You try fittin' through that eye!

You know, to state the obvious, there are great things gained from reading the Bible! For my New Testament class we pretty much have to read the New Testament, naturally. Though many don’t, sadly, I am going to try the best that I can!! Anyway, we have made our way into the Gospel of Luke now and I have come across a story that appears in the other two synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), the story of The Rich Ruler (Luke 18:18-30) as Luke calls it. The story is of a wealthy man who asked Jesus by saying “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (vs. 18) An honest question I would say, but Jesus answers by asking the man a question, “Why do you call me good?”(vs.19) Now, the only thing I gotta wonder is why would Jesus ask that? Most likely says the explanations at the bottom of the page in my self-study Bible is that Jesus is getting the man to acknowledge who Jesus is, as the Savior, and that his only hope was to completely rely on God for eternal life, the only One who grants it. That’s why Jesus goes on to say, “No one is good—except God alone.”(vs. 19) How true is that, amen. But I’m not finished yet. Jesus had said to keep the commandments yes, and the guy was like pshh..no problem, I have all my life, and Jesus says yeah ok, but you’re missing one thing, sell all that you got, everything, give it to the poor and follow me. Now the guy's become sad and leaves, but wouldn’t you though if some man told you to give everything up to follow him? (vs. 20-23)I’da thought twice! But that’s the problem, we don’t have to think twice to rely on God, we don’t have to second guess the reliance we can always place on God! Jesus then goes on to say some very famous words, “Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (vs. 25) Now there’s something you need to know, back in the day in Palestine, the camel was pretty much the largest animal known to the people, they had most likely never seen an elephant of a blue whale, Jesus most likely would have used those animals instead if they had, but what He is saying is that the large animal passing through almost the smallest opening was to show how impossible things are for us as humans without God. ‘Tis why after the disciples say, Ok then who the heck can be saved!? Jesus just simple says, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (vs. 26-27) That just goes to show you that salvation is a gift of God alone, we do not gain that ourselves. That man’s wealth was keeping him from trusting in Jesus for his salvation, that is why Jesus was trying to get the man to give it up, because he would then have “treasure in heaven,” (vs. 22) which means nothing else besides eternal life! But even more so, any attempt to enter into the kingdom of heaven by means of anything but faith and trust in Jesus, is worthless. Entrance is not based on what car you drive, how big your bank account is, or for me and every student…what grades you get in school. (The greatest thing that anyone has told to me during my first 5 weeks of college is “Grades don’t determine salvation.” Thanks be to God.) So know what is important in your life, the one thing that no other thing, person, animal or anything else even compares to, is Jesus and your relationship with Him. In my GS class, we have learned that Christianity is not just a religion; it is a relationship, of course with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

In Christ,
Adam

No Pain No Gain, or Gain In Pain?

Wow, I'm like erupting with liquid hot magma of revelations today. But I was just thinking to myself on my way back from doing a very rigorous workout with Andrew and I was thinking about how incredible soar I already am and how sore I will be tomorrow. It’s a sad thing, but then, it came to me, a very clichéd and overly used and sometimes false statement in relation to physical activity, “No Pain, No Gain.” While I did say to myself, no, that doesn’t apply to my body because pain can be a bad thing and can mean something wrong with my body and I should get it checked out and it could possibly lead to needing treatment like surgery or physical therapy. But then I thought to myself, tossing that statement around, and related it to my faith and life as a Christian. And then I realized that in my faith, pain DOES lead to gain. So there is gain in pain, hence my title of the blog. But, as Andrew likes to say, don’t just take my word for it! We find in Romans 5 verses 1-5 we find what we gain in pain: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” In that, it instructs us to rejoice in our sufferings, all the crap that we have to fight with all the time, because in it we gain the perseverance, character, and hope, because of the ultimate gain in faith in God. And the last point I would like to make today, because I really need to shower, and do some homework, is that in the most well-known suffering of our Savior Jesus, from the pain He endured, all who believe in Him gain eternal life. What more could you ask for?
So I have come to the conclusion that the saying “No pain, No gain” is absolutely false, there is no gain in pain physically, and there is absolute gain with pain when it comes to our faith.

In Christ, again,
Adam

Do you just know of God, or do you really knoooooow God.

