Thoughts of a Servant

I’m not proud of it, I got so caught up in the Holidays that I didn’t keep up with the news, but there was really really really awesome news in November.  I wrote a blog in October about these Iranian women that had been imprisoned for their faith… We wrote letters, and so many people were praying for them.  But it clearly shows that God is so Good.  Because they were set free on November 18th, 2009 after 259 severe days in prison.  They may still face the judges of their country, so they still need our prayers.  But this is such an event to rejoice.  They never denounced their faith even in the face of death.  What powerful women of God.  Ahhhh! I am so excited.

http://www.elam.com/articles/Released/

I love this guy! This is a man that is living. I am sure everyone else loves him too once they have seen Britian’s Got Talent’s Paul Potts.  What an amazing story he has to tell.  If you haven’t seen the video, I would recommend checking it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

I was watching that video over and over wondering why it is getting to me.  Every time he sings, it brings an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, atonement, and fulfillment to the performance. I had done some research and I found some things that interested me.  Simon said that he had heard so many opera singers that could sing like that, but what made him different was the fact that when he sang, you heard all of the pain– sorrow– suffering– anguish– etc. that he has endured over the course of his life.  You hear his story, his love, passion, and vigor struggle for success.  He shatters your first thoughts about him.  I’m guilty, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was absolutely blown away.

Apparently, he was severely bullied when he was young.  He was usually involved with the fights between the parents– and he would often run away to go sing.  Singing was his escape.  But thats not the end of it…  He found the love of his life on a chatroom, and then encountered several unfortunate events: his appendix burst before his wedding, complications came and eventually it was a tumor that they found.  But even in the midst of this, he performed at the opera thinking, “If I don’t grab the opportunity to perform, I might never get to do it again.”  Continuing on, he got hit by a car four days after his honeymoon fracturing his collarbone which put him out of work for 9 months.  His whole life he worked as a grocerie checker and warehouse manager, and then the extraordinary chance of fulfilling his dream through Britian’s Got Talent came about.

After singing on this stage, he was honored by the three panelists and the crowd.  He eventually went on to sing in front of the queen!

What an amazing story.  Was God in this? Most definitely.  Guiding him each step of the way.  Who knows where he goes now.  You can see his tour dates, and his life being unraveled on his site:

http://www.paulpottsopera.org/Paul-Potts-Autobiography.html

Cheers to you Paul.  Thank you for the smile.

It never stops. God is so good. I am blessed to be a part of what he is doing in my life. Today has been a great day and I have only been awake for 4 hours. I had breakfast with my friends of two+ years. They have come to Easter service but have never really asked questions about anything serious. But of them has been having a really difficult time with her job and career and schooling and really, life. She came to breakfast this morning, and I guess one of her really good coworkers (who had two kids, a beautiful wife, great job, etc) had recently committed suicide. It is a tragedy to her and people around her, and people are questioning whether he is in Heaven or not.

Continuing on, we were having a nice conversation about dancing (what else is new) until she interrupted with the question, “Where do we go when we die?” which I guess was God’s way of using that gentleman’s death as a tool (while still a tragedy, and I still feel deep grievances for her and the people around her– but He is using it to stir up our hearts causing us to ask the right questions).  And we sat there and talked about salvation (just being a real conversation, no preachy stuff).  And I am just blown away.  Because first of all, you have to realize the context of which this happened…  My friend has always believed that you have your belief, and I have mine, and we’ll leave it at that… But what I love about her is she is always open to discussion on any topic of choice.  So this makes it very easy to share what I believe and listen to what she has to say about her beliefs. We concluded the conversation on a good note, but I can only imagine the transformation that can occur.  This is a progression, nothing is instant– but it is the start of something beautiful.

To top it off, I come on home to find two Jehovah’s witnesses standing outside my door.  I ask them how they are doing, one of their names was Marvin–  I guess they were witnessing to Hispanics because they didn’t really want to talk to me.  I walked inside, but I felt that God wanted me to say something or talk to them.  So I found some water and walked back out to offer it to them…  If they asked a question or initiated some form of welcoming of the water, I knew that God would want me to talk with them.  But unfortunately they respectfully declined the water and waited for me to return inside.  Maybe I was ill-prepared for what they had to say and God was protecting me, or maybe it was not God’s timing on what they needed to hear.  Either way, just being open to God’s will is the key.  And he will work His wonders regardless.

I went to a leadership training the other day, and there was a Bible verse that just killed me.  I believe it was in Colossians 1:5-14…  Its kind of long, but well worth it.

