Never enough

It’s always interesting to try and run your own life. God won’t step in the way if you’ve asked Him to relinquish control. Things may seem to go perfectly according to your perceptions, but it won’t take long for your entire world to change…and not for the better. 

 

God has a way of letting everyone know that He is in charge of all of creation, whether through a demonstration of His power, or through letting us walk in our own darkness until we are completely blind. It’s only then, when we are totally broken and without direction that God can start over with us. Yes God can meet us ANYWHERE on our path of life, but for some…it takes a dramatic intervention of the Lord’s power to awaken the desire for Him. 

 

People will come and go, they will be close to you, then distant…and sometimes for no reason whatsoever. People will ask for truth, and lie to your face, but the Lord Jesus Christ will never fail you….ever. 

 

I need to listen to Him more, and learn to trust and be patient with His will. 

 

I want to hear…

Once saved, Always saved…but not the way you think.

The word for “saved” in Hebrew is yasha` which means to “set free” and the word for salvation is yshuw`ah which means “delivered from the final judgement.”  In Genesis, however, a different word is used, chayah which means “to live.” In Genesis 19:20 some translations have the end of the verse saying “and my soul shall be saved.” The Hebrew translates “and my soul shall be allowed to live.”

In Greek it’s σωτηρία pronounced sōtēria 

 

What’s interesting about this is that in all the old testament and the new testament, when salvation is referred to with regards to human salvation, it is always future tense. One of my friends took up this study to find out what the deal was with the “once saved always saved vs. you can lose your salvation” argument. 

 

Hopefully this will blow your mind. 

We do not receive salvation on earth. Just hang in here with me, because this gets good. Paul speaks in Romans 8:24-25 and says 

²⁴For in [this] hope we were saved. But hope [the object of] which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he already sees [has]?

    ²⁵But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.

 

Hope in these verses is in reference to our faith in Christ. The focus of this is in the end of verse 24 “who hopes for what one already has/sees?”

What we have in this lifetime is the “hope” of salvation or a “faith” in Jesus Christ, the bringer of salvation. We do not receive the “crown of salvation” until our flesh is gone (death or rapture). To illustrate this a little better:

Jesus came to die once for all. In dying He gave EVERYONE the hope of salvation [which we will call a "gift"]. Some rejected the gift/hope and others carried this gift for a while and then left it. This gift does not represent salvation. This gift can only be opened by Christ at the “final judgement” and reiterates that Christ alone holds the key to salvation. So this being said, we all are carrying our hope with us which is why Christ says several times throughout scripture that the ones who “hold fast/firm to the end” will be received into the Kingdom.

 

So it is this hope, this life-longing to have our gift opened by the creator Himself, that leads us to a path of salvation.

[P.S. I won't post the entire convo my friend had in this blog, but we looked through at least 7 translations and way too many verses to figure this out]

So here are the arguments again: Once saved always saved vs. one can lose their salvation.

 

The once saved always saved people are correct…but not in the way we’re used to. 

Everyone that walks the earth is given an opportunity to allow Christ to completely control their lives, yet most will reject Him. They leave their gift behind or try and make their own gift box [idols] to mirror the old one. Those that hold fast to the end and bring their original gifts marked by the blood of Christ, will have their gift opened and be given the crown of salvation to throw at His feet.

 

SO, since salvation means “Saved from the final judgement” and that doesn’t happen until all people are dead/raptured, that means that salvation comes at the end of [our] time. So it’s true, as we are finally saved [crowned] we can never lose that salvation! Yet while on earth we can lose our hope, our faith, in Jesus Christ.

 

I would be more than happy to share the entire convo with any of you. Give me a call or email me and I’ll send it to you. It’s interesting stuff that uses ONLY scripture to speak truths. 

 

The point of today’s blurb was just to reiterate two posts ago about how His children are seeking Him more than ever before. People are answering questions in hours, when they’ve been debated about for decades. God is revealing more of His Word as He promised to do so at the appropriate time. His children KNOW Him in ways I’ve never seen before. 

