Chapter one of Biblical Love: Love for yourself

Love for yourself

Romans 13:9 “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,
You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and
any other commandment, are summed up in this word:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

In America, you can go up to nearly any woman (regardless of size) and ask them if they are trying to lose weight, and if they are being completely honest, the answer would commonly be “yes”. You can also go up to nearly any man in America and ask him if he wishes he was stronger and he would say “yes”. Why is it that we always see the negatives about ourselves? If you went up to a woman and asked her how much weight she has lost, she would say a number and instead of continuing to boast about how much she lost, she probably would go on to tell the person her goal weight. When is it enough? When do we need to accept ourselves for who we are? Moreover, when do we need to realize that God accepts us for who we are?

Why is it that we are constantly bombarded by negative reinforcement? We are constantly finding what is wrong with our appearance or attributes and trying to adjust them to what is popular. So there must be something that is contributing to this negativity in our self-esteem. Of course there is! People, magazines, television, school, the internet…etc. All of us are told that if we don’t look a certain way, dress a certain style, or go to a certain school that we are simply “not as good”. Why else would it be that some girls spend around two hours on there hair every morning? Even guys often lie about engaging in sexual activity to avoid being called gay and gaining a bad reputation.

In magazines, I constantly see titles such as “lose weight now!”, “Best bodies!”, “How to look good in a bikini”. Whether we wish to believe it or not, the majority of Americans have allowed this to affect their life in a huge way. We worry what we look like on a date, women carry make up in their purse, men do everything they can to become muscular. It literally takes up peoples lives and turns there heads from what’s important; love. In these circumstances, it is not love for others that is needed, it is not love for a thing that is needed, and it is not even love for your family that is needed, its love for yourself.

Genesis 2:27 “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

We were created in the image of God, every one of us. Whether we are blind, naked, unloved, hated, persecuted, or rejected, human beings are none the less the divine and incredible image of God.

Perhaps “image of God” does not refer to looking like God, but rather, the way God wanted us. For example, if I was to make a bowl out of clay and I had shaped the bowl exactly how I wanted it so that it could be used exactly how I wanted, one may say it was created in my image, not because it looks like me, but because it was my perspective that created it the way it was. And that is exactly how I wanted it.

At the beginning of the earth, this is what God did. He took humans and molded them exactly according to his will, not the will of the person across the street, not the will of the media, but the will of God. If we think about it this way, it helps us understand why people aren’t accepting of others; because it isn’t their will or perspective that is prevailing, it is God’s.

When we were molded by God, we were molded in such a way that we would fit perfectly into his plan. God has a plan for every one of us, not just the strong, not just the week, not just the rich, not just the poor. Every single one of us makes a contribution to further accomplish God’s plan. People in America commonly think of only themselves and what they are going to do. But the Bible talks about the “body of Christ”, and that is not plural. If we are to contribute to the “body of Christ” than we have to think about not just how we can help ourselves, but how we can contribute perfectly to that “body”.

Let me use this example, God molded some of us into a fork, some of us into knives, some of us into cups and plates. But if a fork is all on its own when something more tough comes along, you are going to need a knife, and if something with more liquid comes along and all you have is a plate, your going to need to go grab a cup. You see? Everyone has a specific purpose to serve while we are down here. Other wise, God wouldn’t have put you or me down here at all.

The easiest way for someone to loose sight of God’s plan for their life is to allow others “will” to affect them instead of the will of God. God’s will for us is perfect and fits into his amazing plan. But a person’s will is complete imperfection and can distort our view and, possibly, will contribute to us turning our eyes from God.

So how do we love ourselves? By ignoring what others negatively tell us, and accepting what God truthfully tells us. When we listen to God, we discover a joy that reaches down to the pits of our heart and soul and binds them in such a way that we realize we are truly worth something. Let not things of the earth define you, such as money, sex, power, and drugs, but rather, let yourself be defined by the acceptance and love of Christ.

You might ask why I decided to have the first chapter be about love for ourselves. Maybe it seems like it should be focused more on something like: Love for God, love for people in Africa, love for family…etc. But the reason I decided to start on love for yourself is because once you have love for yourself, you gain love for others and God.

The bible tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Romans 13:9). But that commandment is impossible to follow if we do not know how to love ourselves. Furthermore, if Romans 13:9 tells us that in order to follow all of the commandments, we must love our neighbor as ourselves, than we cannot follow any of the commandments from the bible without self-love. This is why I started the book with this, because if we are to have any hope of understanding the deep love of Christ and the deep love we should all strive to acquire for Christ, than we must learn to love ourselves.

