James 2

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

So often through the scriptures, people (even the disciples) ask “either/or” questions. Yet, countless times God’s word throws humanity for a curve ball. We always expect the simple “it’s this way or that way” answer, but God challenges us one step further. I have added scripture links throughout this post so that the Word of God can shine and that it’s not my answer.

Recently another question arose that was similar to the question posed in James chapter 2. The question was:

“What is more important, Salvation or Free Will?”

Needless to say, that’s a tough question. On the one hand, it would be easy to say “salvation” is more important because it’s the gift of eternal life. The argument then becomes, well why didn’t God just make us all “saved” and forget about the free will if His desire is for everyone to be in relationship with Him?

If we focus on the question alone, that’s where we miss the important message. I had the opportunity to go through a study called “The Truth Project” that helped focus on how to study the Word, as well as teaching Christians how to think outside the box that we’ve put God in.

Mankind was God’s shining creation that He wanted to display His glory through us. He didn’t do that for the angels. According to scripture, Angels are ministering spirits to those that believe. Yes the Angels proclaim God’s glory, they serve God “day and night,” but unless I’m mistaken…there’s no scripture that talks about the Angels “loving” God. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love everything He created…but Love is something that is a result of a choice, not just a requirement or something forced.

The Word says we are co-heirs with Christ. That means we, as believers, are a part of His family. The angels cannot claim that. In Heaven we will share, with Christ, all that Heaven has. We will sit on His throne with Him. The angels were created to minister to God and man, but we won’t be angels in heaven, we will have new bodies and new life.

So yes we’ve established that Man has choice and the angels don’t have free will. Let’s define “salvation” then.

Yahashua (spelled different depending on translations) is where we get “Jesus” from. Yahweh means “He who causes to be” …or more simply, He’s the creator. Yahashua means “He who comes in the name of the one who causes to be.”

More literally, Jesus’ name is literally translated as “salvation.” Throughout all of scripture Jesus claims that He is salvation. Not once does He say that there’s any other way to get to God. So in laymen terms Jesus=Salvation.

So the question then becomes, what is more important to God, Free Will or Jesus? In reality we only have to get beyond one obstacle of faith to allow the truth to settle in. Yes, by all means God could have forced us to be just like the Angels, no suffering, no trials, no choice. The reality of the matter is that God didn’t do that. Not God couldn’t do that…God chose not to do that. He allowed contrast (good and evil) so that we would know the infinite depth of God’s goodness. He allowed it so that we would have a way to understand WHY we need Him, not just THAT we need Him.

So here’s the kicker:

Love is the component that is missing from the original question. One would argue that God doesn’t love man because He sends people to Hell and didn’t just save everyone. Hell was created for Satan and people choose that. God did not choose that for us. So by creating us in His image, gifting us with the Holy Spirit, and desiring to bring us as close as possible (within the trinity of God), He is demonstrating one of the key characteristics of who He is. God IS Love. Christ IS Love. The very character of God IS Love. So that being said, there’s one more piece that can answer the “what is more important…free will or salvation…and it’s in one simple passage of scripture.

John 8:58

What I find interesting today within the churches (yes little “c”) of the world, is that we forget that we are also part of the Church that Jesus Christ established in His time. The Church that He used the desciples as initial building blocks all the way in Acts chapter 2. If you haven’t read the passage, I suggest you check it out. It’s pretty awesome. The first days of the church, started with 120 people (maybe) and exploded with over 3,000 new members with the first call from Peter.

Peter’s message starts with telling everyone in the crowd…that the disciples aren’t drunk. As a side note, how is it that we’re so stupid sometimes? I’m sorry…but if I heard 12 dudes talking in my language, and everyone around me heard it in their own language…being drunk would NOT be one my first assumptions.

Anyway, right after all of that, Peter shifts gears and begins telling the truth of Jesus’ life and death, and the crowd was cut to the heard and asked “what do we do?”

