I was not kidding

As I said in my last post. I am not good at keeping this up.

The summer is definitely over and the cold weather is almost here. It has been quite a year. I went back to riding MX, but only lasted three events before I broke my right heal. That put me out for the rest of the season. I hope to be back for the next season.
My son decided to join the Marines and signed up today. Not sure what to think about all that. Part of me is proud of him and part wishes he wouldn't have. It is not a surprise, he talked about it for five years.
Well Christmas is almost here. Lets make sure we remember what the season is all about. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Merry Christmas

Where have you been?

It sure has been a while since I have been here. It seems we all have good intentions about what we want to do or what we feel we should do, but a lot of it just doesn't happen.
How do you do in that area? Not following thru with stuff usually can be because of several reasons. One: you over commit. Two: you procrastinate. Three: bad habit. Just to point out three, I am sure there are more reasons.
In my case it is over commitment. Simple things like keeping this blog. The intentions are good, but do I do it?
Well its been January since my last entry. Lets see how long it takes before I am on here the next time.

Should I be in Church on Sunday?

This is something that comes up all the time. People question themselves on this, especially when they go do something else on Sunday. For example ride Motocross.

Let's see what the Bible says:

The Bible says that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh day he rested.

This is in Genesis:
GE 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

This you can say was the very first Sabbath.

God wanted the Sabbath to be kept holy:
NE 13:22 Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

The above is an example out of Nehamiah as to how God instructed the Levites. If they where to guard the gates to make sure the Sabbath was kept holy, I would say he was pretty serious about it.

Let's look at what "Holy" means.

Depending on the context you read it in it has more then one meaning. Here are some of the definitions:

"Holy" is from the Greek word that means "separated," it means separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God, or set apart for a sacred purpose.

Holy means free from all defilement, pure. "God is holy" means, "God is absolutely pure."

It also means sacred; having a divine quality; exalted.

So when God asked the Levites to keep the Sabbath Holy. What do you think it meant? I think God set the Sabbath apart (separated) from the rest of the week for two reasons. One to give his people a day of rest to recover from the weeks stress and two he set it apart to give his people a day to worship him and be consecrated unto him. There where strict guidelines and rules as to how they where to keep the Sabbath.

So how does this apply to us? Do we have to follow all of this and keep the Sabbath?

If we read the New Testament you will find that the law the Israelites had to live by does not apply to us. We are not required to live by their law.

GAL 3:24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

So if we are not required to follow the law does that mean we can now do whatever we want? I don't think so. God's principles don't change. If he wanted the Israelites to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest and a day of worship, I believe he would still want us to have a day like that.

The big difference I see is that we are not locked in to do it according to the law. Most Christians usually make this day Sunday. The Sabbath was actually on Saturday. This was done because it was on Sunday that Jesus resurrected.

So is this now a have to? I don't think so. If it is, we would be right back to living under the burden of the law. According to the Bible the righteous will live by faith. Living by faith gives us liberties that living under the law does not. We have to follow our heart and do what we feel God wants us to do. How do we know what God wants us to do? By reading the Bible and prayer. Our conclusion can not contradict what the Bible says.

I believe God wants us to keep a day set aside for him. We need time to worship God, we need time to draw close to God and we need time to rest. Does it all have to be on the same day? Does it all have to be on Sunday? What is God telling you?

Me personally I like to worship on Sunday and I like to rest, relax and recuperate. Could I do the same thing on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday? Yes I believe I could. Could I worship on one day and rest on another? Yes I believe I can. The important thing is that we need to stay refreshed and we need good quality time with God.

So what is my answer?

Should I be in church on Sunday or can I ride Motocross? I believe I can ride Motocross on Sunday. It is okay for me to go ride on Sunday and use another day to worship God.

But what I truly like, is to combine the two.

How do we get a Passion for Jesus?

If you have been with me since the beginning of my blog, you know the question that I asked. How can we have the same intensity of passion for Jesus as I have seen displayed at Motocross tracks?

We get excited about a lot of things, but when you go to church or talk to people about Jesus there seems to be a lack of excitement with the majority of Christians. Why is that?

I think with most of us it is because we don't really draw close to Jesus. What do I mean by that? You have become a child of God as we discussed in the last blog at some point in your life. That was the start. It is not, as many seem to think, the completion.
A lot of people think they can say a prayer to receive Jesus as their Savior and then go back to their life's and live like nothing happened. That does not work. This prayer is the start of a relationship with God thru Jesus and now that you have done that, you start living for him. This means you now try to live a life that is pleasing to him.
How do you do this? You do this by studying the word of God, which as we established in an earlier blog is the Bible. The more we study the Bible, the closer our connection with God will be.
You study the word with other believers, because it helps us understand and allows us to support and encourage each other. You may have heard the term that you can not be a Loner Christian. The reason for this is that by yourself it is easy to fail.

The Bible says:
1PE 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

But how does this increase our passion for Jesus? As we study the word and see how God becomes more and more a reality in our life, we also see more and more how we owe everything to the sacrifice that Jesus was willing to make for us.

He died on the cross, was buried in a tomb and rose three days later. He is now at the right hand of God interceding for us.

That in itself should give us a passion for Jesus.

Remember just knowing it is not enough, you have to live it for it to become a reality.

