Ben Geib - My Story

Immanuel's Veins, Part 2

In my last blog I took a look at Isaiah 43 and God’s incredible love for Israel in the middle of their ripe disobedience.  Today, we’re going to look at the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 as it has spanned throughout Old Testament history.  In this, I hope you begin to see a theme.  I pray you see that no matter how disgusting and murky our past is, how sinful and unfaithful (like Israel) to God we are, God can still use us. 

Let’s begin with a quick look at Matthew 1, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.  And Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,  And Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.  And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.”

Confused?  Why would I blog about a bunch of names?  How can God possibly speak through a list of names that led to His birth?  What does this genealogy have to do with you?  With me? 

In case you’re lost, Matthew 1 is a family tree of Jesus.  Yeah, that Jesus.  The incarnate son of God, the maker of the entire universe, who sent Jesus to die upon a sinner’s cross for the sin and shame we bear.  This is that Jesus’ family tree.  But what makes it so important? 

Let’s begin.

 

Abraham’s story starts in Genesis 12 when we see God calling him for God’s divine purpose—ultimately to father the nation of Israel.  The first thing we see Abraham do is lie about his wife Sarah being his wife while passing through Egypt.  If the Egyptians knew Sarah was his wife and they wanted her, they’d have to kill Abraham to get to him.  The first thing we see about the father of Israel is that he’s a liar who doesn’t really trust God to protect him.  Genesis 15 is important because it’s when God establishes the Abrahamic Covenant with Abraham.  God promises Abraham to make him into a huge nation—the nation of Israel that Jesus will eventually come from.  Basically, God promises Abraham that out of his descendants will come Jesus, the Messiah, who is promised to end evil (Genesis 3).  We’re told throughout this story that Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren; she couldn’t have children.  Now even though God promised to open up her womb and bring forth an entire nation, Abraham and Sarah both think it’s a pretty swell idea to try to bring forth God’s promised nation with Sarah’s servant, Hagar.  In Genesis 16, then, we read about Abraham doing the nasty with Hagar and bringing forth a child, Ishmael.  Sounds like a pretty good example of morality, right?  He was first an untrusting liar, now he’s sleeping with his wife’s servant to try to jumpstart God’s promise for a child.  Yup, he’s a great guy.  Four chapters later in Genesis 20 we see Abraham lying again about Sarah being his wife.  If there was ever anybody who didn’t trust God’s promises, it was this guy.  God promised to make him into a nation, which didn’t happen yet, so Abraham should trust that God will still bring that about, but we don’t.  Abraham fears man more than he fears God.  Isaac is eventually born (Genesis 21), and through his birth the nation of Israel begins to form.  Through the nation of Israel comes Jesus.  So the first guy in Jesus’ lineage isn’t the morally upright man that we make him out to be.  Even though Abraham is one of the most important characters in the entire Bible, and he does do the world a lot of good, we can see that he has a lot of character flaws that birth sin.  And yet God chose to bring his perfect son into the world to save the world through this man.  Amazing.

Over the next…while, I guess, I’ll be going more in depth about more people in the genealogy of Christ.  Hopefully as these blogs come together you can begin to see that even though a lot of these people are screwed up and ridden with sin, God still chose them and used them to do mighty things just like He chooses us to do mighty things.

Remember this:  You are never too far gone to be used by and for God.  There is always redemption at the foot of the cross.

To be continued...

Immanuel's Veins, Part. 1

One thing that I’ve been recently amazed by is God’s undying goodness to us.  Stop.  Read that last sentence again.  Think about it.  God’s.  Undying.  Goodness.  To.  Us.  Can you just stop and think about how good God is?  When was the last time you thanked God for His sacrifice?  When was the last time you actually meditated on the fact that He covers us in unfathomable love that we can’t even begin to try to understand?  When was the last time you thought about how that love knifes through all of our murky sin and unfaithfulness and how He still loves us the same?  Stop.  Think about it.

Now read on.

Isaiah 43 is my favorite chapter in the entire Bible.  The beauty of Christ’s love to a prostituted Israel that spit in God’s own face is heartbreaking.  Overwhelming.  In the middle of Israel’s sin, debauchery, and unfaithfulness that gave God every right to completely destroy them we have Isaiah 43. 

“But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.  Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.  Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.  I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!  All the nations gather together, and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true.  “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.  I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.   Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?” Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.  The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense.
You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.  “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.  Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right.  Your first father sinned, and your mediators transgressed against me.  Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.”

If that doesn’t stir the emotions within you, read it again.  Concentrate on God’s message to an unrepentant Israel.  If you read the history of Israel you will see them turn away from God time and time again and lose their faith in Him.  This unfaithfulness begins right after Israel’s exodus in Exodus 14:11 when the Israelites see the Egyptians pursuing them.  Remember, God just brought them miraculously out of captivity in Egypt and they say to Moses (and God), “It would have been better to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”  Throughout the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles Israel turns its back on God time and time again.  They make other idols, they worship other idols, they plunder their enemies when they’re not supposed to, they complain about having no food, they whore themselves out to other nations, they practice witchcraft…I mean, these Israelites used Jesus like a spiritual friend with benefits.  They praised Him when it convenience them, but most of the time was spent spitting in His face and throwing His love away.

Then in the middle of this, in the middle of Isaiah’s ministry to the Israelites God speaks through Isaiah and we get Isaiah 43.  Look at the first verse alone, “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel:  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”  Wow.  Even through Israel’s unfaithfulness God still loves them like a son.  “I’ll be with you,” He says.  “I will not remember your sins,” He says.  Talk about the love that goes beyond our understanding!

Put it in today’s language.  You’re married to the person of your dreams.  As some of my EBC friends would say, “Perfect for you in every way, in every way…”.  Every little thing that you’ve ever wished to find in someone else is in this person, and more.  So much more.  You are beside yourself with love for this person and you can hardly believe your life to be true.  How did you get so lucky?  This isn’t just your dream person, it’s everyone else’s dream spouse as well.  Your friends can see the mental and spiritual beauty in this person and congratulate you wholeheartedly on your “catch”.  You’re beside yourself with joy and the rapture of human love. 

But here’s the thing, six months into the marriage you find out that this person, your true love has been cheating on you.  Not only once or twice, but consistently.  With multiple partners.  How do you feel?  You gave everything you had to love this person and felt like it was reciprocated, but was it a lie?  Is the relationship fake?  After confronting this person and tearfully making your way through a long process of healing you feel as if everything is going to be okay.  Unfortunately a week later you find out that the cheating has not stopped, but gotten worse.  How do you feel now?

As humans we would be inclined to throw in the towel right away and get out of the relationship.  Who wants to live with a broken heart anyway?  This is the way it was for the Israelites.  Israel is the cheating spouse and God is the brokenhearted victim.  But unlike humans, God doesn’t give up.  He chooses to look past the cheating, past the unfaithfulness, and past the broken relationship and remain with the spouse.  No matter how many times Israel cheats on God, God is faithful to Israel and he doesn’t give up.  No, He doesn’t give up.  He doesn’t give up on Israel, and He doesn’t give up on us.

