justifiedfreelyinhim

Matthew 16:18 “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Ancient cities were all built with walls around them. The walls would typically have several gates in them. The purpose of the gates was not to keep people in, but to keep their enemies out. When the city came under attack, the best thing they could do was to shut the gates, and gather everyone up behind the walls. The weakest places in this kind of a defense system were the gates. And almost without exception, the opposing army would usually choose to begin their attack there. So when Jesus said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the church he wasn’t talking about the church holding it’s ground against Satan’s attack. Instead He was saying that they gates of Hell would not be able to prevail, or stand…

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Remembering The Greatest!

This past Saturday I had the blessed opportunity to go to my first Auburn game with my sweetheart and his awesome family. We got seated in time for the pregame festivities and at one point they showed past Auburn coaches and the fans began cheering for these long gone legends and it got me thinking about the message that our interim pastor preached last Wednesday centered around Psalm 78:7 which states “So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying His commands.” (NLT-Abundant Life Bible) Basically that we should remind others of His goodness and faithfulness and bestow that knowledge to the next generation. All do respect to the greats that have prayerfully gone Home to the Lord, but God should receive way more cheers and respect than any coach. The next generation needs to know that there is a God who saves and who went to the cross for them. You will fail and others will fail you but HE NEVER WILL! Put your hope and trust in Him!

Crabs..Crabs Everywhere

sooo good!

BuildTheYouth

So i was at the beach with my family & my gf this weekend. One morning i went for a jog & a sand crab was scurrying across my path. I adjusted to keep from squishing him but he continued to move rapidly away. All the sudden a seagull swooped down to grab it. Without hesitation i kicked the seagull & saved the life of said crab. Idk why i did that but it got me thinking.

How many of us are like that crab; running from what we think is a threat while remaining oblivious to the true threat?
God wants us to stay on the path we are going but, like the crab, we tend to deviate from the path He has before us. Instead of trusting Him we try to save ourselves. God will remove or use the threat. I was the crabs threat but God used…

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The Body

As I was reading in 1 Corinthians 12 tonight I was reminded of a very simple concept of church. We are the Body of Christ. We are referred to as that. Being that we are referred to as that, we must look like Him. He didn’t strive with people, but He did confront their sin LOVINGLY. He didn’t keep quiet about it, He confronted it with edification and repentance in mind. Sin seperates us from Him and when we come to receive Him as Savior and Lord, the seperation ends because we are covered in the precious, pure blood of the King. We do still sin because thats just the way it is. We live in a fallen world, but we do not have to be of this fallen world. We, as the Church, the BODY, must be different. He set us apart for a reason, so there would be a distinction. What I was getting to earlier is as difficult as it is to confront sin when we see it in fellow believers, and the Bible will give you instruction as to how to go about that, we are not to agree with or support their sin, but lovingly with humility and grace encourage them to repent of their sin and leave it behind and surge forward in faith and growth in their relationship with God. We are to love them as He does.He tends to be rather gracious when we repent and turn to Him. He’s just that awesome! He loves you as far as His arms stretched on that cross, which went pretty far. 🙂 Other than just confronting sin, we are to bear one another’s burdens which if you have been usedat any point in your life you know that is not easy, but we must forgive and allow the Spirit of God to speak through us and work in our hearts and make us more like Him. Remember if we don’t have love, we have nothing. Let God take care of what others may do to you. After all, He is the Avenger.

So, we are the Body and we must work together in love, urging each other on in the love of our Savior. By the way, the Body is never to full! Reach out to an unbeliever today. You never know, you could be sitting in the audience when they give their testimony of how the Lord called them out of the wilderness. 🙂

Duh!

i love it 🙂 do yourself a favor and follow him 🙂

BuildTheYouth

I find it funny how often we try to fit God into our tiny little ideas of what He is or isn’t. Christians argue that God is this and God is that when God plainly tells us who He is.

In (insert book, chapter, & verse) He says “I am that I am.” In (insert book, chapter, & verse) He says “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” So guess what!? God is God! No ifs, and s, or buts about it. He’s not what you, or I, or the preacher, or even the hobo on the street think He is; He’s just God. Plain & simple.

So instead of wasting time arguing amongst ourselves about what God is or isn’t, how about we do what he says & spread His word to those who are lost & dying in the world. I’d rather be able to stand before the…

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For The Love of God… Rather His Love For Us

Throughout the Word of God, Love is spilled over every page. His love for Adam and Eve, His love for Noah & his family, His love for His chosen people the Nation of Israel, His love for His precious spotless son, and lastly His love for the Church, the body of believers. From what I can tell the theme that goes before God is for us to love Him first and foremost and to love others as we love ourselves. He actually said “30 And you shall love the Lord the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31) How do we go about loving others? “4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fall, whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” (1 Cor. 13:4-9) It’s all there laid out for you. Go forward and do it.