Old Notes Make Way for New Ones...

I have just recently finished filling up an old devotional/sermon notes notebook and before really getting into a new one i wanted to go through and highlight some of what i thought were key notes. Due to wanting to limit my space, this is just a sampling of my notes. You can read all of the posted ones at my googlepages page.
Keep in mind, some of these things are not necessarily statements of complete truth so much as my thoughts at the time.

Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord...

What does it mean to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, (soul, mind, and strength)?
OT Heart = center of a man = person = core of a man = seat of the will = the whole man
Broken (Crushed) Heart = Humility & Repentance
Fat & Uncircumcised Heart = Failure to recognize & respond to God = complacent (come from pride?)
Hardened Heart = Failure to accept God's will (turn away)


Men vs. Women

Men find the solutions to womens problems
Men are always looking to fix things for women when much of the time women just want men to find them

Women find the solutions to mens problems
Women are constantly trying to fix men for themselves, when much of the time men want women just to accept and respect them.

O, Lord my God...
when i in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hand has made.
I see the storms. I hear the rolling thunder. Your fire throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great thou art.


Job 23:6

Would He contend with me in His great power?
No! But He would take note of me!

Job thinks that God isn't paying attention?
God already has noticed him. That's why he's in this mess!


There's much more to see. Check it out!

All the Guys (& Girls) Need to Read This! - A bulletin, response, & commentary

The bulletin below has been making the rounds on myspace and i had to comment on it. This principle is one of my major pet-peves.

I know way too many really beautiful girls who think they don't look good... It hurts... because it's our fault, guys I mean YOU. We make girls feel like they have to be perfect. You know what I mean, flat stomach, big boobs, round booty, long legs, sexy lips, and on top of all that, they have to dress like a whore, and be one as well... nobody can measure up to that... and its not fair... because nobody should have to. Girls prefer being called beautiful instead of hott or sexy. The little imperfections are what make people special. If everyone was perfect the world would be so boring, variety is what makes life interesting. So guys, stop making girls have to live up to your, I'm sorry, our... deluded fantasy visions of perfection...

girls who agree repost.
and to the few guys who have balls and agree repost this

In my expereince as a therapist and from talking to girls, guys, men, and women, this is a joke. It amazes me how often this comes across. From what i have seen, women and girls tend to dress up more for themselves and each other. They are looking for someone to make them feel better about themselves and want to be accepted by their peers.

For instance, Married women rarely dress up for their husbands. They dress up when they are going out. They dress up when they are going to be seen by other women. They dress up when they want to feel good about themselves. Rarely do they dress up for their husbands.

At school girls dress up to look good in front of other girls (and to attract guys). Girls are constantly critical of how they and other girls dress. On the other hand, many times most of the guys couldn't tell you how you are dressed differently today than yesterday.

It's easy to blame the guys, but the reality is that more often than not it's about a girl trying to fit into HER OWN or her peers (other girls) expectations and views than the guy's expectations or views.

Take responsibility for you own insecurities, don't blame everyone else.

I have been trying to decide whether it's a good idea to leave this post on my MySpace account or to take it off. I had posted it as a bulletin in response to the initial bulletin, but thought that as my response seems kind of critical or could be taken as attacking, thus it might not be the best idea to make it public for anyone/everyone to see. There is nothing quite like a youth leader appearing as if they are publically attacking a youth from the youth ministry they are involved with. So i put it as a blog post on my MySpace account instead. Now i'm wondering if it would be a good idea to remove it from there as well for the same reasons. However, i really don't want to because i see it as such a major issue that needs to be brought to light and not ignored and swept under the rug.

Any thoughts?

Edit: I have officially removed it...

Answers... hopefully

Mike posted this comment and i thought it would be good to try to answer his question for him.

Ok, strange question. You're confident that Jesus Christ spoke with God and is his last true prophet, right?
Why do you think devout believers of another religon disagree? I'm especially curious about the ones who spoke with God after Jesus, such as muslims, and mormans.

This is not a question that has a simple answer. Especially in the limited space available here. So i will try to answer as best i can in the space i have. First, the Bible makes it clear that Jesus the Christ (Messiah) is not just another prophet. This is made clear in the Old Testament a.k.a. the Jewish scriptures. Let me go through a series of scriptures to deal with this. (I am aware that the Jewish Scriptures have chapter and verse divisions that are not exactly the same as the Old Testament Bible, however the content is the same) . Most of the beginning of this list is basic principles...

