Monday, March 24, 2008

Happy Resurection Day!

Aka Easter. The word may have been derived from a some Pagan God or Goddess, and I don't understand how any Bunny could lay eggs, and what that has to do with the day, but needless to say, I enjoy getting together with family and friends.

Jesus tells us to remember his death on the cross... he says, "Do this in remembrance of me"... not only should we remember his death, but we should remember his resurrection as well. That's what Easter is really about. Without the resurrection of Christ my faith would be meaningless. Why? God and Jesus made promises and all had to be fulfilled.

Read this article about the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus' resurrection. Acts 2:31 also refers to a prophecy of the "Holy One" spoken of in Psalm 16.

Jesus was more than just a prophet, and by his death and fulfillment of over 300 messianic prophecies, he is the Savior. That's what we are celebrating and that's what is important.

Monday, March 17, 2008

More about Faith and Works

Romans 1:8-17 (ESV)
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you
10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—
12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

The words used for faith and belief stem from the same root word in the Greek. There are different types of faith and belief forms, but all describe a kind trust and knowing something to be true. A belief, in our understanding of the word is something that cannot be seen as it is something internal to us. But, the type of faith described above is outward. Notice verse 8 above states, "your faith is proclaimed in all the world," which shows that faith is an observable action. Notice also verse 12, which states, "that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith." In order to be encouraged by some one's faith, it must be outwardly expressed through an action. There are many occurrences of an outward faith in the bible, where Jesus says, go your faith has healed you, when someone had touched his robe, or when they went to great lengths to reach him. If the man who was on the cross had not spoken out to Jesus, would he still have turned to him and said, you will be with me in paradise. I don't think so, because sometimes faith requires action, at least the type of faith that will save you.

Here's something real interesting. The two arguments for faith and works that supposedly contradict one-another utilize the same analogy. In Romans 4, Paul describes Abraham being justified through his faith and not through the law. James 2 also refers to Abraham putting his son on the altar, and shows that he had more than just a belief in God, he had a trust and faith in God that he acted upon, and even in the Old Testament, that type of faith had saved him. Both refer to the same events to prove their point. The points being that we are saved based on our faith and not of fulfilling the requirements of the law, but our faith must show through in our actions or what type of faith would it be. Even demons believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Like I pointed out, Faith is belief with action, the type of faith God expects is a humble faith, a faith where we subject ourselves to the Lord and try to follow the law, without boasting or being proud. Notice verse 17 of Romans 1, "The righteous shall live by faith." We are not made righteous by following the law, but through our faith with action as I pointed out last week in my previous blog. We are all sinners and we will be saved because Jesus died for those sins, but we have to have a humbling faith that others can see. We all mess up, which is why we are not saved by our works, especially not by our own doing, it is completely a gift from God, but we have to accept that gift. Accepting takes action.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Faith and Works?

It's funny, I was sitting in Church one day and the pastor (not my current pastor) showed a slide of a bunch of different scriptures that talked about these apparrent contradictions between being saved by faith and some that showed being saved by works. He didn't delve any further, and I was disappointed.

Are we saved by works alone? NO.

Are we saved by faith alone? NO.

That last one probably shocked you, right? But, but the Bible says, for it is by Grace that we are saved not of works, so that any man can boast... right? And John 3:16, says that whosoever believes shall have eternal live... but it doesn't explain what is entailed in believing.

The bible further explains belief and faith in James 2:

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but
have no deeds
? Can such faith save them?
15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
16 If one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless"

Are these Contradictions? The answer is easy, No. You must have faith, and if you really had that faith, the works would naturally follow. So, you must act upon that Faith. Faith without action is useless. Faith without love is also useless (1 Cor 13:2).

If you truly believed and had Faith, your works would follow your faith. If your actions in this world don't follow closely to your beliefs, then are you really believing? Do you really have Faith? Salvation is a Gift from God, are you willing to accept that gift and follow Him. Following requires faith and action; action requires work.

Don't be confused, there are not a specific set of works, (which is what the bible refers to when it says we are saved by grace through faith a gift from God and not of works). There is no requirement for baptism, or confession, or rosary as some will have you believe. Faith and Action go hand-in-hand; faith without action is not really faith at all.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

The Case for Christ

I'm currently reading The Case for Christ... this is something that I've picked up and put down here and there. Well, I've picked it back up again, along with a few other books that amazingly all relate somehow, and actually relate to my blog a couple days ago about the diety of Jesus Christ.

One amazing point that sticks out in my mind is when the Author, Lee Strobel, is questioning John McRay, PH.D about archaelogical evidence for Christ and His Diety, this spoke directly to me.

In response to when John the Baptist was imprisoned, he asked about Jesus' identity, sent his followers to ask Jesus, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matt 11:3).

Jesus' response is not what we would expect.

Matt 11: 4Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see:
5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are
cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to
the poor.

