The Truth of Lies

A friend told me the other day that 83% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Which got me thinking we is it that we feel the need to lie? I thought that the answer was pretty easy. I thought it went back to the garden when Adam lied about Eve giving him the apple but then I went back to the text (see below) but then i realized that Adam never lied, he is guilty of many sins but lying is not one of them. So I thought when was the first time that lying was introduced to humans, so I kept reading and it is not until chapter 4 with Cain and Abel (see below).

Now one thing that made this interesting to me is that i was always taught that all the sins that we go through where passed down through Adam but this means that we as humans we can come up with new was to sin all on our own. You see Satan is never mentioned as the one to insight Cain, the text suggests that Cain preformed this action all on his own. So if we can come up with sins on our own and they can become a part of us (ingrained into our lives) then where is the hope?

The place I found that hope is (guess where) in Christ. His sacrifice on the cross made a prevision for you and me to live this life and not be damned to hell. The whole book off romans talks about this and tells us how much we need Christ, it is only through him living his life through us that we can know the fullness of it. It is in the loss of our life that we can find it, it is only when we close our eyes that we can truly see and that is my encouragement.

In Christ
PJ

Genesis 3

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, " From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" 4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! 5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, " Where are you?" 10 He said, " I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." 11 And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12 The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, " The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Genesis 4

1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a man-child with the help of the LORD." 2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. 4 Abel, on his part also brought of the first-lings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; 5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, " Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 " If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." 8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, " Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

Hooked on Phonics

So I was reading a book for school that I really didn't like, it was just poorly written, the author didn't convey his ideas well. So I started to think about all the books that I have read over the years and how many of them have been terrible and then it dawned on me writing is an art it's not something that you go to school for four years and then you know everything there is to know about writing. Writing is an ever changing form of communication, you should constantly be learning how to convey your massage better to an audience (not just the audience that you feel comfortable with but a wide range of people).

In Christ
PJ

Prayer

I get really mad when I think about prayer in the church today. We only use it as something to begin or end a service with, only when we need something but almost never to hear God's word to us and if we do ask God what His will is for our life it is not because we want to know what His will is but we want to tell Him what our will is. We never treat prayer as a way to build a relationship with Christ to get to know Him better, to tell Him our frustrations. No... to us it is only something we do to start and finish off our Christian meetings, something we do before going to bed. We use it to get what we want (more money, a better car, ext). We pray for God to protect us, like if we don't pray for that He will just let us get hurt.

But prayer wasn't meant to be that, it was meant to be a means for our hearts to become one with Christs and for us to fall in deeper love with Him. We can pray for all of the other stuff but that isn't God's first purpose for prayer and we need to realize that.

In Christ
PJ

The End of the Apocalypse

This blog was written on my computer (as are most of my posts) at an earlier date

So tonight I went to a small group that I go to when I am in Tucson and we talked about hurricane Katrina, and the conversation was good. We had great back and fourth about what people were feeling about the events and everything that took place afterwards. In this group it was really great to see these students relate to one another and lift each other up.

In the conversation we started to talk about the apocalypse and how it was coming soon. Now it doesn't matter where you land on the whole pre-trib post-trib debate one thing that has always been is that people think that they are in the end times. People look at famines, earth quakes, killing, crime one of the biggest is Jerusalem being under attack and the middle east being unstable.

The things that no one ever looks at or says is there have always been famines, earthquakes, killing and crime ,this is nothing new. The thing is that we in America have been in relative safety and have enjoyed about 200 years of a morality that the rest of the world hasn't but now as America gets older those morals are going out the window and things are getting worse. The world isn't any better or worse we are just catching up.

As for Jerusalem and the middle east. The middle east has always been unstable with all the people and empires coming in and out of power, the only time that it came close was when David was king over Israel. As for Jerusalem, Israel is one of the most fought over peaces of land in the world. Over 100 wars have been fought over that one peace of land, more then any other country in the world.

Only God knows when the tribulation will be. So if you want to try to find out when it will be go for it (it can be a fun thing to think about) just know that you may theorize but people have theorizing for thousands of years and we are only one day closer then yesterday.

