Security How?

I like to listen to many podcasts one of them Security now.  It is a podcast about internet security, backup solutions, new updates for software, and much more. I don't think I have gone through a single podcast that I haven't heard something about someone being hacked.  Even if you have great security there would still be some weakness, some chink in the armor.  It's like how it is with our spiritual life.  Some might say "How can I be spiritually secure."  The thing is here on Earth we can never be secure.  We left the protective fold of God when we first sinned in the garden.  Satan will always find a way to get to you.  No matter how much you try you just can't escape him, except through Jesus.  Now I am not saying that all problems disappear when you are Baptized I can personally say that.  But He will help us through it.  What I mean is that when we die we will go home with him to paradise.  I'm going to finish this with something I thought up.  It is a extra verse to Jesus Loves Me.  It goes like this, "Jesus loves me He's alive, up to heaven He did arise, never will I be alone, and at the end of time He'll take me home."

Baptism

As many of you know I was baptized this Wednesday.  If you don't then now you do.  Some people say that baptism is not necessary.  It says it in the Bible that baptism is necessary.  If it says it in the bible then you should do it.  It is not a matter of preference like whether to clap or not.  The Bible specifically commands it.  In John 3:16 a verse we all should know well, it says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  Some take that verse and say all that you have to do is believe.  But in Mark 16:15-16 it says, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."  Hmm, to some it seem to be contradictory, but the way I see it, it is not.  If you believed someone would you not listen to them?  I think what John is trying to say in 3:16 is that "Hey, if you believe this guy, then you are going to do what He says."  If you believe that He is the Son of God then would you not obey him.  Jesus never says "Cursed are you because you believed and killed me anyway."  The Pharisees and Sadducees and the other "top" officials did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God.  They thought Jesus was some ragtag Galilean who didn't wash properly or hang out with the right people, well you get the idea.  It is implied that if you believe Jesus you will obey Him, and He commanded us to be baptized.

Day's eye

As we were driving home form PE, I looked up and saw the sun.  Such a different sight then the past few days.  It reminded me of a story(If you listen to the Tolkien Professor then you may have heard this).  The Anglo Saxon word the Daisy is Day's eye.  The sun was often called the Day's eye and the daisy looks like the sun.  The sun is the light of this world we are on.  I think God made the daisy the way it is for a reason.  It is symbolic for the way Jesus is.  Jesus is the spiritual light of the word.  I believe God put the daisy in this world to symbolize the way Jesus shines through the darkness.  The sun is the light of this world and even if the darkness shrouds all, you can still see the light.

Rain rain, stay stay stay.

A lot of people have been praying for rain, and it looks like our prayers have been answered.  For several days rain has just been slowly coming down.  It just doesn't stop.  This is the kind of rain we need.  The slow downpour of rain.  Not to say that the rain is bad, the rain is great, but the way it is coming down is similar to the way Satan attacks us.  Slow, unyielding, grinding attack.  Slowly picking away at our barriers.  We should all enjoy the rain.  But don't forget that there is someone doing to your spiritual walls, what the rain is doing to the ground.

Divide and Conquer

On May 6, 2012 Jim preached a great sermon and I thank him for that. The topic was from Romans 14 and Romans 15:1-7 and was about not judging and thus dividing us. Tonight my mom is sending out invitations to Churches for the Ladies Day and she said there were usually at least 2 Churches in each city.
I know that here we have a Church that meets in the school right next to our building. I counted at least 14 churches in the area around Buda. WHAT HAS HAPPENED? What has happened is people say “WE don’t like this little thing you do, so WE are going to pack up and leave and set up on OUR own.
Awhile ago Patrick Mead did a sermon series called Identity. In it he mentioned a document called the Declaration and Address written by Thomas Campbell. Thomas Campbell started 1 of the 6 streams that formed the particular group that is today the Church of Christ. The Declaration and Address is by no means a creed; it is simply a document describing what we should do to spread the Word. It is in three parts, The Declaration, Address, and Appendix. I am going to share with you a small section of the Address.
“That the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures. That although the Church of Christ upon earth must necessarily exist in particular and distinct societies, locally separate one from another, yet there ought to be no schisms, no uncharitable divisions among them. And for this purpose they ought all to walk by the same rule and to be perfectly joined together in the same mind.”
We are getting away from our roots. The word in the Bible, ekklesia which is translated church actually means community. In Mathew 16:15-18 Jesus said “Go preach the Good News to all creation”, not “Bunker down in a building and fight and squabble over every little thing”. I can just imagine Satan saying, “Hey lets divide them and make them weaker by obsessing them with little pet peeves that annoy them.” It always happens sooner or later. Think of Israel, they remembered the laws, but forgot the savior coming to free them from the endless cycle of the law.
So I have decided to put out my own declaration. That we CANNOT spread the word the best we can if we squabble and fight among ourselves over petty things that just annoy us. We NEED to reach out to the Churches around us and say “Hey lets all join together in Jesus Christ to spread the Word”.
I don’t mean like Dallas (super church) style, I mean that we need to communicate; we need to fellowship with each other. If there is a disagreement then we should call a meeting between the people that think 1 thing and the people that think another. Then look at scripture and decide who is right, or in some cases just say “Scripture doesn’t address this, so it is a matter of opinion.”
As Mr. Jim talked about in his sermon, someone might be clapping and look over and see someone not clapping and think to himself, "Well that's just a stodgy old geezer." Maybe that person could be meditating and contemplating the meaning of the song. Then that person might look over at the person who is clapping and think, "Liberal punk." Maybe that person is just trying to praise God with all his might. We should not say, “Because I don’t like what you do you are automatically a sinner.” It is wrong to press your beliefs on people. So no matter if you don’t like their carpet or their singing. We should fellowship together, we should commune together like the word ekklesia really means. It means community, it means to be together, not separated.
We should talk to the other churches about doing group stuff. Like the upcoming Ladies Day. As I said at the beginning my Mom was sending out invitations to a lot of churches. We need to do more stuff like it. Do more things that we can invite other people and churches to, and not have just our little circle that does stuff. We need to reach out and say, “ENOUGH, ENOUGH hiding away in our little corner, ENOUGH calling people sinners because we don’t like what they do, ENOUGH of all the yelling and the fighting over trivial things that are merely a matter of preference. Enough is enough, time to reach out and say lets make some time when we can do stuff together. Maybe things like, LTC or VBS, or maybe just a group get-together to sing and praise the Lord. We just need to do something. God made us to be in a community, we should not waste it.