Here's a little ditty, but not about Jack and Diane. As I was waking up this morning, I was struck with an internal question; why go to church? Couldn't I benefit from the extra sleep, more time with my family, an extra couple of hours to tackle chores? What about the annoying concerns about how a church functions such as what they believe, what they do not? What about the tithe, how do they use it?
I have pondered these questions for quite a bit of my adult life, approximately 20 years. The questions that sift to the top are more often about the actual church, the governance, the tithe and use of it, their beliefs, etc. A former pastor and mentor posted a jaw dropping post earlier this year that stated, "the church is a whore, but I still love her." Yes, how could 1) a pastor post something like that and yet 2) be so true?
First off, let me establish my foundation... Jesus is my Rock. He is my Savior. God's Word has no error, it may be difficult to understand and interpret, but I still believe it to be without error. Jesus has established the Holy Spirit to indwell in our bodies to guide us to where the Triune God wants. Yes, I do believe in a Triune God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Secondly, building upon that foundation is a constant construction site. The orange cones and signs are not rubber, they are hardened cement with permanent paint because I am continuously learning and "evolving" in my walk with God.
Now the street view: Being in the US military, I have been a part of many churches and have had my share of good and bad experiences. I have met mentors and I have met show-boats. I have met disciplinarians and I have met those that resolve. I have met micro-managers and I have met leaders. I have seen churches barely float and I have seen churches floating in yachts (not Yahtzee). I have seen hidden finances and open finances. I have heard gossip. I have heard slander. I have seen clicks. I have seen the nappers/nodders and the Amen'ers. I have seen favorites and shunned. All of this and more in a church. You may be saying, "yes and that is why I do not attend or go to a church." Believe me, I have been there...for my friends that know me, yes, I have had this experience too.
One thing is for sure, the "church" comes in many flavors, menu options, and fads. The one thing that has kept me grounded is what I believe the Bible says about churches. There is no perfect church, but there are pretty darn close ones out there that actually believe in God's Word. There may be differences and that is what happens when we do not have the luxury of the Apostles and the writers physically here to ask them what they actually meant.
Take the time to actually read and examine God's Word. Understand what and how a church should function, then seek out those kinds of churches. It is a daunting task I assure you. What I can tell you is that once you have found that church, they will be a welcoming family of true believers. Yes, there will be issues as we are still fault-full humans, but they will admit that they are human and constantly seeking forgiveness.
Why church? We need a place to share our beliefs, joys, prayers, and sorrows as well as receive a message from God through the pastor as well as sing and praise Him in unison.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
He is Risen!
It may seem a day late, yet instead I wanted to post my Easter celebration message today because there are many people, Christians included, who seem to remain glossed over with the holiday of Easter. We tend to be overwhelmed with the activities of Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, lunch or brunches, visiting with family and such that even the Sunday message may be overlooked.
Thing back to my previous post on Good Friday. Jesus has just endured a horrific, pain laden day. He was nailed and hung on the cross where He gave up His Spirit and died. Just before death, He took on the weight of all of our sins...all of mankind's sins. All billions upon billions of persons sins, past, present, and future, and took the punishment that we were destined to face, yet the Heavenly Father had compassion and mercy on us and gave His only Son to be the perfect sacrifice once and for all for us.
Jesus was later prepared for burial, then placed in a tomb. Our sins were buried with Him. His Spirit loosened the chains of sins, freeing us so that on the third day, He arose into a new body.
Let me back step for a small bit because while He was in the tomb, Pilate, under the recommendation of the chief priests and the Pharisees (see Matthew 27:62), instructed the priests and Pharisees to secure the tomb as best as they could to ensure that there was no way for Jesus' body to be taken or for Jesus to actually move the large stone "door" if in fact He does rise again. In addition, a guard was posted to ensure the integrity of the seal and stone.
(Follow Matthew 28) On the third day, after the Sabbath or Sunday, women went out to spread more spices and scents on Jesus' body. It is important to note here that while Jesus was alive, He told all of His apostles along with the other followers that He would rise from the dead. He told them so that they would not be surprised and they would have hope but they unfortunately did not heed His instruction. Much like we have the Holy Bible, full of instructions and prophecies and yet we still miss the obvious.
Nonetheless, in that early morning the earth had a violent earthquake and the stone was rolled away by an angel of the Lord, then he sat upon that stone. His appearance was so breathtaking that the writer's best description was, "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow." (Matthew 28:3) The guards were shaken from fear and fainted or passed out from their anxiety. However, the angel informed the women to not be afraid. The man, Jesus, whom they seek has risen from the dead. He has gone ahead to Galilee and would meet them there.
