Prostitutes First

Today I read a blog on John Pipers website called www.desiringgod.org. The blog was written so that we may see how things happen. http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1532_Prostitutes_Go_in_Before_Priests/
*please check it out...it is short and good. We look at priests and those leaders that are seen as pharisee and we can immediately relate. Check this out

The Parable of the Two Sons
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and lthe prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

We see these pharisetical preachers on tv and we hear about the guys that send the offering plate around twice during the service at church. We hear about "say these words and you are saved" churches and we see people claim that if you buy their book it will give you a better life. We hear preaching about God's blessings and how He will give us health and wealth. God is all about prosperity and healing those people in the crusades to show on tv but we never hear much feedback about the people that were healed. We hear "Come just as you are and where you stand and God will accept you without change" messages. There is so much and whenever I read that blog I realized what this all was about. These pharisetical people that are hollaring all of these things are just like the leaders of Jesus time. Jesus is the stumbling block for them and they are causing other people to fall into this huge crevasse which only God can deliver them from. As I read it I saw how ministers make a mockery of the name of Christ by saying this false gospel. The blog was right... prostitues and tax collectors, sinners of every kind will go before those priests and preachers and teachers that are pharisetical.

Behold, the Lamb of God
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

So with that we have to look at the truth in the word before us, if the sinners that are down trodden are the ones that are part of His kingdom before the priests and leaders...what does that mean? It seems that humbleness and realization that we, ourselves, are depraved and only have the right to teach things to others because God gives us that ability. We are only saved because we repent and give our life to Christ. The gospel in a nutshell is "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand!" How do you repent when everything is about yourself? When you see everything wrong with other people but you are on your high horse how will you understand this. So with this I honestly say this, very few leaders in churches completely teach this and most people you will see on tv do not. If they are false and do not truly have the Holy Spirit in them, it seems what that scripture is saying is that they are not saved. Do not be deceived by the words coming from their mouths, for in the end we will hear those with messages that tickle our ears and we will hear from wolves dressed in sheeps clothing. We must turn to ourselves though. What is this repentance about? What needs to happen to be saved? How do the prostitutes come first and the other sinners? It is because they are humbled in the sight of the Lord where they see through the Holy Spirits conviction the way God sees them, helpless and full of sins of every kind. Because of this we realize we must fall face down before God and plead to Christ to make us new and turn away from our life before. We must deny ourselves and make Christ our representative to God. We may be the chief of sinners but if we realize that and give it to God and repent He will in turn save us and give us the Holy Spirit that will change our lives. Jesus is on the thrown right now at the right hand of God, meaning He is king. He is Messiah, He is the one that took our sin on His shoulders. What that means for everyone is that you can come out of that seperation from God when you repent and ask Jesus to take over and be king over your life and you are able to serve Him right now. Some kind of realization must occur for everyone to see that we are never good enough for God and only through His Son are we able to get to God. This blog is long...however the message is amazing. I hope it helps......

Seriously!?!

Ok, so I checked this story out on Yahoo! News and it is whack.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_us/calling_in_gay;_ylt=AmrARXb2kFwsK2GI9wnT6IbZn414

This news feed is mind boggling as to how crazy things get...and everyone sits back and does nothing about it. What if heterosexuals called in and said, "I am sorry I can't come in, I am straight." If a homosexual has a job apparently he hasn't been discriminated against at the work place because he/she has the job (though inside we don't know what happens). So why do something that could hurt the people around them at their place of business or work? It is somewhat selfish to me, I can see doing protests to try to equal yourselves if you are discriminated against, however how does that work? I believe that homosexuals should not be treated different at the job nor any other place because they are simply gay. I believe they should have every right in every situation that a heterosexual does, however marriage is that one thing that I can't say that I agree with. Partnerships for now are the things going on and honestly that is cool. Marriage is between man and a woman. If it was left up to homosexuals to keep the world going it couldn't happen simply because you can't procreate. That should have a little evidence in it. Homosexuals should not be treated as the chief of sinners either. Tell me what the difference is between a guy living with his girlfriend having sexual acts going on and looking at porn everyday and a gay guy/girl? If you are openly defiant of God in either way it seems that you are going against God and the book of Hebrews in God's word tells of that. That would mean that you do not take the sacrifice of the blood of Christ seriously and make a mockery of it and it says that the sacrifice will be null and void. For most of my life I spent it being a homo-phobe and didn't just hate the sin, but the sinner in that point. Now I have grown in mental capacity and realized it's only because of God that my sin is gone and I was in the same situation as them or any other sinner....LOST. Until God showed me the way. We are ALL detestable in God's sight and need to be made right by Jesus blood and trusting in Him as our King and Messiah and led to repentance. So with that in mind how can we single out homosexuality as this huge sin that is detestable to God.....like its the only one.


