Think you got it under control?

I'd like to share with you all somethings that I've been learning and God has been showing me. I have this habit of wanting to know what's going to happen. For instance if there is a schedule I will check it numerous times, I'm sure I've asked Tony multiple times a trip about what time or when something was going on. I like to be in the know. Well when it comes down to God and his plans for us we aren't going to get to know everything. One reason being if we knew what was going to happen in our future then that doesn't leave much room for faith, trust, and surrender. How much would that require us to rely on God? Not much at all. When I look at my future I have to trust God and have faith in what he is doing that it will work out. Proof is in one of the probably most used cliche verses to throw at some one but fact of the matter is that all things do work together for the good those who love God (Romans 8:28). Like our guest speaker said a couple weeks ago, life is kind of like a puzzle with out the picture, you get pieces along the way and sometimes you see where they fit and sometimes you don't but at the end of your life you will see the picture and see where God put together something amazing and you had no idea what it was going to end up like. We have to come to terms with this or else we are going to be miserable and always wondering or asking God why something is the way it is. Accept that you won't understand everything, you won't know what's ahead until you get there. Even when you think you have a handle on where you're going and what you think God's plan for you is, you don't. Yeah, God will reveal somethings to you, but not the whole picture. We need to also surrender control over to God on our lives. God has a plan and I believe that he is going to accomplish that plan. We have the choice to surrender and obey or to be hard headed and think we have it under control and do it our own way. One choice will result in peace while I can testify that the other will be a struggle and get you in a spot that you never would have been in had you surrendered to begin with. God has reminded me of these things lately and I've felt like the rug was pulled from under my feet, but the reality was I put too much faith and trust in my own self and my own plans that I was not standing on the solid rock of Christ, I was standing on a faulty plan. As some of you maybe at a point in your life where the surrendering control and having to trust God completely is a struggle and down right scary I hope you remember Philippians 4:6-8. do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:6-8 ESV)

Dog, drink that milk. by Taylor Ours

I write this post to reflect again upon the importance of the Bible: the Word of God. Dakota’s message 2 weeks ago and Courtney’s blog post from last week both provided us with important facets of reading the Bible. By writing this post I would like to add more fuel to the flame, so to speak, by adding another treatise on reading the bible.

1 Peter 2:2 like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.

            Consider the Above passage. Peter writes saying as babies, desire the milk: The spiritual milk. So the question arises what is the spiritual milk?  This we can determine based on the context of the passage. Just a few verses earlier in chapter 1, Peter speaks of the Living and Abiding Word of God, that is imperishable and never fades, and this Word is the Good News that was preached to you. (Summary of 1 peter 1:23-25) Now returning to 2:2, this verse is continuing that dialogue on the Word of the word of God. Now Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit uses an analogy here to demonstrate to us the importance of the Word of God.

            God is likened to our mother, bearing the life giving substance, the milk, which is likened to the Word of God. We are compared to babies. Now consider this analogy. A baby: helpless, young, small, weak, in desperate need of protection, no ability to sustain themselves without their mother. Their mother is their everything.  They look to her for care and comfort and nourishment and life. Without her, they DIE. Now we are likened to these babies. And it says long for the Milk. The Greek word is epipotheō. It means to desire, to pursue with love, to long after, to yearn for, (and my favorite) to intensely crave! Do you, do I intensely crave the Word of God? Oh not nearly as I should, oh that I would long for the scripture as a baby longs for milk.

 Now consider a baby once more. This is such a rich deep analogy for the word of God, it creates such great imagery.  I grew up in a family of 10 kids and I had firsthand experience of seeing my little brothers and sisters long for the milk as babies. If they didn’t get fed they would CRY! They would cry until they got the milk. Nothing else would satisfy their longing. A toy wouldn’t make them stop crying, nor someone holding them. They desired one thing: the pure milk of their mother. When was the last time we cried because we didn’t read the word of God?

Another detail, Babies eat every 1 to 3 hours depending on age and all that. What if we drank every three hours of the word of God? What richness that would be. Yet I suspect many of us don’t drink of the pure spiritual milk every three days if not every three weeks.  Now why do the babies drink? Two reasons given here: That firstly we might grow up into salvation (v2). As babies drink to grow so do we. To grow in our faith: sanctification as Courtney wrote of. To conform to the image of Christ. And secondly in verse three quoting from the Old Testament (psalm 34)

If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 peter 2:3)

Just as babies have tasted that the milk is good, we have tasted the Goodness of the Lord. We have seen his steadfast Love. We have experienced the immeasurable riches of his grace. We have seen his Love demonstrated for us on the Cross where he died for us while we were yet sinners that we might have life. We have tasted his goodness and THIS is what brings us back to the scriptures a new each day. It brings us back yearning for a new revelation of his love and Goodness. The psalmist speaks of this idea in talking of the worth of the word:

The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces (psalm 119:72)

The Word of God, the Law of the Lord, is a greater treasure then all the wealth in the world! Now is that truth a reality in my life?  He goes on to say in verse 103:

 How sweet are you words to my taste, sweeter then honey to my mouth!