The key word here is that He has risen! Jesus said that He would rise on the third day and HE DID! Jesus tasted yet conquered death! Better than any super hero comic or movie, Jesus died for our sins. He was buried in a tomb. Then.... He arose victorious over Satan and death!
What does this mean to me? Interestingly enough, I heard a great description of this at a church my family and I visited this weekend that struck a cord with me. Pastor Greg Cooper of The Cause Church emphasized that there are many times that we look at Easter and there are times where as a Christian we tend to stop at the tomb and stop at the death part of our walk. We don't live past that moment and live in the victory of Jesus.
Easter is about the victory! Jesus won the battle! Jesus triumphed over the enemy again! We are in the New Testament era in which we only need to believe that Jesus is real. We need to have faith that all that Jesus did for us is true. He died on the cross, taking our punishment. He was buried with our sins. Then He arose in a new body, freeing all-of-us of our sins... I say again ALL......OF......US so that we could have a new life and to live eternally with God in Heaven.
Easter for me is a reminder that I am free thanks to Christ!
Would you like to know more about this liberty? E-mail me at wyatt.bloom@yahoo.com
Thing back to my previous post on Good Friday. Jesus has just endured a horrific, pain laden day. He was nailed and hung on the cross where He gave up His Spirit and died. Just before death, He took on the weight of all of our sins...all of mankind's sins. All billions upon billions of persons sins, past, present, and future, and took the punishment that we were destined to face, yet the Heavenly Father had compassion and mercy on us and gave His only Son to be the perfect sacrifice once and for all for us.
Jesus was later prepared for burial, then placed in a tomb. Our sins were buried with Him. His Spirit loosened the chains of sins, freeing us so that on the third day, He arose into a new body.
Let me back step for a small bit because while He was in the tomb, Pilate, under the recommendation of the chief priests and the Pharisees (see Matthew 27:62), instructed the priests and Pharisees to secure the tomb as best as they could to ensure that there was no way for Jesus' body to be taken or for Jesus to actually move the large stone "door" if in fact He does rise again. In addition, a guard was posted to ensure the integrity of the seal and stone.
(Follow Matthew 28) On the third day, after the Sabbath or Sunday, women went out to spread more spices and scents on Jesus' body. It is important to note here that while Jesus was alive, He told all of His apostles along with the other followers that He would rise from the dead. He told them so that they would not be surprised and they would have hope but they unfortunately did not heed His instruction. Much like we have the Holy Bible, full of instructions and prophecies and yet we still miss the obvious.
Nonetheless, in that early morning the earth had a violent earthquake and the stone was rolled away by an angel of the Lord, then he sat upon that stone. His appearance was so breathtaking that the writer's best description was, "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow." (Matthew 28:3) The guards were shaken from fear and fainted or passed out from their anxiety. However, the angel informed the women to not be afraid. The man, Jesus, whom they seek has risen from the dead. He has gone ahead to Galilee and would meet them there.
The key word here is that He has risen! Jesus said that He would rise on the third day and HE DID! Jesus tasted yet conquered death! Better than any super hero comic or movie, Jesus died for our sins. He was buried in a tomb. Then.... He arose victorious over Satan and death!
What does this mean to me? Interestingly enough, I heard a great description of this at a church my family and I visited this weekend that struck a cord with me. Pastor Greg Cooper of The Cause Church emphasized that there are many times that we look at Easter and there are times where as a Christian we tend to stop at the tomb and stop at the death part of our walk. We don't live past that moment and live in the victory of Jesus.
Easter is about the victory! Jesus won the battle! Jesus triumphed over the enemy again! We are in the New Testament era in which we only need to believe that Jesus is real. We need to have faith that all that Jesus did for us is true. He died on the cross, taking our punishment. He was buried with our sins. Then He arose in a new body, freeing all-of-us of our sins... I say again ALL......OF......US so that we could have a new life and to live eternally with God in Heaven.
Easter for me is a reminder that I am free thanks to Christ!
Would you like to know more about this liberty? E-mail me at wyatt.bloom@yahoo.com
Friday, April 18, 2014
A message about Good Friday
It has been quite a very long while since I wrote an article here. That will be covered in another post, however God has compelled me to share a message concerning Good Friday with you through this forum.
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What does Good Friday mean to you? For some, it is just another Friday, for the "religious" it means a day to attend their congregation and go through rituals, yet for the believing Christian it is highly regarded as a solemn yet exciting day.
