Saved, But as by fire?

Baptism by fire. It is a topic that has brought a lot of thought and discussion over the years. The book of acts indicates that when the apostles where baptized with fire, they literally saw tongues of flame resting on each other. Then they went out speaking tongues, that is every person heard them in their own tongue. Will everyone speak tongues? No. But everyone will receive gifts. That's another topic though.

What is baptism by fire? To really understand this we have to understand some of the things that John spoke of. For instance, John said he was baptizing with water, but another would come who baptized with fire. What does water baptism do? The Bible tells us we do it for forgiveness of sin. It makes us ritually pure, replacing all the laws of washing that the Israelites had to follow day in and day out, constantly washing themselves, their cups and bowls, and instruments of worship.

Now that we look at it that way, it becomes a little more apparent what Baptism with fire really is. But we also need to look at a few more verses to clarify. Malachi 3:3 says that the Messiah will refine us like silver and gold, removing the impurities. Peter 1:7 reminds us also, that gold is purified through fire. Yet again 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 reminds us that our life will be tested and the gold, silver, and precious stones will survive, but not the wood, hay or stubble.

You see when someone has a chunk of gold from the ground, he heats it with fire until it melts. Once it melts the impurities float to the top. Then the blacksmith can scoop out the impurities and he's left with pure gold. This is what baptism with fire is. We receive the Holy Spirit when we are baptized with water, and then Jesus, via that Spirit, begins to purify our hearts. For some it's instant, and others it takes time. In the end we will be conformed to that state that God created us for, by purification. He will patiently and lovingly melt our hearts, and then remove the bad things (the wood, the hay, the stubble all things that perish and are of the flesh) and when he's finished there will be nothing left but gold, silver, and precious gems (faith, hope, love, long suffering, etc.)

So be of good cheer! If you are finding it easier and easier to be obedient to the Lord, then you are already under his cloak. You are in the process of being baptized by fire. It is a lifelong process in which God makes us who we need to be. We are not who we used to be, but we are also not who we are going to be. We must put our faith in Him, and trust in His holy work!

Wheat or Tare

Wheat or Tare

Though darkness may attempt to consume me
The light of day always comes through
From the fruit of the forbidden tree
Came pain that no man could subdue

Independent thought came the call
Of spilt blood against the hand
Hidden, but not secret the fall
As it resounded through the land

Wandering for many dry, dusty years
Yet no food or water were missed
The rebellious calf brought tears
Swarming serpants at feet hissed

Then eyes raised to the Rock
From which living water flowed
Then a temple door where we knock
And the veil of purple stowed

For on a tree hung the Word
As mankind in disobedience grew
To live and die by the sword
For betrayal a kiss we knew

Then ripped the fabric did tear
Open to the souls deep call
Not simply for wheat or tare
But for not mine but all

Are we clouding our eyes over with impurities?

There is a story in the book of Tobit that a dear friend of mine wrote about in his blog. Fr. Tim wrote about how Tobit's wife Anna received a goat for her work, kind of a bonus for doing a good job. Tobit however had recently slept in an outdoor area near a wall, and a pigeon's had left their waste there. The bacteria from the waste made him blind. While he was yet blind Anna brought home the goat that her employer had given and Tobit refused to eat it! You see Tobit thought it was a stolen goat, and as such he wanted it taken back where it came from.

From Tobit - And my wife Anna did take women's works to do. And when she had sent them home to the owners, they paid her wages, and gave her also besides a kid. And when it was in my house, and began to cry, I said unto her, From whence is this kid? is it not stolen? render it to the owners; for it is not lawful to eat any thing that is stolen. But she replied upon me, It was given for a gift more than the wages. Howbeit I did not believe her, but bade her render it to the owners: and I was abashed at her. But she replied upon me, Where are thine alms and thy righteous deeds?


We are often like Tobit in our lives. We lay our head in a place that is filled with unclean things. That is, we live in a world full of sin and often times we allow that sin our life. While that cannot take us out of the hands of the Lord, it can indeed make it difficult to see blessings when they come our way. Just like Tobit we can miss out on blessings because our eyes are clouded over with the sin of the world.

It's important that we instead spend our time doing things that we know God approves of. Via the sacraments, action and prayer we can keep our lives in God's hands. Via the sacraments and action we can instead be the change that each of us needs to be, by doing just as you suggested and going forth giving of the abundance that the Lord has blessed us with. I think if each of us truly reassess our lives we can see places where we can cut luxuries and wants, and instead use that money/food/clothing to bless those who do not have.

