Grace->Faith->Works

The writer of Ephesians said in chapter 2 verses 8 and 9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Likewise, Paul writes to Timothy saying, 

"Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, and for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. " (2 Timothy 8-14) 

Paul was so moved by Timothy's sincere faith, which started in his grandmother, Lois, continued with his mother, Eunice, and now resides in him. He counts his joy as suffering and invites Timothy to share in the suffering which is our holy calling. It is not because of our works that we are saved, but it is how we know that we are saved through the good works that our faith produces. The book of James talks about what is it to be "doers of the Word" and not simply "hearers". In chapter 1, the author of James has this to say, 

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." (James 1: 22-25)

When we accept Christ into our lives as Lord(1)  and Savior(2), we are called to be servants, obedient to the one we have committed our lives to, and as evidence of the change within, the rebirth into a family of God, we find ourselves doing things that we never would have before. This is because we have died to our sin and given ourselves over to new life in the light, where the Holy Spirit is given to guide us and convict us. The author of James goes on in Chapter 2 to saying, 

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe- and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness' -and it was counted to him as righteousness'- and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." (James 2:18-26)

So to end, we are saved by faith, through grace, and was are justified and claim righteousness in the eyes of our Lord and Savior through works. 

1. Merriam-Webster's Definition of Lord: one having power and authority over others.

2. Merriam-Wesbter's Definition of Savior: one who brings salvation (or) one that saves from danger or destruction.

Here's to 2009

"My girl America's crying when she's lying in her bed at night

I can see that she's screaming when she's dreaming for her freedom

My girl America's dying while she's trying just to stop this fight

Don't stop believing my girl America...

I know she knows there's more because there is a voice she can't ignore

'Cause it was founded in the foundations, from the day of her creation,

In God We Trust engraved on the treasures of her nation

And the void that the boys can't fill

With the tipping of the bottle or the popping of the pill

But still most of her friends don't care as they glare

Ready to drown down the funnel as they frown down the tunnel

They stumble and they tumble breaking down into rubble

My girl American, stop can't you see

It's not the circumstances that determine who you're going to be,

  but how you deal with these problems and pains that come your way

It's for you that i pray with hope for a brighter day

And so I say, your deliverance is coming"

Mat Kearney "Girl America"

As an Atheist, I Truly Believe Africa Needs God...

"Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem- the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.

... [T]raveling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God. 

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGO's, government projects, and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa, Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good. 

I used to avoid this truth by applauding- as you can- the practical work of mission churches in Africa... But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing...

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid the 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted. 

And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the itch doctor, the mobile phone, and the machete." --Matthew Parris (prominent Atheist)

"Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat." 

-Mother Teresa

Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world, god's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." 

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, the embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." 

-Allen Cohen

"To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed." -Bernard Edmonds

James 2:17 says "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

James 2:36 says, "Faith apart from works is dead" 

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work." 

-Mother Teresa

"Not only is another world possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." -Arundhati Roy

Colossians 3:12 says "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take what you will from this compilation of quotes, but what I see if what I am called to; an uncomfortable life, a life serving my Lord and Savior. I am constantly amazed at the Lord for opening my eyes to the blessings He has set before me. He has blessed me with a job, albeit part-time, I have one, a job which pays my bills and rent. I am consistently blessed by the friends that have stood by me as I've transitioned to adult life (and I'm not completely sure I'm finished). I am constantly blown away by the humbleness I see in the people placed in my life and in my church. How could I ask for more than the shelter I have over my head, the friends I am blessed with, the church I am blessed with and the uncomfortability I am blessed with. 

I don't say this often, but Revival come to America and revival come to the world, that we may ALL know the blessings that the Lord has for us in our lives, and that we may live in fullness because the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Why video games are bad for me and for you...