Are you beginning to get a picture of how loving and forgiving and merciful and graceful God is?  Good.  Read Isaiah 43 another time.  And another.  Begin to get that picture of love that God had for Israel and has for us.  Equate yourself with Israel.  Recognize how unfaithful to God you are and picture Isaiah 43 being written to you.  Let it hit home just how much God loves you.

To be continued…

Set Apart

School started a few weeks ago, and I’m sure that everyone is wondering how my life is by now.  In a word:  Fantastic.  I can’t stress how much I love living in Simi Valley; there’s just so much life here and so much to do.  Don’t believe me?  How about you look up Milton, PA, on Google Maps then compare it to Simi Valley, CA.  Trust me, there’s lot’s to do here.  The people here are killer.  I’ve met mostly solid dudes and ladies while I’ve been out here and began making some good friendships.  It always takes me a while to lose that initial shyness that usually accompanies meeting a lot of new people all at once, but I’m working on it.  Classes are also going very well.  It’s a hefty work load—I’m not going to lie—but it’s so worth it.  All the reading we’re doing is so packed full of Scripture and great Truths.  It’s only been a few weeks and I feel like my head is going to explode with all that I’m trying to take in and understand.  If you’re reading this and you’re also the type that likes to pray for people, send praises and thanks up to God for all that He is doing in my life.  I’ve truly been blessed in multiple, huge ways.  God is so, so good.  As far as actual requests go, pray for a job.  I’m struggling mentally without a job, and I realize that sounds weird to say but it’s true.  I’ve had a steady job since high school, and even on days where I was lazy I would still be productive when I went in to work.  Since I have no job now, I’m struggling to feel productive and am feeling very lazy and, frankly, like a loser.  Prayer would be appreciated in this area.

That’s my school update, but here’s what I really wanted to write about.  I forsook my One-Year Bible the other day and am not going to pick it back up any time soon.  I have been feeling very dry lately, spiritually speaking, as far as my personal devotions go because I have been reading the One-Year Bible just for the sake of reading it and not getting into any serious studies.  With that said, I decided to start a serious in-depth study of the book of Romans, and within the few days that I’ve been setting aside time for it, I’ve only gone through the first verse!  I feel like God is pouring out so much desired Truth into my life through the first verse alone.

Romans 1:1 says, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.”  That’s it.  Nothing more.  What stood out to me in this verse was the phrase “set apart”.  I was reading the Barnhouse Romans commentary along with this verse and it stressed the importance of being set apart for something instead of just being set apart.  As Christians there are a lot of sinful things that we need to vacuum out of our lives.  In essence, there’s s small “don’t list” that we have to follow—things that delve into the sinful realm.  A lot of times, though, we focus on getting those things out of our lives and not necessarily replacing them with anything.  We focus on not lying, not looking at pornography, not lusting, stealing, murdering, and getting drunk, but we focus on those things to the point that we forget to fill ourselves with something better.  If we focus on not sinning and not focus on filling ourselves with good, we’ll end up empty.  We may have “righteous” acts of faith and service, but what are those even without Christ?

The challenge is this:  Focus more on Christ than the sin.  Focus on putting good in to change the bad inside.  Personally, I need to be focusing more on getting to know Christ better and studying his Word and Truth rather than not sinning.  The more I know Christ and fully understand His detest of sin and become better acquainted with His heart, then that will affect how I treat the sin in my life.  If I hate sin as Christ hates sin, then the grip that sin has on my life will be loosened.

Today, instead of focusing on the mountain to be faced, focus on the man who already conquered that mountain—Jesus.   

Understanding A Higher Power

These come directly from my homework concerning the book, Life's Ultimate Questions by Ronald H. Nash.

The law of noncontradiction is this:  “A cannot be both B and non-B at the same time and in the same sense.”  This law of noncontradiction (as proposed through Aristotle) is important because, I feel, it’s the foundation of all modern logic.  If anyone claims to believe in modern logic, and even goes as far as to use modern logic to prove or disprove the existence of God or their sway in the theological mindset, then this law of noncontradiction must not be broken.  If this fundamental law is broken, their logic is flawed.  

Personally, I believe that most of God, or simply a higher power or being, falls and operates within the realms of human logic.  If one is to claim a universal moral standard, the question can be raised on where that moral standard came from.  As far as God using the law of noncontradiction Himself, I would argue that He does.  If God did not use the law of noncontradiction, then there would be no classification of good or evil, for example, because the absence of that law would argue for double standards (which God does not reside within).  God wishes to make Himself known to people and to use any way of revelation that no human can possibly fathom or understand would be contradictory to His person.  God is not completely outside the realm of our understanding.  There are parts of God that we cannot fully begin to understand, but to say that there are parts of God that we can begin to comprehend proves that God resides within the boundaries of the logic within our minds.

Lashes

Yesterday morning, Sam and I had the privilege to attend Cornerstone Church in the morning as part of our Sunday.  In my opinion, that is where it all began.  That’s the church that Francis Chan pastored, and through that wrote “Crazy Love”.  That’s the book that rocked the nationwide church, and through that made its way into our church.  That’s the book that our guys small group chose to read, and through that started softening and changing my heart.  That change is what eventually brought me to where I am today.  It’s neat to trace back paths and see how everything comes full circle.  I love the way God works.  

