Suffering

“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.”

These are the words of the apostle Peter, and they can be found in 1st Peter chapter 2.

Now we've all suffered at some point or another, but has that suffering been for God? Have you been suffering for being a Christian? Or have you just been suffering for being human?

All humans suffer in some way or another, at some point in their life. It's just part of life. But, if you hide your faith, you can go your whole life without suffering for being a Christian.

But how much more will you suffer in heaven if you hide your faith?

Your suffering on earth for sharing your faith glorifies God, and if you try to hide your faith you're really hiding God. And besides, God can use your suffering to do good.

For instance, in Genesis chapters 37-50 we read about a man named Joseph. Joseph was: betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, made to work for a man named Potiphar, framed for a crime he didn't commit, thrown in prison, forgotten about, and then finally brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream.

But by interpreting Pharaoh's dream he ended up saving all of Egypt and his entire family from the seven year famine that was plaguing the land at that time.

I would love to tell you that after that the Egyptians were eternally grateful to Joseph and his descendants, but as it turned out they were only temporarily grateful. They actually ended up enslaving the Israelites.

But God had a reason for their suffering. He wanted them to live in the Promised Land. So he allowed the Egyptians to enslave the Israelites so they would want to leave Egypt. The only problem with this was that the Pharaoh did not want to lose all his slaves. God had to send a man named Moses to go talk some sense into Pharaoh.

If you want to read the whole story you can find it in the book of Exodus. You can also read the book of Job which is another good story about suffering. In Job's story God test Job's faith by allowing the devil to take away all of Job's riches. He even took away the lives of his children. But Job stayed faithful to God through it all.

But the most amazing story of God using someones suffering to do good, of course, is the story of Jesus Christ. Through his suffering he saved all of us from suffering the eternal fires of hell.

So if Jesus can suffer for all of us then why can't we suffer for him?

So I challenge you to do what Jesus asked you to. I challenge you to share your faith with the world, even if it means you have to suffer persecution. For as I said earlier, we glorify God through our suffering for him.   

Integrity

What can wash away our sins?

What can make us hole again?

Nothing but the blood.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Do these words sound familiar?

That's because they are part of a song called 'Nothing but the blood'. This song is full of integrity.

Integrity, according to the dictionary, is; The quality or state of being complete; wholeness; entireness; (and) unbroken state.

So integrity means whole, and, as it says in the song I mentioned earlier, nothing can make us whole except for the blood of Jesus.

So we know we can have integrity though Jesus' blood, but the word integrity has other meaning other meanings.

The dictionary says that the word integrity also means; The entire, unimpaired state or quality of anything; perfect condition; soundness.

So integrity also means unswayed or unchanging.

This brings to mind another worship song, 'Your love never fails'.

In this song it says: 'You stay the same through the ages. Your love never changes'.

The 'You' in the song is, of course, God. So God shows integrity through his love. And so did his son.

In Matthew chapter 4 we learn how Jesus was tempted by the devil. But Jesus' integrity and love for us were so strong that he easily withstood the devil's temptation.

So integrity can mean whole and steadfast, but it can also mean something else.

The third and final description of the word integrity listed in the dictionary is: The quality or state of being sound moral principle; uprightness; honesty and sincerity. In short, truthful.

When most people think of the word truthful they are reminded of the story of a little wooden puppet who tells all kinds of lies. He gets in lots of trouble for it because his nose grows every time he tells a lie, making it very easy for everyone else to tell when he's telling a lie.

But usually it is rather difficult to tell when someone is lying.

In the story of Joseph, located in Genesis 37, Jacob (Joseph's father) is told by his ten oldest sons that Joseph was killed by a wild animal, even though they knew full well that Joseph was alive. Jacob is unable to see through their lie any is grief stricken for quite some time before finally leaning that Joseph is really alive.

But God can help us see the truth.

For instance, in Acts chapter 5 we can read the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sell some of their land and give part of the money to the apostles and decided to keep the rest for themselves. This would have been fine, but they decided to tell the apostles that the had given them all the money, so God told Peter that they were lying and he struck them down.

So there are three different kinds of integrity a Christian, or anyone for that matter, can have. Most of us have at least one of these three kinds of integrity, but it's only through God that we can have them all. So I encourage you to ask God to help you attain all three. They are all attributes worth having!

Lordship: What is it?

In this little speech of mine I am going to answer the age old question;

“What is lordship?”

Okay, so it's not an “Age old question,” but it is still an interesting question to consider.

We have not had any lords since the Medieval ages, so it is sometimes hard to figure out what a lord is.

According to the dictionary, a lord is “A person having great power and authority.” In short it means: to rule over someone.

But I feel that lordship is something more. I feel that lord is someone who you respect and someone you want to please.

That's how I feel about my heavenly lord. I love and respect him and I want to please him.

However not all lords are good lords.

For instance, in the movie “A New Hope,” we are introduced to a character named Lord Vader. Lord Vader is a ruthless lord, and is hated by everyone, including himself at times. He feared rather than respected, and he kills both his enemies and his adversaries. The only reason anyone wants to please him is so he won't kill them.

No one wants a bad lord to rule over them, but our heavenly Lord is just and would never mistreat or ruthlessly kill us.

However, sometimes he asks us to do difficult things.

He asked a young maiden named Joan to lead the French army.

He asked a man named Noah to build a rather large boat known as an ark (Genesis 6:14).

