The Narrowing Road

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."-Matthew 7:13-14

The way to Christ is a narrow road.  In my opinion, narrowing.  Getting smaller.

As of late I hear a great majority of Christians claiming that the rapture is happening soon.  I do not think this is altogether wrong, since it is said in part out of hope.  I myself look forward and have hope that the rapture will come soon.

That said, however we must remember that no one except God knows the timing of the rapture.

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."-Matthew 24:36

Not even Jesus in His man-ness (as a friend of mine put it) knows the time when He will come back.  I can just see Jesus standing in Heaven, pacing back and forth, waiting for God to say "Go get 'em!".

Earth is God's world, but satan does have some power.  There is a spiritual battle where the angels and demons do battle but there is also the physical where the Christians do battle with the subtle and also unsubtle sinful ways of the world.

We are the resistance.

We are the warriors in the service of the King.

We fight the pretender.

We are destined for victory.

But it is not ours.  The victory is the victory of God.

Being a Christian isn't 'easy' as it is often made out to be.  It is war, and war is a bloody affair.

As a Christian we face many, many struggles.  I would go as far as to say we face more struggles and hardships then non-believers.  But we have something they don't.  Something that is brings hope to the hopeless.  Rest to the weary. Healing to the hurt.

We have God by our side.  And if we allow Him too, He'll step in front of us.

God does not tempt us-but He does test us.  The beautiful thing about both though, is that He's with us.  Whether we're being tempted or tested, He always provides a way out and if we ask Him and pray He will always reveal it to us.

We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, but we're also its army.

The funny thing about the Kingdom of God's army though is that it's unlike the armies of the earth.  If we allow Him, Christ will come and inhabit our bodies and do battle for us.  And Christ is perfect.  It’s an army of perfect warriors.  An undefeatable army.

It’s right there.  It’s not magic like fantasy magic.  It’s not a spell.  It’s not going to make you fly or have fire spit out of your hands.  But it is powerful.  It’s the power of Jesus Christ.  It’s the power of God.

We Christians have it within our grasp, but we often ignore and dismiss it.

An ex-vampire came to our youth group last week.  To say the least it was an amazing testimony.  I won’t go into the details of what he went into but two things really stuck out.

One:  He told a story about a time two teenagers had been riding bikes and had wandered off into somewhere they shouldn’t have been-a landfill.  An occult ritual was happening and when they saw this they spun around on their bikes and pedaled away.  Without going into too much detail one of the teenagers who wasn’t a Christian was taken by a being.  The other was almost taken, but when he felt a claw-like hand on his chest he screamed out the name of Jesus.  The beast retreated and didn’t bother the teenager.  (The teenager that wasn’t taken was also a Christian).

There’s power in the name of our Savior.

Two:  He told us that through his sixteen years as a vampire, a witch and many other things involved in the occult he hardly ever saw any ‘action’ such as ‘magical’ things happening.  He also said that in the time that he has been a Christian he has learned much more about the spiritual and scene many more ‘magical’ things happen.  Magical being more along the lines of miracles such as healings.

I don’t know about anyone else but I’d say we serve an awesome God.  No need to get into the dark arts to see amazing things.  The devil is weak, our God is awesome in power.

“If you’re reading this, you are the resistance."

In Victory,

Sin=Punishment

Whether it be fantasy, mystery, romance, or any other type of fiction, as well as non-fiction in most cases, when the good guy does something bad, they should be punished.  This is very important, as it displays the morals and the ethics (they are different) of the author, as well as the protagonist and supporting characters.  It's also the natural order of things the way God designed it.  When someone does something wrong they should, and will be punished.  [The last sentence is talking about real life, not books]  There are some authors that try to avoid punishing their characters for doing wrong, this is completely wrong, and in addition to not being a good book, it also is against the Bible.  Don't ask which books do this, I know of at least seven, and if I told you their titles it could spark unneeded debate.

For example, take this completely random situation (I just made it up, it is not from any book, also, don't judge it, it's just an example, I didn't spend hours editing it lol):

Sleen took a hammer to the window.  He heard a crack and then glass falling on the ground.
He crept down the isles of the dark store, completely alone.  He checked his watch, 1:30 AM, he only had five minutes to get it and get out.  He found what he was looking for while waving his flashlight around.  He brought out a hammer and smashed a lock on a cabinet, grabbed a small portable computer and ran for the door.
Sleen noticed a police car was parked on the other side of the street, the officer standing at the door of the building opposite to the store.  The officer ran over to the door, not wasting a moment.

