My Online Faith Journal

21 " Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things , he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." 2 Tim 2:21-22, NASV     I wanted to follow up with two big pieces of advice for those of you who read my last post about hearing from God.  All week I have been thinking about this and about hearing from God.  Two big lessons that it took me years to learn I want to share with you.  It took me a very long time to get these two things.     One word regarding knowing God's will is that God cares about who you are more than where you are.   When you look at the words of Paul to Timothy, you might expect that as an apostle to a young preacher that Paul would have a lot of practical things he wanted to say to Timothy about the church that he left in his care.  But, Paul focused on enco

    In 1 John 2:1 it says, "My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." Now also look in John 16:7-8     "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment."      It is interesting to me that in different ways, both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are at work to be both our helper and our advocate.  The Bible says that the Spirit even helps us to pray as we should.  He intercedes for us when we do not know how to pray.  And then it is Jesus Himself who is also our advocate.  The word advocate is a legal term.  It is like an advocate who sp

   The book of 1 John is one of my favorite letters in the New Testament.  John deals with a most important subject.  That the christian faith is not about what we do, but who we have fellowship with.  The word fellowship is the word koinonia which means an intimacy and communion with.  The christian faith is meant to be a constant communion with the Son and the Father.  I like how Ray Stedman in his sermon regarding this says that fellowship is not an automatic for the believer.  The key to whether or not we are walking in fellowship is if we are walking in the light.     There is a need in the church and individual believers life to take sin more seriously than we have.  We don't realize the harm that it does.  Not just to our witness to non-believers, but to our fellowship with God.  We need to realize that sin is first sin against God.  And if you love God then you will realize that it grieves God when we allow sin into our lives.  True repentance is necessary not just one da

   I noticed as I scrolled through cable television this morning, that many churches are not having services in our area this morning.  We had a large sleet and ice storm here Thursday night into Friday morning that took down numerous trees and power lines all over the area.  Even the grocery store Friday afternoon didn't have its power on.  Made me wonder how they are keeping the frozen stuff frozen.  I'm sure nobody wonders about that but me, since I am a little different. . . .    When I see the notices about the power being out and services canceled.  I thought to myself the power in the churches have been lacked for a long time, not just today.  It seems when you look at the statistics that there is not a big measureable difference between those who go to church and those who do not.  In whatever area you would like to measure, divorce rate, spousal infidelity, drug addiction, etc.  Why is it that so many of our churches and christians seem to lack the power of the Spiri

    In my daily bible reading, I started a few days ago reading through Exodus.  I got to the part where Moses and the people of God walk across the bottom of the Red Sea.  God causes a wind to build up the waters on each side of the people, so that they are literally walking on the sea bed.  When the Egyptians try to do the same, confusion occurs and the Egyptians end up drowning.     When you look at the story, you realize that God deliberately leads them in such a way that they appear to the Egyptians to be "wandering aimlessly".  The Egyptians go after the Israelites and think that because the sea is to their back and they are trapped.  But, God uses the moment to both judge the Egyptians and to bring glory to His own name.  When the people cry out to God because they see the Egyptians coming the Lord literally tells them to stop praying and start moving.      The story reminds us that God wants to use those situations in our lives that appear difficult to bring glory