Family Shepherds: Husbands and Fathers

Family Shepherds: Husbands and Fathers - Click link to watch video

Why the world is wrong about marriage.

Why the world is wrong about marriage - Click on the link to read this article.

Why young Christians aren't waiting anymore

Why young Christians aren't waiting anymore - Click on link to read article.


This is unbelievable. At first, I was so upset when reading this, but now, my knees are weak and my heart breaks for all of these young people. The answer is STILL to wait. Having sex is not the crime, but when you choose to have it. Sex is richer, healthier, better and longer lasting (relationally speaking) win you wait. Pursue God, love God, trust God and He will show you a world ineffable; a joy indescribable. How many times I have sat across from the one full of regret and listened to their sobs and watched them in remorse. My heart is heavy and watching this happen without utterance is not godly.

Many of you have been wronged and have responded wrongly. Many of you have committed sexual sin and have been victims of committed sexual sin. My heart breaks for you, but the good news (the gospel) is that God forgives sinners like you and I. He forgives sin we've committed and sin that has been committed against us. This is the power of God for salvation and reconciliation: the gospel. Jesus takes our sin and in exchange substitutes our sin for His righteousness. Therefore were have right standing before God; we're pure, white as snow, blameless, ect. Jesus puts sin to death in the Christian and is justified in the election of His beloved. There is redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, and RESTORATION! Don't believe the lie that your sin is too great to forgive and that joy is out of reach of being restored. There is always hope, but only in Jesus Christ. For more read UNTAMPERED SEX... I also encourage you if you are one of these individuals struggling with sexual sin and struggling to hold on to Christ, know that I do not condemn you and that I do not judge you. Message me, email me, call or txt me I would love to talk to you. Lets seek help, prayer and understanding when deciding why to wait to participate in sexual activities. Numbered among His elected, Kelby Steele

Verse and Thought: Brain Tumor

“John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” 

- John 3v27

Thought: I just received a email message on my phone telling me that a 9 month old in our church was flown to Children’s Hospital today, because of a brain tumor. The message was calling for members and loved ones to pray. At 8 o’clock this evening there was even an emergency prayer meeting for the family and 9 month old. I read this just before I sat down to write this evening and I’m faced with this verse, about all things are given from heaven. “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven,” how true, but yet how cruel and twisted does this sound? I mean, don’t you when you read this think, “Man, isn’t God terrible for letting this happen?”

What a hard truth it is to tell someone, not that God gave their baby brain cancer, but that he was completely and totally within his reigns of preventing it. God is often to blame for the most horrific of instances and even the most petty of grievances. Obviously, we know that it was not by God that sin entered the world, it was us, but what do we do? We keep an eye open fixed upon the absurdity of the instance and label it as "injustice." Injustice that harms us, but it is the same injustice that keeps our eyes blind to the truth and open to the thistles of our hearts. 

What a treacherous people we are! Don’t you know that we look at the crowd that crucified Jesus the same way? We say, “Well if I was living back than I wouldn’t have murdered Jesus!” And another thing I think we believe, but would never say is, “I don’t think that today with all the understanding, love and affection that I have for Christ, I would of have denied Jesus like Peter did.” 

What mound do you pitch from? Who do you say Jesus is? What would you do if you just received a phone call from your spouse telling you your 9 month year old was just airlifted to Children’s Hospital? Would you praise God in that moment? I hope you would fall to your knees and ask the Lord for help. I hope you would go to Jesus. I hope you would be on your knees with tears creating a pool in your praying hands, before you would lose trust. I hope your trust in Jesus would never fleet. 

My heart goes out to that family tonight. I don’t know where they are, but I pray that they are resting in Jesus. I hope and pray that they read John 3v27 and trust that the Lord is still on the throne, that He is looking over His little loved one. After all their child first belonged to Him. The hard truth and tough reality conceived is that, though sin is actively eroding what God intended for good, God is just despite what happens. Better yet, He never loses that which is already His. 

The thing to be careful of here is that we do not fall into the lie that God owes us anything or that he needs to answer to us. God owes you nothing. You and I owe Him everything. It was by us and our choosing that we rebelled against His legality, because we believed that we could make God answer to us for the things that He has and still does without our permission. What lucent numb-nut with three pounds of meat between their ears believes that God ought to head his counsel?

