While there is no limit to the amount of love God can pour out to you, did you know you could be hindering His ability to give you love? Love is not something you receive and simply sit on. As the song goes, “Love isn’t love till you give it away.” Love is an action and that action must continue. You see, brothers and sisters, there is no limit on the amount of love God can give you, but you must pay that love forward.
Continue reading “Are You Hindering God’s Love?”Blog
Go and Sin No More
The Bible talks about how that man has fallen short of God’s Glory, through the original sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus dying on the cross filled in that gap, providing us a way back home. However, we must strive to live a sin-free life. Sure, the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41), but we must resist the act of sinning. Jesus will forgive us of those sins we do commit, if we ask for forgiveness, but that is not a get out of jail free card.
As we see in Luke 9:23 NIV:
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Sure we will be tempted, but temptation alone is not the act of committing a sin. It is when we allow ourselves to act upon that impulse, whether in our mind or physically. To be a disciple of Jesus, one must cast off sin. It is an either or. This is why when we do commit sin and do not ask for forgiveness, it feels as if Jesus has forsaken us. It is not He who has forsaken us, but we who have forsaken Him.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He said to ‘sin no more’.
Christian Resources Available
Live in the Bible, an imprisonment ministry, offers a few resources for those struggling to live a Christ-like, Christ-led life. Some of these resources have been recently updated, including:
- Wallpapers – These are Christian-based wallpapers designed by the ministry
- Christ Like Buttons – These are Christ-like life buttons you can add to your website
Additional resources are coming, including the return of the list of bible studies, which strangely went missing after a change of design. Stay tuned as more resources are coming!
9:35AM Update: The bible studies page has been restored.
Deny the Existence of Christ
I think the biggest reason people choose to deny the existence of Christ, or belief in God, is because they know that if they believe that there is a “creator”, then we must have a purpose. People refuse to believe in God because belief causes us to wrestle with the squandering of our lives. Belief in God, makes you confront yourself and it invokes CHANGE, which doesn’t feel too good. It’s much easier to say “there’s no God” because that means you’re not being held to any moral, ethical, or spiritual standard.
Don’t Waste Another Minute
Don’t waste another minute trying to prove that you’re growing spiritually, to any friends, family, leader, person, etc.
The reality is this… you could check off every step on ‘their’ list of mature ways to handle conflict… or anything else, and they will still consider you immature, unhealthy, rebellious, and whatever other adjective that comes to mind. All because they’ve never matured in the area of acknowledging when people are hurt! To be clear… in almost every situation, there is immaturity present in all parties; just in different areas!
God sees you, and HE is just… he will vindicate you, in the sight of all men! He saw the situation, he saw how you handled it, he saw your heart, he heard your tears, he heard your prayers, he knows about those scars, he understands what happened, he knows who did it… he also knows how you contributed to their pain! The bottom line is this… If you’ve demonstrated Godly character in your camp, but an enemy comes in, and pushes you out, because they’re lying about you… You were in the wrong camp! If the people who know you, and who have spent time with you, ALLOWED negativity to enter your relationship; there never was one! and God used ALL OF THAT, to show you that there was nothing to hold on to, to begin with!
If my kids believe in Santa Claus, that’s ok
Since I did get challenged earlier on this topic I just wanted to clear it up!! These are my views on it.
If my kids believe in Santa Claus, that’s ok. Kids believe in all kinds of things. Thanks to Disney, most of our kids believe in talking fish and dinosaurs. It seems to me that part of being a kid, and part of the fun in dealing with kids, is that imagination and fantasy.
I will not directly lie to my kids about Santa or anything else for that matter. They will get presents from Santa, and leave a letter for Santa (they will even get a reply every year), and leave cookies each year. If they ask, I may try to change the subject or avoid the question. Heck, I may even play some mind games like “What do you think?” or “Do you get presents from Santa?” But, I won’t take the easy way out and just lie to them. Some people may suggest that this is a distinction without a difference – if you lead your kids to believe in something, that is essentially lying to them. In the interest of full disclosure, this is the issue I wrestle with. However, in the same way I do not feel the need to give my kids a disclaimer that there are no such things as talking vegietables every time I turn on an episode of Veggietales, I don’t mind allowing them believe in Santa.
My kids need to understand the difference when we talk about Jesus and when we talk about Santa. Jesus is the risen Son of God whose existence and divinity are well attested to and evidenced by Bible and the other sources. Santa is just Santa Claus – a jolly old guy who lives at the North Pole with elves. Unlike Jesus, there is no proof of Santa’s existence. Frankly, I find Santa a good jumping off point for a discussion of the differences between blind faith and reasoned faith. I never want to leave my kids in a position where they can say “Mom said Santa was true and I don’t believe that anymore so maybe I shouldn’t believe what she says about Jesus either.” I think the key to avoiding this is living Christ out in front of them as much as possible. Santa drops off some packages once a year and brings temporary happiness. Christ changes lives and brings us eternal joy.
Santa can never, and will never, be at the center of Christmas in my house. Christmas is about Christ – plain and simple! Christmas is about God’s plan to save us from our sins. That is the fundamental truth of Christmas and Santa has nothing to do with that. I think so long as my kids understand this, whether or not they believe in Santa is irrelevant. Every good thing comes from above, and whether the delivery man for those things is Santa or Mom and Dad does not really matter!
Shared with Permission by Traci Tingley
Christian Wallpaper
Live in the Bible is proud to announce our first few in-house created Christian Wallpapers. Visit the Wallpaper Resource page to see them.