Biblical love: introduction

This is a book I have been writing in my free time. I ask you guys for comments on it so that we allow God to speek through you in order for me to improve it enough to hopefully get published. This is the introduction. Enjoy and please Comment:

I rarely come home from a Christian book store with a book that doesn’t talk about Calvinistic theological beliefs and defenses for such beliefs. My family is very strong in their beliefs towards the Calvinistic ideas of Christianity and the contrary to this belief is frowned upon in our household. However, I recently came home from a bookstore with a book called “Fearless” by Max Lucado which had appealed to me at that time because I was being troubled by some things in my life and I felt that it would be a good time to purchase such an item.
I got half way through it the first night I bought it and was enjoying it quite a lot. Once my brother caught a glimpse of it, he was somewhat taken back that I had bought a book that wasn’t referring to specific theological ideas that me and my family had so earnestly indulged in. He asked me why I had bought such a book and I simply told him that I thought it looked like a good read. He then walked off with a glimpse of disappointment. I find this to be a concise example of how Christians forget about the single most important thing God asks of us; love.
I, myself am an example of a person that is consistently distracted by things that cause you to turn away from the important things in life and pursue something because it seems more appealing. I turn away from things such as: The bible, God, my family, my friends, school, and prayer. I exchange these for: Video games, a movie, physical attraction towards the opposite sex, and just about everything that your mind can come up with that is unneeded for a happy life. I have been condemned for both lists, but I have only been convicted of the second. Condemnation is feelings that people have of doubt, or insecurity. They are feelings that are untrue and come from an unreliable source. Sometimes they come to us through feelings the devil gives us, sometimes through other people, and sometimes through ourselves. However, conviction is a true thing that could, in a sense, be considered somewhat of a conscience. Conviction brings about feelings of things you should not have done, guilt, and often times, if you listen to it, ends with an apology to God or a person who was wronged.
It is most important that we do our utter best to control our lives in such a way that we are not distracted by the things of the world such as: drugs, sex, pornography, lying, cheating, steeling, hating, murder, adultery, etc… but instead our faces make a one hundred and eighty degree turn towards: God, the bible, family, Christ, and prayer, or….you could simply refer to the latter list as love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Love really is an intriguing word, in today’s society it is used with nearly everything that appeals to someone. Many of us say things such as “I love that TV”, or “I love that video game”. But at the same time, it is used as a word of affection and sensitivity towards people. We use it towards our kids, our parents, our spouse, our girlfriend or boyfriend, and towards God. If we use the word love towards our possessions on earth, than why do we also use the same word in order to glorify God? I hope that God does not mean as much to some of you as your TV or your video game system does. Therefore we shouldn’t be using the same word for both. We must choose whether we wish to use, what the bible tells us, is the single deepest way to express compassion and kindness towards another being, for God or for items.
However, there are many types of love, the love one has for another Christian, for a spouse or loved one, for objects and idols, and most importantly, for God. Many people take these loves and twist them in such a way that they might love God in the way that they love an idol, or they might love an idol the way they should love God. Therefore their love has become perverse and twisted. And the only antidote to confused love is God. My goal is to allow God to speak to people who have mistakenly twisted their ideas of love so that God (not me) may help you and guide you on the path to correcting, what I like to call, biblical love.

Christianity uncovered: Understanding Creationism

One of the more common questions that arises against the belief in God creating all matter and everything that exists is the universe is "Who created God?" Let me start off by saying, before I answer this question, that if the person reading this is truly looking for an answer to that question, there is no where else to look but the bible. If someone asks this question, they are surely, but subtly, admitting God exists, but they are denying to use the bible as God's truth. This is somewhat ironic as you may be able to see. If you truly are looking for an answer to this question, then I suggest you keep an open mind and believe the resources I am going to use. But if using this question, for you, is just to deny the deity of God, asking a question about God, but not listening to what God tells you, is not the way to go about it.

