The Gift of Life

before I get started this is just a small word study done on the eight gifts of God that i have chosen to study before Christmas, this is more for me then anything. but feel free to read along if you wish.

Today's gift is life.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,and have it to the full.

what a wonderful gift that God want to give each and every one of us. not only does he want to give us life but he wants to give it to us to the full. he has given us all this physical life but he also wants to give us a second life, an eternal life.

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. he who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. do you believe this?"

this is some of the greatest hope we have a believers in Christ Jesus. to know that even though we may die we will still be alive; alive in christ.

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

this is a well known verse by not only the christian comunity but also the non christian comunity. its seen every whare, My best guess is that God wants every one to know that he has the gift to true life.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life Christ Jesus our Lord.


"sin is anything we think, say or do that brakes Gods law or makes him sad" this is a saying that i used when teaching kids for the past few years. in another verse in Romans it says for all have sinned. we all deserve death but God gift to us is eternal life. 

the christmas season

Welcome to the Christmas season of 2015. To celebrate this year I am going to write about eight of the gifts the God gave us when he came to earth as Jesus. I would love if you came along with me on this journey. I will post every Tuesday and Thursday between tomorrow and Christmas eve. 

Here is a sneak preview of what I will be writing about.

Tuesday 1st - Life (John 10:10)
Thursday 3rd - Hope (Job 17:15)
Tuesday 8th - Love (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Thursday 10th - Faith (2 Corinthians 5:7)
Tuesday 15th - Peace (John 16:33)
Thursday 17th - Relationship (Revelation 3:20)
Tuesday 22nd - Family (Ephesians 1:5)
Thursday 24th - Confidence (Proverbs 3:26)  

The Debt of Unforgivness

Matthew 18:21-35

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Now before I continue to much further I want to give credit where credit is dew. the other day as I was heading to work I was listening to walk in the word on Moody radio. James Macdonald was talking about forgiveness in a seres they have going on now called have the funeral. because my drive to work is about 15 minuets I didn't get to hear the whole thing but I did hear really stuck me and I wanted to share with all of you what I learned from the clip. a lot of what I will wright today come from that sermon.

if you want to hear the whole series of sermons you can find it here on

http://www.jamesmacdonald.com

I want to talk this passage and walk though it section by section so I will post the verse then write a little bit about it.

Matthew 18:21-22

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

This is an introduction to the parable to come, here peter is asking the lord how many times must he forgive someone, thinking that maybe after so many offences we can chose to not forgive someone. but imagine if our God was like that; nope sorry that was your 1,851 sin I only forgive 1,850. how many of us would have even made it to our 5th birthday? our God is a God of forgiveness and so should we be a people of forgiveness.

Matthew 18:23-24

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

Here we have a compression were Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God and bringing it to a level that we can understand. This is the only way we can learn about the kingdom of God with our limited intelligence compared to God. The king in this parable is God and the servant is you. I looked up what a talent was but could not find a strait answer to what it was but one site, yahoo answers (really great site to get information from right) said that one talent is about the equivalent to $360,000 so in essence this servant owed $3,600,000,000. Let that sink in a second. we do not owe God $3,600,000,000 but our sins weight is that heavy something that we could never handle on our own. Just let that sink in of a second. seriously take a moment before you continue reading this blog.

Matthew 18:25-27

And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 

Clearly this is something we can not deal with on our own but we can admit that we have done wrong and ask God for his Mercy. That is what this servant did after he heard the consequence of his debt he asked for Mercy to be shown to him and the master gave him not only Mercy but also forgiveness of his debt. Not only will this man not have to pay the consequence of his debt but he has also been wiped clean of it he now owes nothing to his master. what a great thing to hear as a sinner and believer in Christ. Our debt is insurmountable and the consequence is unbearable. But God full of Mercy and grace forgave us our debt and set us free from the consequence of our sin. Can we just let that set in also. How great and powerful our God is and how great a love he has for each and every one of us. take a moment and let that settle in also.

Matthew 18:28-30

 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’  So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

So after being forgiven such a Great debt he probably walked out of there feeling pretty good, what compeled him to do what he did next is beyond me. But lets all take a second to really stop and think about our own lives and when we have been just like this man and chose not to forgive someone when we have been forgiven much. Also lets take a look at how much 100 denarii is compared to ten thousand talents. biblehub.com puts a denarii at about the equivalent of 20 us cents. so 100 denarii is about $20. this man had just been forgive of such a great debt why could he not forgive this little debt? How can we not forgive others of the wrong things they have done to us when we have been forgive such a great debt?

Matthew 18:31-34

 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’  And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

God sees everything we do and he knows all that we have done and will do, he is outside of time. The master was very unpleased with his servant and rightfully so. The master calls him in and turns him over to the jailers or in some translation the tormentors, till he could pay back his debt. You may ask yourself what debt hes was already forgiven? Did the master really want him to pay him back his debt or was there another debt that he is talking about? lets remember that the servants debt is Representative of our sinful condition and the masters forgiveness is our salvation. Now if you take it as the servant must pay back his original debt then that would mean that we lose our salvation if we cause not to forgive someone. I do not believe this way, I believe that the debt is the debt of not showing Mercy to his fellow servant by not forgiving him. When we chose not to forgive someone we chose to carry around the burden and the hurt we are turned over to the tormentors. 

