AMereServant

Why forgiveness is so important – Matt 18:21-35

Posted on May 13, 2011 by amereservant

I didn’t realize until earlier this year how big of an issue forgiveness was to a large percentage of Christians. We all cling to the fact we need forgiveness from God and we even expect Him to freely give it since His word says He will.

But what often goes overlooked and is a struggle for many of us is the stipulation God put on it …. we must forgive those who have done us wrong in order for God to forgive us.
While I won’t go into all of the verses around this topic, I wanted to share what is said by Jesus in Matthew 18:21-35:

21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”

22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Matt. 18:21-35 NASB

Jesus uses this parable since it’s a PERFECT example of how we plea for forgiveness from God, because we realize we deserve to be sold (or delivered) to something/someone much worse for how we have wronged (our debt, sins) God. But being a merciful and loving God, He is the example of the lord in this parable, seeing our humbleness due to our acknowledgement of our sins against Him and the consequences we deserve, and is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our unrighteousness.

But for some reason, we take it lightly what He has done for us, ignoring the magnitude of the price that was paid for our forgiveness and making it a much smaller debt in our minds than it truly is in reality. We forget we are the ones that owed the 10,000 talents and yet we treat it as if we were forgiven for 1 talent.
In turn, we encounter someone who has done something that hurt us, whether it be insult us or wronged us in some other way, and we want to hold a grudge and find it hard to forgive that person or just choose not to do so. We become like the slave who goes and elevates the debt against them higher than the one our Lord has forgiven us of as if it is a much worser offense.

But as Jesus puts it in the parable, God will deal very harshly with us for that just as the lord in the parable does with the slave.
Forgiveness isn’t easy, especially when to us the offense seems great, but we must never forget that nothing anyone does to us can compare to the offense we have made against God and yet He loves us enough to forgive us anyways. He does demand that in turn, we must forgive those who are offensive to us and by doing so, we begin to understand and unravel just how incredible and amazing God’s love for us truly is.

Posted in Jesus | Tagged debt, forgive, forgiveness, God, Jesus, Lord, offensive, slave | Leave a comment

Evangelism – Thinking Outside The Box

Posted on April 5, 2011 by amereservant

Every since I committed my life to Christ years ago, my heart’s desire has been to reach the world around me and share the incredible Jesus I know. But discovering how to do that has taken several years despite the books, articles, etc. on evangelism I’ve read. I haven’t really seen any “real-life” examples that I could follow because many of them were way out-of-character for me and the awkwardness of trying to be or do something I’m simply not wouldn’t really help anyone.
I participated in something called “visitation” several years ago, which is where church members get together and go through neighborhoods knocking on doors, inviting them to a church, and seeing if they’re saved or not. I had at least half a dozen small New Testament Bibles with the Roman road highlighted and tabbed, just waiting to find that one person hungry to know about this Jesus I came to tell them about.

But to my discouragement, I never did find that person. Some of the people in other groups were coming back with reports of how many people they led to Christ that night and I began to wonder what in the world was I doing wrong? Of course it then leads to questioning if I am really saved or not, because isn’t that the “fruit” I am suppose to be producing? I deeply love Jesus and have complete faith in Him as my Lord and Savior, but I wasn’t encountering people that were receptive to the Good News I so desperately wanted to share with them.
I eventually figured evangelism just isn’t my gifting since I’m not a very eloquent speaker and not crafty at all with the whole secular-to-spiritual conversational switch thing. I thought if I just live my life as a “Christian” and refrain from doing the things condemned by Christianity, perhaps people would see this and ask why I am that way. Perhaps even a few Christian T-Shirts with thought-provoking designs or phrases would even impact them since I am inadequate to speak it to them and persuade them myself.

This proved to fail as well since trying to “look” like I have it all together and refrain from drinking, cursing, etc. was only a mask and I am still a broken person with many flaws that eventually are seen anyways. I realized I was just adding to the number of people referred to as non-believers as “hypocrites” and if anything, I was turning people away instead of drawing them closer.