Luke 3:11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

As John instructed in Luke 3 verse 11, if we have two cloaks give one to someone who has none, and if we have extra food give that away as well. We need to continue to live by these instructions, looking closely at our actions to see where they come from. If they are coming from our heart out of love, then they are actions we should indeed take. If they are actions that come from our own desires and wants, and put self first then we should rethink them.

In Christ,
Brian

Prayer Request

I would like to post a prayer request today. I've had a heavy heart the last few days, a heavy heart for humanity. I feel that we are missing the mark so to speak. We as a species are ready to perpetuate any amount of evil in order to keep our personal pleasures. From storing up massive amounts of money, to fathers and mothers leaving their children for their own personal goals. The news is inundated with horrible things, and we as Christians are not being seen by the world as a positive influence. The Bible says we will be known by our love.

I pray for a world in which people, even those who do not believe, will say "I don't believe in a God, but those Christians are doing good things!" I pray that we will wake up form our carnal stupor and start being the men and women that God has declared us to be! That we will begin as a Church as a whole, to shower the world with the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In Christ,
Brian

Baptism, the three days!

Do we truly understand the importance of baptism? After all, the bible lists five different times that we should be baptized by water for the remission of sin. Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:4; Acts 22:16 and 1 Peter 3:21 There are two things about baptism that I believe we should all be aware of.

One, baptism took the place of ritual cleansing. If we study the old testament law we find that there are many rules for what we must do to enter the presence of God. If someone touched a dead body, or someone with a disease, etc they became unclean. They were constantly washing themselves in order to become pure again. Baptism was just that. It made them ritually pure! However, it wasn't something they needed to do over and over! Because they were being reborn! We were coming under a new covenant, one in which our spirits were no longer made impure by what we touched or what we ate!

Baptism also was a shadow of things to come, a shadow that we now have seen in the light. Baptism was instructed to be in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! Before the death of Christ they still used three dips in the water. Why? For each time we go under, we are spending a day in the tomb with Jesus (symbolically). Three days we are dead, but on the fourth(when we raise from the grave) we are made alive! We come out of the water not a carnal man, but a spirit! A spirit alive in Jesus Christ!

Now baptism is an outward show of an inward change. This we know. The act of baptism does not actually change you, however, the process by which one reaches baptism and goes through it.. this is where the change is! The change is in our heart! We must be baptized not only by water, but by spirit! Much like circumcision is of the heart, so is baptism! (Now I firmly believe that every believer should be baptized, this is not a teaching against that! However, it is a teaching that a person cannot simply be baptized and believe they will go to Heaven... they MUST put their faith in Jesus Christ!)

Tithing, 10%? 20%? How about yourself?

Malachi 1:6-7 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible.

I was going to write about this in a completely different way, when it struck me that we as Christians often do the exact same thing. We attempt to live a good life, pretending that if we are good enough, that life can be a sacrifice to God. We live each day "sacrificing" the things we want to do, and believe that will get us to Heaven. It cannot. We cannot be an unblemished sacrifice before the throne of God. We have sin in our lives!

How dare we as Christians attempt to offer ourselves up to sacrifice, while living in Sin? Can any of us truly look inside ourselves and see a pure, unblemished sacrifice? This is why Christ died on the cross! HE is that sacrifice that you and I cannot make! Why then do we try to justify ourselves through works! We are not able to do so, nor should we try! Instead we do good things because our faith produces them! When you love God, and love each other, you will do good things!

Ephesians 5:1-2 says, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

We are a lame goat! We are a blemished sacrifice. If we attempt to offer ourselves on the mercy seat, God will see our blemishes and our failure. That is why he offers up Christ in our stead. Think of that beautiful truth. That Christ is the unblemished sacrifice that you and I cannot be. This is the beauty of the communion, reminding us that God already sacrificed for us. That he gave his body and his blood, that you and I could be reconciled to the father. Works will never perfect us, only God can do this. We can grow closer to God by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and this is my prayer. That you and I will always want to grow closer, and emulate God even more than we do now. That no matter how much self control the spirit teaches us that we will always remain humble, knowing that we are given a gift of grace that we have not, and cannot earn. That we will always realize the beauty of Christ's gift of grace, and never lord it over others. That we will always feel the love of God welling up in our souls, driving us to share the gospel that others might experience this same gift of Grace.