Now, we know nothing about this guy[Sleen], but let's assume he's a good guy.  He works hard everyday to provide for his family of three, but he just has to have this computer.  From here we can take the story two different ways, only one is Biblical, has morals/ethics, and only one makes sense.

Option one
As the officer got closer Sleen started to feel himself panic, he wasn't a bad guy, he was just in a bad situation.  However the police officer didn't seem to be coming to arrest him, he simply waved and approached very friendly.  "Whatcha got there?" the office asked while shining his flashlight on Sleen and then shining it on the window of the store that had been broken.
"Oh, nothing..." Sleen said nervously.
"You got the new Shiny-Laptopo(fictional computer)?  I hear that this is the top-of-the-line computer."
"Really? That's good." Sleen said, still panicking within.
"Okay, well you have a good night now." The officer said as he turned to go back to the other building.

Option two
As the officer got closer Sleen started to feel himself panic, he wasn't a criminal, he didn't kill people, he just wanted a computer.  The officer crossed the street in a flurry and brought his gun out from his belt, "Freeze!  Put your hands in the air and set down the computer down softly,"  Sleen obeyed.  "You're under arrest," the officer quickly grabbed his hands and cuffed them, then shuffled him over to the police car.

I don't think I need to tell you, but the second one is right.  Does it make sense that a police officer would just let the person go after breaking into a store and stealing a laptop?  No, it's against the law and against the Bible.  This is something we've got to remember when writing, we can't let our good guys deeds go unpunished.  We just can't.  Now, you may ask "Are you saying that we should let our bad guys go unpunished?", and I would say yes.  And no.  Yes, they will not be punished yet, though sometimes you can throw in a defeat in battle or whatever fits to your book.  The reason I say no though is because eventually they'll get what's coming to them.  Take for example the devil.  He sinned, he was punished by not being an angel, or being able to reside in Heaven, but in addition he'll be punished in the end, he will suffer forever in his pit.

The Truth Project

So, last summer a group of people nearby(not a church, just a group started by two men) started a program called the Truth Project created by Focus on the Family.  So we went to it for a few weeks, my dad, my bro and me.  One problem though, it started at 6 AM I believe.  That means we get up at like 5:30, not exactly the time I like to get up.

So, recently my dad (who is actually a pastor) started the Truth Project with our church, but there was a minor difference.  Ours start at 6:30 in the evening.  So, back the point of this post.  Tonight we kicked off the 12 week program.  I jotted down some notes that I'll go off of.

The biggest thing in this lesson, a huge one for me, was the following question.  "Why did Jesus come into the world?"  Now, that may seem very basic for a lot of you guys (and gals) but the answer wasn't what I thought it would be. Read the following:  Jesus-"...for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth." (Emphasis added)  That passage is inside John 18:37.  If you didn't catch that, Jesus is saying this before Pilate, that He(Christ Jesus) came to Testify to the Truth.  Now, this is not to say that Jesus did not come to save sinners.  It is very clear through the Gospels that He did.  But what was new here is that throughout my 13 years of church, I do not recall one time being told this.  Not once.

But here Jesus is, telling Pilate that He came to testify to the truth.  So this is not to say that the church should stop saying that Jesus came to save sinners, but rather that they should also say that Jesus came to Testify to the Truth.


But that's not all of what this lesson covered, not by far.  I won't begin to be able to cover all of the stuff that came up in this lesson, but I'll go on rambling a little longer, so with that thought, I move to point two.


*Booming Voice* "Point Two*


So, if Jesus was testifying as He said He was, what was on trial? (in case you're confused, in this case testifying is used in reference to a trial like in court)  Since there's not exactly a way to make you think about it for a moment, I'll just say it.  The truth was on trial.  The world was in a sense suing(?) truth.  The world had converted truth to a twisted opposite.  The lie.  Untruth.  Inspired and created by satan, the snake brought the lie, the opposite of the language of God, to the world.  And so the subject on truth was on trial, and continues to be on trial today.  That's the ever-going battle, lies vs Truth.


