What is love? (baby don't hurt me)

The real question is what actually is love? Now john gets into discussion about love and actually hits it pretty good. He talks about how we need to not love the world and how those that do, do not have the love of the father in him. He then talks about how we need to abide in him and be the children of God that he has sent us to be, serving under him, for him, and only to please him and grow his kingdom. He then tells us that we need to love one another, unlike Cain and Able who did not portray that kind of love being brothers. He then tells us that we need to test all of the spirits because not all of them are from God and we need to find the ones that are. Then ending to tell us that God really is the end all be all that God is love and if we are dedicating our lives to him then we have found true love, happiness, and contentment.

Now through all of the reading of John I have learned probably most importantly that we need to love one another through the good and bad. Even if we do not feel that loving one another is what we want we must do it so that away we do not tear down the kingdom of God but only build it up. Because that is the end goal isn't it? To advance the kingdom of God and not end it?

How would I explain Jesus?

I would start off with explaining to my friend that Jesus is a friend to all and that no matter what they do Jesus will always love them. I would then go on to tell them that Jesus is Gods son, and God was the man that created everything (light and day, man and woman, all animals, and heaven and earth) I would then go on to tell them about my personal experiences with God and what he has done in my life thus far. If they started to ask me questions like who is god? Is he a Man or a God? I would just respond to them like this. God was both God and man Jesus was 100% man as shown from multiple accounts in the bible, but he did have amazing powers and limitless ability to do anything. If they asked if Jesus was a man or angel? I would say that Jesus was extremely holy but he was human.

I would conclude to tell said person that even through all the past things they have done in there life they still have God to fall back on even in the toughest times of need and that he will heed to all their prayers and needs.

Money.. Money.. Money..

What I have always been told about money is if you have a lot of it or a little of it you are always supposed to give 10% of it to the church, the rest is honestly whatever you want to spend your money on (morally right things to spend your money on). Now I for one am not a huge fan of the whole calling people rich or poor, because honestly not everyone knows what peoples financial well being is unless they brag and or share about it to others. Now for a person who is legitimately rich, they have a huge moral decision on their hands, do I flaunt and show off all of my money and brag about it, or am I conservative and keep my financial situation to my self. For a poor person they are given the same situation, but it has been factually proven that poor people spend more money on unnecessary things then most common wealthy people do. Now all of this was most likely a jumble of the most random things ever. So to end this in conclusion I think it really doesn't matter if you are poor or rich and how you spend your money, as long as you are giving money back to the church and maybe those that need it as it is always good to help out others.

Is my House a Church?

Now to start this off I'd like to say I am still completely confused about this whole talk that we had in class and in our daily readings, the whole thing makes my head hurt, but I am going to take a stab at it. Now in my opinion I think a church should have: walls, a roof, doors, maybe some windows, a preacher, staff, and people/community. Now yes that is what the church is supposed to have, but what does the church need to look like/run like? I think it needs to have worship as that is something that we have come to love singing out to God and worshiping him through song and praise. I think it also needs a strong pastor to give a good message that is educated in his studies and actually knows what he is talking about. Another question who should have authority in the church? Well I kind of answered that in what I just said but overall the pastor should have authority in the church to lead his church.

Now to a tough question Could a woman be a pastor? I think yes through personal experience me and my dad went to visit a friends church, and there was a fill in woman pastor for a few weeks while the main pastor was sick. I think she did just as a good job if not better than any pastor I have ever seen before. So yes I believe woman have the right to being pastors.

My current church has worship, a message, tithing, and then closing worship, a male pastor, and a strong body of people. Which I think it does a good job at doing what Paul talks about in scripture.

Paul's view on the gospel

Paul starts of in Romans talking about the sinful nature that everyone has, and how everyone has been condemned because of our rebellion from God. But then Paul goes on to talk about how we can put faith in his son Jesus, and build a relationship with God and through that we can remove the part about being condemned and have eternal life with God. Paul doesn't stop there he tells them it isn't just being close to God that gets you to heaven it is about being sanctified, and being made holy while we are in the pursuit of following him. Over all Paul talks all throughout Romans about Gods righteous plan and how you can partake in that.

I think the hardest thing to explain to a believer is that fact that we have to not be so selfish, actually we cannot be selfish at all. In this day in age we care about ourselves way too much and not enough about others and what is important. Also how we have to give ourselves to the Lord 100% not going in 50/50 we have to be 100% in for the journey, because God wants to raise up his children under him in his name.

I think that there is honestly a lot to take in if you are a non-believer coming to Christ for the first time. I think just explaining to someone that there is a God out there that loves them through thick and thin and no matter what you do he will always be there for them no matter what they do. I think the over all fact that someone cares about them that much would be extremely comforting, and make them a little intrigued to study more about Christianity.

Going to sleep and Waking up

Based on our class discussion that we had in class and based on what I took away from it this is what I got. Death as Paul talked about is like sleeping as in we will just fall asleep (die) until we are awaken by God. now resurrection will not come until God is ready to come back and take us to heaven. But in Paul's letters he writes to the people of Corinth that they should not be afraid of death and be at ease because death is just another part of our walk with God.  Paul is completely self reliant on God and he is waiting on him for his deliverance. Now Paul also lives as if God was going to comeback right in his time, any second and really believed that he was coming.  Now as the belief of atheistic naturalism talks about death they call it just a plunge into oblivion, Paul talks to us about death and resurrection that it should be accepted with ease because it won't hurt and it will be painless. Now those that are dead before God has come; Paul says that first God will take those that are already asleep up into a medium state, and then those that are awake on the earth up next. Atheistic naturalism simply just talks about death as accepting the inevitable, and just simply falling into oblivion and there is nothing that you can do or say to help you for we all just die in the end. Now I honestly think that believing in what Paul says is a lot more calming, because it doesn't talk about just falling into oblivion. When I think of just falling asleep and waiting to wake up it makes me at ease and happy, but when I think about any other view on death I feel afraid and not at ease.

She loves me, She loves me not

As most of us hot blooded teenagers now a days look for a special someone that we can call our girlfriend/boyfriend. As that is now culturally accepted, is this honestly acceptable? I for one cannot say that I haven't dated but I feel that through the experience I learned more about myself and what it truly means to date someone. In a relationship there are two people, at least that is the relationship that culture looks at. In reality there should be three people in a relationship, a Man, a Woman, and God. As everyone thinks that relationships are based off of relying on your other half for the most of things in life, which yes is good to do but there needs to be lots of room for God. Think of it as a triangle, with the man at the bottom left, the woman at the bottom right, and God sitting king on top of both. As a man and woman get closer with each other they should be heading towards the peak to God, because if they are not the relationship will simply not last, or will be worthless in the Christian viewpoint. Because in the Christian viewpoint our end goal as Christians is to end up in heaven with God to spend eternal life with him. So why is that so hard for us to accept and do? Because we are only humans, and are tempted by sin everyday. Most people look for a relationship for only the romance, others look for it for someone to share their life with.

In total I think dating is something that should really be taken seriously, I take dating as a Journey. You start off wondering through the mist to travel to the top of the mountain top where you find the best treasure. Your other half. If you use dating in a selfish way and don't plan on taking it seriously to find your partner for life. Then I don't think dating should be accepted.

Facepalming our culture.