Hebrews 13:15-16 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."

Though I do believe in giving a portion of our money to God, after all it is His to begin with, I believe we also must apply the necessity of tithing to our spiritual lives in Christ. The tithe was a percentage of sacrifice to the religious authorities, and as such there were rules about giving a perfect sacrifice, without blemish, and cheerfully doing so. If we begrudged God in what we were giving, God didn't want it anyway. (After all it is His anyway, tithing was not you giving away something of yours, but dedicating something of Gods to Him in recognition of his blessings. )

We need to be aware that we are instructed in our new covenant to give ourselves as a tithe, a sacrifice, perfect and wholly acceptable to God (because God sees Christ and not us!). We must do this without begrudging God what is already His, us and by extension our lives. We must cheerfully live our lives only for the Glory of God, and have no secret emotions that say we aren't happy to do it and only are doing it because we have to. Instead we are to be filled with the Joy and Peace of the Lord our God!

In Christ,
Brian

It's grace... not grace plus

Romans 4:24-25 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

Why is this important? Jesus was delivered for our offenses. He was on the cross for them, because we know the wages of sin are death. That means that because of our sin, we should be delivered to death. Jesus did that for us. The part that we need to recognize however is not the death, but the raising again. How could Jesus be raised again if he is made guilty of our sin? Because our sin is forgiven! You see he was raised again for our justification, because by raising Jesus from the dead God showed us that our sins that he died for, are now forgiven! Are we required to then do this, and that, and this and that to receive it? No! We are imputed (that is we are now given) the righteousness of Christ! Not because we do this or that, but because we believe!

Now some will use this as an opportunity to say that we are teaching free grace, that we are saying that you can do whatever you want and get to heaven. God forbid! We are saying that you are forgiven simply for your belief! Yet because of your belief, you will stop sinning! Once you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit sin will no longer have a hold of us! We are free from it! We will no longer sin, not because it gets us to Heaven, we are already on our way! We will no longer sin because we love God and want to make Him happy! Do not let anyone tell you that you can't do this or must do that, because God has already paid that price for us! Anything you chose to do or not to do, make sure it is for God!

Past, Present, Future?

Romans 1:16 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also the Greek.

Why is the word salvation such an important one? Because it is an all inclusive word that covers the past, the present and the future. Salvation did not only occur at the cross, but it is occuring now and will occur in the future. You see Salvation means that we have been saved from guilt of our actions and penalty of our sin (all in the past, when Jesus died on the cross.) You are currently being saved from sinful habits and dominion of sin in your life. (present) Faith frees you from sins control and grasp. And finally, you will be saved by complete conformity to Christ, saved from Judgment. (future).

Please take a moment to let all of that sink in, realizing that you no longer have to be guilty for what you did in the past. Realizing that when sin confronts you today you are not under it's thumb, instead you can turn from it and walk with Christ. That when the judgment day comes you will not be condemned, but will be welcomed with open arms into the place he has prepared for us.

Pizza Hutt, here we come!

I was going to write about another topic, one that I think is very important. This one however is really pressing on my conscience. I want to tell a story about something I did in the past, that hurt someone I love very deeply.

I once placed 1st in a science fair for a project I had done on iterated function systems. I didn't deserve the win, at least not in hindsight, but that's for another day. After winning several awards I was feeling very important and not really considering other people.

My friends all wanted to go celebrate with me. I thought that was an excellent idea, and as a young student who just got his license I wanted to go where everyone goes for a fancy celebration dinner, Pizza Hutt! I got in my car (my parents car) and all of my friends poured in and there wasn't room for my brother. Mom and dad said go straight to the restaurant and they would drop my brother off. So I took off with my buddies, all excited.

As we pulled through the Pizza Hutt parking lot, we noticed it was completely full. I'm not sure which of us mentioned it, or who decided, but before I thought about it we were heading to another pizza place on the other side of town. I don't even remember the name. I don't remember what I ate, or what I had to drink. Yet there was something about this situation that I will never forget. As we finished and paid, my parents walked in and they were red in the face. I knew that look. I had done something wrong.

My brother had waited for over an hour at Pizza Hutt, in a booth by himself with no money. I had all the cash to pay for the meal. I had simply forgotten him. To this day I have trouble thinking about it, because someone so special in my life had been waiting for me, and I simply forgot him. If you are reading this Danny, and I know I've said it before, but I am sorry. There is no excuse for it, I simply forgot you.

