What is your Deepest Desire?
I was listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll and he made a very interesting point. He said that when he is counceling someone, he asks them to go and think about what their deepest desire is. He says it is either to love and serve Jesus thus following what He says or to follow what ever you wish thus following the flesh.
What is your deepest desire? Do you want to serve Christ whith your whole heart thus mending relationships and repenting of sin or do you want to follow the desires of your flesh? If you think that you can follow the flesh the flesh and still be saved you are sorly mistaken. There can only be one deep desire of your heart and there is a destination tied to each desire. If you choose to trust, love, and follow Christ, your destination is Heaven. If you choose to follow your flesh, your destination is Hell.
God bless,
Anthony
It’s my blogaversary
I have officaly been operating Contemplations of My Belly Button for a year. A lot has happend in a year. I have moved from a blogger hosted site to my own domain. I have met some great people who I both agree and disagree with. I have also learned that I have a nack for getting my point accros while annoying many.
To celebrate my blogaversary, lets go back to where it all started. Here are my first five posts for those who have never read them. They are not amazing or long but that is the beginning of this mess of randomness:
I will be posting my favorites list when I hit 100 posts (should be soon). Again, I appologize for the lack of posting. My current topics I have drafts for require some resarch or I am not satisfied whith them. They will be up soon.
God bless,
Anthony
I’m not Perfect
I was watching a show today about Japan. Every where he went, the host asked the person he was talking to whether they believed perfection was possible. What amazed me was that every person gave a similar answer: Perfection is never reached which is why you keep progressing until you die. I have found that this is the normal sentiment found in Eastern philosophy.
I think we can learn something from this outlook on perfection. In Western Christianity, it seems that we use the fact we are not perfect as a crutch rather than a catalyst. I don’t think God made it so we can never be perfect to use it as an excuse, rather I think He meant for it to inspire us. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the phrase ” I’m just human, I am not perfect you know”. Imagine what this Generation of Christians could do if we take the fact that we are not perfect to always continue to strive for perfection.
So take a tip from Eastern philosophy and never cease seeking perfection and use the lack of perfection as a crutch. Instead, take your lack of perfection and use it as a catalyst to more towards perfection until you go on to see Christ.
God bless,
Anthony
Is the Trinity Real/Provable and is it Important Doctrine?
I just recently began re-reading the Gospels and noticed something fairly profound. I have read the book of Matthew and the rest of the Gospels multiple times but have never really stopped to think about the scriptures as I read them. I am reading the Bible on a program called e-Sword, which is a program that contains multiple versions of the Bible (Including Greek and Hebrew for those scholars out there) as well a great commentaries from scholars like Westley and Barnes. It also has dictionaries/ concordances to help with those unfamiliar words. The program is free but you have to download some of the versions, commentaries and dictionaries separately (most of which are free including NIV, ESV, NKJV). By reading my Bible through e-Sword, I am able to read the scriptures as well as see the commentary for those scriptures.
I read Matthew chapter 3 today and got to the part where John the Baptist Baptized Jesus. I have read this chapter hundreds of times and heard dozens of sermons on it but never got a profound meaning from it. The particular scripture I am talking about is: (Mat 3:16 ESV) And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
Now I knew the importance of the scripture but I did not fully understand what was happening in the scripture but not to its fullist extent. According to the Clarke commentary: “This passage affords no mean proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. That three distinct persons are here, represented, there can be no dispute.
1. The person of Jesus Christ, baptized by John in Jordan.
2. The person of the Holy Ghost in a bodily shape, (???????? ?????, Luk_3:22) like a dove.
3. The person of the Father; a voice came out of heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, etc.
The voice is here represented as proceeding from a different place to that in which the persons of the Son and Holy Spirit were manifested; and merely, I think, more forcibly to mark this Divine personality.” This seems to prove the existence of the Trinity as in this one scripture, God reveals to us all three form of the Trinity at once. There are some “Christians” who do not believe in the Trinity, these people are know as modalists. Modalists are unable to explain or account for the events in this scripture as well as more than 70 other passages according to basictheology.com.
To answer my question in the title, yes the Trinity is provable and not only is it important doctrine, I believe it is essential doctrine. Modalism is heresy thus modalist are not Christians. Some popular modalists in Christianity are the musical group Phillips, Craig, and Dean as well as well known and praised Bishop T.D. Jakes. This is an excerpt from the Enquirer’s Handbook that I took from the blog Sweet Tea & Theology: “Since the death of John and the other eleven original apostles, many concepts and teachings have arisen that do not necessarily coincide with the “one God” teaching of the early church. In the year A.D. 180, Tertullian began using the term “trinity” from which was born the Catholic doctrine of three Gods, co-equal, co-existent and co-eternal. The Roman Emperor Constantine in the year A.D. 325 incorporated the “doctrine of the trinity” into the Catholic Church where it has remained ever since, and most Protestant churches have accepted this doctrine without thorough examination. The “trinity”, however, generates confusion and is not in total harmony with the Scriptures. To say that there are three separate persons who somehow comprise “one God” is like trying to connect opposing sides of two magnets. When you add 1+1+1, it must equal three; and there cannot, under any circumstances, be more than one God.”
To think that God must operate under our laws is absurd. God never dictated mathematics to us thus the rules of math are man made and man followed. I find it interesting that Churches that hold the belief in the Trinity are not diligent in finding out who holds this heretical thought. Thousands of men from thousands of Churches have gone to the promise keepers conferences and heard T.D. Jakes preach. Jakes is revealed as a great pastor among many churches yet he hold this idiotic belief. I would not endorse, listen to, or attend any program or service that T.D. Jakes or Phillips, Craig, and Dean endorse, speak at or are endorsed by. If they hold one heresy how more likly is it that they have more.
I hope I was helpful and that you may be a little more clear on the existence of the Trinity and the importance of the doctrine. As Christians we are to be vigilant into the things we are taught and who we are taught by. When you are going to have a speaker or attend a meeting with speakers you are unfamiliar with, research them to find out if they hold true Christian beliefs.
God bless,
Anthony
How do we Reach This Generation?
As some may know, during the first week of August Reno hosts Hot August Nights ( a classic car show that pretty much over runs the city). During this week thousands of locals and tourists fill the streets and parking lots of downtown sparks and reno and their various hotels. I happen to love this week so I have been out walking around a few times. Downtown sparks is the local teen hang out spot during this week. While I was walking around, I started thinking about all the teens and why they were there. Most teenagers don’t really care about the cars they are just there to socialize. The question that was running through my head was how do we reach this generation of kids who sees profanity and promiscuity as fun.
Obviously we cannot change the Gospel, but is there a way to change the delivery method so teens will listen? We still need to tell this generation that Hell does exist and that they need to be saved. I am just not sure what the most effective way to do that is. Some ideas are the entertainment outreaches such as concerts/ festavals and the like but are we reaching them or just keeping them occupied. Then there is the street ministry ala Way of the Master (which I have used and works on occasion) but is it to much info too fast thus overwhelming the person. There is simply inviting strangers (and friends) to youth nights but you may only get transplants from other churches. Don’t get me wrong, all these ways are effective and I have used and use them all but the question is which is the most effective?
What do you think? How can we reach this generation of sex obcessed teens? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. I think ministries sharing what works is great.
God bless,
Anthony
