Be a “ Man of God”

“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:3-5). If you look at a big part of the world today you will see hate, greed, pride, arrogance, envy, sexual immorality, a thirst for power, wealth, and “god complexes”. The problem is the world has told us that indulgence is harmless and we should pursue it. Ironically, one of the commandments of the satanic bible is the same, indulgence instead of abstinence. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

As men, if we say that this is not the case or it is not our fault, then we are deceiving ourselves. As a man, God created you to be a servant leader but in saying that, you are not a true leader until you follow a greater authority which is above all creation and is the one true God, Jesus Christ. You have to surrender your life to him before you can understand how life truly was meant to be. If you look at nearly all crime including blue collar and white collar, it stems from sin and an absence of Godly love and surrendering to Jesus Christ.  If we worship idols (money, fame, power, lust) then we will put our faith and trust in them and they will become our gods. When they fail us we blame God or others and fail to take responsibility. Because of pride a good number of men act like a god of their own universe. “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

When we say there is no objective truth and the truth is all relative then we become our own gods and truth becomes what we define it to be. God gave us the truth and that truth is Jesus. Jesus is and was the best example of how to live truth by loving and leading while surrendering. He is God and yet he surrendered his life to save us from hell. Now that is a “real man”!

Broken

We spend a lot of our time as humans coping through the tough times in our life hoping for a better future. We can try to rely on ourselves, but the problems are always bigger than ourselves and we are often overwhelmed and feel like we will explode. As for me, when I use to rely on myself and try to control (uncontrollable things), I always ended up worse than when I started. My life was not truly saved until I found my Faith (trust) in the Lord Jesus Christ. This proved to me that there was someone (and something) bigger than me who could handle all my problems. I was originally a skeptic (who also went to church) and I would not let my life follow a path of “blind” faith. There are a lot of skeptics and atheists that believe Christians follow “feelings or emotions” when believing in God and say that we follow God based off of an irrational and blind faith. I am sure that some people probably do follow blindly but we are called by God in the bible to follow things intelligently based off of the evidence that is presented to us. The church does not always do a good job of teaching us intellectually of why we should believe Christianity is true. We should have strong convictions on why we believe in God and evidence to back them up. Most people don’t marry someone or buy something before they do their research. As a Christian, the bible also tells us to “test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good”. 1 Thessalonians 5:21. The Bible doesn’t just tell us, but it commands us. Faith in something actually means to have “trust” in that thing. I have Faith (trust) in Jesus because of the evidence around us, the Bible, non-Christian sources, archeological evidence, and because to me it makes the most sense of explaining why we are here and our purpose in life. I only came to this conclusion after intense research and scrutiny of the forensic evidence.  We eventually gain trust in our hearts for Jesus that originally starts through intellectual learning which makes its way into the heart. The importance of knowing why you believe was commanded by the apostle Peter, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander’ 1 Peter 3:15-16. You can have all the intellectual knowledge in the world about something but if your heart is hardened to that knowledge, you will never truly believe it or trust it. God says in the Bible through his prophet Isaiah, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” Isaiah 29:13.

My Story

Why did I decide to write this blog? What truly defines what and who I am? Disciple of Christ, husband, dad, nurse practitioner, hockey player. If you find your identity in what you do then you will never feel truly fulfilled. Seasons and titles change and you will feel lost if your identity is found in something that is finite and fleeting. Why is it that some people have all the material things in the world, with the “perfect family” and career but then still feel empty and unfulfilled? We have a material body but also a non-material soul, and spirit. Material things cannot truly satisfy us because we have a spirit that needs to be fulfilled by a spirit, and that spirit is God of the Bible. Being a disciple of Christ truly defines me because with Him and through him I am complete, and you can be too. My life may have looked “normal” on the outside but on the inside I had a heart of stone and was riddled with sin. Only the Spirit of Jesus Christ could fulfill me and give me true joy, peace, patience, hope, and love.

Once Dead now Alive

How do we change the world to be a better place for our children and the future? You have to be able to change the heart to have any long lasting effect. God was telling us the plain truth when he spoke through his prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 17:9-10 in the Old Testament. “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” This is a very powerful bible verse telling us how we all have sinful hearts because of the original sin that we inherited from Adam the first created human. God is perfect and he is the standard on which we should judge ourselves. We all have fallen short of his perfection and cannot be in the presence of a Holy God while having a sinful heart. We cannot make up for our sin by being a “good” person or doing good works. These things do not remove our sin stained heart. The only thing that can truly heal and save us from separation from God (hell), is receiving a new heart from God. This is obtained by believing that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and that he is visible image of the invisible God. You can’t just believe in him to be saved. The demons believed in him and were not saved because they were not obedient to him. To be saved, we have to believe in Christ, be obedient to him, and give up our life of sin. In the book of Acts the apostle Peter said that to receive eternal life you have to, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” Acts 2:38. When we do this we receive a new heart which is that of the Holy Spirit of God. Through him we are able to conquer death and this world. He enables us to overcome strongholds and sin through His power. His heart gives us the ability to not want to sin (the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin) because it is contrary to who God is. Sin no longer has power over you. Once we are saved through Christ, his Spirit should produce his fruit in our life which is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This is evidence that we are saved and of God. You are not saved by good works but made by God to do good works to show proof that we are his children. Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:10 states “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. If we focus on Christ and remain in him, and follow the power of the Holy Spirit, we will automatically strive to love, serve, and to make the world a better place because that is the heart of Jesus. He came to show the world the Truth which is himself and how to really change the world by loving Him and your fellow man. Jesus said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Matthew 22:37-39.