I have had many different conversations about video games with different people. As we all know, men love them, women tend to not like them, some women do, but I digress. I think that the big difference between the way men and women respond to video games is because of the way we were made to interact socially. Women are generally speaking, much more intuitive and social in the way which they interact with people. Women like to have deep conversation and talk about issues going on in each other's life. Men, however, have a tendency towards the opposite. Please understand that this is not a negative connotation towards men and the way they interact socially. I am merely stating the observations which I have made around my male friends when they play video games, and as a women I can assert how women react.
Men have a tendency to shy away from the deep interaction, socially being shallow in a way. I have observed that men would rather play games or do something to take their minds off the serious matters in life than talk about the issues going on in one another's lives. So, because of this wonderful invention called video games, it affords to opportunity for people to get away from reality and focus on the television or computer for hours upon hours of "down time". This is bad for the way we interact with other people in different social situations.
Children who spend all of their time playing video games spend more time honing their hand-eye coordination than developing a personality. As children we soak up knowledge through interaction and by this we learn who and what we are in this world. We learn about the world, not through video games, but through touching, sensing, feeling, hearing, etc. Video games dull these senses to the point that we lose our ability to absorb and process the social interactions that we have. Our minds become overloaded because of the lack of interaction that the child receives. So, to sum this up, I think that video games dull our senses and the senses of children who spend their lives interacting with a computer rather than real people.
I'm not completely opposed to video games, but I think that it's important for parents and college students, etc. alike to realize the negative effect that can and has begun happening to our society via these computer generated graphics. However, perhaps I'm wrong and men bond more during this opportunity than I have previously believed. Who knows...

Why I listen to Christian music...

 A lot of Christians, especially in my generation, think that Christian music is cheesy. I disagree. Perhaps this is because the Lord has given me a passion for music, perhaps it's in my genes, or maybe it's the simple fact that music speaks to me, body, mind and soul. I believe that living a life for the Lord requires that we permeate ourselves through every possible means with the Word, with His presence in our lives, in every moment of every day. I really wanted to share some lyrics with you, and to be honest, this was the main reason for this journal entry. It's from a song called "You'll Come" by Hillsong United. It goes like this:

I have decided, I have resolved

To wait upon you Lord

My rock and redeemer shall not be moved

I'll wait upon you Lord

As surely as the sun will rise 

you'll come to us

as certain as the dawn appears

You'll come let your glory fall

as You respond to us

Spirit reign flood our hearts

With holy fire again

We are not shaken we are not moved

We wait upon you Lord

Our mighty deliverer my triumph and truth

I'll wait upon you Lord

(and this is my favorite part)

chains be broken

lives be healed

eyes be opened

Christ is revealed.

This last part of the song is my prayer for our country in a time such as this, that we may find Christ amidst all other hopes for anything in our lives. 

Spirit of Timidity, Comfortability

"Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek him with all their heart."  Psalm 119:1,2

Before the New Covenant, we were expected to live blamelessly, we had no reconciliation with the Lord except to obey the Law in all aspects and manners. But when Christ came, he reconciled us with the Father by becoming sin. But this wasn't so could sin freely, no, Paul wrote in Romans 6, 

"Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you know know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life."

     As a body of Christ whose transgressions have been buried with Christ, we have failed miserably at living how we're told to. Why is it that the church as a whole has so many issues with living up to the calling that we were given? Is it a Spirit of fear and timidity or perhaps comfortability in the way we already live. How are we called to live as a people? The two greatest commandments given in the Bible (by Jesus in the New Testament) were to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus' commandments were never, love yourself,  love money. What have Christians given up to live the "american dream"? Are we not sacrificing ourselves and our faith asking the government to give away our money for us, to makes decisions about one's children/grandchildren, to support the things we are certainly called not to support. 

     You may ask yourself where I'm going with this, and to be frank, I'm talking about the election. Christians have given up who they are and what they're called to be as followers of Christ. Some Christians vote on one or two issues such as abortion and gay rights while others vote on the side of socialism and world poverty. How should we vote? How should we represent ourselves? It is my belief that Christians are called to represent themselves on all levels, including politics and to be honest, I feel like we failed in this election. It is hard for me to believe that a faithful Christian (practicing Christian) can vote for a President who as his first act would like to pass a bill endorsing infanticide which also gives underage females the right to obtain an abortion without the consent of the parents. It is hard for me to understand how one could vote for the endorsement of gay rights, which is most definitely sin in the Bible. It is difficult as an American, to understand why my family should suffer for those who have chosen to remain comfortable on the welfare system. 

