He gave all for He knew there was more

What I am about to say is perhaps obvious in a way, but when I was thinking about it I appreciated it all the more. Much of what I write is for myself more than my audience directly, although I certainly hope it appeals to you as well.

Most people, Christians or non-Christians, accept Jesus died and was crucified on the cross. Obviously this event means different things depending what you believe about the nature of Christ and existence, but the fact Jesus was crucified by the Romans is relatively well accepted. As Christians we see the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ as God's way of freeing us from sin and allowing us to have new life in Christ. what I mean to focus on is the manner and importance of his death in and of itself.

To begin, what is the single most important thing in your life? I would answer that for the vast majority of people, Christians included, it would be themselves, and more specifically their life. Its only natural since we can only truly experience life as us, to perceive it through the physical and mental being of ourselves. Therefore the death of us is the end of this experience, with no guarantee of anything beyond it. What I'm saying is a complicated way to state we want to live almost beyond anything else and really would prefer no to die.

For the nonreligious, their temporal and physical life is the end and be all of existence, therefore it must be valued above all if they are at all rational, for they have nothing else to look for to. Even the religious who believe in life after death find it rather difficult to live for the next world without in reality prioritizing this world.

Therefore if life is supreme then the ultimate sacrifice is of one's life. The sacrifice is not just in the dying however, but the admission that death is not supreme, for one rational would not accpet death if they had any other option unless death was not final and complete. While in theory most christians would say duh!, I think the reality is quite different.

If you read the passion accounts, it is clear that only Jesus truly believes that life exists after death. It is why he does not fight his capture but bears his cross and suffers for our sake. He refused to save himself and remained at all times obedient to the father, even as he asked God to remove his burden. Mark 15: 29-32 illustrates this well "34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” [4] 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."    

Meanwhile the apostles, the chosen followers of Christ, showed their fear of death and lack of faith in God at the critical moments. When Jesus was arrested, all the apostles abandoned him except Peter, who betrayed knowing Jesus out of fear for his own life as he had not yet put faith in a new, more permanent and meaningful life as Mark 14: 66-72 illustrates "66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway [8] and the rooster crowed. [9] 69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” 72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept. [10]".

Jesus proved through his death and resurrection that death can be defeated and that we can overcome it if we put our faith in Christ. He provided the example and proof of how to live fully for God and to trust in His work and plans. While I realize that at the extreme of giving one's life is extremely difficult, it is in the resurrection that our faith is real and fruitful and gives us hope that whatever happens in this life is only temporary until we are united fully in Christ. So do not look upon Jesus on the cross not only as Jesus dying for your sins but what Jesus expressed as to what was really life and what was really important in the act of giving himself to being killed.

The Church: What's the big deal?

As I was coming home on the bus to see my family for this long weekend, I thought how important family is to me. How much we trust them and rely on them, and how much of growing up as adults is modeled on our parents and older siblings if you have them. I think back on the first 22 years of my life and how much harder it would have been if my parents were divorced or if I had to be raised by a single parent. I realize for many people today the following scenarios are a reality and some manage to come out of it in good shape, but I feel all else equal children are better off raised by two loving parents. I realize as well for some people the grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles are or are almost as important part of their lives as their parents, or they were adopted and were never connected to their biological family. My point is not the size or composition as much as having a group of people that provide comfort and safety and guidance from cradle to adulthood and beyond is critical to being a successful person and a loving Christian. Good families are places were one is accepted for who they are and places that support you in good times and bad. Good families give tough love at times, but unconditional love as well and provide an environment to learn about and grew in Christ, where people first see the fruits of the Holy Spirit among us.

I think good families are the model which the church is based upon and which prove that the good our families provide is also provided in a church family. A good church has stability, strong leadership, accountability, is loving and compassion and protective of its flock, but also willing to hold members to account for inappropriate action. Churches like families require all members to do there part, and all members are important to the cohesion and success. 

I think for Christians that go to church what I say is obvious about a church. The problem is that while most Christians see the church family as valuable or very nearly so as your personal family, they do not treat it as such. To illustrate, if a friend of yours told you that they were going "family-shopping" because there current family always told lame jokes or did not respond to their complaints appropriately and your friend also said that he or she had found this much "cooler" family that he or she thought would be a better fit, you would think them loco. But people do the same with churches all the time. While I realize there are some important differences, if the local church functions as a Christian family then it deserves the loyalty you would give to a biological family, warts and all. 

