Lead The Lost

When it comes to our relationship with God, are we patient, or do we expect immediate results from Him? With our requests, do we expect to receive right away or in God's timing? Are we humble in our position or do we sort of treat God like a goody basket; always expecting something when we ourselves do nothing? In all honesty, how many times have we prayed for something from God, whether it be: healing, strength, love, needs, desires; then lost faith in Him when we didn't receive it in a timely fashion? I'm reminded of the story of Jonah, a man who was thrown overboard from a ship, then swallowed by a giant fish. Can you imagine the horror of that experience on him; feeling that you would never escape and die a slow death of starvation and thirst?! Put yourself in his position, what would you do? I'm not sure about you, but I would pray, and earnestly at that; I would probably also go into shock or panic. Now after the first day or possibly even the second of serio...

Who is Jesus Christ? The way this question is often asked is done so in the correct way, instead the opposite wording of who was  Jesus Christ? But I'm getting a little ahead of myself, the fact that you're here seeking an answer to this question shows that you're on the correct path to a better life; but again, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself and need to slow down a bit. To answer this question in short, Jesus Christ, was the Son of God and also the Son of man. Well how can that be possible you might ask, how can someone be God's Son and  man's Son? God chose a woman, Mary, who was a virgin, to give birth to a baby boy who would be named Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus was not conceived through the normal method of conception, which needs a woman and  a man; instead, the Holy Spirit placed Jesus in Mary's womb to be born through a miracle. In this way, he was given birth to by a human, making him the Son of man; but since he was placed in Mary's womb by t...

Faith, there are so many questions about it. What is faith? What is faith in God? What is Christian  faith? What is the meaning of faith? What is faith according to the Bible? These five questions alone are asked over 5,000 times a month in Google, but does each question get answered effectively? Each time someone looks up a question revolving around faith, do they find an article written by someone who genuinely cares about them and where their headed; or do they find someone who seeks to lead them astray? Those last two questions are the ones that I contemplate on a daily basis, I ask myself, are people being reached effectively; this is my goal, this is why I write, this is my calling, to lead the lost. Instead of answering these five or six questions simply, I'm going to go far beyond giving you a simple definition; I'm going to give you examples from the Bible, as well as from my own life, and end with how you  can have faith as well. So just what is this faith that ...

Have you ever reached a point in your spiritual walk that you kind of feel like you've hit a brick wall? Whereas you used to feel that you were growing on a daily basis, you sort of feel like you're not making any further progress towards spiritual maturity? If you're anything like me, more likely than not, you have or may at some point in your relationship with God. I'll give you an example from my life to show you exactly what I'm talking about, just so it's a little clearer in your mind. For the past four months I've been spending time in the Word, praying, searching for areas I can change, and just desiring to be used by God. Well, up to this point, I've had pretty visible progress, I've dropped most if not all of the things which were sinful in my life, I haven't found any areas in my life which I can hand over to God, I also don't feel like I've heard from Him in a while, and it just really feels like I've hit a brick wall. W...

"Dear heavenly Father," I pray, "I come before you again today with the same request I ask you each day, please bless me with an idea or topic which I can write about and reach out to others with. God I just ask that you use me as your tool and that you speak through me instead of allowing me to simply sit down at the computer and just pounding away at the keys grasping at ideas. Please just take control and guide me to say whatever it is that you would have me to speak on for the day. I ask and have full faith that this will be done in Jesus name, amen." As I've openly stated on this site many times, I don't enjoy sitting down and writing without an idea or some kind of topic in which I can run with. Today is no different, except that as I'm praying this prayer, I realize that God has already provided me with a topic for today; it's not exactly under the greatest of circumstances that I came by it, but it's an idea and a way to witness noneth...

My wife mentioned something to me not too long ago which is just now sticking out, she mentioned that at the church we attend there isn't much fellowship after the service or anything. Now, one of the reasons may be that many of the members are younger people, such as my wife and I, and do not enjoy sticking around after the service is over; everyone has other things they like to do before the day is over. Another reason could be that for six years this church has been mobile, meeting out of schools every week, meaning they have to begin tearing down everything after each service; people standing around talking after the service would get in their way and hinder their progress, but that's beside the point. At the same time, as soon as the service is over, we don't stick around to try and meet anyone, we head straight to the car and leave. So it seems kind of pointless to complain or point this out when we don't even make an attempt to meet new members or build up new...

As a writer it's sometimes very hard to come up with a topic to write about, this is what we call writers block, which is pretty much the a writer's worst nightmare; I know it certainly is for me. There are days when I can't wait to get home from a great workout after being inspired by an event or thought that I can't wait to hammer out into a post, then you have those days that you can't think of a single thing; which pretty much describes what I've been facing this entire week, being a writer is not always as easy as you would imagine. For reasons which are currently unknown to me, I haven't been hearing or getting any feedback from God lately, which sort of depresses me to a certain extent. Up until the beginning of this week, God was providing me with some great topics, viewpoints, inspiration, and just pushing me along in my writing; but this week, He's been entirely silent. It could be that I've done something to build up a barrier in my hea...

