Reading the Bible in 52 Weeks

So one of my New Year’s resolutions (for 2009) was to read most, if not all, of the Bible. One thing led to another and, 10 months into the year, I still haven’t read as much as I would have liked.

So, recently, I’ve been wanting to revive that resolution and start to seriously reading the Bible. I realized that reading from cover to cover would get (I’m ashamed to say it) boring at times, so I did a Google search for a good reading plan and I found a site that broke it up into weeks.

Each day I will read around 2 chapters (or more depending on the length of the chapter) for that day. The course I will follow is this:

1. Sunday: Epsitles (starting with Romans)
2. Monday: The Law (starting with Genesis)
3. Tuesday: History (starting with Joshua)
4. Wednesday: Psalms
5. Thursday: Poetry (starting with Job)
6. Friday: Prophecy (starting with Isaiah)
7. Saturday: Gospels (starting with Matthew)

The website I found this at is: http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.html

So, check back here as I give updates on how I’m doing and the things I learn.

Confessing our Sins to Others

James 5:16:

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

For me, it’s always happened that I’ll sin and then I’ll pray forgiveness to God in private. Recently, however, a guy from my school (Christian school) opened up and shared his testimony to the whole high school student body. That took guts, in my opinion, because his testimony included attempted suicide and sexual indecencies, moreover just living a non-Christ centered life.

So this got me thinking of all of the sins that I’ve done recently and as I was thinking about this in class, a teacher was talking about the testimony; he brought up James 5:16 (see above in big bold letters). This was one of those moments that it just dawned on me, “Oh, other people in the world sin, too. It’s not just me! In order to get help with the personal sin that I struggle with, I gotta tell someone!” So, that night, as I was praying, I asked for help and strength with what I was struggling from God, then all of the sudden that I just got the biggest immense feeling to go and talk to one of my best friends about it.  Turns out, he was struggling with it, too.

Moral of the story: You are not alone.

Don’t feel like you are the only one that sins. Furthermore, when dealing with the shame that you feel, talk to someone about it. In addition to making things right with God (and someone you might have wronged) get help from someone, whether it’s your youth pastor, your best friend, your parents, your whatever; saying, “I need your help with this.” is sometimes the best way to reconcile.

music and lyrics? Do they show the true colors of the pop culture?

  Do lyrics of secular music really show the true color of the pop culture?  Do we really need to Idol these people like Pink, Katy perry, lily Allen, and rappers like snoop dog, eminem, and all those other artist?  If you listen to the lyrics of the songs they suggest that we rebel against authority.  Pink’s song “so what” suggest that since she are a rock star nobody has authority over her. which is biblically incorrect.  Hebrews 13:17 says “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who Will have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not groaning for that would be no advantage to you.”  This completely goes against the lyrics of Pink.  Now on to Katy Perry’s song “I kissed a Girl.”  The bible says marriage is suppose to be between man and woman.  this song suggest that it is alright to be lesbian.  It slowly numbs the mind to lesbian and homosexuality.  This is one of the many ways the devil can gain foothold in your life.  It just saddens me that lyrics in this world can be so corrupt.  Nobody has probably heard of Lily Allen.  She has a song called “The Fear.”  This song is the most selfish song.   One of the lines says “I want to be rich and I want lots of money I don’t care about funny I don’t care about clever.  I want loads of clothes I want loads of diamonds.  I hear people die while trying to find them.”  that is just the first ten seconds of the song.  It just goes on and on about what she wants and not to mention has language.  Are these the people we want to idolize and worship.  My theory is to not buy the stuff and not even listen too.  this is all I have to say.  It saddens me that people listen and buy this stuff.  Say what you want and please comment.  prayers and peace.

 

Written By Jay

Praying (the Jesus way)

I’m sure that most of us pray. We have our daily prayers, “Thank you Lord for blessing me with this house, this food, my things, etc….” Recently, I’ve been thinking long and hard about how I can pray in order to glorify God (just hang with me; you’ll get it in a second.)
The shortest gospel in the Bible, Matthew, is pretty much a field-guide to who Jesus was, His teachings, and other stuff about Him (I need to brush up on that ‘other stuff’. Jesus, in one of his teachings, specifically deals with praying.

