Resting in Him

That deep depression that just does not go away. I have this pain in my heart that keeps hurting and I don’t know why. I am reading my Bible and praying and I am reaching out and I am still depressed. I feel like I am in this pit and I can’t get out. I guess I am tired of being alone all the time. Being sick and alone. I have my hope in Jesus so why am I depressed? I guess many Christians who struggle with depression ask that question. I have been diagnosed with bipolar and sometimes it gets hard. I take my meds when I am should but it is a battle. Somedays I feel like giving up, but I know that I can’t.

I have learned through the past few years feels come and go but I don’t have to act on them. That’s why I need to know the Truth of God’s Word. His Truth never changes! Even if I don’t feel like it, it’s true! The more I can read His Word the better I am when I get when I get depressed. It’s o.k to be down but it’s not o.k. to have bad actions when I am down. I can cry and cry out to the Lord, that is o.k. He cares and listens when I cry out. But my old ways of dealing with things are not o.k.

When David was struggling he wrote a Psalm. We can see through his writings he struggled with depression. There is something about writing and writing to God that helps us out. My heart might be down cast right now but my love for Jesus never fades! During the last few days I have been reading the Bible more and praying and crying out to Jesus. He hears me and loves me! I just want Him to take away my sickness and pain, but for some reason God sees fit to have me in this situation. It’s hard, but when I am weak He is strong! Today I am going to rest in Him!

Romans Road

	The Romans Road

 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

—Romans 3:23

·         What is sin? Sin is missing the mark. Disobeying God’s Laws (Ten Commandments). If you have disobeyed one of God’s Law you are a Law breaker or a sinner.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

—Romans 6:23

·         This is the bad news. We all deserve spiritual death. Christ came to die in your place.

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

—Romans 5:8 

·         This is the good news!

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

—Romans 10:9-10 

·         Ask Jesus to be your Savior and Lord! Tell God that you realize you are a sinner and ask Him to forgive you. Receive Christ as Savior today!

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

—Romans 5:1 

·         When you ask Jesus into your life you are now a new creation. When we ask for forgiveness our sin is as the east is from the west. 

What are we doing part two

My point that the American Church is in trouble keeps on getting clearer to me. Sadly many of the famous pastors and preachers here in America are watering down the Bible or just plainly leaving the truth of the Bible all together. Paul warned of this in the letters he wrote to Timothy and it seems it is clearly what we are living out here in America. Truth of the Bible has come to, it really does not mean that. WHAT?? It seems it's more important to fill our church's then to preach the truth. We are afraid if we preach the truth then people will not come to church. Should that really be the goal of church anyway? Did Jesus say go fill your church building anyway you can? No He did not. He told us to make disciples.

It is important that we do not follow a person. The only person we should follow is Jesus and our guide needs to be the Bible. We need to read the Bible ourselves and know it well so when people we follow or listen to go astray we don't. We need to be careful who we follow. It seems that most Christians put up with false or bad teaching. It seems that is a sin that's o.k. But let a pastor or preacher sin in other ways like, adultery, drunkenness, homosexuality, ect,  we don't give them a second chance even after they have repented of there sin and turned from there sin.

The Bible is full of people who have sinned and then when they repented and turned from there sin God still used them. It's time that we call sin, sin. But when people repent we need to restore them even restore them back to ministry.

It's time we take false teaching seriously! It's time we make the main thing the main thing which is Jesus Christ. We are now in a battle for truth not from outside the church but from within. It makes us feel good to hear that God loves us, which is true. But God is love and just! There is consequences and penalty for sin. I have sinned a lot in my life and I am forgiven but I am still living out the consequences of my sin. A little poison in a glass of milk will kill you! !

Thank you for reading my ramblings today!

Keep Walking!

Religious Abuse......

I am not trying to offend anyone here. Just some truth as I see it. If you don't agree that's o.k.

Christianity gets some bad press. And the sad part it's us Christians that give us a bad name. We fight among each other and we judge those that are outside of the Church. It's been said that the Church kills there own woumbed. That is a pretty sad thing to say about a religion that follows the teaching of a guy who did the complete opposite. When I was in college I had a boss at the college that always said, "the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!" When I talk to friends of mine who are not Christians one of there main complaints is how mean and narrow minded we are. I listen to them and I hear the pain in there voice as they talk about the religious abuse that they have faced. Yes religious abuse. We might not be physically abusive as a group, but our words do cut deep into peoples lives. I would say that most Christians don't attend to harm someone, because they think they must give out the message they believe in no matter at what cost. I have seen other church's picket other church's. I was a part of a church that belived the same thing another church did, but our church did not want to picket or come out looking hateful. So since our pastor sent a letter to this church expressing that we need to love and asked them not to come up to our area and cause a scene of hate. So this other church picted us and they in my opinion were not acting Christ like.