Now, in the bible, we are told that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). If we are too fully understand this verse, we must dig deeper into the meaning of "beginning." Beginning could be reffering to: the beginning of time, the beginning of creation, or, as some may think, the beginng of all thing. However, it is in fact reffering to the beginning of a new dimmension called time. Humans are stuck in time, where as God is not and therefore has been and always is there. Not only does the "beginning" refer to the beginning of time for us, but it is simply an attempt for the human mind to understand how God has always been and always will be. There is no word in the english language, nor in probably any other language, that means "always before the beginning." Why? Because it is impossible to fully understand that deffinition. The reason this is such a difficult concept to grasp is because God did not give us the ability to understand us. But he did give us the ability to believe and trust him, so that is what we must do. We have to simply have faith in God's word, without faith, no person would understand this concept in the least.

Colossians 1:15 tell us:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him."

Notice it says He is the firstborn of all creation, God was the only thing there was. Nothing created him, He just was. Nothing was there before him, He simply, was. If we think about our own lives, everything we know, see, taste, hear, feel, touch, and smell were created at some point in time. At no point in time, are we physically with something or someone that wasn't created. It is our mere nature to understand that everything is created, it lives, then it dies. God, however, is incomprehendable because he contradicts what our understandable nature tells us, God truly is everlasting. We however, and everything around us, is not.

Revelation: 22:13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

Christianity uncovered: Love; Action or Feeling?

In today's day and age, love is seldom reffered to as something a person does, rather, it is usually thought of as something that has a "spark" to it and can be forgotten about over time. In my very first post; biblical love, I talked about love as, contrary to popular belief, not being a feeling for the reason that the bible tells us that love never ends and feeling's come and go. I would like to expand on this concept and explain how to apply it to our love for God and how God apply's it to his love for us.

I would first like to quote a verse out of 1 Corininthians to build off of:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Building off of this verse, we can realize that love is slow to anger, it is not boastful or envious, nor is it rude or prideful. Now if we think about this deffinition of the word love, how does it differ from that which most humans think of love today?

If I were to come up to a girlfriend and boyfriend who were arrogantly fighting but still had no intentions of breaking up, and I went over to them and asked them if they loved eachother, I would not be surprised, nor do I think any of you would be, if they responded saying "Yes, we are just fighting," or something to that effect. This is quite frankly a perversion of the word love, love is in fact an action, not a feeling.

The way the bible defines love is all by actions: selfless, not arrogant, not irritable, rejoices with the truth. Love is the action of controlling your actions and feelings, but it is not a feeling that comes and goes; for love endures all things. In order to fully understand the word love though, we must look at how God loves us.

1 John 4:16 "So we have come to know and believe the love God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in , and God abides in him."

We never speak of love in the way it is expressed in 1 John today. We never say that someone IS love. We may say they do love, but I can honestly say that I have never heard it stated in this manner. If God is love, what does that mean? It means that God endures all things, He bears all things, He is selfless and does not envy or boast. With this knowledge, we have the ability to take a great leap into a few of God's divine characteristics and therefore, respond to them better.

How do we love God then? By believing in Him, by trusting Him, by attempting to follow his commandments and rejoicing in the faith we have in Him. Without this love for God, there is no love for God's chosen people (1 John 5:1). Without love for God, life is a mere pointless breeze that will blow but have no good, or spiritual, or even meaningful effect on anyone. Without love for our savior and Lord, your life, although contrary to logic, will cease to have meaning.

1 Corinthians 13:2

"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all

knowlege, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but have not love,

I am nothing."

Christianity Uncovered: Savation through works

The idea of being a good person and getting to go to heaven is a very common and accepted belief amongst christians and atheists alike. This belief for atheists presents a ground for them to fall back on, lest their ungodly beliefs be incorrect or compromised. In other words, an atheist (that has been a nice person) may believe their whole life that God doesn't exist, but many will still aknowledge the possibilty of their incorrect assumption and therefore, feel more comfortable to say that a good person will go to heaven, regardless of faith. Although this is a common and soothing belief, it is biblically incorrect and should furthermore, be studied on the basis of God's word and not be bound by human instability.

In order to strongly and accurately grasp the concept of salvation through faith alone, we must realize that our idea of something good is corrupt and should not be linked with God's divine understanding of something good. For example, today there are many things that the world would call good that God frowns upon, such as becoming drunk and having premarital sex. Not only do some people consider these good, but many people have a strong sense of pride during a time of financial success or something that has recently been accomplished by them or of something too that effect.

Not only does God consider our view of good to be corrupt, but it is in fact, impossible for a human to commit a good work. In the book of mark, Jesus is called a "good teacher", and although this seems like a good title to us, especially if it is being associated with someone
(Jesus) that has lived a perfect life, Jesus says that he should not be called good, for "no one is good except God alone":

Mark 10:18 "and Jesus said to him, 'why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.'"