 

So, I encourage those that actually read this to learn His Word but don’t merely study the black and white print. Learn the heart of the one who wrote it. It’s one thing to tear apart the Word to gain a more personal understanding, it’s completely different to argue with fellow believers about things which will not enhance your obedience to His command on your life. So learn as much as you can about Christ but always focus on teaching and learning in Love. I’ve made the mistake of thinking that arguing truth will gain followers. The truth doesn’t need to be defended. It defends itself. We merely must live it out in obedience.

 

Love conquers all and teaches the heart.

God goes to Waffle House for breakfast

Last week I had the opportunity to meet someone in complete need of Christ. I work as the sound tech for my church and go early on Thursday nights to help set up monitors etc. Lately there have been people using the church sanctuary for voice lessons which hinders me from setting up. So I decided to go early last week so that I could be out of everyone’s way. 

 

So as I walk in the sanctuary, there is a Waffle House employee by the name of Lori, lying down on these kneeling pads we have on the stairs to the stage, and she’s crying. 

This woman had lost her job(s) at two different Waffle House locations, had cheated on her soon to be ex husband (who is Jewish), has two kids, a history of drinking, and at that moment had contemplated suicide. 

Needless to say, I was the only person in the church building and felt completely inadequate to handle this type of situation. I kept praying “God if e’er there was a time to use that booming voice and send me some loud and clear wisdom, now would be the time.”

Lori was conflicted as to what God was trying to teach her. She hadn’t been to church in several years, her children did not know God as well as she would have liked and there was a constant struggle inside her as to whether God was punishing her, destroying her life, or whether He was saving her from a place she didn’t need to be. For an hour, this woman poured out her life to a complete stranger and ended up staying for half of our praise band practice. Our unassuming drummer began talking with Lori (I didn’t feel it was my place at that time, to share her story as it was her life and her choice to tell others what she told me) and “apologized” if he had interrupted the conversation Lori and I had. 

 

She said “No you definitely didn’t. Ryan just kept me from doing something really stupid.”

I almost passed out. 5 minutes earlier Lori had mentioned that she had a $150,000 life insurance policy that would take care of her kids. Now, that scared me but I wasn’t sure as to whether she was just very depressed or whether she was serious. Being a student of the law, suicide nullifies the insurance policy. I’m not sure Lori knew that. I know this sounds morbid but at the same time here’s where the story changes a bit. 

Lori came to a church building she had never stepped foot in. This church was unlocked and open for her to come in and lay at the feet of Jesus. Later a family of believers came to fellowship and praise God through music and minister to a woman who’s life was literally brought to the ground so that she would KNOW that He was God. Though it is often painful when God reduces us to nothing, it is the BEST thing that could happen to us. It would be much worse if He let us get away from Him and allowed us to endure the lake of fire at the final judgement.

 

I have never been so blessed and learned so much from one broken person. This is just the beginning of another amazing love story between Christ and one of His children. There is more to this story but it is way too cool to merely write down. Seriously, if you want to hear the rest email me (pcharming06@gmail.com) or give me a call (678) 763-6735. I may or may not know you but I am MORE than willing to share these kinds of stories with you.

 

Serve Him and visit a Waffle House

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“And they shall Know God”

Jeremiah 24: 6,7

   ⁶For I will set My eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

    ⁷And I will give them a heart to know [recognize, understand, and be acquainted with] Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

 

The Hebrew word for “Know” is yada`which means the following:

to know (properly, to ascertain by seeing); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation, care, recognition; and causatively, instruction, designation, punishment, etc.) (as follow):–acknowledge, acquaintance(-ted with), advise, answer, appoint, assuredly, be aware, (un-)awares, can(-not), certainly, comprehend, consider, declare, be diligent, (can, cause to) discern, discover, endued with, familiar friend, famous, feel, can have, be (ig-)norant, instruct, kinsfolk, kinsman, (cause to let, make) know, (come to give, have, take) knowledge, have (knowledge), (be, make, make to be, make self) known, + be learned, + lie by man, mark, perceive, privy to, regard, have respect, skilful, shew, can (man of) skill, be sure, of a surety, teach, (can) tell, understand, have (understanding).