There is another reason that the church is so critical, as to be of the body of Christ is to be a member of the church, and while in one sense the church is all Christians globally united through the Spirit, it is also the local churches that make this union practical and real as they carry out the ministries that spread and grow God's eternal word whatever it is lacking, and to fortify the hearts of those in Christ wavering and suffering. We are social beings that need community, and if we fail to commit to a true church community, what we really are saying is that we are unwilling to commit to Christ.

I realize that churches can have lots of problems and be very frustrating, but I think it is very rare that a church is so diseased as to be beyond repair. Instead one should look into their own hearts when they are having problems in their church to see what they are doing wrong, and to pray and really look to find solutions rather than excuses. For those that refuse to commit, you isolate yourself from a second family of people that will love and care and protect you. Church is not really so much the music or sermon or ministries but a group of people sharing in Christ together in a wide variety of  activities and functions. I think when you see the church as a full time commitment rather than something you do on Sunday morning, you will see a similar transformation in your relationship and faith in God.

I speak from personal experience and what people have shown me and what I have read to believe all this to be true. I find that I can forget about Christ if I don't immerse myself in serving him and glorifying God, and this is easiest done through church. I am not here to judge but only to encourage others to come experience the grace and love of Christ through the church, which he is head and leader. 

 

In closing, there are two sections of Ephesians that I think help illustrate my point and encourage you to find or commit to a group of Christians. God bless and peace be with all.

(Ephesians 4: 11-16) 

 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds [2] and teachers, [3] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, [4] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. 

 

(Ephesians 5: 22-32)

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. [1] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Do I have a choice?

A friend of mine brought up the issue recently of our free will and to what extent we can do good works by our own choice rather than through the compulsion of the Holy Spirit within us. The issue is vast and complicated, but I will add my thoughts mostly using some basic logic.

To begin, I think humans have a degree of free will, I would disagree that we are predestined to be saved or not, at least in a practical sense. Firstly, even if we are predestined to salvation, nothing short of direct revelation from God could confirm this, so we have to act as if we are not even if it is the case. Secondly, the point of us existing is moot if we have no choice to make, unless one argues that God cannot make us of him unless we are physically born, which we have no evidence is the case. The reason we wouldn't need to exist if we didn't have some choice is because why not skip the human step and make us directly perfect beings and avoid sin and all that? clearly God could do that no? Thirdly how did we Fall from Grace if not that we chose to? You either argue God made us Fall, which is impossible, or that the Devil forced us to to sin and God couldn't stop him, which would mean God is not all powerful, which clearly cannot be so.  Perhaps God allowed the Devil to make us sinners and we had no say, but would God willingly let His good creation be sullied as such, or could He even? Plus The issue of whether the Devil choose to rebel against God or God predestined him to rebel is an issue if you continue on this line of reasoning.

It seems instead, from reading Genesis that Eve choose to eat the apple and God clearly did not plan or at least was unhappy with the result. For God at the beginning tells them not to eat from the tree, but if they had no free will he would have no need to tell them, or if he did tell them they could not have eaten from it and could not have listened to the Devil, or doing so is against God's will.

However, the creation story also sets the framework for what human will really is. It is either moving towards God or against him, or possibly a neutral option as well, I leave that up for debate. The modern view of free will I believe is too broad and unrealistic, we are constrained practically by our environment for most of decisions and by the temporal dimension. Plus God is an active part of our lives I believe, but that unlike the rest of creation we are able to disobey Him. He allows this to occur I believe because instead of getting meaningless creation that obeys out of compulsion, he gets a meaningful creation that obeys out of love. The problem was that the creation was beset by sin and therefore imperfect to be acceptable to God, which is why Christ in his perfection united choice to love God with the perfect holiness of spirit to be in union with Him.

Additionally,surely did Christ, manifest as Human, not choose to ignore sin and temptation, meaning he had the possibly of choice to sin? While God cannot sin, when God was united to the physical he tied sin to himself and its possibility, only to destroy it after conquering death and freeing us of sin's hold. Christ's sacrifice was meaningful only because He choose to ignore sin, otherwise why would the Devil have tempted Him for 40 days? And could God doom a creation to Hell for acting against Him if it had NO choice but to disobey Him? Could God create life that was doomed against Him?

I suppose those that argue that surely our good works cannot justify our salvation alone, and I would agree that we cannot "earn" salvation. However, any that have said that God is the source of all truth and goodness and try to honestly through the pureness of heart and expressed through the actions they commit will be spared from death through the blood of Christ, even if they are still deserving of death. To sum the above, none are deserving of salvation and therefore cannot justify being saved, but those that CHOOSE to call Christ King and LORD instead of the Devil will be saved through the Grace and Mercy of God, despite the iniquity that should preclude them from salvation. And they can only choose this if they allow the Holy Spirit to move through them to do good works and proclaim the Good News. 