If we know that even Jesus the Christ, who lived a blameless life, was not "good", then who are we to call ourselves good? We are far from it. If man is not good at all, there is no possibility of salvation through what he does, only through God's grace and mercy being shone on our absolutely corrupt lives, does the reconciliation of our sins take place. "No one in the flesh can please God" (Romans 8:8)

So, how then do humans have a hope at all of doing truly good deeds or pleasing God if we are absolutely corrupt? I must admit, I had trouble with this question as I was studying it until I stumbled upon Phillipians 2:13, which says:

"for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

No man, on his own, and according to his own will can please God. But God can please himself. And if God is working through a man who has faith in God in order to complete his holy will, then the man with faith is not pleasing God, but God through that man and on account of that man is being pleased, therefore that man is credited for his Godly actions which are brought about by God. But without faith in Jesus Christ and God, pleasing Him, and much more, aquiring salvation, is impossible and should not be attempted.

Introduction: Christianity uncovered

Some while ago, I was asked a question that I found somewhat difficult to answer, even though if I would of thought about this question prior to being asked it, I probably would of said to myself "Yes, that's an easy one." None the less, after realizing this to be a somewhat challenging question for myself, I thought it essential that I explain to my fellow brother and sister's in christ, and hopefully to some that don't know much about God, the answer to this complex question. The question that I was asked was "What does it mean to be a christian?" It is very possible that if I was asked a theological question, I would find less difficulty in answering that than in answering the actual asked question. Often times, I find that, I myself, get too focused on theological ideas of the bible that I forget to get back to what really matters, forget to get back to the basics.


Throughout this series, we will study subjects such as: different denominations of christianity, the role of a christian, spiritual gifts, and acceptance of Christ. These are divine truth's that I feel are not studied or looked upon often enough. I will do my best to remain away from strong theological points but let us remember that I am imperfect and I would expect that some will unknowingly slip into this series.

My hope for this series is that the people reading them would become stronger in their faith with Christ and that possibly some people, by God's grace, may come to know him. I ask for prayer during this series from fellow christian's so that I would not make the mistake of getting hung up on theological ideas. I am by no means against theology or deep thinking of the bible, for that is the reason I even started the blogs. But for this series, I feel it is important that we focus on God's amazing grace and how to worship and come to know such an awesome God. God bless all of you and I hope God speaks to you during this series.

God, Sin, and Man Parable.

I had a trip to go on today for my band class at my high school and God gave me a, what seemed to mundane at first, but was in truth, a miraculous experience. It was not actually on the band trip that this experience occured. It occured while I was walking home after me and my band had arrived at school. I was walking home due to lack of my family's ability to pick me up, everyone in my family, at the time, was preoccupied. So, without arguing, I told my dad I would simply walk home (it wasn't that far of a walk anyways). And as I was walking home and I had reached the street I live on, God presented me with an experience, that very well may be with me the rest of my life. I continued walking down my street, and after I had reached just a quarter of the streets length, I saw a crack in the pavement on the road (as you may know, there are cracks all over the roads in Klamath Falls). I obviously have seen plenty of cracks in plenty of roads. But, i'm am honestly not sure why I did what I did next. I walked up to the crack on the other side of the street and stood there for a second on one side of it without crossing over to the other side of the crack. Something in my head told me to think of the crack as God, and I, of course, represented a human. I then went on to imagine that a car (but there was not one there at the time) coming towards me, on the opposite side of the crack, would represent sin. And I thought of this to be somewhat of a pointless thought, because, in this case, the sin would not be able to reach me because God was intervening and would be blocking the sin from reaching me. And since we all sin, this felt somewhat rediculous for the time being. I then continued to walk down my street, not really thinking about what I was just imagining. I saw a rock that looked like it would be fun to kick, so I walked up to it and swung my foot at it, unfortunately, I missed. And after I missed, my foot tumbled and I fell. What I realized right as I was stumbling was that I was on one side of a crack when I had kicked the rock, and I was on the other side of the crack after I had fallen. I realized that if a car (sin) would have been on the other side of that crack, I would have (litterally) fallen into it. After this experience, I realized that it is not so much the sin that bashes through our belief in God and enters into our life, it is us that bashes through our belief in God in order to fall into sin. Perhaps a better example of this (that I also thought of on my walk home) is imagining us (humans) standing on one side of a door (God) and another man (sin) standing on the other side of the same door knocking. Now, the man who represents sin cannot reach us unless we open the door and, in doing so, push God aside and accept that sin enters into our life. Therefore, we are the sinners and God is our defense.

