Starting tomorrow.  I will be re-posting over the next few days, the first chapter of a book that started this site.

Continue to AFFECT THE NOISE in your life with the Truth of Christ.

Peace and Love of Christ to all who stop by.

Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

You see God is a jealous God, and his jealously makes him want to rise up in anger against that which separates us from him.  That is sin.  Our sinful nature is what provokes this jealous anger.

If you read through the Old Testament God’s jealously rises up against the sins of Israel to the point that he wants to beat the sin out of the world.  Now think about that.  He was so jealous of the sin in the world he destroyed it by flood,  Sodom and Gomorra destroyed,  Israel conquered by Babylon,  all because they refused to listen to the prophets,  and heed God’s warning.  God demanded sacrifices to pay for sin, but the hearts of His people were never pure.  The sacrifices were futile.

What was a Jealous God to do to restore the relationship with his people he created?  Destroy the world via flood again?  No he promised not to do that.  More futile sacrifices?  No.  Well he sent a little Baby, His Son to save us.

II Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

To be sin… That is a powerful statement. What was God thinking?  He wanted to rise up and destroy sin, to beat it out of this world. So why would he make his Son be that sin for us?

See, the baby that came into this world in an unassuming way, was beaten and crucified so that the sin that was laid upon him would be destroyed.  God used the life and death of this baby to restore the relationship with His people, His church, by rising up with out stretched arms as the ultimate sacrifice on a cross.  Christ was sent once and for all to purify,  by His sacrifice,  the people of His Church.

Titus 2:13-15 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

¹⁵These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

This Christmas as we celebrate the Joy that is Christ’s birth, let us not for get the ultimate sacrifice he made for us to restore our relationship with his Father.

Luke 2: 1-20

¹In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ²(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³And everyone went to his own town to register.

⁴So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ^[a] the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

There is a tremendous Spiritual battle being waged for the heart and soul of Christ’s church.  Christ came to this earth for His church, and John in Revelation writes about the visions of this spiritual battle that were revealed to him while on the Island of Pantmos.   What we often miss is how the birth of Christ was revealed in the spiritual realm, and the great lengths God will go to to protect his Son and the church.

Rev 12:4-6, 13-17

⁴His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. ⁵She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. ⁶The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

¹³When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. ¹⁵Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. ¹⁶But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. ¹⁷Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

It would be somewhat wrong for me to leave it there without saying:  That through Christ his church is protected because of his victory on the cross, and his defeat of the grave.   As the church we must hold to that Truth, and battle daily in the spiritual war against Christ’s church.

Isaiah 8:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you  a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6-7

⁶ For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, ^[a] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

Micah 5:2

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans  of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins  are from of old,
from ancient times.

Phil 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Over the past year or so with my job, I have been through an extreme amount of change. To be honest it really started about 2 years ago in DEC when, it was integration week, I sat crying in our companies new Lakeland FL Office. Without going into a lot of details let’s just say it had been a long week, and I had just finished with a phone call that wasn’t pleasant about some issue with the integration. I was ready to quit and not return to work on the following Monday. For the next 9 months, I let that drag me down at work. I could not focus, I could not perform my job to the best of my ability. I was more negative than I had ever been. My negativity affected others, and I didn’t even know it was happening. I prayed and prayed for another job. Well a new job never happened.

In Aug of 08 I had a meeting with my coach, about a situation that happened in the Lexington office, as well as the affects my attitude had on my performance. The crux, get focused again or more drastic measures. That is the day I met grace face to face. The meeting was painful, eye opening, and the springboard I needed to get me out of the funk. You often hear people say “By the Grace of God”…Well when Christ takes hold of you when you are down(Which he did that day) that is what you get Grace.

The past year has been a steady move forward for me. Both in Faith and at work. As Paul says in Phil 12:

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Everyday I rely more and more on Christ to move me forward towards him, and this attitude of moving forward has filtered over to my work. The past is the past.

13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

The past no longer drags me down. I remember the past not for the negative but the lessons. The lessons that propel me forward to a strong faith and reliance on Christ. No longer the past and guilt an anchor. My future with Christ pulls me forward.

14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As for the new job I prayed for…In March of this year I was stripped of some of my managerial duties, because of my past. However, I was given a chance to rebuild my job, at the company I worked for. I had the chance to move forward unhindered by my past. So now I press on with Christ, with standing negative emotions through His grace. I know the goal before me in heaven, and work to glorify God daily at my job.

Easy? No, Perfected? No. Worth every step along the way to grow my faith, and love my God and Christ more today than yesterday? Yo Betcha!!!