 

Basically God says that He will give his people [in this case Israel but i believe it most definitely applies to all that love Him and do His will] a heart to know Him. From the definition above we get the impression that God means to “know” Him in every way possible. This isn’t to say that we will ever fully understand or comprehend God for “Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judges those who are on high? [Job 21:22, Romans 11:34, 1 Corinthians 2:16]“

This merely says that we will recognize through seeing God, acknowledging Him, being taught by, having respect for Him, etc. We will be without excuse to be ignorant of Him. 

 

There’s something I’ve noticed over the past year that I haven’t seen ever before in my life. I have seen and read of debates about what truths scripture holds. Scholars debate over whether salvation comes with confession of the mouth, or whether it can be lost, and yet in this past year I have seen and witnessed the youth, the Joshua Generation seek God and know Him more than ever before. I have never seen such faith, devotion, and understanding of His Word. I’ll post again with an example of this, but for now I just want to focus on Knowing Him.

 

Throughout Jeremiah, and Isaiah, God is watching Israel turn away time and time again yet He always brings them back to Him. His children are children of “promise” and that promise is that we are betrothed to Him though we turn to the love of other gods at times [Hosea]. Yet, every time Israel is brought to it’s knees or destroyed, God follows up by saying “So that they will KNOW that I am God.” God LOVES us so much that He’s willing to bring us to our knees, and sometimes lower than that, so that we will KNOW that HE is God and would not question anything else.

 

God IS Love

Hosea

Hosea 2:19-23

 

 ¹⁹And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.

    ²⁰I will even betroth you to Me in stability and in faithfulness, and you shall know (recognize, be acquainted with, appreciate, give heed to, and cherish) the Lord.

    ²¹And in that day I will respond, says the Lord; I will respond to the heavens [which ask for rain to pour on the earth], and they shall respond to the earth [which begs for the rain it needs],

    ²²And the earth shall respond to the grain and the wine and the oil [which beseech it to bring them forth], and these shall respond to Jezreel [restored Israel, who prays for a supply of them].

    ²³And I will sow her for Myself anew in the land, and I will have love, pity, and mercy for her who had not obtained love, pity, and mercy; and I will say to those who were not My people, You are My people, and they shall say, You are my God!

 

Hosea is a story depicting God’s love for the Church. Though we’ve become a Harlot church at times, diving into worldly teachings and pleasing men, God still loves us. He will allow everything that is in His way to be taken from us so that we have no choice but to see Him and remember how faithful He always is. It is then that we shall say “you are my God.”

 

Where your heart [and money] is, that is where your [G]od is. Let our hearts be focused on Him and ONLY Him as He is the only being that can ever “complete” us. Yes, He will bring along a helper/leader to be one of the center pieces of your puzzle, but remember, God created that puzzle you call your life, and it belongs to Him. Every single piece belongs to Him.

 

So even though we may have tried to give pieces of ourselves away to different “treasures,” God still owns all the pieces of our hearts and has a very powerful way of bringing them all back to His heart.

 

Serve Him this day and every day,

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Ruined [waking up bored]

Once we give our lives to Christ we are ruined for everything else. We are ruined by His love and for His love! It’s pretty awesome and yet, the toughest thing to understand. The reason we are hurt by worldly things, is because we ache to see those things change to glorify Christ, whether that means a person or a circumstance. It’s tough to accept that though the eventual war belongs to God, that there are still battles that will be lost along the way. Of all people I am the worst at letting go. I fight for what God gave me even if He’s trying to take it away. 

 

I need to have a new attitude about my day. I need to wake up bored and say “hey God, I’m bored…what do you want to do today?” It is in this situation that God can use me. 

 

Now I haven’t heard much of this Misty Edwards person, but at a partial conference I went to a little while back, I heard the song “Light of your face” performed by the church band. 

 

O Lord bless me and keep me 
Cause Your face to shine on me 
Lord be gracious 
Lift the light of Your countenance 
Give me peace 

For I live only to see Your face 
So shine on me 
For I live only to see Your face 
So shine on me 

Let the light of Your face 
Shine down on my heart 
And let me feel it 

 

 

Let me live only to see[k] your face Lord. 

 

 

Who are “saints?”

