life by the spirit

i'm trying to learn how to live by the Spirit.

"but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, against such things there is no law" - Gal 5:22-23.

that is one of my memory verses and i'm going to try thinking of that verse when the "old me" is rearing his ugly head. i realize that the harder you try to get closer to God, the enemy really comes at you, in subtle and not so subtle ways. there is is so much to say on the subject and obviously Paul talks about it alot in Romans, Galations, I and II Corinthians...etc. i kinda don't have the time now, i'm still at work and have about an hour left before it's time to go home, and once i'm home...fogetaboutit, wifey and the boy will want daddy's attention. maybe tonight when i get home from the gym. at any rate, i'm feelin the heat of the battle for my soul, and i'm trying to learn how to put on the whole armor.

"The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." - Romans 13:12-14

giving Him your all

i'm sitting at home. i'm not really happy about that. i can't afford to go to church cuz gas costs so much, and we're broke and need to be very conservative with where we drive. driving to church will eat up the gas. i put 15$ in my tank yesterday and didn't even get a half tank! argh! i'd really like to start goin on a regular basis and i feel guilty about not going more than i do.

anyway i was doing some reading of various scriptures based on a study on ways to fight temptation. and all the scriptures point to Jesus. and i understand that He is the One to follow, our example. but a question i've had is how do you do that? how do you get there? how do you give yourself fully?? how do u trust Him in all you do?? is it always a struggle? sometimes i feel the weight of "trying". actually i feel that weight often. the spiritual battle wears on me.

i believe i'm growing and i believe i'll mature even more. just the fact that i'm asking these questions and that i want to do better in this relationship. but i guess it's like that cd, or book or something that you ordered, you're excited about it and you're waiting for it to get delivered. you know it'll be there soon, but you want it now. i understand that it can take time, but it gets frustrating.

the funny thing is i can talk to kim and she will ask a question about a certain subject and i can come up with a biblical answer. i can use examples from the bible to show how God dealt with something or what He says about different topics but i have the hardest time applying it that way in my own walk.

interesting

it's interesting that at one time the whole world spoke one language and with the ability to speak to same the language we had the potential to do anything (Gen 11:6). well, anything but thwart the plans of God. His command was to be fruitful, increase in number and fill the earth (Gen 9:1), but somehow we always seem to forget God's mandates for us and go with our own ideas (Gen 11:4).

i often wonder how it is that man in general thinks that he can be independent. it's not like one day we just decided to be born. its not like we really have any control over circumstances in our lives, no matter how hard we try. i can barely control getting out of the house on time for my train every morning! i can plan and have my clothes laid out, lunch cooked and packed, showered and shaved the night before and still end up rushing out. why? becuz something i didn't plan on may still happen. like not being able to find a sock i thought i put out, or a hat cuz it's raining and rain wasn't in the forecast. something that small can effect all the plans i had. and getting out of the house on time to catch a train is a small thing compared to the many challenges that come up in our life time!! it boggles my mind that other people can look at the human body and not think that Someone much greater created them. forget the whole human body, how about just the eye and how it works!! or how about that we have a waste management system!?!? or how about thumbs?? hehe. what a great God!! i guess what i'm getting at is if God can create us with such complexity then why is it we always seem to think we know better?

more and more i'm trying to submit myself to the Lord, cuz more and more i'm realizing that He has my best interests at heart, He's not trying to hold me back or keep me from enjoying this life. maybe, just maybe, if i do things according to His plan, i'll see that if plans i made didn't work out it was becuz it didn't work out the way i planned.

When the Pressure is On

Romans 5:1-5

What makes a shiny apple look so delicious? The skin, of course. But what is it about an apple that actually makes it delicious? The juice and substance inside. That's the apple's real "character."

I learned this as a boy watching my mom make applesauce. With a wooden pestle, she would mash the soft, boiled pieces of apple through a metal colander and into a bowl, until all that remained in the colander were drab, flattened skins. But oh, the sauce tasted so good!

God uses life's pressures to bring out the sweetness of Christlike character in us. Tribulation (which means "pressure" in the Greek) also helps us realize the awful potential of our sin nature and see it for what it is—ugly and tasteless. Under pressure, all kinds of sins begin to surface—greed, selfishness, lust, pride.

Pressure, whether from without or from an unrealistic perfectionism within, is a fact of our fallen world. God controls its intensity and duration so that we can recognize, confess, and renounce those fleshly "skins" that obscure Christ's character in us.