God is innocent. We are guilty. He gave us life that we might live abundantly in the grace that He lavishes within Himself. Jesus takes our guilt and gives us His life. This is the Gospel. The gift is Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. No one receives anything unless it is given to him from heaven, that includes salvation. Faith is given to those who are ill-deserving, not because there is something great in them or about them, but because Jesus is God and He loves His beloved. All that Jesus gives or allows, he does so for His name sake.     

   

Verse and Thought: Unwavering Light

“And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world and the people loved darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” 

- John 3v19

Thought: Lord, you rule with an iron fist. You are unwavering, my God. You care for man, but are completely aware of what is in man and yet you delight in him. With all integrity you do not vindicate your wrath, without first interceding in the works of men for eternal salvation. You make it clearly seen, Father that man’s good works for salvational history have been carried out in God, that man is an extension of your righteousness. With vigilance you execute your redemptive succession upon the hearts man, making all things new. You work all things for the sake of your name and the good of those who love you. Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people (Jn. 2v24). The Lord leads man down cool streams of water and quenches his thirst with a waterfall of promises. If man abides in the good works as unto the Lord and believes in Jesus as the forerunner on his behalf, he will obtain the promise set before him by the faithfulness of God.  

The Word of the Lord says that, “Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise” (Hebrews 6v15). Saving faith may appear to come to brother and sister, father and mother, friend or foe, but if what the rain pours out upon the soul produces thorns and thistles it is worthless. Saving faith is a spring welling up to eternal life, it floods the pastures and overtakes the town. It does not loose momentum, it patiently waits to obtain a promise. 

Abraham is often said to be the “father of faith”, because it was in him that God promised that he would become the father of many nations and Abraham believed the Word of the Lord. So it is that we, the faithful, are decedents of an ancient work, a work of God in the hearts of man. Works carried out by God for the hope of assurance set before man, that he might obtain the promise, like our father Abraham did.    

My soul waits on the Lord, for he is my refuge and my light. He is my delight and my salvation (Psalm (27:1-2). The Lord is the first and the last. The Lord is the promise I cling to, by his steadfast love I cleave to his Word and hold out for the hope set before me. It is written, “And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise”, so it will be said of me, because of the hope stored up in me. I patiently wait on the Lord. What doubt could possibly convince me otherwise? I will hold fast to the Lord and praise him all the days of my life, in sorrow and celebration I will consider it all joy to the glory of Him who has made me well.   

Prayer: Father God, I wait for you. Thank you, Father, that I can rest in your promise, I can stand confidently in the shadow of the cross, in the completely assurance of my salvation. I ask Father that your saints would furiously seek after you and desire you with the uttermost affection. I pray as they are, that they would cleave to the promise set before them and delight in pools of joy everyday. 

I pray for those that do not understand the truth of the hope set before them, the confidence we have in Jesus as the forerunner of on our faith. Believers ought to know that “we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf” (Hebrews 6v19-20). We ought to believe and have the assurance as children of God. Lord speak through your Word that they might see and clearly perceive the goodness of the Lord in the cross of Christ.

Also, I pray for those who do not know you or that are not known by you, that they upon receiving rebirth might see you as the steadfast anchor of their soul and therefore cleave to your promise. I ask all these things in your beautiful name. Amen.  

Verse and Thought: The Wind of God

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with all who are born of the Spirit.”

-John 3v8

Thought: Who can know the mind of God? Who can anticipate His next move? “Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases” (Psalm 115v3). The Lord is just and sovereign over all the earth. Like the wind, you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes nor where it goes. Who has come before the throne of God and said, “Come my way, that I might know You.” Before Abraham trusted the Lord, did not God come to him; did not God pursue him? 

It is God who has elected the sons of obedience from among the tainted files of wicked traitors once before. Did God not from out of the dust of the earth make man that man might know Him? In John 2, at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem many believed in Jesus’ name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all that was in man.

I have prayed for friends and family that they might receive the Spirit, but the Spirit is not tamed. He is free, moving about where He pleases. I hear Him and I feel His touch, but He is swift. Conviction, is His weapon of choice. With a sharp edged and clean thrust the Spirit prunes the heart of man. In the depths of man’s depravity the Spirit washes. The Spirit shines light in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 

The Spirit of God shines forth from the Son of man. In Jesus is life, and this life is the light of men. He is the true light, which enlightens everyone. To all who were enlightened, who have trusted in the Son of man, He gave the right to become children of God. And this is key: “who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God (John 1:13)”.