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This is the 15th week of the Blogged Bible Study. We are going chapter by chapter
through Paul’s letter to the Church of Philippi. To read the other posts on chapter
3 of Phillipi check out the Blogged Bible Study page.

¹If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,

Fairly simple and straight forward.  Christ is to be the uniting factor of the church.  By being united we will be comforted in love and fellowship because we share His spirit.   We will then act as the church should with tenderness and compassion.

²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Being like-minded, is followed by 2 qualifiers. The first “having the same love”, and I think that it goes a lot to what I wrote about in my post the other day. That we must approach everything in regards to the love of Christ. He did nothing without love. Healed, cast out demons, turned over tables, taught, prayed and died all for Love. Becoming like minded starts with everyone loving as Christ loved.

³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Don’t think this can be said any different or added two.  Christ said it the best though:

Matthew 19:29-30 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother^[a] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.

Luke 13:30 Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.”

⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Verse 4 though shows that Paul reverses a bit in saying “not only to your own interest”. He is saying that we must take care of our own faith as we minister to others as well. If we don’t grow our faith with Christ and keep our discipline in check we can’t effectively minister to others.

Over all the spirit of the Church of Christ must be united in a humility that provided for the needs of others.

We are human and we have no power to resist the tempation of the world. So What does it mean that Christ became human?

Continuing to go verse by verse through Philippians.

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Brother Ambe over in the forum discussion said the following:

Remember in the Garden of Eden that GOD made man in His Image? Well while man fell into original sin we lost the image of GOD and are now we are in the image of Adam. Now all those that are in the Image of Adam are dead, but all those that are in the Image of Christ live. It’s the Holy Spirit that does the work of putting us in the Image of Christ, all we do is place our Faith in what Jesus did at Calvary. Trust me we have the easy part. But be sure that God will complete what He started in us.

God intends to restore us to the perfection we were meant for in the beginning.

II Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Remember that righteousness is the very nature of who God is, and what meant for us.

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

This one throws me every time, and leads to the debate over the next verse.  It just goes to show that Jesus understood where his authority came from and that God set him on the path of Death and Resurrection with a command.

John 10:17-19 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”  19 At these words the Jews were again divided.

Rev 2:27-28 He will rule them with an iron scepter;  he will dash them to pieces like pottery’^[— just as I have received authority from my Father. 28 I will also give him the morning star.

Knowing he has that authority though,

7 but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

A very debated verse as to what it means that Christ took on the Nature and being made in human likeness.

He “Made himself nothing taking on the very nature of a servant” ?   Does that mean he set aside some of His power to become human? or Does it mean that he allowed himself to just experience what it was like to be human?  That is the debate, and one we may not know the answer to until we get to ask him ourselves.

In all of the debate though the important part is the we believe God became human.  He came to this earth in this way so he could experience our temptations, suffering, hurts and joys.  This because he wanted us to know that he understood us, and that when we turn to him and rely on him we know he has experienced everything as we did.  He just did not fall to the temptation, and sin.

In our humanness and propensity to choose sin, it is only through Christ that we have the power to overcome sin and become the very nature of what God intended us to be.  Righteousness.

Christ became human for a plan that we as humans have a hard time comprehending. It is through that plan that everyone will know that Jesus Christ is Lord.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Christ became man so he could experience all the same joys and sufferings we do. So that when we turn to him for comfort or guidance, we turn to a Savior that knows what we are going through.

He also became human so that he could die to fulfill God’s plan of salvation.

The other day I was talking to a co-worker about Christ and his death.  When I said, God came down from heaven in the form of His Son to die for us; my co-worker looked at me in disbelief.  “What do you mean God came down?” As I explained this too him, that question made me realize that the mystery of the trinity and how God works through it will not be fully understood tell we get to see Him in heaven. To know that God came down making himself human, made himself equal to us in his human appearance without forsaking his knowledge or power…Then knowingly stretched out his arms on the cross.  Just amazing the God of Heaven loves us this much.

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,

Then in 9 we get a picture of the love and reward the Father has bestowed on His son, and allows Christ to take his rightful place back on the throne of heaven, so that at the right time.

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father

EVERY Knee…EVERY Tongue… This is a point of recognition of the fulfillment of God’s plan as revealed in his word. This will be the time of truth for many, on this earth who have not seen or believed the Truth of Christ. For some this will be the first time confessing this, but not all will be saved by this profession of Christ being Lord. This ends all debates on who is Lord of all.

