Preach it

2 Timothy 4:2-5

Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Take note of the fact that Paul said nothing about how people would respond. He did not say anything about the size of Timothy's church, or how much money they received, or how influential it was. Paul did not tell Timothy that the world would respect, revere, or even accept him, in fact Paul's emphasis was on commitment, not success or acceptance.

In many churches we see them infatuated with standards of success, rather than fruits of righteousness. We need to be focused on growing to be more like Christ rather than how many people go to our church, or how much money the church takes in. We need our focus to be on God rather than success. We should be focused on our commitment to Christ and our ministry rather than the success, or popularity of our ministry.

advice vs. biblical advice

If you are giving advice or receiving advice... the first and most important question to ask yourself is...

IS IT BASED ON SCRIPTURE?

If it isn't, (and is soley based on opinion, psychology, polls, secular books, or even what is best for you) then it has huge potential to be faulty advice.

Hebrews 4:12

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

2 Timothy 3:16-17

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

John 17:17

"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. "

Psalm 119:105

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

2 Peter 1:3-4

"seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."

If advice has an absense of scripture - then it has potential to be dangerous.

Colossians 2:8

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, but according to Christ.”

spiritural attack.

1 Peter 5:8-9
"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world."

note the action verbs:
1. be sober-minded = aware
2. watchful = an act of looking

note the type of attack:
verse 8: seeking
verse 9: suffering experienced by Christians

"I was going to point out that if Christians really saw the world for what it is, we would know and feel that we are always in war. Satan is a powerful enemy, deceiver, and murderer, and he tries to highjack every good plan and purpose of your life and use it to destroy. Our own flesh and indwelling sin are like covert, welcoming bases of operation for this evil. The casualties are not only bodies lost for time, but souls lost for eternity.

A wartime mindset and a radical vigilance and a disciplined use of our spiritual armor are essential, if we are not to be lulled into the stupor of a peacetime mentality. And the armor I speak of is not sword, or bullets, or bombs, or tanks, or grenades, but the word of the cross and prayer and love and suffering for the sake of Christ. How much more do we feel this spiritual wartime sense of urgency today!"

-John Piper

I know that some of you guys would disagree with me. I know that some of you might think i give satan too much credit. i still love you guys. it's just that i'd rather be overly-guarded than not guarded enough.

Marriage

"Marriage and sexuality is a stuardship. I must give my wife back better than I received her. And I must give the world we shared back to God better than we received it. Marriage is yet another arena in which to live out your vocation to serve Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once spoke to a love-struck couple in a marriage homily: 'In your love you see only the heaven of your own happines, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind.' We do nothing in this life unto ourselves alone. Even a happy marriage is not only for the happiness of husbands, wives, and children; it is for God's glory."
-Ben Patterson

It's a life and eternal salvation matter. Matthew 7:13-14

13"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

This is so important. It's very scary to think that, that many "christians" nowadays just, they just don't realize what this verse is saying. They go to church on the weekends and live THEIR OWN lives during the week. They do the exact opposite of what this verse says to do.

It's scary that many of these so called "christians" might not go to heaven. It's scary and very sad.

It's heartbreaking that many people know about this verse, and they just choose to ignore it. They would rather live a life of comfort, of ease. It's sad. How many people do you know that are like this? I bet you know alot! Pray for those that behave like this.

Living for God is not easy, especially on a young teen boy such as myself. I want to participate in all the sinful, "fun" things that many of the teens my age participate in. I'm not saying that I don't slip sometimes, because I do, lots of times.

The main point is: Don't go the easy way out. Please!

Pray that God grant you, me, everybody self-control and wisdom, and endurance, to resist the temptation to give up, to not give in to unimportant wordly objects. It's a life and eternal salvation matter

What are we waiting for?

The bible says that if we know what we are supposed to do and we dont do it, we are sinning. Why do we continue to make excuses for why we are not giving everything up for God. When we come to faith in Christ we no longer are in charge of our lives. Christ bought us, so we must give up our hopes and dreams for what God would have us do. Why do we continue to make excuses for why we havent begun the work Christ has commanded us. We always say "i'm praying about it" - this is good, and prayer everyday is a must; but at somepoint we are going to have to stop praying about it and do the work Christ has commanded us. We know what Christ commands us to do, so lets stop just learning more about it and praying about it, lets start doing it, learning about and praying about it.

Because of Christ sacrifice we have no chioce but to give up our goals and ambitions in life. We must sacrifice all this because Christ sacrificed everything for us so that we could be made right in God's eyes. We must live for the glorification of Christ and nothing less. We must not live for our own selfish desires but we must give them up because God is most glorified when we sacrifice everything for him and when we are content in him alone.

now hiring: disciples of Christ (qualification #1)

the first Commandment says that we have to love God over all other gods. that we should have no other gods before Him. so many times we hear people say... " God is first in my life. He's number one!! then comes my kids, then my wife, then my church, then my......" and so on.

God doesn't want to be the first choice, He wants to be the ONLY choice. He wants to be the WHOLE list.

what if a husband were to gather a few women he found attractive and brought them to his wife, we'll call then susan and jane, and said to her, "wife, i love you with all my heart. you're my everything, my number one desire and love. but i just wanted to tell you that if something happens to you, susan here pulls a very close second to you and our love, and well, if something happens to her then jane here wouldn't be so bad either as a nice third. but please don't forget honey, how much i LOVE YOU."

what do you think that wife would have done or said? i know that if my soon to be husband were to tell me that i can assure you i would have killed him then moved on to those two women. i am a jealous wife because i love my husband and he is the ONLY person i want to love and be loved by. in this same respect God is a jealous God and He also demands the same devoted love from us. it is not unfair what God asks of us just as it is not unfair to expect the same love from a spouse. to love my husband i have to give up ALL other men. i have to completely love him all the time and be only devoted to him. it wouldn't be a healthy marriage if i didn't.

to love God we have to give up ALL other desires. we have to completely love Him all the time and be only devoted to Him. we wouldn't be healthy disciples if we didn't.