In Christ
PJ

Witnessing

Yesterday (10/1/05) I was walking on the river-walk here in town when two people asked me for directions to the best place to eat (of which I told them the two places that Ravencrest staff or staff family work). But then we got into a great talk about the church, religion and the Bible. One of the things that the conversation lead to was how the church was failing (failing these two in particular) and how Christians aren't reaching out to the community which is sad.

We always talk in our church's about how we need to reach the lost but we treat those people like their wrong and we are right, we are winning and they are losing, we act like we are better because we have been redeemed. Instead maybe we should look at people for who they are, loved children of God, people who need to be loved not condemned and damned. Instead of telling people what they have done wrong we should show them how to do it right. We should be worry about our relationships not our witnesses.

I see church's working and worrying about how their new programs which convince people to stay at that church and try to get people from other church's to come and join their “Fellowship” (LOL)¹ and all I can think about are the pharisees, people who only cared about keeping up experiences and wanted people to think that they were holy.

In Christ
PJ

¹In this post I used IM talk (aka LOL) for that I apologize. I do not condone that type of language but for the sake of not censoring my blog I left it in

Culture of the Uncultured

So I was thinking today about some topics that are controversial and at the top of churches list of things to steer clear of. Things like women in leadership, what type of worship a church should have, turning the other cheek to name a few. But when I was thinking about turning the other cheek I was going back a forth between standing up for yourself and being a good witness and a thought entered my mind. Now the thought usually would have come and gone just as fast, it would have just become another point in my argument for what I believe but this time it caught my attention. The thought was that “it is just culture” and I started to think where did this come from? Why did my mind jump to that?

I started to dwell on this thought and think back to when i was younger when the whole idea of women in leadership was being argued over in my church and in the membership and i realized that that was the first time i have ever heard “it is just cultural” be uttered. Now i don't really care where you land on the whole women in leadership thing (we will probably get to that later) but this phrase started to bother me. You see I feel that if we start to say that one thing is cultural in the Bible and one thing isn't then our grounds for our beliefs and out grounds for our faith become very impetuously unreliable. I feel that we become hypocrites if we take a verse like 1 Tim 2:12 (see below) and call it cultural and then not even 5 verse before (see below) are verses that the church holds up as a staple of the Christian life. I mean if we say that this one part of 1 Timothy is cultural don't we have to open the door to the fact that the whole book of 1 Timothy is only cultural and if 2 Timothy is a extension of what was said in 1 Timothy then we would have to also open the door to 2 Timothy being cultural and we can't do that because 1 and 2 Timothy have doctrine in them that the church is built on.

So I guess when it comes down to it all I am saying is don't try to pick apart the Bible to prove your point, we should find God's point and let Him show us how to prove it. Don't try to disprove the Bible because it doesn't fit with your idea of what this life should be, because this would isn't what it should be but the Bible tells us the way it should be.

In Christ

PJ

1 Timothy 2

1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle ( I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

9 Women Instructed

Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, 10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. 11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 15 But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint

The Battery that Keeps Going and Going and Going

So I am definitely find out a concept called recharging (by that I mean taking time out for yourself to get back energy and letting God pour back His love and grace back into you when you have been drained or are close to being drained). In the past week I have been going non-stop and have been in so many spiritual conversations with people that I got so tired, it made me so bored I was finding any reason to escape the ordinary. The other effect it had on me was that I got so tired that I wouldn't even want to add to a conversation, we had a conversation in the class that I didn't agree with and I didn't say anything (which for anyone who knows me knows that is not me) and my excuse was that I didn't think that given the group that my views would be different then theirs (again for anyone who knows me they know that I don't really care, usually).

Then I talked with one of the staff here and we got talking about how you need to have time to yourself and rest (whatever that means for you whether it is reading a book or going to the movies or whatever). So I got this book on postmodern evangelism and have been reading through it and I must say that it is great to feel the life of God come back to you. It is really a great thing to be able to see God speaking through you and using you again

So I would say go out and find yourself a good book or something and really take the time to let God pour into your life and see what God has in store for you.

