Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good

to those who love God, to those who are the called according

to His purpose. - Romans 8:28

Loyalty pretty much sums up Romans 8:28,

does this verse mean that because we love God that only good will come?

no, not at all...

the verse means those who love God are loyal to God,

and they realize that all things work out in the end for good.

When trouble and sufferings come, and they will come,

those who love God understand that no matter the circumstance,

no matter what happens, trusting and putting their faith in God

is most important. Our Loyalty should be unshakable, all things we know

are possible through God, what is more important then your relationship with Christ? Why, how rather, could you let any trouble come between it?
When bad circumstances come it’s not ‘Why me?’ it’s should be more

like ‘Why not me?’. Put your trust in God, have unshakable faith

that everything happens for a reason and nothing can detour Gods will.

We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything,

but do not ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ.

Many Christians are intensely impatient of

talking about loyalty to Jesus.

Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers

than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men,

and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.

The idea is not that we do work for God,

but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us -

"I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine."

God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

December 18th My Utmost for His highest

It's easy to get into the mode of

"I'm so loyal to Christ, look at what I do for him."

But that is not of Christ at all,What good is in us really?

the only good in us is Christ himself through the Holy Spirit.

Any credit, any thanks for work that you say you do for God

should go to God not your self.

Stop trying to be pious and Holy and BE pious and Holy...

The more you try to be pious and Holy the more you will fail...

the only way to be pious and Holy is through Christ,

so stop trying to be something and let Christ Be it through you!

Stop trying to mold the clay and let God be the molder without

any interference on your part!

Be what you were always meant to be, we were not Created to

live as we have lived since Adam, we were created to be Holy

and in Gods presence, yet we are far from it because of Sin...

but if you deny that you can be changed, if you deny that you can be made Holy,

then you deny the power of God, you deny what was done for you

on the cross and through the Son.

Allowing God to work through us

If I asked you, what does it mean to be a believer in Christ?

what exactly would you say?

If I asked you, how do I become a follower in Christ?

what exactly would you say?

Would you give me a list of commands I must follow?

Would you tell me I have to know the word?

Would you tell me I have to go to this certain church,

pray this certain prayer? read this certain verse?

Or would you say:

"Trust in the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,

accept him into your life, and put him first above all.

acknowledge that your a sinner, and you have been forgiven,

that a price was paid for that forgiveness"

What does putting God first mean anyways?

and how should we live our lives?

Last week I wrote about the disciple Stephen in the blog,

and how he was stoned to death for speaking out.

essentially speaking out against the religious who

devise ways to satisfy God then take pride in

meeting the standards they themselves have set.

I admit I've fallen to that plenty of times myself,

if we want to know the true way to live our lives for God...

we need to simply just look at the prophets and disciples.

This past week I believe my faith has grown, and that would be

thanks to obviously God, but also my Mom who God worked through.

You see, God revealed something to her, that yes we already knew...

but somehow we were not following/understanding.

It essentially goes right along with the disciple Stephen,

and what he was trying to tell the Jewish order.

Putting God first means allowing him to work through us,

allowing his will to be done, and I know this all seems really

simple and thats because it is. I think sometimes we, and when I say

we, I mean "We" as christians become to blinded with trying to

"please God" that we don't pay attention to what he is actually

saying. I think sometimes we become to confined in a "religious spirit"

that in the end we are not even pleasing God, we are just pleasing

our own ideas of his word, and our own ideas of who and what God is.

You see we can read Gods word all we want, but if he doesn't

reveal it to us, then all we are going to do is interpret it ourselves,

and thus we have our own opinion of what it means.

This is why there is so many denominations, because half the time

we are not asking God to reveal his word to us,

we are jut trying to read and understand his word ourselves

and we come up with our own opinion of what it means.

We must ask God to reveal his word to us, read what he wants us to read,

and ask for him to tell us what it means.

I think we all strive to have God work through us,

for us to be that empty vessel he can use.

However, if we are to busy going through our routine prayers

or our daily routine of reading his word or just our daily

routine of life in general, I don't see how he can use us to

our full potential. This is where the duh moment came in,

this is where I think my faith grew. Now don't get it twisted either..

I'm not saying don't pray and don't read the bible..

I'm saying put God first. Don't read to please...don't pray to please..

and ask for him to reveal his word to you, and he will.

Think of it like this...

lets say I come to you and I ask you for advice, but yet

I don't give you any time to actually speak. How exactly

do I get advice from you? the fact is I wouldn't

because I wouldn't shut up and listen right?