What truth these verses speak. I would encourage you to go back and read through the entirety of psalm 119. It speaks of the worth and value of the Word of God.

               Now we must understand this is no ordinary book, the bible that is. It is the Word of God, which was written down by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is the WORD OF GOD!! Of the LIVING GOD! Not just a god, but the great IAM, Yahweh, the ruler of the universe and he has lovingly given us these words so that we might know him, we might seek his face. I must grind this axe; we must get the idea out of our head that this is not just a thing that we have to do again in a begrudging manner. We say, “Oh man I better read my bible again so I can be a good Christian”, and mark a big check mark off of the Be a Good Christian List. We read the word for maybe four minutes, while barely paying attention to what we are reading. NO! WHAT? What blasphemy. What ignorance.

             Let us learn from babies, and their example of desire for that life giving substance. I read the Word for many reasons, but the one that triumphs all the others is that I desire to KNOW GOD. (Phil 3:8) therefore I come anew each day by the grace of God, desiring and thirsting for a new revelation of God from his precious life giving word. We must have that mindset. Many days it is not mine either, for sin blinds me and lies to me, saying that the world is way better then reading the word. That it is more enjoyable to check Facebook then to drink of the pure spiritual milk. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good; but the flesh causes me to so easily forget it.  Oh lay outside the flesh and Drink!

             Are you drinking of the milk, regularly? Daily? Constantly? Do you long for it? When was the last time you CRIED because you had not read the bible that day? Oh do we INTENSELY CRAVE to read the scripture?

            We are so easily satisfied by so many worthless things, when truly only one thing can fully satisfy us. We have the greatest treasure of the universe, awaiting us to seek him, and we have his words sitting in front of us collecting dust on the bookshelf, yet we foolishly neglect the milk that awaits us. Taste and see that the Lord is good! He will continue to satisfy our hungry souls.

             Oh I am not there yet, I strive with you all too long for the word of God more and more. Our pray must be God give me a deeper longing for the Word! Let me realize its true worth. Make me crave it. Pray out this scripture. Pray out psalm 119. And God will answer and give us this desire, if we sincerely want it.

You know what you got to do. Dog go drink that milk.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—  if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.  (1 peter 2:2-3)

Word of God written by Courtney Lane

What is the value of truth if it doesn't change you?
As Christians, we claim to believe in the infallibility and truth of the Word of God. However, do our claims align with our actions? You see, a belief in something does not equate to just a really strong feeling towards it, or just a particular way of thinking about a subject. A belief, by nature, is something you act on. For instance, that chair you're sitting in right now, you believed that the chair would hold you, therefore, you sat in it. In the same way, our response to God's Word should be two-fold, believing and doing. James 1:22 admonishes us to "be doers of the Word, and not hearers only." Knowing the Word of God and believing it as truth is important. However, if we stop there, we run the risk of arrogance, taking pride in our vast knowledge of the Word without actually applying what it says. Obedience must follow the knowledge of truth. In John 17, Jesus prays that believers would be sanctified in the Word of truth. This means that through His Word, God desires to make us into the image of Christ. As you study the Word of God, allow God's truth to transform your beliefs and your actions, so may continue to increase in the likeness of Christ.

