What does this mean?

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."



What does that mean? Not any interpretation, just read it. Seriously, what does it mean?

What about:

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.


What's that mean?

How about this?

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."



I talked with a man who says he is a Christian, but ultimately believed the Bible couldn't be trusted. There were two kids on the bus ride to Austin talking about God, and they ask the same old question, "Will a Buddhist go to Hell, will a muslim, will a pagan...etc." So I speak up and say, "The main problem isn't that they're not Christian, but that they're sinners, and God must judge them." I quoted The top verse and then the "Christian" sitting behind me started debating with me about how we can't trust that that's what that verse means because of age, translation, etc.

Poor man, I pray he's really saved and just misled for a time, but I don't know. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about this yet, but I plan to, God willing.

Ow

I'm having really really really bad heartburn tonight...I'm literally burping acid. Disgusting. But oh well. This week's been pretty boring and slow. Except for today. I'm so glad God gave me today. First off this morning I was praying about my lesson for FCA and I heard God press upon my heart to change it to a walkthrough of some of the tests in 1st John. So I did. But I had little to no preparation. So I was praying a lot, asking for guidance and help. I hope it went well, I was shaking like a leave up there though, and it was a bit choppy and awkward, but it doesn't matter about the vessel, only the Word. I printed off some sheets detailing more in depth how to have assurance you are saved. I included some good websites on there. I only printed off 10 because I didn't anticipate that many people would be interested, but they were all gone after my lesson! I was so excited. And then God gave me the oppurtunity to hand out some tracts to people because they saw them in my backpack and wanted some! God is so good. And then all afternoon has been pretty much nothing much. Just enjoying being home. Tomorrow we have a game at Austin, then the next day we have a marching competition at Jacksonville AL. Projected time home= 3-4 AM. Then Church, then the reunion of the group? Maybe? Ms. Brenda if you read this before then tell me if we're having it. Assume everyone's in. Then I get to go preach...hopefully as a dying man to dying men and women...I heard that phrase today on....*gasp* TBN!!!! I watched like 3 minutes of it, and Kirk Cameron was interviewing someone, and I know what doctrine Kirk Cameron holds to so I thought it was pretty safe to watch. And the guy said that he had a sign on his door that says, "Preach like a dying man, to dying men and women. Preach as if it's your last chance to do so." And hopefully I will. I just need God for this. Pray for me for that please.

Marco?

Marco?

I'm a mix of emotions

I'm happy because I got to hang out with Aaron and Shawna today.
We watched two sermons and then a critique of the Word of Faith movement.
The last one made me cry...
To think that those people are so deluded and off-base...I just want to take them and sit down and show them what the Bible says...even if they kill me.
Then I got home and I've been cleaning and talking to people on facebook. Talked a lot about God with people.
I enjoyed it.
I'm so tired of high school and fake people there and elsewhere, I just want to be able to spend time with the people I know love me.

Outline of my sermon on the 26th

This is a outline of the sermon I'm giving on the 26th. I was going to give it on the 19th, but we don't have evening service. I'd love it if ya'll would read through it and critique it, not on grammatical schtuff, but let me know if I'm misinterpreting any scripture or my theology is way off-base or something like that. Thank you.

Becoming Christ-Like
Main Verse: Romans 8:28-30 “For we know God works all things together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called, according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He also predestined, He also called; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