Now in the American church, the answer would have been “open your bulletin and fill out the comment/commitment card, join a small group, begin confirmation classes, and tithe.” This isn’t to say that any of those things are inherently bad, but Peter’s answer was straight to the point and to the truth of what Christ seeks. He said “ ³⁸Repent 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. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Here are the next two awesome things that happened:

⁴¹ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

THREE THOUSAND in ONE DAY! As Louie Giglio put it…that was DAY ONE of the Church and three thousand were won to Christ because the TRUTH was spoken that cut straight to the hearts of men. It wasn’t flowered up, there were not commitment cards, classes, services, etc. Everyone was baptized, and they began selling possesions to help one another, just because they could. Not necessarily because they were instructed to by teachers, but because their hearts were moved to service Christ fully.

And it didn’t stop there!

⁴⁶ And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

EVERY DAY the Lord added to the numbers of those who were being saved. So we started with 120, blew up to 3,000 and then every day someone was added to the kingdom. Even if that was one person a day…in one year that was 365 people, and there are churches that couldn’t say that 30 were added to the kingdom.

It seems that there is a battle going on between the number of worshippers in a [c]hurch service, vs the number of believers added to the [C]hurch. What I mean, is that it seems like those who believe in Christ are the biggest advocates for Christ, but also potentially the biggest obstacles for others to come to Christ. When we’re all busy disagreeing about the different ways we understand Christ, we are wasting time when we could be winning others for the kingdom. Granted there are things we should challenge eachother in, but at the end of the day, whether I call myself baptist, methodist, catholic, presbyterian, so on and so forth, doesn’t matter. To me that’s the same as saying “elbow, knee, hand, face.”

Man cannot reach God merely through our own efforts...

Whether we believe in the same doctrine, like one disciple more than another, read scriptures with more or less awe, dance, clap, remain reverent, etc. none of those things define or connect us. As Peter so clearly stated in Acts, Jesus…is the common ground we all have.

He's the ONLY way

If you love Jesus, serve Him, understand Him a little differently but want the same result where His Kingdom reigns here on earth, then I’m on your team. I will stand beside you in the same armor. I may fight differently, but I will stake my life on Christ right next to you.

Be fueled by His fire and rock this world with how you Love others. That’s the stamp we need to leave on this world with our lives. Leave our story of Love behind, not paper, money, and things that will pass away. Leave behind His story, lived out through you.

[Be the Acts 2 Church. No holding back. No excuses. No commitment cards. Just your life.]

Just FYI the greek word for “Love” that’s used here when we are commanded to have love for one another is from agapao from agape…it’s unconditional love. A love that doesn’t require from someone else.

Let’s love without a response or requirement from others, and do so that they may know that we are HIS. How awesome to have His emblem burned into our hearts that others can see through acts of selflessness.

Although hard to do, giving up selfishness in all areas of life, communication, relationships, etc. is necessary in order to truly surrender to God’s will…that we might stop being at war with Him.

Serve.Love.Agape

Sadly, this post isn’t about the 90′s a capella R&B group.

Over the last few decades the term “Man” has been loosely used for individuals that are 18 and/or have moved out of their homes into the “real” world.  While this may be true of how the world views a “man”….that’s not all the requirements God has.

*These next lines are my personal thoughts and do not necessarily reflect anything beyond that*

Lately, I’ve been taking note of the fact that Men are no longer the ones leading in several different areas of life. No, I am not suggesting that a woman leader is a bad thing, nor am I alluding to the biblical reference where a woman should not speak in church. What I AM saying is that we let the women do all the ministry work these days. This is not to say that men aren’t willing/able or even desire to lead, but it would seem that it’s easier not to.

In relationships, guys no longer lead the way in pursuing, courting, dating, or anything where sacrifice of pride is required for this area. We are in a time where women get to ask out guys, get to pursue, and in all fairness, that’s NOT how God designed us. In Genesis, God says that woman will desire the position of her husband (authority and leadership) though man will be the head of her.

My thoughts on this are plain and simple: when women pursue and take away man’s opportunity to BE a man…then it’s safe to say that it should be no surprise to a woman when she finds that she is dating a “silly boy” rather than a “man after God’s own heart.”

