous", as we lead we need to speak in a strong and courageous way not in an afraid and discouraged way. When people are challenged from a man who can "bring it" in a strong and courageous way, there is probably nothing that they would not do

As Pastors and leaders we can take this and change the world. So many churches are dead like Moses (verse 1) or they are at least sleeping. God is calling up a generation of people to be strong and courageous. Do not be a wimp, Joshua wasn't.

I'm a Christian and a Buddhist? Part 2.

(read part 1)... You cannot combine all of the religions of the world to get to the one true God. You have to pick a way that shows you how to get to God. So why have I chosen Christianity? Well first, God chose me, but I believe that Christianity has nothing to do with how good mankind is. As a matter of fact if it was determined by that, we would all be hellbound. Well, as a matter of fact we are all hellbound. It has to be the grace of God that softens a persons heart. Christianity has everything to do with the first part of the word itself;Christ. Christ has paved a way for a dying people to come into contact with God. Humanity is dead, God is alive. It is through faith in the Son of God that one can come into true communion with the God of the universe. The Bible is a book on life. It shows us God's story and through it how to live. That is the only way to God. Some might think well, that is an arrogant way of thinking, to say that you have the only way. Look at other religions. They have certain standards that you must abide by to get to God. That is the beautiful thing about Christianity; your standards suck, it has nothing to do with you, but with everything to do with God. Christ died for you. No other religion or cult has a God that died for them. Our God Bleeds! Put your faith in the one true God, through the Son, and see what He'll do with your life.

When you can not stop thinking.

What happens when you keep thinking or dreaming about something? Something so great, something so huge. You have a feeling and passion that if you stepped out on faith and did it, people's lives would be changed forever. Do you do it? Do you keep praying about it? Do you keep thinking? Or do you finally say "I will do it"? The will of God is a huge thing.

Friday, February 22, 2008

I'm a Christian and a Buddhist?

I'm a Buddhist and a Christian?

So my wife and I are hosting two exchange students from Korea. They have been pretty cool. But most importantly they do the dishes. Good times. One is a Christian and the other an atheist (makes good conversation). We started car pooling to pick the girls up from school. First of all I know what you are thinking. You are 26 and are hosting exchange students? Yes. And you are now car pooling? Ummm… Yes. But to top it all off, we just bought a van a few weeks ago. And to top that off my wife is 24. And to top that off we are getting ready to have our second kid. And to top that off they are two girls, and are 17 months apart. I am in for it! So, any way back to the conversation. The girl we are car pooling with is named Q. That should be easy to sign. And she was talking about her mom and how she is from a Buddhist background and her dad is from a Christian (Methodist) background. So, I asked her what she believed. And she said she was both.

So this is the topic at hand. It is pretty deep and the coversation can go in many different directions. I would like to focus on logic in approaching this situation. Can you be a Buddhist and a Christian? I suppose you can claim to be both, but does that mean you are both? Many people see Christianity as an arrogant religion. I can agree from where they are coming from, because from the outside you see all of these people that say that they are going to heaven and you are not unless you convert. You may have heard the “Turn or Burn” approach. I wander what God would say? Well I guess we would have to say “who is God?” to know what He would say. How do we know who God is? Well I guess it depends which religion you pick and they will tell you their view of God. So, if every religion tells you their personal feelings about who God is, then if you combine all of the religions in the world and put their views and thoughts of God together, would that make up who God really is? No. I say no, because all religions contradict each other, and unless you believe in a contradicting illogical God, then that would be a terrible approach to take. So then what do we do? If someone wants to know God, then how do they find the one true accurate God out of all of these "gods" of all of these religions. Let’s leave the conversation at that and I will pick up some time this week. This is my first post so if you read this let me know what you think about some of the stuff that I said and how you would answer the question.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Now a Blogger.

I did it! I am now a blogger. I am excited to think deeper by learning from other peoples experience, logic and beliefs. I'm in for a trip.