1. What is the good to which all things work for believers?
· It can not possibly mean worldly good. Use Paul as example. Paul was beaten, shipwrecked, arrested, starved, and faced much persecution.
· If this verse meant that God works everything to the worldly good of those who love Him, Paul obviously didn’t love God enough.
· There must be something higher then. If worldly good is not what God wants for us, there must be something higher we are to work to as Christians.
2. What is God’s purpose?
· To understand what higher thing we are to work for, we have to know what God’s purpose is for working everything to our good.
· Luckily for us, Paul explicitly states what that purpose is in the next verse. He says, to those who are called, according to His purpose. The next sentence is an explanation of what that purpose is.
· Read verses. That’s a pretty deep statement, but let me read it again just leaving out one part. “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined; and these whom He also predestined, He also called; and these whom He justified, He also glorified”
· That’s not a reason, it’s a statement and it flows very nicely. But when you insert the part we left out, it breaks the flow up. It sticks out, adding emphasis to it and not only that, but to become is even emphasized.
· So we can take it apart and ask, “What is God’s purpose in making all things work together for believers’ good? So that they might be become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren”.
· So every event in your life as a believer is God Himself shaping and molding you into the image of Jesus. We see that it says that God works all things, not just bad things, not just good things, not just church things, not just work things, but EVERY EVENT IN OUR LIVES to conforming us to the image of Christ.
3. What does it mean to be conformed to the image of Christ?
· That is the highest calling, to become conformed to the image of Christ. Work, Family, Friends, Ministry, Evangelism, and everything else is and should be secondary to conforming your life to the image of Christ.
· Everything in our lives as believers is worthless and pathetic even without a driving focus on becoming more like Christ. Think about it. Anyone with some knowledge of Scripture can get up here and preach. Anyone with good people skills can be involved in ministry. Anyone can read the Bible. But without the driving focus of becoming more like Him and closer to Him it is worthless.
· It is gravel in your gut. It may taste like honey on your lips, but it is gravel in your gut and will not fill you because we as believers are called to higher things. We are called according to God’s purpose that was predestined before the world began that we would be conformed to the image of God’s Son.
· Moses. Largest ministry. Needed to know God. Any man that can be content with usefulness is a very shallow man.
4. How do I conform myself to the image of Christ?
· I don’t want to get up here and tell you that you need to be more like Christ and say alright, bye. But I do want to tell you this. If you are a true believer, then God will not let your walk become stagnant for long. There may be times when your walk slows or stops, but God will come to you and make you grow in your walk and become more and more like Christ. Because if you are truly of God, God will work all things in your life so you become more like Christ.
· If you never grow in holiness and never grow closer to God, you are not saved because God will not let you stay the same if you are of God.
· Ezekiel 36:24-27 "For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” So we see that if you are truly of God you have been given a new heart, a new spirit. You see that God Himself will cleanse you and make you holier and holier and more like Christ. This is isn’t even open to interpretation. This is God Himself telling us what He is going to do to us.
· One of the ways God works in me is through studying His Word. In His Word God is revealed to us. It is His way of telling us who He is. It is how He speaks to us. And the more you study them, the closer you’ll be to Him.
· Because the more you know about me, the more you may hate me, but the more you know about God, the more you will love Him.
· And always be praying to become more like Christ. Always be praying for more righteousness, more compassion, more faith, more like Him, more like Him, more like Him.
· But if you are truly of God, you will become more like Christ. You will become closer to God through every event in your life. Always be focused on that. Always trying to become more like Christ.
5. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
· And what is Christ like? What did He do that I should emulate? We can sum it all up in one statement that Christ said summed up the Law of the Prophets.
· Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
· How long can we go through our life without realizing this? We’re always so distracted by so many things, not only family, friends, work, but things like ministry, study, and other things. Our minds are just so full with things all the time. I can literally go days and weeks without remembering that my main passion and calling should be to Love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. God says this is so important that you should write it on the doorposts of your house and on your gates and on your hand and on your head.
· How different would our lives be, if we only were reminded of this maybe 3 times a day?
· So this is it then, we have one great purpose and one great calling of God. To be conformed to the image of Christ and to Love the Lord with your entirety.

I feel

awkward.
School should be interesting though.

Just wondering what you think

What is the Gospel? Explain it to me.

I just thought of this

I saw the date and thought, I have been saved for 4 months and 3 days. :-) And boy, those 4 months and 3 days have honestly been the best of my life. So much in my walk with God has changed and so much about me has changed...I can't wait to see where God will have me 10 years from now.

Revival

I feel like we're on the verge of a great revival or movement of God across America. The cultural church has become so rampant in America, but I really believe that God is raising up so many people that aren't afraid to speak the truth. People who will go out into the streets and preach to the people unapologetically and authoritatively. I feel like we're about to witness a reverting back to Biblical principles and truths by churches. I just have this strong feeling that Yes, things are about to change, that Yes, the truth is coming out, and Yes, the world is going to be changed because of it. I hope and pray for this. I pray that God move in each of us to see the need not only to go to church Sunday and worship Him there, but to carry God to the furthermost places of our lives. To be a shining beacon of Christ's love to people. To be pillars of support to all believers. I just pray God raises us up to meet the challenge of facing the world and battling with it. Not in physical struggles, but in struggles against ourselves and our fear of speaking God's truths because of our fear of the world. I want to go. Anyone else want to?

I enjoy it

When I have my heart so set on something, and so set against something else, but God keeps pushing the thing I don't want on me, and then all of a sudden, it clicks. That feeling of, "Ohh! I get it!" See, in my last post I talked about how set against going somewhere else before seminary I was, and how I thought it wasn't trusting God to get a degree. I basically thought that if God wants me to do it, He'll provide. But after talking with several people about it and hearing what they have to say, I realized this, that maybe God's way of providing for me is to make me get this degree before seminary. I had it in my head that God would do some miraculous thing if I needed money, even though I knew that that's not how God works. So now I have no problem with going to Calhoun and getting some degree. The only question I have is what degree to get. I've looked at a lot of them, and they don't interest me much, but I'll keep praying about it and just trying to hear Him. Thank you.

Don't Trust God Too Much!

So, I feel like I'm being called to be a pastor. God's made it obvious to me that that is what I'm to be. I've heard the call and I pray God's making me ready and making me prepared to be open to Him so I can be a Godly pastor and man. But I have a bit of a problem. My parents are basically telling me to not trust God too much. They say that I can not go into seminary until I have a degree and a job for something else so I can be financially stable. That's their same stance on me doing a mission trip. When they say that something justs...screams inside me. I just want to shake them and beg them to see that God will take care of me, that money doesn't matter. That God will provide for me what I need. I mean, what do ya'll think? I wouldn't have as much as a problem with it if my mother had told me that she's prayed about it and she really felt that God was laying this on her heart that I should go get this degree, then see, but she just straight up tells me that I can not go to seminary until I have this done...:-/ I think I'll talk to her about it and my opinion.