Jake

In case you didn't know this about me, I love theology. Ever since January I have been consumed by the wonders that is systematic theology. In this time, I've read many books, listened to dozens if not a hundred sermons, and I've spent a lot of time in prayer.

I haven't blogged in a long time, I've been busy with college and working, and I've had no time to edit manuscripts down into a point where I can post them on here and maintain profressionalism, so I stopped. I stopped blogging on my Xanga too. I've even recently dramatically decreased all the debating I've done with people.

I've been going through a lot of changes last night, my heart doesn't feel the same, and neither do I. Something is just currently erupting inside of me where I don't feel myself, I feel like the Holy Spirit is just working on my heart inside and helping me understand things because that's what He does.

Now I digress. In case you didn't know, I'm reformed. I'm a Calvinist. I am very stubborn about some beliefs, and because of my view on Calvinism I often try to have people understand where I'm coming from. I'm not saying Arminiasm (polar opposite of Calvinism) is wrong, I'm not saying Calvinism is right, I'm simply working on making a point. The point is that after listening to a sermon segment, it really just makes sesne to me that it's not about Calvinsim and it's not about Arminiasm. Neither of these things matter a single thing in the world when it comes to finding the lost. There is one emphatic point that I want to get across to you all, this is what matters. Regeneration.

Regeneration is a rather disputed topic that exists, but I think to disregard it is silly. Regeneration is simply a part of theology which states that when we are truly saved, we are regenerated and given new birth. Our actions will change, our thoughts will change, our life will change, and our world will change. It will literally fulfill that if one is in Christ the old has gone and the new has come.

To you, as the listeners of Redemption Radio, there is one thing I want to tell you. It's not about the clothes we wear, it's not about the contents of our wallet, the car we drive, or what job we have. It's all about Jesus. It's all about us as truly regenerated Christians seeking to know Jesus more and more and become like Jesus. It's not about turning over a new leaf, or having good and bad days, it's about becoming like Jesus.

As we work our way through these beatitudes, there's one thing I really want to tell you all. Being a Christian, starts at beatitude #1. Blessed are the poor in spirit. This is where Christianity starts, and it follows through with #2. Blessed are those who mourn.

There is a lot of confusion, a lot of peril, a lot of false teaching, and a lot of problems that I see going on in the church today. Kids today proclaim the name of Christ, yet aren't willing to suffer and insult for it, while men in Nicaragua are willing to proclaim the name of Christ, and are willing to be slaughtered at the name. We are all soft and aren't growing or being educated the way that we should be.

While some of you might be more sensitive to this and reject it, or some of you might embrace it, I want to clarify this.

Salvation isnt' praying a prayer. You can get almost any man, if not every man to admit he's a sinner. It's no problem having men admit that they are a sinner. What truly is the difficult task, is hearing a man that hates his sin. Being a Christian starts at hating sin. 1 John is full ot challenges and tasks, it mentions that we must not be like the world, but we must rather be like the Father.

Christianity isn't signing up for a club, it isn't making some conscious decision that you're going to be this new spiritual person. That's what religion is. Christianity is when God lovingly comes to us and transforms our lives from the inside out and conforms us to the image and likeness of His Son. Christianity is hating your sin and hating the evil things of the world. It's an ongoing lifestyle of sanctifcation, and we will ultimately end up in the state of glorification where we are without sin, without blemish, and are perfect before the Father clothed in His righteousness.

Some of you might base your salvation off of a two minute prayer, where you repeated words in verbatim. Yet I am here to tell you salvation is something that happens from the second of regeneration until the very second of glorification. You are always being saved, you are always being sanctified, you are always being restored, and you're always seeking Christ. That's the beauty of it all.

We try to make our Christianity religious, and sing songs, pray prayers, and know the answers to say we're a Christian. And some of you might insist that we can't judge a book by its cover, but Jesus Himself said we can judge a tree by its fruit. When we're a Christian, it's really going to show, it's really going to be evident. It's going to be that we are renewed and restored, and we have this unending passion and desire for Jesus more, and more, and more, and more, and more.

In my closing words and final exhortation to you, I want to encourage you that if you don't hate your sin, you plead before the throne of God this very second. I beg that you pray, and pray, and pray, and pray until God answers your prayer and your sin sickens you to the point of feeling nauseated.

