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The Tree

The original sin, watered down into two words the tree. Most of us know that the original sin was that Eve, who was deceived by a serpent ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We can read this in Genesis 3:1-7:

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

This was the first sin, the fall of man, the point at which we became unworthy to live with God side by side as they did in the garden. See before this point mankind had no understanding, literally no knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve relied on God for that knowledge, and because of that had a deep intimate relationship with Him. Then along came a serpent who deceived Eve into thinking that she too could be like God. She saw that the tree was “desirable to make one wise”. “If I eat of this tree, I will be like God, the serpent told me, I will be wise and I wont have to rely on God anymore.”

The tree thats where this all started, and thats where it all ended when mankind nailed Christ too it. Our sin has always been the same, you can break it down all you want to: lust, jealousy, or pride it all branches from the same thing. Our arrogance, to think that we don’t need God. That with just a little knowledge, a little wisdom, we can do it on our own. Read More »

October Baby

If anyone here is a long time reader of my blog then you may notice that my views on abortion have changed. God has taken me on a journey over the past 2 years and I have come to understand things a lot differently than I used to. This blog post is purely here to support an excellent movie that was just released. October Baby, for those of you that don’t know, it is based off of true stories of children surviving abortions. Yes you read that right, it was not a typo. Children have survived their mothers aborting them. They are rushed to the hospital from the abortion clinic once the doctors realize the child has survived.

This opens up a few questions for me:

  1. If someone attempts to take your life, and you survive then you have survived a murder. If a child can survive an abortion. Then what does that make abortion?
  2. What kind of person, speaking of the doctors, would willingly perform an abortion if they new there was a chance the child could survive? Doesn’t that kind of negate the “oh, well its just useless tissue” argument?
  3. Why is it that doctors at abortion clinics never tell the mothers that there is a chance their child will survive?

So I would like anyone who sees this blog, to notify everyone you know about this movie. I would like everyone who sees this blog to go and watch this movie because, 10% of the profits for this movie are going to a fund to help women facing crisis pregnancies, adoption agencies, and foster homes. I personally find it troubling that this movie, which portrays a real issue in our society and provides a means to help people, is being undermined by a fictional movie about fictional problems. I find it troubling that this movie which comes against the acceptable murder of unborn children, actually happening in our society, is being overshadowed by the movie that comes against the fictional murder of children by other children.

Trailer is below, God Bless. Read More »

Anybody Can Make A Difference

At age 9 Austin Gutwein saw a video about kids in other countries becoming orphaned do to the spread of AIDS. Realizing that he could make a difference Hoops of Hope was born. It started in 2004 the first event was just Austin, sponsored by his friends and family he shot baskets from the free throw line to raise money. That first year alone he raised almost $3,000. A kid that was 9 years old. Since then the organization started by him has grown, here is a snippet from the about page found at the organizations website www.hoopsofhope.org :

 ”…thousands of people have joined Austin in a basketball shoot-a-thon called Hoops of Hope. By doing something as simple as shooting free throws, Hoops of Hope participants have raised over $2.5 million. The children left behind by AIDS now have access to food, clothing, shelter, a new school, four dormitories,  a computer lab, teacher houses, and two medical testing facilities which he was told would save an entire generation. A second school is now under construction in India and right now, more than 550 children are being fed each day in Malawi.”

 

The Three “P’s” Introduction

There are a lot of big words in the Christian vocabulary, a lot of very important big words. You have: Sanctification, rectified, repentance, and transformation just to name a few. Out of all the words we use I believe the three most powerful words we could possibly come to understand are Praise, Prayer, and Patience. The three “P’s.”

I will do a breakdown of all three words in my next few posts, but I would like to give a quick introduction to let you know what is coming. Praise is the act of lifting up the Lord, of giving God the glory and the honor he deserves. It is how we show God, and remind ourselves, that he is Lord of our lives. It is our way of returning to him the love that he has shown us.

Prayer is how we communicate with God. With it we can share with him all the desires, worries, and troubles of our lives. When we pray we lift these things up to him, we give them to him so that he can take care of them. Prayer allows God to remove things from our life that we don’t need, and to bring new things into our life. It allows God to share his heart with us, and brings us into fellowship with Abba Father.

Patience is a very important thing to learn. God’s timing is much different than our own and often when he gives us a word that help is coming ‘soon’ or a door will be opened ‘shortly’ we need to understand that with God this could mean a few hours, or a few years. God does not fit into our realm of time he is eternal, everlasting, forever, infinite. In mathematics any number divided by infinity equals zero. So any amount of time that we wait is zero to God. Without patience it is very easy for us to lose faith.

The next post we will break down Praise and go into greater detail everything that it means to us as believers.

God bless!

The Eyes of Christ

This past monday my parents and I went to a concert together. The concert was my moms birthday gift to my dad. I really didn’t want to go but my mom had already purchased the tickets. So here I am sitting next to my parents in a room filled with a bunch of old people getting ready to listen to a band I have never heard of. There were a lot of things that God showed me at the concert, but the most important of all of them was how important it is to see with the eyes of Christ.

I was sitting there during the intermission waiting for the second half of the concert to start, and I look over to see an old man stumbling up the stairs. I knew they were selling Alcohol at the concert and the way he was walking resembled that of a drunk. He was wearing a black leather jacket, and his seat was next to mine. Throughout the concert he was sitting pushed back as far as he could go in his seat, as if the sound was holding him there. He didn’t clap very often but when he did it was slow and lethargic. Every once in a while he would lean forward to hold his head in his hands. Read More »