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.