I grew up in a youth group where the girls waited for us to open doors and even made us do it if we forgot. They challenged us to be the men we are supposed to be and held us to standards that seemed impossible to reach at the time. They made us WANT to be like Christ. They loved Jesus so much that we wanted to just BE like Him so that a girl would just notice us. Not exactly the right motives, but in Proverbs it states that wisdom leads to life and also a wife of noble character. So that being said, even if the initial intentions were wrong, we were being pushed to know Christ…even if we didn’t realize it.

So why is it that girls get offended these days when chivalry shows back up, when a man does something nice for them? Why do so many women feel as though they are treated as “inferior” because of a simple gesture of respect? I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a girl say “I can get the door, I’m not helpless.”

Chivalry: It's a good thing, not a sexist battle.

So for any woman of God reading this, I have one thing to say: Let the men in your life be men. Let them lead, let them learn how to serve you in love and respect so that they don’t resort to doing stupid things to get your attention. Teach men to be respectful. Don’t dress so that you “attract” them. To put it bluntly, if you dress like you want to take him home with you, then expect to attract guys that want to treat you like a piece of meat, rather than the beautiful creation of God that you are.

Long story short (back to the topic of men being men), as I continue to serve at Africa Inland Mission, I see that in short-term missions 80% of the missionaries are female and 20% are guys. I know that most guys and youth groups are up for serving for 2 weeks all over the world, but when it comes to longer-term investments, it would seem that in the United States (I work with the US Mobilizing Region of Africa Inland Mission) more girls/women are willing and able to give up everything for the Lord and less guys are in respect to certain needs. Now if the words “construction” or “youth/sports/camp” come into play, then it’s all guys.

I challenge any guys that are actively reading this post to look through scripture and start in the 4 Gospels where Jesus sent out disciples to different areas and see how many of them were women. Again, no, I am not suggesting women should sit at home…what I am saying …is COME ON GUYS!! We should be leading the numbers or at least competing for them. I know this may sound weird, but if you are a Christian guy, looking for a Christian girl to be a part of your life someday, you have to want Jesus more than she does (or at least tell yourself that). You have to seek Him with EVERYTHING so that you would be worth of a woman of God. Do you realize that she, that woman of God, BELONGS to HIM and that if you want to even stand a chance at taking care of her while you are both on earth…that you need to be more than a childish boy/college boy for ever..you need to be a MAN?

Take a cue from the women of this world and rise up. Share your faith with confidence, do so in spite of ridicule, serve in places where you can do nothing but trust God for everything, and most of all, love all that you come in counter with. God says, they (the world) will know us by our Love. Be what God designed you to be. If there was ever anything to direct our greatest flaw (Pride) to…it’s God. Walk in His ways PROUDLY and HUMBLY…knowing that you BELONG to Him and that nothing else in this world matters if your relationship with Him isn’t solid.

Be Men Not Boys. Serve. Love. Protect Hearts. Guard Wisdom. Don’t Settle For Comfort.

Be HIS

³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.^[b]

James 5:12

Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.

Both Matthew (5:37), and James (5:12) state that swearing oaths by heaven or earth …isn’t something we’re supposed to do. We are simply supposed to let our “yes” be yes, and “no” be no.

Ironically this is one of the things many people have trouble doing. When asked a question that requires a tough decision, many people avoid saying yes or no to either save face, protect their feelings, or protect the feelings of another.

In James, much of the book talks about the power of the tongue and how it wields both life-giving properties as well as death. That being stated, I think that while many people take answers like “no” as answers of death, they actually produce perseverance and life. It’s the gray area that causes stagnant living and death.

I think Revelation 3:16 (Aramaic translation) puts it best:

“And you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I am going to vomit you from my mouth.”

God would rather you pick a side of the fence than straddle it. In fact, He says that he will VOMIT (powerful expression) you from His mouth. Imagine, being able to make the creator of EVERYTHING so sick because of your lack of being cold or hot, that He, the most powerful, might, conquering being in the universe….would vomit you out.

There’s a lesson to be learned about answering life’s questions with a yes or a no…but it doesn’t end there.

After answering, if we go back to chapter 1 in the book of James it says this:

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

It says to live by what the word says. So if we apply this to the “yes” or “no” challenge for the day…it would seem that God gave us everything in black and white. The gray areas of life are what make Him want to vomit us out of His mouth. Interestingly enough, a lot of people live in gray areas hoping that one day things will figure themselves, where God has basically stated that we humans are the ones creating the gray area and He can’t stand it.