The practical application is far more difficult indeed, and perhaps I am totally wrong about this. I am not a bible scholar by any means so please consult with other more reputable and dependable sources of gospel interpretation. It is only my way of helping understand a complicated topic. Finally, we need to live for Christ and through Christ regardless of how we are saved, for God deserves nothing less than our full devotion.

Your Right and I'm Wrong

As what happens often after church, there is refreshments and we have a college and careers meal afterwards. Its a time of fellowship and good cheer generally. It is also a time when some of the people engage in theological discussions, as it seems half the young people are in or where in philosophy or theology for their education.

On its own, it is a good thing people like to talk about and discuss these things. Certainly these types of discussions are good to have, but I find that they can never dangerous and unhelpful as well. What I mean is that while understanding more about the nature of God and how we relate and so forth is important to living more fully in Christ, the danger also exists that it prevents truly absorbing and living scripture in your day to day interactions as one tries to find the truly "absolute" truth of God and existence. To expand on what I am saying, a rather pedant view of the world can take hold if one believes only their perspective on theology is the "right" path to knowing God, instead of leaving open the possibility that parts of what we believe about God and the nature of existence could be incorrect or at least deviate partially from the actual truth. Otherwise  the case develops where only a very select few are privy to the pure truth, and other viewpoints border on or are heretical.

I should make clear is that the people I am talking about are Orthodox Christians, in that they believe in all the basic tenets of Christianity but differ on some of the more esoteric points of doctrine and such. I think the nature of Man's fall means that we are not perfect and probably cannot know all their is to know about God and the universe, but that we can still be saved regardless. So in one sense knowing about such discussions  in depth does not help us get saved, making ourselves into disciplines of Christ does. That is why I think that is why the difference between Catholics and Protestants is both important and immaterial to the task at hand, as believers of both sides are all spiritual body to Christ first and foremost. The way a Catholic and a Protestant (realizing both definitions of themselves are problematic) are expected to live their life is quite similar considering the doctrinal differences. The problems are people's individual life choices, not doctrine that is normally the problem.

The salient point is really that actions are the true mark of faith and one should focus on living as Christ did rather than trying to understanding completely the mystery of Christ. Whether or not works help in salvation or not, I think its undeniable that works mold us and mark us as pots of God's desire, as Paul alludes to in Romans 9. In Romans as well Paul describes the "marks of a True Christian", which I think helps but into focus the fact that true Christians can be seen, and that the differences in belief must be minor if two people both display these signs, signs that are lived and expressed to others in thought and deed.

"9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, [7] serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. [8] Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it [9] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:1-21)

What Paul is saying to us is a call to action and so rather I think a renewed focus upon being of Christ rather than merely thinking of Christ is in order. Otherwise we waste time trying to be "right" rather than being as righteous and holy as possible.

P.S. Check out (Romans 14: 1-4) as well, it is really a very concise and powerful summary of my whole point above.

Am I good enough?

I was thinking yesterday about someone I knew and the nature of our relationship, and I began to think about in general how I perceived the world has and continues to view me. In doing this, I came to realize a fundamental issue that has defined all the relationships I have had in my life, which could be summed up simply as "Am I good enough?".

The truth is that in general I desire to please others, usually before myself. While this is an admirable trait at times, it can also limit what one gets out of a relationship when you tend to do only what others want, thus denying yourself joy and pleasure from the friendship.

Thus, I feel like a good portion of the reason I am always trying to please others is that I do not feel adequate or "up to par" with them and feel I need to earn their ever elusive approval. This way of thinking has caused me much misery as I try to meet people's implicit or explicit expectations, which are sometimes good things to strive for and expectations held in good faith, but end up leaving me feeling inadequate and confident. While some relationships are worse than others in this regard, its hard to truly be open and honest and comfortable with someone you forever feel you must please to be worthy of their presence.

So I guess this is where God comes in. I think God is in one sense an entity that cannot be satisfied completely ever by us, in that he expects perfection, which we clearly cannot deliver, so our whole lives are simply failing less as opposed to succeeding in fulfilling His will. But at the same time He tells us we are good enough in that through the redeeming blood of Christ we have the burden of our sins removed and being made part of the body of Christ, saving us from death. If God never abandons us and blesses us with His grace and mercy then surely despite our sin and failing He must think we are good enough to be given salvation through His only Son?  Not that God does not desire us to become more holy, nor that in our love and devotion we should we not strive to act more according to His will, but that surely no act on our part will removed His saving grace (and His acceptance of us) once we have been saved.

