No Excuses

I heard a good sermon tonight about the excuses that are offered up in Romans 1 for not living the Christian life. As I was checking out various blogs that I enjoy this evening I realized that any of us living in this age of advanced technology and information exchanging have no excuse to not drape ourselves in God's word each and every day. There is such a wealth of good and doctrinal sound information to be explored on the internet that a thought provoking Bible study is literally seconds away from all of us. We can subscribe to have devotionals or daily Bible passages deliverd to our e-mail if we like. Of course I do feel that nothing is better than good old fashioned study of an open Bible in a quiet place where the Holy Spirit can reveal to you what it is you need to see that day. That being said though, do any of us have any excuse to not sharpen our knowledge of the sword (that's the Bible) every day. I understand that there are probably more trappings and false doctrines online than truth but if you can discern the two I wonder if an excuse to God on judgment day about our lack of study will be tolerated from those of us who live in this age. God's blessings are all around us and we have no excuse to not spend time in learning more about Him daily.

I had to share this

This is probably one of the most amazing/disgusting things I have ever seen. This is a picture of DavidHolbert, a fullback from the University of Tennessee. This happened at a practice. Thank God that you are not enduring that pain right now.

Just A Reminder

I have gotten some e-mails from people this morning stating they did not know how to comment to posts. So, at the end of the post it will say "0 comments" or "3 comments" or however many comments there are. Click that and it will take you to the comment screen. Type your comment and then choose how you want to sign it. If you do not have a blog or g-mail account, click the name/url box and just leave your comment. Of course anonymous is an option as well.
If you want to read other people's comments simply click the title of the post (for instance to read comments to this post, you would click the title above ("Just A Reminder").

Have a great day

Surprised myself on this one

Have you ever started writing and thinking about something you felt strongly about only to relaize that you never really thought about why you felt that way? I had that just happen to me and it has had such a profound impact on my thinking that I want to share it on here.
I was having a discussion on Facebook with some Christians that I really admire and respect and the topic was "is all killing murder"? I started out my viewpoint rather rhetorically, asking if any life is worth more than another regardless of what that person has done? A reply to my stance was that it is alright to kill someone as long as it is lawful. That really struck something inside of me and I was able to apply some of my recent Bible study (thank God for showing Himself to me again) to my argument. I will preface posting what I stated by saying this: I have always thought that I was a proponent of capital punishment but when I think about it and try to see it through the eyes of Jesus, I can't really stand firmly on that belief any longer. ALthough I will need to put more Bible study and thought to this, I think I may have come out of the "no death penalty" closet a little tonight. I am going to post the argument I posted and I hope that many of you will give me your comments and thoughts because I am just a little shaken. I hope we can learn together on this. My argument is posted below.

But who are we to determine what is a lawful killing? It would be one thing if we were led by men who were Godly and all laws were set forth by men who you knew walked in the light of God. Unfortunately, that is not the case. My interpretation of your argument Steven is that if the law (and I am speaking from a man made sense, not ten commandments) that says it is alright to have abortions and provides licensed physicians the right to do so says it is fine, then it is "lawful." (by the way, I don't think you are doing this but your statements could be seen as saying that a lawful abortion is fine in the sight of God in the context of this argument) Never in the New Testament are the words due and process found together. So, is lawful actually lawful? Does God approve of the laws and statutes being passed in our country today? Does God approve of the Iraq War? Does God approve of who the citizens of our country have allowed to seize control? Since you brought up Moses and Exodus, let's look at a famous unlawful murderer by the name of Moses. Was his killing of the Egyptian lawful? Of course not. Did God choose to capitally punish Him? No. Instead, God allowed him to dwell in a less than desirable circumstance (one could almost say a prison) for 40 years and then used Moses for God's glory. So again, who are we to say that none of the people who have been "lawfully" put to death following their due process were not people who God could have used for His glory? Let us not forget who is the master of this world. Was God or Satan in control of Moses when he murdered the Egyptian? On top of all this, Jesus preached grace, forgivness, and turning the other cheek? We are so quick to say "well, he killed three college aged girls, he must deserve to die," or something similar yet Jesus, found it in Him to forgive the men who were not killing his brother, sister, mother, or father; they were killing him. If Jesus did not condemn those men to death, how can any of us ever justify taking another human life? Trust me, I know this sounds like a very liberal argument, but I am as conservative as they come. However, someone living in prison has much more of a chance to bring forth the fruit that Paul talks about in Romans 7 than someone who is frying in an electric chair.

