Lowering

But we do see Jesus- made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone- crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.  For it was fitting, in bringing many sons to glory, that He, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.  (Hebrews 2:9-11)

Lowering oneself is a hard thing to do.

In a day and age where we strive to be Number 1, a time where “if you ain’t first, you’re last” (a popular phrase that unfortunately describes the thought process of today’s culture) is the life’s creed of many a person, lowering oneself is indeed a mystery and an undesirable feat.  Buy why can’t we lower ourselves?  Why can’t we accept that to truly benefit others we must take on a greater sense of humility than the everyday person today could imagine?

Jesus did it.

This lowering of Himself mentioned in the passage above really focuses on two things: a literal lowering and a state of humility.  First, He truly lowered Himself by leaving His throne in Heaven in order to take on flesh and become a man, which would obviously mean that if Heaven is above us, He stepped down from it, descending to the earth that was created, as the passage states, through Him.  Second, He lowered Himself by truly becoming one of us without giving up His divinity.  He chose to suffer for our sins, for everything that we’ve done wrong, when He really didn’t have to.  To be honest, He didn’t even have to feel the pain of crucifixion or scourging if He did not want to.  He is entirely God, for whom and through whom all things exist.  He told the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane that he could’ve called for a legion of angels to protect Him from His oppressors, yet He didn’t because He knew what He wanted to do.  He wanted to overcome sin for us so that we could become children of God, for we had truly messed up and fallen away from Him.  Our sin was so great that God sent the Messiah, His one and only Son, to die on the cross for the sins.

Jesus truly humbled himself to the angels whom He ruled, and He even took on humility for us. 

Last summer at Global Youth Camp, Roger Glidewell spoke to the Family Leaders (individuals in youth groups chosen by the youth pastors for exhibiting leadership) about humility in reference to a youth group.  He asked us a simple, yet powerful question:

“What better way to lift someone up in your youth group than to get down below them?”

Physically, this makes plenty of sense, but spiritually, it goes even deeper.  We will truly follow Christ’s example by humbling ourselves in order to edify someone else we know.  Who will you lower yourself for today?  Who needs to be lifted up?

Your Brother in Christ,

Phillip

The Greatest Command Part 2

OK, so we know that Jesus told us that loving God is the first order of business.  The next highest command would be to love our neighbor as ourselves.  OK, cool.  We’ve got it, right?

Nope.

We honestly have fallen on this one.  The church as a whole needs to get it together.  Of course, by saying the church, I’m referring essentially to the body of Christ, who in turn makes up the church.  There’s a need in the lives of others around us for love, and we need to spread the love God has given us.

It’s quite funny to see how God works sometimes.  Right after my first blog on this commandment, my family and I left for Walt Disney World.  We came back from Disney just in time for the Sunday night service at Dunns Creek Baptist Church to hear Joe Giffin preaching.  He not only spoke partly on the Greatest Commandment, but then he even touched on the stuff I wanted to in the next couple of blogs.  It’s so funny to see how that stuff works out.  But anyways, his actual main passage of Scripture for the sermon was 1 John 4:7-8.

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

Uh oh.  We may be in trouble on this one!  So, we have to love one another (which agrees hand in hand with the second greatest commandment) because it comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Really?  And those of us who don’t love, we don’t know God?  This is getting hard to understand. 

Let’s see how we can break this down.  God is love, so for anyone to know God would mean that they know love.  In addition, anyone who does not love does not know God, meaning if you don’t love the people around you, whether friend or foe, family or complete stranger, you don’t really understand what God taught when He taught the Greatest Commandment.  This concept is powerful and should move us to love more!