Im not saying that it is always easy to forgive some one, but I am saying that it is important and not only that but its necessary. Sometimes it will take some time to forgive someone and thats ok just keep praying about it and choosing to forgive them. As someone once told me every time you think about that person say I forgive them till one day you actually mean it. 

I hope this has helped as much or more then it has helped me.
God Bless

The Little Teapot

I'm a little teapot short and stout
Here is my handle here is my spout
When I get all steamed up here me shout
Tip me over and pour me out

This is a realy simple childrens song that most of us grow up singing.
Some fun facts about the song:
1) The name of the song is actually "The teapot song"
2) It was published in 1939
3) A man named George Sanders wrote the song for Clarence Kelley and his wife to help teach children the art of tap dancing.

All this information and more can be found on  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a_Little_Teapot

As you can already tell, this song has been on my mind lately. I was actually on my way to work and I was continually humming this song. So I thought to myself, "Why on earth is this song stuck in my head? I mean, I know I love working with children and I was watching my nephews just a few days ago, but still why this song?" Once I got to work, we had no customers - mostly because we just opened. It was at that point that I got a thought and thought I might share it with all of you. 

There are three parts of this song that stick out to me and how it relates to our life as a Christian.

1) I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle and here is my spout.
After salvation, one of the longest journeys we all take is learning who we are in the kingdom of heaven. Another way we could sing this is, "I'm a little Christian saved by Christ, here is my Bible there is my church". We as Christians all too often forget who we are compared to Christ. Normally we either think of ourselves too highly and better than others around us or we think of ourselves as too lowly - not remembering that we are sons and daughters of the most high God. 

2) When I get all steamed up hear me shout!
The more and more we learn about who we are in Christ, the more and more Christ gives us passions and love for him and others. The more and more passion and love we have, the more we want to shout. Just like a teapot, the hotter it gets, the louder it whistles. So another way to sing that line might be, "When Christ gives me passion, hear me shout".

3) Tip me over and pour me out
 Once Christ gives us passion, sometimes we get in the way and want to do it our way and Christ has a different plan for us. Sometimes he has to tip our life upside down to show us his way - and that is always better than our way. So another way to sing that line might be "He'll tip me over and pour me out". 

We need to allow Christ to take full reign in our lives so he can fill us with his love. Then when we can no longer contain it, we need to pour that love into others around us. Lets all go out and soak the land in God's love and watch the fruits grow.

I'm a little Christian saved by Christ
Here is my Bible, there is my church
When Christ gives me passion, hear me shout
He'll tip me over and pour me out

North vs South

There are many differences when it comes to living in the north vs living in the south. here are just a few i picked up on when living in the south after growing up in the north. Side note:Northerners please don't kill me we all know its true.

Shopping cart vs buggy

           here in the north we call the Rollie medal thing in the store a shopping cart or cart for short. plus there almost aways broken or freezing because our weather hates us. In the south they call them buggys and were not talking about the creepy crawlers outside. they are almost always in good shape because there weather loves them. (what did we do to deserve this northerners)

Hand shake vs Hug

            the custom of greeting people differs also. in the north you shake hands on a rare occasion when you know some one really well and haven't seen them in a while you give them a hug but this is rarely seen. of course you have the older grandma that hugs everyone and makes them feel acquired (Just so you know I love you for that and keep doing it we all need it). In the south hand shakes are still a thing but having a stranger hug you is not as uncommon as you would think.

ignoring other human beings even exist vs waving and smiling at everyone you meet.

            when I first went down south and strangers were talking to me I kinda freaked out like this is not normal but the longer I stayed the more it grew on me. having a smiling face everywhere i go and having people acknowledge i existed was nice. unfortunately I cant say the same for the north for the most part you will have a few people who will be like that and i am truly thankful for them. But a majority of the time if you wave at someone you don't know they may just look at you like your a chicken with its head cut off.

Winter vs Summer

              North = nice summers and falls and hell froze over winters and cold rain springs. sometimes we wonder if the sun died because we never see it except in the summer ans some of fall.
             South = great springs and falls, hell on earth summers and nice winters exempt for the occasional ice storm about every other year or so. there is almost never snow and that just depends on who you are if that is a positive or negative, i find it to be a positive though.

 Driving

               Just so you know but north and south drivers, drive me crazy when it comes to cars on the road. in the north as long as you are going 5 over you wont get ran over to bad. In the south you never know when someone is going to be turning because they never use there turn signals. (northerners i know we all think we have a problem with this but trust me we don't) while we are on the topic of driving let talk driving in inclement weather. we in the north got this southerners I'm sorry but you just would never make it up here.

I know there is so much more we could talk about but ill leave it there for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. If you have any blog ideas that you would like to hear or any things you would add to this one please feel free to comment. also if this is your first time here check out my other blogs.