Obedience written by Thomas Kavoori

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. “
I will try to do the job of a doctor in this article. What does a doctor do?
1) Recognizes the problem by looking at the symptoms.
2) Provides a solution.
What must the patient do?
1) Listen with Humility.
2) Think with Reason
3) Do the solution
Even if this is from me, please understand that I am only a patient with you. Jesus is the ultimate doctor. I am a brother with you. This shared word is to encourage and convict both you and me.
Foundation:-
When we deal with occurrences of deviations from the truth(problems), we have to recognize what G.K Chesterton said.“There are many, many angles at which one can fall but only one angle at which one can stand straight.” Think mathematically with me for a minute. When an angle isn't 90 degrees, it can be 35, 65, 77,88 or anything else other than 90 degrees. Also notice that 35 is different from 65 which is different from 77. All problems are deviations from the solution and each problem can be different from each other. There can be many different problems, but the fact that they are problems do not change and the fact that they come from not following a certain solution do not change. That is why Jesus gave us one solution. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 KJV. However, let us be careful with absolutes. Look at this illustration.
1) God tells person A to repent from lust and believe in Him. How does person A obey that absolute? He stays away from the computer because it's Spring break and he doesn't have any homework.
2) God tells person B to repent from lust and believe in Him. How does person B obey that absolute? He calls up his friends to pray for him whenever he feels drawn towards lust but he goes to the computer to do his homework because he has a few exams the next week.
The similarity in 1) and 2) is that they both obeyed the absolute. God was with them. The way it was done looked different. However, obedience to absolute truth was evident. I shall give you two verses as absolute truth to obey. How you obey it depends on God and you. I'll leave it at that.
Problems:-
1) We don't know what to obey
2) We don't know how to obey
3) We don't know why to obey
Reason 3 is the reason for 1 and 2.
Solution:-
1) “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor 4:6 KJV
Have you ever seen a marriage? The Wife and the Husband look at each others face. As the emotions well up within them, they decide to make a commitment to each other with an “I do.” God comes to you and me and He gives us His face. “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” Psalm 27:8 KJV Solution? “Receive and Seek His face”. Simple.
That's the problem with us. We read our Bibles. Why? We go to church? Why? We read books on doctrine? Why. His face? This truth is a beautiful and a tough pill to swallow. That's the only thing a patient can do.
2) “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24
In India, I noticed a problem. In some places, there is an exaltation of the Spiritual. “I go to church because I feel good during worship, but I get bored during the sermon.” In America, I noticed a problem as well. In some places, there is an exaltation of truth. “I've read this Christian book and that book. They were so interesting. I've read this chapter in the Bible. Fascinating.” In both cases, we get people who do not live the book. Jesus brought Spiritual necessity and Theological integrity together in a balance where they converge. We've heard or read that the Holy Spirit is God and that He is in the trinity. However, we don't actually believe it and that's why we don't treat the Holy Spirit like He's God. “We don't go to the temple to worship, we take the temples with us.”-Dr. Ravi Zacharias. If you are born-again, your body is the temple of the Lord. The Holy Spirit resides in you. Solution? “Learn to rely on the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and your mind to live the Christian life.”
Isn't that our problem? We have so many resources. We have so many preachers. We have so many seminaries. Why is the church growing at such a rate in China and other third world countries countries? They're trying to grab this verse and live it. You and I, must swallow this pill.
Conclusion:-
It's all about your relationship with God.
“Jesus is not just the way. He's the destination.”

Rebellion. (written by Kevin Corr)

 As Christians, we’re in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to rebellion because there are two aspects to our rebellion.  The first is obvious and is the very reason for why we need Christ: we sin.  From the very beginning, mankind has continuously rebelled against God and it did/does not matter if it was King David or King Nebuchadnezzar, if it was Peter or Judas, it doesn’t even matter if we are being saved or are perishing; unless you are Christ, you have sinned, therefore you have/will rebel against God.  It could be a rebellion against the Ten Commandments, the lessons from the Sermon on the Mount, or- as James says- “know[ing] the right thing to do and fail[ing] to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).  We can be fully aware of our sin or it may be something we do inadvertently, but they are both rebellions- the only difference is that we can learn from the former.  As hard it is, when it comes to rebellion, it makes little difference if we are Christians because we still continue to rebel by sinning (but if you are a Christian, you don’t make a “practice of sinning” [1 John 3:8]).  What matters is that Christ has died because of everyone’s rebellion and you have chosen to believe in His grace.

            So we may be Christians and we may be rebels, but a Christian is hardly what the world thinks of as a rebel.  To them, the stereotype of a devoted Christian is a “goody two-shoes” who goes to church, prays on the behalf of others, doesn’t swear, doesn’t drink alcohol, doesn’t go about partying, but does go on mission trips, homeless shelters, etc.  To the world, Christians live according to the rules of the Bible and the law and therefore, are not rebels.  The stereotypical image of a rebel is someone who looks tough with his beat-up, raggedy clothes, his face expressing no emotion like he doesn’t give a darn what others think, and goes around doing what he wants, when he wants; not allowing rules, parents, law, school, friends, even the world to tell him what he’s going to do.  He does what he wants because he wants to do it and he thinks it benefits him; for the most part, no other motive is necessary.

            This is not a rebel.  This “rebel” is doing exactly what the rest of the world is promoting and enacting: they are living their lives exactly the way they want to and the way they see fit.  In truth, these “rebels” are going right along with things the world promotes: it could be a student that only wishes to study and earn good grades or a person devoted to their work so they can move up in the corporate ladder and make more money.  Though these things can certainly be glorifying to God, the world does not do it for God, but puts the emphasis on you.  You do these things to make you feel good, you do these things so you can have lots of money, you do these things because you want to do it. 

