XYZ - eXamine Your Zeal

Since I fell behind, I am finishing with a triple, but I am finishing. I hope to spend May visiting the other A to Zers because I fell behind on that as well. It's called a challenge for a reason, but it's also a fun way to stretch myself. I'd like to thank Arlee Bird again and all the team of A to Z helpers. You all are a wonderful inspiration and encouragement. Thank you for putting this together and inspiring so many. Here goes:

A to Z Challenge

XYZ - eXamine Your Zeal. When you think about what’s been breaking out in cities across the U.S. right now, the riots and the mobs and the protests, can you help but wonder what’s going on? Is their zeal well grounded or unfounded? What is under it or behind it?

I believe within each of us there is a need, a desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves. We may not know it or see it or understand it, but it is there and it shows itself in someway. I believe we are witnessing the ugliness that it can produce when we misidentify what that bigger something is. That the need was placed in us for a purpose. Yes, we have a real need which fuels a real desire, and it is for the something bigger that we were created for, God Himself. We were created to belong in the family of God.

However, we also have something else naturally in us, a rebellious nature. So when that need for something bigger intertwines with our nature to rebel, it can produce the kinds of things we are witnessing in our society. We search to belong to something bigger in all the wrong places. Only God Himself can give us what we long for, what we are created for, relationship with Him. The Bible tells us God has made Himself known within us.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 

                                                                               Romans 18-23 (NASB)

We should eXamine what we are Zealous for. With what do You Identify? In what do You find You Reality? How do You determine Truth? What is You Ultimate? Are You Equipped to defend or offer an Apologetic Your Worldview? Can You Lay it Out for someone? How do You deal with Your Doubts?  Are You willing to make some Observations to Make the Most of  the Quality of Your Life?

EXamine Yourself and direct Your Zeal towards the One You were created for. You were made to be an Heir of the kingdom of God. Jesus has made a way to restore us to what we were intended for, Glory as children of the King of Kings.

God bless, Maria

TRUTH with a Capital T

A to Z Challenge

Truth: Reality; What is real. The actual state of what is; Consistency and conformity with God’s perspective and standards;

“The sum of Thy word is truth,

And every one of Thy righteous ordinances is everlasting.” Psalm 119:160

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

“And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:20

How does one determine truth? It is not uncommon to treat truth as mere preference today. For instance, the thought is that what’s true for you may not be true for me. However, that isn’t then truth. What is true must apply universally, though circumstance may change the application of truth, for truth to be truth it must be so regardless of who we are and what we may think of it.

Greg Koukl from Stand To Reason puts it something like this. When you go the ice cream shop with friends, you can all choose your favorite flavor. What you choose is merely your preference. However, when you go to the doctor, you want to be sure he is treating you with the right medication for your particular ailment. A topical ointment will not help you if you have an internal injury. If you have a disease, you want the doctor to treat you with the right medicine. If the doctor offers you ice cream when what you need is insulin, then you wouldn’t appreciate his prescription.

When it comes to making choices about what to believe concerning God and eternity, truth matters. If God is, and He has determined the path to eternity, then there is a right way and a wrong way. It isn’t a matter of our preference, but a matter of truth.

Consider Jesus.

Here are some websites to check out regarding the matter of truth:

Truth for Life

What is the Truth about God?

What is Truth?

Maria

SIN

As I have been navigating my way through the 2015 A to Z Challenge, I've been examining briefly various words and concepts in apologetics, that is the defense of what we believe, and for me that is Christianity and the Christian worldview. Today's word is sin.

A to Z Challenge

Sin: The violation of God’s expectations; transgressing divine law; rebelling against God; making something other than God our ultimate thing, our ultimate standard, our ultimate.

…All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus, Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

People in America today don’t like to hear the word sin. They think no one has the right to pass judgment on them, even God. Who is anyone to declare something sin? That argument easily falls apart with a little thought, however. If God made us, He knows how we work best, and He has the right to set the guiding principles for how the world and we in the world should operate. If there is a God, then He is the ultimate, and He determines our purpose. In fact He gives us purpose and meaning. If there is a God, as A. W. Tozer said,

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Why do I bring up God in the topic of sin? Because according to the definition of sin, it is God who determines what it is. If He is the King of Kings, then He has the authority to say what sin is and why it is significant.