The point I'm getting at is I think we need to shut up

and allow God to speak to us.

We can't make God a chore is what I said last week,

and thats the same thing we can't make him a routine,

some little song and dance we do then go on with our lives.

Do you realize we have the power to overthrow evil?

We can cast out evil spirits...

We have the power to heal...

obviously it's God giving us that power, it's God working through us..

but if we don't give him the chance to....

Look at the disciples they healed plenty of people,

they cast out evil spirits, and Jesus told them

that we would have everything we would ever need!

that we would be filled with the holy spirit and

that the holy spirit would work through us!

what? was that just for the disciples?

did something change along the way?

were the disciple the only people God could work through?

Don't you think he can work through us as well?

all things are possible correct?

God can speak to us...literally...

Just like he did with Samuel or Jeremiah,Moses or Abraham

use us like he did with David or Elijah, Peter or Paul

all we got to do is let him..

there is no secret code...there is no special prayer or hymn

or certain church you have to go to..

you don't have to know the bible cover to cover...

All you got to do is ask,ask to be that empty vessel he can work through,

ask for him to reveal his word...

ask for him to speak to you.

I don't know about you, but in my eyes what do we have to worry about..

God created the heavens and the earth surely there is no stress or worry

that he can't take care of.

Glory and praise be to him!

God first... other's second... me last.

(by the way the plan was to review Thousand Foot Krutch's new cd,

but God had other plans. I'll just say it's easily album of the year,

and I should have it reviewed fully next week, unless he decides

on me writing something else)

The Story of Stephen

Stephen was the first Disciple of Jesus Christ to die for him,

His story can be found in Acts chapter 7, but I figured I'd go over it with you.

In Acts chapter 6:8-15 we are introduced to a disciple named Stephen,

it's said that he was full of wisdom and the holy spirit, and no

man could stand up in an argument with him. This, of course,

didn't make the Jewish leadership very happy, after all

they don't want to be accused of killing the messiah.

Since none of them could stand up in an argument against Stephen,

they lied and made false accusations against him until Stephen

was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.

They accused Stephen of speaking blasphemy against God and

Moses, which obviously wasn't true at all. Now the amazing thing is,

or at least it's amazing to me, without any fear, Stephen who is surrounded

by people who want to see him dead...doesn't apologize

for preaching about Christ, He doesn't say "Hey you got it all wrong about me!"

He doesn't beg for mercy, Stephen stands in front of them all and

essentially, in a nut shell, he explains the Old Testament to them.

Obviously these Jewish leaders knew or I should say,

they thought they knew the Old Testament.

Here comes little disciple Stephen to give them a lesson?

Just imagine what they were thinking,

"Who in the hell is this guy? who does he think he is?"

These are high priests, these are Jewish leaders who are well respected,

and have spent their whole lives learning and focusing on Gods word,

and some "common" man is going to come and tell them they got it wrong?

Stephen stood up and he told them not only are they wrong,

but that through-out history their fathers were wrong,

he told them that they may know Gods word but surely they don't follow it,

He called them stiff-necked and asked was there ever a prophet

they did not persecute. Stephen was facing true opposition, he

was facing death, and he wasn't afraid to speak the truth, and yet

if we look at ourselves today, some of us our afraid to speak the truth now,

and why? surely in some country's you would be facing death

to speak about Christ, but in most you wouldn't. We are afraid...why?

because we wouldn't fit in? because they might laugh at us?

because they might look at us different? Stephen and the disciples...

kind of put things in perspective don't they?

The thing is the Jewish people knew Gods word, they knew the law,

however they didn't follow Gods interpretation of it, they followed their own.

Stephen's whole argument was based around that if they did follow

God and his law then they would have listened to the prophets of old,

and they would of followed Jesus Christ, but instead they killed them.

What did Stephen receive for his courage? what did he get for speaking

the truth? he was Stoned to death...

"You have received the law but have not obeyed it."

Acts 7:53

in the foot notes for 7:53 it says:

"The religious are always tempted to devise ways to satisfy God and then to

take pride in meeting the standards we set. Following God in truth means

one thing: following Jesus to the cross in humility"

I take that to mean, well what it means, the Jewish order in the book of acts,

focused on their man made rules/laws and they tried to do works

to please God. Doesn't sound to far off from a lot of people today...

In fact it doesn't sound to far off from a lot of Christians.

