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Have you read Part 1 yet?

Do you sin?  Do I sin – I most certainly do.  There are some people who actually think that they do not sin, or that through their good actions, they can outweigh or absolve themselves from their sin.  Well my brothers and sisters, we should start every day thanking Jesus that we don’t have to do that – because that would be tough!  Some may disagree, and think that they live very positive lives and could provide rectification for any sin.  Well, let’s start off with a baseline, not too far from where my last post left off…

God ultimately allowed sin to be brought onto earth through the temptations of Satan and through Adam and Eve’s actions.  Fast forward about 100 pages in your bible, past Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Joseph and you get to a piece of our history that many are probably fairly familiar with – the life and times of Moses.  At this point in the bible, I’ve marveled at the intimacy that existed between God and His people.  Sure, they were in a desert, cast from their homes in Egypt having just seen the 12 plagues and the first Passover.  But here they are with a pillar of fire during the day and a cloud of smoke at night, God’s presence, there to guide them.  And, once the tabernacle was finished, He resided there with the Israelites in direct fellowship with them.

Then the cloud covered the Tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.  Moses could no longer enter the Tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it, and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. (Exodus 40:34 [NLT])

But the reality of the situation, I believe, is that God knew He had to give more of himself as His nation was beginning to take shape.  He led His people to Egypt during Joseph’s time, but now it was time to lead them back into the Promised Land.  One of the first main “stops”, exactly two months after leaving Egypt for you note takers, was at the base of Mt. Sinai.  There God provided to His people ten sacred laws, or commandments, to live by:

And God spoke all these words:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

(Exodus 20:1-17 [NLT])

Ten simple laws to live by, but I assure you – none of us could live completely according to these rules!  Sure, it may be easy to limit yourself to not murdering, and not stealing (which also includes returning extra change if it’s ever given to you).  And, you might say that adultery is pretty easy to not partake in, but coveting a neighbor’s house?  Hmmm – who doesn’t “keep up with the Jones’”?  If you ever want something that someone else has, then you are breaking that last law!  How about the first two – No other God’s before me, is money really that meaningless to you?  Think about that this Sunday when the offering plate comes your way.  Or idols – ever get nervous that someone may rip your bible, or do you ever take the time to make sure you have your cross necklace on before you leave the house, due to it’s importance – that would be idol worship.  Or, keeping the Sabbath day holy and not working – I can tell you it’s impossible where I live in this day and age to feel comfortable doing NO WORK for 24 hours.  That means not making a fire in the fireplace, not making food, no laundry – nothing.  Think about these things for a while and you realize just how much sin can be found in these ten laws.

So, why is all this sin so important?  Well, for each sin, you’d need to provide an offering to the Lord for atonement.  At first account one may think that a simple offering is easy, but after some inspection, nearly all of Leviticus in fact, one will see that God created some strict guidelines to adhere to.

If any of the common people sin by violating one of the Lord’s commands, but they don’t realize it, they are still guilty.  When they become aware of their sin, they must bring as an offering for their sin a female goat with no defects.  They must lay a hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place where burnt offerings are slaughtered.  Then the priest will dip his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar for burnt offerings.  He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.  Then he must remove all the goat’s fat, just as he does with the fat of the peace offering. He will burn the fat on the altar, and it will be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.  Through this process, the priest will purify the people, making them right with the Lord, and they will be forgiven.

“If the people bring a sheep as their sin offering, it must be a female with no defects.  They must lay a hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place where burnt offerings are slaughtered.  Then the priest will dip his finger in the blood of the sin offering and put it on the horns of the altar for burnt offerings. He will pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.  Then he must remove all the sheep’s fat, just as he does with the fat of a sheep presented as a peace offering. He will burn the fat on the altar on top of the special gifts presented to the Lord. Through this process, the priest will purify the people from their sin, making them right with the Lord, and they will be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:27-35 [NLT])

Let’s face it, atonement for our sins would be pretty darn tough in this day and age.  We should really reflect from time to time, on what people in Moses’ day had to face.  They were starting a new life, escaping from servitude in Egypt, living in the company of God almighty – Yahweh, as He fed them manna and led them through uncertainty across a desert to the Promised Land.  All the while, these people had specific places to camp, specific jobs to carry out, and very precise ways to live with the punishment of death for those that did wrong.  Regardless of the fact that they could obviously see God right there leading them, prepared to protect and guide them, I’m not amazed that there was dissention and second-guessing.  It would be a hard life, and frankly, I’m very glad that I don’t live in those days.  Not to skip over some very important parts of the bible, but those 10 commandments were the majority of law during the days of the Old Testament.  At the end, the stage was set, and God left His presence on earth and returned to the kingdom of heaven for nearly 400 years.  Doing what – I must leave that to the sovereignty of God, but what we do know is that nothing more was added to the Bible after the book of Malachi.  Yet God still gave us insightful guidance on what would be next to come…

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed—roots, branches, and all.