The Spirit gives life to whom He wills. The Spirit enlightens whomever He wills and you cannot tell Him what to do or where to go. He does as He pleases, in whom He pleases for the glory of God and their eternal joy.

The G.O.S.P.E.L.

This is the God. Our. Sins. Paying. Everyone. Life.

"I will wait for you"

Heaven & Hell - Mark Driscoll - Mars Hill Church

Heaven & Hell - Mark Driscoll -Mars Hill Church

If you have ever had questions about Heaven or Hell and have struggled to find good biblical answers for those question, then choose today to watch Heaven and Hell at MarsHillChurch.org, to hear Mark Driscoll walk with you through some of the most difficult questions asked today.

Questions like:
1. “What is hell? What is hell like?”
2. “Is it possible that people can deny God for their whole earthly lives, and have a second chance after death?”
3. “Why would God make people who will permanently remain his enemies? Why does God create certain people when he knows that their only future is to be tortured for all eternity?” 
4. “Is hell temporary? Or do the souls of the damned get destroyed?”
5. “I am wondering if while we are in heaven we are aware of family/loved ones suffering in hell. It is hard to imagine being happy in heaven knowing or being aware of their existence. I can only guess being in Jesus’ presence overrides that feeling somehow?”
6. “Will everyone who doesn’t know Jesus go to hell? What if you’ve never heard of Jesus at all?”


Visit the link at the top to listen to a sermon by Mark Driscoll entitled Heaven and Hell.

Devoting Ourselves to Death

This is an article from The Resurgence by Bill Martin.  I read over the article and thought it would benefit you to read over it yourselves. It follows our theme of Forsaking All [and] Trusting Him; fulfilling Romans 12:1: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." The link will be at the bottom of the article if you wish to view it at The Resurgence.


Devotions aren’t all that. In the Old Testament, to devote something was to offer it to God in complete destruction (e.g. Deuteronomy 7:2 ). Is that what we’re doing when we say things like, “This year, I’m going to improve my daily devotions”? True devotion will kill you! Maybe that’s why we have so much trouble achieving a routine of daily, devoted Bible reading and prayer.

He's not impressed

In calling us to a devoted life (Romans 12:1), the Bible is not calling us to a mere performance of spiritual disciplines. Jesus wasn’t impressed with those who were famous for rigorous self-discipline (Matthew 23:23). Yet, when we look at Jesus’ life, we see a man who absolutely had his priorities straight, and it didn’t always make sense from a time-management perspective.

• Consider what he did just after miraculously feeding 5,000 families (Matthew 14:23). He went up to a lonely mountain to pray.
• And in preparation for his last day on earth, he went to a garden and prayed until he bled (Luke 22:44). That’s devotion.

“Performance-based devotions suck.”

When we try to perform Jesus’ level of devotion, we so often wind up disappointed with our failing efforts, sometimes even opening a door to self-condemnation. The irony here is devotional efforts that result in condemnation produce exactly the opposite of God’s work for us in Christ: justification. Performance-based devotions suck. They are anti-Jesus, anti-Gospel, and sub-Christian.

Devotions versus devotion

The next time you set some goal of personal devotion, ask yourself this question: would a spouse appreciate being approached for intimacy like, “Okay, it’s time. I need to put in my fifteen minutes today.” Neither does God. Because of his great love for us, God opened the way to his very presence (Hebrews 4:16), so our devotions become devotion only when we approach God as one we love—like a lover with her spouse, like a son spending time with his father. The relationship motivates the action, not vice-versa.

Fail like Peter

Here’s what’s redeeming: your past failure at performing self-disciplined devotions can become the very means God uses to bring true devotion from your life. Like cowering Peter before his denial of Christ versus uninhibited Peter preaching to thousands on Pentecost, the old fleshly creation must die and give way to the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), formed and filled by the Holy Spirit. True devotion brings us to the crux of that transformation in our own lives (Romans 12:2).
Give yourself to God to read the Bible, pray, fast, worship, etc. But don’t do it bound to self-driven perfectionism that exists only to be measured; do it out of dying self-effort and rising new life which longs for the measureless grace and boundless presence of a living, loving God.


http://theresurgence.com/2011/02/21/devoting-ourselves-to-death

Imagine Jesus said this to you.