Sadly, I cannot remember if the famous quote, "The truth will set you free" is from the Bible or just a famous saying.  But in the Truth Project, another question was-"If the Truth sets us free, what holds us captive?"  I think the answer is obvious by now.  And that is lies.


One last point and that'll be it (until next week hehe)


So, Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life correct?  Yes, correct.  So we know He's the Way.  The Way to the Father, the Way to Heaven, and the Way to the Cross.  We know He's the Life.  We cannot live life how God intended without Him.  But that leaves one thing.  The Truth.  And that begs one more question.  Us Christians are fine with the Way and the Life.  Actually we love the Way and the Life.  But how does mankind and us Christians respond to Truth.  I mean really, how do we respond to truth.  That's not for me to answer.  And so I'll leave it at that.  That's for you and God.


So, I end this post until next week.  But not with one last statement, barely a sentence I promise ;),


"What is Truth?"

What is your CD Player?

Today I was looking for an old PC game I used to play that I had lost some time back, and while I was looking through the CD's trying to find just that one, I remembered something.  One Christmas about five or more years ago I got a board game(I believe) for a present, while all my older cousins and brother got a CD player.  Now, before going on you have to understand that in my extended family I am the middle child, not exactly in the group of older cousins, and too old to be considered one of the younger cousins.  So, I was always trying to do what the older kids were doing.
So when all the older kids got fancy CD players and I got a board game I wasn't exactly thrilled.  So after much complaining to my parents my dad took me to the Wal-Mart and traded back the board game for a CD player.  Naturally I was really happy, but how long did it last?
The moral of the story is that even though my parents thought I'd enjoy a board game more than a CD player (if they thought I would have enjoyed a CD player more they would have gotten me one) I wanted what the majority wanted.  So, why am I telling all of you this?  Because, when I was looking through all those CD's a thought came on me, that or God let me see this situation in a new light.  I gave up what would last for something that was 'in'.  How often do we do this in our lives?
How often do we ignore what the Lord wants for us to get something that is just a fading moment.  In case you haven't heard CD players aren't used very much anymore.  The new thing is an iPod, the CD player was just a passing thing, how long do you think the iPod will last though?  It seems to be sticking, but I am pretty sure something new will come soon.
Back to the point though.  I think we often get off track of what God wants for us, for something that the is hip in the world.  We need to remember that God is the only One that can see the whole picture.

Theology

 Predestination, Part One

On a forum [http://www.heedtheprophecies.com/theunderground/] I got into a discussion with them on theology, particularly one topic, predestination.  So, I decided to make a post about what I think and believe about this topic.

Being that I believe in predestination, I will only post why I believe in it, and not the arguments against, that's your job to do through the comments.  So, if you don't know, predestination is the belief that before God created the world, He knew who would come to Heaven, and that only those who He chose will go to Heaven.  So, first off, I'm going to give a few verses that support this:

•  ²⁹For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.³⁰Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.  Romans 8:29-30 
• ⁵Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, Ephesians 1:5 
• ¹¹In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:  Ephesians 1:11

Note that all of these verses are King James Version and have been copied and pasted from the internet, but not before I looked it up in my Bible and checked them word for word, so these verses are accurate.

     These are the verses I could find on so short notice.  It is obvious to me from these verses that God chose His people from the foundation of the earth and it is not by our choice but by His Will that we are selected.  While some may say that it is unfair that God chooses some and not all, I think it is unfair that we are not all condemned to hell and that God was merciful and selected some people to go to Heaven with Him.  "For all fall short of the glory of God", none of us should be allowed to go to heaven, because we are sinful by nature.  Now I am not saying that God will turn anyone away that wishes to accept Jesus into their hearts.  No, it is my belief that God will not turn away anybody that desires Him.  But I also believe that no one will have that desire except if God has put it in them, which means, only those that He chose at the founding of the world will have that desire to follow Him, so no one that has not been called by God will will ask for Jesus to enter their lives, and so that argument is not accurate.

If you do not agree with what I have said I encourage that you comment, but for this post I ask a few things:  First, please have at least one verse to back your argument(you may use the same verse if you choose to comment again) and please make sure it is accurate, word for word, second, please stay strictly on topic about Predestination, whether it be pro or con, and third, please use proper grammar and spelling, it's hard to take a discussion/debate seriously when people aren't using proper spelling.  

Part two coming soon, in that post I hope to debate some of the questions and arguments of predestination as well as have more verses to back it.