Wednesday Wake Up #43

Protect Your Intake

I sometimes fall victim to my own ignorance. Yes, I can be ignorant, or at least forgetful. I like to listen to certain types of music and watch varied movies, but the root of what these songs and films represent is not what is holy and righteous. So, when I am listening to Ice Cube or watching a scary movie, what is that intake doing to my output? Do I start mimicking what I hear from Ice Cube? Do I start thinking that there is a really a boogeyman in my closet? What we watch and listen to (TV, music, movies) and who we surround ourselves with (friends, social circles) will help dictate how we think and how we communicate with others. Whether it is media or real people in front of us we know that bad company corrupts good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33). We are to make sure that those we are linked to are with us in our walk with Christ (2 Corinthians 6:14). We are responsible for what we watch, listen to and with whom we spend time. Make your decision wisely.

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1 John 3: Lawlessness and Righteousness

Lawlessness and Righteousness

When you stay entrenched in your sin and do not cease to remove from your lifestyle (intentionally) then that is what we be known as lawlessness. For instance, if the will of God is in you and you continue to get drunk and sleep with different people, then that would be an example of lawlessness. In 1 John 3:4-10, John is telling the reader specific ways of how to look at lawlessness. It can be harder for us to understand as it appears that the text is saying you can never sin. While we should do what we can and also rely on God's strength to not sin, the text is specifically speaking about intentional and continual sin that is seen as a regular part of your life. No apologies for it. I have sins such as that. The text further explains that when you have sins like that you do not know the Father (God). What sin is still in your life?

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2 Peter 2: Rescue the Righteous

Rescue the Righteous

In reading through 2 Peter, verse 9 jumps out at me. It says "the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials." This stems from the understanding in verses 4-8 regarding saving angels, saving Noah before the flood and saving Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah. Knowing that God saved those that were righteous when they were among evil, then we also see that God will save us, if we too are righteous and amongst evil, God will save us. The rest of verses 9-10 tell us "and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority." That means if you are doing wrong and living wrong God will punish you. You cannot escape God even when you use various sins to escape. God knows all and sees all.

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Philippians 4: Strength for Our Thinking

Strength for Our Thinking

As Paul ends his letter to the Philippians he sends them off with words of encouragement in the Lord. Think about how often we choose words that are not encouraging and are condemning outside of what God wants from us. I often wonder if the words people say are what God wanted from them or what they just wanted to say themselves. But, in verse 8 Paul says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." He wants us (as it is God honoring) to focus on what is righteous and not unrighteous things.

How do we do that? What power do we pull from? In verse 13, Paul says "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." He shows us the source of his strength which is not his own. He relies in God/Christ/the Holy Spirit to give him the strength he needs. It is not will power, but God power.

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Romans 10: Righteousness and Confession with the Mouth and Heart

Righteousness and Confession with the Mouth and Heart
Romans 10:3-4 tells us that righteousness apart from God is pointless. People will establish their own pseudo righteousness and not submit to God's righteousness. The only one that ends the previous view of righteousness is the acceptance of Christ. If you believe in his resurrection and that God did it, then you are free from the law and now a member of God's children.

Romans 10:9-10 tells us that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God is the one who raised Christ from the dead, then you will be saved.We can't just think of Jesus how we chose or how modern day thinking leads us to. We have to see Jesus is the right way. We have to read about his life and understand how he lived and why he lived that way. We have to understand that Jesus was God in the flesh. He was not just some teacher or some nice guy, but the living and breathing version of God. If you understand all of that and the prophecies his life fulfilled and you confess with your mouth and heart that you believe, then welcome to the family. 
 

 

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Romans 6: Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

I know that my sins are forgiven, but there are time where since I know that I "take advantage" of that and take for granted the forgiveness. That has to be put in check through the Holy Spirit. I have to do what is honoring to God because why would I want to do Him wrong? I love God, so to continue sinning and living a lifestyle of sin would be doing god's forgiveness an injustice. You don't cheat on your wife because she loves you and "let's you." If you love someone you treat them with respect and do things that honor them and your relationship with them. That is how we need to look at our relationship with God (Romans 6:1-4). 