I have been studying through Romans for a little while now and decided that I would start over again from chapter one just as a refresher. I came across the word “saint” and thought back to a debate that I had with a few fellow believers about who saints were. In different parts of Christianity the title “saint” was given to a dead person who had gone before us and fulfilled the requirements therein. Well, I thought that was kind of interesting but something didn’t sit right with me, so I began studying scripture where the word “saint” was used and found it here again in Romans. 

 

These are the most common Greek words used for saint and this comes directly from Romans chapter 1.

The Greek word for “saint” is hagiois which first means holy and second means saint and thirdly pure. This is in reference to verse 7 in chapter 1.

 

Holy: from ἅζομαι (hazomai) to have veneration and awe. ἅγος (hagos) is reverence and the object of it, hence ἅγιος (hagios) is what belongs to the same, and denotes holy, sacred. As that could not be sacred which was polluted, purity becomes part of the meaning. ἅγιος (hagios) is that which is sacred, and that only can be sacred which is not unclean. [Holiness was taught to the Jews by a series of comparisons, in which purity pervaded all the ceremonies of the Law.]

 

Saint: reverence, and the object thereof; hence, holy, sacred; an attribute belonging to the God of Revelation and Redemption. Also used of men and things in that relation to God required by His revealed character. The Spirit of God, as the organ by which He reveals Himself, it for this reason called ἅγιον (hagion), at every stage of revelation. Then, it is used substantively of angels, or holy ones, and of things which stand in peculiar relation to God; also of men who have, as the ground of their life, Christ as [Lord] ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (ho 3588 hagios 40 tou theou) (Mar 1:24. Luk 4:34, etc.) and πνεύμα ἅγιον (pneuma 4151 hagion).

 

Pure: the reverence due to such purity, holy 

 

 

So those friends I talked to were missing one key point and that’s the fact that all those that believe in Christ or have Christ as their common ground, are called saints. A common misconception is that we must pray “to” the saints in order to receive help on our prayers so that God might understand or have them interceded for us. Without going into too much detail, Christ died for our sins and became THE high priest and left HIS Holy Spirt, THE intercessor for our prayers. Since we do not pray TO our friends, but [with] them as they too are saints if they believe in Christ, then why should we have a need to pray to anyone but God the father? Even Christ, when He was on this earth taught us to pray saying: OUR FATHER…. Those were His first two words. No where in His prayer does He mention praying to people, which includes His own earthly mother, any of the “saints that had gone before” etc.

 

This means that all believers in Christ are “saints” or [those cleansed and made holy by His blood] and no other being need intercede. 

 

I don’t know about you…but even if we were to die and go to heaven [which we won't because heaven was made for His angels but a new earth will be made for us] then I would STILL want to pray to the CREATOR of the universe over a CREATION of the universe. It just makes more sense doesn’t it? Why would you need to pray to a name that is lower than [the name above all names]? Where is the need for that. If one of the three functions of God [Holy Spirit] is “translating” for you directly to God, why would you want to put another middle man in the way? 

 

It is good and ok to pray WITH the saints [all those that believe in Christ] but not TO them as it would be placing them above Christ and therefore rejecting His teachings.

 

I know this post may sound a little harsh but I was taught that the Word of God was a double-edged sword that was offensive, not defensive and therefore if the Word of God speaks truth that cuts to your heart, teaches you something new and makes you feel uncomfortable with where you are so that you will move forward, then GOOD. Though spoken and offered in Love, the truth is offensive and should be as we are called to [GO] and make disciples of Christ, not [sit/wait/make them come to you] and make disciples.

 

God is Love

Weakness

No matter how strong you think you are, no matter how “good” and “righteous” you may be, satan is not to be messed with. King David, “a man after God’s own heart” was not exempt from sinning and did so quite often. The difference with King David and many of us, was his repentant heart. 

 

 

Recently I have had several sibling struggles that have resulted in anger towards one another. We have continually murdered each other in these cases. For when we have malice in our hearts we have murdered our brother. It makes me sad to know that I am so weak… even after all of God’s training. The good news is that it means I still have room to grow and the even better news is in God’s word in Hebrews Chapter 10

 

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 
    ¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them 
      after that time, says the Lord. 
   I will put my laws in their hearts, 
      and I will write them on their minds.” ¹⁷Then he adds: 
   ”Their sins and lawless acts 
      I will remember no more.”