Sometimes our heavenly Lord asks us to rebel against our earthly lord, as he did with a man named George Washington.

And sometimes we are forced to chose between an earthly lord we love and respect and our heavenly Lord.

For example, in a book called “The Old Testament,” we read about a girl named Esther. Esther happens to be married to her earthly lord, but she also loves her heavenly Lord. So when the king orders that she must not come before him without a summons, and God asks her to asks the king to save her people, she is unsure what to do for, as she says in Esther 4:11; “The king has not called for me to come to him in thirty days.”

Eventually Esther's love her heavenly Lord won out, as it should. For that, I believe, is what it means to be under a lordship. Obeying your Lord no matter what the cost.

So I end with a question. Are you prepared to die for your lord?

George Washington and Esther were, and Joan really did die for her Lord. But will You?   

Only Through Jesus

Intro: G C G (2x)

Verse 1:

G                   C            G

Who can ever hope to reach Heaven?

G                        C             G

Who could ever dream to reach those gates ?

G                     C            G

Who can ever think to meet Jesus?

G                       C           G

Who could ever hope to see his face?

PreChorus:

Em

Through his love, we've been set free

C

And through his love, there's hope in me!

Chorus:

G                     C        Em         D

Only through Jesus will we stand firm

G                    C        Em     D

Only through Jesus can we believe

G             C              Em

That we could ever go through

D            Am

the gates of Heaven

C

WE BELIEVE!

Verse 2:

G             C            G

The gossiper will never enter

G               C                  G

So too the mocker will be thrown out

G             C              G

Only the righteous will ever enter

G                     C             G

Only through Jesus can we go in

Bridge:

G

We will stand firm in him! (3x)

Am

JESUS! 

Testimony--Revised

So my personal testimony has to do with Ignition. Ignition is this huge, really amazing, youth conference, with intense teaching, great dramas, and lots of of prayer.

The first year I was old enough to go I, for reasons that I can't actually recall, decided not to go. I have regretted that decision ever since. The reason for this is that the following year, when I did go, I truly became saved.

I had confessed my sin and “said” I'd given my life to God and all that stuff but I never really understood what it meant to be saved. That is, until that first Ignition conference. That's where I first really met God and discovered who He really is.

The weird thing is that before Ignition I didn't really feel empty or like I was missing anything in my life. Of course I grew up in a christian home, and I was home schooled, so I got a lot of biblical teaching along with my schooling, but I still find it odd that I didn't realize I had been spiritually empty until I was spiritually full.

But anyway, I went home and started reading my bible every day and talking to God, not just praying but actually talking to God. I did this for some time but after a while it got really hard, so I quit.

Then, the next year, at Ignition, I had the same revelation as the year before and decided to start reading my bible and talking to God again. But this time I knew I could not keep the awesome feeling I felt about God inside of me, and, sure enough, the feeling went away again.

But this time something strange happened. Some time in the middle of that year I had this strange desire to read the bible. I couldn't describe it but I started to read, and kept reading up to the day of the next Ignition conference.

One of the things I read was, amazingly enough, the book of Job. I was very surprised that I actually found it quite interesting and very beneficial, seeing as most Christians find the book of Job to be very long and tedious. In Job 2:10 it says “In all this, Job did

not sin in what he said”. This was right after he had lost all his riches and all his children and it just made me realize that if Job could go through all that hardship and loss and was still able to worship God then so could I.

Another book of the Bible that I found quite helpful was the book of Esther.

In Esther 4:16 it says “When this is done, I will go to the king,even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish”. I have always been a little timid and shy, so this huge act of courage on the part of Esther in an attempt to save her people showed me that, through God, even the most timid person can find courage.

But something else happened that year. I started having trouble with school. I realized that I had to rely on God to get me through this hard part of my life. And He did.

Then when I went to Ignition that year I already had that amazing love for God in my heart.

So I didn't discover God's amazingness this time . I discovered something else. I discovered that I already knew everything that the speakers were teaching us about God.

God was telling me it was time to move on. He told me that he had a new path for me...

My Testimony

So my personal testimony has to do with Ignition. Ignition is this huge, really amazing, youth conference, with intense teaching, great dramas, and lots of of prayer.

The first year I was old enough to go I, for reasons that I can't actually recall, decided not to go. I have regretted that decision ever since. The reason for this is that the following year, when I did go, I truly became saved.

I had confessed my sin and “said” I'd given my life to God and all that stuff but I never really understood what it meant to be saved. That is, until that first Ignition conference. That's where I first really met God and discovered who He really is.

So I went home and started reading my bible every day and talking to God, not just praying but actually talking to God. I did this for some time but after a while it got really hard, so I quit.

Then, the next year, at Ignition, I had the same revelation as the year before and decided to start reading my bible and talking to God again. But this time I knew I could not keep the awesome feeling I felt about God inside of me, and, sure enough, the feeling went away again.

But this time something strange happened. Some time in the middle of that year I had this strange desire to read the bible. I couldn't describe it but I started to read, and kept reading up to the day of the next Ignition conference.

But something else happened that year. I started having trouble with school. I realized that I had to rely on God to get me through this hard part of my life. And He did.

Then when I went to Ignition that year I already had that amazing love for God in my heart.

So I didn't discover God's amazingness this time . I discovered something else. I discovered that I already knew everything that the speakers were teaching us about God.

God was telling me it was time to move on. He told me that he had a new path for me...