Good Works

Let me start off by saying that this blog, although it may seem like it at first, does not contradict my last post. In my last post, I meant to be speeking of the result of the holy spirit being in you; which is doing good works. But in this post, I will be talking about whether or not good works can save you apart from belief in Jesus Christ, as this seems to be a popular belief amongst human beings today.
The idea that good works apart from belief in Jesus christ is by no means being set from a biblical point of view. In the book of Galations, Paul adresses this issue:
Galations 2:16 "yet we know that a person in not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified."
This states quite clearly that a person is saved by the belief in God and not by good works or "works of the law." Not only this, but it impossible for someone who does not accept God as their savior and Lord to please him:
Romans 8:8 "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Therefore, if we cannot please God if we don't accept him as our savior, then a person who lives a life full of good works but doesn't love God will fail carelessly to please him. Like I talked about in my last post, good works is the evidence of our salvation, not the cause:
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
As you can see in ephesians, God planned out and prepared beforehand what good works his followers were going to perform. Hence, why it is the evidence of our salvation. Furthermore, when something is our workmanship, it is the representation of what we are able to create. Therefore, if we are God's workmanship, then we have a responsibility to do good works so that others will see that we are honoring God. For it is dishonoring to God if we do not do good works, because as his creation, we are responsible to honor God in everything we do.
Titus 2:7 "Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching, show integrity, dignity."
Not only are we dishonoring God when we don't do good works as he commands, but we also dishonor ourselves. We should show dignity when teaching and doing good works so that no noe can condemn us or judge us when they see us do something that is against God's law. So, although works are not what make us recieve salvation, we are still commanded to commit them. How will others know that we are regenerated by Christ if we are not walking in good works. In order to honor God, we must be living a life where we are attempting to live for him with our best ability. We are not expected to live like Jesus did, but we are expected to try.

Biblical Faith

Faith and hope, although closely related, must not be mistakenly thought of as perfect matches. In Hebrews, it gives us a good definition of what faith is:
Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
If faith is the assurance of things hoped for, then faith cannot exist without hope, but hope can exist without faith. In other words, hope would, in a sense, be a lesser version of faith. For example, if you have faith that something is going to happen, you believe in your heart that that thing is going to happen. If you hope for something to happen, you wish or long for that thing to happen, but there is not assurance in your heart. Faith is the assurance or confirmation of hope. We also must realize that there are two parts to faith, there is the confirmation of hope in your heart, and then there is the works, or deeds that comes along with it. In the book of James, it quite clearly tells us that faith without works is useless and dead:
James 2:17 "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."
James 2:20 "Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?"
The bible also tells us that faith is what gives us our salvation:
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith..."
Therefore, if there are two parts to faith, the believing and the works, and we are not completing one of those two parts, than how is it possible that we have salvation? Quite frankly, you are not saved if you are only completing one of these parts to faith. It is not that you are not saved because you are sinning often, but it is because if you truly have faith in God, it would result in an attempt to follow God's commandments and not just throw them aside. I am wrighting to those of you that claim to be christians, but in your heart you feel no guilt for your sins and make no attempt to turn away from the flesh. For those people are only decieving and tricking themselves. I do not mean to comdemn anyone by what I am saying, but rather, I want to speak only the truth and help those who are only completing one part of faith to realize the mistake they are making and possibly give them the knowledge to correct it.
The bible also talks about faith as being a christians shield:
Ephesians 6:16 "In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one."
The bible refers to faith as a shield for many reasons. First of all, there is the fact of being able to overcome anything with faith in God. And second of all, there is the concept of when we are being spiritually attacked, we will be able to remind ourselves of the truth because of the faith within us. Faith is a strong tool and dependable attribute if it is set in the correct spot. Do not set your faith in the wisdom of men, but instead, set it in the power of God (1 corinthians 2:5).

I think it is essential that I explain what I mean by "works." I did not mean that if a person does not do good things then he is going to hell. What I meant, and this could be easily mistaken, was that if you are making no attempt to turn away from sins and feel no guilt or conviction of your sins, then indeed, you have no right to call yourself a christian. "works" is the attempt to turn away from the flesh and live in the spirit.