Feel the weight in what Jesus says to Peter in this passage. Imagine Jesus saying this to you over breakfast. What would you think? What would you say? Would you finish your breakfast?

John 21:15-19

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16 He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."

John 21:15-19

"Before the Throne of God Above"

A song that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it and draws me before my spotless righteousness. Today we sang this beautiful reminder in church. I was once again deeply captivated, by its majestic portrayal of the hopelessness I once knew and now, no longer do. Jesus Christ has graven my name into the book of life, that lies written beneath the bones of his hands. Alleluia, "Before the throne of God above, I have a strong, a perfect plea, A great High Priest, whose name is Love."

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea:
A great High Priest, whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands,
My name is written on his heart;
I know that while in heaven he stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/shane_and_shane/before_the_throne_of_god_above.html ]
Because a sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise the One,
Risen Son of God!

Behold him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I am,
The King of glory and of grace!

One in himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by his blood
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God
With Christ, my Savior and my God

Untampered Sex

Untampered Sex

Why should I not have sex? 

Sex outside of marriage is destructive and irreversible. Sex is God given and intended for intimacy and holiness. What makes it irrational is that it robs us of intimacy and restricts us to temporary pleasure. This is an extremely brief explanation, though nonetheless essential for pursuing the most in our relationships and whole devotion to one person, in one covenant, for one lifetime. But moreover, the consequences are innumerable and the devastation is unfathomable. 

Sex outside of marriage doesn’t equip you for marriage, it builds up walls and fences to keep you out of the gardens of imperishable sexual fruit and intimacy with your spouse. Frequent sex does not increase itself linearly on a scale destined for unimaginably pleasurable fleets. It kills our idea of true love and it flees the true meaning of love. This unequivocal love, that we chase with the best intentions, eventually fades into ash in the palms of our hands. We have fought for so long to have and to hold and when we do, its gone. Then a gust of sorrow blows this remanent from our vary self and instead of choosing to love again we die and never see the mornings dawn again. Hope was something you chased, but never held. You hoped not in love, but in death. I truly do want the best for you, dear friend, but when is it enough? My friend your dying, turn from this debauchery, I plead with you and run to Christ. It is your only hope.

Sex becomes more passionate, more intimate, more free when it is patterned after God. The consequences are far and few in number. Frankly, they don’t hold a torch to the immeasurable affects of arrogance. 

Sex outside of marriage is not conscientious, but debased. Folly leads people down streams of false hope. Pervasiveness ruins lives at the cost of “uncontrollable urges and desires.” With little thought, if any at all, people believe a “cultural” lie. Its merely “a biological urge” and without thinking about the purposes of those urges, we exchange the truth for a lie and sin springs up again like a weed, the very next minute. People committing shameless acts with one another with little thought of the cost to themselves and others. The results of these consequences are paramount. Among them are pregnancy (when children are not the end goal), the AIDS epidemic, which has lead to the death of millions and continues to show itself as a result of sin (that which is outside of God). On a less physical level, sexual choices can transform one’s self image and create, alter, or destroy our most significant relationships. The inevitable is negative.

     

Dear friend, just consider for a moment, a couple committed to each other for a lifetime like this. The two mutually know the other’s failures, insecurities and fears. Though, their faults are many, they love one another. The exude a complimentary relationship that is continuously working and being sanctified into a more holistic projection of the union of the Trinity, the most perfect relationship. The two are always and continually growing in intimacy and increasing in the overflow of the most deepest affection for one another. And this spills over again and again into sexual intimacy as well. Its the most beautiful thing about God that we get to explore with someone else in marriage. Sex inside and protected from within the marriage covenant reaches it’s climax in intimacy, a place where it cannot be found anywhere else.

  

I heard a story about a man’s wife who committed adultery. In their bedroom she told her husband she had been sleeping with another man. Feeling dirty and defiled she wept bitterly as she told him. He got up and walked out of the room and within a few minutes, walked back into the room. He walked up to her and held up her beautifully white, unstained wedding gown and said, “I choose to see you as Christ sees you.”

