Freedom

First, I apologize for letting this blog go quiet.  I have been caught up in other stuff and while I have had some good ideas, I never got around to forming them and for that I apologize.  I hope that I can try to keep this up through the summer now, maybe as a weekly thing (most likely on Wednesdays).  Anyways, I am back now, so please enjoy.

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Freedom.  It was the final cry of Mel Gibson in Braveheart, the thing that Andy dreamed of in Shawshank Redemption, and the driving force of Spartacus.  Clearly freedom is something worth having, worth risking it all for, but why?  Freedom is important to people because it is just that, freedom.  You are no longer bound to anything or stuck anywhere, forced to do something you don't want to do anymore.  Your chains have been loosed, the rope cut, the walls broken.  You can step out and do whatever you want because you are FREE.  

The Bible talks about freedom too, but more specifically, in Romans 6:3-7, it tells us not only that we have freedom, but how it has been given to us already; all you have to do is accept it.  

3 Or don't you know brothers, that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through the baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin-7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (NIV, emphasis added)

There it is, right at the end of the passage.  "no longer slaves..." and "freed from sin."  If we are a part of Christ, meaning we have given our lives over to him and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, we're free.  

  What does it mean to be a slave to sin?  It means that you really don't want to look at that pornography, but you do anyways because you are addicted to it, it means you can't stop drinking even when it's clear you've had enough because you are hooked to it, it means you want to clean up your act and stop lying or cursing, but you can't because you can't think any other way.  Being a slave to sin means you cannot get away from it, period.  Christ is the way to break that addiction, and all you have to do to free yourself is ask Him to do it for you.  

  Now here's an important note; when you do this you will not all of a sudden stop sinning.  That's not how it works.  You will still sin, but you won't be a slave to it.  You will have the ability to walk away if you ask God to help you.  The "close" button will become bigger, you will be more conscious of your behavior, and you will learn to think before letting loose a curse word.  God may not immediately change your situation, but if you let Him, He will change your behavior.  That is where your freedom comes from, from allowing God to work on you and mold you.  Once you take Him as your savior, you have a new life that is not in bondage to your sin.  God broke those chains through His son, and all you have to do is ask Him to take your life, to bury your sinful self so you can be resurrected free of your sin.  

  Some may think, "How can he say accepting Christ is accepting freedom?  Christians have more rules than I care to remember."  This is only partly true; God does give us commands, things He asks of us, but 1) we can't possibly complete them, hence the necessity of Christ and 2) if we truly love Him, we will follow them willingly.  This is a deep topic that is worth exploring later, but for now I'll leave it at this; if you truly love someone, you will find yourself doing things to please them and actively avoiding things that displease them.  God's commands are Him giving us detailed instructions of how to please or displease Him.  He says, "Don't lie" because lying is disobeying and disappointing Him, He says "love your neighbor" because that pleases Him.  He isn't asking us to follow a bunch of rules, that's called legalism and Christ actively opposed that.  He wants us to be free from our sin so we can choose to love and worship Him through our actions.  

  So if you find yourself suddenly in the grip of sin, reach out and ask for your freedom.  Ask God to come into your life and set you free.  He will hear you and help you, and I promise the feeling of being set free is amazing.  If you think you've already given your life over but still find yourself struggling with sin, renew your commitment.  He has given you the ability to walk away, you just need to ask Him for the strength to do so.         I urge you to think about this and reach out if you have any questions.  You can come to me and I will help to the best of my ability, and if I can't I can direct you to someone who can.  

God bless,

Mike

Known by love

"I like your Christ.  I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."-Gandhi

God is love.  That is one of His defining attributes, love.  He is Almighty and does in fact punish those who choose to sin against Him, but rather than wipe us from existence with one word, He chooses to love us and sent His son to die for our sins.  God is love.