Last night, after spending the whole day wandering around The Oaks (a somewhat ritzy mall in Thousand Oaks) and its surrounding stores, we had a chance to attend the college group that’s put on by Cornerstone with one of our roommates.  For how small, unorganized, and off-the-cuff it was, it was still pretty good.  I enjoyed it and plan to go back.  I think it’d be a great way to meet people.  But last night, I was challenged with something that I really didn’t expect. 
It all started during a worship song.  I forget the exact words to the song, but it was something to the effect of, “God, you’re the only one I love.  You have all of me.”  As I was singing, it all of a sudden hit me.  Do I really mean this?  Now before you jump to conclusions about the rest of this blog and start muttering under your breath about an over-preached sermon that convicts people to really feel and mean what they sing, let me explain.  Does God really have all of my heart?  Is He really the only one I love?
It may be cliché to say this, but I’ll still say it.  We give little pieces of our heart away so often that when it comes to giving our heart to God all we have to give is a tiny, ripped-up, bleeding little piece that barely passes as a piece of flesh, much less a beating organ.  Years ago, I met a girl who I really liked at the time.  We ended up dating, so without even thinking I took my heart out, tore off a small piece, and gave it to her.  That relationship ended up failing soon after it began, and I soon found myself trying to tape my heart back together.  Soon afterwards, someone else entered my life, and I again tore off another piece of my heart and gave it away.  Lovers with different faces and names came and went.  Some were real; human.  Others were addictions.  Still others were material obsessions brought on by greed.  With every fleeting happiness that dropped into my life I pulled my heart and emotions off the shelf, ripped off a piece and sold it to the highest bidder.  Some pieces would be returned after being mistreated and abused.  Those, I would carefully try to tape back together to make something that resembled a heart that I could offer up to God as a living sacrifice.  Other pieces never got returned and a piece of my heart is still with who I entrusted to.  You can tell those pieces are missing by the small tears in my heart that don’t have a match or the little holes that have nothing to fill them.  There’s one more piece that’s been torn off and set aside for the future.  That piece is special and only one person will keep it.  That piece is for my future wife (if God has that in His plans) and is sitting, waiting to be handled.  What I end up with is a mass of flesh that is haphazardly taped together and sewn shut. My emotions that were once innocent and organized are now scattered and confused.  My heart that was created to beat in tune only with name of Jesus now beats to the tune of several different lovers.  Where did I go wrong?
As I stood there last night, it hit me.  The heart that I now offer God is so broken and bruised, beaten and repugnant, that it’s a pitiful excuse for an offering.  Just like I mentioned in my last blog, I continually prostitute my heart out to whoever takes it first.  So I ask myself, and I ask you, does God really have all of you?  I know for certain that he doesn’t have all of me, and that frustrates me. 
I think it’s no coincidence that yesterday and today I read in my Bible Paul’s thoughts on marriage in 1 Corinthians.  He encourages us not to get married so that our affections won’t be divided and our attention can be solely on Christ instead of split up between Christ and our spouse.  He follows that up with saying that if we really must, if we can’t control our physical lusts and desires, then marriage is still an option.  Neither is right, and neither is wrong.  That’s something that I’ve been challenged with.  Before I even plan on getting married I need to be okay with not getting married.  If I’m living my life in hope of something that will never come to pass, that’s one piece of my heart that I’ll never get back and God will never hold.  I need to be okay with the single-life instead of living in a fantasy. 
With that being said, I want to close this out with some lyrics that have broken me over the past month or two.  There’s a rock band that hints at indie called My Epic that has some of the most amazing lyrics I’ve ever heard.  So full of goodness and truth.  I’ve been moved time and time again and know that they’re a band that the Spirit is using for his kingdom.  I’ll post the lyrics and the song below.  Seriously, scope them.  What really bites at me is the last lines, “Find me and wash me cause I can't see the stains.  My God I'm so scared cause I'm so fractured but I don’t feel the breaks.  Have I loved too many daughters to ever be whole?  I'm ashamed that you love me, send grace for the hearts that I stole.”

“Lashes”
A storm is approaching
I know cause I called it on
I'll catch up lovers in my way
That I'll consumes and throw away
cause there's no woman I could love
More than myself

That's why I still sleep alone

Good God I feel empty now
but no one found out
and I never touched her
I'm trusting less in my defense
Cause there's no difference in
the things that happen in my head
and happen in my bed
Oh God

I'm shakin' like a leaf
I'm shakin’

For 27 years now I've been waiting
27 years now I've been keeping my end
But every single gift I ever gave you
is just a bribe so I could get you
to give me what I wanted

it's all kisses and silver
I never cared for innocence just the appearance

Find me and wash me
cause I can't see the stains
my God I'm so scared
Cause I'm so fractured but I don’t feel the breaks
have I loved too many daughters
to ever be whole
I'm ashamed that you love me
send grace for the hearts that I stole

We, The Adulterers

For those of you unaware, I am currently reading through a One-Year-Bible.  The goal of reading through this books is, obviously, to read the entire Bible in a year--something I have never done before.  There are some morning that I wake up hungry for the words that God wants to speak to me through that day.  Other days, I wake up and have to force myself to read the Bible--especially through some parts of the Old Testament and genealogies.  It's a daily battle, but it's overall rewarding. 
The other day, my Daily Bible took me to 1 Corinthians.  1 Corinthians is one of my all-time favorite books that ranks up there with Romans, James, and 1 John.  I simply love it, hanging on every word that God pours into my soul.  Yesterday, we read in the Bible about "Expelling The Immoral Brother" in 1 Corinthians 5.  To give a brief summary, Paul calls us to call out other brothers in Christ who are living like the world--living in sin--but how we can't call out the world who's living in sin because they don't live by the same standard that we do.  Today, Paul neatly follows up that message with what we read this morning--one of my top-five favorite passages in the whole Bible.  1 Corinthians 6.  I'll let you look it up and read it on your own because it'd be super long to copy and paste the whole thing here. 
Okay, so a mere chapter ago Paul addressed conflicts within the church as far as calling other brothers in Christ out.  Now he transfers cleanly to talking about lawsuits (Read:  Disputes) between believers.  As believers, we need to be careful how we address other believers.  Continually in the gospels, Jesus calls us to be set apart which Paul reiterates in Galatians 1:15 and Romans 1:1.  We are all called to be different than the rest of the world--set apart for Christ--which is why what Paul is addressing here is so important.  When we have disputes with other believers, don't take it before a judge of this world because that looks bad.  Judges of this world judge this world, The Judge of the next world will ultimately judge everything. Paul even goes as far to say, "I say this to shame you...", in verse 5. 
That's not what stands out to me, though.  It's verses 9-20 that lacerate my heart.  I'll copy it here because I think it's so powerful, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. ¹² "Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." ¹⁷ But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body".
Paul just identified in the earlier passage the differences between the wicked--people who are unsaved--and Christians who have accepted salvation.  Now he says, "Do you now know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?...And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."  HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!  We were wicked, we were literally dead in our transgressions (Ephesians 2), but God called us out of death to life.  Amazing.  Can't get over that.
I just finished reading Ezra. In the very last chapter of Ezra we read that the Israelites are convicted for marrying outside of the faith.  Basically, for whoring their identity out to the first buyer.  Isn't that what we all do?  We have this new identity, this life in Christ, yet we continually look elsewhere for our satisfaction.  A few posts ago I talked about how my identity was in the world and I dwelt in sin and identified with that, but over and over again we read in Scripture how our identity is in Christ.  We find whatever fixes us temporary and sell ourselves to that.  We make a prostitute out of the grace of the cross, using it for our own pleasure.  Paul even goes on to address this later in this passage in verse 15, "[addressing sexual sin] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?  Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!  Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute [gives himself out to the pleasures of this world] is one with her in body?  For it is said, "The two will become one flesh. (Gen. 2:24)"  This is where it gets awesome, "He who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in Spirit.  Flee from sexual immorality."  Boom.  Done.  Roasted.
As part of my devotions lately I've been reading entries from Richard Wurmbrand's, "100 Prison Meditations".  Such a great read, and I'd encourage everyone to pick it up (it's really cheap) and incorporate it into your studies as something to think about.  This morning he analyzed the genealogy of Christ that we see in the beginning of Matthew.  If you look at the genealogies portrayed between the beginning of Matthew and the beginning of Luke, you will find a difference in number.  Matthew claims 42 names whereas Luke boasts more.  The thing is, though, while Matthew claims to have 42 generations listed in the genealogy, it really only has 41 (Jeconiah is counted twice).  So where is the other one?  According to Richard Wurmbrand, and I'm only using this because I find it interesting and relating to this post, we--ourselves--are the 42nd name in the genealogy of Christ.  Matthew 12:50 says, For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." To quote Richard Wurmbrand, "We can be mothers to Him, insofar as Jesus is conceived in us. His relationship with us will encompass that of son and mother, and we will be motherly toward Him."
To bring this full circle, let's look back at 1 Corinthians 6:17, "But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit."  Christ's desire for us is to be spiritually in-tune with Him.  He wants us to be one in spirit with Him and in step with His love for us.  When we are saved we have an obligation that comes out of love to continually die to ourselves and live for Christ.  We want what He wants.  We hate what He wants.  In that way, we are one with Christ.  As Wurmbrand would say, "We will be motherly toward Him." 
So these trivial little battles that permeate our day?  These things that get under our skin?  These temptations that Satan throws in our face like sand to blind us?  These things that we continually prostitute ourselves out to?  What if we actually cut ourselves off from them?  If we become one with Christ, it will be completely unnatural to adulterate with worldly pleasures and sin. 

