Tag: Food For Growth

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ~ Ephesians 2:4-7

I have no gift to bring
That’s fit to give The King
…
I played my drum for Him
I played my best for Him

Little Drummer Boy is one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time. Every time I sing these lines tears fill my eyes. We have nothing fit to give the King of kings and LORD of lords. No gift worthy of Him, yet all He asks for is for us to give our best. To give Him us as He first gave Himself.

This Christmas, as you celebrate with you family and friends, remember the very first Christmas Gift. Remember that Christ came to save us. He left the splendor of all of Heaven for us. And in return all He asks is for us to give ourselves back to Him. Just as a bride will give herself to her groom, we are to give ourselves to Christ.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Give Yourself.

Romans 3:21-26 ESV

[21] But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— [22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: [23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Every Christmas season Churches will mention the Immaculate Conception and connect it to the birth of Christ not realizing it’s not about His conception or birth at all. It’s about Mary. The Feast of Immaculate Conception is celebrated every December 8^th in honor of the immaculate connection of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

See, Catholics believe Mary was conceived sinless and perfect. It is one of four Marian dogma of the Catholic Church, established in the 7^th century. The other three being the perpetual virginity, the mother of God, and her ascension. So often, Christians use words and terms that sound like they should be Christian, when in actuality, they are indeed not. See, all have fallen astray. All have sinned. All have made mistakes, that is the reason Christ had to come. That is the reason for the virgin birth.

Mary needed Jesus just as much as the rest of us. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” This is true for ALL of mankind. Jesus isn’t the exception to the rule. He is the rule. Jesus came to be our perfect sacrifice in order that all of mankind, including Mary, might be saved.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Celebrate The Only Perfect Conception.

⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. ~ Hosea 4:6

Every year I see multiple posts, videos, comments, opinions, etc. about why Christians should not celebrate Christmas. It always goes back to one reason, “Christmas is originally a Pagan celebration.” I honestly believe this is a very good lie from the enemy. Why? Because Christmas (and Easter another holiday being attacked) is a season or time that can bridge the gap between non-believers and believers. How? Because even non-believers celebrate Christmas. It’s a big holiday throughout the world. It’s a time when those who never go to Church attend on Christmas Sunday morning. It’s the perfect time to share the greatest story ever told. The story of the very first Christmas gift.

Now, what about it being Pagan? It never was. See, the claim that Christmas started from gods like Saturn, Tammuz, Osiris, Horus, Mithras, and Sol Invictus. Sol Invictus is first mentioned over 300 years AFTER the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The celebration of Jesus’ birth is first recorded (that we have today) by Hippolytus of Rome (c. 180-235 AD). So, Christmas predates Sol Invictus by over a century.

Now, Mithras. Mithras’ birth wasn’t celebrated. In fact, the culture of Mithras didn’t have public festivals and he was never born. In Mithraism, Mithras emerged from a rock as an young adult man. No virgin birth. No celebration. No connection to December 25^th.

Now, Osiris. Osiris was exclusively born of Geb and Nut. There was no virgin birth. Instead he is always born of the union between Geb and Nut throughout ancient Egypt. In fact, his birth was celebrated in September. September 6^th-10^th. Same with Horus. There is no virgin birth. Horus was born of Isis and Osiris after Isis brought Osiris back from the dead. Again, no connection to a virgin birth or December 25^th, instead he was born during the same time period as his father, Osiris. Osiris was born during the 6^th and Horus the 7^th. They were celebrated back-to-back.

From the times of Hosea, the people of God were led astray for their lack of knowledge. Today is no different. We, the Church, are constantly being led astray for the lack of knowledge. We are constantly being confused because we don’t check for ourselves. As Christians, we should celebrate the birth of LORD and Savior, just as the Wisemen did. Just as the early Church did. Why? Because without His birth, there would be no death and resurrection. There would be no salvation. We would have no hope.

So, this Christmas remember the birth of Christ. Remember the celebration of our LORD. Remember that without His birth we would have no hope.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Learn Our Forgotten History. 

 

We have early Church writings from the second century of how Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus on December 25^th. So many people love to claim that Christmas was originally a pagan holiday. They’ll use days like Sol Invictus or Saturnalia, but in actuality, these claims are far from the truth.

