Bleed Between The Lines

One of the thing we can do to choke our relationship with Jesus is put a limit on what he’s worth. See Jesus was a blameless and perfect. His death was a sacrifice good enough to cover all the sins of all mankind. Like Peter sinking in the lake we diminish Christs connection with us when we don’t have faith in his worth.

There are many ways that we start to degrade Jesus. The first is by saying that Jesus isn’t necessary to get to Heaven. This is important because there are Christians who say “I believe that Jesus died for me but I don’t think he’s the ONLY way to heaven.” If Jesus’s blood isn’t the only thing that can get you into heaven then Jesus’s blood wasn’t necessary. Why would God send his Son to be insulted and beaten, to the point of death if it wasn’t necessary. Jesus’s blood is precious and God wouldn’t send him unless there was no other way.

The second thing we do is place boundaries on the sin Jesus’s blood can cover. We decide that if some one doesn’t look or act Christian then they can’t be saved. Or for more reasonable Christians, we can tend to believe that Jesus’s blood isn’t enough to cover murder or rape, or the idea that Hitler couldn’t be saved because he was TOO evil. We’re all wretched and deserving of death it is by the grace of God that we have any chance of redemption. By picking and choosing who we think can be saved we’re not highlighting the sins of the evil, we’re discounting the price of Jesus’s blood.

The third and most personally devastating thing we can do is decide that we don’t deserve forgiveness. Sometimes when we struggle with an issue (i.e. Anger, greed, lust, lies,…) We stumble after making a commitment and decide I’m not good enough to ask for forgiveness, I don’t even know if I really mean it. And then while we know we should ask for forgiveness, we sit by and deny God the ability to decide if we deserve forgiveness or not. This like earlier lowers the value of Jesus’s blood by us saying, I’ve sinned to much and I’m not sorry enough for Jesus’s blood to cover me. You’re a dumb human destined to mess up, Let God be God and he can decide if you’re forgiven. Jesus’s blood is enough to cover all sins from all people.

In the long run let God be God and you just do what you know is right. When we put limits on the power of Jesus’s blood we’re doing nothing more then playing god ourselves.

I’m making video games for the site and producing under the name Exodus 22:19
Here’s a free wall paper, click to enlarge

If you’re a follower of Jesus and you listen, God will tell you what he wants. After you hear him, it’s up to you to decide if you’re going to listen. As a Christian you need to know the difference between God’s voice and how you feel. When the holy spirit places something on your heart, it’s more then a feeling. God’s voice is a call that penetrates the deepest pores of our soul. Know your God sounds like such an impossible request but the truth is if you can’t recognize God’s voice then you need to take a serious look in the mirror and ask if you’re his sheep or not. I would never say that if you don’t hear God then you’re not a Christian but it’s a serious red flag. In John 10 1-6 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Many people who read things like this blow it off like it’s just opinion. The bible isn’t just opinion, it’s divine law. As Christians we should respect the bible and what it says about Christian living. Some things are harder to swallow then others but the truth is that pride should never get in the way of seeking God’s will for your life. Next time you read the bible see if you’re living up to what God asks of you and if not strive to be a better you. Many people claim a call to dance or sing or work in the nursery, usually these relate to a desire we already have in our hearts. But how willing would we be to hear Gods call to sing if we were terrified of it. What if God called you to look after your neighbors three kids every day without pay so they could go to work. What if God called you to die in the name of Jesus. We hear stories of people who loose their lives because they have a gun to their head and refuse to deny the name of Jesus. It’s called heroic when you are forced into a situation and make the right choice. I wonder what we would call it if someone outside of a situation, not in danger, chose to enter that situation and die because they were called.
What about giving, when I was in college I gave to every beggar that I came in contact with because I felt called to do it. I wonder what I would have done if God would have called me to go out one day and find a beggar and give him all my money for the week. I wonder would I have been like Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:8
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”
You can read a thousand books on hearing the call of God but the truth is if you want to hear from God simply close your mouth open your heart and listen.

God has a beautiful way of showing his hand in our work. Much of the bible study that I’ve written lately has been filled with the idea that serving God is the best way to serve others. Oswald Chambers wrote, “If I am only devoted to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will falter, but if I love Jesus Christ I will serve humanity, though men and women treat me like a door-mat.”
Are you exhausted today? Are you feeling finished, overwhelmed? If I could be so bold I’d like to ask who are you serving? If you are serving the church assuming that it’s God’s will you may be giving false worship in an area that God doesn’t want you to serve in. Think about any time you were truly serving God; doesn’t God have a way of peeking his head in and confirming the good work that you’re doing? If you can see God at work when you serve him than feeling tired and hopeless can be a good flag to reevaluate who you are trying to please. Are you working for the pastor or a spouse? Are you working for yourself in order to prove something? God is the best master to serve and he’s the best reward to receive. God is both the creator and the purpose of life and through the blood of Christ we can have a personal, meaningful relationship with the one true God.