Often times I wonder how many of us have fallen into the belief that miracles are a thing of the past, they happened back in the time that Jesus was alive and he provided his disciples with the same gifts; but it no longer happens in our era. I myself fell into the same mindset for a long time, I just kind of thought that these things must have been so cool to witness back when Jesus was around and I don't ever hear of miracles happening in the world we live in today. I was in my car praying the other day, praying that God would use me however he saw fit, whether it was performing miracles on the street, writing a blog, or just teaching those around me; when it hit me. You know, I've always just assumed that miracles no longer happen, but I've never actually taken the time to look it up and see if they do or not. So, I made a mental note that after I got out of the gym and was waiting for my car to be inspected that I would look into it on my phone; yes I have one of tho...

As I pulled out of the gym parking lot this morning, I couldn't find a single song on the Christian music stations that I liked; so I ended up flipping over to a non-Christian rock station. What was on sounded incredible, the guitarist was playing a very intricate and amazing solo, I was like, "Wow, God really blessed that guy with some skill"; yeah that's right, I talk to myself in my own mind. I started getting really into it, you know, head banging and just jamming out, right up until the chorus of the song came back on. These are the lyrics, and I quote them, "I'm alive to be the demon, I'm alive to be the one, yeah yeah yeah yeah, Hell it lives in everyone." I know, wow, who comes up with lyrics like that right? You may be wondering if I changed the station after hearing that, no, I tolerate bad lyrics occasionally if the music sounds decent enough; God blessed these men with talent, but they were born into sin and haven't repented yet, I...

Prayer, a tool we use to communicate directly with God, our heavenly Father; something I use on a daily basis. There are many days when the Lord will provide me with a revelation or idea which I can use as my topic for the day, often times these are presented to me while in deep thought at the gym; however, today I didn't really receive that gift from God, or if I did, I didn't pay it much attention. So as normal, I turn to God in prayer, seeking a direct conversation with Him. "Father, I come before you again for the third or fourth time today, seeking ideas and encouragement from you. As you well know, I'm sitting here without the slightest clue of what to write about for the day, you didn't really provide me with the normal revelation I've grown so accustomed to; I know I shouldn't always  rely solely on you, I mean you did bless me with this great imagination, perhaps I should use it from time to time. But, I ask you now Lord, please fill me with you...

Continuing along the same basic principles that I've been teaching about for the past couple of days, we'll be moving on to witnessing for Jesus Christ. As I pointed out in one of my last articles, " The Ab Workout of Christianity ", I love to workout and be in the gym; four days a week at the very least. Something was brought to my attention today, which I've never really paid much mind, until now; once you reach a certain fitness level, others begin to approach you with questions. I'll give you a couple of examples to show you exactly what I mean and how it may happen during your workout routine. A couple of months ago there was a middle aged woman who was doing her ab workout on the declined bench next to me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed her watching my exercise, which was the Russian Twist, where you hold a medicine ball or weight and twist from side to side. After I completed my repetitions she asked me exactly what portion of the abs the exer...

As Christians, many times we fall into this mindset that we have to be perfect; that if we aren't perfect, we're doing something wrong. This is true especially in those, such as myself, who have not been dedicated to living a godly life for long. It's come to my attention that quite often we think that as soon as we become Christians our lives will become radically changed; and in a way this is true, but not in the manner that many of us have come to think. To give you a perfect example, I'll share with you something which happened to me today. I had just finished up my workout, got in my car, flipped on the radio, and was headed home when a song came on that sort of made me uncomfortable. Now, here's the funny thing, it was a Christian  song; but the way the artist sang, so openly, and the words he was speaking, just showed me how short I fall in my praise life. I've always been a quiet individual, someone who never really speaks out or puts any emotion into...

Anyone who knows me on a personal level knows that I love to workout, I enjoy being in the gym day in and day out. When it comes to building muscle or losing weight, what is the number one area that comes to mind? The core, or abdominal area right? Many people don't look at it this way, they think of it only as a "visual" area of the body, but , a strong core is very important to the body. Why is that? When you look at the body, it stands upright and erect, right? Well, what area of the body do you suppose is responsible for this happening? Mainly the abdominal area and lower back region of your body, without strength in these two areas, you'll most likely grow to have bad posture and find it hard to keep your upper body erect. In the same manner, Christianity has core principles and teachings, with Christ at the center of our religion; because without Christ, we wouldn't have  a religion, hence the name "Christianity". I'm sure that by now many...