Lee Strobel goes on to explain:

"Through the centuries, Christians have wondered about Jesus' rather enigmatic answer. Instead of derectly saying yes or no ... Jesus' response was an allusion to Isaiah 35. But for some reason Jesus included the phrase "the dead are raised," which is conspicuously absent from the Old Testament text." (pg 142 The Case for Christ)

The book brings to light a manuscript that is referred to as 4Q521 from the Dead Sea collection that contains a version of this scripture that includes the missing phrase. This gives a definitive answer on Jesus' part. Jesus not only satisfied John the Baptist with his message of being God, but this shows through Archaeology that God is playing a huge part in sending this message to those that doubted due to this missing peice.

Another interesting aspect of the book that touches on this specific topic as well was through his discussion with Ben Witherington III, PH.D. He mentioned, not only how Jesus' alluded to himself as God through referring to the scriptures such as Daniel 7, and his radical statements that defied the Old Testament way of thinking that put him on the same level as God, but also by his mission and carrying out the mission Jesus showed that he knew he was the Son of God, and he made it known to us.

More to come...

Thursday, March 6, 2008

AMERICAN IDOL TOP 12

David Cook, David Archuleta, Jason Castro are the first 3 guys to be selected into the top 12.

Brooke White, and Syesha are selected and you would think that they would continue as before, but throw you off by telling Kady Malloy that she'd be the first one not to make it to the top 12; I kind of expected it to happen sooner.

David Hernandez and then Michael Johns is the next one to take a seat in the top 12. Then as I expected Luke Menard is the next to go home, whose wife was there to watch him sing "Jitterbug" on the stage for his last time on American Idol. Danny Noriega surprisingly wasn't crying.

Next to make it through was Ramiel followed by Carly and Amanda. Just one guy and one girl seats left. Two girls left standing, Asia'h and Kristy, but Asia'h goes gome. I think that Kristy should definitely stick with country as it looked as though it has helped her make it through; she needs to continue to work hard though if she's going to continue on. Asia'h sings her way off, Danny cries this time and Paula dances. Now it's down to Danny and Chikeze. I've never been so excited to see someone leave... yes... despite his decent performance, I had him and Luke going home... it seems I was right this week about the guys! Chikeze goes through.

The top 12 (in no particular order)are:
1) David Cook 2) Brooke White 3) Jason Castro 4) Michael Johns 5) Amanda Overmyer 6) David Hernandez 7) Syesha Mercado 8) Carly Smithson 9) David Archuleta 10) Kristy Lee Cook 11) Chikeze and 12) Ramiele Malubay

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Top 8 Girls

Okay, so I missed most of the show, but I will tell you that I am surprised that everyone thought so highly of Amanda's performance... as I thought it sucked. I missed almost everyone elses performances with exception to the first 4 contestants and Brooke White, but needless to say that Brooke is better than all of those girls and I'm sticking to it.

She will be in the top 3 for sure. I'm not sure which of these ladies will go home, but I'm guessing that Amanda will stick it out a little longer. Maybe Kristy Lee Cook... hmmmm?

We'll see tomorrow I guess.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

American Idol: Top 8 Guys

You heard them sing... or maybe you didn't, but here's my order of best to worst:

1) Michael Johns
2) David Cook
3) David Hernandez (yes, he was a stripper for male clientale... ugh)
4) David Archuleta
5) Jason Castro
6) Chikeze
7) Danny (Please vote him off by not dialing his number, I don't care what VTFW says)
8) Luke Menard (This guy needs to go too)

My Top 5 guys of the competition are Michael Johns, David Archuleta, David Cook, Jason Castro, and David Hernandez. The guys were so close this week that it was hard for me to pick between Michael Johns and David Cook for top honors. David Archuleta didn't do that hot this week compared to previous weeks, while Jason Castro and Chikeze upped their game to the point where it was hard to narrow these 4th through 6th spots. They were so close to each other this week, but I'm confident that my bottom 2 were the complete worst and need to go.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Jesus' claims to be the Son of God

I've heard many people say that Jesus never claimed to be the son of God and that he was given his diety until dictated during the Nicean creed or some hokey pokey, but I tell you that Jesus was not only the Son of God, but that he made those claims as well.

The first scripture that I found was John 19:7. This isn't directly from Jesus' mouth, but it shows that Jesus not only claimed to be the Son of God, but it was known that it was his claim. Then I found Mark 14:60-62 and Luke 22:70, where Jesus answers in to the Sanhedrin that he is in fact the Son of God. Many times Jesus used the reference of the Son of Man when talking about himself during his lifetime, and his answer in Luke above pointed out the prophecy of the second coming of the Son of Man on a cloud (Daniel 7:13). Jesus also revealed to his disciples during his lifetime that he was in fact the Christ (Mathew 16:13-20).

Tell me now that Jesus was only given his Diety later on after his life. Jesus was the Son of God, and He also made those claims. He was not just a great prophet as many claim... read the bible (at least the linked scriptures) and you will not be able to say that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God, nor that he didn't claim to fulfill scriptures.