I was planning on spending sometime adding more of my poems to the poem section of this site. I grabbed the composition book that I have some of these written in and left. When I got an opportunity to flip through the composition book I had grabbed the wrong one and actually had grabbed an old prayer journal. I have stopped and started journaling many times over the years. It is something I like and want to do, but am not super consistent over extended long periods of time. I always pick it back up though and so have entries that span many many years. Since I had it with me I started reading back through it and quickly came to realize through he prompting of the Spirit that this really was not an accident. Reading multiple entries covering a span of years I noticed a theme being woven through the fabric of time. Not just time in general, but my personal timeline and so it became a trip back to an old altar, a chance to rebuild, rededicate, and study again some basic truths. It all offers a message that I want to share over the next few blog Entries..
The theme I saw develop that I will focus on relates to our walk as a Christian. Accepting Jesus as the savior is the most decision we could ever make. Unfortunately that is where a lot of people, and even church instruction, seems to stop. There is a need for true discipleship for new believers, heck even those who have walked for a while. There is more to being a Christian than just going to church or just saying a one time prayer. It is about having a relationship with the creator of the universe. A relationship with God is similar to a relationship in the natural. It has to be cultivated.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us a cord of three strands is not easily broken. This has proven true in my Bushcraft experience as well. A great way of increasing strength of cordage is by twisting more than one strand together or even braiding them. As I perused through the pages of the journal, there were three topics that kept popping back up that when used together create an almost unbreakable cord in our spiritual lives. Now it is important to note that the Christian walk is about relationship, not formulas, but having these three aspects in our walk builds spiritual strength and will bring us in closer intimacy with Jesus.
The three strands every Christian needs in their life to help cultivate a strong relationship with God are the word, prayer, and action.
The first strand, the WORD
So much of today’s society is experience driven. Live life to the fullest, do whatever makes you happy. This has even leaked over into the church. Charismatics can suffer from charismania and focus on living from experience to experience. They are not the only body of believers who suffer with this issue. Our society is focusing more and more on experiencing life. Carpe Diem, Seize the Day! Having a genuine experience with God is awesome, and is something we should all seek to have happen. Yet if your faith comes only from experiences, it will be weak. Having faith based on experiences tends to have us walk according to our feelings. What happens when our feelings, or our experience does not match up with how we thought it should go? Do we then have a spiritual dilemma? We do need to experience the presence of God,
But we need to base everything on something more solid than Our experience. THE WORD OF GOD. When we are abounding in God’s word, then it will set us free and we will be steadfast, unmovable, and will avoid a crisis of faith because our faith is rooted in something with substance. The bible tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6), so how do we get faith? Well,Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
What is your faith based on? Why do you believe the things you believe? It is important to know what you believe, and why you believe it. The answer to that question should never be because (insert name or title here) told me so, with the exception of the Children’s song lyrics…”for the Bible tells me so.” So many times I hear people say they are looking for a word from God. This plays into wanting an experience, wanting a touch from God. Nothing wrong with that, but 100% of the time that we cannot discern the voice of the Lord is because we do not have the word of God in our hearts. Jesus said in John chapter 10 that His sheep know him and hear His voice. You want to get to know Him? You want a word from God? READ THE BIBLE! It is 66 books filled with Words from God to you.When you get the word in you, then God will breathe on it. Experience does not change your heart, the word of God changes your heart.
Our heart are changed because the Word is a God given guide for our life. The word is to act as a ruler or standard by which we gauge everything in our lives. It is the guide that tells us how we should live and how we should handle situations. It tells us why we need a savior and is a love letter to us from God. If we do not know the word, then how are we able to know how God expects us to live. It is also only by knowing the word that we can recognize false teachers and doctrines. We are to test everything against the standard of the Bible. Every preacher’s sermon, every message and supposed word from God, against the Bible.If you can’t find it in the Bible, Throw it out!
Jesus himself used scripture when preaching, reciting or reading from the Old Testament. When he spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted, He resisted the devil through quoting scripture. Following his resurrection In Luke 24 we see that he opened the scriptures to those he was walking with on the road to Emmaus. Jesus, the resurrected Christ could have given them anything, but He opened their minds to the scripture. He still does this through the Holy Spirit for us when we study the word.
