New Discovery

I know, I know...it's me again. But, I have a lot of time on my hands, and I made a new discovery the other day. Tell me what you think of this, and if it's just me, or if you agree with this.

The other day I decided to read Joshua. This is from where my thought process took place. Well, as many of us know, the Israelites were God's people. They were chosen for a specific purpose. They were the children of God. God also promised their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the land of Canaan. The Book of Joshua is about the conquest of Canaan, and how the nations surrounding them were conquered, with the counsel and help of God. But, I always thought of this, as if the Israelites were getting this land because God said so. I mean, He just chose the land and decided that the Israelites would be his nation, and this would be the land that they must conquer. I thought because they were God's special people, He was giving land to them.
I was wrong.
I mean, of course God chose this land, and they got it because he said so, because he promised it. But, he also chose this land, because the people of that land were sinful people. The Canaanites committed many various sins, located in Leviticus 18. God, was not going to allow this sin to continue, for God hates sin. God knew that he had to bring judgement upon this nation. He didn't just pick a nation to destroy that was of innocence. God picked a filthy and gross nation of which God was prediciting to bring judgement upon. He did this in Genesis 15: 13-16. He talks that the Amorites(the same as the Canaanites) will be judged(vs. 14).
I thought because they were God's special people, so He was giving land to them. Apparently, so did the Israelites. They thought because of God's choosing, and them being known as the children of God, that they were deserving of this land. They were also wrong. They were not deserving of anything. Deut 9:5- 6"It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightnesss of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people."
God had to remind these people that they were not so high and mighty, and they deserved nothing.
We still deserve nothing. We do not deserve the land that God has promised us. But, God hates sin. He completely destroyed a whole nation, because of their sin. We today, are a nation that sins, many people in our world commit the same sins, that the Canaanites did. God will punish those who do sin.
I never really thought it about like that with the Israelites. God is just. He will take vengeance on those who sin, and he will bless those who sincerely seek Him, and what to do what He says. Only the God who is completely just can judge and make right all the wrongs committed.
Rom 3:5~
"But if unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?(I speak as a man.) Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?"
Hebrews 10:30~
"For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people."

school is starting...

school is starting, and how are we going to take the opportunity? Are we just going to sit back, and let people come up to us and to talk to us about God? Or, are we going to jump in face first, with God on our side, and share with everyone our Good News? How else are they going to find out? I mean, how much are we really worried about their souls, why would we want anyone to go to Hell? We don't! I know, that know one out there wants that, but are we taking it that seriously? School is a great place for any door to open, so take it with responsiblity and wisdom. Since I started homeschooling, I was like, "I'm not going to be able to tell anyone about God, and have spiritual conversations with other people..." That is not true. Everyday there are opportunities, I cannot use that as an excuse to just sit back and relax, none of us can sit back and relax. It's our job to face all of the evil around us, and make it pure and holy. How seriously are we taking this? As Christians, what is our goal? Our goal is to get to Heaven...and bring others with us! How glorious that day will be!
And, remember! Be Radical!

Remember Who You Are, and Where You're Going!

Learning from the Psalms

Have you ever been in a situation where you didn't know what to say in your prayer or you want to say something but you think "I can't say that in prayer"? Or you just say one thing and you think that’s enough so you don’t say anymore. I know I have sometimes.
At camp, we had a class with Paul Earnhart about the Psalms and it taught me several things.

1) There is no end to how much you can talk to God and praise him.
A lot of time I think we don’t even know what to say in praise to God and we just say the same old phrases every time but in the Psalms David and the others Psalmist write pages in praise to God. Just look and Psalm 1o4 and just look at how much the Psalmist praises God and in almost every Psalm the writer does not forget to praise God. It is encouraging to read them and just think about what they’re saying and we should learn from that and praise God from our hearts and be sincere like the Psalmists were.

2) When we confess our sins and ask forgiveness of God, really do it.
Read Psalm 51. This is the Psalm David wrote after he had committed the sin with Bathsheba. David doesn’t just say "I sinned forgive me." Like we do sometimes. David pours out his heart in sorrow. He is so distressed over his sin that he cries over and over for God to forgive him. This should be our attitude. When we sin, we should be so distressed because we have violated God's law and it should make us pour out our hearts to God.

3) God is our help.
A lot of times we try to get through some hard time or temptation on our own because we think we are strong. The truth is we are nothing compared to God. If you look at the Psalms, David goes to God in all of his troubles. One example is Psalm 3 when he’s fleeing from Absalom. "Arise, O Lord. Save me, O my God. For you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone, you have broken the teeth of the ungodly." David knows who to turn to in trouble and so should we. And if David goes to God when his life is being threatened, and God saves him, how much more should we go to God and know he will deliver us from the smaller things.

So, I encourage everyone to read the Psalms, 1 0r 2 or 3 a day and really think about what they are saying and apply what you read and learn to your personal prayer to God.

Many strings attached...

I have been thinking a lot lately: what keeps us so attached to the world? Many times when we think about this subject, what automatically comes to our minds is: How many friends do I have in "the world"? How much time do I spend with them? How many activities am I involved with at school? and that kind of thing.

It occured to me that those are merely by-products of a more fundamental question: what do we think about constantly? What kind of things do our minds dwell on and therefore our conversations involve?