ROMANS 1
Unbelief and Its Consequences
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
25For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
27and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
29being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,
30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
32and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
ROMANS 2
1Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.
2And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
3But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
4Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
5But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
6who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:
7to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;
8but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
9There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,
10but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
11For there is no partiality with God.
12For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;
13for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
14For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,
15in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
16on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

I Am Second

I don't know that you have seen any of the billboards that are around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area that say http://www.iamsecond.com. They may be in other areas, but I suggest that you check the site out. The sight is definitely cool so go see it!!! There aren't just the first videos that you see on the first page, but you can go deeper and see more and see questions answered. Some of these folks on the site are very well known and I think that you will like the videos there.



Soooo.....much love to you folks!!!

Really Easy...

I have nothing to say but praise God. He is everything great that we can imagine. He is everything good. God gives us everything good that we don't deserve. Just listen and you will know why I am speechless.

Wow...Can I Even Say Anything???

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Please watch that video. I watched it with an expectancy of it being pretty hardcore against the way I live and the beliefs that I have. In the middle of watching it and being surprised that a lightning bolt didn't strike down some of those guys something hit me.....why would a lightning bolt come down and hit those guys? Sheesh! Going back to the blog I posted the other day and our narcolepsy in this world as Christians, I can see that for some of us we are ok with it all. Wow. I was thinking how horrible it was and how I can't believe that we let people get away with that, but who is to stop them or even say anything? The true believers of our King don't step out and handle it in the way that they should. Instead we have the guys that completely make Christ look horrible out there with "God Hates Fags" signs and other things of that nature. The true believers are asleep at the wheel once again... I wonder what would happen if the followers of Christ truly did the biblical thing. Would it be different? In the end it does not surprise me that Jack Black would play such a part. I hate knowing that I have enjoyed some of his movies and will be praying for him to come to the Lord. One movie that I liked of his was School of Rock and it was funny. To bad I will never be able to fully support his funniness. I hope that in the future people will frown upon videos that are made like this one. Let me know what you think....

I am not even going to hit the homosexuality thing right now...that is for another blog...

I Am Lost For Words

please play the song and read the lyrics...




In the quiet of my soul
In the stillness I hear Your voice call
And I am overwhelmed
And I am lost for words
To describe You

Jesus You're more than a friend
Jesus You're more than my heart
Could ever express
Your love and Your grace never fail me
Your merciful touch always heals me
You bring joy to my soul, joy to my soul

My heart longs to worship You my king
And I long to bring You a pleasing offering
And I am overwhelmed
And I am lost for words
To describe You
______________________________


That song by Jeremy Riddle has baffled me lately. The entire Full Attention album has been amazing. I recommend it to anyone! http://www.jeremyriddle.net/


Lately God has done amazing things in my life and I have been baffled. There are many things that I am still finding my way through, but it has nothing on me because of the awesomeness of God. I read something the other day that talked about us as Christians and believers short changing God and how we need to view things from His perspective. "The way that we continually talk about our own inabilities is an insult to our Creator." In other words claiming "I shouldn't claim to be sanctified, I am not a saint" is the same as saying, "God you can't sanctify me or save me, it's impossible." So next time you say something of that nature think about that. We don't deserve to be saved or to gain the things that we do but it is all about God and what He is doing. I am so stoked about God and what He is doing, and I am at a loss of words or emotion for what I am seeing. Lord keep reigning in my life and I pray prayer for impossible things to happen in my life. You are more than I can even imagine in goodness, mercy and grace.

Are We Asleep?