There is so much for me to begin to say to you all, there is so much farther I can take it all. But rest assured, that while some of you may view me as judgmental, cruel, or what have you. I don't know you, but my heart burns for you. My heart has this endless burning desire and passion that you all, whether I know you or not know Jesus. I pray for you all collectively constantly. Before every sermon I pray for your hearts and I pray that God make shake and rock your worlds, that you are built on a firm and solid foundation.

It's not about Calvinism, and it's not about Arminaism anymore. When it all comes down, it's all about Jesus. It's all about us knowing Jesus, it's all about us conforming to Jesus, seeking Jesus, loving Jesus, and just wanting to be with Jesus. That's what Christianity is. It's that endless process of sanctification, and sanctification can only start when we hate our sin and begin to cast it off for the desire and pursuit of Christ.

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This sermon and outline is dedicated to none other than my beloved friend Cassandra who went home to the Lord on July 24^th, 2009.

 

What does Scripture say?

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

What does the text mean?

The opening statement of this verse merely says “I have been crucified with Christ.” What exactly does that mean to us as a body of believers? When interpreting Scripture I do try to stay within the confines of the book, and specifically the chapter, even though initially the letter was a whole and was not broken down into chapters. Regardless of that, the very first sermon I preached was the entire book of Romans 6. I was very excited and perhaps didn’t do the absolute best point I could have in the text, I have however grown to learn more knowledge about that text, and it says this point perhaps flawlessly.

 

Romans 6: ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For one who has died has been justified from sin. ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

When it says we have been crucified with Christ, we are not literally crucified, no. We are metaphorically crucified with Christ. It is in our repentance and giving our lives to Christ where He reigns as both Lord and Savior that our sinful nature is crucified on the cross, this is what I believe Paul is saying. Christ’s death on the cross is what has appeased the wrath of the Father, and it from His death and resurrection that we are given a new life. It is in that moment when receive new life that our sinful self was crucified with Christ, and as Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, we are given a new spirit, a new heart, and we are given new desires. First Peter will say it best that we are “born again to a new hope!” The amount of information Paul’s statement is critical; it is that through a deeper study you can see that Paul had a sinful nature, which was crucified with Christ on the cross, which put the penalty, power and consequence of sin to death (Romans 6). But then you must wonder, what from there? As I said before, we are as Jesus says to Nicodemus, “born again,” and this is provoked and performed by the Holy Spirit which John Calvin in his Institutes book called the “secret operation” which God uses in our lives for regeneration and so forth.

 

Paul then makes the statement “It is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.”

This is a powerful statement, which makes known to us Paul’s dedication to his ministry, which if you read in the beginning of the book (Galatians) and in the book of Acts (Chapter 9) that He received from Jesus Christ in his vision, through special revelation.

If we take the time to look at this from a more spiritual perspective, we can assert that Paul lives an invisible, unseeable, and unknowable life, which is the life of the Christian; through this life, Christ should be seen in the through believer, whether by action, thought, words or deed, it should ultimately reflect that Christians are a new creation, and this change will be evident by what they do.

If we take Paul’s statement, and we apply it to our lives, and it is no longer that it is we who live, but rather that it is Christ living through our actions. It is that our entire lives will be changed, and they will be transformed. We will live with a singular and devoted passion and that is Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ will not simply reign as our Savior, but He will reign as our Lord and Savior; consequentially, we will truly become the hands and feet of Christ in all that we do.

This truly is the process of regeneration, in which we are caused to be born again, the penalty, power, and consequence of sin is put to death, and we are made alive with Christ, and we are given new desires, for better things for us as opposed to our carnal desires which will lead us to death.

 

The next sentence is broken down into five individual thoughts, and I will address these as such.

The line, “and the life I now live in the flesh,” is not speaking of the fleshly carnal desires of the flesh, but rather that Paul is living his life in a human body, although make note that there are still carnal desires which are a consequence of that. The thought is finished in paraphrased words “The life I live in this body, I live by faith.”

At the risk of sounding redundant, there is a consistent thought and pattern that is exhibited here throughout this verse. Paul is mentioning faith without ceasing. He is continually mentioning that he is a new creation in Christ, and the life he lived is crucified with Christ at the cross, and now he is made alive to none other than Jesus Christ, in whom he lives his life by in faith.