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture  On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

“Remember to obey the Law of Moses, my servant—all the decrees and regulations that I gave him on Mount Sinai for all Israel.

“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord arrives. 6 His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:1-5 [NLT])

Rebuttal

-See, your God is a God all about setting laws and limits in place and punishing you for not upholding them, not matter how tough they are

Response: If you are Jewish, then yes – this is true.  But in the New Testament you will see that He has given us the one last sacrificial offering needed to pay for all our sins.  Furthermore, without laws it becomes quite challenging to know right from wrong.  One needs to believe in His sovereignty, then one begins to understand the true power of faith.

-God seems to change His mind frequently: create Adam and Eve then destroy the world with the flood, give Israel to slavery in Egypt then rescue them all after the plagues.  Can’t God make up His mind, should we trust in something that changes their plan?

Response: No, God does not change His mind.  He has a plan – from beginning to end.  He acts accordingly to how He must act, and part of that is tailoring His message and actions for the benefit of us.  Sometimes that may appear to us as though He is changing His mind.  I don’t know if He is empowering us by seeming to change His mind after our actions, or if there is another reason – but His actions are planned and they are tailored around an inconceivable, truly unconditional love for us.

-So God lived on Earth with men for thousands of years, why isn’t he doing that now?  The whole pillar of fire, cloud of smoke just further proves that the Bible is a neat little story book since none of these things happen now.

Response: Oh, but they do!  There are regular miracles that can only be described and God’s intervention.  Miraculous healings, displays of divine mercy, etc…  God has delivered, to earth, the greatest sign that He is real and is here for us.  He walked this earth as the Son of Man.  Further, His spirit is ready to be in each of us if only we would have the faith.  Quite simply – if you don’t see the miracles and divine acts of God in your life; don’t look at Him but rather at yourself and discover how you can open yourself to Him more and He will show Himself to you.

~~ Jesus loves you and I pray that God blesses you ~~

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We are in a war. Every second of every day we are on an active battlefield here on earth we are locked in a struggle. This concept may not scare many who read this as they haven’t been on a battlefield similar to the beaches of Normandy in 1944. For something more tangible consider a serious game of dodge-ball or tag as a child. You were looking over you shoulder every second, considering every move, in a state of heightened awareness constantly. Our souls are involved in a battle whether we acknowledge it or not. We are in a war, and we should have our soul considering every move, in a state of heightened awareness constantly. What war is this? It is the spiritual battle between good and evil, between Heaven and Hell, between sin and holiness. If you are a Christian, be especially aware; our souls are on the front line of this battle, and we are living on the enemy’s territory – earth.

The irony of it all, from my perspective, is that this war is being waged for us as well as by us. The root cause of this war is sin. God resides in Heaven where there is no sin, and Satan is the prince of darkness, he strives to bring sin into Heaven so that he can rule over God. Since Satan has been thrown out of Heaven, and misery loves company, Satan strives to have as many humans as possible sin. Before I get too far along, let’s revisit the ironic part of this situation and discover why sin even exists. Simply put, God created sin. Don’t believe me? Let’s inspect the bible for a little bit and see if you agree when I’m done.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 [NLT])

God created the Heavens and the earth – meaning God existed before Heaven. He brought Heaven into existence, and all things within it. This includes the angels, one of which was Satan. We all know the story of Adam and Eve and the “apple”, but my belief is that sin was not born in the Garden of Eden. In fact, sin originally began in Heaven and was cast out with Satan. Per Yahweh himself:

“You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.

Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.
All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.”
(Ezekiel 28:14-19[NLT])

While these verses speak towards wickedness but does not explicitly discuss which sin, Satan’s sin is stated later:

You said in your heart,
   “I will ascend to heaven;
   I will raise my throne
   above the stars of God;
   I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
   on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
   I will make myself like the Most High.”
   But you are brought down to the grave,
   to the depths of the pit.