A Time Of Growth

For the last few years, God has been working on me and making me into the person He intended for me to be and equipping me with what I needed. There was a lot of un-programming that had to take place, ideologies, theories, and teachings that I had been trying to go by instead of just looking to the one I was suppose to be following all along, Jesus Christ. I realized that Jesus nor His disciples had a New Testament Bible with the Roman Road highlighted in it so they could quote it word-for-word to people. They didn’t have Jesus bumper stickers, fish/cross necklaces, or wore shirts with cleaver messages on them either. They didn’t try to “look” like followers of Jesus by pretending they were sinless or flawless.
I also began to realize a few of them weren’t the best speakers either since Peter and Paul usually got in a lot of trouble when they spoke about Jesus, meaning their messages weren’t always well received. They also didn’t hide their flaws and Paul often shared his story of his brokenness. They didn’t go around inviting people to a church building so the pastor of that church could effectively deliver the Word in such a way the people would respond, but accepted the responsibility to tell them their selves. They lived out their faith and trusted God to fill in the areas of inadequacies they had and believed God can use ordinary broken people to do extraordinary things.

Thinking Outside The Box

I’ve come to realize the impact we can have on others when we quit trying to pretend we’re something we’re not and begin to truly love others. Instead of trying to still be the old me with a “Jesus enhancement”, I took hold of the fact we’re to be a new creation, to be born again and that means completely removing my old me. As a matter of fact, Jesus states in Mark 8:33 we’re to deny ourselves if we wish to follow Him. This finally became clear to me that the new me should look nothing like the old me and I am to be continually striving in every way to be more like Him by denying myself my worldly desires. That meant letting go of many of the things I was clinging to such as hobbies, possessions, and pleasures and to set my mind and heart on what God desires instead. Not that I can’t have any of those, but if they compete with God for my attention, time, and my heart, it’s better to do without any of it. Because after all, His desires and things for our lives are far richer and more fulfilling than the things we can find to occupy ourselves and our time with.

Loving Others As I Love Myself

This phrase was hard to grasp for me. But it dawned on me one day it’s actually quite simple. If I see someone in need, not just starving and living on the street, but something even as small as coming up short at the checkout counter, and I am able to meet their need, then just do so. I realized that I have everything I need and then some. So if I have an abundance (not that I can’t find ways to spend/use it), then I encounter someone with a need and I am able to help, then I’m to do so.
Generosity surprises people, especially from strangers, yet my Lord said to love them. I ask myself “If I were that person in need, what would I be impacted by and if they told me it wasn’t so they can get something from me, but simply because they love Jesus, how would that change my perspective and mind about who Jesus really is?”.

A Renewed Focus

What I’ve discovered is this …. being willing to live honestly before everyone around you by admitting your faults, your struggles, and your sins (in an appropriate manner) changes lives. By doing so, you’ll often find that others around you are carrying the same burden of trying to keep their junk hidden and when you take off your mask, they can also take theirs off and then the truth sets us free. It’s helped me tremendously to put off the old me and become the person I am suppose to be in Christ since I no longer have to play different roles to hide my flaws. It also makes Jesus real to those whom have seen nothing but hypocrites and think it’s all a joke and to those who never have had a deep and personal encounter with Jesus since they’ve never been completely open and honest with themselves or Him.

Be generous. I struggled, and still do at times, with materialism. There’s plenty of things I’d like to have, especially in the category of gadgets. I don’t think it’s wrong to have some of those things, but I’ve also discovered what a distraction they are to me and how much money goes into them only to later end up collecting dust. One thing I found to counter this is to instead be a blessing to others as well as look for needs that I can meet.
In doing so, I’ve found much greater joy than what the expensive gadget would’ve ever come close to giving me and I’ve been able to make very positive impacts on those around me. It has also kept me focused on what God is focused on … loving people.

Serve others in every way and every day. Having taken on the role of a servant, I’ve learned humility, compassion, and discovered fulfillment. Serving someone else has proven to be a truly refreshing experience on each occasion, although I am often reluctant to do so since self-serving is much easier. But when I serve others, it means more to them, to me, and most importantly, to God and in that I find joy. It’s exhausting a lot of the time, but it’s worth every minute. It also helps me to defeat selfishness, which just so happens to be a built-in struggle I deal with regularly.

I pray this helps you discover new ways to reach the people around you, even if you’re like me and suck at finding cleaver ways to share the Gospel. The line I use is simply this: “Who do you believe Jesus Christ is?”. Once that’s established, we can figure out where to go from there. It’s not about winning people to your church, but about showing people Jesus IS real and can transform your life as well as theirs.