 

By faith, Paul lived his life as the minister to the gentiles; and it is by faith that we are rewarded and given our treasures in heaven,. It is by grace through faith that we are saved (Eph 2:8-9). It has been canonized in Scripture that Paul is the chief of all sinners, and even as the chief of all sinners, Paul serves as perhaps one of the best role models for any Christian after his conversion.

Paul lived a life of faith. His language used to reflect this can be found in Second Timothy 4:6-8. Paul had his entire life devoted to his faith in Jesus Christ, and this serves as an excellent testimony for us to see as Christians. While we should strive to be like Christ always, just take note that Paul lived a life of faith, in Jesus.

The third portion of this one thought is that Paul lives his life by faith “In the son of God.” Take these thoughts one at a time, please.

• Living life in the flesh
• Living that life by faith [which is]
• In the Son of God

This is the testimony of Paul to us as Christians, perhaps whether he meant it or not. That Paul, a “bondservant” lived his life, having formerly repented and turned from his wicked ways, the chief of all sinners, now has dedicated his life in the flesh to a life of faith, who is in the Son of God (Christ), and this is his eternal and endless battle cry, until the day of his final breath, in which he awoke to Christ crowning him his crown and hearing the words “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

 

The fourth statement to be viewed in this verse is “who loved me.” If one were to take some time and invest some time looking into the depravity of man, the immense value of this statement is almost worth shedding tears. When we look at the grand scheme of man, originating in Genesis, we see that everything was “good.” There was no sin, the world was perfect, and then Adam was lonely, and as an act of love, while there was no corruption in the world, God created Eve for Adam. Then the serpent came, deceived Eve, and sin, death, and all corruption had entered the world and the hearts of all mankind because of their sin. Because of sin you can read in Genesis 6 you can read that God was grieved for having made man for their wickedness was so great.. And the significance of this, is that in God’s sovereign plan, in God’s Trinitarian act of love and mercy, God the Son was sent, lived a humble life as a Galilean peasant, was subjected to humiliation, and suffered the most embarrassing, painful, and wretched form of execution as the propitiation for the sins of man. It was in this humble life that Jesus, the son of God, suffered, as an act of love towards Paul, the chief of all sinners, and has saved Paul from divine judgment. And this is not just extended towards Paul, but the death of Christ was sufficient for the propitiation of not only yours and mines, but the worlds.

If you took the time to look at your life, all the sin you’ve committed, the “cosmic treason” that you’ve committed against God, the idea that the Son of a righteous, divine, perfect, glorified King would spare His life for people such as us is beyond any expression of love known to man. It truly was the greatest act of love ever known.

 

The fifth and final section of this sentence continues the previous thought. It is that Jesus Christ, the son of God, gave His life as the penal substitutionary death of humanity. Jesus literally “gave Himself” as the perfect sacrifice that many would come to know him.

 

What is my Hook?

As you read my outlines and manuscripts, or hear my sermons, or read my blogs you are going to notice one thing I try to emphasize on is the way in which we become more like Christ. Whether through thought or deed, or simply the act in which we truly “live a life of faith to Jesus Christ,” we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. This means that we speak and act in love, we forgive the unforgivable, we seek repentance, we seek sanctification, and we ultimately seek Christ.

We remain humble in all ways that we can, we live our lives to Christ, and our lives, attitudes, and thoughts will be transformed to that of a Christ-centered life.

 

Why do we resist this truth?

Perhaps there will be resistance to this answer. I believe that we as a society resist this truth in the context of Galatians 2:20 because we are most of the time brought up in a Christian home, or we have a good experience at a teen convention, or a camp. We are all taught like Christians, but unfortunately that does not make us Christians. The sinner’s prayer makes you a Christian no more than going to church does. There has to be a point where we do crucify our former sinful self. Where we do have to put to death the things of this world and we do carry our cross and follow Christ. There has to be a change, because we resist this truth by simply not changing. We resist the Holy Spirit in the ignorance of our sinful ways, and we don’t live a life dedicated to Christ while we remain in the flesh. We instead life our life in the flesh to the joys and pleasures of the world, and keep our “salvation” rested in the idea that because we have said the sinners prayer that we are called sons of our Father in heaven, when truly this is a large misconception. In the most loving way, I must encourage us all to repent, where we hate our sin, where as we do not most of the time. Where we put to death our sin and let it be crucified on the cross, and we instead life our life in the flesh to none other than Jesus Christ, and not in the ways of this world.

 

Why does this matter?

