Stay tuned…
10
Oct
08
Stay tuned…
… Philter48 Ministries is coming soon!
Digging into what it means to be noble leaves many of us with a choice we should ponder.
If we are going to live our lives as an apprentice to become just like Christ, we need to always remember to do noble things, and each noble task will always be difficult. A life as His Disciple should be a glorious one, but a gloriously difficult one. The difficulty I speak of should not make us just give up, it should fire us up inside to perservere and overcome.
One difficult noble task is to get outside of our comfort zone of the world. We are called to be different, and if we jump out of that comfort zone and put ourselves out there for HIm, and be the salt and light He wants us to be, we will leave a strong legacy.
Leave a strong legacy for Christ not for yourself. Do not put your name on a building to be remembered…put Christ’s name first in all you do to be remebered. That to Christ is honorable.
Chapter 2 of this book is a wake up call for me personally to watch my every move. My legacy is at stake as my kids watch me when I do not even realize they are watching me. I need to BE the church 24/7/365 as Christ intended, for my family and others to see what Christ looks like and is all about.
His Faithful Servant,
Brian
20
Aug
08
My verses for Chapter 2.
The ideas and thoughts around Noble finally started pouring in on Sunday.
Here are some verses, I have discovered that lead to what the choice of doing what is Noble/Honorable means.
Isa 58:13
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the LORD’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
Dan 2:11 “Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.”
Mathew 20
13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Ga 4:18 But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you.
The following 3 translations of 2 Cor8:21` together bring a richness to our understanding of the word Noble/Honorable.
NIV
2 Cor 8:21 For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.
KJV
21 Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men
ESV
21 for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man
Just trying to get my head around the word noble from the NIV and the word honorable from other translations. Here are the verses I am praying about for Chapter 2.
Acts 6:3 – Being someone full of the Holy Spirit and good sense
Romans 12:17 – Do not repay evil for evil
Romans 13:13 – Behave decently
I Thessolonians 4:12 – Winning respect of outsiders (Not dependant on anyone)
1 Timothy 2:2 – Live peaceful and quiet lives
1 Timothy 3:4 – Having your children respect you
1 Timothy 3:8 – Do not pursue dishonest gain
1 Timothy 3:11 – Be trustworthy
Titus 3:14 – Live good, productive lives
Hebrews 13:18 – Live honorably with a clear conscience
1 Peter 2:12 – Have good deeds to glorify God
This is a start….
08
Aug
08
Moving on to Noble..
Brian and I are moving forward. We met last night on Chapter one. Overall we are pleased with the content of Chapter one. There are a few edits to do, and we are both praying about the first Paragraph.
God is moving this book forward, with that in mind we decided to move on to, What is Noble? We know the first chapter is the most important, but we have been working on it for 3-4 months. Time to look at some fresh content, and come back to What is True?, with a fresh look later.
We will be working seperately the next few weeks to define Noble, and then start the process of blending our voices into one again for Chapter 2.
We both pray that God continues to move us in his will as we work on this book.
Onward and Upward.
Short post.. I will add more later.
I have been thinking and praying about being the Church were ever I am, and how this ties into our search for Truth in this world.
Brian said in comment on another blog.
According to His Word, the church is the body of believers. Should we not BE the church wherever we are, not GO to church just on Sunday mornings to be a passive spectator?
Amen Brian.
There is nothing wrong with going to church on Sunday. Infact I highly recomend it. However we need to get out of our seats and do much much more than participate. We must act and spread the love of Christ.
I wrote in the Blogged Bible Study about Christ meeting the need even in the mundane little ways.
To love as Christ expects is the Truth of how we are to live. To show that love is to find the NEED. I mean Christ gave us one command to follow that covers everything. LOVE! Love God, Love others. We can’t do that just sitting and listening in Church.
Finding the Need beyond the four walls of the Church is the Truth of acting out in Love.
28
Jul
08
We are still here
The posts have been quiet, so I just wanted to let everyone know we are still alive and kicking!
Chapter one still being written, ripped apart, written again, ripped apart, and being written again.
More to come….
14
Jul
08
Losing sight of Absolute Truth
It was a story of mass murder. The newspapers gave it front-page attention along with photos of the unfortunate victims. In the wake of the killings investigating officials were heard to say things like:
This is the most horrific thing I have seen.
They suffered in ways you and I can’t imagine.
When we find (the killer), he’s going to be the kind of person who has no conscience.
Whose deaths prompted this outpouring of shock and anger? Tourists? School children? No.
The victims were 33 range horses.
They were gunned down on the evening of Dec. 27 2005 in a canyon just 10 miles outside Reno, Nevada.
Senseless, brutal killings: the taking of innocent life.
The emotional reaction is understandable.
Interesting isn’t it, how in our modern times we get so worked up about killing and cruelty to animals, yet atrocities against human beings often leave us apathetic and unmoved.
a. Road rage
b. School shootings
c. Terrorism
d. Everyday violence on the streets
e. Abortion
We are nearly desensitized to news reports of murder. Combine all this information with the brutally violent movies and video games that our nation cannot consume enough of.
The sobering reality is that we are a people losing respect for human life.
We are on a slippery slope, and need to filter out what the world is showing as truth, and put on the spectacles that God has given us to see the world through His eyes.
Unless there is a dramatic change in the American mindset the value of life will depreciate with each passing decade. As Christians become more relative in their definition of truth, life in America could easily rival other worldview atrocities we have seen in history and keep sliding the slippery slope.
Seek Truth … Seek Christ.
I was going through some stuff on my Blackberry and found some early notes on What is True?, that I thumbed out in the memo pad. It is mostly a series of questions that were going through my mind as we started the first chapter. It gives a good frame of reference for what I was praying and thinking about early on…
__________________
God is true. God does not want anything that between us and him that would distract from our relationship with him. He wants us to experience him fully.
Gray areas…
If you struggle with alcohol do you go to a Bar? If you don’t is it ok to drink?
If you struggle with lust do you watch an R rated movie with nudity knowing it could lead you else where? If you don’t is it ok to watch the movie?
If you skip church for the big game do you have the correct priorities? Is it ok to watch sports as long as God comes first when the choice is him over the big game?
Does a person gamble every penny they earn without thought of God’s provision? What if a person has there financial house in order and glorifies God well beyond the first fruits?
What is true can be relative to the any person in any moment. Does scripture say don’t drink, Don’t gamble, don’t watch movies, don’t watch sports?
Again God does not want anything to interfere with our relationship with him.
Heb: Let us throw off all that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles us.
It seems that it is when that which we partake in, movies, sports, gambling, drinking….and a whole host of others, entangles us in a way that we are distracted from God, that is when our way of living becomes not True. We start living the untruth/lie of Sin.
So the person struggling with lust would not go to the R rated movie.
The alcoholic would not enter a bar.
The sports nut would choose church over HD ESPN.
The Gambler would put the extra entertainment money in an envelop to a missionary.
That would be living the truth.
________
Chapter one is shaping up to not answer the above questions, but to help define what living for Truth should be. It will help when there is a choice in a gray area.
Now I realize it is the gray areas that hinder us.