I feel like a lot of Christians today have forgotten how to love people like they should.  They look down their noses at people and judge them for what they've done or are currently doing and rather than love them, help them, and say that God has forgiven them for their sins, they condemn them and hold them at arms length, choosing to just say, "I'll pray for you" rather than get dirty with loving the unclean.  Christ dealt with this in His time too, and he shamed the people by telling a parable of despicable(to the leaders) half-breed exercising more love and kindness to his fellow man than the so called religious leaders of the time. The parable of the Good Samaritan shows that Christ valued love and kindness over propriety and head-knowledge of the spiritual laws.  This isn't an excuse to not study the Bible or seek further knowledge, but you can't get caught up in the words without the actions.
James calls this faith without works, and it is a dead faith (James 2: 26) with no use.  Too many Christians are exercising their so-called faith, claiming to be true followers of Christ, but in reality they have a dead faith that is devoid of love or any kind of action, an empty shell of faith that displeases God.  Christ calls His followers to love our neighbors and our enemies(Matt. 5:43-44), making it so important as to say that this is primarily how we are identified with Christ (John 13:35: By this all will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.)  This is not an optional, sometimes, or only when the person loves me first, choice.  We are commanded to love one another, and love others(John 15:9-13).
 Gandhi shouldn't have had any problem seeing Christ in whatever Christians he encountered because we have no choice but to strive to be as Christ was, full of love and compassion for everyone.  Jesus was never identified as judgmental or cold or harsh or patronizing, so why are Christians being identified like this?  We aren't perfect, but we should be constantly striving to love everyone, no matter where they came from.  We can't pick and choose our enemies or neighbors, so we have to learn to love whoever God puts in front of us. Only then can we begin to heal the world.

Leap of Faith

What does faith mean?  Is it a synonym to trust or more like knowledge in something or someone's capabilities?  What does it mean to take a leap of faith?  I think most people would say that is when you are standing on the edge of something(literally or figuratively) and instead of taking the time to think about the consequences, you just jump for it and hope everything works out well.  

One of my favorite movie examples of a leap of faith is from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.  Indiana is standing on a small ledge and is looking across a deep chasm at a door on the other side.  There is no visible bridge to be seen, but the small journal he's kept on all the trials he'd be facing on his quest for the Holy Grail tells him that he should be able to walk, seemingly on nothing at all, across to the door.  He just needs the faith to take that first step.  After a few moments of debate, he finally just closes his eyes, puts a foot out and steps.  What he finds under his foot is a bridge, painted to blend perfectly with the opposite cliff face, thereby giving the appearance that there is nothing there.  

This is how we as Christians should live our life, willing to take a step when it looks like nothing is there because God is with us and won't let us falter.  Hebrews 11 recounts numerous times in the history of the Israelites where someone was asked to do something crazy, like provide shelter for two enemy insurgents while they gather details about your city or go to battle with nothing but a sling and some rocks to face a giant  warrior.  The best example of faith that can be found though, in my opinion, is Abraham and Issac.

Abraham was old when God spoke to him and said he was going to have a child.  His wife was considered barren and, as if God had forgotten, Abraham reminded him of that fact.  God told him it would happen though, and that through his offspring the world would be blessed and multiply to fill the Earth.  God provided as He said with Isaac.  God spoke again later and told Abraham to go make a sacrifice, using his son Isaac as the offering.  Though God had promised to make his offspring numerous, now He was asking for Isaac's life?  Abraham had to have been confused and heart-broken, but he planned on doing it.  He walked up to the location, built the altar, and just before he was going to kill Isaac, an angel stopped him and God provided a ram instead.  Abraham had enough faith in God that he was willing to kill his son because he knew God would do something(Genesis 22:1-19 NIV).  

How many of us could claim that kind of faith?  Lots of people say that they trust in God, but sometimes we get hung up on the seemingly impossible details, the smallest stuff that we think God might forget, so we worry or say no.  It's really easy to say that if someone threatened our life for being Christians, we would still claim Christ and have faith in our deliverance, but then we get hung up on tithing because we feel like God isn't able to provide for our financial needs.  Or we say we'll follow Him to another country and yet we don't have enough faith in Him to pray for our sickness to be healed.  

The first verse in Hebrews defines faith as confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see(NIV).  I interpret that as more than knowledge or trust in God, it's assurance that no matter where we are or what we're doing, God will provide even if we can't see how.  It's knowing that even though you can't see the way to the other side of the chasm, you believe in the word of God(our journal) that says you can walk there, close your eyes and put your foot out, whether there's a bridge there or not.  