By the way, check this song out.  I feel like it speaks directly to this subject.  

Forbidden Entrances

1 Corinthians 5 is one of those passages that always gets me.  It always cuts to my heart, convicts me, and frankly, makes me uncomfortable when I look at my own life.  It's a serious torch that Paul commands  us to carry, but it's one that's so white-hot that we barely touch it.  Judgment is something that, in our culture, is looked at as a heinous thing.  The very word causes us to cringe.  We live in a world that saturates itself in self-empowerment universalism.  The message of the world is, "It's okay, it's who you are."  The message of Christ is, "Your identity is in Me; live to glorify Me."  So when Christians come out against such worldly-accepted issues as homosexuality (Chick-Fil-A) the world gets infuriated and words fly. 
1 Corinthians 5 talks about calling out other Christians who are knowingly thriving in sin.  One thing that I believe very strongly is that as Christians there's a huge difference to living with sin and living in sin.  We're Christians, we're not perfect, we'll still have our struggles and we'll still battle daily with temptation.  In fact, Romans talks about struggling with sin in Paul's famous, mind-bending play on words in Romans 7.  In Romans 7:25 he even says, "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."  As Christians, we will struggle with sin, but God always calls us to combat it.  We fight against our sinful nature.  Galatians 5 talks further about it and says that the, "Sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit...they are in conflict with each other."  (5:17)  Living in sin is completely different.  Someone's sin--who hasn't been washed in the blood of Christ--is unpaid for.  They are still carrying the weight of their sin on their own shoulders instead of accepting Christ's death and putting it on His cross.  They are literally living in sin.  The conviction isn't there because there is no law of grace and salvation residing within. 
Going back to 1 Corinthians 5, we are supposed to call out those who are within the church.  Those outside of the church live by a different standard--one that's not run by love for God.  How can we judge them if they have different standards and live different lives than we do?  We can't, which Paul says in 5:12, " What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?"  Instead, we are commanded in verse 11 to not even associate with Christians who are living in sin,

^"But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat."

With such a man do not even eat.  Wow.  Even if we go back to the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; and 24:7 the Old Testament law had the Israelites killing and maiming other Israelites who were living in sin!  I highly doubt that Paul is telling us to kill other brothers and sisters in Christ, but the brutal image is there.  If there is someone within the church who is knowingly living in sin and living like the rest of the world with no conviction, we need to call him out.  

There's a happy ending, though.  The point of calling out our brothers and sisters is for reconciliation.  We don't want to cast them out of the church to the streets and let the devil have his way with them.  Our purpose is to cast the conviction and love of Christ in their hearts so that they'll realize what they're doing and turn back to Jesus.  Therein we find the beautiful picture of reconciliation that Christ painted for us on the cross.  

--DyingAnOriginal

Dudebro, California

SoCal is so hot.  It's crazy how much humidity plays into heat.  I never really noticed it before.  Back in Central PA the weather was always so humid and hot, but here in Simi Valley the weather is higher in temperature, but drier.  I'm honestly not sure which is worse, but considering that the house I'm living at doesn't have AC, PA was a lot less grueling.  It's almost like people plan their day out based around the weather.  Gonna be a hot one?  Get out of the house and go shopping or to the beach.  Going to be a little cooler?  Stay at home and get things done. 
Life is amazing though, and God continues to bless me beyond any of my expectations.  On the way down to Philadelphia the day before we flew out, I got a call from one of my roommates offering to find us a ride from LAX to our house.  Done.  We didn't have to pay $30 for a shuttle ticket.  The house that we're living at?  Phenomenal.  Currently there's 7 guys and a couple living here.  The other guys are all super chill and so much fun to hang with.  They've been great tour guides as they've graciously shuttled us around the city, to the beach, from the airport, and to get groceries.  The couple that owns that house that we rent from are a huge blessing to us.  Rent is incredibly cheap for SoCal, and it also includes utilities.  Pretty much the only thing we need to provide is our food, but there are also infrequent times that they'll feed us.  Like tonight.  Everywhere I look I see God time and time again coming through for us.  Like today, we found two bikes on Craigslist and bought them.  Sure, they're pieces of junk that make noises, clank, and rattle, but they're our transportation, and they were super cheap and had two wheels. 
Today, I was in the mood for a bookstore and a thrift store so I looked them up on my phone, hopped on my bike and pedaled off.  Unfortunately, I never ended up finding them.  However, I ran across a store called 99 Cents Only which turned out to be a Godsend and a goldmine for future grocery trips.  Thank you again, Lord!
Yesterday we went to Zuma beach in Malibu and just chilled for a while.  It was awesome to be able to say that I have now been in two oceans!  From what our roommates say, Eternity is crazy intense the first semester.  We're still trying to decide if we should get jobs awhile or just wait a little bit. 
To say that I'm enjoying living in SoCal would be a gross understatement.  I'm loving it.  Soaking every minute up.  This opportunity is amazing, and to think that God would bless me with this life is an incredible thought.  I have everything I need:  Friends, a house and bed, food, transportation.  God has provided everything. 
Ways you can pray?  Continued guidance as far as jobs go.  Textbooks to pour in.  And finally, good health. 