Men and Women's Role

Men and Women both have very different roles in relationships and in the church and really just in general. In today's society, many people want to focus on the idea of equality in the church, in relationships, and equality in political issues. How society today views equality is incorrect and twisted to the wants of certain people. First we will talk about a women's role.

Speaking in terms of authority, women are the least capable and least able to handle a position like this and should not be in a position of authority over man:



Timothy 2:12 "I do not permit a woman to teach or to excercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet."



We also must realize that in the beginning, God created man first and then created woman because it was not and is not good for man to be alone, God also created woman to be a helper to man:



Genesis 2:18 "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' "



Women must realize that they are the glory of man because they were made from man:



1 Corinthians 11:7 "For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man."



The deffinition of glory is "something that is a source of honor fame or admiration." Therefore, for a woman to be the glory of man, she must show him honor, respect, and admiration. But we must not make the mistake of thinking of women as a slave to men, but we will talk about this matter more when we speak of men's role.

If women are meant to be a helper to man, they should not be leaders in the church or in marriage. The authority should be given to the man. I have heard the defence that when this is talked about in the bible, it is only talking about that time period. If we are basing our views off of this, than how do we know that Jesus didn't just mean to save people from back then? The fact of the matter is that when someone says this, they are arrogantly twisting the word of God to what they're flesh desires. Many women do not realize this, but they should not be trying to get men to be attracted to them or try to show off there looks. But instead they should be modest and self-controlled:

1 Timothy 2:9 "Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,"

Women should not be spending an immense amount of time on their hair or jewelry or make up in the morning, but instead, they should focus on how the Lord chose to create them, and realize they are more beautiful in their natural state.

Now, let us speak of a Man's role on earth. Men have the authority in the church and in a relationship with a woman:

1 Corinthians 11:3 "But I want you to understand that the head of every man is christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God."

1 Corinthians 14:35 "If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church."

One of the most important things a man must realize though, is that although he has authority over a woman, by no means does this mean that they should be treated as less than us. It simply means that women should be submissive to the man while the man should love his wife and realize how delicate she is:

1 Peter 3:7 "Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered."

Men must realize that women are the weaker vessel and treat them as such. A woman must be treated, by a man, with love, and understanding. But most importantly, the Man must realize how delicate a woman is. I cannot stress enough how neccesary it is for a man to take the role of leader in the house and in the church, but also realize how delicate the woman is. Men must realize that how a woman looks is just how God intended her to be and since the bible tells women to not worry about how they look, we must focus on if they love the Lord our God. And base our relationships more off of that. In order for man and woman to be obeying God's commands, they must be take the appropriate rolls.

Good God VS. Evil Earth

Recently, some people have been asking me how it is possible, if God is so good, that there is so much evil and suffering on earth. I feel compelled to help, anyone with this view, correct it and base there beliefs off of God's word and not twist there understanding to what makes sense to there human mind.



People often times make the mistake of deciding themselves, what is "good" and what is "bad." However, although few people realize this, it is not our decision to decide what is good and what is bad. We are imperfect human beings and we are constantly following our fleshly desires, this makes us even less qualified to set the boundaries for good and evil when we are so oftenly living in sin. Instead it is God who decides what is Good and Bad:



Psalms 51:4 "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgement."



Notice, that he says I have sinned against you and done what is evil in "your sight," not his own. Because we enjoy sin, we therefore can never fully understand good from evil like God can. So to understand how there is suffering and evil on the earth, we must first realize that this is not our job to judge what is good and evil. We also must remember that at the beginning of the earth everything God had created was good:

Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."

At the beginning of when God created the earth, everything he made was good but then the earth entered into the curse of sin when Adam and Eve sinned against God:

Genesis 3:17 "And to Adam he said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;"

God promised Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would surely die, therefore if they would of not eaten of that tree, no one would die today(although we must remember that if we would of been put in that case one of us would of done the same thing, so the blame is not on Adam and Eve, but on the human race). This explains why people die in the earth, it is not God being mean to us, but it is us getting exactly what we deserve.
We must also remember that whenever God does something that seems evil to us, it is not, because what God does is made holy because he is God. For we are his creation and he may do with us what he pleases:

Romans 9:15 "For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion'."