Today’s challenge is to live a life on God’s side of the fence rather than straddling the “gray” fence that we might honor God and honor one another with our words and our deeds.

Let your “Yes” be yes and your “No” be no.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹²For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; ¹⁷and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, ¹⁸praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints”

It’s easy to just read these words over and over again and miss out on their full meaning. There is a supernatural battle going on for the souls of man and as flesh and blood we have no way to combat that of our own accord.

In Romans 1:1 Paul declares,

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called
as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God”

What is so awesome about these two passages is that they tie together in a very powerful image. What we translate as “bond-servant” is not “slave” or a worker etc. The greek word actually translates as “valliant warrior.”

That gives us as Christians a whole new insight to how God wants us to stand for His name and how He wants to use us. Knights, in feudal times, are the best depiction of what Paul is referring to. Knights served their Lords and they did so as bond-servants. Lords entrusted Land and even money to their Knights and in return, Knights would give a portion of their return as well as their service in the military. When called upon to serve at a moments notice, Knights would ready themselves for battle.

The best part is, there were a LOT of Knights under the command of these Lords.

Is that not a great picture of a piece of our relationship with Christ? He is our Lord and we are all his Knights/bond-servants who get to wear His FULL armor, branded with His insignia, and fight in HIS army against the supernatural forces around us.

That being said, His full armor is the only thing that can protect us from the forces of the evil one. On top of that, we only have one attack weapon: The Sword which is His word.

There’s more….

John 1:1

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Needless to say, our only attack weapon …is Jesus Christ. While painfully obvious in some ways, we also tend to miss this quite a bit. Our attack and defense are Jesus Christ. It’s not how well we polish our armor, or how well we prepare. It’s not how smart we are, how much of the word we know (though all these things definitely help and are acts of obedience).

The real battle is coming to an understanding that we know nothing.

We are holding but a thimble of water (our knowledge of God) next to the endless, infinite ocean that is God’s knowledge.

1 Corinthians 1:25

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

We have an awesome God and that’s an infinite understatement. Don’t forget that and always remember, that is infinite and powerful as this God is…He LOVES us and wants to be so intimate with us that there’s no comparison to anything else.

How incredible.

Worship.Obey.Serve.Love

It’s been amazing to see what God can do with 5 or 6 mediocre guys. Not only does He bring people together…but it’s much more than that. God has allowed mankind to express themselves without having to use words, and yet the odd thing is, that we understand eachother better because it is as if we are speaking from our hearts rather than our heads and lips.

There is so much that God is, that I will never understand, but always be astonished by. It is sad however to see places that call themselves “churches” be so easily deceived by acts of Satan. “Centering Prayer” has recently been adopted at my place of worship, and though this sounds like it could be something biblical, it is definitely not….and it is painful to see those that claim to love Christ…so easily distracted by this. Just as Israel created a golden calf while God was chillin with Moses on the mountain, several churches are doing the same thing with false doctrine and with things that appear to be Christlike….yet are not.

Scripture says that Satan will come as an angel of light…not as a pitchfork demon out for blood.

As a co-worker of mine put it, “Satan will tell you that hell has an awesome golf course….but he doesn’t tell you until after you’ve added your membership that this golf course is made of lava, full of sulfur and the golfballs hit YOU rather than you hitting them.” Though a rather funny analogy, it is a very true point. Satan will mirror Christ so closely that it will seem as though we are following Love…but then will take us off by one degree of truth…and one degree which we all know can be the difference between a space shuttle landing on the moon vs. missing completely…is all Satan needs to win a battle.

It has been a difficult road deciding where to worship. No longer do I desire to lead or share gifts with the place I have come to resent. When I returned to my home church for a visit, I felt no attachment and did not miss “big” church…as there was rarely any truth spoken there anyway.