Therefore, in all the moments of our lives, be it the quiet moment of pondering as you fall to sleep, before an important test, talking to a friend or whatever you might do, you can trust that God feels you are enough. For surely if Christ deems your salvation through Him is acceptable, even after the price he paid to make it happen then surely you are good enough, failings and all.

Rock 'n' Roll the Devil?

When I became a new Christian not so long ago, one of the issues I was faced with was my musical tastes. My musical tastes before being a Christian unsurprisingly included virtually no overtly Christian songs or bands, being a mix of indie music, classic rock, and 80's to early 90's alternative rock. While most of the bands are religion neutral, they are by no means spiritual either.

The problem is that outside of church events I rarely listen to Christian music, alternating instead between the sweet happy sounds of the New Pornographers or the loud, plaintive sounds of Nirvana for example. At the moment, I have no plans of getting rid of my secular music, I enjoy it and on its own I do not feel it is distracting me from God. However, I do feel like I need to be listening to more christian music, both to somewhat counteract the secular stuff and to help with building my relationship with God.

The major problem is that I find it hard to find Christian music I like. During worship at church i usually have no problems with most songs but alone I find many of the songs to have earnest if not somewhat facile lyrics and to be boring musically. That said there is some good stuff out there but I honestly have not looked that hard to find more and I certainly have not bought any Christian stuff, which is a problem because most of my musically listening is done through my Ipod.

I guess I wonder if I am making a fuss over nothing or whether there is an issue here that I need to address. I do not want to give up my secular music but can it co-exist peacefully in my mind with Christian music? I will need to pray about this and discuss this issue further with others to come to a conclusion.

How not to be a headless chicken

What is the plan for us? Is there a plan for us? does what we do matter?

The above are just some of the questions that have plagued society since the beginning. Different people come to different answers depending on the assumptions that they base their life upon. For the Christian believer, The plan is for all people to come to obey God's will through Christ and the power of the Holy spirit. While the actual plan is both more complicated than that and certainly not fully in our knowledge, the important thing is that God has a PLAN and a PURPOSE for us, and that through being a part of the body of Christ we can begin to fulfill it.

The real issue is how to go about fulfilling this plan in our day to day lives. While it is a multifarious issue, I think that a critical component is to be attending church regularly and being an active member as much as possible. A friend of mine directed be to a great resource on the subject, a series of sermons that can be found here (relevant sermons under the title THE CHURCH). They talk about how we cannot expect to grow and prosper as Christians without serving in fellowship with a community of believers, people to keep us honest and accountable in our spiritual walk, as well as to love and comfort and support us. Without a church we can too easily get separated from Christ and block out God's plan for us when we do not surround ourselves with co-heirs in Christ.

My point is not to judge the circumstances to others, only to encourage all to not only attend church but to be meaningful members of it. I think that if we cannot positively contribute to our church community and do God's where there then how less likely is it will we live and express God in all His majesty and glory outside church? In such an individualistic age as our own the temptation to drift from Christ perhaps make church even  more important than in the past.

What do you think?

**Update**
This update is in consideration of some of what i said in this post in regards to woman not liking my post because "...its not going to have flowers and a pink background". I realize that I was to some extent attacking my female reader's intelligence in assuming they read blogs mostly based on visual appearance rather than content. To any and all that might have felt I conveyed this I apologize. All the readers of this blog that I have heard from up to this point seem like intelligent and thoughtful people and to imply female readers might only read if the blog was prettier was wrong. 

For the few that have actually seen this blog before reading this post, you will note some small changes have been made in terms of design and whatnot, hopefully making the blog a little more viewer friendly. I would like to  add an image to the blog at the top at least, to make my blog a little more inviting looking so I will hopefully have that soon. I realize I will never be able to compete with the many blogs out there in terms of prettiness, but I don't want this to be an eyesore either. Therefore any suggestions in terms of layout or content as well are much appreciated.

As an aside, I have come to realize that a significant majority of bloggers in general and readers of my blog (or at least commenters) appear to be women. This is interesting on a number of fronts. First, being a guy, I wonder if what I'm writing is relevant to the potential readership of my blog in general and women in particular. Is there things I should be focusing on more, or less for that matter? Secondly is whether my layout is not as woman friendly as it could be in that its not going to have flowers and a pink background, but could be designed to be less minimalist?

Another issue is how people find this site and ways of making the site more accessible. I have attempted some changes already to this effect, but perhaps their is other websites or places I could get the word out in?

