JoshLamkins.com » Jesus

“Revival” v.s. “Vival” (Part Two)

admin — Sat, 02 May 2009 04:54:11 +0000

In continuing my thoughts from my post the other day, I will say this:

We live in a world that is always right there in front of our face. And it can be easy to let our carnal everyday lives take precedence over our spiritual lives. (Which one do we think about or tend to more?) We feed our bodies but not our spirit. This is the reason for the analogy about the pinnacle spiritual events in our lives. If we only live life in the flesh or mainly in the flesh and expect a youth camp or a Revival to get us back on track, how can we say that our hearts belong to Jesus? How can we say that our lives belong?

Matthew 6:21 and again in Luke the Bible says that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” You should not need a revival every summer to help you get your life back on track. We do not need a “Revival” but a continuous “vival.” A continuous and humble renewal of our love for our Savior.

This brings me back to the two words that I was thinking about when I began the last post: Uncomfortable and Belong. Jesus says in John 15:19 that ” If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” As Christians we are not called to feel comfortable here. I am trying to write this post, leaving a lot of loose ends. Not making everything crystal clear. (If everything is crystal clear to you up to this point I am sorry. I did a better job than I intended to.) So that you are uncomfortable with what I am writing. So that you have questions. Questions are good. Questions like: Where are you on a scale of comfortability? Are you a 10? (Totally comfortable.)

Maybe, when we begin to feel uncomfortable we are just beginning to get somewhere. We are just beginning to find our place and belong. But for many of us, we have not yet even reached Nazareth.

Grace

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:27:47 +0000

I was listening to a message this week on grace. And I realized, apart from Jesus doing something for me, WHO I am:

I am one who continually does evil -Genesis 6

I am impure -Proverbs 20

I am not righteous or good -Ecclesiastes 7

I am full of evil and madness -Ecclesiastes 9

I am wicked and estranged -Psalm 58

I have gone my own way -Isaiah 53

I am rebellious -Isaiah 65

I am among those who have loved darkness -John 3

I am a slave to sin -John 8 & Romans 6

I am a child of the devil -John 8

I am unrighteous and not understanding, I do not seek God and I am a stiff necked resister of the Holy Spirit -Acts 7

I am turned aside, worthless and not doing good, having an unrepentant heart -Romans 2

I am without fear of God -Romans 3

I am hostile to God -Romans 8

I am spiritually foolish -1 Corinthians 2

I am spiritually dead and among the children of wrath -Ephesians 2

I am darkened, alienated, marked by ignorance, hardness of heart, callousness (which includes perversion and greed and impurity of every sort) and I am living among the enemies of the cross of Christ -Phillipians 3

I am dead -Colossians 2

I am defiled and unbelieving -Titus 1

I am under the power of the evil one 1 John 5

I am foolish, disobedient, and lead astray and amongst slaves to various passions and pleasures passing my days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another -Titus 3

I am a sinner and an enemy of God.

When I read this it puts into perspective what I am WITHOUT Jesus, and also just how far we fell in the garden. One decision. One Mistake. From perfect purity to the need of a savior. I believe that there is much to learn from this but, I will just stick to the grace part. It is the part we least understand because by no means could we possibly imagine this kind of grace. Sometimes just trying to be nice to the dog is hard. And I think that the mystery of it makes it just that much more amazing. We are saved by something which we cannot even begin to fathom. Something bigger than ourselves, our egos, our pocketbooks, our houses, our love, our greed, our families, our positions, our pride, our weakness, our strife, our marriages, and even our savior. Who are we to think that for even one instant we have done enough for the cause of Christ. Like our Sundays and Wednesdays are “good” enough. Paul in Acts says ”However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Our lives have to be lives of continual worship. In all that we do, whether it be in our eating, or drinking, or working, or sleeping. We have to live a continual life of worship. Not just Sunday-Wednesday. Sacrifice. Realize the importance. Be better. Do better. Live better. Do not take advantage of His grace.

Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”

The Emergent Church

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:26:26 +0000

Many may of heard of the new kind of counter-culture breed of church that is being labeled as the “Emergent Church”. If you haven’t, then good. It is more complicated and mixed up than you want to put your time into. I promise.

What I have to say about the Emerging or the Emergent Church is this: The Emerging Church will come and go, just as all of the other “movements” within Christianity, but the church of Jesus Christ will continue on because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Church will always be about Jesus and we (as the body) will do all that we can as long as we can to welcome as many people as we can through as many cultural mediums and adaptations as we can to know the Jesus of the Bible without changing any of our biblical convictions because our goal is not just to be fruitful but also to be faithful.

The Life

admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:37:55 +0000

We are justified through Christ because He has forgiven us.

He has showed us something that we have often been told… That we don’t understand the significance of what we have until it is taken away. God dosen’t want this but the devil does. The devil leads us to take for granted everything that God has blessed us with. The devil takes away but God makes all things new. God knows our hearts and can see through our flesh.

We are beautifully and wonderfully made because we are Christ’s creations. It is when we start believing that we “deserve” to do the ministry of Christ, that we begin to fall. No one deserves to do the work of Christ because we have all fallen short.

But there is a reason God has placed us in the position that we are in. He has a purpose and a plan for our lives. And with any relationship, there are going to be constant struggles and things that need fixing. But if we are upfront with God, He will be upfront with us and help us to learn from our mistakes and get through our hardships.

One of the most important elements in the Christian life is having the wisdom to understand that in order to go forward in our walk, we must constantly be going back to the beginning, to the foundation of our Christianity through realization and repentance.