From my general studies class, again: We have to do journals, i think it'll end up being about 45 in the 15 week period, no big thang, but you'll probably end up seeing several posted on here. Well, I will be modifying it some since I do relate it to the class, and since most if not all of you who may be reading this aren't in my class, you wouldn't really understand..but here it goes..this is was I have been writing about. It is base on Chapter 4 of a book by Dr. James Dobson called Live on the Edge, the chapter is about power. I highly recommend reading it!

I thought the chapter was one of the more interesting ones, but I didn’t find it interesting until the very end of it when Dobson is using the David and Solomon story as an illustration (He tells of the story of David dying and giving his last words to his closest people and his son Solomon. The words are recorded in 1 Chronicles 28:9: "And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever." KJV. I am definitely one of those people who worry a lot, so I really like those “God is with you” kinds of verses. I just find myself really connecting with those kinds of verses, and really loving them. But the part of the 1 Chronicles verse that really gets me is almost what we have been talking about in our class in a way(it would take a lot of writing for you to completely understand, but my last post gives a good representation also), and that is actually knowing God (I don’t know if that’s grammatically correct, but my grammar checker’s saying it’s wrong! What’s the deal?) , not just knowing about Him. It really makes me think about how much I really, actually, honestly, truly, know God. I do know that I probably don’t know Him as much as I could, you would probably agree if you knew how I babble in class sometimes. I usually feel like what a car does in mud, just spinning my tires, not going anywhere, and not accomplishing anything but a deeper problem, or the hole. But I guess the thing of the matter is that I really don’t care what other people think I know about my faith, because I know that I believe that God sent His Son for me to die in my stead and for all of my sins because He was blameless in any and every way, and most of all not jsut my faith but all mankindd. I know that the faith I have has come through Him, given to me through the Holy Spirit,who has filled me with the love, grace, and mercy of the Father, and the salvation granted through Christ’s sacrifice. I don’t know how much more I need to know, but I do need to know God in a way beyond that, somewhat, the way I see it, a different way. Like Dobson says, a personal way, and I think that way is letting him lead me, bless me, and never turn my back on Him. I don’t know everything about my faith, but that’s what I’m working on, I am still spinning my tires in the mud, but I think it’s exactly what God wants, because out of that I can find a deeper faith in Him, and I know that He is there, helping me, Jesus is standing at the back pushing on my bumper, helping me along even though He gets covered by the mud, the dirt of my sin, He still takes it on. What an incredible thing. I really don’t know how much else I am supposed to figure out. I know that I am a Child of God, one of His lost sheep that He as brought back to Himself, so that I may follow Him Home.
The chapter was all about power. Well, here’s how I want to end this little Journal and this Power chapter, and I got the idea from the bottom of the bulletins at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Seward, NE, here, TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY (AND POWER) and I want to add…FOREVER. AMEN.

Confusion

Well, I've found that the confusion nevers hides...but again it has resurfaced and reincarnated into a totally different form or confusion. As I sit here, putting of my studying for my new testament test tomorrow (the first one) and listening to my roommate prank call people using Napoleon Dynamite quotes from the internet, I am reminded of another class period I had today. It was in my General Studies class, and I can really see how much our Professor cares about us and the growth of our faith. But we've been doing some role playing, and he is really challenging us to explain our faith in a way that people who don't believe anything that we do could understand. It really makes us think of what we know, and we almost have to separate ourselves from our faith and look at it from another perspective. Some of us are coming up with new theories, some of us are second-guessing what we have been taught, but within reason of course. But I jotted down today some questions that I had forming and I'll put them up and feel free to respond how you wish and what you think. You will tend to notice some of my confusion in the questions. How "deep" is my faith? Does faith have substance, as in evidence, and if so what is the substance of my faith? There are questions, but where do I find the answers? What am I lacking in my fiath, what haven't I figured out? I may be naive, but what am I naive about? How blind is my faith? -Let me know what you think. And try to answer those questions from a standpoint that you are trying to explain to someone who doesn't believe, doesn't believe in the Bible, does think it's credible. What is there to say? I'm having alot of trouble with this myself, and it's really frustrating because I feel like horrible christian, and I tend to second guess my faith and who I am as a christian. It's scary, I don't really like it, but I think it's going to create room for growth, and I can't wait until it happens.

God's Blessings as you find God in a new light, cause i can't wait until i do,
Adam