4 Things Sin is Good At...

Did you know sin could be good at something? Oh yeah, you definitely read the post title right! There are four things that I've studied that sin can be good at. Take a moment to ponder what those things could be. I mean how could something God sees as hideous in His sight be even considered to be good? Could I have exaggerated a bit by the title? Who knows? Let's just continue reading and find out.

1) Sin is Good at Creating More Sin. (2 Sam. 11:6-27)

I want to take you on a little journey of just a short period of time in the life of King David. David had it all. He was a man after God's own heart, he was a mighty warrior, and well he was a king (what more could you need). During a period of battle when David should have actually been out fighting with his army (SIN!), we find David at home walking around on his balcony. David finds a BEAUTIFUL woman, named Bathsheba, bathing on the roof, lusts after her (SIN!), and ultimately has sex with her making her pregnant. (SIN!) This was a married woman (SIN!), but not just any married woman, she was married to Urriah the Hittite one of David's top men. Are you seeing a pattern yet? There's a lot of sinning going on right?

Well the story doesn't end there. David, after trying everything he can do to get Uriah home to sleep with his wife, ends up having Urriah killed by placing him at the most heated point of the battle! (SIN!) So now there's blood on David's hands. It was through the command sent back with Urriah, that killed Urriah! Ugh, so much sin!

It's the same in our lives though, we commit one sin and if we do not repent immediately, find ourselves in a trap of more and more and more sin! Sin is good at creating more and more sin!

2) Sin is Good at Blocking Reason and Creating Hypocrisy (2 Sam. 12:1-6)

Now Urriah is dead, and God is VERY displeased with David. Do you think at this point that David had repented to God over his sins? Eh, not so fast, there's more to the story.

Nathan comes to David and tells him this parable about sheep and cattle, similar to the situation of David stealing Bathsheba, and David goes crazy! He claimed that the rich man should die for doing this to the poor man, and that no pity should be shown to him! Nathan then reminded David that he did the exact same thing.

You see sin finds a way of blocking our reason and turning us in to hypocrites! We forget about our sin, and try to make others look bad, even if they are doing the same things as we are! Sin is good at making us clueless and hypocritical!

3) Sin is Good at Blocking a Pure Relationship with God (Psa. 66:18)

If unrepented sin can create more and more sin, and sin causes us to be hypocrites, then do you think we could have a right relationship with God? Absolutely not! There's no way! We can not come to God like everything is okay when we have sinned against Him. I believe that is our problem at times. We forget to be fearful of our God who says, "Be holy for I am holy", and instead we become comfortable with our sin! Instead we need to run to God for forgiveness of our sin so that we don't begin this awful cycle!

4) Sin is Good at Creating Consequences (2 Sam. 12:9-12)

Back to David's story, God told David that the sword would never depart from his house. Out of David's own household would trouble come. His son that came forth from Bathsheba also died, along with many other incidents.

Here's what we forget about. When we sin, we think, "It's okay. Nobody seen it. Nobody knows." God knows! He knows and if you are truly His child, do not think that you will go unpunished. Sin has its consequences! Every unrepented sin that is against the will and commands of God will not go without you facing some sort of punishment. God is not one to play around with. Do not abuse his Grace and Forgiveness!

Sin has its way of really ruining our Christian walk with Christ. My prayer is that all of my readers would guard their hearts! Do not let Satan tempt you to do what you clearly know is wrong! Jesus loves you and died for you so that you could have freedom over Sin's bondage. Don't be enslaved anymore. Don't put yourself in this scary and awful pattern! Nothing truly good EVER comes from sin!

Please leave your comments below. What do you think about this post? Agree, disagree? Please let me know.

Christian but Not Christian? How so?

This is not okay. However sadly this is all true. The photo to your left is a study conducted by "The Barna Group" on How Post Christian is the US Society? (Link to original article)

The results were MIND-BLOWING!! The results to me were disturbing! Now, I'm not going to go over the entire photo as a whole, but I do what to focus on the first portion.

However before I do that I'd like to give you another statistic from "The Pew Research Center". 73% of all Americans classify themselves as Christians. So what gives in this new study by "The Barna Group?"

• 89% didn't participate in church in the last year? What about Hebrews 10:25?
• 57% have not read the Bible in the last week? But isn't God's Word how we feed ourselves as Christians? What about Psalm 119:9-11, or James 1:22-25, or even Hebrews 4:12-13?
• To me this one disturbs me the most. 41% agree that Jesus sinned! WHAT?? He was the sinless sacrifice, the atoning lamb! Think about 2 Corinthians 5:21, or even Hebrews 4:14-16!

So my question is, How can it be that 73% of the nation consider themselves to be Christian, but we see all of these disturbing statistics showing us otherwise?

The answer is simple. It's because many say but not many do. It's easy to say, "I am a Christian," but if that's all you do, you're living out James chapter 2 right now. You're faith is DEAD! It is worthless. 

When one is truly saved, fruit comes forth. Their lives change! They are a new creature in Christ! IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!! It matters what comes forth from your newly changed life. Just as James said "You show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works". James 2:18. 

My question to you today then is this, "Do you know Jesus as your Savior?" "Do you produce works because of your proclaimed faith?" Only you and God know those answers.

Social Media: Like, Comment, or Pass?

Let me see if I haven't figured some things out about Social Media. Each day you come across hundreds of posts from your following on your social network of choice, but what makes you interact with them? Why do you simply like, +1, or retweet something instead of commenting or quoting with your own commentary? Here's what I believe, and I could be totally wrong but here goes.