In Christ
PJ

P.S. The book I was reading is called “More Ready Then You Realize (Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix) by: Brian D. McLaren if anyone cares”

what is that in the sky is a bird o wait no its just the end of the world

The end times are something that people have been talking about for a long time but one thing that not many people talk about often is what it will be like in eternity. A big reason for that is probably because no one knows, people have things that they think but no one knows what it will really be like but that doesn't stop people from trying (including me).

So with that in mind i thought i would give it a try. So i thought i would start with what i was taught when i was younger. I was told that we would live out our lives until a peace treaty would be signed by Israel and another nation which would start the 7 year tribulation, 3½ years of relative peace and then 3½ years of war. After that Christ would return condemn Satan and start His thousand year rule over the earth where all of our questions would be answered and we would worship God all the time after which Satan would be released and try to make a stand against God which would fail, then we would live for ever in heaven with God worshiping Him. That is all in a nut shell of course.

Now on to what I have come to think and believe. I really started to think about this about a year ago when people I knew started to talk about it and how great it will be (and it will), with no pain, no questions, ext but when I started o think about it I began to think maybe it wasn't going to be like that, not the whole part about being with God forever and it being a great time. I began to wonder what forever was going to be like.

One I don't think that we will spend our whole lives in heaven, in fact I think that we will spend it here on earth. You see in the bible one thing that you might notice is that we were made on earth and angles were made in the spiritual realm. I believe that if we were meant for the spiritual realm we would have been made there, so why would God put us in a place that we were not made for, that would make no since to me.

The second thing is I don't think that every question will be answered. I think God gave man a curiosity about the world and universe around us. Back in the garden is the best example of what the kingdom of God will be like and in Genesis God gives us the mandate to go out and explore (see below) and to this day there is so much that we have yet ti find out so why would God make such a big universe only to let it go to waist.

Now I do think that we will spend an eternity with God worshiping Him but I think it we will worship Him through our actions, I think that we will continue to try to answer questions we have and in answering those questions we will give glory to God. I think we will still try to find love and marry but all of that will be to the glory and supervision of God. I think in that time we will find out how things were suppose to be.

So I hope all that got you thinking.

In Christ

PJ

Genesis 1

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, " Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so.

The Unchristian Christian

What if someone came up to you that you don't know that well and started to tell you all of these things about them selves. Things that you think are cool and things that you would railer not know. What if they started to tell you all of their sins things like

1. I love money and will do anything to get it

2. I drink a lot every night until I pass out

3. I do drugs to get rid of the pain

4. I love to watch pornography and i masturbate every night

5. I get a prostitute every week

and the list goes on until it eventually reaches over 100 that this person has told you (reminding you that this person is someone you don't know very well).

What would you do? What would you think? Would you listen? Would you think they were crazy? I think that most of us would probably try to help them and give them advice (even if we are not qualified to do so we will still try to help and/or find them help). All that is great and i am not saying it isn't, but every day people leave the church never to return because people don't care enough to help or find them help. Instead they will gossip about them talking about what they are doing wrong. No one who has ever been to a church for any long period of time would ever be that vulnerable because they know that if you do that people will be talking about you for ever.

My concern, my fear, my passion and my challenge is that we become a people who are not the first person, the one who was just standing there but the second the one who confessed. The one who became so vulnerable and showed who he truly was and not just who he was but also who he wanted to be and in doing that became closer to who Christ is. To become more open with the community around us, to be more vulnerable with ourselves and to become more unpardonably like Christ should be are goal everyday.

My last closing thought is that we cannot do any of this alone, we need a community to do this (this thing we call the Christian life). It just can't be done, so get in a group were you can talk, listen and think.

In Christ
PJ

My First

So this is my first blog and I am not sure what to write. I guess I will just tell about my thoughts and give you a glimpse into who I am (if anyone cares). I will be writing while I am at school so I don't know when I will have the free time to do this. That is about all I wanted to say for this one so bye.

In Christ
PJ