That Hideous Strength

2 Chronicles 13:15 is in the middle of a battle between Israel and Judah.  Abijah, the fearless leader of Judah was at war with Jeroboam, the leader of Israel.  13:15 shows evidence that if we call on our Lord--our Helper and Strength--that He will pull through for us.  He will fight for us.  Verse 16 goes on to say that the Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands.  In verse 18 it sums up the story with this, "The men of Israel were subdued on that occasion, and the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers."  How often do we rely on our own strength and don't raise the battle cry that we need to against the attacks of our enemies?  God will fight for us.  He will come through if we have the faith to believe it.
Directly from that I began reading Romans 8:26, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."  A lot of times, especially when I pray, I find myself at a loss for words.  What do I pray for specifically?  It seems that I pray for the same things over and over again no matter what the situation:  God's will be done, strength, peace, endurance, and wisdom.  They seem to be the staple things that we pray for.  But what if we stopped merely spewing words--what we thought the sitution needs--and instead listen to what God lays on our hearts.  Like Francis Chan says in the opening chapter of "Crazy Love", "What if we stop talking at God?"  Going off of that, what if we actually believe that God will give us strength and come through?  "The Spirit helps us in our weakness."  2 Corinthians 12:10 also plays a part here.  And then we get to the end of Romans 8.  Boom goes the dynamite. 
It's amazing how the Bible works together.  We just read what happens in the Old Testament when people call on the name of the Lord.  We just read in Romans 8:26 how God intercedes for us.  Now, we read that God is for us.  God is on the sideline of heaven cheering us on.  8:34 says that Jesus is at the right hand of God (which, in case you don't know, was--in that time period--the hand of honor as opposed to the left hand) interceding and cheering us on.  Nothing can stop us when we have God on our side.  Then finally in 37 we read, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."  The chapter ends with the affirmation that nothing can seperate us from the love of Christ.  To quote the spin that the band My Heart To Fear put on these last two verses, "No demon, no man, no power that be will ever have the strength to keep you from Me."  Isn't that truth incredible?  Doesn't that make you want to fight your hardest and do everything you can to serve God wholly? 
Lastly, the Daily Bible led me to Psalms 18:37-50.  This is the second time that I'm reading through Psalms this year.  The Bible took me through it the first half of the year, now it's taking me through it again.  Time and time again I've turned back and looked to the Psalms for the strength that God will give me that day.  It's a long passage, and I won't quote the whole thing, but David is finding his strength in God.  His strength comes from God and he goes back to battle against them and wins.  Verse 39 says, "You [God] armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet." 
See, all this is great.  We've looked at several different passages today and all point towards God giving us the strength when we need it.  God gives us the willpower to fight against not only the attacks of Satan, but the multiple ways the world will try to put us down as well.  But that's not the end.  The end is summed up in Psalms 18:46-50.  David doesn't just end the Psalms by saying that God will gives us strength, he ends the Psalms with praise and thanksgiving to God for the strengtht that He provided.  "The Lord lives!  Praise be to my Rock!  Exalted be God my Savior!"  Verse 49, "Therefore, I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to Your name."
The past few weeks I've been in a battle to the death with my flesh.  My body screams and pulls one way, but the Spirit leads me another.  To be honest, I haven't been seeking for strength from God.  I have to admit, I've been seeking my own strength.  The problem with that is that I'm never strong enough.  I always have my downfalls and I am a very weak person.  This post is more for me than anyone else.  I need to focus more on the strength of God than the failing strength of me. 

My Heart To Fear - "The Witching Hour"

Two Weeks!

Here I sit on my favorite chair, still at my home in the armpit of Pennsylvania.  Milton.  The place that I spent the last 18 years of my life growing up, maturing, working, playing sports, making friends, going to church and school, and occasionally paying visits to the hospital.  Can I just say how crazy of a feeling it is to know that the time has come for me to move on.  In 336 hours I will be turning the next page in the book of my life (Which I have appropriately titled, "Freudian Slips:  The Brain-Mouth Filter Conundrum") and starting to let God write Chapter 2, which has yet to be titled.  In 336 hours, I will be starting to make new friends, taking in new sites and sounds, setting foot on soil that has never moved under my feet, and preparing to spend the next four years of my life dedicating it to not only the study and memorization of Scripture, but the application of it.  I'll be learning from some of the most respected theological leaders in my known world as the breathe the words that have been placed on their hearts that God will use to change mine.  336 hours.  Tomorrow, I will embark on my first visit to the Big Apple.  I felt if I was leaving the l(East) Coast I should at least be able to say that I was to NYC.  After a few days there, I will come back home only to be whisked away again by a few other friends as I spend a day or two at one of my friend's lake house.  Coming home late that night, I'll grab a few hours of sleep before packing up the car once more for a week of service and volunteer at Camp Hebron--where I previously spent three summers on staff.  The week there will fly rapidly by, and I'll soon find myself journeying home only to find my brother inhabiting the home I'm writing this blog from, and the next day and a half are going to be spent packing, storing, and worshiping as I try to square away last minute details while also trying to feverishly say goodbye to every person I've ever known in my entire existence.  The next day (if you've been following, it's now August 5th) will be spent going to my church of the past 9 years for the last time, saying goodbye to the people that have helped me grow in my walk of faith the most, grabbing lunch, locking doors and windows, and packing up the car before heading down to stop in at a family reunion in Lancaster for a few minutes and finally making my last stop at a friend's house in Philly for the night.  The final day starts with a flight at 8:35 in the morning, and by 3 in the afternoon I'll be setting foot in LAX.  The beginning.  Let me tell you, I'm a PSYCHED! 

Now that you have an update on my life, let me share a few thoughts with you that God has been pouring into me recently.

Identity is such a loaded word.  One of my favorite movie trilogies focuses on a trained assassin losing his and forming an opposite second identity to combat the consequences of the first.  When someone says, "Identify yourself", or, "Tell me a little bit about yourself", we can literally mention anything in the entire world that we identify with and be seen as who we want to be seen as.  Depending on your identity, people will look at you differently.  If you identify as a Steelers fan (yes, I am, deal with it), people already form preconceived ideas on who you are.  Maybe they think you are a bandwagon fan and like them because they're one of the most valuable sport franchises in history.  Maybe it's their Bowl rings.  Then they may associate that to you being arrogant and stuck up.  What about music?  If you say you like country music, people form a picture in their head of cowboy boots, voices that croon along with the wolves, pickup trucks, beer, horses, and horrible relationship choices.  Heavier music paints a completely different stigma.  Skinny jeans, tank tops, chains, bracelets, long hair, and tattoos.  If you see someone dressed like that on the street don't you paint an imaginative identity on top of them?  Don't you have your own expectations on how they treat people?  How they act?  Words they say?  Maybe your identity is school.  If you go to a school like Penn State University or even Bloomsburg University (thankyouverymuch) people may associate you with different feelings.  Both are party schools, and without even getting to know the person, we paint our own phrases, identities, and stereotypes on top of people attending them.  Whether we like to admit it or not, we each have our own identity.  We have things we're passionate about.  We having things that we identify with, things that get our blood boiling, tears flowing, or emotions rising.  We have adjectives we identify with.  Things we use to describe ourselves.  This is life.  We are our own unique individual, and we are all created differently.  We all have a different identity. 
Identity has been something that has caused me much grief over the past five or so years.  When I was younger, I put my identity in relationships.  But when they were taken away, my identity was shattered.  I found out quickly how easy it was to jump from crowd to crowd.  It was simple to be part of one group and take on their characteristics and interests, but then turn around and be part of another group with completely different personalities and interests.  Frankly, in the early to mid stages of high school, I had no idea who I was.  I was whoever you wanted me to be.  Whoever got me the most friends.  Whoever made me more popular.  I was that.  If only I knew then what I know now: 

"Identity needs to be permanent for us to have a true sense of who we are."