(Isaiah 14:9-15[NLT])

Satan’s sin was pride. He felt that he should usurp God’s power and that he was higher. For this, Satan was cast out of Heaven and next appears in Eden creating doubt for Eve. So, now that Satan is on earth and sin has come with him to earth there may still be nay-sayers that God created sin or allowed it to be introduced into our lives. Again, I will refer to familiar Bible scripture:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 [NLT])

Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  (Genesis 2:8,9 [NLT])

Genesis 2:9 tells us that God created the tree that bore the “fruit” that brought knowledge, the knowledge of good and evil, into this world. This evil knowledge was sin. If we examine surrounding scripture in Genesis you will read that Satan, the serpent, begins his works in the Bible by entering doubt in Eve’s mind:

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”  (Genesis 3:1 [NLT])

The lesson to learn is that Satan brings doubt into our minds. When we follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance there is no doubt. As soon as we feel doubt, or second-guess our actions, they are most likely either signs that we are being tempted by Satan or that we are not within God’s will. The very next time Satan opens his mouth for Eve, his true identity is revealed beyond doubt:

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”  (Genesis 3:4,5 [NLT])

Here Satan lies and opposes God’s instruction that eating from the tree will bring death, then he tries to invoke pride and aspiration in Eve by telling her that eating from the tree will make her like God. This is exactly what got Satan cast out of Heaven! – Like I said, misery loves company.

We’ve now covered the belief that God created sin, brought it to earth, created humans on earth, created the vehicle for delivering sin into humans (the fruit) and the Angel that tempted the humans into eating the fruit. WAIT, did I say angel, referring to Satan? Yes, that is exactly what I said and meant. This is where this topic becomes really interesting! Remember, Satan was the highest of angels in Heaven. Let’s take a brief second to discuss the topic of angels. What are angels? They are nothing more than messengers. See, English Bibles are great, but English wasn’t the original language of scripture. Working back we have Latin (Angelus), Greek (Angelos), both translations of the Hebrew “one-sent”, or a divine messenger. So, it actually makes a bit of sense that a divine messenger would be given the burden to bring and continue brining sin into the world.

I’m sure some of you are looking at your screens a bit quizzically right now so I should get to the point. Sin is actually brought into this world for our benefit and because God loves us so much. God could have made us like the animals to just meander around the world with nothing on our minds except eating and procreating but He didn’t do that. He created this world and everything in it for us to enjoy, for us to admire. And in order to do that He made us like Him.

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”  (Genesis 1:26 [NLT])

He made us in His image, which means He gave us the one thing nothing else in this world has – free will. That gift was a gift given to us at a great cost. In order for us to have free will, we needed to be able to make the wrong choice whenever we wanted, which meant sin had to be accessible to us here on earth. The ramifications of this freedom define our world, our lives, and the very war that we are involved in each day of our life here on the battlefield: earth. As we continue this discussion regarding the ongoing war of sin, remember: Satan has fallen angels to do his bidding, and they are waiting every second of everyday to “tag” you with sin, so be prepared by having Christ as your counselor in all you do.

Rebuttal

-God is Holy and would never create sin, why would He contradict himself like that?

Response: Again, I will point you to Genesis 1:1 God made the Heavens and the Earth and everything in them. If you can’t open your mind to the possibility of believing the first sentence of the Bible, then reading the rest of it will be a major challenge. If He didn’t create sin then who did? If you say Satan, then you are giving creator power to Satan. Satan cannot create anything from nothing, just like you and I cannot do that. Only one being, God, had such power.

-This perspective makes Satan look like a lackey; if he is forced to do God’s bidding, then do we really have free will?

Response: Most certainly. Again, Satan is an Angel, a messenger – nothing more. While God did allow him to have pride and be able to sin, he is still under God’s sovereignty, especially after Jesus’ reconciliation (more about that later). But we have true free will and can exercise our right to live outside of God’s sovereignty. Believe me, I’ve tried, it can be done – but it is not advisable.

-If you say He made us in His image, then we are Gods also and can reign over anything here on earth!

