Baptism

On June 15,2012,i had the amazing privilege of marrying the most wonderful woman I've ever known. We began our relationship with a common goal, to base our marriage completely around God. Marriage being the most important relationship God created, He used His Son, Jesus, and the Church as a model. At our wedding ceremony, just as Jesus humbled Himself to serve the church, I humbled myself, knelt down, and washed my wife's feet. A public display of humility and servitude towards the woman that I declared my love to. Over the course of our marriage, we have loved each other, praised God through thick and thin, and strived to learn and live as biblically as possible. With all that, we decided to be baptized together. A very special moment. I went first, and went to stand to the side as my wife went. Little did I know the pastor would ask me to join her in the water, to assist in the baptism. He simply said could do that now. At that moment, this special moment just exploded with symbolism and was a moment to be cherished deeply. To have my wife, the woman I lift to God in my prayers, in my arms as she was being baptized was..... indescribable. I was honored to do this for her. In doing so, the pastor "had a moment" before we got out of the water, as well as many in the congregation. I knew we had something special, and with the amount of people who approached us afterwards, others do too. I am blessed to have her as my wife. And we are blessed to be backed by an making God.

End Times

I watched a YouTube video today that was very interesting, calling out Barack Obama as the antichrist. Using two verses in particular, Luke 10:18 and Isaiah 14:14,and translating the president's name to come to this conclusion. The pronunciation of Barack is similar to the Hebrew or Aramaic word for the term lightening, while O is combining the word with heights. Translation to old language is pronounced close to Bama. End result of translation, Barack Obama equals lightening from the heights. We associate the heavens with being above the clouds which is what satan said he was ascending to in Isaiah. Makes sense, and while I can't debunk this, I can't really disagree either. During his presidency, Obama has manage to deteriorate and demoralize our nation as a whole. He has made us look weak and foolish to our peers and our enemies. If we look at recent events in the world, and watch John Hagee's Blood Moon sermon, this is definitely looking more and more like the end times than ever. It is not going to get better, I'm afraid. But I am thankful for the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus has gifted me with. When worse turns into worst, we will have ascending to our eternal home with Jesus Christ.

False Gods

This may be a touchy thing for some. But hey, it's what I feel led to share. I serve an amazing God that has also served me as well. I do not have any interest in serving any false gods. I am, however, interested in what makes other people tick for other religions. So I looked at a couple of other religions and key points. I'll start with my own.
Formed in approximately 30-33 AD, Christianity, God is the creator of all things. He sent His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to this earth. He served as a model for us, living a perfect life. He also was the Sacrificed Lamb that died for our  sins. God and Jesus, joined by the Holy Spirit, form the Trinity. The key part of Jesus' death was the resurrection after 3 days, and later was witnessed ascending to Heaven. There are no man made requirements to be baptized, only need is to be born again in the Spirit. And our salvation is free, He paid the price for our sins.
The next one I'll look at is Islam. Formed in approximately 622 AD, Muslims worship Allah. Allah is the creator of all things, and there is no Trinity. While Islam still recognizes some of the same prophets of Christianity, their main prophet is Mohammed. Mohammed is portrayed as a man who makes mistakes but never sins against God, so his humanity serves as a reminder that other humans can aspire to lead a good life. An interesting thing I found is Shahada. Shahada is taught from a young age and it means "death for Allah." And this is taught as a motivational tool from a very young age for all Muslims, men, women, and children, to seek death for Allah. Wow.
Next up was Mormonism. Founded in early 1800s by Joseph Smith, it has some far fetched beliefs. It teaches that the god of this earth was once a mortal man on another earth. He became a god by following Mormon laws in his previous life. According to your commitment to the laws, I assume, you will reach different levels of heaven. Brigham Young, Smith's successor, taught that God Himself came down and had sexual relations with Mary to conceive Jesus Christ. In order to reach an exalted state in manhood, you must be a good Mormon, tithing 10%, follow various man made laws and ordinances, and be found worthy, by the other worthy Mormons, of course.
Last is the Jehovah's Witness. Founded in the late 1800s, Jesus is also a single person and not part of a Trinity. Also is not omniscient. And, just like the other man made religions, there are man made rules. One must attend 5 meetings a week, one cannot be baptized until they have studied their material for 6 months, went door to door, and passed a test before elders of the group. One must refuse to vote, refuse to sing the Star Spangled Banner, refuse to celebrate Christmas or birthdays, or join the military. If you leave the JW organization, you will be shunned. Oh, they also change their bible frequently and tell followers they are closer to the light or the truth.

For me, these man made religions are hard to follow or understand. It doesn't seem fair to be judged by other men and for them to tell me if God forgives me or not. Or to think that my merciful, wonderful God was an alien, so to speak, rewarded for following the "rules." If I was a young child and I was being motivated and taught to seek death for my God, it would definitely cause me to shy away from that religion alone. Instead, I have chose to follow a God that loves, forgives, and requests me to spread the Gospel of His good name to others with the same love that He gives me.

Do You Even Repent, Bro?