My identity wasn't permanent.  It jumped around and changed a lot.  Towards the latter two years of high school it really started to catch up with me.  My friends all had their identities and their own hobbies.  They had things they were interested in and they pursued them.  They had ideas of where they wanted to go to school and they researched them.  They were thinking about what they wanted to be after they graduated because they had a sense of self-identity.  Me?  I was clueless.  I didn't have any consistent hobbies and I was very impulsive.  I had many ideas of what would be fun to do after high school, but none were practical or even permanent.  My college choices were dependent on where all my friends were going.  I was lost.  I didn't know who I was.  Because of that, I struggled with social anxiety.  I would occasionally have problems in public eating.  I couldn't do it.  I would be too worried about how I looked when I eat and who was looking at me.  Were they judging me by what I was eating?  Were my manners okay?  One too many times I found myself hiding the gagging that was going on in the back of my throat.  I wasn't anorexic.  I wasn't bulimic.  I was simply very insecure.
After high school, things got worse.  I entered out of my Christian school shell that I had been in the past 18 years of my life and entered into the real world working two jobs back to back.  Right out of high school I was also hit hard by C. Diff--a virus that destroys your digestive system--and was put on a vegetable and meat diet for three months.  It was embarrassing which further pushed me deeper into my insecurity.  On top of that, I was entering two worlds I had never experienced before:  1.  Workforce, 2.  The non-Christian world.  Not only was I learning how to adapt to working two jobs, but I was also shoved straight into the face of the real world.  My Christian bubble had popped and it was time for me to stand...on my own.  I couldn't do it.  Because my identity was wrapped up in making sure I looked good, money, and friends--and all those are temporary--my identity was once again shattered.
There is good at the end of my story.  Over the past two years, God has been teaching me about how irrelevant who I think I am is, and ultimately who He thinks I am.  I have learned that my identity can't be in earthly, temporary things or I will fail.  Hard. 

"My identity needs to be in a gracious Savior who looks down in incomprehensible and incomparable love at what He sees in me."

So much love, in fact, that He gave his one and only son.  For me.  (John 3:16)  He gave His life as a ransom for mine because he loved me so much that He wants to spend the rest of my life and all of eternity with me.  On that cross was where the incredible love of God was poured out on mankind through Jesus, the Son.  On that cross was where the fearsome and holy wrath of God was removed from our heads and placed on his own son.  (Ephesians 2:3) On that cross was where the nails were driven in that created the scars of my redemption on the hands of my Redeemer.  Those scars bear my name.  (Isaiah 49:16)
My identity is not only a son of God that's been redeemed by grace, but a worshiper.  My entire life now needs to be one whole act of worship and devotion in appreciation of the salvation that has been extended to me.  My life needs to be a living sacrifice, holy, and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1).  Because of that, the way of life that I am now called and devoted to live, I have been set apart, from birth, and called by grace so that I might be a witness to others.(Galatians 1:11-17)  I have been therefore set on this race of endlessly giving devotion and honor to Him.  That's my identity; that's my life.  I am by no means perfect, and I still have a lot of ground to cover, but unreachable perfection is the--I believe--standard, not requirement, that Christ has set for each of us.  So I will press on to take hold of that and strive to be all that He is calling me to be.  (Phillipians 3:12)  I will still have my days where I mess up.  I will still have my days where I blatantly choose to dishonor God and bring glory to myself.  Occasionally I will choose to satisfy my sinful nature instead of glorifying His heavenly nature, but I have been eternally purchased through blood; a transaction that cannot be undone while I am still in service to Him.  Because of this love, those mistakes I make will not be eternally held against me.  They will not be my damnation.  No, for those in Christ--for those redeemed--there is no condemnation.  (Romans 8:1)
Therefore, my identity is no longer in what I look like, how I dress, or how much hair I have on my face.  My identity is not in my popularity, how many friends I have, words I say, the figures in my bank account, or the music on my iPod.  My identity is not in the movies I watch, the facade of Hollywood stars, or the human skills of athletics or academics.  My identity is in continually submitting to God's will in my life, dying to myself (Matthew 16:24), and living to bring Him glory even when it isn't convenient or doesn't make sense. 

"My identity is in Jesus Christ.  He is the rock on which I stand.  What can mortal man do to me? (Psalms 56:4)"

 --DyingAnOriginal

Also, as an after thought.  This song just came to mind while naming this blog.  Uhh...yeah...

 All That Remains - Two Weeks

 

Blast From the Past

Started packing/cleaning to move to California and I came across a stash of old journals.  Some date back to 2006.  I found this song that I wrote in 2006 called, "The Crows Are Getting Hungry".  If I remember correctly, I wrote it out of frustration deep in the midst of a struggle with lust.  Pretty dark for a 15 year old me, but here it is:

Cut open my heart to stop the bleeding.
This black infection runs deeper than my soul.
Break the glass that keeps me from You.
Watch the blood flow; cleansing renewed.
The perfection of everything I see is a knife in my throat.
Tear these hands away from you.  Dismember if you have to
All these lies have led me down.
Now I have nowhere to go, but to drown, drown...

Drown this sickness.
Kill this perfect imperfection.
Kill my weakness.
Install my detection.
Because the blackness pulls me away from you.

Gouge out my eyes.
Dig through my brain.
Break my fingers, my demise.
Cut open my heart, let this ooze drain.
All the imperfect perfection I saw has only filled me with shards of glass.
Now I'm begging, Lord, take away cleanse me of my past!
Left with nowhere to run to, no path to be found.
I'll feel my neck break, but first I have to drown, drown...

Drown this sickness.
Kill this perfect imperfection.
Kill my weakness.
Install my detection.
Because the blackness tears my soul from you.

Let my blood run new.
Cleanse me for you.
Rewind the past, maybe I'll last.
Then I'll find, you clear my mind.

Drown this weakness.
Kill this perfect imperfection.
Kill my weakness.
Install my detection.
Because this blackness pulls me away from you.

Sacrificing our Food

Currently, my youth group is reading through 1 Corinthians in our weekly meetings.  The Corinthian duo is definitely my favorite Biblical duo when it comes to books.  There is so much packed within these two letters to the church in Corinth that it takes weeks to actually dissect and tear apart everything that Paul is pleading.  They're just so good, and if you have never spent time to read them, or even if you have read them in the past but it's been a while, go ahead and read them again because you won't be disappointed. 

The last few weeks that we've been studying 1 Corinthians, we've been spending time around chapters 5-8.  5 deals with accountability within the church.  6 talks about judgment within the church before switching gears and tackling sexual immorality.  7 speaks volumes about marriage and the life that it encompasses while also sparring with the life of singleness and the gift that it is from God.  This week's chapter, 8 is labeled as, "Food Sacrificed To Idols".  My initial thoughts when reading this for the first time were confused.  I mean, Paul just got done talking about sexual immorality and accountability while tying the subjects of marriage and being single together into one package.  Those subjects flow very well together, but then we come to chapter 8 and it seems out of place.  It seems random and haphazardly thrown in at the first glance.  It took me a few minutes to actually realize what Paul was trying to get across here.