For me, as a believing Christian, this day which is named Good Friday marks the remaining hours of Jesus Christ as He made His journey to save the world. He wore no cape or cowl. He never yielded a sword or wore a powered ring. Instead, the Hero's mystical power resided in two elements: His perfect body with sinless blood and a merciful Heavenly Father.
The world had become so corrupt and removed from following the Creator that God needed to intervene once again to cleanse His creation. Noah and his family with only a few sets of species were spared from the worldly destruction by a flood, yet God spared His creation because He loved them. He spared a small family in the midst of two sinfully laden cities from the impeding annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah. The list of His saving grace would take up this entire post alone but sin had reared its monstrous breath upon the world, yet the Creator loved us too much to give up.
The Holy Bible foretells of a Savior which would eventually come to redeem us all and save us from condemnation, an eternity in a tormented place called hell. The prophecy begins as far back as Genesis 3:21 when God first used skins of innocent animals to cover the first humans because of their act of sin. It is not until Isaiah 19:20, however that we as the reader are introduced to the announcement of a Savior coming to earth. This time span is approximately 3,000 - 4,000 years from Creation to Isaiah and another approximate 700 years before the Messiah, our Savior, is born.
The virgin birth is read during the Christmas season in which the Holy Spirit of God indwells and plants a seed in a young virgin's womb. She had found favor with God to be the mother of Jesus Christ. Approximately 33 years later, Jesus is accused of being called the King of the Jews. It is that accusation the leads to His demise.
A few hours before His death, on this day Good Friday, He was in the garden in Gethsemane where He prayed to the Heavenly Father to remove this burden, this painful experience - He prayed so earnestly that "His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44c) Nonetheless, He ended His prayer with, "not My will, but Yours [God's], be done." (Luke 22:42d)
Being betrayed by one of His own followers, He was arrested where He endured one of the harshest environments. He is flogged, He is whipped, He is humiliated, He is spat upon, He is mocked, His head pricked with a crown of thorns all before He is forced to carry a large wooden cross to the top of a hill referred to as Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, and Calvary. He was affixed, nailed with large spikes (imagine railroad spikes - perhaps larger) one each through each of His hands and a final spike driven through the both of His feet. Raised to a towering height, Jesus overlooks His followers, His family, and His rejectors who have now removed His clothing, yes He has been humiliated and completely exposed both in His nakedness and the environment in which splinters subtly punctured His barren skin.
After only a matter of hours, He gave up His Spirit and died while hanging on the cross. He died before the soldiers could break His bones to expedite death, a common practice. He was fully in control under the will of God. His blood poured out from the nail holes as well as the pierced side in which a soldier speared Jesus to ensure He was dead.
Upon the release of His Spirit, the world entered into a cataclysmic event in which the earth shook/quaked, rocks/boulders were split, graves were opened releasing the spirits of previously fallen persons which appeared before people, the sky became eerily dark, and the holy veil, which was approximately three inches thick and separated the holy of holies room within the temple, was torn from top to bottom.
This death was powerful because it is then that Jesus entered the earth to release the chains of sin, burying the sins of the world, freeing mankind of this burden. For those that believe in Jesus, His death and His resurrection, Easter, we are freed of our sin laden chains. Jesus tore down the barrier, the veil, so that we could have direct access to God the Father, the Creator, as we pray in the name of Jesus.
His body was buried in a rock laden tomb, wrapped and prepared as if He were another family or friend being buried and laid in a tomb.
This concludes Good Friday and the background of it. However, this is what Good Friday means to me...
This day reminds me that this is the day that the Lord had made. It was foretold some 5,000 years, approximate, prior. 700 years prior to the birth of Jesus, the description of His death was laid out. He came to this world to die for me. He took my sins, past, present, and future, and took the punishment that I deserve for my unrighteousness as if it were His. He came into the courtroom as the opening remarks of my court case were about to be read and said to the Judge, God the Creator and Heavenly Father, "I will take the punishment for Wyatt's sins. Wyatt's sins are my sins, sentence Me to death and allow Wyatt to live in this life and the heavenly life to come."
Jesus is my King. Jesus is my Savior. Jesus is my Redeemer. And I thank my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the ONLY God that He had enough mercy to save me.
Do you know this kind of love? Would you like to? E-mail me at wyatt.bloom@yahoo.com to know more and to allow me to pray for you.