It is this opening of the scriptures that helps us acquire knowledge about Jesus as well as helping develop a relationship with Him. The prophet Hosea shows the importance of this in chapter 4 verse 6:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
This should serve as a warning that it is important to have knowledge and to know the laws, and more importantly the grace of God. This only comes from studying the word. Without this knowledge we will be as children “tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit (Ephesians 4:14).” Knowing the Word keeps you from being deceived by false doctrine. This is very much the same method used by the FBI and Treasury department. The people who are experts on counterfeiting do not spend all of their time studying the various methods people can produce fake money, and yet when handed a fake bill the truly experienced can recognize it immediately. How is this possible? They spend so much time studying the real thing that a fake is obvious. It is the same for us when we study the word of God, if you truly know the Bible, then fake doctrine, scriptures used out of context, and other errors become evident to you.
So if we don’t want to remain as children, then we need to grow up. There is nothing wrong with a new Christian having a limited understanding of the Bible and the things of God. It even says to desire Spiritual Milk like a new born Baby (1 Peter 2:1-3) However, the Bible is also full of admonishment and encouragement regarding not remaining immature in these things, saying to move on from just milk to meat. (Hebrews 5:11-6:12; 1 Cor 3:1-4;10-15; 2 Peter 1:3-15) Therefore we need to read and study the word in order to grow in our spiritual life and knowledge of Christ.
This knowledge is increased because the word isn’t just about Jesus, it is Jesus.
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word,[a]
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
Jesus is the incarnate Word of God so by studying the Bible, we are actually building relationship with THE WORD, Jesus. When you get to know someone, you learn who they are, what they desire in life, as well as other aspects of their Character. Well The Bible shows us the Character of God as he reveled himself through Jesus. It is a more solid foundation Heaven and Earth shall pass away but the Word Endures forever. 2 Peter 1:12-21 gives us assurance that the Bible is God given and is a sure foundation. There are plenty of extra biblical evidence pointing to the reliability of the Bible and I will address that in a different post. This shows that the scripture is something that is and will always be true and therefore something we can rely on.
The Word produces faith, faith produces confidence, confidence produces boldness, boldness produces Kingdom. The end result of Jesus coming and what what will be the end game in His return is the establishment of God’s Kingdom. We, as followers are to be a part of that and we can only accomplish this mandate (referred to as the Great Commission) if we know the Bible. Read, Memorize, meditate on the Word of God. Get it inside of you and use it as your standard of living, your code of Honor.
Go out and work on increasing the amount of time you spend reading, even if you start by adding 10 minutes extra a week. That is a start. There are tons of reading plans on the internet to help you, just type it into Google and find a plan. AN easy place to start is with Proverbs. The number of Chapters line up with the length of our months. I personally read a chapter from the Old Testament, one of the Psalms, A Proverb, and then a Chapter out of the New Testament. I do this in order to read through the entire Bible. I miss days, it happens. But my goal is everyday. If I miss a day, I jump right back in and start from where I left off, or time permitting I read extra to catch up and stay on track. The importance is not tied into how you do it, but that you do it.
The next post will focus on the second strand, Prayer. Have a great day!
Pentecost Sunday is a remembrance and celebration of when God poured out His Holy Spirit upon the early church. When He did this, he was fulfilling what John the Baptist foretold when he said there would come later one who baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11).
sending a comforter, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26).
Celebrating the Feast of Pentecost is why the Apostles and other disciples of Jesus were gathered together in the upper room. The word Pentecost comes from Greek Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) meaning “fiftieth” (50th). It is called this because this feast takes place 50 days following Pesach (Passover).
Mt. Sinai, following their salvation from Egypt. This is largely because of its association with Pesach (Passover) and the obvious ties to the Exodus through Moses and the subsequent giving of the Torah to the Israelites.
In the New Testament, Pentecost is looked at as the birth of the church. It was this event that Jesus referred to when He told the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4, HCSB).
chapter two the Holy Spirit falling upon them with what looked like tongues of fire. It says they were all baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke in other languages or tongues. Peter later testifies in front of the crowd that this gift of the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of Joel 2:38-32.
A Rock Between The Eyes 