Where is there wisdom in having sex before marriage or outside of the spoken order of Scripture? I ask because I do not know and because I do not see it. If it were better, would  you not see the prosperity of unencumbered sexual activity all around you? Would you not see provocative evidence of fertility? Would it not be prolific, plentiful and far reaching? I believe we have composed a lie and it will inevitably destroy what we hoped to never loose. 

Why is sex outside of marriage sinful? It robs, steals and cheats. God beautifully bestows sexual intimacy in creation to express inner emotion and affection towards a particular other. Sex is also trinitarian. It exhibits a dimension of intimacy that mirrors the intimacy also shared in the Trinity. Sex, therefore, is designed to reflect the nature of God to us. When sex is perverted it no longer amplifies God, it amplifies sin. Furthermore, it cheats us out of knowing the affection that the Trinity emits, which makes it difficult for the Trinity to be comprehended for so many individuals. This level of intimacy is foreign to our understanding, but it is the deepest and the most earth shattering display of affection we can ever hope to experience with someone in marriage for a lifetime.

To: My Dear Friend

Heretic?

Heretic?

CNN’s Eric Marrapodi stumbles upon news circulating in the Christian world about a pastor who is being called a heretic. The pastor of the book Love Wins is being accused for teaching “false doctrine,” said Justin Taylor. Bloggers call him a Universalist. Bell’s promotional video for his book  rolled out the red carpet for theological controversy. Taylor’s post quickly racked up a quarter million hits. He mentioned that many things have separated and created distance between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians, but “this isn’t one of them. We’ve historically agreed on many things, the person of Christ, heaven and hell. This isn’t a peripheral academic debate. What Rob Bell is talking about gets to the heart of Christianity.” 

The debate has ignited pulpits, blogs, news stations, Facebook, Tweeter, and much outside discussion. Is Bell a heretic? If he is, is he still a Christian? In his promotional video Rob Bell refers to the peaceful indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, and asks, “Ganhi’s in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?” Those lines raised eyebrows for Taylor and others. Taylor says, “It is not preaching the gospel as found in the New Testament. The New Testament is pretty clear if someone preaches a false gospel... that we are to reject that and have nothing to do with them.” If what Taylor revealed about Bell is true, then it necessarily follows that Rob Bell is no Christian. Though it necessarily follows, it is inductively strong that he, Rob Bell is a heretic.

It is always sad to see someone fall, especially one who has influence over so many lives. It does not create too much of a shock though. Rob Bell has always asked tough questions and there is nothing wrong with asking tough questions. However, his questions have resulted in some beliefs that are central to the Christian faith. Aspects of Christianity that all denominations corporately agree on, as Taylor expressed earlier. These things are nonnegotiable! They are among the very screwed definable aspects of each and every Christian. It goes without saying, that Bell’s beliefs do not parallel with Scripture. Unfortunately, Rob Bell’s most grievous mistake is that he is conditioning the Bible around his beliefs and not the other way around.   

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/01/what-is-a-heretic-exactly-in-the-evangelical-church/?iref=allsearch

The Death of the Will

Each day, I walk over frozen shadows upon the faces of rocks and the memories of young ineluctable hearts falling in love for the last time. Blood thats been spilt and conscience severed. Their past haunts me. It is written beneath the stone tablets in my chest. I am cold and desolate. 

I hear the screaming of nefarious voices all night long. Like a high pitch they shader my hearing. I stretch out my hand and grasp the chill of the air, gifting me hope for one more second. Pain is constant and as stiff as the knife in my back. Betrayed me, a friend, the one I loved. What is Love? I fear I do not know Him. 

Deception confines me, my heart curses me and harm besieges everyone I know. Love is ever present like a mother to her babe, Love looks after me. What is this Love? Where did it come from?

I have never known anything like Him. Love holds me flightless and wounded. Love picks me up and gives me a drink. Love feeds the appetite, cherishes His beloved with eyes that level mountains. 

Is this Love truly spun for the sick? A disease belittles my corps. I am the unfaithful whore in the night. A new face, an old addiction, I flee from the grips of Love.  Who is this Love that whispers in my ear?

My heart is heavy and my spirit brittle, but this Love vigorously pursues me. Why, I do not know. Though disgusting and vile and unclean, Love looked on me and said, “You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.”