     I'd like to tell you a little about my family history. We're immigrants. Granted some of my family has been here since the Revolutionary War, we are still immigrants. My Mom's side of the family comes from a LONG line of farmers, not from money, or a fortunate bundle of wealth. My father's side of the family has been working class ever since they arrived in the Americas. My parents paid their way through college, took care of their siblings, and when they got married, lived in a trailer because they couldn't afford a home. But the big difference in the story of my parent's story is that they were smart about investments, savings, and they worked hard to provide for their family and for themselves. I am lucky enough to have been provided for and to have my college paid for, more than my parents had. I am spoiled with money, and I know it. But coming out of college, I also know that this is the time that I also am supposed to work towards more, and if you work hard, you can attain anything. 

For every Christian who voted for Obama based on his tax plan, I have something to say to you and I hope you understand me. The money that my Father makes now doesn't go to fancy cars or a fancy house, it goes to support my grandparents, my mother (who contracted lupus and diabetes when I was at a young age), and to support our church. So, for whatever reason you chose to vote for his tax plan, whether it was the greediness out of what will go into your own pocket, or the ideal of ending poverty, you are part of the reason that my family now has to worry about their well-being. I'm not going to hate you, I'm not going to yell at you, but I want you to know why I feel how I do about your vote and the election. 

     It is not the government's job to take care of world poverty, that is OUR JOB. That is the church's job. We are called to stand up as a church and care for the poor and widows. In James we are told that, "Religions that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world". But that is not what we have done. In this election we have seen an easy out, a way for us to have the government do that job for us. I want to rebuke each and every one of you who would try and use this as an excuse not to do your job as Christians in this world reaching out to the weak and poor. You have no excuse and nor do I for falling down on this job. Jesus never said that He would help those who helped themselves, He said that those who would give up the riches of this world would find themselves rich in the next. We have not done that and I challenge you to find out whether it's true of either of those men who were candidates for each party. 

     I'd also like to address the issue of racial reconciliation in this election, as I haven't seen much of it. I'm happy to see that our country appears to have moved forward so much in this past century, but seeing "black power" posted by Christians isn't reconciliation. If you call yourself a Christian, please, do your best to love your neighbors as Christ would have. He wouldn't have said, BLACK POWER, in regards to this president, and in fact, race or skin color wouldn't have mattered to him. Jesus wanted reconciliation between all people and both sexes. In case you didn't know, racism is and never was a one-way street. It wasn't just the Jews who hated, it was the Gentiles and Samaritans too and it's an endless cycle of everyone calling the other racist whenever something about skin color comes up. It's not that we are supposed to avoid the issue, but that we are called to address it head on. Instead of copping out and calling someone racist, why don't we all take the time to explore why that person feels that way. The Lord didn't just come to reconcile us to God, He came to reconcile us to one another as well, Jew to Gentile, brother to brother, and a white woman to a black congregation. The latter reconciliation is what I am struggling with right now. I'm struggling with the fact that 97% of black americans voted for a man who they perceived as "one of them". I'm struggling with the fact that never before have I felt a divide based on skin color so clearly in the church and in America. To be honest, it scares me and makes me wonder if the people of my congregation truly see me as a sister or just as a white women who attends their church. This is the type of thought that we have to reconcile through, that we are ONE body, with many parts, with many different characteristics on the inside and out and many different passions that the Lord has given us in order to bless one another. 

We are so broken. And now is the chance to put our hope and faith in Jesus Christ, not a President, not a man (because as Nina said, that's all he is), but in a Savior who wants to know us intimately and who wants to love us passionately. He is worthy of all honor and praise, and all that we have is due to Him first. It is our job to give Him all that we have, inside and out, riches and poverty, love and hate. He knows the plans that He has for us, to prosper us and NEVER to harm us. I want us to walk in this knowledge as ONE body of Christ, standing up for a change in and through Christ, and I believe that now is the time. 

Race and Reconciliation

"On an altar of prejudice we crucify our own, yet the blood of all children is the color of God." 

-Don Williams, Jr. 

How true is that. Don Williams, Jr. is an american novelist and poet. Other than that, I don't know much about him except that he was wise when he stated this quote. We are so quick to flock to those who look like us and who we are familiar and comfortable with. Why? Why is this our natural reaction to flock to people who look like us? We are ONE race, of ONE people, called humans. There is no race aside from the human. (others may disagree) We are God's people, one people. He made men and women equally. 

The Word of God is Living

Hebrews 4:12-16

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who i unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." 

ENCOURAGEMENT