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This is the 14th week of the Blogged Bible Study. We are going chapter by chapter
through Paul’s letter to the Church of Philippi. To read the other posts on chapter
1 of Phillipi check out the Blogged Bible Study page.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul in chains, knows he needs to work to preserve what has been built in Philippi.  He knows that even though the church is strong in God’s love they need encouragement and to be built up in the Lord.  “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

There was still work to be done, and the church had to carry on with the work Christ commanded.

His will, His command is for us to Love Him and Love others. Loving deeply, we must learn when, how and why we must love.  To look at a situation and figure out why we must love when we don’t want to.

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

We are commanded to love in all situations by Christ.  Paul is praying that as we learn more about the command of Christ that the love we show grows deeper.  We must be quick to recognize when love is needed, which is all the time.  We must be quick to recognize when we are not loving others.

We must try to understand a love so big that Christ would willingly die on the Cross.

Eph 3:18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

As a followers of Christ we are called to go deeper… We must consciously make the choice to love and dive deeper.  So deep we will take risks to love someone.

Christ not only risked his life for us, he died for us.  He loves us from that Cross no matter where we are at in our lives.  We must learn to love like that.

10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

Discerning then what is best. Not Good or just Ok… Best.   We must be able to be able to look at a situation and discern how God wants you to react, but not only how we will react but when and why.

Like in… Romans 12:1-2 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

We will be able to test and approve God’s will only if we give our bodies and mind over to God completely, and in worship of him. Holy and Pleasing not to people of this world.. Holy and Pleasing to God.  Our mind must be renewed with Scripture, God’s truth, and no other truth.

His truth is love, and discerning how to love in all circumstances is against the patterns and lies of the world.  When we break the pattern of the world we will be able to Discern God’s will and how to best love through God’s will in our lives without all the clutter.  Our view of His will for us to Love will be pure.

We the church today have the duty to continue the work of Christ.   As we learn more and more about Christ, we learn more and more how to love.   Our knowledge of him is manifested in how we choose to Love others.  The church in Philippi chose to love on Paul while he was in prison and not turn their back on him.   They had learned from Christ’s example, and used this as a chance to glorify God.  They made the choice.  They chose to make a difference.  They chose to carry on the good work until Christ comes back.

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This is the 13th week of the Blogged Bible Study. We are going chapter by chapter
through Paul’s letter to the Church of Phillipi. To read the other posts on chapter
1 of Phillipi check out the Blogged Bible Study page.

These question came to me as I went through my morning routine with my wife and kids.   As the door closed the last words out of my mouth was “I love you”.   Yes I meant it, and I do love my wife,  but I couldn’t help but wonder if I had shown my wife that I loved her.    Do I understand enough about love to recognize when I am not loving another person.   Sure I love, but am I loving?  Am I acting out that love in action.  Sometimes I realize I still need to practice.

The thing about love, it is more than words.  It is action.   Have you every wondered why doctors practice medicine.  You would think that the word perform would be better.   Doctors spend a tremendous amount of time gaining knowledge in med school, but it is not until they get to their internships that they put their knowledge into action and practice what they know.   It is then that they start to gain the true knowledge from their practice, that their actions have an affect on the health of those they treat.

We do the same think with love.  We claim to know a lot about it and express it in so many different ways.   We use it as a passing expression,  “I love _________! (New York is a common fill in for the blank) We may even send a card or flowers to say it.  We spend a lot of time trying to learn about love.  From Venus to Mars,  Dr. Phil to Dr. Laura.  We want to know all we can about the best feel good feeling in the world.  Unlike doctors though, we may be good about gain knowledge abut love,  but we are not good about putting it into action.  Until we learn to truly love, our affect on someone’s life or our affect on Christ’s church will be minimal.

We know we have to love others, but we put conditions on it.  We don’t just love them regardless…we don’t love the others with our actions.

Acting in love means sacrifice, and giving something up.

The most famous verse of the bible (hang on while I put on my rainbow wig):

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Emphasis mine)

Notice God didn’t say “yeah I love you”, and that was all.  No God loved us enough that he gave.   Gave us his Son.  God put is love into action.

1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (Emphasis Mine)

Jesus most of the time expressed his love through actions not words.   He would talk about being love,  and what love was suppose to be.  And then in one self sacrificing act he lived out the ultimate love for us.

Christ being the foundation of the Church built it on His love.  Christ commanded us to love God and Others.   To truly learn how to love as He did,  we must practice the act of loving together as a Christ’s church.   We must hold each other accountable to love, and extend that love to everyone.    How else will we know what love truly is?