When Jesus died for our sins, our sinful ways were supposed to go with him, not give us the open door to keep sinning since we are forgiven anyway. But that is how we tend to think. We are humans and not always as loving to God as He would like. No one always gets it right, but when we focus on doing what God would want then that helps us stay connected to His will.I was reading Proverbs 1 with a friend earlier and stopped at Proverbs 1:10 and found myself giving a testimony as to how that verse led me further away from my former life and the friends I had when i was 18 years old/19 years old. We have to die to our old ways of sin even if the world says it is okay. Just because it is legal doesn't mean that God wants you to do it (Romans 6:5-14).

We must become slaves to righteousness. God's will should take the number one spot in your life. If that spot was held before by reality TV, social media and other things that we feel we cannot do with out, let what God wants be the new way of thinking. Just like the picture above, let the old you die and let the new you live in Christ (Romans 6:15-23).

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Romans 3:23-25- Falling Short and Being Redeemed

Falling Short and Being Redeemed

There are far too many verses in scripture that we know and understand when we hear them, but we do not get the full context. Romans 3:23 is one of them for me. It tells us that we all fall short of the glory of God. This verse has been used to further one's personal agenda outside of Christ. It has been used to say we all sin (which is true) but it does not tell the rest of the story. It's like saying we all fail and that's it. End of story. It can also be comforting to know that we all fail and that you are not alone when you sin as we all sin. But what about after that?

We have to understand the context that Paul was telling fellow Jews that they were not better than others. This is in line with what Christ taught to Pharisees who were hypocrites and thought they were better than others. Righteousness does not come from obeying God's laws (such as the ten commandments). Righteousness comes from doing God's will out of loving obedience. As I have stated before, in relationships (like dating and marriage) we don't keep ourselves from cheating simply because it is not the right thing to do. Look at the essence of why it wouldn't be right. We don't cheat because of love. We love the other person. We are honoring the other person and our relationship and ourselves. But, ultimately, we should not cheat because we would be sinning against God. Righteousness is through love of God which is outside the law (ten commandments).

But how do you get redeemed to God after sinning. That redemption comes from Jesus. If you accept Jesus, the redemption comes. His blood was shed so that we don;t have to be a human sacrifice for our sins. Sin causes death in at least 2 ways: spiritual and physical. Spiritually i am separated by God when I am outside His will. Physically when I sin I could die like if I were to do drugs or something like that. So, if you sin like I do on a daily basis, you are 1) not alone and 2) redeemed to God through accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior knowing that he died for your sins.

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Romans 2: God's Righteous Judgment and the Law

God's Righteous Judgment and the Law

It is all too easy to hear what someone has done or see what someone is doing and judge them for it. Not just judge the action, but judge the person as a whole. I know it is hard to stop doing for some or even many of us, but it happens. We hear that someone got a DUI, we judge them and call them a drunk. We see people who get into trouble and label them thugs. We judge all the time and it seems like people can never shake that label that we place on them. But, God has not labeled people thugs and drunks. God's righteous judgment is not based on following rules. That is the earthly way of thinking. We follow God's laws based on our love for him.

In Romans 1 we read about the types of people and the characteristics that will bring on God's wrath. For Paul's audience, they have had heard what he said and read what he wrote and found themselves to be very proud that they were not those people who were gossips, prideful, homosexual, heartless and ruthless. But, Paul seeks to set them straight by pointing out that the same ones who are proud to not be "like the others" are just like the others. Paul says in Romans 2:1, "For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." If you know the law and do not keep it, then you have no right to tell someone else that they are wrong for not keeping it. If I stood before the judge for a speeding ticket and that same judge tried to maximize my fine and give me jail time while having a speeding issues of his/her own, then I would not respect that judge because they too know the law and have to uphold it while holding me in contempt for my mistake or bad decision. This is what the Pharisees did. They knew the law and help people to that standard while over looking their own failures.