To some extent, as I want to make sure that I avoid the idea of a works-based salvation, this matters a great deal. Are you living your life to Christ? Has your sin been crucified with Christ? Are you living in the light of Christ? Is Christ living in and through you? These are all big questions that matter and test the genuineness of our faith. We are called to continually repent of sin, we are called to live a sanctifying life, and Romans 12:1-2 calls us to make our bodies a living sacrifice.

When we are a true and genuine Christian, we have been born again, and our debt to sin has been nailed to the cross, and sin has lost its judicial grip on you. And like all people, we will struggle, but James tells us it is the struggles we go through that prove the genuineness of our faith. It will not be we who live, but it will be Christ being seen. When we perform our acts of goodness and kindness in the spirit, it will be Christ that is seen and acted out and this will speak to the testimony of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

 

How is Jesus the Hero-Savior?

Jesus Christ, the second member of the Godhead, came and lived a humble life, and was hated, despised, afflicted with pain, He knew grief, but was also loved and cherished by few. Despite being without any wrong or shame, He was put to death. And His death was the most important part of humanity to date. Since the creation of time, all history was pointing towards Christ on the cross. And on the cross of crucifixion and humiliation, the holy and blameless Son of God silenced, defeated, ended, crushed, and abolished death and all its power. It gave Paul the ability and right to say that “I have been crucified with Christ.” It gives us the ability to walk in a newness of life, free from the penalty, power, and consequence of sin. Finally, it gives us the ability to say in a clear conscience, “it is no longer I that live, but Christ in me.”

 

Jesus Christ, the Savior of humanity is the one who sets us free from sin and death. In this wonderful fact, we rejoice.

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This is my sermon outline for the sermon this week, you can follow along and have follow up notes. I hope this can be of use to you.

 

What does the Scripture say?

19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

What does the Scripture Mean?

V 19-21. I believe the Scripture is saying that we as humans take too seriously the things of Earth. Not that the things on Earth are wrong, but we idolize, store, harbor, and take these things way too far in their heart. They love the things of this world to a bad extent, and Christians don’t strive towards the goal of heaven. Hebrews 12:1-3 calls it the race of faith. We are running a race to get to the end, which is Christ Jesus. We want to run this race of faith never losing sight of Christ, which means we cast down that which holds us up. Watching television is perfectly fine, so is listening to music, but when we hold these things too close to our heart and idolize them we lose sight of Christ, and when that happens, we are to cast these down, because like all things, television, iPods, Zune’s, the internet, and computers will pass away. We can use them, they are God given blessings, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, not temporal things which will pass away.

V 22-23. I struggled with this text a lot. It occupied a lot of my mind and I even had to read a few commentaries and find some from some well respected friends of mine. It perplexes me to some extent and I am never quite satisfied in my answer. When Jesus says “The eye is the lamp of the body,” what exactly does He mean? My answer is no where near seminary grade, but this is the best I can do. Your eyes in this metaphor, are simply your eyes. Your eyes are going to see everything, spiritual and worldly. When Jesus says “If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,” I do believe that He is saying that if your eye is spiritually healthy, your eye is going to see light; your eye is going to see things for what they are. In my opinion, He is saying a spiritually healthy eye will set their eyes upon heavenly things as their treasure, and not the things of the Earth which are temporal and like all things will pass. But if our eyes are bad we will not see the light, we will be blinded to it. We will be kept blind to the things of heaven and we will see and seek the things of the Earth, which will lead to certain [spiritual] death. He then finishes the thought by saying that if the “light” in you is “darkness” how great and immense is this darkness?

Remember that the context is things of heaven and things of Earth previously, and shortly after comes a discussion about money, but is generalized around idolatry, in my opinion.

If our eyes are spiritually healthy, may we look upon heavenly things, and only use the things of the Earth as mean to survive and enjoy ourselves as we pass through in this life. Earth is not our home, heaven is our home. We are simply passing through a lifetime of eighty or so years to be awoken to our Lord and Savior simply say “Well done, good and faithful servant,” the way I believe Paul and all the disciples and apostles apart from Judas [who went to hell] were. What a great privilege, that we are able to serve Christ as Lord, dedicate our lives to Him, set our mind on spiritual things, overcome the world, and open our new spiritual eyes with our new spiritual body hearing “Well done good and faithful servant.”

