From the day that Solomon was conceived he was destined for great things. Despite the sins of his father and mother, he was set up for success.

The Lord loved him (2 Samuel 12:24-25).

• Solomon had a front row seat to watch the consequences of his father’s sins. He learned first hand the consequences of David’s sin. For instance when Adonijah tried to set himself up as king (1 Kings 1:5-10). Why is this a good thing you ask? He found out quite quickly who his friends and enemies were. He also saw He had Nathan the Prophet, Zadok the priest and the Mighty Men of Israel behind him.

• Solomon asked for wisdom, discernment between good and evil. The Lord was pleased with Solomon. (1 Kings 3:9). The Lord gave solomon a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you On top of that the Lord gave Solomon riches, and honor and a promise of long life if he follows HIM(1 Kings 3:12-14).

• David did as much prep work as possible to help by forging relationships and gathering materials to help Solomon build the temple.

• The Lord once again appears to Solomon reminding him to walk before the Lord, that he will be blessed (1Kings 9:4-5)

For 20+ years Solomon was honoring God and then he stopped…

What is interesting to me is how Solomon’s had it all and then gave it up.

Technorati Tags: Bible, David, Sin

This is a post about topics I want to write about. Sounds a little ridiculous, but oh well. Writing and communicating has been something that has been on my heart for a long time. God willing I will start writing more in my blog where every few days.

I think this post is more for myself than anyone. I think defining this blog “again” maybe a good thing.

I am not a teacher and I am not an expert on Christianity. This blog was designed so I can share what I am thinking about Christian life. For me I hope there is NEVER a separation between the two, the love of Christ and my life.

Part of my Christian life includes some of the battles that I fight on a daily basis. Some of them may not seem appropriate for a Christian to talk about and yet it is a part of many Christians lives or at least THIS Christian’s life.

The goal of this blog is for me to communicate and help me to work through my salvation with fear and trembling (Phillippians 2:12). God has put it on my heart communicate and so I will. I once thought that I was great at it and destined to do it, but now I find it is only through His grace that I can do it. Maybe just maybe I can help someone through my writing.

Some topics I have been thinking about:

Depression/Suicide 101 – When I talk to my Christian friends about this, they don’t seem to understand. There are many who struggle with these things, Christians and non-Christians, who are shamed by this disease and hide it. I don’t have a lot of answers and not even a lot of perspective, but I can share what my experience is. If we are to reach the world then we better be prepared to deal with it.

A look at Ecclesiastes

The rise and fall of Solomon

The pursuit of purity and holiness which will definitely be a major theme.

I need to stop being afraid to write. I need to be able to learn to put my thoughts on paper and honor God in my writing.

Technorati Tags: Bible, Christian, Depression, Fear of the Lord, Living, Salvation

Todd becoming a biblical scholar??? I don’t think so!! Another part of the letter to the same friend!

The Lordship salvation vs. free grace is a faith vs. works discussion
correct? The question is whether we can just believe that I am a
sinner, God loves me and that Jesus Christ died for our sin, and rose
from the grave  and through him we can be saved or do we need to go a
step further and  submit to Jesus Christ as Lord of our Life to be
saved?

At first blush, my initial reaction was who cares… I then started thinking about my own experience and maybe it does matter.

I consider my spiritual birthday May 5th, 2005, but by the standard of free grace it would of been 10 years earlier. I believed in God all my life, I was probably the most religious person in my family. It was a very easy leap for me to go from believing in God to believing that I am a sinner, and believed that Jesus Christ died for my sin and rose on the third day. There were a couple of days of awe of the decision I did, and then within a week, I was back to being the same lying, stealing, manipulative, perverted,  pathetic piece of trash human that I always was (yes I am speaking kindly of myself). Great Christ died for me, all my sins are forgiven, great I am going to go out and continue living life the way I was, and every once in a while I will confess my sin and I will go to heaven. I continued driving my life straight into the ground. I drove my life to the point, where I was on the verge of losing my job, and ending up in jail.

My question to you, was I saved at this point? If I have died would I have gone to heaven at this point? My opinion is no. I don’t think so.

I think one of the sticking point in this whole debate is the word “believe”. I have heard it said that it is the action of faith. We have faith (noun) in Jesus Christ. We believe (verb) in Jesus Christ. I think both of those are synonyms. Nee talks about faith (believing)  is an active word, and he found in the Darby translation of the bible it uses the word substantiating. His discussion was from Hebrews 11:1.

Looking up the word faith from verses 3:21, 26 in Strong’s Dictionary implies to me more than just an intellectual understanding of the truth.

4102. pi÷stiß pistis, pis?-tis; from 3982; persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself: — assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.

The day you believe I think there has to be a desire to change your life, to nail the sin at the cross and start the sanctification process. I think that the belief that is required is a belief, a faith, a substantiating that JESUS CHRIST will change your life, will sanctify you. I think that the willingness to start that process is part of the belief at salvation. If you do not have the want/desire/willingness to change, then I don’t know if you are saved.

I did not have the desire to truly want to change until May 5, 2005. It is the day I believe I became a Christian. Does the belief that God has the power to change your life and the desire to have that happen constitute a work?

I am not necessarily saying that you must submit to God to be saved, but I do think the desire to change is necessary. I think this lands me in the middle some place.

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
(Romans 3:19-26 ESV)

Technorati Tags: Belief, Bible, Faith, Salvation

Last night the message was about that one of the purposes; of suffering is to help us focus on being silent and with God. It helps us let go of all the shallow, banal, unimportant things in life and to focus in on the important things; God.The text we looked at was Lamentation 3. It is amazing to me to see Jeremiah how he starts looking at his suffering and then moves into the comfort of the Lord. Jeremiah states after listing off how the Lord has made him suffer; he states that the Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord… Let him sit alone in silence… (Lamentations 3:25;28

I am one of those people who analyzes and questions everything.I would analyze and come up with EVERY single thing that could go wrong and count on it going wrong. This morning I ran across a verse that puts that to an end. What can I say to this?

Be still and know that I am God – Psalm 46:10

In just a few words, God ends our questioning of him, our futile attempts at telling God how to run our lives and reminds us who HE is. He is God.

It is really time that I shut my mouth and truly know that He is God!

Technorati Tags: Awe, Bible, God, Suffering