I found Christ more in a small bible study for two weeks, where truth wasn’t afraid to be spoken, than in 8 years of sermons from those afraid to shepherd. Society has taught our leaders that the way church works is that a pastor is merely at church to say “jesus loves you” and then direct small groups to lead. Scripture shows time and time again, all the disciples AND Jesus…doing just the opposite. Jesus spoke truth to those who “had ears to hear” and those that needed to expound upon ideas or have truth explained to them simpler…came to Christ after class was over and asked the teacher questions.

THAT is how we are supposed to speak truth. Speak it plain, and speak it in God’s power, and feed the people meat. Why do God’s people compromise for the sake of bureaucracy and high church attendance for monetary profit? Is that not the same money-changing that Christ knocked over in the temple?

Frustration is hard to deal with. David had 5 rocks, and yet probably knew he only had to throw one to defeat Goliath. I feel as though I am staring at a great evil in my home town, personally offended that this great “warrior” would dare mock my God and spit in His face, yet I do not know whether to throw this rock I hold in my hand….or whether this rock is from God at all. Am I searching for this of my own will or is God still teaching me how to use a sling on the bear and the lion before a giant is to be felled?

I find that I am thirsty, craving truth, craving passion for God’s Word, yet finding it difficult to locate the body of Christ. The Church (big C) is rising up, though scattered, and I long to stand ready in the armor of God, yet it is getting harder and harder to find the warriors Christ has placed on this earth. Where is the one that healed the blind with mud, that He might do the same to all those that have been blinded by lies? I long for His return….

Prayers, patience, guidance are all my prayers for the days to come.

As of late I’ve been in the book of Exodus and I’m just baffled at what God did for the Israelites. A passage that keeps showing up is that of Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest” (amplified bible). 

What I think is incredible is the fact that just 5 verses later we have this from our Lord: 

And the Angel of God Who went before the host of Israel moved and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before them and stood behind them, Coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. It was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, but it gave light by night to the Israelites; and the one host did not come near the other all night. [Exodus chapter 14 verses 19-20].

God literally came between Israel and their enemies and held them off with supernatural power. I can’t imagine what the Egyptians must have been thinking as they were standing in the presence of God, watching their former slaves walk through a parted sea while a pillar of fire, along with the Angel of God, blocked them from pursuit of Israel. 

How incredible is that?! He wasn’t kidding in verse 14 when He said we need only be still. God is basically saying “get out of my way…I got this.” We tend to try and handle things ourselves, yet we are so short sighted. We fail to see where the power truly lies and where the path of safety is. It isn’t until we cry out to Abba that we then are told “move.” It is out of our obedience that God’s power and Love can be displayed. 

Someone put it to me like this: Love is a fruit and obedience is the labor that allows more Love to be grown. Christ is Love and when we are obedient to Him/His father, then we allow God to move in and through us.

We bind ourselves to things of this world and then grumble when God frees us. We see His power, we know His strength, yet when hardships come, we forget everything we’ve learned until we have been brought to our knees. Why does it have to be this way? I also think this is why at times we feel as if we don’t hear or feel God. If He always spoke to our hearts the same way, we would learn to ignore Him. When He speaks in different ways, we learn to yearn for Him and long to recognize His voice again. 

Going back to Exodus, I guess I just want to point out one thing that struck true for me while reading this passage. God was, is, and is to come. What I mean by that is: God never changes [ever]. So the same God that supernaturally defended the Israelites is the same today. His power has not diminished, it has not changed, it has not swayed. He will defend our hearts and His children with the same power and fervor as He did in Exodus. We need only “hold our peace and remain at rest.” [I like this translation better because it doesn't say to be physically still and wait for God to do everything...it says to remain steadfast, at peace, and to hold fast in obedience for what God WILL do.]

Hold fast. Help is on the way. 

Peace

Rest

Freedom

A high school senior ministered to his entire youth group a few weeks back saying “our first order of business is to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ. After that, we can argue/debate/discuss the semantics of it all, but how can we even begin to argue biblical truth before someone has accepted Christ?”

In the past I had often spent much of my time debating theology and trying to understand more and more about why things happened and how I could then debate and defend this new truth to an imminent attacker. Guys watch too many fighting shows and play too many video games that inspire us to want to be fighters with our own power.