To take this even deeper, we can’t love God if we don’t really know Him.  Ouch!  Most people hide behind a façade of knowing God.  They say things like “Oh, I’m a spiritual person,” or “I’m real religious,” or even “Yeah man, God’s tight.”  Then comes the million-dollar question: What about Jesus?  This is where most people tend to stray from what they said by saying things like “Well, I don’t know.  I believe in God, but Jesus… I don’t know.”  Obviously, if the person doesn’t really know Jesus or accept Him, the Holy Spirit is usually right there with Him, if the person even knows who He is.  It’s sad really.  I mean, it’s not our place to sit there and hassle them about it until they fall under forceful conversion.  We have to live what we’ve learned and show love, because according to the Bible, the person who doesn’t know Christ DOESN’T KNOW LOVE!!  The same goes for the Holy Spirit.  If you cannot say that you have accepted Christ as Savior, then you cannot, by the same token, say that you love God, for to not know Christ is the same as not knowing God, and thus you don’t know love.

It’s crazy to see how these passages play out in our lives.  Right now, Pharisaical Christians are roaming around, yelling at the sinners, telling them that they’re wrong in their ways.  They fail to mention that God loves even the sinners, because in His eyes we’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and a sign of this love was when He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins.  He wants us to be forgiven, and in order for that to happen we must repent and put our trust in Jesus.  Right now, consider the way you treat others about the Gospel, and ask yourself “Am I showing loving concern, or ignorant disgust?”  For those who don’t truly know where they stand spiritually, ask this question “Do I love God?”  If the answer is yes, then ask “Do I really know Him?” because if you don’t know and accept the Truth, you don’t love Him.

Brothers and sisters, I write this because of a lack of concern for truly loving God that I’ve seen amongst the body of Christ.  There are people today who “love God” but don’t show that love to anyone, and so we need to realize that the love God has given us is not exclusive, and thus we need to continue spreading His love, as the Casting Crowns song says, “Until the Whole World Hears!!”

Your Brother in Christ,

Phillip

P.S. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please comment on the Facebook link I’ll put up to this blog, or if you have a Blogger account, comment on the actual blog page.  I’d really like to hear everyone’s opinions on this subject.  Also, I will probably do another explaining another fallacy that comes up when people don’t really apply this Scripture in the right way.

Light On My Path

Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path- Psalm 119:105

I’ve known this Scripture since my eight-year-old VBS days.  I didn’t really learn what it fully means until eight years later, when I became a Christian at the age of sixteen.  I finally understood that God’s word will actually guide you if you read it, listen to Him, and apply anything you learn from Him.  This was and still is amazing to me!  Plus, if you want to get really analytical about it, Jesus is the Word, so Jesus is the lamp for our feet and the light on our path (for a reference to Him as the Word and the Light, John 1 really focuses in on this.)

Unfortunately today, I learned that not everyone who has a relationship with Jesus Christ actually considers Jesus their lamp and Light, but instead turn to their phones for that.  Oh wait, maybe sports work better as that lamp and light.  Well, I guess music would work better…

What is happening?!

Jesus is supposed to be the center of our lives! Jesus is supposed to be who we rely on!   God has given us His Word to rely on!  What else do we need?!  What else could possibly guide us in our lives?!

The day that we stop letting God lead our lives is the day our world comes crashing down.  Honestly, we have to ask ourselves if that day is today.  Have we truly forgotten to trust completely in Christ, so much so that we allow worldly things to guide our lives?

I’m not writing this to preach at anyone, but instead to inform.  I want to inform you, the reader, that Jesus loves you, died on the cross for your sins, and if you confess with your mouth that He is Lord and believe in your heart, then you will be saved!  Furthermore, if you have already accepted Him, LET HIM LEAD YOUR LIFE!!

Your Brother in Christ,

Phillip

The Greatest Command

  

When one of the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Which command in the law is the greatest?” (Matthew 22:36) he received an answer that pretty much defines the rest of the Bible.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and most important command.” (Matthew 22:37-38)

But wait, there’s more…

“The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” (Matthew 22:39-40)

So, God wants us to love Him first and foremost, but then we need to love everyone else as ourselves?  That’s a lot of love.  I mean, we love ourselves enough to go out of our way to accomplish what we want.  What if we were the same way with others?