It illustrates something we should all consider. There is a brother in our life, a brother who has done the most powerful thing in the world for us. A brother who died in our place. You see the bible says (I find I write you see a lot in my blog) that we are the adopted as children of God.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

Ephesians 1:3-8

As a man who has adopted brothers, I find it especially powerful. I know that an adopted brother can mean so much to you that you forget that they were adopted. You start treating them the same as you do your real brother. In my case, I pray that I never treat anyone the way I have my brother in the past. You start loving them as if they have always been there. You do things for them just because!

Yet Jesus who died for us, our own brother, we often forget. We agree to meet him somewhere, then we don't show up. He does. He is expecting us. He sits there waiting patiently. Then in a show of love, just like my brother, he forgives us for forgetting him. It's as if we never did. My brother forgave me. He never brings it up. I don't remember him EVER bringing it up. I remember that everyday after that he treated me just like he did, before I forgot him. Jesus is the same. I am sure he is grieved, when we fall away from Him. I am sure just like it hurts me when someone forgets me, it aches inside. But he forgives them, just as you and I should, just as my brother did.

I pray that all of us will begin to thirst for God in such a way that we never forget to meet him somewhere. That when we think of something to do, we think is God in this? Am I going to go where God is? Or am I going to forget him and end up somewhere else, where he isn't? He doesn't change. He will always be there, waiting. How can I make this decision in a way that will not only take me where he is, but keep me always walking in that direction.

In Christ,
Brian

Do we reflect Christ?

I remember one year in high school, I had placed in the regional science fair. As a reward

not only did I get a chance to go to the Nations Capital for the national competition, but I also was offered a trip to a well known Christian college in a nearby state. I was so very excited, as I had been going to Church and had given my heart over in an alter call four or five years earlier.

I was sort of confused, as many teens are. I thought Christianity was simply saying you believed in Christ, and then doing whatever you wanted. After all we were free from the Law, and 'everything was permissible.' I kept forgetting the next part of that statement, Everything is permissible, but not everything profitable.

As a few of us loaded up in a fifteen passenger van, there were two girls that just seemed really fun. I introduced myself as did the fellow riding with us, and we all sort of hit it off. Never mind the fact that I had a girlfriend, and to be honest I had no intention of flirting, but I found myself doing it anyway. Throughout the trip I had many conflicts of my spirit versus my flesh. At one point the girls were making fun of our driver and host, who was a science professor at the college. They were making fun because he did the 'sign of the cross' over himself before he prayed for his meal. I don't know if he was Catholic, Lutheran? I to this day don't know.

Yet when they made fun of him for showing his faith, I was offended! I told them so as well. For the rest of the trip to the college, no one spoke to me. They treated me as if I was leprous because I didn't think it was right to make fun of someone. Especially make fun of someone over God!! Once we arrived at the school though, everything changed. They started talking to me again about how excited they were and how great it was to get a chance to see this Christian school in action.

After all the touring was done and we were assigned our room, the girls wanted to walk around and see the compass. Sure, I thought, just a couple friends walking around a college campus at night. We walked through the different dorms and I was in shock! One room would have a girl in her underwear dancing to sultry, secular music. The next would have a guy in his boxers flexing in front of a mirror and holding a 40. Then we'd find rooms were people were making out with abandon. These 'Christians' knew how to party!

Later in the night we were walking these two girls back to their temporary dorm rooms, and the couple ahead of us were holding hands. Then they stopped and moved off the path into the trees and started kissing and making out. The girl that was walking with me, winked and tried to grab my hand. I backed up and said Woah, I have a girlfriend back home!. Boom I was leprous again. The other girl in the trees making out, heard me tell her friend that I had a girl back home.. and they both tore into me. How dare you walk around with us and flirt with us, and pretend the whole time you were interested without telling us you were in a serious relationship! (Not in such friendly concise words.)

They stormed back to their room, and my room mate left me standing there in the dark dumbfounded. I was so troubled by all the things I had seen. Here I was on a tour of a Christian school with other students who wanted to attend a Christian school, yet there seemed to be nothing Christian about it! People were angry at me for keeping true to my promise to a girl back home, and others were mad at me because I didn't think it was right to make fun of a man for showing his faith, and yet more were making out doing who knows what else in those rooms upstairs.

I laid awake for many hours after that, thinking about how much better a Christian I was than them. How I was really here because I loved Christ, but them! They were sinners!!!


…..