V 24. This portion is very true regarding our lives as Christians. I can expect that some of you might have to think a bit on this, but all of our actions are motivated by something. All of our predispositions are going to influence what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. What I mean by this is that we are always serving something. We can not seek to rob anyone or do injustice while doing it for God’s glory, that’s not possible. We can not love money and love Christ first. No matter what when we do things that are not for Christ’s glorification which should be our primary concern, we are worshiping something other than Christ, and I say this in confidence. We all have a proclivity to idolize things, which consequentially demonizes other things. If you idolize Calvinism, you demonize Arminianism, if you idolize dispensationalism, you demonize covenant theology. There are a lot of things that exist that are going to take the place as an idol in your heart, and these things are going to fight to take the place as Christ not only as Savior but also as Lord. When you become a Christian, it must be that Christ is your Lord and Savior. He can not be one without being the other, it has to be your subjection to Christ. And whether intentional or not, there are going to be things that are going to take that place of Christ as Lord and Savior. This can be a relationship, sex, money, alcohol, your spouse, your job, your car, your house, and essentially anything that isn’t for the glory of God.

If you would like a further explanation of idolization and how things take the place of Christ in our lives, read my blog on “Man Desiring God” which will touch into it more.

What is my hook?

I always need to make a way for everyone to remember these things, and this one has nothing in particular I can say to make you remember it upon sight. This is a conscious effort that must be put forth on your behalf as a believer that we must not seek to harbor things on Earth, but seek and delight in the things in heaven. The Father is good and perfect in His blessings, the book of James tells us. You must continually examine yourself multiple times a day, dozens of times a day, that you are not seeking selfishness or pride, which all sin can be rooted to its deepest core in.

Why do we resist this truth?

I believe that we resist this truth because we live in a society with television advertisements that tell us to “release our inner goddess,” and that we should splurge, that because bad things happen, we are entitled to treating ourselves to sin and evil things of the nature. What I’m not saying is that we can’t drink alcohol or enjoy the things God has blessed us with. What I am saying is that we can, and do take these things too far. Society wants you to live for yourself, live for the moment, just don’t live for any religion or God. That is what society is portraying, and you can see it on television. All you have to do is watch MTV or VH1 or an episode of “Cribs” or “Teen Cribs” and see that people live selfish self-centered lives and harbor the things of this life to only find ruin, misery, and fake friends. As much as I’d rather not blow my testimony by quoting Fight Club, Tyler Durden in the book makes the excellent and simple statement by asking the question “Well then, what are we?” and was replied to with “Consumers.”

The world makes us consumers, and we live our lives consumed by our stringed green stripe patterns, our yin-yang coffee tables, and our clothes collection which are always constantly “near completion.”

Why does this matter?

This matters because we should have one primary focus, and that should be the glory of God. And the glory of God is expressed through our enjoyment of His common grace towards us, through the spreading of the Gospel, through or worship of Him, but not through our worship and obsession of His things which He has given to us, that we might enjoy Him more.

I don’t know about you, but I personally enjoy reading my Bible in a large chair rather than a rock, and I enjoy learning about modern culture by watching House M.D. on a sofa rather than hitting a wheel down a hill with a stick. Neither of the two are bad, but they can be when we obsess over them and let them take place over God, which will become idolatry and cause certain ruin in our lives.

How is Jesus the Hero/Savior?

Jesus is truly the Hero and Savior in this situation. The fact that we have the ability to call God Father and bring Him worship is a gift, the fact that we truly are called Sons of our Father in Heaven by His act of saving us from sin and His wrath. Jesus’ penal substitutionary death upon the cross makes Him our Savior, and we respond by worshiping Him and not the things of the world, and look forward to spending eternity in the presence of Him.

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As I sat here and sought to find a blog topic to discuss on, I resorted to the "vault." Which is my little pile of blog ideas that you all have so kindly e-mailed to me on things you'd like to learn about and hear about. After reading a very, very lovely e-mail from one of my friends mother full of encouragement, which made my day, I looked at a previous e-mail she sent me and decided that I am going to dedicate this blog to Mrs. P. I am going to talk about how a Christian can grow and learn and desire God more and more.

I want you all to first and foremost know that Rick Warren once wrote a book on the Purpose Driven Life which I am not a huge fan of. I want to make it clear that man has one purpose in this life, and that is to glorify God in all we do. I would make a book called "The Purpose of Life" into a one page book with the simple sentence saying that "The purpose of the humans is to glorify God in all we do, and acknowledge Him in all we do," ultimately, because there is no greater purpose.

