Faith

This week I've been focusing my personal studies on the concept of faith. As I started thinking about how faith looks like in my life, I noticed I do place a lot of faith in my own works. So what does it mean to have unfailing faith in the perfect work of Jesus, and how do I live my life in this way. This morning I found this hymn 'O, for a Faith that will not shrink' by William Bathurst. Here are the lyrics:

O, for a faith that will not shrink,

Though pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe!

That will not murmur nor complain

Beneath the chastening rod,

But, in the hour of grief or pain,

Will lean upon its God.

A faith that shines more bright and clear

When tempests rage without;

That when in danger knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt.

That bears, unmoved, the world’s dread frown

Nor heeds its scornful smile;

That seas of trouble cannot drown,

Nor Satan’s arts beguile.

A faith that keeps the narrow way

Till life’s last hour is fled,

And with a pure and heavenly ray

Lights up a dying bed.

Lord, give me such a faith as this,

And then, whate’er may come,

I’ll taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss

Of an eternal home.

Wow, these words really gave me some insight into my own life, Faith is living without the fear of earthly things. I personally know earthly fear, I worry about things like 'will I loose my job?', 'How are we going to get through the week with $20 bucks in the bank', 'What will people think?'. The second verse brought me even more conviction, Would God allow bad things to happen to his children to teach them? Of course, trials are a way for God to get our attention, to bring us in line with His will for our life. Faith requires me to take notice, take comfort, and understand that God will always provide a way. I need not look to myself when bad things happen, but cling to my Lord and Savior, who is my provision. When being disciplined I need to look to God for answers.

So I found some answers on faith:

1. Faith must be placed only on Christ alone. Faith in anything other than Him is vain and useless.
2. Faith is constant, and only builds with experience. Noah had faith, and it took him a long time to build the Ark. Maybe he questioned if it would ever rain, but over the long term he kept the faith, and he finished the Ark.
3. Faith must be complete, and each action of life must act out the drama which points to faith in God alone. Can I look past and see each action I take as an act of following Christ without faultier? And when I do see my action as faith in something else, can I correct it?
4. Faith in Christ, that my failures are covered by His perfect work on the Cross.
5. Faith in Christ, that when bad things happen He will be glorified by it's out come.
6. Faith in the fact that this world is nothing but a shadow land, and what will come is the perfected of what I see today.

Care for my Neighbor

At our church, we are going through a study which is making us take some introspective views of how we live our lives. Last week the discussion surrounded around the idea of who is my Neighbor? Jesus during his ministry was asked what is the greatest commandment, and Jesus responded with "'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." Of course the next question this guy (who happened to be a lawyer) "So who is my Neighbor?" Who do I love more than myself?

• My Family? Of course that's a given
• My Friends? Of course that's easy
• My Boss? Sure, He's a nice guy
• My Neighbor? When I see them, they seem to be nice (as they drive into their garage and shut the door)
• How about the child who needs a foster home?
• How about the shut-in lady down the street with all those cats?
• How about the lady that you knew, who's in the nursing home?
• The Hairy guy on the corner holding the sign "will work for food"?
• How about the guy sitting in a prison cell for armed robbery?

Who is my neighbor? The bigger question is: Who am I called to love more than myself? Who am I willing to selflessly sacrifice so they can have what they need? Who am I willing to leave my comfort zone to reach out towards?

Also on a side note, if you are reading this blog , I would encourage you to write to me with your comments, thoughts and opinions.

Government and the Christian Worldview

As we again move into a new election cycle in the United States, we are bombarded daily by political messages. Some of these messages are informative, and tell us things which the politician plans to do, and helps us understand how they will govern. Other messages tell us things about the opponent, and faults and failures, also helping us understand how they will govern. Even more there are messages, which aren't true, and will also help us understand how the person releasing the message plans to govern. But the real question is Who Governs us?
In the democratic societies we elect our government, but where does true government begin? Does it start at the White house, Congress, and the courts? Does it start at our State, at our county, at our city? Or does it start at our front door, does government start in our Hearts? William Penn, the founder of the Pennsylvania colony once said "If men will not be governed by God, they will be ruled by tyrants". These words are so true. As A Christian living in America, I understand the freedoms I hold so dear, but I also must know that these rights are a gift given by God, not by man. If I choose not to be governed by God, He has all authority to place a tyrant over me (us as a nation). I must understand that God is the highest point of government, and self-government (aka self control) is my responsibility. We live in a world which has a low view of ethics, morals, and virtue. As a Christian I must live with with a high ethics, high morals and virtue! Government starts with me.

Steve is a great guy!

Currently Dealing with a complex life

Please keep me and my family in your prayers. We are scheduled to leave on a two week mission trip starting the 27th of July. On the 5th of July, during some very heavy rain, I crossed a low water crossing, causing my car to stall. Thru the providence of God, I survived but my car is not in working condition. This is causing a little strain getting ready, since we live so far from anywhere. With only one vehical, Kimberly is stranded at home with four children. Please pray for their protection during the day, and also pray that we will be able to get ready to leave. On July 24th we will fly to Philadelphia and spend a few days with my parents before leaving the children in their care.
As you can see much has happened in only a month. I know that there are a lot of forces trying to keep us from getting to our destination, Kiev. Please pray for our team also, that we might be prepaired to share the Gospel in love and truth.

Learn something new everyday...

I've always made this a thing I do, learn either how to do something new or learn how something works. It's amazing how we build upon our knowledge by collecting fragments of information and tie them together. Today I went to a lecture on SQL Server 2008, and the new features of that database. I can remember 5 years ago that subjects discussed would have been way above my head, but today it all makes perfect sense, because I use the information. The fragments of information I don't use, don't get tied to knowledge I already have, and probably get lost. As I think about how we as humans map out pointers to information, to tie these fragments together to see the bigger picture. Fragments of knowledge can also be false, or un-true, so we are always challenging what we know by adding more information, experience, and other fragments of knowledge. Learning is really exciting, because as we build our minds to map all this trivial information, we can build it together and actually become an expert in this field. Everyone and anyone can be expert, just by picking up information and putting it into practice.

Beauty of Nature and the hands of God

Often I wonder and ponder at the beauty of the world around us. How can a person say that this vast creation is nothing but a mass of randomness. The patterns of nature are the fingerprints of the divine. Is there truly a random spot in the universe, a spot which can not be touched by the creator? If what we see is nothing but the raw forces of nature acting upon itself to it's own bitter destruction, then what is the purpose of the pursuit of beauty? There is a true understanding of beauty which we all hold, no one can say that beauty doesn't exist. If beauty was just a norm, then there would be no pursuit of the best, if it was too rare there would be no standard of beauty. Even in the heart of evlolutionary thinking, there is a best and a strive for the best. But why would this be programmed into the DNA of cingle cell creature. Does it have the understanding or the view point to understand it's total demise, and the demise of it's genology are totally built into the decision it makes? If it has no understanding of beauty or perfection what type of decsion can be made to make the next evolutionary step? That programming in itself would take trillions of years of trial and error.
As I ponder the question of beauty, I do see it as devine in it's nature. How can man in a corrupt estate of sin ever understand and admire beauty in itself. I am nothing but a worm, but with insight granted only by God can I step back and admire, but not truly understand beauty. Beauty, as I understand it, is the only glimps of God I can view thru this veil of mortality here in this life. Yes, these are my thoughts today.