Repent, to feel sincerely sorrowful for one's wrongdoing or sin, to turn away from that sin and live to the amendment of one's life. Jesus calls on us to repent from our sins. I think a lot of people feel that this is for Him. And while it is, He also wants us to do it for ourselves. More so than we think. If we live something over and over and do not repent of it, it begins to loom over us like a dark blanket. That's the Holy Spirit at work. To repent, cast all you sins at His feet, turn and leave them. I think one of the reasons Jesus wants us to do this, aside from no sin entering Heaven, is so that we can experience the full freedom He has given us to live abundantly. See, that little hindrance will prevent us from being full of Christ. It will prevent us from being the witness we need to be. It will stop us from fully worshipping God the way we should. This will have a snowball effect on our relationship with Christ. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 says (9)yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. (10)Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. He wants us to repent to experience joy and freedom versus the devil's plot to cause sorrow with sin and lead us away from God unto death, not everlasting life. Who's plan are you following?

Reproach

Hey guys, I know it's been awhile. I'm sorry. It seems that when you try to do something good for the Kingdom the devil will cause us to fill our time elsewhere with other things. Anyway...

I was talking with a guy the other day and the topic of reproach came up. We talked about the verses in Matthew 18.  15-17 talks about pointing out the faults or sins of your brother, one on one at first. If that doesn't work to take one or two brethren with you to witness. Maybe some elders or deacons from the church. Then if that said person doesn't accept we are to explain to the entire church the situation. That's kind of a last resort before he is considered a heathen man or a publican according to the Bible. Sadly, this is the attitude of many Christians today, they feel they are above reproach. Even many leaders and pastors. This is a sign of spiritual maturity I think. Or lack thereof. We should appreciate the fact that our brothers in Christ love us enough to point out where we may be making a mistake. Even though 1 Timothy talks about the overseers being above reproach, none that walk this earth are. Only Jesus can claim that perfection. We all should live the way Paul explained in the next verses, with dignity and respect for Jesus Christ. Striving to be as perfect as we possibly can to achieve our goal, Heaven.

Our relationship with Christ is the most important part of our salvation. Not the amount of books we have read or the knowledge we gain from them. Sometimes I think that knowledge gets in the way of the relationship and gives a false sense of superiority. There's only one on high and that's Jesus.

Get Off Your High Horse!!!

High horse Christians. What are they? They are an epidemic. Too many times people will get on a kick where they feel above all else. It may be the guy you sat beside in the last service you attended, it may be the elderly lady who "does no wrong," it could even be a pastor or a counselor. The Bible tells us that we are to be humble. Humble enough to drop to our knees, give Him our sins, and ask Him to take away our pride. What?!? Take away our pride. Pride is something of the devil and he is using it full throttle to prevent people, even Godly people, from the humility Jesus wants us to have. Satan wants separation of the church. If he can produce as much division as possible, it creates a war basically turning Christians against Christians. We no longer will be humble enough to serve our brothers in a time of need. We will turn them away as if they are below us. We will no longer receive reproach from our brother because we will be the ones who do no wrong. In actuality we are suppose to be a team, an army, fighting AGAINST the devil and FOR the Kingdom of God. And it's not what's happening today. We have a million different denominations causing chaos for young Christians to find a church. We have leaders who use aggressive language or actions because they feel they can and are better than others because their position, not realizing that if it were truly a calling of God they would be more careful to try not to turn people away from Jesus. Wake up people. We are all on the same team, trying to win souls for God. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you've spent $100,000 on theology school or if His grace smacked you in the face like a brick wall one day and you lived for Him ever since, we are God's children, and we are suppose to practice love, compassion, and humility. Everywhere. Not just at church or around church people, because Jesus sees it all anyway and if we really had the Holy Spirit, we'd think twice of our actions.


http://m.youtube.com/user/MrAaronCline7
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-To-Christ/225525844176064?ref=hlhttp://ciaahusbandsmission.blogspot.com/

Reach Out With Love

Hey guys. I'm a little behind this week and I do apologize.

I wanted to say something about prejudgment. I know a lot of times we will say things about someone like, "If they were a Christian, they wouldn't ______," or we will use the overused saying, "Hate the sin, not the sinner."  Many times we won't even give someone a chance based on a prejudgment of ones clothes or body jewelry. Pants too baggy, stainless steel jewelry, backwards hat, whatever. It's not for us to worry about. If it's wrong, fine. Let it be wrong at the time. Maybe they are not a Christian, how do you plan on winning them over for Christ with the "hate the sin" motto. This person may feel it's just who they are, and if you hate the sin, then you must hate them too. Love the sinner, and try to guide them away from the sin with that same love. This approach may work better. I'm willing to bet if we could change our approach, the people would be at least more willing to listen. That's what I can say about that subject.

Now let's take dress codes, and tattoos, earrings and such. I, personally, feel that these can go too far. But not everyone can't wear a three piece suit daily. Who wants to, really? I enjoy my jeans and t-shirts just fine. Tattoos and piercings, much debate on this topic. I have both. I feel that, in a world of much worse, a young person may see me or someone else with the same and think "Maybe being a Christian is achievable." If we place them in a box due to small issues like that, they may never come to Christ. Some need to learn how to step down from their high horses and reach out to these people, WITH LOVE. Jesus loved the worst of people and led them with love, taught them with love, served them with love. We need to do the same.
Thank you and I hope everyone has a wonderful day. God bless you.

http://m.youtube.com/user/MrAaronCline7
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Write-To-Christ/225525844176064?ref=hl
http://ciaahusbandsmission.blogspot.com/