First of all, check out this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzyGDOmGpm4

Either you thought that was funny or completely stupid...but if you are like me you thought that it had a hint of cuteness and funniness to it. I kinda laughed at it the first couple times I saw it. Poor Rusty. Anyways, that video about the poor little narcoleptic dog Rusty is not what this blog is about. This blog is about the fact that we as Christians are in a condition that we don't even care about. We have gotten to a stage in our lives where everything seems ok to us and we are on chill mode. We are asleep at the wheel of a moving car. Why don't we care? Are we that self centered that we don't see that we are narcoleptic and that the very things of the world puts us in a sleep or a funk that we don't care to get out of? So maybe that was a dumb video to lead into my blog, but seriously where are we going? There are all different types of people that will read this blog and the question is still there. Where are we going? Are we still in love with the Messiah that took us out of bondage (if we are followers & believers of Christ)? Or are we reverting back to the sin nature we were entangled in before we were saved? Are we going to sin or going towards righteousness? We must face the facts. The church in America has serious issues and is found to be incredible and not even close to the first source people run to in need. The church has a bad reputation because of ministers, bible students, "Christians" that are asleep at the wheel. When will we wake up? When will people begin to see the hurt and the misery of the world? When will we see the people that are abandoned in their life and calling out in need of help? Who is going to reach out and share the gospel? Who will reach out and take care of those people physically, mentally, and spiritually? Right now the American church has overwhelmingly answered that with, "Sorry, I can't help because I need to preach about prosperity or health and wealth." Right now American churches have answered with, "I can't help because that is not my calling, I only feel led to music *or another ministry*" What about this, "I want to help, I just don't have the time." My question still remains, where are we going? From what I can read in churches around the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex and on the tv waves our calling to help people only comes at the price that they come to our $50 million building that we have built with all of the greatest technology that encompasses everything you can think of imaginable. The churches on tv give a resounding "send money to us" anthem to help their ministry keep going and then you hear a false gospel preached within the next 5 minutes. Where are we going? Right now it seems we are asleep, and America is digressing into a moral decline that is near impossible to get out of. We *true followers of Christ* that understand the gospel and the message of the word of God know that we have a King to serve and that we are not called to be American Christians, but radical believers in Jesus that serves Him unselfishly. This service does not mean that we always have money in the wallet, even though it may happen. This service does not mean that we always have the most awesome technology, though we can. This service does not even mean that we have to invite someone to our church to reach out and do ministry, but requires our dedication to the one that saved us from the bondage of sin and depravity that we could not get out of. We must realize that our nature is to always go back to the life that we had before or to go astray from God but we must fight it with everything we have. God is there with us, when we are losing the battle we just have to ask for wisdom and faith and He will give to us generously what we ask for (James 1). We must keep marching forward and with that in mind we must start living our lives personally for Jesus and carry it to the church. Church is not a place we go to to get amped up on Jesus for the rest of the week, but a place we come to to collectively worship together and fellowship. Every believer has a duty and calling to ministry in some form or fashion, so what is yours? Think outside the box, not just some American way of thinking...but think of innovative ways that God has spiritually gifted you in to reach out and do it with no setbacks. If we don't start acting in truth and share the true gospel then the country is going to be going down in a hurry. Lord wake us up! WAKE UP PEOPLE!
WATCH--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ0A0xbORPU

LYRICS FROM SHAWN MCDONALD'S HOLD ON
Another day gone by
And again I ask myself why
I question my sanity
Why I believe what I believe
Some might think that I am crazy
For believing in something I cannot see
So won't You now
Hold on to me, hold on Hold on to me, yeah
Please don't let me go no, no, hold on
'Cause I am prone to wonder
Prone to leave this faith I know
Hold on
And now they say that the wise man
Well, he fears the Lord
And this fear, well, it's the beginning of all wisdom
And I must be a fool
'Cause I sure don't seem to fear You
'Cause the very things that You will me to do
ell, I just don't seem to get around to
The very things that You hate
Are the very things that I always stumble into
Hold on Hold on
Hold on Hold on
'Cause I am prone to leave this faith I know
Prone to leave this God I love
Won't You hold on
Won't You hold on to me

....so guys we are prone to leave God in our sinful nature, but we must press forward in the righteousness that He has now called us to. Romans 6...check it out. Please wake up to the fact that we are letting the church die and the message of our Savior be marred. We are letting people share a false gospel that is taking people to an eternity without God. Realize that our hope is only in the Lord and nothing else in this world and our service to Him is first priority.

Much Love!