1) God is Holy - Leviticus 19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I, Jehovah your God, am holy.
2) Man is a sinner - Isaiah 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
3) Sin separates man from God - Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have come between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, from hearing.
4) Attonement is through blood sacrifice - Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.
5) Complete or true attonement is only available through the Messiah's sacrificial death - Isaiah 50:5-9 and Isaiah 52:13-53:12
6) The Messiah had to have already come - Daniel 9:25-26 Know therefore and understand, that from the going out of the command to restore and to build Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street shall be built again, and the wall, even in times of affliction. And after sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself. And the people of the ruler who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end of it shall be with the flood, and ruins are determined, until the end shall be war.
- 7 weeks is 7 7's or 49 - the city of Jerusalem was rebuilt in 49 years. 62 7's is 434 years after that that the Messiah was supposed to have been cut off (killed) but not for himself.
7) Jewish Messiah is required for the salvation of both the Jew and the Gentile - Isaiah 42:6 I Jehovah have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a Light of the nations;
8) The Messiah is eternal - Micah 5:2 And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you being least among the thousands of Judah, out of you He shall come forth to Me, to become Ruler in Israel, He whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity.

There are many, many, many, many other prophesies concerning the Messiah/Savior showing that he would be more than just a prophet. I found this website that covers many of the prophesies concerning the coming and fullfillment of the Messiah.

What does all of this have to do with Islam and Mormanism? Simple. These religions treat the Christ as if he is simply another prophet and his coming, death, and resurrection was not the completion/fulfillment of the law that the old testament (Jewish scriptures) and new testament show that he is. Their added "scriptures" are attempts to "complete" by addition what has already been completed. As Revelation 22:18-19 states; For I testify together to everyone who hears the Words of the prophecy of this Book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add on him the plagues that have been written in this Book. And if anyone takes away from the Words of the Book of this prophecy, God will take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which have been written in this Book.

As i said, this is a limited explanation and does not even come close to fully answering your question, but under the circustances and time & space limitations, this is the best i could do.

Part of My Testimony

This is part of my testimony and some of who i am.

I grew up in a Christian home and was saved at a young age. As i grew older i knew that God was real and working in my life.

When i was around 10 or 11 years old God came to me asking me if i loved Him more than something else that was very important in my life. It took me a moment to look at what I saw of the church and decide that if all of these rules, expectation, and lifelessness that is so prevalent was what it meant to be a Christian, i didn't want to love God more than anything else. So I told God that.

It was not long after that that God began taking all of those things away one at a time. Those next years were very difficult as my world completely fell apart. I continued to go to church and was very involved through my teen years. I worked very hard to be a good Christian and was very frustrated being the only person i knew around my age that was actually trying and feeling that instead of my life being better because of it, it was really only getting worse.

So for a while i began to turn my back on God in part. I was angry with Him for what seemed like His abandoning me. As time went by He drew me back and showed me that He was with me and that all that time He was removing those things that i had placed in my life ahead of Him until there was only Him. Since then He has been replacing those things one at a time.

One of the biggest things that had gotten me through those difficult years had been people that God had put into my life to reach me, like my high-school sunday school teacher. It was because God was working through those people and their influence that i even survived through those years.

This has been a huge factor in my life and has led me to be involved in ministering to youth & young adults and counseling with youth, families, and couples.

By the way....

By the way, i am actually on MySpace. Can you guess what the address is.... wait for it... wait for it... That's right! http://www.myspace.com/jcmasterpiece

Rage Against the Machine

I posted this on my MySpace blog on Thursday... What Mike commented in my last post is exactly along the lines of this.

This morning i woke up from a not so great dream and was thinking some more about anger. In my dream i had gotten completely fed up with a bunch of crap people were giving me and i blew up. It reminded me how much anger comes from pain.
When God created us, he created us with amazing abilities to protect ourselves. One of the ways a person is able to protect themself is through anger. When someone is hurt or in pain, many times it is not possible for that person to express that hurt or by doing so it would cause a great deal of problems. As a result they turn that pain into anger in an attempt to protect themself.
Ephesians 4:26 says to "Be angry, but do not sin". Anger in and of itself is not sin. Anger is a feeling. It's what we do with that anger that can be sin.

Just something to keep in mind and remember for when you need it.

Why Do the Nations Rage?

These are some of my thought while i was doing my devotions this morning. Psalm 2:1 asks,
Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?

The chapter goes on to talk about how the wicked attempt to stand against God's anointed, and God promises to/about His Son and the kings.

The first line of the first verse is what i was really focused on this morning. Why do the nations rage? Why do people stand against God? Why do we get so angry?

My first thought was that it's because they have no hope, but that sounded too much like a SundaySchool answer to me so i kept asking.
Because something is missing?
Because they/we feel the need to justify ourselves?
Because me, I, myself (pride)
Because sometimes the only way to stop guilt, feelings of hurt, emptiness, etc. is to turn those feelings into anger...
To make the internal, external.
To give an external source (???find something to lash out at???) to an internal source/problem (???an excuse for our own faillings and guilt???)

So now what? What is the internal problem?
In Psalm 2 those standing against God and His anointed say,
"Let us break Their bonds in pieces
and cast away Their cords from us" vs. 3
They didn't/don't like the Israelite's/God's rules & laws. They made them feel guilty (showed them their sins). ...removed their (self)justification & made them responsible for their own actions.
It's easier to offer a sacrifice to Baal asking for a blessing than to admit and acknowledge self-sin and a need for true repentance.

This is so much of a problem in our society today. What do you think?