See, from the early Church long before Sol Invictus even existed they were celebrating the birth of Christ. Saturnalia was never celebrated on December 25^th. In the Church today, we take the word of others without fact checking them.

Today think about the importance of Christmas. Think about the reason for the season. Think about Christ, the only God to take human form and die for His people.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Think Before You Celebrate.

²⁷ And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, ~ Hebrews 9:27

In the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Captain Barbossa states a grim but true statement to Captain Jack Sparrow as he comes to terms with their inevitable future deaths. He says, “There’s never a guarantee of coming back. But passing on, that’s dead certain.”

I’ve heard people say that in the next life they’ll do better. Or next time around they’ll do things differently. There’s entire religions that believe that you will be reincarnated until you get it right, but that there is just a false hope.

See, we only get one life. One chance to get things right. One chance to fulfill our call and follow Christ. There is only one opportunity for your name to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life in order to gain eternity with Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Get It Right The First Time Around.

[5]  Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. [6] Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. ~ Colossians 4:5-6

The Church is the light of the world because Christ dwells in us and through us. We are to be Christ to the world. That means that we are not to isolate ourselves from the outside world. How can we reach them if we do not even communicate with them? How can we reach the world if we do not spend time with the world?

Yes, each and every Christian should have an inner circle of believers to depend on. An inner circle of friends that pick us up when we’re down and encourage us when we’re feeling low. Someone we can depend on to help us through the rough times. We should also have a Church family that we can pray with. That can pray for us and vice versa. That you can grow with and worship with. But we should also befriend the world.

I want to be clear. We aren’t to befriend the sin of the world, but the people. We aren’t to justify sin and give it our blessing, but instead we are to love the sinner and show them the True love of God. Never spreading hatred or violence but the True love of God.

The only way we can do that is if we know our Bible better than the skeptic we are speaking with and if we actually live our lives for Christ and not for ourselves. Our words matter. How we are as people matters. How we treat unbelievers matters. Live life purposely reflecting Jesus in all we do.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Walk In Wisdom.

[14] The hairs of His head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, [15] his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. ~ Revelation 1:14-15

This is John the Apostle describing His vision of Jesus. Now, what I want you do understand is that John isn’t describing physical characteristics, but spiritual ones. For instance, Jesus died, rose, and ascended into Heaven around 33 years old, and according to the Pharisees reaction of Him, He did not have white hair. He didn’t look old. This is a spiritual description of Jesus. John was looking into the Spirit.

So, what’s so special about His description? John describes Jesus voice like the voice of many waters. I was speaking with someone one day about the meaning of this, and they were fully convinced that the voice of many waters meant that Jesus had a deep voice. Here’s the problem, the book of Revelation actually defines what this means.

¹⁵ And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.”

Revelation 17:15

Jesus’ voice is the voice of many waters because Jesus isn’t bound to one language or people. We are to go make disciples of all nations, regardless of language, people, or nations. We are called to spread the good news about Jesus.

We don’t have to learn Hebrew or Greek in order to read the Word of God because it is not bound to any one language. It is by the Spirit that we understand. The language it is translated into doesn’t matter, as it does not change the words.

Therefore, go, make disciples of many nations. Spread the good news. Share the Gospel.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Let The Waters Flow. 

⁶ And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. ~ Matthew 11:6

Jesus’ words, teachings, commands often offended people. The Jews picked up stones to kill Him more than once, and nothing has changed today. Just the very mention of the name of Jesus gets people uptight and offended. So what are we to do? Do we dim the light to make the darkness feel more comfortable for Bubba in the back row Do we soften the truth so that those… who love lies… won’t be offended?

Look, we are not called to make Jesus palatable—we are called to proclaim Him as LORD. We are not called to edit the Gospel—we are called to preach it, in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2).

We are not called to win the world by becoming like it—we are called to shine as lights in this world of darkness, holding fast to the Word of Life (Philippians 2:15–16).

The world may call His words “harsh.” The false teachers may call His commands “unloving.” But we know that His words are life. His truth is freedom. His Gospel is power. So, how can we do anything but preach the Gospel as recorded 2000 years ago?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Do Not Shrink Away From Offense.