For anything you may write on social media, for it to receive comments and reshares on, it must be interesting. Simple as that. I've found that unless people find the information you have posted to be relevant and interesting, it will not get reshared or receive any comments. Now it may receive plenty of likes, or +1's, or even retweets, but honestly that's not my goal in social media. My goal in social media is to share what I know, by the Grace of God, and for it to get out to the world! My goal is to be known, not for anything that I have done, but for what I have been able to share with people, and everything about what God has done!

So my goal, is to push out interesting content. God glorifying, God provided, God centered content in which people can read and share and grow in their walk with Christ from!

What do you think? What do you think attracts shares, and comments, and world-wide exposure? Leave your comment below.

Why So Angry on the Lord's Day?

If there's one thing my girlfriend +Harley Croft can say about me, it's that I have the tendency to become angry. In fact, sometimes it's really really bad. I can honestly admit that. Here's the crazy thing, I used to never be angry. It's just something that came out of nowhere. However there's something I just can't understand about anger. How is it that a person can be so mean and so rude on Sunday of all days, the Lord's day?

Working in retail, I see a lot of this. I mean people, wearing church clothes might I add, come in to my store and are just completely RUDE! Believe it or not, I've dealt with some of the meanest people on Sundays! The day in which the early church set apart to worship our risen savior, has somehow become the day in which all the "Christian" meanies come out. I ask myself how? How could someone leave their local church assembly, where they have "worshipped God", and come out into the public being rude and mean?

It's then that I think of Jesus. I think of the Pharisees and the religious leaders, and I kind of laugh. I know Jesus thought the same thing. He may have thought, "How can the religious leaders leave the synagogue, after teaching about and worshipping God, and condemn me for making a lame man walk on the Sabbath." The Sabbath was a bit different though. The Jews celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday as a reminder of when God rested on the seventh day. To the Jew on that day, no work was to be done. Jesus however, called himself the Lord over the Sabbath. He knew it wasn't wrong to do good on the Sabbath. The Pharisees weren't concerned about goodness, they were just concerned about looking good to the people. That meant resting and doing nothing on the day of the Sabbath.

So I believe Jesus could answer my question with some simple sentences, "Blake, they don't go for Me. They go for themselves. They go to be seen. There has not been a true change in their hearts." Jesus, you're absolutely right.

Comment below with your opinion.

Pasts, Trusting God, Authority Issues

Oh do have a lot of things to rant about this evening!

I had a dear co-worker friend who I don't mind mentioning at all (+Josh Swafford) share with me a story. I won't give ANY details of that story, but let's just say it made me mad! I have one thing to say to this unforgiving, grudge holding, "Christian", has God not forgiven you of your past? I feel as though I'm about to say exactly the things I say as the character of Matthew in our past Easter drama, but doesn't each and every one of us have a past? I believe we do! Before Jesus Christ enters the hearts of human beings, of course they are going to live lives doing sinful things. That's all their fallen nature allows them to do! Doesn't the Bible say "There's none good, no not one"? I have a major problem with this! Especially when it is people who call themselves "Christian" doing the gossiping and back-biting. Does this happen to anyone else? Am I the only one that gets angered over this?

I've had on my mind putting my trust in God more. It's such a hard thing to do, but let me promise you, it is SO rewarding. When we place our COMPLETE trust in God, it is amazing how greatly God moves, and blesses in our lives. Let me share a bit of personal things with you. I'm 20 years old and an assistant manager of a retail grocery chain. I'm a youth pastor. Lord willing, I'm about to move out of my house and live on my own. Lord willing, I'm about to be married in the near future. Again may I state, I'm only 20! I don't say these things to boast in myself AT ALL, but only to give full credit and GLORY to God and God alone! I didn't make any of these things happen in my life. I simply prayed and trusted, prayed and trusted. If God wanted it to happen, it did. If God didn't want it to happen, it didn't. The same goes for anyone. We can not make things happen, but God can, and we must place our trust completely in Him to do what's best for our lives!

Might I move now to everyday life, as if the Christian life and everyday life can be separated, and say that I'm very flustered at the moment at some things regarding authority in the workplace. Let's just say there seems to be a lack of understanding of what authority means and looks like. Let's say you run a company. In that company you have great employees except there's just one small problem. They don't respect your authority. Instead of having a company where you make all the decisions and what you say goes, you have a company in which each employee makes their own decisions and has their own agendas. Would you say this company would flourish?? I say no. God puts a leader over a company TO BE A LEADER! God places people in positions of authority to make sure everything runs smoothly and in order, and employees respect that figure and his/her decisions. Sadly, this doesn't happen in a lot of places. Leaders become babysitters, and companies become day cares. Leaders become people-pleasers, and companies become weak.

Make sure you leave your feedback below. What do you think of all these ramblings?

I Feel Like Blogging!

So here's my blog. I've had it for a while, but it's sat empty for a long, LONG time. I guess the number one reason I've never been an avid blogger, is because I've never really thought that my opinion mattered (and it may not matter still). However, I don't care anymore. I'm just going to rant and rave about things and how I feel about them.

Things to expect from my blog:

• I will not hold back in my opinions of different subjects.
• I will probably have a lot of grammatical errors.
• I will look at everything with a Christian worldview.
• I will talk about hot topics happening around the world.
• I will probably be boring.
• I will be interactive.
• I will talk wrestling.
• I will talk Christianity.
• I will rant about working retail.
• I will hopefully allow you to get to know me better.

I'm excited and I really hope to blog quite a bit. Keep checking back, and please feel free to comment below as to what you'd like to see from this blog.