Intentional Christianity

Day Three- Jesus lived among the needy Passages: Mt. 9:11, 12, 11:28-30
Mt. 9;11, 12 The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.”
Mt. 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The Lord took favor upon the poor, oppressed, blind, sick, needy, crippled, lame, women, Samaritans, lepers, children, prostitutes and even tax collectors! – All of those at the bottom of the social pyramid. The Lord, Jesus Christ came for all men, to serve. But those who were hurting were the ones who wanted his help. (Kinnaman, 132) They were the ones who sought him out. They were the ones who accepted and really needed the Lord. Not everyone will want our help. Not everyone will desire our love and servant attitude.
Jesus faced the Pharisees and “religious leaders” who were not hurt or sick. They rejected, mocked, and persecuted him. The same will apply to us as Christians.
Also remember that Christ might want you to serve people that you never expected. Christ might be calling you to work with the poor, the sick, those who do not look like you, smell like you, or have the same background as you do. That is okay. Expect it. Do not be afraid to reach out to anyone. This might take some humility. But as we learned in our last lesson, this is what we learned from Christ.
One last note, Jesus can and wants to use you. He wants you to be salt and light (Mt. 5:13-16). He can and will use you if you are willing and ready to be humble and to be a servant to men. Remember who, Jesus Christ selected to be his disciples! They were the on the lowest end of the social totaled pole in Israel. They were “average Joes,” stinky fishermen, craftsmen, and yes, even a tax collector. The Lord wants to use you. Will you serve?

Day Two – What was Christ like? Passage:

: 1-11Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross! As a result God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Christ, as Paul writes, in one of the longest run-on-sentences in the entire Bible, was humble. He was a servant, a slave to men. We are to follow this example. If we could do one thing to change Christianity today, it is this: treat others as more important than yourself. (Kinnaman, 224) As Jesus did, and as Jesus taught, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” () When Christians really put this into action, non-believers really do notice! Re-read this passage. Mediate on it. Reflect on your own life. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal people in your life that he wants you to serve. Pray for them. And when the Lord gives you the opportunity, serve them, be ready and willing!

Learning from Jesus and learning to be like Him
(one week of devotions on Christ-likeness)

Day One – What not to do… Passage: Eph. 4:17-20
Eph 4:17-20 With the Lord's authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against Him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn't what you learned about Christ. (NLT)

Paul wrote the epistle to the Ephesians. Paul founded the church at Ephesus. Paul’s Jewish background comes into play inverses like verse 17. Paul had a heart and passion to evangelize to the Jews. But Ephesians was written to Gentile believers to assure them of their full inclusion with Jewish believers in the New Covenant (Schooley). Paul, here, was warning them against sinful desires. Many Gentiles had turned away from God with hardened hearts. The sinful desires of lust and impurity darkened their minds and hardened their hearts. This is not the way they should have been living. The Ephesians, on the other hand, have the teachings for Christianity before them. Paul tells them to learn from Jesus and the things they have seen and heard from him. The Spirit of the Lord was upon them, and the dispositions and sins that the Gentiles struggled with, do not have to be a serious issue to the Ephesians. Paul tells the Ephesians not to do these things, but instead learn from Jesus. In the next six devotions, we are going to learn from Jesus. We will learn to be more like Christ.

From Oswlad Chambers:

"Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ."

So much of Christianity is about what God does for man and it is crazy because we men want to do something in return but it is not about us. It is so not about us, it is about Him. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord! For there is nothing I can do. Lord take me and change me.
Amen.

Work/ Career:
Working with UPS Freight as a dockworker. It is great. Fun. But have not been getting a lot of hours. Slow economy in general, plus winter is a very slow freight season. :(

School:
Been working on two classes at a time this semester which is tough. And both classes are challenging and require a lot more research and effort than I am used to since I graduated, from Ohio University anyways. Exciting paper about Paul and the law which his coming along!

Church:
Our church is in the middle of closing on our new building. Which is really exciting. We are going to have our first service in the building on Sunday! And Thanksgiving meal! mmm.

Youth Group:
We are closing in on Dec. 13th, the date of our production. That is exciting! We need to practice more for sure though. The director might have her baby within a week or two!
I have been busy getting the float and set ready! The Lancaster parade is Saturday so not much more time!

My ear:
The doctor said it is healing up great but apparently it takes a long time to heal all the way! Despite how great it feels it is only 50% healed!

My car:
Keeps breaking. Always fun to embarrass myself trying to fix it.

Girls:
No luck yet.

In we read that "Whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God, He made man."

There is conflict not just around the topic of capital punishment and the Bible but all punishment...
What do you think? Should the punishment of any crime meet the crime?

I think it is Biblical concept...

Isa. 6

1In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

6Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

7And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

9And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

11Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

12And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

13But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

The Word "Woe" means death. Isaiah understood his place. He knew he was not holy, especially seeing the Lord seated on the throne. Isaiah knew he was a sinful man., not worthy. But yet Isaiah remained humble. He chose to have an encounter with the Lord. He repented from his sin. And he responded to the call of God to GO!

There are some many great technologies available making watching my favorite television shows for free. There is no reason to pay for cable, tivos, and all of that when I have an HD laptop with internet connection, and even a cable to connect to a larger projection and or tv.

1. The simplest and easiest is watching tv and movies on the internet legally from the network's own website or another 3rd party website:
you name the network and they have a website where they will playback new episodes for free with limited advertising online.
http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/10/01/where-to-find-your-favorite-shows-online/
3rd party sites with and without ads:
hulu.com
veoh.com
youtube.com
http://www.primetimerewind.tv/home
beelinetv.com

If you do not like the quality of the online experience, there are other great was to watch tv with out paying for cable monthly:

Satellite TV For PC
for a one time fee of about $50 you legally purchase software that get over 3000 channels to your laptop.

In our culture in the movies, tv or where ever, a person who is "rough" around the edges is sometimes portrayed as a hero, as a attractive (whether the character is a good guy or bad guy).

The trait of being "rough" is not thought to be so bad. We can all relate to it. No one is perfect we all have rough areas in our personality that we are working on. We want to know that other people are like us. In fact it makes us feel better to know someone else is worse off, in some cases...and in other cases a person who is so "rough," is a hero of sorts to someone who has lived a "sheltered" lifestyle (at least in some cases.)

A thought I had though is that no one really likes a person who always play the "rough" personality card. No matter what happens these people come across as 'jerks' (to use polite language). Later they might come up to you and say they are "working on it." But the truth is they do not struggle with "rough patches"...their entire being is one sharp edge.

No one likes being poked by a sharp edge. It hurts.

This chart you may have seen before it is on Wikipedia.

A lot of my friends are baptist and they believe in the notion of pre-tribulation dispensational premillennialism. - yeah the longest, most confusing title...and it actually is one of the more complex and confusing theories too! Are you familiar with the Left Behind books by Tim LeHaye. well those books portray this theory.

I have been studying the end times or eschatology with the help of apologetics.com and some theology books. I am still not sure where exactly I stand, but I have found problems with the pre-tribulation dispensational premillennialism. And am not a follower of that theory.

I also struggle to believe the symbolic millennailism or amillennialism. Basically, it suggests that number of years in Revelation 20 is a symbolic number, not a literal description; that the millennium has already begun and is identical with the church age. And Christ could return at any moment.