The simple fact of the matter is religion has become so convoluted..

by who? by the people in the religion..somewhere along the way...

it's become more about doing this or doing that...trying to please God

by these man made rules that we ourselves have created.

You see as it says in the foot notes we devise ways to satisfy God,

and then we take pride in meeting those standards that we ourselves

have set. I've done it countless times in different areas of my life..

"I've got to read this many chapters in the bible"

"I've got to pray this way or that way"

"I've got to do this or that to please God"

essentially making God a chore and something I have to work for,

when the fact of the matter is God made you...he already knows

what you will do and what you wont, he wants your trust and love..

and he doesn't look down on you and say

"What can you do for me"..

"Hmm you didn't read your bible today....so I think I'll ignore your prayers"

or whatever crazy things that come into your head.

Of course he should be put first above all things, and of course

we should seek after him with all our heart,soul,mind and strength..

but thinking you have to do this or that to receive his love or "blessing"

is foolish because the fact is you already have His love.

Plain and simple... we shouldn't be seeking God, reading his word, praying

and worshipping Him,because we think we have to, but we should be doing

those things because we want to. Don't make God just some daily routine..

he would much rather you sit there and do nothing and ask for his will..

then to say

"I've got to read this then pray this way then sing this,

then do this little dance, then this then that."

May Gods will overflow through you...

and His words be known to you.

Not by works

No "Christian" should brag...

kind of a given isn't it?

ever hear two "christians" arguing?

sometimes the arguing ends with one saying to the other

"Some Christian you are"

or something along those lines,

Or maybe we've said that or thought that about someone ourselves,

I can't say I've never thought that about certain people.

what gives us the right to

judge how a "christian" should be?

because we read the bible?

go to a "christian" church?

Don't you realize we are all the same?

Christian and non Christian..

we all are sinners and none of us deserve Gods grace.

It seems to many people have become to churchatized..

ok so thats not a word, but what I am saying is this..

too many people have made gods word into being about "works"

turning Gods love into something we have to work for.

To many people have turned Gods word into a "religion"

this sect against that sect..

choosing to twist words and meanings around in the bible

to fit there little denomination.

Gods love isn't about works, think about it,

think about God looking down on us right now,

and think about how he came to earth in human form

to sacrifice himself for every single one of us,

and now think about from that point on...

think about how there are thousands of denominations,

think about how we judge each other

and how we fight amongst each other...

and how we have turned something so simple and amazing

into being about works and a man made set of laws and rules.

Do you think God is happy?

Do you think he is looking down on the thousands of denominations

and saying: "There's my good disciples divided amongst each-other,

just how I wanted it to be" Obviously he knew we would be like this,

for he knows and sees all things, but I mean seriously is nobody else

sick of people telling you, you have to live this way or that way,

and you can't do this and you can't do that,

and you must not eat on this day or that day

and you got to come to church on this day and not that day,

and you must go to this church or you will burn in hell and blah blah blah..

It just seems to me that I am daily smacking my forehead

at all the, and there is no other way to say this, but I am

face palming at all the freakin stupidity.

This is not what Christ was about at all!

I'm not claiming I know it all or anything..

all I am doing is quoting what the bible says,

It says it's not about works, you can't work your way into Gods love,

he has already given you his love! you just have to accept it,

YES! it is that simple! the bible says all have fallen short of grace,

nobody is better then anyone else, and if we claim that we

are not sinners then we are nothing but liars and the truth

is not in us! what else does His word say?

Judge not unless ye be judged? everyone knows that one right?

Then WHY do some people/churches Judge people with

piercing's and tatt's? or by the clothes you wear or

by what day you go to church or by ECT ECT ECT!

wasn't Jesus against the church of his time?

what did he call the people who had all their rules,

and laws they tried to follow? hypocrites and pharisees

wasn't it? I'm going to keep saying this until people get it

(which will be never) but if we could follow all the

original laws that were in the bible then Jesus dying on that cross

was POINTLESS! and we know it was not pointless

because we can't possibly be free from sin!

I'm going to end this little rant of mine...

a rant that I've already ranted about a couple of times.

Today the blog is going to end on how it should end...

Gods word...specifically Ephesians 2

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

in which you used to live when you followed the ways

of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of air,

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying

the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires

and thoughts.

Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

made us alive with Christ even when

we were dead in transgressions

it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ

and seated us with him in the

heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

in order that in the coming ages

he might show the incomparable

riches of his grace, expressed in his

kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-

and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-

not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:1-10