Making a Life changing Decision

After reading the last blog, what have you decided? Do you want to have eternal security as in being in heaven after you die? Are you tired of doing it on your own and want your life to have meaning?
Is it time to make a life changing decision? I hope you decided yes. If yes, please continue to read this. If no, please continue to read anyway, maybe you will change your mind, and this will help you to do so.
It is very simple to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. Here is what the Bible says:

RO 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

What exactly does that mean?

As we have talked about in earlier blogs, we are all sinners. Because of this we need a Savior if we want to spent eternity in heaven. We need a Savior if we want to be God's children and have him watch over us. But what do the above Bible verses mean?
All we have to do is realize we need a Savior, ask Jesus to be our Savior and to believe it in our heart. If we confess this we will be saved. If you want to do this, you can start by saying a prayer like or similar to the one following.

Prayer:
Dear Jesus. I know that in order to have a relationship with God I need you as my Savior. I need you as my Savior, because I am a sinner and there is nothing I can do to earn my way into heaven. The only way I can get there is by accepting that you died on the cross to pay for my sins and you rose three days later and are now in heaven preparing a place for me. I thank you so much for your sacrifice. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins. I also know that by receiving you as my Lord and Savior I become a child of God and you will be with me from here on forward to be with me and protect me. Thank you so much.
Amen

This is the initial start to your new life. If you truly made this decision, you are now a child of God. Now it is time to come to know God and to start walking with him. Now it is time to start living for him. To learn how to do that, you can come back for future blogs or you can check out our website @ http://www.meet-me-at-the-crossroad.com/
Welcome to your new family.

A Relationship with God

In our last blog we established that to have a relationship with God we need a Savior. But why would we want that relationship?
We have a lot of fun living as we want to. We don't like people telling us what to do. From all I have heard about having a relationship with God, it requires that we live a certain way. Why would I want to do that?

Without God we have the now, but nothing else. You can very possibly live a pretty, what you might consider, good life, but that is where it ends. Even if you acquire a lot of money, a lot of friends, a good husband or wife, or whatever else you might think makes life great, you are only living for the now. What about your future? Your eternal future?
A lot of people claim they don't worry about it. I don't know if I can believe that. When you sit down and things get really quiet and you truly think about your future, you think about the end of your life as you know it, are you at peace? Are you scared of dying? How can you have peace in that?
Nobody likes the unknown. It is in our human nature to want to live forever and all of us at some point are going to die. Then what? Are you okay about that part of your future?

Here is where a relationship with God comes in. Now it can't be a relationship on our terms, it has to be a relationship on God's terms.
A right relationship with God will secure our eternal future. It will not only do that, it will also help us in the here and now. According to the Bible, if we establish a relationship with God, we become children of God. Being his children comes with benefits.
The Bible says that God will help us in all things, protect us and watch over us. We will never have to do it on our own again. Knowing this will give you peace now and forever.

Do you want this? If yes, great. We do this by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior and surrendering to God.

But there is a major problem, most of us don't want to give up control of our lives. We want to be in control. See to become God's children, we have to give him control of our lives. We have to live according to what he wants, not what we want. By surrendering to God we establish our relationship with him.

Do you still want this? Only you can decide if you do.

What is the alternative?

Why would you need a Savior?

If we have established that God is real and that the Bible is the word of God, we can move forward.

Why do you need a savior? To know this lets start at the beginning.

God created the heaven and the earth. He also created everything in it such as the plant life and the animals. One of his greatest creations was man. The difference between man and the animals is that animals do everything by instinct. Man on the other hand has free will and is able to think and reason.
God created a man and then not wanting him to be alone created a woman. He put them in the garden of Eden. They where to live there and and take care of it. The only restriction they had was that they could not eat from the tree in middle of the garden. This tree was called the tree of knowledge.
Now even back then the devil was around. I am sure you have heard of him. He was there in the garden in the form of a serpent. And just like today, he was up to know good. He approached Eve and convinced her to eat an apple from the tree of knowledge and she in turn gave some of the apple to Adam. How did he do that? He convinced her that God was keeping something good from them. Here is what he said: "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
The thing they did not look at is what God had said earlier: "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die."
The devil is good at half truth. He was right in that they now would know the difference between good and evil, but he left out the part that they would now die.

But why does that make us need a savior? Let's go on.

Let's learn something about God. God is a perfect God that can not handle evil. The Bible says this about God: "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong." We have to understand that doing wrong is evil.
Because of what Adam and Eve did, God kicked them out of the garden of Eden. Now they no longer just lived, now they where also going to die. They had brought evil and death on themselves and all their decendents. This includes us, because we are their decendents. This one act put a separation between us and God.

God did not want this. He wanted us to have a relationship with him and be in his presence. So how can this separation be removed? Well just like today when someone does wrong, it has to be made right. It is the same with God, if someone does wrong it has to be made right. So how can a major wrong like what Adam and Eve did be made right? It would take a perfect sacrifice.

Okay but why does that make it to where we need a savior? We didn't do what they did.

There are two reasons we will not need a savior. One, we don't want to have a relationship with God. Two, we can live a perfect life without ever doing wrong and because of this we get to have a relationship with God. Here in lies the problem. The first choice leads to eternal consequences that at some point we will regret, because it is eternal separation. The second, because of what Adam and Eve did we can not live perfect lives. Because we are their decendants, no matter how hard we try, it is now in our nature to do wrong.

So if you want to have a relationship with God, you need a Savior.