We know in Romans 2:11 that God shows no partiality when it comes to nationality, race or color of skin or nation of origin. We also must know that if you have sinned without the law (God's law of love Him and loving others and being redeemed through Christ) then you die without the law. And if you sin under the law, you will be judged under the law (Romans 2:12).

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Romans 1: God's Wrath on Unrighteousness

Righteous and Unrighteousness

In today's world there is a belief that righteous and unrighteousness can be understood outside of the word of God. The infallible word of God shows us what it is to be righteous and to do righteous things as well as what it is to be in unrighteousness. In Romans 8:16-17, Paul explains to us that he is not ashamed of the Gospel (of Christ) and it brings salvation (the ticket to Heaven) for those who believe in Christ, no matter what race or ethnicity. Because of our faith that is how we are classified as righteous. We don't just believe and follow Christ and keep doing what we were doing and living as we lived before we followed Christ. Our faith in him is just the beginning, as through faith we will be driven by the Holy Spirit to do good things to honor God.

Now here comes the part that the world will disagree with. I write this in conjunction with my reading and learning not ton condemn, but to share what I have learned and show from where said learning was delivered. Unrighteousness brings about God's wrath. Those who are unrighteous bring forth that wrath because they suppress the truth. Paul goes on to tell us that even though people knew or knew of God, they did not honor God as God nor did they thank him. God gave people up to their own desires since they were not bringing honor to God anyway. So, even though something that fills your heart and mind seems brought on by God, it may not be if it isn't God honoring. You could just be getting what you wanted  and there fore your path will self destruct (Romans 1:18-24).

In verses 26-31, Paul shows us what kind of characteristics in people he is referring to. He starts off with those engaged in homosexual activity. While I have heard and read differing takes on the Bible and homosexuality, none of them match up to the other sections in terms of the Bible not being opposed to homosexuality. People have said "Jesus didn't say anything about being gay." But, Jesus also didn't specifically say anything about bestiality or marrying your cousin, but no one brings that up. The world wants to normalize and feel good about homosexuality and calls our Bible antiquated while over looking the spirit of their hearts and the real reason they feel that way. Paul tells us that they were given up to hate and evil and malice and gossip and deceit. God wants you to seek Him and put Him and His word first. When we don't do that, things will fall apart.

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Wednesday Wake Up #13

The Obedience of Noah

You remember Noah. He built the ark and put all the animals on it 2 by 2. The earth was flooded and he saved his family.

We tend to forget why Noah did all of this. If you read Genesis 6:5-7, you will see how God was disappointed in the world and the evil in the hearts of people and decided to start over. Yes, God was planning to start the human race over. There was one person God found favor in. That one person was Noah (Genesis 6:8).

Noah was a righteous man who walked blamelessly among the people (Genesis 6:9). God told Noah about His plan and told Noah what he needed to do in order to be spared (Genesis 6:13-21). Noah had a choice. He had a choice to either follow what God said or to ignore it and just do what everyone else is doing. But instead, Noah did what God commanded (Genesis 6:22).

I don't want to overlook the grace of God either. God did not have to find favor in Noah. But, since Noah was obedient and serving God's will in his life, God spared him. We must learn that in all that we do, we must be obedient to God. God does forgive unlike many of us who do not. But, He wants us to come to Him and seek that forgiveness. He doesn't expect perfection, He just wants us to do what He says.

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Matthew 13:49-50

Matthew 13:49-50 "So it will be at the end of age. The angels will come out & separate the evil from the righteous & throw them into the fiery furnace."  commentary- When Jesus explains the parables of the sowers, treasure, pearl of  great value, he is saying that those who will enter heaven are those who followed him & obeyed God's will. "The fiery furnace" which we understand is hell is where the evil/disobedient will go at the end of age. Jesus's words were not & are not to be taken lightly. You will see through much of scripture a common theme is "do God's will." Got it?

Matthew 6:1

Matthew 6:1 "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in  order to be seen by them..." commentary- Along  with the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6 contains a deeper look into what we do & our intent. There  are times that we do things to be noticed. Whether it is clothes, hair, makeup, jewelery or possessions, we have to question our own motives. Are we doing it for God or to be noticed by others? God's approval is the only approval that matters.