Today's blog is going to possibly be a bit longer than yesterdays, it is going to incorporate an idea by John Piper called "Christian Hedonism" which I will evaluate further in a later point. Today is also going to be humbling and contrary to what the world and your peers of the world are going to want you to think.

As I was sick last week, I lied on the couch and saw a commercial I think for lotion, and the opening line was "Reveal your inner goddess." And even while I had a fever and was shaking uncontrollably, I shook my head, facepalmed, and looked at the idolatry and self serving taking place. I want to clarify that taking care of yourself is perfectly 100% fine in every way. However, when we get to the point where we are calling ourselves "goddess'" we are entering into heresy, false teaching, graven imagery, and idolatry. We are not god's and goddess'. There is but one God and anything other than that God is satanic.

Now, with the society we live in, believe it or not, we are surrounded by false idols and temples for these idols. As I have mentioned before, look around in a restaurant and question if you are in a temple for idols or not. Look at the people who live in informal gluttony, stuffing their faces with ribs or steak, and worshiping their god which is their stomach. Look in clothing stores at how people live to please and serve themselves spending absurd amounts of money for clothes because they see themselves as a beautiful goddess. There is nothing wrong with steak, ribs, or clothes. What people do, is take a good thing, make it a god thing, and ruin it doing so by having it become a bad thing. This happens all the time, everywhere, every day, constantly.

Anything apart from God can be an idol. Even worship can become an idol, where you are obsessed with worshiping to the point where you worship worshiping and don't worship the One who is supposed to be worshipped. Martin Luther concluded in his commentary on Exodus and the Ten Commandments that if you obey the first two commandments you will not sin.

It has been suggested that all sin amounts down to one thing, and that is pride. All sin is sourced and rooted in pride, and all idolatry is rooted in pride. Any time you lie, you are being prideful, anytime you steal, you are being prideful. It is the exact opposite of humility and it is the exact opposite of worshiping God as Lord, Savior, and Hero.

Now what does this have to do with the topic for today? All I have done is banter about idols, but the point is that when we aren't desiring God, it is because we are desiring something more than God. Think about this. What on Earth keeps us from desiring, knowing, and seeking God other than our interests, our desires, and our prerogative? It's selfishness. Now don't take this to some extremist view. God gave us sleep, so we need to sleep. God gave us food, and we need to eat. Sleeping and eating are wonderful things I enjoy a lot (and sometimes too much). But there are times, that my image means more than God, there are times, my identity means more than God. There are times that my amusement and entertainment come before God. There is nothing wrong with enjoying ourselves in the things God has blessed us with, but there is something wrong with continually putting it before God, and this is what keeps us from desiring God. When we start skipping church to do our activities we love, when we put off reading our Bible to watch a movie continually, and more.

My desire, is that we enjoy the things we do, but that the things we do do not become so huge, so important, so tied into our lives that if we lost them we would not know what to do with ourselves, and this is true for everything. If you lost your job in ministry at church, how would you react? If you lost your ability to write books, how would you react? If you lost the ability to use the internet forever, how would you react? Believe it or not, these things can very easily become idols. Even church music, where we idolize this type of music, and if we don't have this type of music, anything else is demonic and we aren't pleased because our idol isn't being worshiped and fed.

I want to tell you some profound statement a pastor once told me.
"God is most glorified in you, when you are most satisfied in Him." This is the concept of Christian hedonisim.
All things given to us are accounted to grace, (at least in my mind) and thus all things which are gracious in nature, should only in return be used to thank, bless, or glorify God for His goodness and His graciousness. When you are a professing Christian, and you find your satisfaction in drugs or alcohol, and not Christ, you are not most satisfied in Christ, which means you are not glorifying Christ as much as you can be, and you are depriving Him of the worship He deserves.
The expression that God deserves all worship, every moment, of every day, is inadequate to the worship He still deserves. Consider this. Read the book of Isaiah, read the book of Revelation, angels, people, on their knees proclaiming HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! HOLY! endlessly, eternally, and the King is only deserving of this praise!

If you wish to desire God more, seek pure, 100% satisfaction in Him and Him alone. To do this, you must cast down idols, you must destroy their place in your heart, and replace it with God. This means you practice humility, this means you aren't gluttonous, crewd, lewd, immoral, adultorous, full of lies, slander, gossip, and aren't crafty in your words. This means if need be, you spend more time off the computer, this means if need be, getting less cable channels, this means getting an internet filter if you so need.