            This is the second aspect of Christian rebellion.  Christians must rebel against this ideology, we must “not love love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions- is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17). The world, especially America, preaches for you to do what you want and, though there is sometimes the exception, the emphasis is upon You and you idolize You; no doubt this is a reason for the rise of atheism in our country because it promotes Man being in control of himself, nothing greater than him.  “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4b).  Christians, therefore, are in a paradox: we must rebel against the standards of the world, yet we continue to live in this world and must serve God whilst doing so.  And I only made mention of the world’s emphasis on selfishness because I thought it the most general category that opposed Christian ideology.  There are, of course, several ideas that the world conveys that a Christian must rebel against as well.

            The basis behind all that the world preaches and practices is not simply because one person came up with the idea to do what they wanted to one day and the rest of the people thought, “You know, that guy might just be on to something there and he’s not such a bad guy either.”  The world has developed its habits because it is human behavior: it’s natural for us.  “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15).  I probably could have pulled a handful of verses regarding mankind’s sinful nature from Romans, but James makes it almost eerie with his personification of sin.  It’s born, it grows, it’s a living thing.  Yet what is it ultimately that gives it life and keeps it alive, practically through nourishment?  The answer is mankind, not Satan, not the world.  Satan may have been the first to rebel against God and may have tricked man to sin in the beginning, but our sin is created by man- it is a man-made thing, or a being as James probably would have put it.

            Therein lies the root behind the conundrum we Christians face with our rebellion.  We have the Holy Spirit, a “guarantee” from God (2 Cor. 5:5) so we have God within us all.  Yet, God can know no sin, but we continue to sin even with the Holy Spirit (again with the stinking paradoxes).  For this, we have to look at man’s creation in Genesis.  God spoke the world into being and it is subject to His will, but man was created by God putting His own time into creating Adam.  The way in which He did it is important because He created man with the “dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7).  We are created from the dust of the earth “and to dust [we] shall return” (Genesis 3:19).  We have a nature to return to the ways of the world because we are of this world and, considering how we are constantly exposed to the world no matter how hard we may try to separate ourselves, it is extremely difficult to oppose it because we come from it- it’s in our making.  Nonetheless, we were made by God, we breathe the breath of life from God, Christians have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, and even the earth that we were made from was made by God, despite its opposition.  No matter our roots, we were entirely meant for God, to be loved by God, to love God.  However, He does not make us love Him, He gives us the free will to love, otherwise it would not be loved. 

            Therefore, if you are a Christian, you have a choice to make: you can choose God or you can choose the world.  But this decision is dire; whichever one you choose, you also choose to rebel against the other.  “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).  If you follow Christ, the world will mock you, scold you, hate you, torture you, anything to make you succumb to it’s ways.  But always remember this, because if you do succumb to the ways of the world, God will not know you.  It’s one or the other.

            Rebel wisely. 

Spring Break 2013 Mission Trip

Here is a review and some encouragements from Anna Wostbrock that attended the entire spring break mission trip:

Armstrong BCM’s spring break mission trip of 2013 was by far the most unique mission trip I have ever taken part in. For starters the trip was split into three parts. Part A: DNOW in Atlanta with Rock Springs Baptist Church and working with Reach the Nations. Part B: working with the BCM at GCSU in Milledgeville, services projects at two churches in the area and some painting at the Pregnancy Care Center there. Part C: DNOW in Rincon with First Baptist Church of Rincon. Each piece was very different and stretched us in unique ways. The DNOWs were both very relational times, working with Reach the Nations was very prayer focused, and the work we did in Milledgeville was all manual labor. Looking back I find it interesting that I was equally exhausted after a day of walking around apartment complexes prayer walking as I was when I finished a day of pulling weeds—big weeds!—and doing landscape work at the GCSU BCM. One was spiritually exhausting while the other was physically exhausting. We ended each day tired none the less and many memories were built along the way. One common way that God grew us all was in our mindset of prayer. Often times we take prayer so lightly. Yeah God listens to us and He hears our heart and we can ask for things. We might pray when a family member is sick or when we are about to take a test we forgot to study for. We always seem to use prayer as a way to make sure God is watching out for us. Some of us just do it out of habit. But how much of our heart is actually in those prayers? Everything we do should be clothed in prayer. If we do something and God is not a part of it, then is it truly worth anything at all? Prayer holds so much power but we must remember that we are not always guaranteed instant results. Sometimes we may never get to see or hear about the results at all. That does not mean God isn’t working. I could write about so many more amazing stories, ways God moved, and what I took from the trip. All in all it was an absolute success and everyone who took part in it came out extremely blessed.

Bringing Blogging Back

So we are re-booting the blog! Hoping to keep it up and updated! looking forward to having a weekly writer and updates about things going on around the BCM :)