We must determine what we think about God first in order to have a right view of sin. Otherwise sin has no meaning. Someone who says, "There is no God," likewise must say there is no sin to be consistent, and rightly so. However, if there is no sin, what is the basis for determining right and wrong? If it is just us and our own conclusions, who gets to decide? Think about that to its logical conclusion, and you will understand why Voltaire said,

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him."

Are you willing to consider the reality of God and sin? What do you think of Tozer’s statement? Do you have an alternative thought to Voltaire's statement?

Here are a few websites to help you consider what sin is and what to do about it.

What is sin? 

Forgiveness of sin 

Freaked Out by Ordinary Sin 

Maria

Reality

A to Z Challenge

Reality: The quality of existing; the state of being real; something that is true.

So is God reality? Is Jesus real? Did he live? The evidence is there to examine. If one is looking for reasons to reject God, one will find them. However, if you truly are seeking truth, seeking to find God, clearly the God of the Bible says you will find it if you are seeking it. What are you looking for?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew7:7-8 (NASB)

Reasons to Believe in the Reality of Christ 

 God is a Reality 

The Reality of Supernatural Faith 

Name Above All Names

A to Z Challenge

Being found in appearance as a man, [Jesus] humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:8-11 (NASB)

Name Above All Names by Sovereign Grace Music

Jesus Name Above All Names by CRC Worship

King of Kings

Once again I am participating in the A to Z challenge. It's krazy. It's kreative. It's kaotic. Today's letter is: K and my word for K is King.

A to Z Challenge

King – a Sovereign, a ruler. The one who has the authority over a kingdom.

The Bible clearly points to Jesus as the king of heaven and earth. In ‘J’,  I propose that what we do with Jesus can make all the difference in the world in our lives.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?” John 18:36-38 (NASB) 

 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. 

1 Timothy 6:13-16 (NASB)

This song, written by Jeremy Camp, is called “King Jesus.” Enjoy. 

Here are two additional ‘K’ websites to help you to know and keep believing in Jesus, the King of Kings.

Knowing Jesus 

Keep Believing

JESUS

A to Z Challenge

Jesus – The historical person who Christians accept as the second person of the Trinitarian God on whose birth, Dionysius, a monk who lived in the 5^th century, based the center point of the current calendar. Though his calculations may have been incorrect, the point is that the birth and life of Jesus is accepted by most of the world from a calendar perspective as the center of human history.

I believe it was C.S. Lewis who first said, Jesus must be viewed as a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. You see, Jesus claimed to be God and the Messiah. Here are just three of the many examples.

“I and the Father are one.” 

John 10:30

“Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” 

John 14:6

“And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” 

Matthew 14:33 (He never denied His deity when others worshipped HIM.)

Someone who claims to be God is either seeking to deceive or is crazy. He can’t be a good teacher or just a prophet with the claim being among His proclamations. The third possibility is that He is who He says He is. When I examine the evidence: the eye witness accounts of His life and His miracles, the changed lives then and throughout history, the archeological and forensic evidence of the validity of the Biblical accounts, I can’t help but come away with a conviction that Jesus is who He says He is. 

If He is who He says He is, what you decide about Jesus makes all the difference in your life. Here are a few "J" websites to help you consider Him further.

Jesus Online Ministries

Jesus

Who is Jesus Really?

God bless, Maria

Identity

A to Z Challenge

Identity – How I define myself, who I am, where I find my value and meaning.

Where do I find my identity? Is it in my job, in my roles as wife or mother, child, sister, friend? As a Christian, my identity is  something that is not limited by the constraints of this world or by my success in a role. I know that I have value as a sacred creation of God, and as a child of God, that I am loved and precious to Him. Pretty awesome for all those who accept God's invitation to be in His family through faith in Jesus Christ.

  

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. 

John 1:12

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:27-28

Here are some websites to explore what it means to find one's identity in Christ.

Who we REALLY are - Our identity in Christ 

My identitiy in Jesus

Who Am I?