5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on oura behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified youb to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption,c the forgiveness of sins.
The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996).

How Great!  God has stored our treasures up in Heaven, and he has “qualified” us to join in on the inheritance of a life tha is full of endurance, patience, joy, thanks, as he has recued us from the darkness, and forgave us of our sins.

Praise God for another wonderful day.  I am nothing, I am but dust– but He is the Creator, and my Savior.

ADDED: I found a cool passage that analysis the Colossians verse.. check it out:

1:5. Paul thanked God for their faith and love that spring from … hope.
This trilogy of virtue—faith, love, and hope—is a favorite of Paul’s (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13; 1 Thes. 1:3) and Peter’s (1 Peter 1:3, 5, 22). Faith is the soul looking upward to God; love looks outward to others; hope looks forward to the future. Faith rests on the past work of Christ; love works in the present; and hope anticipates the future. Even though “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6), and “hope does not disappoint us” (Rom. 5:5), nevertheless “the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). The Colossians’ love extended to “all the saints” (Col. 1:4), or all believers, probably not only at Colosse but everywhere (cf. 1 Thes. 1:7-8 for a similar commendation).

John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-).

I just ran across this really cool note today in the Bible Knowledge Commentary of Genesis.  It shows an awesome parallel between Abram’s journey and his descendants journey.  Take a look:

One cannot miss the deliberate parallelism between this sojourn of Abram in Egypt and the later event in the life of the nation in bondage in Egypt. The motifs are remarkably similar: the famine in the land (12:10; 47:13), the descent to Egypt to sojourn (12:10; 47:27), the attempt to kill the males but save the females (12:12; Ex. 1:22), the plagues on Egypt (Gen. 12:17; Ex. 7:14-11:10), the spoiling of Egypt (Gen. 12:16; Ex. 12:35-36), the deliverance (Gen. 12:19; Ex. 15), and the ascent to the Negev (Gen. 13:1; Num. 13:17, 22). The great deliverance out of bondage that Israel experienced was thus already accomplished in her ancestor, and probably was a source of comfort and encouragement to them. God was doing more than promise deliverance for the future nation; it was as if in anticipation He acted out their deliverance in Abram.

John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-).

 

 

We all see it, its those people on the side of the roads that have the signs that make us feel like dirt if we don’t read them.  I am not entirely sure what to think sometimes…  If I see these people in the million dollar  neighborhoods of Orange County, you have to wonder…

I also think its kinda sad that our response is, “God Bless You” when we give them our money.  Say we give them a couple bucks and then all of a sudden we have the ability to say God Bless You?to give blessings.  Unfortunately, I am guilty of this today–  I am not saying thats a bad thing, but what about when your saying HI to someone, or maybe to the person serving your coffee.  I don’t think we should gain the right to say it when we give something, we should be able to say it any time we feel blessed or want

I just wanted to share a really cool point I heard in Francis Chan’s service today.  He was talking about when he went to Vegas when he was younger and he thought he would try gambling some money in order to get some money to pay for this speeding ticket that he had received while on his way to speak at a camp in Utah.  He started with 2 dollars and just kept letting it ride.  He kept betting it all and watching it double.  Eventually, he had a 100 bucks sitting on the table, and had to make that decision to fully pay for the ticket by doubling or to back down.  He ended up losing all of the money on the table.

He goes on to show how this relates to our faith.  For instance, if we were to talk to someone in India that was considered an “untouchable” or slums in Africa, or anywhere really– and say, “Drop everything and follow Jesus”… How easy would that be?  They would reply “Okay” in a heart beat.

But if you were to come to my neighborhood in Orange County, and ask, “Drop everything, Follow Jesus– he has a better life for you” They would just look at you like your nuts– “Why? Can you see how much I have?!?!”

Same thing with our early faith.  We are fearless when we are first Christians, talking to everyone and preaching like mad.  But eventually we get more involved with faith, more educated, more knowledgeable.  Then people start respecting the knowledge we have and we become conscious of our messages, and eventually conscientious of our ministry.  We have more to lose when we think we have everything…

But whom would you rather follow when you know that Jesus has something amazing planned for you versus what you can do on your own?

There are several branches that fit under this category, but I have decided to generally group them– Some of the notes below are associated with some branches and not others.

First of all, they believe that the Bible is just another history book, no supernatural inspiration.