Here’s one way to deal with Weapons of Mass Destruction!

I’ve been thinking lately about people and morals and some of the things many people believe about good and evil and then I thought about the word Love. Love is a strange word because it’s used so often in so many ways. You can love your wife or your child, you can love ice cream or hockey, you can love music or a pet… the list goes on forever. Recently I touched briefly on the idea that human love is shallow. When you love your family, it’s because it’s YOUR family. How much honor is there in that. Jesus said in Matthew 5 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

God loved us while we were sinners and because of this we get to see what real love is. Believe me I wouldn’t want anyone to tell me I don’t love my baby girl because no one knows how I feel inside, but it’s only because the word love is used so loosely. Understanding what real love is, comes from understanding that we all have fallen short of God’s glory and then deepening our relationship with Jesus. Only the Holy Spirit can perfect us and give us a deeper understanding of love. I love all of you, I’m praying that you will be blessed from this and blessed in life in general. Please I feel so blessed from my relationship with Jesus I just want to share it with the whole entire world. Remember you don’t need to be perfect to be perfect in God’s eyes. Have faith in Jesus and when he calls answer.

In life we’re given a very special brand of conditioning. When our goal is sustenance we use food as a means to meet that end. When we need rest we use relaxation and sleep to regain our strength. We even go on love finding websites to find a partner to meet our needs. When we get divorced it’s because the relationship was not meeting our needs or our needs changed. This is a very natural response birthed from survival instinct and yet it is a dangerous part of our nature which if left unchecked can lead to spiritual destruction.
When people talk about universalism and spiritualism, their referring to the actions and feelings that keep us high with a feeling of joy, things that give us a feeling of worth or a feeling of completeness. This is a disposable and renewable state of being that is based on endorphins, hormones and natural opioid production inside of our mind. As Christians we sometimes fall victim of this by looking at every part of our walk with God and asking, how can I apply this to my life? We want to know how we can use our growth with God to fulfill some sort of meaningful need. We need to understand that when we find a place in the presence of God we are fulfilling a meaningful need. We have a need for a relationship with God. God is not a Santa Clause figure that brings us gifts and toys. God is a gift and we are blessed because we can be close to him. I find it ironic and tragic that the human desire to keep afloat could be the very thing that brings most to their death. Another way to understand it would be to say that if you make God the goal then you will find happiness. If you make happiness the Goal you will be miserable or as C.S. Lewis said it,

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

I found one of my favorite bible versions ever. Normally I stick with the NIV, and lately I’ve been reading the original language. Many people have strong opinions about what the “right” translation is but few have ground to stand on because a translation is still just a translation. If you don’t learn the original text, then your getting your bible second hand. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly trust many translations and believe that when you read them you are getting the holy word of God but it’s still a translation. Here is a new sort of summary of the bible that I enjoy and I hope you do to. The Brick Testament

I was at camp a few years ago and we’re singing “Feed us, Jesus” a song about going to Jesus for food, when I turn to bishop Sam Grey and say hey do you think they mean let’s go to Jesus and get something to eat, or lets go have some Jesus and potatoes? He laughed and then in perfect timing we overhear a kid right in front of us go hey, maybe they mean fetus Jesus, like before he was born. I was overwhelmed and just darn amused with his shenanigans and that night I started thinking; I wonder if Jesus did anything cool as a fetus. He was still God, I wonder if Mary was like, “Joseph… get me some peanut butter and waffles” and then Boom! there it was and she was like “Jesus!” and he was like “HA HA, I’m so deserving of worship” But then after the first wave of ridiculousness was over I was thinking about what Jesus did do before he was in the womb. Believe it or not Fetus Jesus (this is what I’ll refer to the pre-incarnate Jesus as) was the redeemer in the old testimate. I’ll show you one example.

Hebrews 11:26 talks about Moses choosing disgrace for the sake of Christ, but that was a long time before Jesus,… wasn’t it? Well lets explore. In Exodus chapter 3 God comes to Moses as a burning bush, but if you read the verses carefully it says,
“There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

OK scripture says the Angel of the lord came to Moses, then the Angel refers to himself as the Lord. You guessed it, Fetus Jesus! Jesus being a redeemer isn’t something new, Jesus was there in the beginning and he’s been redeeming people as long as people have been redeemed. Jesus isn’t just a part of God, Jesus IS GOD! The entire old testimate points to Jesus, he’s always been there. As a matter of fact John 14:6 says Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

That means no one, anytime anyone spoke to God in the old testimate, Fetus Jesus! Think about it. I’ll cover this much more extensively in my video ministry. I love you all, remember you’re strangers in a strange land, Divorce the World!

I don’t watch much TV but I’m a big fan of King of the Hill and it’s honest look at the world. In this clip Hank tries to tell the truth about his bosses fake environmentalism and… well just watch.