Also, we must realize, that although suffering will come about in life, do we forget about the good things God gives us? Why is it that these are commonly less acknowledged than are the bad things? All things that are good come from God, even the very fact that we are alive:

James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

When we are suffering, it helps us to endure more sufferings to come, and helps us to understand Jesus's suffering, and therefore, be able to become closer to him, and more deeply understand his love for us when we began to experience suffering for ourselves.

Romans 5:3 "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering poduces endurance,"

Phillipians 3:10 "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,"

These are all biblical explanations for suffering on earth when we have a good God. We must remember not to turn to our own logic and mind but instead, think about what the bible has to say about it, if you are denying or getting worked up about these explanations because you think it would make God mean to not make our earth good, than you most certainly are focused on your own logic.

Love the Lord your God with all your might (3)

This post is going to conclude this three part study we have been working on, in deuteronomy 6:5. In this portion we are going to be focusing on "Love the Lord your God with all your...might." For the last time, once again, we must understand what the bible means by the word "might." In this part of the verse, some bibles translate the word to "strength" which is the same thing as "might." So for this post, we are going to be going by the word "strength" in order to avoid confusion. Now, when this piece of scripture is talked about in Mark 12:30 Jesus uses the greek word "ischus" which means: ability, might, power, strength. It is quite obvious that Jesus is not talking about our physical strength because everyone who is a christian is not "buff" or "ripped." Instead, Jesus is actually talking about our ability or our power. When Jesus comes into our life, he renews our strength or "ability"



Isaiah 40:31 "But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."



In this verse it quite obviously is talking about our ability or power. Running is an ability that takes power; walking is an ability, these are all metaphorical examples of what God does to our ability. Furthermore, Proverbs 24:5 says:

"A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,"

This verse is saying, in simpler words, that a man who is very wise or has much knowledge in God has more strength than a man who is unwise, and since not everyone who is smart is physically stronger than someone who isn't very smart, we must not make the mistake of assuming that the bible is speaking of physical strength. Now that we understand what the bible means by "strength," we can understand what it means to love God with all of our "strength." Since the word Jesus used in Mark 12:20 means ability, power, or strength. We know it is not physical strength or physical power and that leaves us stuck with "ability" which we have already talked about. The word ability means: "competance in an activity or occupation because of one's skill, or training." This may seem a little fuzzy, let me try to explain. God is our trainer and what he wants of us is our occupation, that he will train us in. So, in order to love God with all of our strength or ability, we must be willing to let God train us so that we are able, and willing to do what God has planned for us. As I was studying deuteronomy 6:5, I realized that that one verse really sums up pretty much the whole bible if you dig deep enough.

Love the Lord your God with all your soul (2)

In the second part of this study, we are going to be focusing on the "Love the Lord your God with all of your...Soul" portion of the verse.
In this section, we also must identify what the bible means by the word "soul." The bible says that man cannot harm the soul (matthew 10:28), so this tells us that the soul is not a physical thing, but we must not mistake this by saying that the soul is not as real as a physical thing because it is just as, if not more, real as our physical being. The soul is our spiritual being, it is one of the main things that distinguishes us from animals and "beasts of the earth," because animals do not have souls, they are simply mans helper. Throughout the bible, it repeatedly talks about the soul being revived or restored by God (Psalms 23:3, Ezekiel 18:20). If the soul needs to be restored, this means something must be making it indecent or unacceptable to God. We also must realize that if God is the only one who can effect our soul (Matthew 10:28), this means he is the only one who would be able to restore it. The thing that has been dirtying or making our souls unacceptable to God from near the beginning of time is sin (1 peter 2:11). And the way that we wipe sin out of our life is by asking God for forgiveness because of his amazing sons sacrifice. If a clean soul in unacceptable to God, then we cannot completely love God with all of our soul unless we are asking for forgiveness and God is wiping away our sins. This does not mean that if we forget to ask for forgiveness for one sin, that we are condemned to hell. God knows that we are forgetfull beings and far from perfect and as long as we are trying with all of our soul to stop the wicked things of the flesh, our sins will be forgiven through Jesus Christ. So then, how do we love God with all of our soul? We must first realize that we are imperfect beings and thank God for his son and pray for forgiveness of our sins. And if you are asking God for forgiveness with a sincere heart and have been convicted of your sins, then God has made your soul pure, and you will find that you are already loving him with all of your soul. Now, in the bible, Jesus also talks about our souls being at rest if we are willing to follow him (Matthew 11:29). What does this mean? It simply means that we will be living in his will and our soul will be clean, making us more at rest with how pure our soul is and we will be sure of where we are going to go when we die (heaven). If we are truly loving God with all of our soul, than we will be feeling convicted rather often.