How wrong could I have been? I got upset when they made fun of the man, not because of God, but because I felt I should. I didn't have any righteous indignation, it was simply me making them feel bad for something they did, even though in a similar situation I might have done the same.. according to who was around. They had no reason to think I was a Christian. I had spent the entire ride talking to them about nothing but the world. I then proceeded to walk with them through very worldly circumstances, not saying a word about them. I wasn't the slightest bit uncomfortable, I even thought it was the coolest school I had been too!

You see I was a fair weather Christian. When I was at youth league or Sunday school, God came first. The moment I went out of that church building I was back to being just a normal teenager. You see I wasn't even offended for God when the girl tried to hold my hand, after all I hadn't told her I had a girlfriend... I hadn't acted like I had a girlfriend... Yet when she tried to hold my hand, I was more offended that she impugned my Christianity, than I was that I could have led her into a false situation.

What is the point of my story? All things are permissible, yet not profitable. We as Christians need to be careful of our actions because they speak of where our heart is. If we have entire schools claiming to be Christian schools, yet permitting complete secular nights, then we have a problem. “Oh but we can't tell them what they can and can't do with their lives.” No you can't. Yet you are a Christian school. You CAN tell them that when you are on our campus, you are to follow the rules of Christianity. If you can't, then you need to leave.

Is that harsh? Maybe. Yet how many young men and women walk onto a Christian campus and see Christ? I am not saying all schools are this way, I've only been on the campus of a few Christian colleges. I can say without blinking, that those colleges I have visited, were no more Christian than the secular college I myself attended. We need to show Christ in our every action, whether it's going to school, simply riding in a van with some friends, or eating lunch at Wendy's. We need to be worried about how they perceive us. It shouldn't have taken eating a meal and seeing another person show their faith, for them to find out I was a Christian! They should have known by my words, my actions, the way I talked on the way down that I was a Christian. Instead they thought I was just like them, and that's because I was! To be honest, most of us are! We are still just like the world, because we only put on our Christian suit when we go to church, or someone else brings up Christ.

So let's put our Christian suits on and never take them off. Let's be the first to bring up Christ in a conversation. If they aren't interested, fine. Yet they should know within a few minutes of talking to us that we are different, we aren't like the rest of the world, we aren't supposed to be. We have a different kingdom, one of Love, one of God... let us put it all on the table, and not hide anything from anyone.

In Christ,
Brian

Due Diligence

I decided last night to read the New Testament again. A fellow that I was reading said he decided to read 1 John again and again, until he no longer got anything new from it. He read it for months, everyday, and found he always got something new from it, everytime. You see the Bible is a living text, it's the Word of God. Reading it just once isn't going to show you everything, nor twice, or three times. We need to immerse ourselves in it. So I started at the beginning of the New Testament with the book of Mathew. I only got 2 chapters in before something caught my eye.

Mathew 2:7-8 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
 
Akribos – circumspectly, diligently, perfectly

You see Herod knew that if the wise men were right, and the scriptures were right, then this person they were seeking was the Messiah. So he asked them many questions. He interrogated them for information. He looked for proof in what they were saying, comparing it to the Jewish scriptures. He was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, so he feigned to be a believer as well. He claimed he would come worship as well.

He told them to go search diligently. Not to go look around and come back, but to make sure they were right. He REALLY wanted to know who was the Christ. So he could get rid of Him. He wanted to get rid of the Christ now so that his throne would be safe. Think about that for a moment, let it set in.

A man who was not at all interested in worshiping God, diligently inquired about Him. He asked questions, he looked at the proof. He was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, simply based on the evidence presented before him. He was so convinced that he eventually murdered every child in that age range in the area he found out about.

Yet, we can't seem to be bothered to actually look for Jesus ourselves. We claim to be Christians, yet we don't diligently inquire about God. We have become hollow for the most part, going to a church once a week, and then going back into the world and acting as if God only exists in that building. Everything is present to God. Every action you do, he knows. Every thought you have, he knows! Your inner attitude is what he sees. Even if you are being a 'good' person, but doing it for the wrong reasons.. he knows! So it's our duty to be diligent! Diligently search for Him in the Scriptures. Jesus said that they testified to him! John 5:39

Study and show yourselves approved! Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Open up those bibles! Read the Word of God daily! See what he reveals to you as you read, and pray that He will open the windows of your mind and let light pour in.