These two commands go hand in hand, creating, as Jesus said, “the Law and the Prophets.”  If we truly love our Lord God, then we’ll keep to the commandments he wrote in Exodus, as well as the Law he has scattered about in the Bible.  If we truly love our Lord God, we will love all of Him, you know, the entire Trinity?  We won’t just choose to love God the Father, as a few religions do, and ignore God the Son and God the Spirit.

If we’re following His commands because we love Him, we’ll follow the second command, which means that we need to love others as ourselves.  This one’s hard for most of us.  We tend to want to do things purely for our benefit, as opposed to the benefit of others.  We could be a blessing to others, but instead we choose to sit back and try and pick and choose what portions of the Law we want to follow. 

What would happen if we all made these two commandments our top priority?

I’d like to leave it at that for now, but I will be following up on this one a couple more times, because these verses are taken way out of context sometimes, and they shouldn’t be.

Your Brother in Christ,

Phillip

The Trinity

I never thought I’d have to explain the Trinity.

It never crossed my mind that one of the hardest concepts for non-believers to grasp would be the very thing I argue with a cult about.  This is poor preparation on my part, especially because I’m one of those people who has a hard time memorizing scripture (well, really anything for that matter.)  I definitely don’t have much to directly quote, i.e. a scriptural reference, but I remember the stuff that sticks out; the stuff that I absorb and ultimately apply to my life because it’s so profound that it forces me to fall on my face and thank our Father for all that He’s done.

These religious groups, with their twisted scripture passages and their memorized out-of-context verses, come at us at all angles, real wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15.)  They lure our brethren of little faith, or those who are new to the ideas taught by Christ and all of the Spirit-filled authors of the Holy Bible.  They wait on our innocent sheep to stray from the rest of the herd, and once they corner them they strike, altering scripture and throwing it at them left and right as if they were stoning the poor sheep.

I’m not one of those sheep.

If I stray from any herd, it’s because the herd I’m in is headed down the path of destruction, and they’ve ignored my warnings and followed a false shepherd.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phillippians 4:13.)  That statement is a bold proclamation.  I can stay away from the broad path of destruction because of Christ who strengthens me.  I can discern the good and evil things in the world through Christ who strengthens me.  I can tell when things are gonna get rocky because I get this heartburn-like feeling, a feeling that seems like the Holy Spirit warning me of the trial ahead, and what the cost of falling for the lies will be. 

The wolves that came at me were discrediting the Trinity to some degree.  They claimed that God exists as Father, Son, and Spirit, and that He does this because He can do whatever He wants.  Fair enough.  Here’s the problem: according to these false shepherds He doesn’t exist as all three at the same time.

WHAT?!

If someone tells you God can do anything He wants, why couldn’t He be three in one?  Three entities, yet all one God.  That’s never questioned.  It’s so hard for new believers to understand, yet for the Christian it is simply agreed with because God says that’s how it is.  There should be no other argument.

For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood- and these three are in agreement. (1 John 5:6-7)

That sums it up.  The King James text says that there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.  It is followed by the verse above.  Either way you look at it, God exists as three, yet one, all at the same time.  If the Trinity was not God in three persons all at the same time, then how come when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River the Holy Spirit descended as a dove to Him, and the clouds parted and God the Father said “This is my beloved Son.  I take delight in Him!” (Matthew 3:17) God was present as three distinct beings yet all Holy and God?

This ruins all cases of people taking the Word of God and saying the Trinity does not work the way the Bible clearly says it does.  I guess I’m just a weirdo because the hardest thing to humanly comprehend is the easiest thing for me to agree with.  I love studying the Trinity, and I feel like any Christian should rejoice in knowing that we have a Father in Heaven, a Savior who died in order for us to be forgiven by our Father, and a Spirit who fills us, allowing us to pour forth praises to our God and Savior.  God has done all the work that it takes for us to be saved, because He loves us.  Plain and simple.  If anyone questions this, they question the love of God and the Word of God.  Plain and simple.