Love God with all of your heart (1)

There are going to be three sections on this next subject that we are going to be speaking of. All though the verse we are going to be talking about seems simple and mundane, it is actually a very complex part of the bible once you began searching more deeply and thoroughly through the word of God.





Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."





During this section, we are going to be focusing on the "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart" portion of the verse. We must first start off by acknowledging what the word of God means by the word "heart." When it uses the word "heart," it is quite obviously not speaking of our physical heart which keeps us alive and beats constantly, but rather, it is speaking of our mind set and morals. You may ask how I know this, allow me to explain. The heart is completely sinful and "evil" from the time you are born.



Genesis 8:21 "...for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth."



Our physical heart cannot be evil, it is simply sitting there and keeping us alive. When we have an evil intention, it is always in our mindset or it is due to poor morals. If someone has just gone through a divorce and they say "My heart hurts," It is not their physical heart that is putting them in pain, instead it is their mindset that has been troubling them.

How than do we do good things if our mindset is constantly evil? God gives us a new heart or purifies the one we have.

Deuteronomy 30:6 "and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." The word circumcise means to "purify spiritually."

In other words, we can only do things pleasing to God if our mindset is changed and purified by
God. Now that we understand what the bible means by the word "heart," we can interperate correctly what it means to love God with all of our heart. In order to love God with all of our heart, we first must be given a new heart that is pure and cleansed by God. Without this new heart, we can do nothing pleasing to God, and therefore cannot love him, as this would be pleasing to him. This means that God will purify our mindset and our morals for good and holy things and get rid of the evil and unholy things. Loving God with your "heart," or mindset (which are the same thing as we discussed earlier) means that your morals are based off what the bible commands us and your mindset must be set on holy things and not evil things, therfore after God has cleansed our "heart" or midset, we will already be loving God with our heart because God himself would of already have set them in the right place.
If our physical heart is not working correctly, our physical body will become worthless. In the same way, if our "heart" or mindset is not set in the correct place, our life will become worthless.

Biblical Love

Please know that I write these things to condemn no one but contrary, to help explain in a more deeply thinking, biblical sense, a thing or two about love. Most people have some sort of love for someone in there life, or are loved by someone else. When a couple is married and become one, there is often times, some sort of phyiscal attraction. This physical attraction is not love. It is a feeling, love is not a feeling. Feelings come and go, but Love endures and bears ALL things. Love has become in this day and age a very "free" word. We often hear it used like: "I love cake," "I love watching TV," or "I love my new shoes." This should not be taking place, when we say these things, we often put some amount of faith into that object, For example: Imagine someone watching TV and they state that they love watching TV. Then, suddenly the TV becomes deffective and shuts off and the person misses his favorite show, we can greatly assume that this person would be quite dissapointed if not angry, and possibly try to blame this unfortunate event on someone else. This is an example of someone putting their faith into an object and being angry and/or dissapointed when that object lets them down. For this reason, we must not make the mistake of saying we love something and putting a certain amount of our faith into that object.
Now, we also must speak of our love for others. The bible tells us to love our neighbor as you love yourself:
Leviticus 19:18 "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your nieghbor as yourself; I am the lord"
This does not mean that we must be physically attracted to everyone because as I explained before, physical attraction is not part of love. We are not Physically attracted to ourselves, we may like the way we look, but that is not the same as a sexual physical attraction.
As a christian, in order to have love for others, we must be sharing the Gospel as the bible tells us too. If we meet someone and they are an athiest, and we say "It is better that I simply respect there ideas and leave them alone about it," this is by no means biblical. Some people may say that this is the most loving way to go about it because we won"t offend them if we dont talk to them about it. This, however, is not the case. In fact, this is most unloving way we can go about this situation. To do something like that is to say "I am going to heaven and they arent, O well," and to say that is, quite bluntly, very arrogant. Furthermore, by saying this, we are not loving this person as we love ourself. We do not want to go to hell and therefore, should wish that no one would go to hell. The bible says:
1st Corinthians 13:4 "Love is patient and kind; Love does not envy or boast; It is not arrogant."
Therefore, if we are too love one another as God's word commands us, we must be speaking to others about Jesus Christ who died for us.