On the surface, this passage is random.  To anyone just skimming their Bible it seems out of place and strange.  If you dig a little deeper beyond the surface, it's not really about eating food sacrificed to idols at all.  Paul is talking about the unity of believers and touching on accountability again.  It was just a mere two chapters prior to writing this that Paul wrote (6:12), "'Everything is permissible for me'--but not everything is beneficial.  'Everything is permissible for me'--but I will not be mastered by anything."  In chapter 8 he picks up that same thinking and applies it to the church as a unified body of Christ.  To really get the meat of what he is saying here, take a look starting at verse 9, "Be careful, however that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block for the weak.  For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols?  So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge."  To sum this passage up, what I believe Paul is saying here is, "What right for you may not be right for everyone else.  Be careful, because it may become a stumbling block to them."  He even rephrases what he just said in verse 13, "Therefore, if what I eat [the activities I partake in] causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."

Think of it this way.  There's two groups of friends, group A and group B, with four people total.  All claim Christ and live by His Word.  Group A goes out to eat and being over 21 orders an alcoholic drink to go with their meal.  No problem!  Drinking in and of itself is not a sin and neither of them are bound in addiction to alcohol.  Their maturity in Christ trumps all other addictions and alcohol is not a problem for either of them.  Group B now goes out into the same situation that Group A was just in.  Both are Christians walking in Christ.  One person in Group B has no problem with alcohol like Group A, and they are not bound to their worldly addictions.  Alcoholism and drunkenness is not a temptation for them.  The other person, however, is tempted by alcohol.  While drinking a drink may not be a sin, it is tempting for them to continue past the point of inebriation (which is a sin and is addressed two chapters earlier in 6:10).  Alcohol is tempting to them and it is an addiction, a struggle that they're making war with.  What Paul is saying in this passage in 1 Corinthians is that not everyone is the same.  All people are tempted by different things and everyone has their weak spot.  If you know that a brother struggles with something that you don't struggle with, don't tempt him by exercising your freedom and causing him to struggle all the more (verse 9).  Paul goes so far as to say that if you cause your brother to fall into sin and stumble (verse 12), "You sin against Christ."

So what does this mean for us today?  It all points back to the body of Christ being unified.  One of the main ways that I'm going to know the brothers I have in Christ is by spending time with them.  The more I get to know them and spend time with them, the greater the accountability we have to each other.  I find out their weaknesses, and I find out their strengths.  You don't know what someone likes or dislikes unless you actually get to know the person, and the same goes for here too.  I don't know what temptations my best friends face daily unless we're all unified together and sanctified though the blood of Christ and in fellowship with one another. 

I had to cut this blog a little short due to leaving for work in a few minutes, but that's no excuse for you not to take your own time and study this passage.  Study it, read it, and comment down below on your thoughts.

--DyingAnOriginal

Spoken Word

So this is a little spoken word that I made up on the fly one night.

Lord, teach me right from wrong. Open my heart let me sing a new song
That everyone can hear so the world will learn to fear the lord who is so near and dear to my heart. From the very start he switched up this broken man to become part of a perfect plan to set the world on fire with one desire to lift the name of Jesus higher. And higher. And higher. Your will is my way and may I never stop to say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done from heaven to under the sun" because you are the one who holds all things together like a tether to the earth for the meek and those with no worth in their own eyes that despise and ears that listen to all the lies and cries from the highs the world tries to deny. You are a haven for the broken and a refuge for those choking on the tears they've wasted throughout the years their fears spoke in their ears all the pain and disdain of this manic planet. and if I ever turn somewhere different and turn away in resentment from the ailments my human desires have lit up with fire let me burn on a pyre alone as a liar because the words I proclaim were only for fame and about my name. It's about you, lord, so let it be true that when death comes to steal that as I would kneel before your throne you would say, "welcome home."

What Do I Do With The Old Testament?

The past several years at the beginning of each year I have vowed to myself that I was going to read through the entire Bible for the first time in my life.  Each year, with good intentions, I faithfully start out on the daily plans and every morning or night I'd settle down and read the words that God had for me that day.  This may have lasted a month, maybe half a month, and I'd always get at the same place--the beginning of Exodus--before I'd accidentally miss a day.  Once I missed that day, it was all downhill from there and soon I'd be missing two days.  Then three.  Four.  Five.  And before I know it, a whole week has gone by without me opening my Bible.  Then two.  Three.  And soon enough, I'm back to my old routine without doing my devotions and allowing my apathy to create a chasm in between God and I that I would not breach. 

This year has been different, though, in several aspects.  I honestly don't know how to explain the changes that have been happening in my life except that it has to be God's hand moving and working in my life.  Last summer my time at Camp Hebron was, without a doubt, life changing, and it has pushed my life off of the top of the hill and set it in a full, down-hill sprint.  That's definitely not to say that there haven't been some rocks on the path and a few bumps in the road, but my life is screaming forward now at a breakneck speed that I never thought would happen.  God used my time at Camp last summer as a catalyst (You see what I did there?) in my life to set in motion future events and to bring me out of the life that I was living and into a new, better life.  It was January 2nd at the first night of Passion and I remember in the middle of the first worship set that evening getting this overwhelming longing for change.  I remember looking at my self (not literally, but figuratively) and saying these exact words, "Alright, Ben.  It's time to grow up.  It's time to become a man."  Coincidentally, I was reading Wild At Heart by John Eldredge at the same time.  Or not coincidentally, because I don't believe in coincidence.  From that moment on, my life has been put on a rollercoaster.  My college plans completely changed as I got accepted to Eternity Bible College.  My future plans drastically changed as I am now planning on moving permanently (Lord willing) out to Simi Valley, California.  My current life has completely changed because tomorrow is April 1st, and I am still keeping up with the One Year Bible, and there is absolutely, positively no end in sight.  When I got home from Passion I was really feeling convicted of all the time that I had wasted in front of the computer playing games the previous year and felt like God was telling me that I needed a cleansing from that.  So like any other crazy, abnormal person who is solely led by God I got rid of all my video games that I was so ensnared in and have been game-free for three months now (and loving it).  I've been listening more to myself and my thoughts and feelings, passions and hobbies.  One thing that I like doing is taking pictures, and someday I want to become really good at it, so I made the commitment (the previous Ben was awful at keeping them) to complete Project 366 this year and take a picture every day of this entire year.  I also began learning more and more guitar because it's something that God gave me to enjoy.  My parents left and are on an assignment for a year, so I'm living by myself which has helped me grow up and fend for myself in this world without holding on to the coattails of my parents.  Like I said, my life is on a fast track right now.  To where?  I have no idea, only He knows.