"Saved"

“Saved”

Who knew that one of the most important functions on Microsoft Office is actually a representation of the Gospel?

As I’m working on numerous assignments for school, and actually as I’m writing this very blog, I look in the top-left corner of my screen and I see it: the Save icon.  The little blue floppy disk that you click when you need to come back and work on a document later, or for other common purposes, is a good example of the Gospel.

What?!

I know, I know… It sounds weird at first.  Think about it though.  When we think of people as being “saved,” what does it mean?  These people have been changed by God.  They have confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord as well as believed in their hearts.  This is awesome.  As far as their life, we know that they will die physically, but spiritually they will spend eternity in the presence of God.  It’s amazing.

Now for the analytic part.

The Save button takes the work you’re doing at the moment and puts it into your computer, never to be taken out unless you so choose.  If you wanted, it could stay there forever.  And any time you continue to work on something, you click Save once it’s done and next time you come back you’ll be able to start again from where you left off, continuing to work from there.  Often times, people go ahead and Save their documents when they can so that it won’t be deleted by some accident or for whatever reason.

Christ is our Save button.  We come to Him because we don’t want to get “deleted.”  We want to spend eternity with Him, and when He saves us that is what happens.  Now, just like a saved document, as we go on with our lives (to continue the metaphor, the next time we work on the document,) we can remember that we have the opportunity to start from a new beginning, revise what we had before.  If we have already Christians and have been saved by the grace of God, we can remember that by humbly praying to God and asking for forgiveness He will forgive us.  He will revise our document, helping us to follow His will.  And then, any time after we’re saved, we can remember that Christ has forgiven us and will continue to do so.  This is like the Save button, and as we write we know that it’s there in case we need to click it and Save our document, ensuring that we don’t get deleted, and helping us to remember our progress in finishing our work.

This may seem like a stretch to some, and some may take this the wrong way and say “You can’t get saved multiple times!”  When I say that the Save button’s always there for us to push, it’s like the blessed assurance we receive from Jesus Christ in knowing that He’s already forgiven us and will continue to do so.

Think about this the next time you’re working on a document, and turns your eyes upon Jesus and say, “Thanks for saving me.  Now I won’t get deleted.”

Your Brother in Christ,

Phillip

Studying Doctrine

The word “doctrine” scares people.

Honestly, when people think of church, or Christianity, or any types of religious matters (in relation to other religions), the first thing that usually comes into mind is something to do with doctrine.  “Oh man, I don’t wanna go there because they have strict rules!” or “Those people believe in some weird stuff!”  This presents a problem when we try to teach biblical matters and people say, “Well, I don’t know if I agree with that.”

Look it up.

Easy solution.  If your pastor, or just one that you’ve heard because you don’t have a church home, says something that seems out of line to you, look it up.  Study what he said.  Read the Scripture references he gives.  Read it in its context.  You may find that he’s out of line, but often what happens is no matter which side is right we learn.  God teaches at that time so we can learn His truth.  If we just pray and ask God for the truth, He will reveal it.

He will reveal the Truth!

The good ol’ capital T Truth!  My favorite.  It represents God’s Truth, which is revealed in John 14:6 when Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  Plain and simple.  Jesus told us that He’s the Truth, so God, when He reveals to us His Truth, reveals the validity of Jesus Christ as the Word who became flesh!  Praise be to God for this divine intervention in our lives!  He’s making sure that it’s crystal-clear who we should worship.  The fact that God reveals His Truth so strongly throughout the Bible just emphasizes one key point: whatever the Bible says goes!  If God can bring out His Truth from reading the Bible, He can teach us everything we need to know about life.  We just need to pray and seek.  Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:32)

You may be asking, what does this have to do with doctrine?