Our need for God is endless, and consequentially, so should our desire be. We should never be satisfied in our need for God while we live on this Earth, because achieving that perfect state would require being perfect. Because I am quite positive that no matter what you do, there will always be something that will compete for the place God holds in our heart. Whether it is inside of us, outside of us, or in the world around us. We should always desire more, and more, and more, and more, and more. Even when our cup is overflowing desire MORE! Anything less means you are opening yourself to satisfaction to another degree, because in this war of spiritual sorts things are constantly wanting this place! And thus we must seek God more, and more, and more until our cup overflows without any ceasing.

In summary, to desire God in a stronger passion:

• Search for idols
• Destroy the said idols
• Replace the idols with Christ
• Seek Christ to fill all voids
• And glorify Christ in all you do

When you are satisfied in Christ and Christ alone, you will be so fulfilled, that everything will be pale in comparison, apart from being in heaven with Christ.

This is why I have named my blog 'To God be the glory!' for He is deserving of it all.

Any questions, concerns, thoughts, comments, prayer requests, please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it I check that e-mail almost every day.
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When I was in St. Louis I got the chance to see Project 86 on tour. It was very exciting as it was my second time seeing them since I was thirteen. They have a new album coming out tomorrow called Picket Fence Cartel and you can hear the song "To Sand We Return" on their myspace page. I listened to the song, I closed my eyes, and the lyrics ran across my mind and like a firecracker, something just erupted inside as the lyrics passed through that section of my brain. Andrew Schwab, a brilliant song writer spoke the simple yet complex words:

Who do I belong to?
Not Earth. Not World. Not Evil. Not Mortals. Not Wretches. Not Horrors.

And I only in my heart said amen. The realization that I don't belong to the Earth, the world, evil, mortals, wretches or horrors was almost profound in thought. I did not know exactly what to say other than that it got me excited that I know I belong to something else, and Andrew continues to answer his next question, which is the exact same one as before.

Who do I belong to?
Unchanging. Unbreaking. Unfailing. Creator. Immortal. Eternal.

There is only a resolution, a build up, excitement, joy, and glee at the thought of this. If you are a Christian, I want you to really consider this thought. You belong to the Unchanging, Unbreaking, Unfailing, Creator, Immortal, Eternal!! The word order is precise and perfect. The words flow, the words are true. We belong to God, who is unlike all other (false) gods. That this is God, who does not change. God, who does not break. God, who does not fail. God, who is our Creator. God, who is Immortal. And God, who is Eternal.

I must continually remind myself in all situations to look forward, look for the joy to come. Look forward because God has a perfect plan for us, as the author and perfector of our faith. I rejoice, I delight, I am excited, and I almost can not contain myself in regards to it. Even when I was on the couch with a fever of 102F I was rejoicing in my heart. I knew that in my heart, God has brought me there, and God's grace is sufficient, and God can be glorified through this situation.

Even though I had the chills and shrills along with a cough and a sore throat, I was looking to Christ. I belong to Christ and that is such a privilege. That we have been forgiven even though we are undeserving of it, we have been loved, even though we have hated, and we are blessed, because of the Father.

I would be a poor excuse of a blog and could be accused of being seeker sensitive (looool) blogger if I didn't put some Scripture in here, so look with me at Ephesians chapter 1, which I just did an exegete of (or I tried) and explained as to why I am a Calvinist. You can find this in my audio blog section.
Eph 1: ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him

When I was teaching that sentence, there was a peace over my soul. If you read earlier in the text you see that we are adopted into Christ's family, and as a result we are seen as holy and blameless before Him. And that is just profound and exciting. Not only do I belong to Christ by adoption, but I also am seen as holy and blameless before Him.

I was surprised to see as I logged on today that I have had 50+ hits so far this week, and I haven't even "updated." This is my opportunity which I haven't taken in a while to ask you: who do you belong to?

You don't have to answer on here, but if you aren't a Christian, and you do not know who you belong to. I encourage you to turn to God, and repent of your sins committed against God. Christ died that we might live, and now we belong to Him.
I encourage you all to seek repentance, forgiveness, humility, and Christ in all you do.

Any questions, concerns, feedback, support, or prayer requests can be sent to me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Who do you belong to?
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