ponderUpon...

I am sure by now everyone who has taken the time to look into it has read what those with a prominent voice are saying about the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church shooting in South Carolina. The three main topics being pulled out of this situation are gun-control, racism, and domestic terrorism. These three topics are deferment for accepting responsibility. However the country is led those are the ways it will go. I have not heard this country being led in the ways of love, not by our prominent leaders anyway. The truth only resides in love and love only resides in the truth. Sadly, this country, I believe, has lost sight of the truth. "I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life..." were the words Jesus gave to his disciples so they may go out through the world sharing this core belief. If we do not believe this then all is lost. If we cannot look at our situations with the eyes of Christ, we cannot understand where the truth lies and instead we will substitute...

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent. With this article I want to introduce to you a few concepts to keep in mind throughout this season of Lent. First, I want to say that we keep in mind that Lent is not a game. I am sorry if that is offensive; I do not mean to insult anyone's intelligence, but what has come to my mind this past week is the potential for people to get caught up in what they are giving up instead of why they are giving something up. It is important to remember that we, as followers of Christ, should be living in a constant state of Lent. This period of time is set aside for deeper denial and reflection we normally don't enact in our life. God calls each of us to different levels of denial so it is pointless to compare what people give up. This brings me to my second point of this paragraph. Lent is not about what we are giving up, so much as it is about why are we giving something up. When Christ journeyed into the desert he didn't say to hi...

This week I want to share with you a short verse along with a short piece of advice. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me". I believe this is one of the most powerful verses in the New Testament. It clearly defines our nature as Christians along with how we should live from being born again. Ultimately, the concept of Christianity comes down to love. Christ, the Son of God, literally gave his life so that we may live holy lives just as he did. So we should not consider our bodies, words, actions, etc. as our own, but we should be submissive in love to our Father who is embodied through Jesus Christ. This week I want you to ponder this scripture and see what God shows you. Lately we've been talking about temptation and how to understand it. Galatians 2...

Recently I've been writing on the necessity of temptation and how we should view it in our individual lives. Temptation is a daily, mind you, daily occurrence that every human being goes through. Before I get to the meat of this article I want to remind everyone that throughout your day temptation will surely come. At times our temptation will be great while other times our temptation may seem less significant, and finally we will have moments where we are not tempted (in the fashion we've been speaking of i.e. to draw away from God and do our own will). Nevertheless we must always through the power of Christ persevere. Does perseverance always pertain to temptation? I believe through the writing of this article I'm coming to the conclusion that yes perseverance always pertains to temptation. Let me explain why. Temptation is anything that causes your attention and desire to serve God to be diverted to your own will. It seems to me most people think of temptation in the ...

Last week I was listening to Father Thomas Hopko's podcast on Ancient Faith Radio. Midway through his podcast on the temptation of Christ he quoted Saint Anthony who said: "No one can be saved without temptation". Lately my posts have been about how we should view temptation in our lives. St. Anthony said it in just seven words. Temptation is imperative for salvation.  Let us think about what St. Anthony had to say. What St. Anthony said is a foreign thought, but I believe it is because we have at the least not been taught otherwise. Start with the first temptation, the tree containing the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. The tree that God created was not originally a temptation. Adam and Eve were only tempted once the enemy twisted God's command into the temptation of disobedience. Yes Adam and Eve went against God so they gave into temptation which was the enemy's demands instead of God's. Remember though, they had a choice. Their choice in ways s...

Temptation in itself is not sin...at all. Here is why I say that: Free will is the power to choose and in order for free will to exist temptation exists. Temptation is not God's creation, it exists in the realm of free will though, which God did ordain.  Wait, what is free will though? Free will, as we think of it is the power to choose. There are only two choices in this world. God's choice and our choice.  Let's break that last bit down even farther. God's choice is always right. Our choice is always wrong. I say that because Galations 2:20 "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me". When "we" are making choices that are God's choices "we" are not really choosing those choices on our own. The Helper (The Holy Spirit) is living, breathing, enabling us to have the power to choose God's choices. Once we ask God to enable The Helper to live through us then free will becomes evident...we are free to choose whateve...

I must first apologize for not posting last week as I told you all I would. God has been preparing me for this post though. He's been imparting to me so much knowledge that I must share it with all who will listen. So here is what God has been telling me: Surrender. All to Him. No matter what your situation is, what you are struggling with, if you believe your problems to be big whereas they're actually small, it does not matter. God requires that you first follow Him. First seek His counsel before you speak and act. No I don't mean to say what is going on in your life does not matter. What I am saying is when what is in your life is put in foreground and He recedes into the background; when your thoughts turn not first to Christ, that is when they do not matter. They can't matter because you are not letting Him be a part of them. God is the central force in our life. When that stops being the case nothing else matters. Our lives go through seasons, and sometimes we f...