That was a very lengthy introduction, and if you're still tracking with me, I'd like to get into the heart of what I felt prompted to blog about this morning.  Like I said before, I've been going through the One Year Bible this year, and I'm currently in the middle of Deuteronomy.  In my previous attempts to begin devotions or complete the One Year assignment, I came to Exodus-Deuteronomy and completely lost all hope of ever reading the entire Bible.  How could anyone in their right mind slog through the seemingly endless laws, ritual requirements, commandments, and festival instructions in the Pentateuch?  To tell you the truth, it's probably one of the most boring written accounts of history that have ever been conceived, and there have been a few days where I've woken up early in the morning to get ready for school and in my groggy, half-awake state the last thing that I want to do is dive back in to reading about what would happen if your neighbor kills your uncle's dog and where he should run to, blah, blah, blah...(Note:  Not literally in the Bible).  Part of me feels guilty for saying such things about the Holy Word of God and what a gift it is to even be able to read these accounts that have been passed down over thousands and thousands of years, but the other part of me is screaming, "Give me a break!"  However, in the midst of all this I am reminded of two things that I want to hopefully pass on to you:

1.  The penalty of sin is death, and Christ's death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice for us, so that we don't have to face that penalty
I was reading this morning about how if something happened it was punishable by death and all this stuff about do's and do not's.  I couldn't help but to be reminded (how "coincidental" that it is the Easter season) of the ultimate sacrifice that was paid for all of our sins.  When Christ came to earth and died on the cross, he completely rewrote the laws of redemption.  In Old Testament times, if someone wanted to be forgiven of their sins, they had to go through all these rituals that involved sacrifices at the temple and do all this stuff to make themselves clean and holy again.  When Christ came he said, "No, guys, I'm throwing out the entire playbook and we're changing the game.  The Levite priests are no longer your mediation between God and man, and you will no longer have to go through them to seek forgiveness and redemption.  I came down to earth, I humbled myself, I died for you so that you can come straight to me."  This is the whole reason why the curtain in the temple that protected the Holy of Holies (where God's spirit previously dwelt)was ripped in two during the crucifixion.  God's spirit--read:  The Holy Spirit--was released on the world, and we now have mediation to Christ through the Holy Spirit, or Jesus Himself.  In the Old Testament the penalty for anything wrong that you may have done was death, and when Christ came down, he canceled that out and said, "It's okay guys, I conquered the grave, and I conquered death.  Every bad thing that you have done, are doing, and will do was laid on my shoulders, I took that upon myself and I took the death penalty for you.  Crazy, right?  I know.  All you have to do to accept forgiveness of sin is believe in me and accept the forgiveness that I'm giving you and lay down your life--your human desires and your earthly plans--and sacrifice what you want for what I want for you."  He rewrote the game and he changed the rules.  We no longer have to fear death if we are in Christ, because He already beat death back to the very pit of hell whence it came.


2.  God wants us to be sanctified through Him and be different from the world, even if that means looking a little different.
If you read the Old Testament laws, some of them are pretty outlandish and crazy.  My favorite is where if two men are fighting and the wife of one of them tries to intervene and grabs the other one's genitals by accident her hand has to be cut off (Not exactly sure where it's at at this very moment).  If you were an Israelite you could only eat certain animals at certain times of the year, you had to pay all these crazy sacrifices with all these crazy animals and follow all these crazy rules for all these crazy festivals.  You had to follow all these rituals for cleansing if you had mildew in your tent or if you were having your menstrual cycle or having sex or if you had a nocturnal emission.  There was all this crazy stuff that they filled four books of the Bible with it.  It reminds me of just how badly Christ wants us to be different from the world.  Some of the stuff in and by itself is not inherently bad, such as eating certain animals.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with eating these animals, but if you were an Israelite, they were forbidden by God and you couldn't eat them.  In my series that I started a while ago about hypocrisy within the church, the next topics that I want to do are swearing, drinking, and sexual activity.  Swearing is one thing that I've struggled with in the past.  I'll go more into this later, but part of me thinks that swearing is okay because it's a word just like any other word, it's the feelings behind the word that matter.  The other, greater part of me believes that swearing may not be inherently evil (like eating certain animals), but it's something that blurs the lines between us and the world.  In a world that is supposed to be black and white, Christian and Nonchristian, by swearing we're creating this fuzzy gray line right down the center.  We're supposed to be separate from the world, yet when we swear we look exactly like the world.  That's why swearing is wrong. 

So with that said, God wants us to be sanctified from the world to Him.  We're not supposed to look like the rest of the world, we're supposed to look different, and if we're doing something that may make people wonder, then we shouldn't do it.  Period.

Wow.  Well, if you're still reading this then you're a trooper, and I thank you.  It's just one more step on the journey that God has been teaching me in my life.  With all that said, I hope to catch up on my Hiding Behind The Mask series this next week, possibly even on my day off tomorrow, but we'll see.  Thank you so much for reading, and take the words that God is speaking through me to heart.

--DyingAnOriginal

Catalysts

So I finally have the next topic I want to talk about for my Hiding Behind the Mask series.  I'll hopefully work on that either today or tomorrow.  It's probably going to be a really slow week--I have off all week.  The busiest parts of my week will consist of school work and getting life together and cleaning my house.  What fun.

I recently bought a Kindle.  By "recently" I mean last week.  And I've transferred all my Kindle books over to the Kindle and have been working on downloading .PDF files of all the paperbacks I have and putting them on it as well.  It's not exactly the most legal thing to do (shh...), but I'm not stealing anything because I already own the books, so I have no problem with it.  Anyway, I started reading the book, "Tortured For Christ" by Richard Wurmbrand recently.  It's the biography (auto?) of this guy and his ministry to the Russians during WWII and all the torture and persecution that he suffered for the sake of spreading the Gospel.  I read something last night that really hit home.  I couldn't find the quote here and I have to get back to class in a few minutes, but he was talking about the difference between Russian Christians and American Christians.  When American Christians get saved, they quietly begin to go to a church and live their cushy little lifestyle, never stepping on someone else's toes and never being so outgoing or bold that they get their toes stepped on.  When Russian Christians get saved (at least in this time period) the persecution was so great and Communism was so oppressive that they weren't allowed to become Christians, yet the church was still exploding.  When they because a Christian they literally were giving up their lives and severing ties with their family, friends, children, and significant others.  They were saying that to live with Christ is worth it, even if their children become orphans or their wives become widows.  They were willing to lay down their lives for their sake of Christ on a whim because they were filled with overflowing joy of the One who saved them. 

There's a stark contrast between the two churches, and if you look at the American Christian church today, you can see the stagnancy and the obvious discontentment.  Hypocrisy is running rampant (hence, my series), there's more youth out of church or currently leaving the church than there are in church or attending.  With that said, something needs to change, and a catalyst must be placed in the river of the current stream, to direct the river of the Church to newer, more radical grounds. 

That change is us.
I am a catalyst.