In my life I have been on both sides. Before I started drinking I thought that I new everything when it came to God. You could say being a Pharisee or a total hypocrite! Once I started with my struggle with Alcoholism I pretty fast saw the other side. The total misunderstanding of what I was going through. And again, the pastors and church's thought they were doing the right thing. Some or many Christians in America feel that we need to change the world through politics. You can not legislate morality. But, it seems some try to do that and it does not all ways work.

So, we in my opinion have a problem. So what do we do. First we don't change the message we change the method. Christians can still stand on the truth of the word of God. But, I think we need to be reminded of a few things. Paul and James tells us not to judge the world. In the bible world a lot of times means non-Christians. We are not to judge them we are to love them. What did Jesus do? He loved those who did not know Him. He fed the poor, healed the sick and loved the sinner, the down and out. Who did Jesus condemn? Those who thought they were better than every body else. So we need to love and show grace to those outside of the church, not beat them up. We all so need to love people inside the church. It is a silly thought that as a Christian I am suppose to be perfect. Many times real life is messy. I, we all of us need to show more Grace.

 

Secound, we need to have a real understanding of church disapline. A great example of this is found in Paul's writtings in 1 and 2 Corinthians. In first Conithians he tells the church to deal with the sin that is among them. Cast him out. But then we see in 2 Corinthians that Paul says basically, O,k now is the time to restore this guy. He has repnted from his sin. The whole point of church displine is restoration of the christian that is in church disipline. Restroaction back to the church. I have been told it's only restoration back to Christ. But scriputre shows diffrent.

 

 Is it better to be right or is it better to love? Does it really matter if I read the King James version of the bible? If I disagree with you can't we still be friends? Some where Christians got this idea that if people disagree with us we can not be there friends. That sounds kind of dumb, but some believe so strongly on an issue that you must be wrong if you don't agree and then some wont even be your friend any more.

 

As Christians we are given GRACE, FREE grace at that. So let's show grace to others. We don't deserve the GRACE of God, but we sometimes act like we are god by not showing others grace. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest thing is Love. Some of my good friends despise Christianity, but I still love them and still want to be there friends.

 

It's time that we stop playing church.

It's time to care about the poor and feed the poor.

It's time to love the suffering and love the sinner.

It's time to clothe the needy.

It's time to stop saying we act like Jesus and start acting like Jesus.

 

Telling others about Jesus!

When I received Christ as savior at the age of 7, I was pretty excited. I use to tell everyone I knew about Jesus. I remember being on the school bus in 6th grade. I was telling a friend that Jesus was the only way, the bus driver rebuked me in his gruff way. It did not stop me I just made sure he did not hear me so I sat closer to the back of the bus. That fire for telling others about Jesus continued until about my senior year of High School. I was not as bold that year, part of the reason I was pretty sick. Then after High School I worked for Boone Biblical Ministries where I could use my gift of Evangelism. I was on the radio and we did a youth ministry out reach.

While in Bible College I got that fire back to tell others about Jesus. While working as a youth pastor that was my favorite part, seeing teens coming to Christ. Now since I started drinking my desire to have that gift has faded. When you are living in sin and not following Christ you don't want to tell others about your faith. The last ten years I have had points of sobriety and would run VBS's and was able to lead kids to the Lord. Since I have been sober this time around it has been like learning how to live the Christian life all over again. I and maybe others feel that if I am not the perfect Christian I should not tell others about Jesus.

What I am learning is that is wrong thinking. People want you to be real. Not acting supper spiritual but being real. A real Christian does struggle with sin, but does not stay in it. A real Christian deals with his sin and if he falls again gets back up and keeps on going. I think we have done a real unjusist to grace when we try to act like we are perfect! I am no perfect nor will I ever be, but I strive to be more like Jesus Christ!

When I tell people that they need Jesus it's not to judge them. It's that He has done so much in my life that I want others to experience. The last few days I have been feeling the Lord pushing me to be more open about my faith. I don't know what that looks like but I need to be willing and ready to give the hope that is within me!

I have been asked why am I so open about my past. And I say that if my past can help others then I will be open. I have been a Christian for a long time, but I have fallen into sin many times. I have fallen short of the glory of God. But God can restore. Sometimes it seems like that restoring takes forever. And I am still in the midst of being restored. I can still share the hope of Jesus with others as I am being shape and formed. I am all ways going to be shaped and formed by God, it's a lifetime kind of thing.

If God has gifted me in an area, I better do what He has gifted me in. People need all of us to be more bold. Not just those that are Evangelist.

Here is a simple plan of Salvation below. It's called the Romans Road.