Heirs of the Kingdom of God

A to Z Challenge

Heir – Someone destined to receive an inheritance.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Romans 8:16-17

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 4:1-7

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:5-7

The first two recommendations today are bloggers worth a visit who give their perspective on what it means to be an heir of the kingdom of God. I hope you find all three expand your understanding of the Biblical promise of becoming a child of God, an heir of the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

Hired Servants and Heirs of the Kingdom

Heirs of the Kingdom

Heirs of God

Christian Worldview

A to Z Challenge

A worldview is the comprehensive way we make sense of and relate to the world, touching every area and aspect of life. We all have one, but many of us don’t live a consistent worldview that is in line with who we say we are and what we say we believe.

What is a Christian Worldview? A Christian worldview would be the way a Christian should relate to and make sense of the world if he is living as a true follower of Jesus Christ and son of God through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, if I am a Christian, am I walking the walk not just talking the talk?

Here are  a few websites that delve a little deeper into  Christian Worldview. Of course there are many others, but these are a few I have found reliable that start with 'C'.

http://www.christianworldview.net

http://thechristianworldview.com/

http://www.compellingtruth.org/

Maria

Q is for Questions

 

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We all search for answers to the big questions.  Not everyone realizes that they are looking for the answers.  Many of us don’t really want the answers, not the true answers.  We search for them in all the wrong places.  We find or we create confusion.  We are left with questions.  But there are answers if we look for them in the right places, or rather with the right person. 

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.   John 14:6

A to Z Challenge

L is for Luke

          We are reading through and discussing the Gospel of Luke in our care group.  A care group is a small group from church that meets in homes to care for one another and to learn more about what the Bible teaches.  Sometimes we will focus on a topic; other times a book of the Bible.  Sometimes we just get together to have some food and fellowship. 

          I was glad we picked the Gospel of Luke in the Bible to look at over the coming weeks.  It’s been on my heart to spend more time just focusing on Jesus especially as we lead up to Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Often times we get caught up in what we are supposed to do as Christians, what we are supposed to think, what experiences we are having.  Jesus can get lost in our lives.   He becomes the buzzword, the pat answer for the Sunday school class, “Jesus, God, the Bible.” 

“Oh Lord, forgive us that we would allow You to become routine in our lives.”

          I was determined to get to know my Jesus more fully, and the Gospel of Luke is just the place to go to do that.   Spending time with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is an eye opening, a heart opening experience.  I have been reminded over and over again, not only from the text, but from voices all around me that this Jesus is no ordinary man.  The text certainly bears witness that this is someone special.  Is it possible for Him to have been anyone but God?  I am trying to listen more closely and look more intently, remembering Who it is I am walking with in this narrative.  These are the words God wanted recorded that we would know the truth. 

          Learning is a good L word too.  The more I can learn, the more I know.  The more I know, the more I understand.  The more I understand the more I realize just how little I know and how much there is to learn.  You could study the book of Luke for a long time and not learn or know or understand all that’s there to be revealed about the person of Jesus.   One thing for sure:  He is not mundane in any way. 

                       Faith is based in knowledge and I want to know more. 

 ^“It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”  Luke 1:3-5 

A to Z Challenge

G is for Giving it Your All

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As I limped home after walking my daughter to her babysitting job, my dog tugged at me to hobble faster.  I suffer with pain issues from arthritis in a small bone in my foot.  When it’s acting up, it feels like walking on a broken foot.  Tendinitis adds to the irritation and pain.  It hurts. 

“Stop Gooper.”  I yanked back at the leash.  “I’m giving it my all.”

After the words came out of my mouth, the questions flooded into my mind.  WAS I giving it my all?  What did that really mean?  Was I taking that term a bit too lightly?  After all, I was using it to chastise my dog.

A few weeks before this, I walked an 8K race with my daughter.  My foot was doing ok comparatively.  Though I had been working out, we hadn’t trained for the race, and it was a 2 mile jaunt just to get to the start.  I really hadn’t thought this was all that big of a deal, but plodding through that last mile, I was hurting.  It felt every bit as hard as the last mile of the marathon I HAD trained for several years earlier.  Oh boy, I was giving it my all just to crawl to that finish line. 