::Matthew 6:9-15::

9This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]‘ 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

What I’ve gathered from this verse is that we should pray to glorify the Lord, not JUST ask him for things. Look back to your last prayer, either with a group or alone, was it something like, “My mom’s sick, God please help her…Jimmy’s Dad just died, help them through this tragedy… Lord, give me strength tomorrow in my game against our rivals…” Now, don’t get me wrong, praying for the sick is GREAT, but I think that, if we word our prayers right, we can (a) glorify God, while still (b) praying for loved ones.

So, let’s have a little example. Lately, I’ve been witnessing to some friends and I’ve been praying about it for them and me. “Lord, please give me Your Word so that I can connect with these non-believers so they, too can know You. Amen.” was a (short version) pretty common prayer that I’ve said. But in order for me to glorify Him, I could easily change the way I say the prayer. Take this, “Lord, please give me Your Words so that everything I say will only be for the glory of You, and so that I help these non-believers know you as well, so they too, can praise and glorify You. Amen.”

Something you can take away from this (hopefully this wasn’t too confusing): Pray in order to glorify God, not yourself.

~Bryce

Lighthouse Everything Skit

So I was looking on youtube today and I found this video called the “Lighthouse Everything Skit”, and I thought I would share it with everyone!

“This could be a 5-minute, 32-second summary of your life.”

Powerful stuff! If anyone knows where this was performed comment this post, thanks.

Getting Your Bearings (in kindness and forgiveness)

Forgiveness and kindness. These are qualities that we all strive to have, yet sometimes it’s hard to forgive and be kind to one another. Scripture says,

Colossians 3:12-13

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.”

So in other words, because God has forgiven us of our sin when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross, essentially forgiveness, we should forgive others when we stir up strife with them. Look at that italicized phrase, “bearing with one another”. Bearing with one another means, although it may seem tough to even be in the same room with someone who you are mad at, you need to bear with them. Think of the phrase “bear with me”, which means to request patience. And of course this falls completely in-line with what Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”

‘Love your neighbor as yourself’; although it sounds cliché, it’s true. Also called the “Golden Rule” (treat others how you would like to be treated).

And one last verse for encouragement.

1 John 15:1

“If you love me, you will obey what I command”

My youth group had a session on this today, and I thought I’d sum it up and share it with everyone!

Lukewarm Christians

What does lukewarm mean? Lukewarm is, in simple terms, the state of being neither hot, nor cold. In Christianity, being lukewarm means that you call yourself a Christian, yet you don’t truly LIVE a Christian life. I mean really LIVE; the way Jesus wants you to. A vast majority of Christians, unfortunately, are lukewarm; they think to themselves “hey, I don’t sell drugs, I haven’t killed anybody and I’ve never robbed a bank; I’m doing pretty well!” Not so! An alarming group of verses by Jesus addresses this same problem:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17)

Jesus realized that things like money, wealth, material things, can cause idolatry, thus creating a false sense of security. Furthermore, those things can and will take you down the wrong path if you let them go out of control. They can easily cause someone to turn to cheating, be a glutton, have arrogance, and the worst: selfishness.
But what do lukewarm Christians actually do? They go to church, probably, they give to charities, they don’t do all those things that the Bible says NOT to do, but they don’t always necessarily do the things that the Bible says DO, such as standing up for their religion, or sharing the gospel. More importantly, most don’t truly mature in Christ.  Jesus  talks about this in Luke 8:4-15

:::Luke 8:4-15:::

4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:
5″A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.
6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.
7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.
8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
10He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
” ‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’
11″This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.
12Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
13Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.
15But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Which one are you? The seed on the rock? The seed in the thorns?(this is what I would consider lukewarm being in) Or are you the seed on the good soil that is being allowed to flourish?

To everyone:
-take time out of your day to pray, even if it’s when you’re trying to fall asleep

-thank Him for all that he has blessed you with EVERY DAY, because He gave them to YOU!

-walk with the wise, get to know the elders at your church.

Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

Thank you for reading the post! First one! However, I would like to give thanks to Maggie and Duffy Robbins for writing the book Enjoy the Silence, because that’s where I got Jesus’ parable from.

Update: LIVE RADICALLY
Just wanted everyone to look at this blog for some more info about how to really and truly find out if you are a lukewarm Christian http://thebiblethumperssoapbox.blogspot.com/2009/03/are-you-lukewarm-christan-take-this.html

Faith with works.