I think this is a very relevant question seeing as we are about to go back to school, to a more worldly environment. I know in my case, I answered "the world" to those two questions in the paragraph above, as I'm sure many of you did. Its a big problem.

So why do we constantly think about worldly things and therefore talk about worldly things all the time? Its a simple as 2=2. You get out what you put in.

The best question of all is to ask ourselves: what are we putting into our minds to think about and then talk about? Are we putting worldly things in? Or are we putting spiritual things in? Sit down honestly make a list of what you do everyday and see where your priorities lie. If you fill your time with things that arent necessarily sinful, but are still worldly (like sports, TV(fat chance its not sinful), or video games) thats what you are going to dwell on. In my case, I find myself thinking about soccer a whole lot. There is nothing wrong with playing over even thinking about soccer but when it distracts me from thinking and/or concentrating on spiritual things, I need to reconsider my priorities.

Its just as simple as that. Whatever you put into your mind through different activities during the day is what your mind is going to be focused on and therefore thats what your conversations will dwell on and then you will just want to do those same activities more.

We have to fill our minds with spiritual thoughts and its as easy as filling it with the latest gossip. Be interested in spiritual things. We have to shift our focus away from the worldly things (which isnt easy, ill give you that right off the bat) and focus on spirtual things by reading the word and praying and discussing spiritual things. We have to fill our lives with spiritual activities to get out the spiritual growth we should desire.

Just think about it.

"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you..." Col. 3:16

What have we given up?

I went to Mt. View's VBS this week. The theme was "We're On A Mission" and it was about Paul's missionary journeys. The question at the end of one of the classes was, "What have you given up, since you've become a Christian?" Think about all that Paul did. He gave up his position, his job, and money. But, he also just gave himself up. He was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, whipped, and much more. Not only Paul, but many of the Christians in the 1st century were being persecuted, and they were all giving themselves up for Christ. What have you given up since you've became a Christian? I don't feel like I have given up anything crucial, and this hit me. We're supposed to be striving for Christ and suffering for Him.

I feel a revival my brothers...

Hey Everyone,

I had the awesome idea of reviving the TTLC blog and getting the spiritual focus of the group on the up take. Lets keep this a place for spiritual thoughts and encouragements and things and leave the secular things other places, like pleonast, since thats what its come to anyway. So please participate and lets grow closer to each other spiritually and grow closer to God which should come first in our lives!

Doug

"In simple trust like theirs who heard, beside the Syrian sea, the gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word, Rise up and follow Thee." - John Greenleaf Whittier

Just think about it.

"But He knows the way I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to His steps,
I have kept His was and not turned aside."
Job 23:10-12

"Being confident in this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." Philipians 1:6

"For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end and it will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come and will not delay.
See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright-
but the righteous will live by faith-"
Habakkuk 2:3-4

It is so easy to become discouraged. For me, it seems like I'll go through periods of time when it seems like God just isn't around. Remember that He has a plan for all of us. He is using everything for a reason. All we can do is hold fast to his word and have faith.

"He who endures to the end shall be saved." Matthew 24:13

Dealing With Discouragement

What's goin on? Sorry i havent posted anything in a while, but i been just a little busy with things. I've been discouraged lately with efforts in evangelism....you know how it is, you ask people if they wanna come, you get different responses; but the typical response of most people is that theyre just too busy. Or this may just mean that they don't wanna come. I guess what i need to work on is remembering they arent rejecting me, but they are rejecting God. So the best thing to do is to just take it and move on to the next person....in fact TALK TO MORE PEOPLE. This is probably easier said than done, but the obvious answer to that is prayer.
Right now one of my close, non-christian relatives is close to death. Just the realization that she will die soon and that she has nothing to look forward to after death......she will suffer forever despite our efforts to help save her. This just makes me think of every non-christian in a different way. Someday down the road all the kids we've known through school, all our aquaintances will face death unaware of what is coming for them. So i guess what im tryin to say is that we shouldnt give up just because of rejection.
One thing that John says over and over again in 1 John, is that we are to love one another with the same love that Christ loved us. I think he was talking about love among brethren, but the same principle applies to non-christians. If we really love them like Christ loved us, will rejection stop us from telling them?

*You guys lemme know if you have any thoughts on this....its somethin that I really
struggle with.


Andrew

Nothing...

Hey everyone. I hope you all are doing alright. Sorry that I haven't posted anything good lately. Basically it shows that I haven't really sat down and tried to think something up. I'll post something soon I promise.

meredith

Good or Evil.

I read a really cool book this week and it made me think about this..

I think we would all agree that things are usually good or evil, right? I mean, there are things that are clearly good, and others that are obviously evil. You hear about good men and bad men, and you read about the wise and the foolish. Good or Evil.

Yet, after doing some thinking, I see that the line isn't drawn so clearly. I believe that we have generalized the term "good" and have managed to lower its standards. It may not be difficult to pass our time staying on the right side of the road, but the things we do may not be as good as we think they are.

So then what is good?

“The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22

It takes work to truly be good. Our goodness must stand out.

“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:15

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13

Lastly, is it isn't Good, it is evil.

James 1:14 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?”

“Everyone who hears these words and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:26-27

“Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” James 1:17

I hope that this makes sense to you all. Have an awesome week.

Meredith

"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." Galatians 6:9