“Time it was and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago, it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
That’s all that’s left you”
-Simon & Garfunkel
”…[we] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” -Ephesians 2:3-5, 8-9 (ESV)
There are some thing that I’ve been thinking about for quite awhile now. Some of them can be confusing because I don’t know how to approach them. At first, I didn’t know how to react to some those things, but I think now there’s more clarity than before. SO, I thank God for that. I also thank God for the freedom that we have in Christ and the love that he has for us! How awesome is that?
On the other hand, this process is sometimes painful and frustrating because we only can see things partially and sometimes we’re just blind to so many things (although it is difficult to admit it). But we believe that God is sovereign beyond the things that are out of our control, and we have this confidence that God works out “all things together” for the good of those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:29).
During October of last year I felt like I had this holy discontentment that consumed me. And since then, I’ve been motivated to live biblically and to experience the leading of the Holy Spirit (in greater measure). Anyways, there are so many things I am not sure about anymore, but these are things that I am most certain about:
1. I believe God wants us to enjoy his salvation and grace, and proclaim it to others.
2. The great commission: to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20)
3. Loving God [having affection for him and treasuring him as your most valuable thing in the world] and loving one another [the second commandment].
4. Care for the poor (Matthew 25:30-46), orphans and widow (James 1:27)
I know there’s more to the list that I can think of right now. But I hope this helps you understand what it means to be a follower of Christ. Being a disciple is not an easy thing to do. It requires total surrender and utter dependance on Christ. Most likely, we’re going to make lots of mistakes in the process but I thank God for his patience and his mercy. Ultimately, we believe that God will finish the work that He started in us.
On the other hand, I don’t know exactly what’s ahead of me or what my future is going to look like, but as long as Christ is in it I’ll be fine. I just want my life to look like I belong in the New Testament, whatever that may look like in the environment that I’m in. Lastly, I hope that wherever we are in our journey that we’ll see Jesus and that we find him more valuable than anything in this world.
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ…for who I’ve suffered loss of all things and counted them as rubbish, that I may gain him and be found in him…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:7-11).
Soli deo gloria!!!
Jesus and the Prosperity Gospel
After 6 years of being a believer, I have come to this conclusion: that there is nothing more important, that we bear abiding fruit because this is the only way people will know that we are His disciples. In fact, if we have His fruit, we should be able to love one another and even those that hate us. “…[our] Father is glorified that [we] bear much fruit and so proved to be [His/Jesus]’s disciples” (John 15:8). Bearing abiding fruit is not something we can produce naturally. It takes the supernatural work of the Holy spirit for this to happen. And there is nothing more comforting to know that we belong to Him and that He belongs to us. I know its easy to deceive ourselves into thinking that we know God, but in reality we don’t.
As for me, my prayer is that we bear more abiding fruit, so the world may know that we are His’; and that “He may grant us to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith—…being rooted and grounded in love, may have strengthened to comprehend…what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” -John 13:34-35
“…now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” -Galatians 4:9
“If you’re a slave to something, you ain’t living. Unless, you’re a slave to God.” -Lecrae
As of lately, I made a choice to objectively pursue the Truth of the bible and it’s been a liberating experience—as He promised to all of His followers that the Truth will set them free. For a long time, I lived a Christian life that is based on a denomination, which built a framework and caused me to be biased on my interpretation of the Bible. In Francis Chan’s Forgotten God, he believes that “we work diligently to ‘prove’ that our presuppositions were correct (another example of eisegesis) rather than simply and honestly pursuing truth” (pg. 47). So I thank God, that I’m slowly breaking away from my presuppositions and coming to know His truth, as He leads.
Reading Acts 2:38, the apostle Peter is telling the crowd to “repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.” God promised that if we repent, be baptized and believe Him, we would receive His Holy Spirit. Honestly, I do want the leading of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of His leading, not because of selfish reasons or it feels good to have Him. I believe that it’s the only way to truly follow Him. Jesus tell His disciples that the Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Comforter, Helper and will guide us in all Truths.
Since, I feel like its rebirth for me, I guess the first thing to do is to get baptized again. The apostle Peter says that I would receive the Holy Spirit after repenting and being baptized. I’m really excited to get baptized again. Like I said before, I just want to live a biblical life and experience God like the people in the Bible. I’m not trying to sound radical or crazy, but I believe the things that I’ve been doing is motivated by love and the Bible. I hope that God will give y’all the desire to receive (or have a greater commune with) the Holy Spirit, which leads to a life that is biblical and Christlike. See you all soon.
It feels good to be off school and I’m really excited for this winter break because I can finally unwind and just lay down my thoughts. Tomorrow night I’m taking off to see my brother in Vegas, and to spend Christmas with him and my mother. I can’t wait to go. I’m looking forward to a lot things that I want to accomplish while I’m there. Aside from hanging out with my brother, I really want to study the Bible for clarification about certain things that have been burdening me. Things like: the “Prosperity Gospel”, which I felt have been abused by many word of faith advocates; what it means to live biblically; and the true meaning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are just some of the issues that I want to revisit and get a better clarity from the Bible. I don’t know what it is, but I feel like I can no longer accept some of the things I was taught growing up (because of its contradiction with the Scripture). I mean, anyone can take different passages from the Bible and package it into something that would fit our life, with a little bit Jesus in it; and I feel like we’ve done that. I feel like we made our own version of Christianity to fit our lifestyles, so that we don’t really have to conform to the Gospel.
Right now, I feel like I’m starting all over again with my theology (except for the foundational elements, of course!). But my prayers for you and I, is that the Holy Spirit would truly guide us and lead us to the truth; and that God would grant us more love and humility, so that we don’t puff up and our love for the lost would increase. On the other hand, I’m not exactly sure where God is leading me but I know that God has struck a chord in my soul, that won’t allow me to rest. I believe that He’s leading me to seek Him out diligently and challenging me to take more risk (or use my faith). Overall, I know I’m in His will. Even though, it breaks my heart to see myself growing apart from my contemporaries, I want to follow Him at what ever cost (as He supplies me the grace to do it).
I want to leave you with this quote from Mortimer Alder, which should be our attitude about dividing the Word of God. So here it is: “Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgement, until you say, “I understand.” We have to be honest with ourselves and God, because at the end of the day, it is us that’s accountable to Him. Being intellectually honest is part of the process. If we stumble upon something in the Bible and our theology/tradition/beliefs is contradicting it, we have to let go of that belief and submit ourselves to the Word of God, with readiness to obey it. Ultimately, the Bible is our guide and our filter to our doctrine and not the other way around.
And I hope that as follower of Christ, that we would all seek Him diligently and we would be lovers of the Truth to the end! I pray that we would not conform to this world, but as children of God, we would “let our light shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Love y’all!!!