That is the question. I have heard many TV shows say, “All you need to do to be saved is repeat this prayer.” And sometimes I just wish that were the truth (I have many problems with those TV shows anyways, a different conversation for a different day). If God had made it so simple to get into Heaven, why would the path there be called narrow?

Faith is an important part of getting into Heaven, you must have faith to follow all of the commandments that God has given. In Ephesians 2: 8-9, you see the importance of having faith. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (ESV). Faith is no doubt important to spiritual growth, but it is not by faith alone that we are allowed access into Heaven. In James 2, James writes to the twelve tribes in Dispersion that “faith apart from works is dead (James 2:17, 26).” A nice section of chapter two is dedicated to convincing the tribes that faith and works are to both be used to gain access into Heaven. James even gives the example that if a brother or sister in Christ is hungry or unclothed and you say, “Go and be clothed” or, “Go and eat,” nothing good will come of it. However, if you feed or clothe them, your faith has given you the power to help a brother or sister in Christ in his or her time of need. (James 2: 14-16) James also gives the example of Abraham offering his son as a sacrifice. “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works (James 2: 22).”

If God had expected us to only have faith and never do any good from it, why would He have given the commandent to go into all nations and preach the gospel (Matthew 28: 19, Mark 16: 15)? If by faith alone we are saved, how would anyone besides ourselves know the glory of God? Jesus himself said that we are to let our light shine to the world in such a way that people will see our good works and glorify God the Father (Matthew 5: 16). There is that word again: works. If no works are performed, the effects that we are to have gone through when we are added unto the Lord’s church, through the public act of baptism, will be nonexistent.

If we have faith, and nothing else, we will not follow the commandments that are given by God. If faith is all there is to it, we can do whatever we want. But how can we do whatever we want if some of the things society throws in our way as “okay” is a sin? We are to keep a clean conscience so as to make wrongdoers feel shame for accusing Christ’s followers as fellow wrongdoers(1 Peter 3: 16). If we act the same as the world because we believe that  just having faith that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God, we are no different than those living in sin. We are to be separate from the earth and all of its worldly pleasures and to live self-controlled lives (Titus 2: 11-12). Sinfulness keeps the word from being spread to all (Mark 4: 19), there fore it should be cast off and life should be a fresh, clean slate after joining the Lord’s church.

By faith, we are saved; but by faith our works are made to come through and redeem others that the kingdom of Heaven may hold all who would listen.

Cope

I notice in life a person always tends to do one of three things when they face a problem.
1. The person blames others, their self, or God and continues to bring up the problem for awhile.

2. The person tries to be optimistic and bottles up inside until they blow up.

3. The person faces the problem head on and realizes their mistakes.

The third one I mentioned is close on how we should deal with problems that occur. We need to first realize we are a wretch without God and so we need to ask God for help with are struggles by asking Him in prayer. We need to read the Bible so we can learn from are struggles and help us grow closer to God so we don’t keep making the same mistakes. We need to realize that being a Christian we are united with Christ and should realize are worth in Him is priceless. It is also good to have fellowship with other Christians and to go to them at times with your struggles. For thoughs of us who are teens or younger we should always talk to are parents even though it can be difficult it is well worth it it.

So thoughs are my thoughts on cope-ing.

The Grip

Today I’m writing to you to pull at your heart strings a little.  To help you get a grip.  Everyone  struggles with something in life and I would like to paint a picture in your mind by telling you a story and at the end you decide if it’s true.

So their is this person who has alot of problems. They live by this motto: Go with the flow. This person drinks, does drugs, is no longer abstinence till married, cuts, is bulimic , anorexic …etc.  Everything that the world tells this person to be is what they are.  They listen to secular music watch junk on tv and does what it says. 

So my question is to you do think this is a true  story?

Well it is in a way. See this is the effect of the world on people. It is sin. Are sinful nature makes sin look good but being a Christian changes that. Still we fall because we are not perfect. 

To get at your heart strings this is real and these effects of sin are even effecting churches around the world.

So what do we do? Well we should continue to serve God in everything we do and should do are best to grow closer to God.  Another thing we should do is learn to invest in people and not in material things.

People last and material things don’t!

I have met a guy who always tells me how great it be if I spent more time making money by investing in stocks and working longer. I realize though that money  doesn’t last but people do and even if I only effect one person’s life I can say it is priceless for it last forever.

So I hope after you have finished reading this that  you continue to grow closer to God.