The Fault In Our Version of Love

Love.

The definition for love is: an intense feeling of deep affection. But love is much more than that, especially after reading John.

John talks a lot about love, after all John is the beloved disciple. And one of his verses definitely showed how love meant much more, which was 1 John 4:20 “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Which is hard to follow, because sometimes people are hard to love. Especially people that have hurt us, but we must learn to be like Jesus and love those who persecute us.

But John also discusses what not to love, as he says in 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This seems almost impossible for most people, because a lot of us love things of this world. Whether its your phone, game system, computer, or really anything, this could be one of the hardest things to live by. But this verse should remind us that these things that we love don’t last for eternity.

Well that’s about all I have to say! Comment if you’d like! 

Revelations: Left Behind

This past week in Bible 2 we read a lot of the book of Revelations and we have been asked to give the best way to interpret Revelation and what impact does this position have on the life of the believer. Since I haven’t fully made my decision on whether I’m a Futurist or a Historicist I’ll talk about why I believe both.

I think a Futurist point of view makes since because it seems that a lot of it hasn’t happened yet in any of place of history. It seems that it is something that is still to come.

But I think that a few things could have happened in the last couple of years, but that most of it is still to come.

I don’t believe in the Preterist View or the Idealist View because I don’t believe that we’re already past it or that we could be in the middle of it.

If you believe what I believe then this should affect you that the End times are still on their way, but they may not be that much farther way. They could be 10 years way or they could be 1,000 years, I don’t know and no one really does, only God knows that. But we should still prepare ourselves for them. How? By going out and being a follower of Christ and leading more to Him. Because if the end times are almost here, don’t you want more people to be able to go to Heaven with you?

Jesus Who

So how would I explain Christianity to a friend that had never heard about it. Well I'd tell him about how God created the world, man in God's image, the Fall of man, how he sent his one and only Son to die for our Sins, and how if you believe in him as your Savior you will have eternal life in Heaven.

Now of course he/she will have questions such as: Is Jesus a man or a god? Is he like spirit or an angel? Who is more powerful Jesus or God? 

Well to "Is Jesus a man or a god?" in my opinion when he was on Earth he was God in a mans body. He had taken on a the pain of being human so he could save us all from our sins. 

To "Is he like a spirit or an angel?" I believe that he is a part of the trinity, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, which are all God in different forms. So I guess when he's the Holy Spirit, then a spirit, but other than that I don't know. 

And lately "Is Jesus more powerful than God?" Since I believe in Trinity and they are all the same person, I believe they are both evenly powerful. 

Well that's what I think! Leave a comment if you'd like! 

Get Church

So this past week in Bible 2 we talked about what parts of Christianity are essential to the faith and what if they were taught differently. So we were asked two questions: 1. How would you react to a new teaching or a different version of something you had already heard. 2. What are the essential parts of the faith?

So how would I react? Well, I’d probably first learn why they said that, and if it was the main pastor or a guest. The reason for that being is that at my old church a guest speaker said something that we didn’t believe, and a family left our church. But our main pastor didn’t believe that so I would have probably stayed at the church. If they did believe what they were saying, and if it went against my beliefs I would leave.

What is essential to the faith? Well to be considered a Christian you have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and is the only true way to get to heaven. But for me the church should believe that both Heaven and Hell exists, the Holy Spirit exists, that all sin is the same in Gods eyes and so are the people, and that anyone can be saved.

Well I guess that answers those questions! Feel free to comment! 

Furious James

So recently in Bible 2 we read the book of James. While reading James we talked a lot about money and what the possible consequences are. James talks a lot about how the rich will not enter the kingdom of Heaven and how its better to be poor than rich. 

But I don’t exactly agree with that. I think it can be bad to be either rich or poor, and it can also be good to be rich or poor. It really depends on the person. If someone is poor and they complain all the time about what they can’t do and how they wish they had money, then its probably better for them to be rich. 

If a rich man loves money more than God, and has a hard time focusing on God because of that money then its probably better for them to be poor. But after reading James you’re probably going to walk away being scarred of being rich. I believe that James is actually talking about the rich people in the area, who were actually very greedy and focusing on the money instead of God. 

So I believe he was talking about the greedy and how hard it would be for them to enter the kingdom of Heaven because they focus on money rather than God. Well those are my thoughts, let me know what you think! 

The Church: Age of Structure, Authority, and Women as Pastors

So this past week in Bible 2 we discussed the structure of the church and we were asked these four questions: How structured should church be? Who should have authority? Can a woman be a pastor or a part of the authority? How does this is compare to our church?

#1: How Structured Should Church Be?

I believe that the church should be very structured. The church does need to have rules, a schedule, a main leadership team and then smaller leadership teams. Without structure, the church would fall apart, much like a business.

#2: Who Should Have Authority?

Like I said before there should be a main leadership team. With the head pastor as the leader of this team with the other pastors and such on the main team, but before making any big decisions they should always pray to God about it.

#3: Can a woman be a pastor or a part of the authority?    

Yes, I believe they can. Especially be a part of the leadership team. I know that it’s not as common for a woman to be a pastor of the church, but I’ve seen it and its possible. As long as they are speaking the truth of God’s word they’re fine with me.  

#4: How does this is compare to our church?

As of right now I don’t go to a church regularly, since my family and I are trying to find the right church after the church we went to for seven years. So I will compare what I’ve said to that church. What I said was represented at that church. Now the main pastor was a man, but his wife was also considered a pastor and women would preach. There was also a leadership team just like I discussed.

So those are my answers to those questions. Feel free to comment!  

The Predestination Effect

This week in Bible 2 we read Ephesians 4-6 and Philippians 1-4 and talked about predestination and Calvinism. For this week’s blog we were asked the following question, where do you land in the debate of predestination and how do you interpret Ephesians 1:3-14 in light of your position. Well, with predestination I do kinda believe in it, but different. I believe that God has planned our future for us, but we still have free will. Basically this is how I see it, God gives us the choice over things, but already knows what we are going to choose. Kinda like if you give a little kid who adores chocolate the choice of either broccoli or a chocolate bar, they’re going to choose the chocolate bar. I have always thought it must pain God to see us do that. I believe that mainly because I think everything happens for a reason, whether you find out what that reason is or not, Gods plan is always better, and he will let us know why these things happen someday. Everyone is chosen and has a plan in Gods eyes, and just like sin no one’s plan is smaller than the others. So I guess that’s also how it’d interpret Paul’s words in Ephesians, so the last question I have for you, what do you believe?