Tribulation is not something anyone seeks. But when it comes, the Holy Spirit will use it to create in us perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3-4)

Today's devotional from Our Daily Bread

could you imagine!!?? LOL

you never know who's listening

yesterday a few of us who are christians, as well as a Jehova's Witness were on the train discussing the latest verson of the ten commandments showing on abc this week. just in case anyone is wondering, the general opinion of the show was it wasn't worth watching. i personally thought it had some really bad acting and it didn't stay true to the bible. that's a big surprise (said w/sarcasm). honestly i thought it was garbage. anyway, from there we discussed the movie "The Passion of the Christ" and went on to some other topics, like purity, music, and the influence of porn, even within the body of Christ. just as we got to my stop, a woman came up to us and said it was so pleasant to hear people talking about our Lord Jesus Christ unashamedly on the train. she said it was refreshing. it turned out that one of the people in our group goes to the same church as her. she was getting off at the same stop as me, so i caught up with her and asked her if we were too loud and she said we weren't any louder than anyone else having a conversation. she just happened to be close enough to hear what we were talking about and was glad to hear that kind of a conversation. it felt so good to hear that, it gave me chills. they were different chills though, can't explain it, just real good chills...lol. i told her that two years ago i wouldn't have been having that kind of conversation on the train. it kinda gave me a glimpse of where i was and where i am now. it's my desire to grow and mature in the Lord and it was my prayer just about two years ago at the altar in church. i told God i was tired of living off of milk and wanted to move on to meat. wow...did He ever answer that prayer!! i'll have to go into detail on another post. but it was nice to get a compliment from someone instead of weird or annoyed looks that we get sometimes when we talk about God or church.

another good thing about yesterday was i was listening to my mp3 player and one of the guys asked me what i was listening to. this gave me an opportunity to try and turn him away from listening to secular music. we've talked about it before and i made a cd for him that he really enjoyed. so i let him know that i had expanded my horizons and found other artist besides cross movement to listen to. he even remembered the name of the group, which surprised me. i already started making a new cd for him a week or two ago and i asked him if it was ok yesterday and he was all for it. so hopefully i'll have it done by friday and i'll see him and can pass it on to him. i'm very particular about the cd's i make for people. i usually have the person i'm making it for in mind, in terms of their personality and there's usually a message hidden in the cd. he knows that so much of what is being played on the radio is Godless and really doesn't promote a lifestyle that would be pleasing to God. hopefully this'll influence him some more to turn from it. he loves rap, so maybe i can get him really turned on to christian rap and he'll see that christian rappers have skills and they glorify God in their music, not money, sex, drugs, violence or themselves! i'm working on the cd now, but i haven't been to happy with the flow, so i'm gonna work out the kinks today and tomorrow.

by the way, if i haven't mentioned it already, i LOVE timothy brindle's cd killing sin!! for me it is such a convicting cd, at some points in listening to it, it made me sad cuz i could see that i still had a long way to go in my walk. but its an excellent cd and right now, i know its early but i'd say its my favorite cd for '06. it flows well, the beats are hot, the lyrics are hot and overall it flows really well. it's almost like listening to a story. if you love christian hip hop, its a must have!! shai linne's cd "the Solo Christus project". after that i'll get "the great awakening" by timothy brindle then i'm not sure what i'll get next. i just listened to the snippets for Genocide by the Yunion and i'll admit i was sleepin on that cd till i heard the snippets!! arrrgghhh!! so much to catch up on! i'm not worried about it...in time....in time.

some quiet time

yesterday i had to cover another site and it was a blessing!! it's a quiet site so i had plenty of time to just chill. most of the "chillin'" i did was quiet time with the Lord. i usually have music playin throughout the day at work and i don't think i played any yesterday. i spent time reading or watching stuff about the Lord.
i found this on cyberanger's blog. i watched most of it and i also read the book of Ephesians. i was surprised when i finished the book cuz i was finished before i knew it. i know it's a small book but i didn't rush through the reading and i read alot of the study notes in my bible that went along with each chapter. i'm lovin my new bible btw. i plan to read Ephesians again and maybe find a good bible study for Ephesians. i also had some prayer time and i feel refreshed today (even with just 5 hours of sleep). its good to read God's Word, it's good to study and to try to get to know Him better. i also have some memory verses that i've been working on for a long time that i reviewed and i think i'm ready to add another one or two. i think this will be my newest verse to memorize:

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. - II Peter 1:5-8

for some reason that verse stood out to me about a week or two ago when i was doing some reading. i'll memorize those verses first, then the ones that proceed it that say: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. it may seem backwards to do it that way but that's the way i'm goin for now. some other verses i'd like to add are: Gal 5:16-17, 24-25, II Tim 2:15, (i actually started that one awhile back, but somehow it got lost in the shuffle).