Also I realize that I need to post more to get people to come back so I will attempt a once a day schedule, or  something like 5 days a week type of thing. There is also the issue of when to post, and perhaps making it more standardized. we will see.

Finally I am going to try to find more blogs to read and comment on, i think being part of "the community" is a good way to improve my blog, increase readership, and just learn and grow and meet people.

That actually works?

Prayer is a mysterious thing. The cynical and/or the non-believers may say prayer is really just meditation for crazy people (religious people). But as move Christians know, prayer has wonderful power to heal and comfort and protect and guide us through all the good and bad moments of our lives. Prayer is no guarantee that bad times will never befall you or that whatever you prayer for will materialize, but God hears our prayers and I think he considers them indeed.

I say this because I think that my first prayer request came true. The funny thing is that it was not for me, but a friend(and roommate), and non-believer at that.  I have always felt that he would be receptive to the Christian message, but only in the right way, because I could sense their was some overt hostility, even if below that he agreed with many Christian ideas. Because of this, I began praying God would make it possible to give an opportunity for myself or   something to bring Christ into my friend's life.

I had just started praying to God about things of a more personal nature, as my prayers had been more general up to that point, and trying to really act and do God's will more often in my life.

So sure enough I'm in the kitchen yesterday eating crackers when my friend arrives from work. He tells me how work had been stressful then throws a bible on the table that he said he found on the subway. I replied half jokingly that it must be a sign from God, which he replied that he needed something to look to with work and everything stressing him and personal issues as well, and said he used to read the bible. We didn't really talk about it more, it didn't seem like the time to press the issue, but he did take the bible into his room.

In any case its good to see that God does work through us if we allow him, perhaps one could chalk it to coincidence, but one does not find a bible on the subway every day. So to all that feel that prayer is not working for you, look around and stay alert, the Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways.

You ain't workin' til you start sweatin'

I think that one of the more important things I have learned in my time as a new Christian is that you have to work at it. In one sense, simply true belief is all you need to be saved. But if one is not compelled to really live and breath a Christian life then they really don't believe in the first place. I think this is because if you actually believe in God and that Christ died for our sins and all that is taught in the bible then clearly one would try to live those things as best they can. This is why i think the saved through faith alone or with good works as well is a misnomer, because good works are essential proof of true belief.

In any case, my main point is that living a life devoted to God is difficult. If you think of it, if it was easy then everyone would do it and Jesus probably wouldn't have had to visit all those years ago. Not to say that tremendous good doesn't come from a live in Christ, but one must find the constant temptations and distractions that draw us away from holiness. This is why I think it is critical that one sets aside time each day to God, or tries their best to, which is necessary especially early in your Christian life when it is easy to lose thoughts of proper actions and worship. Ideally as you grow in your spiritual walk this time devoted to God should consume your very being, so that every thought, action, and word is done in His glory. But for myself and my other new believers, we need to start small.

In terms of what to do with this time and how long it should be is something I cannot really answer, but I would think 30 minutes to start, which can consist of prayer, reading scripture or other Christian works, listening to worship songs, fellowship with other Christians even, although I think personal devotion should be its own time ideally. I am not being to preach or tell, but just to say what keeps me close to God, for indeed when I get lazy about devoting time to God I tend to see my faith weaken.

So hopefully what I say is meaningful and any tips or suggestions are gladly welcomed.

Commentary on the Prodigal Son

The following is based on a commentary i heard on the Parable of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15:11-32. The parable itself was tied to a study of the Tenth commandment, found Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21.

Short and Sweet

I had someone pray for me specifically yesterday. I think people have prayed for me before, but not while i was present. It helped to illustrate for me the importance of both prayer in general and a Christian community to support you and care for you. I say this because I know that I tend to merely intellectualize God without really devoting myself to him and good works in His glory. We need other people to keep us to account, and to serve as physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so that we can see how others emulate living in Christ. Prayer keeps us focused and connected to God, and I find when I pray less or even lazily I begin to turn away, if ever so slightly. What I state is mostly obvious, but I felt it seemed like something that probably cannot be reiterated enough as we continue on our spiritual walk. For the Body of Christ is not made of one part but many,  and how can we heard God's Wisdom and experience His Grace if we do not talk to Him?

To sin or not to sin, that is the question

While i will do a separate post on the subject in the near future, it occurs to me that if not obvious to the reader that this blog is not really about answering questions or understanding the complexities of theology, because there are several blogs that do that much better than i can hope to, but hopefully my thoughts and ideas can provoke thought and propel people to search for resources to answer there questions. And the blog is new, so there's  much i would like to add to it in the future.