The Battle

  I love epic war movies.  From movies like "Gladiator" and "Robin Hood" to "Braveheart", "The Patriot", and "Troy", they all strike a chord in me at some level.  The fighting and the cinematography is always interesting, but I like the stories to most, which I've discovered actually have very little variation.  Generally, our hero starts out on top of things, whether he's a lead general for the Roman war machine or a respected war veteran, he's got everything going for him.  At some point though, things take a sharp downhill turn, and this is usually at the hands of our primary antagonist.  Our hero then begins his new quest that carries throughout the rest of the movie, his quest to get revenge on the one who caused his troubles.  This quest culminates in our hero coming face to face with his enemy, battling him, and in the best cases, killing him, thereby exacting his revenge for the misery that was caused.
  If you think about it, Christian's live out their own versions of this story almost on a daily or weekly basis.  The trouble is that we don't fight against other people; we fight against our own sinful nature, the wretched thing that we're stuck struggling against until we die because while we are new creations in Christ(2 Cor. 5:17), we are still here on Earth, exposed to things that tempt us to act against God's will.  Not only do we struggle against our own nature, we fight against the very legions of Hell, who are bent on making our lives difficult and causing us to fall (Ephesians 6:12).  These aren't things you can see or feel most of the time, though they are real and have made manifestations through possession.  More often, they are the source of those little things that anger you so much; that bad customer who seems to complain about everything you try to do, the person driving forty miles per hour in the left lane of the highway, the creeping doubt of your salvation.  All these things are meant to trip us up so that we forget about God and fall away.
  But just like no warrior goes into battle unprotected, God provides us with all the armor we'll need for our struggle.  We're given a helmet,belt, breastplate, leg guards, a shield, and a sword, all provided from God himself (Ephesians 6:13-17).  All this armor comes from within ourselves, from the knowledge of who God is, what He's done, and what He says He will do for us.  It's meant to serve as protection from the schemes of the devil and his minions, shielding us from their strikes.  Moreover, we're not meant to fight completely alone.  We're supposed to be surrounded by our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are there to help us break from from sin and pray for us as we go through our battles (Hebrews 12:1 and Ephesians 6:18).
However, when the final battle comes and we're facing our primary antagonist, our Commodus if you will, they can't fight for us.  We have to rely on God to work through us and empower us to defeat the enemy.  If we try to do it alone, we will fail.  We might think we can beat it on our own, but the fact is that we really can't.  The only way to make the victory stick is to have God help us, and this is where a lot of people falter.  They charge into battle relying on their own strength, get knocked down, then look at God and ask what happened.  God is meant to go before us and behind us, surrounding us in His protection not so that we can claim the victory for ourselves, but so that we can say what God did for us.
  So Christians face battles on a regular basis.  We struggle against ourselves and against the world and the legions of Hell itself.  Oftentimes we can't see our enemy, but we know they're there because our walk is faltering or being challenged.  The only way to win these battles is to put on your armor and ask God to enable you to win this fight, to go out and face your worst enemy with no fear because you know God is with you, and He will not let you fall.  That is the battle Christians face.

Born This Way-A Sinner

"Born This Way"- Lady GaGa




It doesn't matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M
Just put your paws up


'cause you were Born This Way, Baby
My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars

She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir

"There's nothing wrong with loving who you are"
She said, "'Cause he made you perfect, babe"

"So hold your head up girl and you'll go far,
Listen to me when I say"

I'm beautiful in my way
'Cause God makes no mistakes
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way

Don't hide yourself in regret
Just love yourself and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way


Oh there ain't no other way
Baby I was born this way
Baby I was born this way
Oh there ain't no other way
Baby I was born-
I'm on the right track, baby
I was born this way

Don't be a drag -Just be a queen
Don't be!

Give yourself prudence
And love your friends
Subway kid, rejoice your truth

In the religion of the insecure
I must be my self, respect my youth

A different lover is not a sin
Believe capital H-I-M (Hey hey hey)
I love my life I love this record and
Mi amore vole fe yah (Love needs faith)


Don't be a drag, just be a queen
Whether you're broke or evergreen
You're black, white, beige, chola descent
You're Lebanese, you're orient
Whether life's disabilities
Left you outcast, bullied, or teased
Rejoice and love yourself today
'cause baby you were born this way

No matter gay, straight, or bi,
lesbian, transgendered life,
I'm on the right track baby,
I was born to survive.
No matter black, white or beige
Chola or orient made,
I'm on the right track baby,
I was born to be brave.


I was born this way hey!
I was born this way hey!
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way hey!