Posted in Church, Jesus | Tagged evangelism | 1 Comment

Our gift on Christmas day

Posted on December 10, 2010 by amereservant

God, desiring to fulfill His greatest desire to have a relationship with us, separated from us because of our sinfulness and His righteousness not being able to be in it’s presence, gave the greatest gift one could ever give, His only begotten Son so our sins would be forever forgiven for all who believed.
God knew the creation He loved so dearly and wanted a relationship with would deal harshly with His baby boy and would eventually crucify Him because of the darkness they walked in, yet He knew that giving Jesus to this harsh and cruel world was the only way He could be close to us even in our broken state and have an everlasting relationship with us.

He gave us Light for our darkness, hope in our most troubling times, a promise that He would always be there with us even through our greatest hardships in this life, and an eternal life free from all of these things once we’ve completed our time here.
This Christmas, remember this is the greatest gift of all and one freely given to all of us. We poorly mimic this by the giving of gifts, which don’t last for long and the excitement and happiness from them quickly fade, but God’s eternal gift is forever more and brings true joy to our lives, not temporary happiness.

Have a wonderful Christmas and may you always be reminded of the miracle that took place on Christmas Day over 2,000 years ago. It’s not about a baby in a manger, a star in the sky, or wisemen traveling to see, but it’s about God fulfilling and perfecting a way for us, no matter how broken we may be, to have a close and loving relationship with Him and He be our God and we be His people for an eternity by having faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Posted in Jesus | Tagged Christmas, Jesus Christ, Son of God | 1 Comment

Stretched Too Thin

Posted on December 2, 2010 by amereservant

Have you ever noticed when you over-exert something, it tends to become inefficient and in many cases, it renders it unusable?

Think about a really hard workout and when you over exert a muscle, or putting too much of a load on a rope and it snaps…

Did you know that one of Satan’s greatest ploys among churches is this exact same thing? Let’s take a look at it…

Disguised as an angel of light

The first place to start is with a proper perspective of “who” or “what” Satan looks like. We’re really deceived by the illustrations of him since they always portrait him as some sort of creepy monster-looking kinda thing, but it’s quite contrary to that. Even in the movie The Passion of The Christ, the figure representing Satan was demonic looking, so we have a mentality that is what Satan looks like. But would some creepy person or creature convince you to rebel against God or draw closer to Him?
Beyond common sense though, the first impression we get of him is from Genesis 3:1, where he’s referred to as the “serpent”, which is the Hebrew word “Nachash” . What you will find when you dig deeper is that “the serpent” is the correct rendering of it, meaning it’s “ha-nachash” and in adjective form, it means “The Shining One”. See 2 Corinthians 11:14 and Ezekiel 28:13-19 (which explains him being in the garden of Eden as well as his beauty in 13). More is noted on this in the footnotes below.
This would explain why Eve wasn’t startled by him, but instead was enticed by him.

Understanding how `aruwm (crafty/wise) Satan is, you can better understand his every attempt to thwart God’s plan and His work among His people. Satan attempted to destroy the lineage of Christ, then further tempted Christ on many occasions to act in contradiction to the Scripture spoken of Him and did so in some really clever ways. Satan isn’t hanging out tempting the drug addict to do drugs, he’s very cleverly trying to destroy the things and people of God that will cause the greatest fallout and/or failure.

What does this have to do with it?

Well, this is where we now see how Satan will very wisely use “trueish” statements and facts to really mess things up. Here’s what I’m talking about….

For anyone who has been in a church long enough and especially those in leadership roles, we’ve seen ministries come and go. They are some really great ideas and no doubt often divinely inspired, but the execution of carrying out the ministry is often thwarted by overloaded attempts at reaching the goal.
Most of them can’t be spoken ill of, so you can’t flat out say they’re wrong since there’s truth to them and are indeed “good” at least in intention and purpose.
Think about it, what better way to throw possibly several Christians into a vicious cycle of feeling inadequate and failure than to have them serve in a ministry that is ran into the ground despite their hard work and effort put into that ministry, but the reason was because the execution of carrying out the tasks were way too burdensome and very inefficient.
You can almost bet most of them will never attempt to do anything else for God on any large scale because “the last time they did, it was a disaster”.

So where does it go all wrong? Well, they are given a vision and it’s driven with a passion. GREAT! But what isn’t so clear is the path there and that’s where things go haywire. We often think and plan really big and that’s a good thing, but we forget the building of the magnificent Temple started with the placing of one stone, not a wall all at once. So we tend to think we have to start somewhere mid-ways or use inefficient resources to accomplish it, which then makes us exhaust more resources, time, and money on just the “existence” of the ministry and not the actual mission work of it.

My belief for this happening derives from where we get the “navigation directions” and “target” from. TV no doubt influences us more than we even consciously realize along with great magazine articles, etc. Here’s an example…. the majority of Americans do not even know we have orphans in America.
When you ask someone where are orphans, they will probably tell you “Africa, Haiti, China” etc., but NOT in their county, city, etc. And as far as “needy” goes, the foreign countries are far more needy than the US, because after all, when was the last time you saw them portray America’s poor/orphans on TV?

The leading cause of divorce in America is finances, not an abundance of, but a lack-of and divorce is around 50-70%, yet we’re not in need? There’s countless families going without basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing in our own communities, yet you rarely hear missions being launched to solve that.
Let me clarify one thing, I’m NOT against foreign missions, but “foreign missions” made up a very very small portion of the Bible. Jesus’ greatest commandment was “Love your NEIGHBOR as yourself”, so if that hasn’t first been met, then how can we be about solving someone else’s issues. Nothing ill can be said of wanting to help people in need in a foreign country and that’s where the problem exists. The cost of doing so out-weighs the effectiveness.

Efficiency, Efficiency, Efficiency….

I’m not knocking foreign missions and that is NOT the purpose of this. But what I am trying to point out is the expense vs. efficiency when we are driven to “over-do” something that can be done locally and far more effectively. Think about it, it costs thousands of dollars to go serve soup in another country where thousands of dollars can eliminate some families’ debt and end the tension in a marriage. It can be donated to people or organizations ALREADY there and therefore purchase soup for a few years compared to the week or so one would serve it personally.

What if the burden on your heart was for you to provide the means for someone else to do the work and they get the notoriety for it while no one recognizes your part in it? But by doing so, your money helps far more people? What if your vision is to help the widows and/or elderly in our community, but it actually means you start by visiting one or two of them yourself and helping them, then it later takes shape into the big vision you initially had and others get involved then?
Maybe it’s to help the poor and step in the gaps while possibly even paying off their debts, yet it starts with you buying a single person’s gas for them so they have a little money to get by on for that week, then turns into something much larger later.

See, when we start too far ahead or overload ourselves, it’s not God’s plan, but usually where our interpretation of His plan for us got thwarted and derailed us. Use the Word of God for your decisions, NOT what you see or hear on TV. You’ll see “Haiti” and/or “China” is never specifically mentioned ONCE in the entire Bible, but your neighbor was mentioned several times.

I pray God reveals the truth to us at every juncture in our walk with Him and in our service to Him so that none of us are deceived or mis-lead by the world around us. I also pray that we continually remind ourselves and others that EVERYTHING MUST be filtered through God’s Word and His Word alone while putting off the worldly influences around us.
May we bring honor and glory to His name and never get discouraged, Amen!

Footnotes:

The word “Nachash” is Strong’s Number #05175 which DOES translate “serpent”, but as an adjective, it means “shining bronze, polished, shiny” and when it takes on the article “ha”, it would mean “the shining one”. A great and thorough explanation of this can be found at http://www.michaelsheiser.com/nachashnotes.pdf and by doing a Google search on “Hebrew ha-nachash“.
Pay close attention to 2 Corinthians 11:14 and Ezekiel 28:13 and how Satan is referred to as.

Posted in Church, Jesus | Leave a comment

The Others Crucified With Christ

Posted on November 4, 2010 by amereservant

Most of us believe there were only two others crucified with Christ, but did you know that’s not what the Bible says?
The first and simplest contradiction would be found in Matthew 27:44 which reads:
“The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words.” NASB

So how is this a contradiction? Well lets take a look at Luke 23:33-41:
“One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”
But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”

Well this is certainly a different picture from the verse in Matthew 27:44, but how can it be?
The answer is within the Scripture!

The Robbers = λῃστής

The word translated Robbers in Matthew and Mark is the Greek word λῃστής (léstés) which is translated “thief” 11 times and “robber” 4 times in the KJV.
This is not the same title given to the two other men in Luke.

The Criminals = κακοῦργος

The word translated Criminals or Malefactors in Luke (KJV) is the Greek word κακοῦργος (kakourgos) which is translated “malefactor” 3 times and “evil doer” 1 time in the KJV.

These are quite different in meaning.

John 19:18 – Greek Interlinear Bible

In John 19:18 KJV, we see the whole picture:
“Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”
If you look at the verse in an interlinear Bible, you’ll see the word “one” was an added word and it actually means two on each side.
Compare it to Revelation 22:2, which is the same phrase in Greek “ἐντεῦθεν καί ἐντεῦθεν” and there it is rendered “on either side”.

Before and After casting lots for His garments

In Matthew 27:44 and Mark 15:27, the two robbers are crucified AFTER the casting of lots for His garments as to where the two criminals were led up with Him in Luke 23:32.

Conclusion

It’s pretty apparent from these verses that there were indeed 4 others (at least) that were crucified with Christ and not 2 that we’ve all been led to believe. Pretty neat huh?

References:

The Companion Bible – E.W. Bullinger – Appendix 164
The Five Crosses by Ryan Hicks
Scripture4All – Online Greek Interlinear Bible (NT)

Posted in Bible Studies | Tagged Christ, crucified, others | Leave a comment

Lazarus and The Rich Man

Posted on October 28, 2010 by amereservant

My wife and I were studying the Bible together last night and she made a connection that just never dawned on me before. In John 11:1-46 we find the story of where Jesus raises Mary’s brother Lazarus from the dead, which he had been dead for 4 days.

Well in Luke 16:19-31, we also find the story of the rich man and Lazarus, which just so happens to be the same Lazarus.
So what’s the big deal?

Well, I found it very interesting when reading the story Jesus told (indeed a parable, not literal) of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus was addressing the Pharisees by using their own traditions to speak against them. The Lord used Lazarus in verse 20 (which is the same as the Hebrew Eleazar meaning “whom God helps”) to point to His own closing comment in verse 31.

Abraham’s bosom was used based on the teachings of the Pharisees, who taught that there were three places: (1) Abraham’s bosom; (2)”under the throne of glory“; (3) in the garden of Eden (Paradise). When they spoke of death, they would say “this day he sits in Abraham’s bosom”.

In verse 23, it talks about the rich man looking up and seeing from afar Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, which this was yet another reference to the Pharisees teachings. They taught that in life, two men may be “coupled together”, and one sees the other after death, and conversations take place.

In verse 24, it mentions the rich man “crying out“. The Pharisees also gave long stories of similar imaginary conversations and discussions.

When we get to verse 31, we find the purpose of this parable, which was proved true by the results of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 12:9 and of Himself in Matthew 28:11-13.

References:
The Companion Bible – E.W. Bullinger
The Works of John Lightfoot – Vol. 12

Posted in Bible Studies | Tagged Jesus, Lazarus, Pharisees, rich man | Leave a comment

God’s forgotten children – What if they were yours?

Posted on October 13, 2010 by amereservant

On October 9, 2010, a few other photographers including myself volunteered to photograph orphans for a mission called the Pulaski County Heart Gallery. We had no idea how much our lives would be forever changed as of that day.

Matthew 25:35-40
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

God’s forgotten children, the orphans of America.
About 520,000 children are in foster care each year in America and that number continues to rise. In Arkansas alone there are over 7,000 children in our foster care system.

On average, children stay in the system for almost three years (31 months) before either being reunited with their families or adopted. Almost 20 percent wait five years or more and the statistics on teens never being adopted are around 70%.
Yet, somehow even with over 450,000 churches in the United States, these numbers remain. In some states, it would take less than 1 family per church to adopt a child and there would be no kids in their state’s foster care system.

So one can only wonder “Why is this?”.

God has commanded us to take care of the widows and the orphans/fatherless on numerous occasions in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
One of them can be found in James 1:27 (NIV):
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

But somehow most of us manage to look the other way and pretend it doesn’t exist or make excuses as to why they can’t adopt.
Some turn spare bedrooms into offices, game rooms, or exercise rooms instead of a place for a child to feel safe and loved as if that’s somehow more important. Some would rather live lavish lifestyles or take expensive vacations while “not having money” is their excuse for not adopting a child. Some feel they may not be able to provide the child with the absolute best and instead leave them where they are so they can continue to feel neglected, insecure, poor, and in roughly 25% or more cases, be abused by the foster parent and even higher percentage of those abused by older foster kids in the same home.

Have we become a nation of people who’s sole concern is their own desires at the expense of injustice for the children? We follow a Savior who gave everything for us, yet we reject His children because it may mean giving up something far less meaningful and somehow conclude we are seen as being “right with Him” in His eyes?

Consider this….
This world is full of tragedies every day and many have comforted those who have been through them. Let’s say, God forbid, you have children and you and your wife have a “date night”, which tragically ends with your children being left without parents and no one to take them.
They are put into the foster care system and faced the statistics every other child in the system faces. The laughter and games that once brought you joy is the trigger for their guardians to shout at them and hit them. They loose everything they once knew and the church you were committed to stood by and did nothing because just like you, they don’t hear the cries of the orphans and ignore the commandments of God.
What if due to your rebellion when God told you to help them and you did not listen, He allowed you to watch as these things happened to your children, helpless to do anything.

If that would highly disturb you, then why do you do it to His children? Each and every orphan God loves far more than you love your own children and He’s given you the ability and will provide what you need even though it might cost you comfort or money. But at what price do you say your children aren’t worth rescuing?

The faces of the children I photographed and saw playing haunt me, because they very easily could be my own children’s faces. My prayer is that as you look at the photographs I’ve shared below and the one’s on the Heart Gallery’s website, that their faces will haunt you every time you close your eyes and that you can hear their cries, feel their pain, and think of them until you are moved to take action.

If you can look away with a clear conscience, then so be it, but if you can’t, then delay no longer. As a good friend of mine once said, “Satan isn’t going to tempt you into adopting a child, so there’s no need to pray about that part.”

Resources:
The C.A.L.L. in Arkansas – http://www.thecallinarkansas.org/

Posted in Jesus, The CALL | Tagged Arkansas, church, Foster Care, heart gallery, Orphans, Pulaski County | Leave a comment

How should we pray? repetitious, faith, and length-of

Posted on October 11, 2010 by amereservant

This is one of the topics of the Bible that bothers me and I am writing this post so we can discuss it and if I am wrong in my perspective, I would really like to have it clarified and be corrected. I’m definitely not saying I’m certain that I’m correct on this but that I’m in question of it and would like to talk about it so ultimately I can better understand it and better serve God.

We’re taught to “continue praying” for someone or something over and over, but when we read the verse Matthew 6:7 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.“, it would seem Jesus is speaking against it, especially if you read the KJV of it.

The word repetition in this verse comes from the Greek word battologeo, which means “to repeat the same things over and over, to use many idle words, to babble, prate.“

This imposes two different questionable aspects to prayer for me:

Praying without ceasing

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul commands us to pray without ceasing, but yet somehow he still managed to travel quite a bit, so what does that imply? I would have to believe it would mean to always be mindful of God, talking to Him in your thoughts and not only in a prostrate position with your eyes closed or else the Christian community would never be able to work or drive since it’d require doing so bowed down with closed eyes.

However I’ve seen this verse be used to imply we must pray for long periods of time which would also imply that even if we can say whatever it is we feel in our hearts to say to God in a lesser amount of time in the prostrate or head-bowed form of praying, we should “fill-in” the rest of the time with something else which to me would be “babbling”.
This also would lead to the same thing being prayed over and over, perhaps the words being swapped up just a little to make it not an exact carbon copy, just for the sake of adding length to the prayer, which seems to fall into the verse Matthew 6:7.

I would dare say praying one word beyond what is truly in your heart to ask God for would quickly put you into the category of “babbling”, would it not?

Praying for the same thing over and over

This is another aspect of prayer that troubles me. We’re often taught to keep praying for something or someone until a certain condition is met, which Job seemed to do the same thing and God eventually rebuked him for it, yet He did still bless Job. But the part that bothers me is if we do actually have faith and believe God hears our prayers and will answer them, then why do we keep on asking for the same thing?
Does that not display a lack of faith or that God’s timing in His response isn’t adequate enough for us that we must keep asking for it? For those of us that are parents, surely at one point or another your child has come to you and asked you for something and when you don’t do it immediately, they continue to keep asking for it which eventually irritates the mess out of you and often you reply “I heard you the first time! Quit asking, I will do it in just a moment.” or something similar.

God pretty much said the same thing to Job. The verse Mark 11:24 I think really embraces this: “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you“. Notice the word “received” being past-tense. If you have already received something, why would you keep asking for it unless you don’t believe you received it, thus being a lack of faith?

When looking back on the verses where Jesus healed the sick, He always stated it was because of their faith they were healed, not because they repeatedly asked for it. They only asked Him once.

I can’t help but to sometimes wonder if some prayers aren’t answered because God just gets tired of us asking for the same thing over and over and wants us to instead trust Him when we pray for something and come to Him with a new prayer/conversation so He can answer it as well.

So what are your thoughts?

Posted in Church | Tagged faith, prayer, repetious praying, without ceasing | 4 Comments

At the park with my gals

Posted on September 13, 2010 by amereservant

We went to the park yesterday afternoon since the weather was so nice. It was fun watching Abigail play and trying to dribble the ball. She’s still got some work to do on that one.

She made a friend to play with while we were there, another little girl named Addy. It was funny when her parents called her, Abby would answer as well.
Here’s a few photos I took.

Posted in Family, Photography | Tagged Abby, Amanda, Park, Zoe | Leave a comment

5 Of The Best Years

Posted on September 10, 2010 by amereservant

Today marks our 5th year wedding anniversary.
It’s hard to believe it has been 5 years since we stood before our family, friends, and God and exchanged our vowels.

I remember the day we first met (in the photo below), which was January 9, 2003 and I had no idea the woman I met would forever change my life.

We dated for a little over 2 years before getting married on September 10, 2005 and I discovered the most amazing woman God had created just for me.
Our first year of marriage was really tough and if it weren’t for God, I’m not sure we would’ve made it. But looking back, I realize we would’ve been very foolish to have given up because through the years I discovered something much greater …. my best friend.

I’ve learned so much about marriage and relationships just from my wife and listening to God. By doing so, I’ve found one of life’s greatest treasures, someone who is always there for me, who will be there when no one else is, who embraces me when times are tough, someone who even cries with me when life just sucks.
I have a spouse who always believes in me even when I doubt myself, who loves me even when I fail. She’s my companion, the person who goes through it all with me and is always by my side through the good times and the bad.

And just when I think it couldn’t have gotten any better, she gave birth to two of the most beautiful and amazing little girls that’s ever lived. She is such a great mommy to them and what joy they have brought us over the years. She’s there for them when they’re sick and even there for me too when I’m ill.

Of all of the people God could have chosen for me, I thank Him for picking my wife. She gets more and more beautiful as time goes on. I often wonder how a guy like me ended up with a gal like her, but I don’t ask her that since she may start asking the same question and realize what a mess she married. (Just Kidding)

5 Years
The really neat thing about the number 5 in my life is it’s repetition in so many occasions. If you’ve been around me long enough, you’ve probably heard me mention how numbers have Biblical significance and meaning. 5 means Grace; God’s goodness; Pentateuch (first five books). Visit http://www.asis.com/users/stag/godcount.html for a good explanation of what I mean.

When my wife was asking me what day we should set as our wedding day, I told her I really didn’t care just as long as it was on a Saturday. She ended up picking September 10. Well, within about 2 weeks of our wedding day, I manage to come across my baptism video and had completely forgotten what day I was baptized on. Turns out, it was September 10, 2000, exactly 5 years to the date prior to our wedding day.
Today is our 5 year anniversary, which also is the 10 year anniversary of my baptism. What’s significant about that? Well, my first name is 5 letters and so is my last. 10.
There’s other examples I could give, but this is indeed a special year.

I do look forward to the day we put a 0 after the 5 because I know I will look at my wife, me bald and her more beautiful than ever, and really know how sacred a lifetime with my wife has been like. I also know I will love her even more by then (as if that were possible) and be the cute old people slowing everyone down in the grocery store while holding hands and enjoying our lives.

Thank you God for giving us our marriage and for holding it together and putting the pieces back together when we’ve gone and screwed it up.

I love you so much Amanda and thank YOU for marrying me on this day 5 years ago. I wouldn’t know how great love can be if it weren’t for you and thank you for spending your life with me. I’ll never be able to express how much you mean to me, but God will when we are one day with Him.

Here’s a few photos of some of our times together over the past 7 years.