In Christ,
Brian

Husbands and Wives

Ephesians 5 22-24 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

This is a very unpopular verse. Mostly because it has been used in the past to make women subservient to their husband, with only he allowed to make decisions. That was not the intent of this passage at all. I will get to that later. First I want to talk bout how the husband is supposed to act.

Ephesians 25-32 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Take a moment and let that sink in. There are a few characteristics that we can look at immediately about how we are to treat our wives. Mainly, we can look at how Christ lived his life for the church. Christ came into this world with one goal, to redeem his people to God. To bring his church into himself. We are after all the body of Christ. Christ LIVED literally for the church. He gave his life, his precious blood, for us. He suffered and died, just for the church.

Well husbands, we've got some serious shoes to fill, don't we. We are to love our wife, even when she doesn't deserve it! Not just when she loves us back, but period! Christ didn't come down for the saints, he came for the sinners! The people who turned their back on him! We have to love our wives, even when we don't particularly like her! I believe every couple has that moment as well. The moment when they are definitely not happy with their spouse. Be it when someone spent a great deal of money, without even consulting the other. Or someone hid something from the other. That doesn't excuse us! We still have to love her!

So what does the first verse tell us then? The one about wives submitting to their husbands? Well it doesn't seem to make sense if you think of marriage as a union, in which you just dissolve it when you don't agree anymore. It's not! Marriage is not something that we just leave when we have a disagreement. Someone has to have the deciding vote. Many people will tell you it's just the man, but it's not. It's God! The man should be approaching God with the problem and saying Father, help me to solve this in your will! Then he should be going to his wife, and saying “You mean more than my own life, what is your opinion in this matter?” Then out of love and trust in the Lord, he should decide. Even if the two members do not agree, they should abide by that decision. Because it was approached with ultimate love for one another, and love for God.

Women love your husbands! Respect them! Help edify them, lord knows we men need our wives support. Men love your wives, more than yourself. No man who loves his wife more than his own life will hold it over her head that he is put in charge of the final vote. He would instead cast that final vote in love for her! Or even step aside and say I love you so much, that we are going to do what you want to to do, even if it's not what I want to do, as long as it's God's will.

Remember Christ came as a servant, he served the church even though he was it's King. You are to be your wives servant, even if you are the head. That's what it means to be spiritually the head, that you have went above your own wants and needs and are looking for hers. Because she is being obedient to God by submitting to you, you must be obedient to God and submit to her!

Ephesians 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

In Christ,
Brian

Water Filters Eventually Fill Up

Our refrigerator has a light on it that only comes on when it needs the water filter replaced. The other day this filter came on as the refrigerator realized that the filter was so full of contaminants that the water couldn't get through. It got me to thinking about our own internal filter, the filter in our body given to us by God.

In our body is a filter filled not with carbon or sand, but with the Holy Spirit. When we sin we put things inside of us that don't leave room for the Holy Spirit. Just like a filter, if we fill our minds with sin then we need that filter replaced. We need to get the sin back out of our bodies and minds, and make more room for God.

That's when I realized that repent was not a single action, but a way of life. Each time we fall and allow sin in our life, we must repent and go forward. When we repent God removes that sin from our life and we no longer have a problem letting the water through. Jesus promised us living water, and that water can't flow if the filter is clogged. He also commanded us to go forth and sin no more. We cannot continue living life as if sin is not endangering our salvation. I'm not saying you won't sin. You will. Yet as you grow in Christ and your filter becomes stronger and stronger in your life, less and less sin makes it through. We should see that fruit in each other. We should see that a person is growing in Christ, learning to not go against the Spirit. We should see a growing distance in the flesh and the person.

It's not that the filter doesn't remove the sin, it's that we sin so much we fill the filter up. Eventually if we sin too much we push God right out of our life, and the filter is broken. That person no longer cares if he sins or not, because all he sees is sin. Selfishness.. Want only for what benefits him or her. That's why it is imperitive that we live our lives in obedience to God. Not because your works increase your salvation, your salvation is already there. Because your works show your salvation. Your works show that your filter has no sin in it, only the Holy Spirit.

So start today, repent of what you do wrong and go on trying never to do it again. Stop living in sin and pretending that God is just going to forgive you anyway. We should never sin with the thought that it's OK, Christ already paid our cost. We should stop sinning, knowing that with each sin we didn't commit, Christ didn't get punished for. We should show our love for Christ in our actions towards one another. It's not enough to pray and talk, we have to show our fruit.

In Christ,
Brian