I was born this way hey!
I was born this way hey!
I'm on the right track baby
I was born this way hey! 
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So the first outing and I go with Lady GaGa.  Like I said, they won't be typical.  This song basically glorifies being exactly who you are with no restraint, no regrets, and no remorse.  Everyone was born their own special way and "God makes no mistakes" so just live your life and be happy.  
There are parts of this song that are actually theologically sound.  God really doesn't make mistakes when He makes people, He has crafted us from birth(Psalm 139) to be exactly like we are supposed to be, down to our thoughts and flaws.  The problem with this is that He is now working with contaminated equipment, our sinful flesh.  When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, she sentenced man to a life lived completely in sin.  God had planned for our lives to be easy, for us to have full access to the entire Earth, stewards made in His image that would reside on Earth and be chief over His creation, answerable to Him.  We messed that up and God punished us by causing us to have to work for our food and for women to have pain during childbirth, along with many other problems for mankind and the Earth itself (Genesis 3).  
So now we're created as sinful creatures, born of Adam and Eve and forced to bear the curse God called on them.  We are born this way, we have no choice but to be sinful.  No one is without sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 3:10).  It doesn't matter how good of a person you are or how drastic your sin might be;  if you never curse, never drink, and waited until you were married to have sex but you take personal pride in that or are currently having sex out of marriage while shooting up heroin while uttering a curse word every other sentence, you are a sinner.  There is no good or bad sin, it's all sin to God and it cannot be in His presence so we cannot be in His presence.  God creates us in our mother's womb, but we are born sinners into a fallen world that will eventually be wiped away, as will our sinful selves.  But there is an out, a way we can be forgiven, and it's through the only perfect human, who was also God incarnate, Jesus.  
Jesus was born of a woman immaculately, perfectly clean, without sin.  This was accomplished by Jesus being God, who is incapable of sin, as well as man, so He could redeem mankind by being the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  Prior to Christ, the only way to achieve any kind of cleanliness was to make sacrifices at the temple, but Jesus would be the first and only perfect sacrifice, and His death on the cross was the price to cover the whole world's sin.  We are all still born sinners, but now we have a way out, confessing our sins and proclaiming Jesus Christ as our lord and Savior.  1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, God forgives us and purifies us from all unrighteousness.  
The moment you proclaim Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are completely forgiven of all your past, present, and future sins.  God knows what we've done, what we are doing, and what we will do, so He is able to look at these sins and instead of seeing us as guilty sinners deserving death, He sees His son's blood covering our failures.  It doesn't matter if your biggest sin in life is one curse word a year or if you've been living life as a homosexual for fifteen years, you will be forgiven, no if's, and's or but's.  The only thing God asks in return is for your devotion to Him, which is shown through or changed life.  God desires us to serve Him with our lives, and we should also desire to serve because of our gratitude for His forgiveness(Romans 12:1).  This doesn't mean we won't sin again, nor does it mean we are free to continue sinning once we ask for forgiveness. We are meant to repent of our sinful ways and run full speed towards God.  He made us, He knows our faults, and if we trust Christ as our Lord and Savior, He forgives us. 
So Lady GaGa has some good points in this song.  It doesn't matter who we are, God made us as He wanted to make us, but we are all born sinners.  The only way to receive forgiveness for our sins is to trust Christ as our Savior.  Once we receive Christ, we are called to repent of our sinful nature and follow God.


I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading that, but beyond the enjoyment, I hope you got something out of it.  If it touched you in some way, or you have any other questions, feel free to leave a comment.  If I can help you personally I will, but if I can't I will put you in touch with someone who can.  


Love in Christ

Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, The Stones Will Cry Out.  It is a Christian blog that is based on Luke 19:40, where Jesus tells some Pharisees who were complaining about the disciples loud praise during his triumphal entry that if He told them to be quiet, "the stones will cry out".  Taken literally, this could mean that the stones had a resonance of some kind, but I'm going to use this as a figurative starting point to establish this blogs purpose.  The stones were of the Earth, God's creation, and Jesus was saying that the very structure of Earth would praise Him if His people didn't.  I also think that this can be extended into our everyday life, where things that don't necessarily mean to praise or glorify God still do.
This is what this blog seeks to do, take things from the secular world like music, movies, or books and apply them as ways to see God or learn principles of Christianity.  At times these will be fairly obvious, other times though it might be something out of left field that you have never even thought of in a Christian context that now has a new spin.  I want this to be viewed as a stand alone blog for seeking people, but I also feel like ministers could use this to find new connections and interesting sermons.
 I am not a preacher, nor do I possess any divinity or religious studies degree, so the terminology and concepts might seem basic to those of you who are, but I hope you still get something out of this.
Above all, my goal is to use this blog to glorify God and bring honor to Him.