------
What does Good Friday mean to you? For some, it is just another Friday, for the "religious" it means a day to attend their congregation and go through rituals, yet for the believing Christian it is highly regarded as a solemn yet exciting day.
For me, as a believing Christian, this day which is named Good Friday marks the remaining hours of Jesus Christ as He made His journey to save the world. He wore no cape or cowl. He never yielded a sword or wore a powered ring. Instead, the Hero's mystical power resided in two elements: His perfect body with sinless blood and a merciful Heavenly Father.
The world had become so corrupt and removed from following the Creator that God needed to intervene once again to cleanse His creation. Noah and his family with only a few sets of species were spared from the worldly destruction by a flood, yet God spared His creation because He loved them. He spared a small family in the midst of two sinfully laden cities from the impeding annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah. The list of His saving grace would take up this entire post alone but sin had reared its monstrous breath upon the world, yet the Creator loved us too much to give up.
The Holy Bible foretells of a Savior which would eventually come to redeem us all and save us from condemnation, an eternity in a tormented place called hell. The prophecy begins as far back as Genesis 3:21 when God first used skins of innocent animals to cover the first humans because of their act of sin. It is not until Isaiah 19:20, however that we as the reader are introduced to the announcement of a Savior coming to earth. This time span is approximately 3,000 - 4,000 years from Creation to Isaiah and another approximate 700 years before the Messiah, our Savior, is born.
The virgin birth is read during the Christmas season in which the Holy Spirit of God indwells and plants a seed in a young virgin's womb. She had found favor with God to be the mother of Jesus Christ. Approximately 33 years later, Jesus is accused of being called the King of the Jews. It is that accusation the leads to His demise.
A few hours before His death, on this day Good Friday, He was in the garden in Gethsemane where He prayed to the Heavenly Father to remove this burden, this painful experience - He prayed so earnestly that "His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44c) Nonetheless, He ended His prayer with, "not My will, but Yours [God's], be done." (Luke 22:42d)
Being betrayed by one of His own followers, He was arrested where He endured one of the harshest environments. He is flogged, He is whipped, He is humiliated, He is spat upon, He is mocked, His head pricked with a crown of thorns all before He is forced to carry a large wooden cross to the top of a hill referred to as Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, and Calvary. He was affixed, nailed with large spikes (imagine railroad spikes - perhaps larger) one each through each of His hands and a final spike driven through the both of His feet. Raised to a towering height, Jesus overlooks His followers, His family, and His rejectors who have now removed His clothing, yes He has been humiliated and completely exposed both in His nakedness and the environment in which splinters subtly punctured His barren skin.
After only a matter of hours, He gave up His Spirit and died while hanging on the cross. He died before the soldiers could break His bones to expedite death, a common practice. He was fully in control under the will of God. His blood poured out from the nail holes as well as the pierced side in which a soldier speared Jesus to ensure He was dead.
Upon the release of His Spirit, the world entered into a cataclysmic event in which the earth shook/quaked, rocks/boulders were split, graves were opened releasing the spirits of previously fallen persons which appeared before people, the sky became eerily dark, and the holy veil, which was approximately three inches thick and separated the holy of holies room within the temple, was torn from top to bottom.
This death was powerful because it is then that Jesus entered the earth to release the chains of sin, burying the sins of the world, freeing mankind of this burden. For those that believe in Jesus, His death and His resurrection, Easter, we are freed of our sin laden chains. Jesus tore down the barrier, the veil, so that we could have direct access to God the Father, the Creator, as we pray in the name of Jesus.
His body was buried in a rock laden tomb, wrapped and prepared as if He were another family or friend being buried and laid in a tomb.
This concludes Good Friday and the background of it. However, this is what Good Friday means to me...
This day reminds me that this is the day that the Lord had made. It was foretold some 5,000 years, approximate, prior. 700 years prior to the birth of Jesus, the description of His death was laid out. He came to this world to die for me. He took my sins, past, present, and future, and took the punishment that I deserve for my unrighteousness as if it were His. He came into the courtroom as the opening remarks of my court case were about to be read and said to the Judge, God the Creator and Heavenly Father, "I will take the punishment for Wyatt's sins. Wyatt's sins are my sins, sentence Me to death and allow Wyatt to live in this life and the heavenly life to come."
Jesus is my King. Jesus is my Savior. Jesus is my Redeemer. And I thank my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the ONLY God that He had enough mercy to save me.
Do you know this kind of love? Would you like to? E-mail me at wyatt.bloom@yahoo.com to know more and to allow me to pray for you.
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