 

I choose to accept God’s covenant because I know that my sins are heavier than I could ever carry. The wages of sin are death and I cannot conquer death. My LORD has done it for me already and I need only serve in His will and His mercy so that I might be shown the same mercy and grace each day. 

 

Don’t pit against your brother/sister when you’re on the same team. It destroys good that God might have used for His glory.

 

 

Serve Him..and Him alone

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Harmony

Part of an email to a friend:

“I run sound for my Church and at practice tonight was one of those “excitement is contagious” moments. One of my favorite contemporary songs is “Sing to the King” (which we are doing this sunday) and being the sound guy, I get to see how all the different parts of the music come together just as the body of Christ does when we are all working in His will. The most awesome moment of the night was getting to hear a “perfect” blend from these musicians on that song and to not only hear the music but feel it. I literally described it as “if someone were to walk in the sanctuary and hear this song starting they would know that something is moving in this building and that someone is ready to worship the Lord with everything they have.” It’s like a swell of awesomeness was surrounding us. Music was all around and within..not just coming out of the speakers. It moved the hearts of our worship team and it was amazing. 

I know it’s kinda musically nerdy to say that from a sound guy’s point of view but I guess I wanted to pass that along as a reminder that in the little things each day, ever smile, every chore, every bird, tree, rock, animal etc. God is demonstrating His amazing Glory and love for us and He gives each of us a part of His plan so that when everything is put together, it falls in perfect Harmony with His will and it penetrates the world for His namesake.”

It’s amazing to see how our Lord perfectly blends the body of Christ together so that we can effectively glorify Him. ”Harmony” traces all the way back to the Greek word “harmos,” meaning “joint,” or fitting together. Harmony cannot happen or exist with only one part. The body of Christ would not be complete if it only had one arm. It’s something that is a “team” effort. God provides us with teachers, mentors, friends, and those whom we will teach in order to show us that we are never alone and that He is always with us even until the end of the age. 

Let us serve Him in a [harmos] effort that the world might know Him better. 

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Hebrews (Book of the Jews)

In Hebrews Paul addresses the old covenant vs. the new covenant and talks to the Jewish people about Christ. He makes very interesting points that many Christians can use in conversation with non-believers. First of all, Paul states that God’s Law wasn’t at fault but the people were. He needed to make a new covenant because the old one was no longer valid due to the fact that His chosen people had fallen away. Paul talks about how in the past blood sacrifices were offered for the sins of the High priest as well as the people, yet these were for sins of the flesh. I found that very interesting because Paul goes on to say that Christ died to free our souls/spirits from the bondage of sins. Our flesh is doomed to death but our spirits can live on in Him because of His ultimate sacrifice. 

 

We often do things to look nice on the outside as Christians. We go out and do so  many things that are “good deeds” but in the end, are those good deeds what God actually had planned for us? One of Satan’s biggest attacks these days is keeping everyone busy. If you can stay busy doing good things then you’ll overlook the BEST thing God has for you and satan wins. Sometimes it’s good just to be still as scripture says and “know that He is God” because in knowing the truth, we are set free. So to be still and know God doesn’t mean to refrain from action, it means take the time out of your day/week/month/year to get to know the way and the truth and the life, a little more personally so that you can rest assured that you are free in Him.

 

When you have nothing to do, praise Him.

When you are bored or tired, study about Him.

When you lay down pray to Him.

When you rise up, acknowledge Him.

When you find yourself restless, be patient for His Word and His spirit and continue doing the last thing He instructed you to do. You may not be ready for the next part of His plan just yet.

When all else fails, He will not. Hold fast to the truth and remember who your daddy [abba] really is and how NOTHING can separate you [His children] from His love.

 

I part with this “visual” if you will:

When a sheep goes astray from it’s master/shepherd, the shepherd breaks it’s leg so that it cannot walk, but that entire time the sheep is healing and being carried by it’s master, the shepherd’s voice becomes more and more familiar. By the time the sheep is able to walk again, it knows the voice and will of it’s shepherd so well that it never runs away again.

 

Be doers of the Word…not just Hearers ><>