Was I though?  I thought I couldn’t walk another step, but I did; and another and another. 

So many times I’m dragging;  I can’t do one more thing.  I can’t…  I’ve given my all, but I know.  As hard as I may have pushed myself, as deserved as the rest might be, giving it my all, that’s something else all together. 

American soldiers are giving and have given their all.  People around the world dying for their faith are giving their all.  The one who most comes to mind as giving His all, is Jesus, the Christ. 

Jesus told us what giving it all looks like, and it’s all about love.  He said,  

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” 

John15:13

He did.  He laid His life down for everyone who puts their trust in Him as the remedy for their human problem.  It’s a beautiful example of giving one’s all.  It’s worth finding out more about.  

A to Z Challenge

C is for Christ

He lives! 

Christ came to bring deliverance, freedom, life abundant.  He claims to be “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)  That’s difficult to grasp and can’t be completely understood, but it is worth taking the time to consider because if it is true, if He is who He claims to be, God incarnate, then what you do with Christ makes all the difference in your world. 

So let your eyes gaze upon Jesus.  I used to wonder what it meant to keep your eyes on the Lord.  I mean, isn’t being a good Christian about believing Jesus died for my sins and rose again to give me eternal life and then living the good moral life set forth in the Bible.  However, the longer I live the committed Christian life, the better I come to understand how its all about keeping my eyes on Christ.

Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith.  Unlike other religions, Christianity can’t be separated from its founder, Jesus Christ.  Who He is and what you do with Jesus is what makes Christianity what it is.  You can’t take Christ out of Christianity and still have Christianity.  If you take other founders out of their religions, leaving only with their teachings, their religions could still function.  They are separate from what they taught.  Christ is integral to what He taught.  For the Christian, if Jesus isn’t who He says He was, the religion falls apart.  One could still live according to some of the moral principles He taught.  In fact a lot of people do just that without embracing Christ for who He claimed to be.  That isn’t Christianity though.  Christianity demands confronting Christ.

You see, as C.S. Lewis and other renowned thinkers have put it, Jesus was either liar, lunatic, or the real deal, God incarnate.  He can’t be just a good teacher, just a prophet, just a great guy.  He doesn’t leave that option open to us.  He claimed to be God.  He claimed to be the answer to man’s sin problem.  He made claims that don’t leave those other titles as possibilities.  What would you say to someone who claimed to be God if he wasn’t?   You see if Jesus wasn’t God, as He claimed to be, he was either deluded, or He knew He wasn’t God and He aimed to delude. 

As I spend time reading my Bible, praying, meditating on what I read, considering divergent thoughts and analysis, and conversing with skeptics, questioners, and those who have studied this in depth, as I consider the evidence for and against each of these propositions, deluded, deluder, truth, I am convinced of Jesus Christ’s authenticity as the Son of God.  His claims best fit the evidence and reality.  Christianity is not blind faith, but reasoned faith, yet faith none the less.  We can’t prove who Jesus Christ is, but we can, if we examine the evidence carefully, come to a reasoned conclusion to feed a confident faith.

Yes, Jesus was a great teacher.  He was a prophet and a good man.  He fulfilled many roles.  However, Jesus is so much more.  He was and is the Christ.  And if that is the case, does it make reasonable sense to ignore Him or treat Him as just one choice among many?  He doesn’t leave us that option either.  If His words are true and He says there is only one way to find the way to eternal life, shouldn’t we pay attention?  If He is God incarnate, then He has the answers to life’s big questions and other answers are just wrong.  If you have a disease that will kill you, you want the right medicine.  The wrong medicine won’t solve your problem.  Neither will the wrong belief solve a problem for which only Christ is the solution.

“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to [the Father] who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.  For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.  Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”                                Hebrews 3:1-6  

If Jesus Christ is who He says He is, and the evidence certainly points in that direction, can you afford not to consider Him and what He had to say?  Consider Jesus Christ.  Even better, discover the delight:  the deliverance, the freedom, the life-abundant in knowing Him.

…“fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2