Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The search for options pertaining to the Christian life

During one of our Tuesday night youth group meetings, the teens were given a task of reading through Romans 12 and finding all the options pertaining to the Christian life. We called them options because we must choose whether or not to follow. We all agreed that since God's holy word the Bible said it then we must strive to follow them every day of our lives.

Here is a small part of that ten minute investigation done by the teens of OCBC.

Romans 12: 1-21

1. Be willing to give your all for God.

a. Be holy and acceptable

2. Be not conformed to this world

a. Renew your mind

3. Be humble and sober

4. Work together with our fellow Christian brothers and sisters

5. Because we are all one in Christ.

6. We all have different gifts

a. We are one body in Christ

7. Make sure our faith is proportion to what we teach

8. Everything we do needs to be done truthfully through the modest and humble example of Christ

9. Have everybody stay away from bad, cling to what is good

10. Be kind to other Christians

11. Not lagging in diligence

a. Fervent in spirit

b. Serving the Lord

12. Rejoice

a. Patient in trials

b. Pray

13. Hospitality

14. Bless them that persecute you

15. Having Empathy with others - the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties

16. Be of the same mind

a. Do not be wise in your own opinion

17. Do not repay evil with evil

a. Be honest in all things

18. Live peacefully with all men

19. Do not avenge

20. Show good to enemies

21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

How do you view Life?

Recently their have been some killings that have rocked our nation and the way we think.

I think back to the time of 2011 when so many people died by the hand of mad men. I hear of men in our armed forces coming home from the war in the middle east where they battle against people that strap bombs on women and children and send them into crowded places. I recently heard of a crazy man that killed two sisters. How about the millions of unborn "BABIES" that are being killed by so called doctors.
We constantly hear of people dying from the hand of a murderer.
Then we see pictures of people crying. I just saw a video of a young man that witnessed the "Safe way massacre" (so called.). This young man couldn't stop from crying.
My thought and question is why do we cry or show an emotion when things like this happen? Why do we even care about what happens to others?
According to what we are taught in the secular schools, we are just an animal. We are just part of the evolutionary chain. Evolution teaches that things continue to evolve into something better. But what I hear and see is that man is not getting better. Man continues to do bad things toward one another.

Is there even an answer, is there any hope? Not if you follow modern day secular scientist. Not if you follow the government. For these are just people, who are not perfect either.

If we follow what the Bible says about the value of life then there wouldn't be any murdering or hate.
In Psalm 139 - It says that "we (humans) are fearfully and wonderfully made." In Genesis (the first book of the Bible) it says that we are "made in the image of God."
If we would look at others the way that God looks at us then the murder rate would go down - guaranteed. Jesus even said that hatting a brother was the same as murder.
So how are we going to view human life? The way that evolution views it, that we are just an animal and that the survival depends upon the fittest among us. That is what Hitler believed. He believed in evolution. He took it so far as to decide who lives and who dies.

If we view life that way then who cares who dies. But if we view life the way God does, then human life is special and that life is a gift from the Creator. So how do you view human life?
How do you view the Creator? He created everything good, but sin corrupted what was good and now death has become our enemy.
How about today you look to Jesus, the Creator, the Savior, "the author and finisher of our faith". He alone will save you from the enemy - our sin that condemns us to death (separation from the Holy God).

The One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven