Whatever it takes

In school right now we are studying Matthew 5:30. The passage reads, “If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of they member should perish, and not that thy whole body be cast into hell.” I don’t think Jesus was literally saying “if you sin with your hand cut it off”. If he had, not a signal person should have hands. I think he was showing us a picture of overcoming sin. We have to be willing to take extreme measure to conquer sin. In our school book it have a convicting analogy between an animal caught in a trap, and being caught in the deadly trap of lust. A racoon, when he realizes he is caught in a trap will gnaw his foot off. He will have to live with an everlasting reminder of were his curiosity got him, but he saved his life. A bobcat, on the other hand, rarely even pulls against the trap. He will sit down and hiss, sometimes only caught by a toe. So, he saved his paw, or maybe just his toe, but forfeits his entire life to the trapper. These examples are so true in our life. We need to be like the raccoon, willing to do whatever it takes to save our lives from hell, and to be willing to pay the consequences for where our lust has gotten us. It may be hard, but in the end way less painful. Don’t just sit and hiss when freedom is so close in Jesus.

As always comments are welcome

Faith like a child

I remember talking to my little sister one time, (listening to her talk better describes it) :) and she was telling me about how God is everywere at one time. (Proverbs 15:3). Out of curiosity, I asked her how He could do that. She looked at me as if I was confused and said, "Ben, God is Awesome, Awesome people can just do those things." Now we all laughed a little at her response, but I was thinking "Wow, what a great example of child-like faith." She didn't need some logical explanation, she just believed it sincerely. Sometimes I wonder how I am at having the faith of a child, like Christ asked us to. (Mark 10:15). Do I always have to understand how something in scripture is possible, or do I just believe that "all things are possible with God." (Matthew 19:26). I like the way Martin Luther put it, "If you cannot understand how this could have been done.... then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are."

Study

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” II Timothy 2:15. I have read that verse so many times, but it never stood out to me like it did a couple of months ago when an atheist challenged me and I didn’t have an answer. It came to my attention again when someone asked why I didn’t do something I had a conviction about and I didn’t have an answer ready. Both of those instances made me a little embarrassed (ashamed). After that I realized why I must “study to shew myself approved”. I think that this verse is telling us that we need to be able to defend the bible and Christianity to an unbeliever, and to know what our convictions are and be able to defend them through the bible. If someone asks us, “how do you know for sure that God created the earth” or “why don’t you smoke”, and all you can say is “well… um…” this verse would say that God is grieved. So I want to challenge you to study, know how the bible and Christianity are accurate and real, and why you do what you do (or don’t do). I also want you to challenge me by leaving a comment asking me what is my conviction on ________ and why (you fill in the blank). I will either reply to you or make another post about it.