All this to say, after serving 12th grade guys at disciple now a few weekends ago, I realized even further how useless all my past debating was. God’s wisdom is infinite and He has shared a little bit with us. Our Father’s wisdom is like an endless ocean…and we all have but a thimble of water….and we’re comparing thimbles.

I’ve heard this saying so many times and only now do I understand more of what He is saying.

The book of James outlines several ways to improve our witness and also outlines who we are to ask for wisdom. If we are lacking wisdom we are to ask God for it [James1:5] and not rely on our own understanding of anything.

Lately, I’ve made several visits to Athens Ga to visit friends and to make new ones. I get to meet different aspects of Christ that I am lacking in. Humility. Wisdom. Patience. Yet God has made these attributes abundant in several of His children that I have come to know and love. He has continued to pour into me each time I step out of the way. I have found no reason to debate or argue truth as it defends itself. The Word never said “go and logically argue your way into making disciples of Christ” it just says “go.”

As spring peers around the corner more and more I am nudged by that fever that spreads so quickly. A sickness that is hard to ignore. Spring Fever. For once in my life, God has allowed me to be content with growing in Him and Him alone. He is  training me to be the Godly example I need to be in a future friend, boyfriend, husband, and father. Though it is difficult at times to ignore “spring fever,” there is no comparison to the love my Jesus has for me and all of His children. 

There will be a day when Christ sees me fit and ready to join hearts with another, and I will be on guard and waiting forward for that day, but until that day comes, Jesus and I will be training and growing in our relationship so that the distinction between the two of us becomes less and less. I want people to see less of me and more of Christ. 

I may only have a thimble of water taken from the endless wisdom of God, but I’m going to make sure that Christ fills that thimble to the brim so that His work can be done and not mine. I desire to walk closely with my Lord so that the conflict of my human heart and desires can be overcome by the grace, mercy, peace, love, patience, kindness, joy, and everlasting life that is in Christ Jesus. 

I pray for peace. Contentment. Reassurance. Devotion.

He has taken care of everything and everyone in our lives. We need only trust and obey.

Serve Him well today and I promise I will do my best to be fully armored and trained on my sword to battle along side you.

There are no sidelines on the battlefield. 

¹Who is this who comes from Edom,
   in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
   marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
   mighty to save.”

The last few days I’ve heard the song “Mighty To Save” every single time I’ve turned on the Radio. We’ve even played it at my home church during our sunday morning worship hour. I think it’s powerful mostly because this song gets straight to the point. 

We could spend days/months/years debating theology but the fundamental point of Christianity is that Christ came to live the life we couldn’t live, bear the pain and suffering we couldn’t handle, and die the death we should have died, so that we could have everlasting life in Him and have it abundantly.

Theology and all the awesome cool points about Jesus are there to help those of us that know Christ, get to know Him better. Yet, the important first step is to go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20).

The song Mighty to save is an amazing song and what I learned from my friend Ben who speaks Hebrew is that Jesus (from the greek) or Joshua (from the Hebrew) means “salvation” or one who comes in the name of Yahweh (he who causes to be). Jewish people do not recognize the name Yahshua as a name unless you clarify “Yahshua the person.”  So it’s interesting to sing this song with the words “Savior, he can move the mountains” because it’s actually using the name of Christ [savior]. 

Anyway, here are the lyrics to meditate on and just take in, for those that happen to read this. 

God bless you all and I’d love to pray for you if you have anything at all you’d love to share with the body.

“Mighty To Save” -Hillsong United

Everyone needs compassion 
A love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness 
The kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

Savior
He can move the mountains 
My God is mighty to save 
He is mighty to save
Forever 
Author of Salvation 
He rose & conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me
All my fears & failures
Fill my life again

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender (I surrender)

Savior
He can move the mountains 
My God is mighty to save 
He is mighty to save
Forever 
Author of Salvation 
He rose & conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

Shine Your light &
Let the whole world see
We’re singing
For the glory 
Of the risen King
Jesus

You’re the Savior
You can move the mountains 
Lord You are mighty to save 
You are mighty to save
Forever 
Author of Salvation 
You rose & conquered the grave
Yes You conquered the grave

Jesus Rules. Such an awesome savior, king, and lover. He never gives up and He never fails. Ever.