One of the most interesting things is that they believe that this world, the people in the world, emotions, etc. are all illusions.  They believe that God is everything, God created everything, God is everywhere, and in Everything– Heaven, if it exists, is already within us.  Sin does not exist because it is only an element of imagination.  God is not love, God is not powerful, God is not of intelligence, but he is everything.

This religion takes on a more pantheistic point of view where God is in and of all things.  So technically speaking, we are already saved, but we must save ourselves through Metaphysical principals.  This is because we are already in possession of a divine mind (we don’t sin), and the only sin is to believe that there is sin.

I read that Love, Truth, and Life is the trinity of this religion… But I don’t readily understand and will need to do more research.

They believe that there isn’t a hell, but we posses a divine mind– so we can create a hell if we believed in it.  Some branches of this religion believe in reincarnation.

Very interesting.

This, in my personal opinion, is by far the most organized/structured religion out there.  It just blew me away.  Generally speaking, they must attend meetings at least 5 hours a week in which they will review strategies and techniques on how to convert non-believers.  They will also cover topics from their weekly newsletter (The Watchtower) (over 22,000,000 prints each issue) that cover belief information and whatnot.

This religion has a headquarters in Brooklyn, which districts, branches, circuits, congregations around the world.  They have a Kingdom Hall where the congregation would meet to discuss their newsletter.

They believe that Jesus is Michael the archangel.  When he came to earth he became Jesus, and then went back to being Michael when he was resurrected. The Holy spirit is actually a form of energy, kind of like electricity.

They do believe in the bible, but have interesting takes on the application of the Bible today.

Its heard that they don’t celebrate birthdays, holidays, etc.  This is because they believe it gives the individual too much credit.  For example: people celebrate birthdays, but that kind of praise is only reserved for Jehovah.

One of the scary beliefs that they practice is the fact that there will only be 144,000 people that get to enter heaven.  Only under 9,000 people that will enter heaven are alive today (out of the 6.69 billion people in the world!!!! Thats nearly 0.0000013 × 10^-6 % that will be saved!!!) which kind of puzzles me on why they are witnessing to people…  They believe that the other 135k people are dead right now, and will be resurrected when the time comes.  If you are not one of the 144,000 people– you will just perish, no life after death.

I decided to do some research on Joseph Smith and more on the Mormon concepts.  Here is what I found.  I am completely open to discussion on these as I am just trying to understand the core information:

A few notes on Joseph Smith: He was an imaginative man who often found himself in acts of peep stone gazing (which was apparently illegal) which is how he found the Egyptian documents which would later become the Book of Mormon.  He translated the scrolls using a seer stone.  He believed in polygamy and in fact had over 30 wives.  He revolted against the newspapers in Illinois because of what they had said about Mormonism and got put in jail for robbery and treason– An angry mob broke into the jail and killed him.

The Mormon religion is the Largest and the largest growing religion.  They have 11 million believers and 300k people convert each year.  You can tell because you probably have a missionary next door riding his bike or whatnot.

It is believed that any Mormon believer can become a God by living a good life.  If they are married inside of the LDS church then they will get their own planet.  They also believe that God was a descendant of parent Gods.  God (who has a physical bodily appearance) had physical relations with the Mother God to create spiritual gods.

When a Mormon believer dies they go to either the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial heaven.  Celestial being for the perfect, terrestrial for the so-so, telestial for the worst.

It is believed that Matter is eternal, but god is not–

Something I don’t quite understand is the belief that Mary had physical relations with God which is how she became pregnant with Jesus.  Jesus, before he was born (in what they believe to be the pre-existance) is the brother of Lucifer and a polygamist.

I have been doing some more research into Islam and Muslim religions.  It is really interesting stuff.  Just a few keynotes on what I read today:

They believe that God is omnicient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, just like Christianity.  But one major difference that stands out is the Love factor.  They don’t believe that Allah is or has anything to do with Love.  They believe that Allah is a God, but he is not comprehensible.  No one can understand him, or understand, or should even try to.  If you tried to understand him, it would make him seem as though he had less power.

They have many rules on how to live their life.  On judgement day they will face the scale to see if their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds.  If their good deeds outweigh their bad, then they will spend eternity in heaven– otherwise in the depths of hell.

There is a loophole to the Judgement, however.  If you fight for the Islamic religion (as in a Holy war), and give your life (aka martyrdom) then you will go directly to heaven.

They also believe that Jesus was a prophet, but Muhammad was a greater profit than Jesus.  I personally find this interesting as to why they think that…  Because Jesus lived a perfect life, gave his life, resurrected from the dead, lame to walk, water to wine, etc.