Here's a list of what i've memorized so far:
Proverbs 1:7
Psalms 51:10
2 Corinthians 5:17
Galatians 2:20
Romans 12:1,2
Colossians 3:1-3
Galatians 5:22-23
Joshua 1:8
Proverbs 15:1
1 Corinthians 6:12
Proverbs 25:28

i chose these verses becuz i felt like they would be the kind of verses i needed to keep in mind to be serious about my walk. i say i chose them, but i do feel like it was more like i was lead to choose them.

i have a notebook/journal i use sometimes and i created flash cards in Ms Word, then printed them, cut them out and pasted them into the journal. this way when i'm on the train i can go over them and easily find them if i'm having trouble with a verse. here's an example of what the flash cards look like:


i got the idea of the format of the card from the Topical Memory System. of course i can't find where i got the idea for the formatting of the card, but there is online version here that i just found hehe.

this walk is a process, but when i have days like yesterday, then talk to my wife or (anyone who wants to listen hehe) about what i've learned or what stood out to me, its nice to feel like you've grown a little closer to the Lord.

wouldn't you know that by the time i got home yesterday i was starting to get into a bad mood, and i know where that came from. something really small set me off and i started to get angrier and angrier in my spirit, but i realized why or should i say who was really behind it and i apologized and moved on. it was good to do that, cuz i didn't let that take away from the time i spent with the Lord earlier that day.

what a relief!!

this ryhme came to mind when i put up the previous post. i'll put the song in the radioblog.

Ahh, what a relief it is to be in Jesus
I fooled you with the FUBU and baggies without the creases
My chief is Jesus
got's to know him is my thesis
Without Jesus even Reeses can't know what peace is
Seek us and you'll see us
truth seekers
Youth reachers· paired up like two sneakers
True preachers, louder than 22 speakers
If you peep us, you get nothin' new JESUS!
You know we live among tough guys
who say they rough ride
But I've seen them meet Elohim and no more tough side
And so we're caught· you know the Savior's got our jaw stuck
We're awe struck
cause life's no longer a toss up
And though its got a lot of trouble in it
In comparison it pales like a bucket with a shovel in it
Cause one day we'll be the eternal residents
With the universal President
for Whom we represent

-Ambassador - Cypha the Next Day, House of Representatives


The Cross Movement Cypha The Next Day Lyrics

Now Means Now! or (aahh...what a relief it is to be in Jesus!)

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1

Now (adverb): at the present time; at once (Webster)

I've been thinking about the difference between conviction and condemnation. When the Holy Spirit convicts me of something that I have done wrong, the thoughts will be something like this: “I really blew that! I was wrong. I should have thought before I said that. That was certainly not a Christ-like thing to do! I’ll go over the first thing tomorrow and make an apology. I am so thankful that He has promised to complete what He started. He still has a lot of work to do on me—that’s for sure!” In conviction there is hope—hope for changing fleshly patterns because of the power of Christ in me—hope for righting wrongs—hope for overcoming.

On the other hand, thoughts of condemnation will attack me—myself—not just my performance. For example, “I am such a loser. I do everything wrong. I should not be teaching or witnessing. What a sorry Christian I’ve turned out to be. I can’t do anything right.” There’s no hope in those accusations—just condemnation. Those words condemn me because of my poor performance and give birth to guilt, depression, disappointment, hopelessness, and a lot of other destructive thoughts.

The Holy Spirit isolates—brings to mind—the sinful act. Satan, however, makes broad, all-inclusive accusations against my person/character/integrity. God will never condemn me. Why? Because He knows me—my new heart, my desire to please Him, my love for Him—and He doesn’t expect me to perform perfectly. That’s His program—conforming me to the image of His Son. “Conforming” means there’s work to be done—changing myperformance, the things I do—not my identity. There is, therefore, NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

taken from www.lifetime.org