Please note that I am not considering accidental killing in this context.

Pilgrim's Map of the Day

Here are some of the things that I thought were worth sharing on my journey today.

* Click here or click the picture to the left to be taken to a post from National Geographic that shown some amazing creatures found recently around Antartica.

* Here is a link that will take you to a very well put together video showing the "infection" of America by Wal-Mart.

* I couldn't believe this but I found something worth while on the Huffington Post. I ask that all of you take the time to read this post by an atheist who is finding enlightenment from a book on the Bible. Make sure you read the comments section as well.

*

Just look for it

It is amazing to me how God will reveal Himself to us if we just look for Him. I prayed Saturday night on my way home from a dinner that God would reveal Himself to me more this week and provide me with more opportunities to serve Him and what do you know, it is happening.
I will start with the revealing. I have seen God working wonders in many of the lives of those around me this week. For starters I received an e-mail yesterday from my cousin who is pregnant. I know that many people are praying for her to have a healthy pregnancy and that she is happy and secure. I can safely say from her e-mail that those prayers seem as if they are being answered currently. Secondly, I have another cousin who is a photographer in Oklahoma. About two weeks ago she and her husband had a great deal of their expensive equipment stolen. To make a long story short, their faith and trust in God never waivered and it all of their equipment has been returned in tact. Watch my blog for a link to this story when they post it on their blog.
Now, on to the opportunities to serve. Where to begin? I guess I will just talk about two opportunities. I had dinner with a friend the other night who is a very strong Christian and who I know has no desire greater than to be a loving Christian. That being said, I could tell that this person was very troubled about a situation in their life. So much so that I felt a great deal of sadness after leaving this dinner. This may seem like nothing much but I knew in my heart that this person needed an encouraging word. A quick e-mail was all I wrote but I know if God was not the master of my life I would not have even thought or noticed the pain they were in. Even more importantly, I would not have thought to do anything about it. To gives kudos to my good friend Jason Jarrett, his sermon on bearing one another's burdens helped with this as well.
The second opportunity to serve came yesterday. I work with a group of people who for the most part fail to censor their language or think about the thought that the words you choose tell people a great deal about your heart (as well as your intelligence, but we won't get in to that). I often find myself retreating to my office and putting on a sermon or Christian music just to filter out some of the world. Yesterday I chose to listed to Dan Chambers sermon from the 2006 Challenge Youth Conference (cyconline.com if you are interested in hearing some really powerful youth driven messages). His sermon was based on the life of Moses and his calling to do God's work in Exodus 3. He focused on the excuses that Moses served up to God when God called him. It was a great message and my friend Jay Boyett (I love you man) who is a fountain of scriptural knowledge, walked in at the end of the lesson and heard the end of it. We were talking about how Moses was chosen to do his job as a baby and discussing the absurdity of any of us thinking we are any different (God has chosen all of us to do great things, I know there's a great sermon in there somewhere) when another co-worker walked in. Jay asked this individual how their faith was coming and this person began to offer up the very same excuses that Moses did in this sermon I just listened. Coincidence, there is no such thing. This was God answering my prayer to serve Him. Without saying much I was able to relate to this person how they sounded like what I had just heard and direct them to the scripture to see what I was talking about.
I would say that God has answered my prayer and he has continued to do so by giving me a very good idea about our youth ministry at church that I plan to implement soon. I can see God in so many different ways and these past few days He has shown Himself in a huge manner. I hope that all who are reading this will also pray for God to not only reveal Himself but to also give you opportunities to serve Him.