Honestly, I’m just trying to make it known that in order for people to understand why denominations believe what they do, or why a pastor says what he does, we need to read the Scriptures they tell us are evidence of what they believe and see how correct they are.  If they are correct, then they’ve conveyed God’s Truth.  It’s not all about them. If they’re wrong, then you need to consider that they are not perfect, so it could have been a simple misquote.  If it continues, prayerfully consider what the Lord would have you do regarding that church.

Read your Bible, and listen to God’s Truth.

Your Brother in Christ,

Phillip

Overflow of the Holy Spirit

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?- Luke 11:13

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows- Psalm 23:5

Do you ever have those really positive, good days?

Those days when everything around you is beautiful amidst chaos and calamity in the world?

Those days when the only focus you can maintain lies on the One whose vision of the world is awe-inspiring.

Those are the days where you seem to have a calm, relaxed appreciation of your surroundings.  I didn’t have those days too often before being a believer, but now they are somewhat frequent, leaving me thankful for any moment given to me to embrace those times.  It’s days like those that make me want to write, because I feel like on those days I have a strong connection to the Holy Spirit, and apparently out of the abundance of the heart the hands type.  Not to add to scripture or anything, just saying.

The heavenly Father has given me the Holy Spirit, despite my previous ridiculous ideas that He could not possibly dwell in me, even after accepting Christ.  My cup is definitely overflowing as well as my heart, leaving me no option but to praise God through these typed-up thought processes.  What better way to serve and to glorify God?

Inside the Mind of Phillip

Inside the Mind of Phillip

That’s really a stupid title.

Honestly, I don’t know why I call it that.  It’s not my mind that’s the focus of this blog.  I mean, it’s what my mind focuses on that I’m writing about, and what my mind focuses on is the validity of God, the Great I AM, the Father, Son and Spirit.  I can’t help but look around and feel His presence, or to see His work going about the everyday routine.  The breeze blows, trees sway, birds sing, and God speaks all the while.

Wait, what was that last part?

Yes, God speaks.  That’s a part of our daily lives too.  God teaches us through the world around us, for He created it and is eternally in it.  To say that “God’s not here,” or that “God can’t possibly be here” would put a limit on Him, and thus saying such things would be blasphemous because they defy God’s eternal nature.  God is constantly using the lives of people and the events in the world to teach, preach, and enlighten us all.  The main question we have for these situations He creates is strong.

Do we listen?

Jesus taught His followers through speaking in parables so that they could decipher the message He was conveying.  The events that occurred around them were also Jesus’ ministry tools, for He is God and, like I mentioned earlier, He can use the events in the world to teach, preach, and enlighten us.  At least six times throughout the Gospels He declares “Anyone who has ears should listen![1]”  That’s pretty straightforward.  He’s God, He’s telling us something important, so listen up!  The people following Him probably listened because He was right there telling them, in the flesh.  They could see and feel Him if they needed to know He was there.  Fast-forward two thousand years and people are not listening to our God.  Is it because He’s not right in front of us?

There’s a silver lining to everything.  He is right in front of us, as well as behind and all around quite frankly.  He’s omnipresent.  He’s everywhere!  For those of us who have accepted and thus have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, He lives in us as the Holy Spirit!  It’s amazing!  The God who loves us, made us, and reaches out to us to wipe away our transgressions will also live inside of us, motivating us to do His will, helping us distinguish right and wrong, which way to go, or even how to pray.  He has done everything for us!  What a miracle!

Please, after reading this, prayerfully consider your own life and walk with God.  Do you listen?

---

[1] Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 13:43; Mark 4:9; Luke 14:35;

This is Where It Starts...

This is where it starts...

This is where I'm going to begin putting the overflow.  This is where I will let my mouth speak out of the abundance of my heart.  This is where I hope anyone interested will read, think, and hopefully comprehend what is said.  I just want to write about what the Lord's taught me.

This blog is going to be full of nothing but praise and adoration for the Lord, as well as studying the everyday world and finding what God has in store for us.  Please consider reading it.  Who knows?  The Lord may lead me to write just what you needed to hear.

Your Brother in Christ,
Phillip