Response: Yes, in a way that argument is correct. When Adam was created, he was made fully in God’s image, but once he sinned he fell from grace and became something between the animals and divinity. That said, there is still a small amount of “sovereignty” that we can take on; but, if you are to exercise the full meaning of that statement you must understand the burden you are accepting. To live similar to God is to live with true unconditional love for everything and anything here on earth – regardless of their sinful nature. To be willing to give everything up to them, even you own perfect child. Quite frankly, we will not know unconditional love until we are in Heaven, but if you want to try this out then for one day do nothing but love everything and everyone you encounter will as much unconditional love as you can muster. Then extrapolate that to every second of every day for the rest of your life. If you are ready for that challenge, then so be it my friend, but please start your own blog and let me know how it’s working out for you.

~~ Jesus loves you and I pray that God blesses you ~~

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It’s challenging starting a blog from scratch – what to say first, which topic to dive into. I personally believe strongly in a lesson that I learned in my youth that understanding a person and strong communication cannot begin until one understands the paradigm or perspective that one lives within. (It was put to me as walking a mile in someone else’s shoes) As this is the case, I felt it best to begin this little project of mine by providing you with insight into my paradigm – more explicitly, by providing to you my religious testimony.

…and, here it is:

Early life

I was born and raised in the beautiful state of NJ, USA. I am an only child who was fortunate enough to be raised by two people that cared for me and loved me very much. Like any other parent (including myself) my parents raised me the best they knew how, and in a way that they felt would foster a great child and eventually adult. As my parents raised me with sports, having fun and focusing on our family my religious upbringing was geared more toward the exclusion of religion. In retrospect, my religious education was very confusing and swayed constantly between atheism and agnosticism. I soon grasped the concept of the hippie and began to identify as being a child of hippies. This was a cool concept as a child, but I soon began to realize there was a bit of hypocrisy in this scenario. While my parents taught me the difference between right and wrong – many times they used a strong hand to deliver punishment over other forms of rearing. After much time and consideration I’ve actually realized that I’ve never actually been grounded or had things taken away. Punishment was left to a barrage of punches, slaps and pushes, not quite the love and pacifistic approach of a hippie. These experiences along with what I call only-child syndrome created a foundation of thought that in the end I was alone in the world. It seemed like a sound concept, but as I exercised it I always felt like something was missing.

The downward spiral

I continued on with this mindset; knowing that one day my parents would die and be gone, and I would need to provide for myself. While in part it is an accurate concept – my misapplication caused a downward spiral in my life. I began to question everything, and how it applied to and supported me. I began to omit things from my life that I didn’t see a need for. Due in part to my childhood experiences, and the confusion in my life, I rationalized that school, religion and virtues were only of negligible necessity; but I did start to believe there was something more to life – a spiritual tug that my being was missing something. As I continued to mature in my early teens the atheist perspective slowly evolved to an agnostic one. I was still alone but there was another energy out there that I thought I may be able to harness and capitalize on. So I started to explore the world of witchcraft, and controlling ethereal energy for my own purposes. At first I was equating the hippie lifestyle to the druidic beliefs of historic Europe. These interests grew more involved as I believed I could control things through “magic”. Before long I was involved in the matters of pagan worship. As I reached my latter teens and went away to college I had neatly intertwined a life of paganism with drugs and alcohol. Again, my perception was that I was powerful, enjoying life, and was charismatic. But still, something was missing.

Hitting rock bottom

Soon I dropped out of college, turned more towards supporting and caring for my interests and controlling my life. This led me deeper into a life of choices based on wants and desires and pushing away that which evaluated me. I associated with people that saw Christ as an enemy since our (again) perspective was that Christ was there to evaluate and tell us what we were doing wrong. So, we spoke out against Him and focused our lives on creating chaos rather than peace.

Then my life crashed. A person whom I cared for greatly was involved in a horrific car accident. I entered a period of depression and despair and daily drug and alcohol use. Then something very interesting happened. One day, in a state of longing and sadness I did something completely different. I cried out to God. I asked Him why this happened. Why should I experience something like this? Why would He put me through it all? Thinking back, I’m often moved that at that moment, perception, power, pride, self-righteousness and everything else in me shut up, stepped aside and for once – let my spirit do some talking.

My life turns around
 
Still involved with drugs and alcohol but putting the Pagan activities aside I soon met a compassionate, loving and caring woman. As we courted and dated I came to realize that she was a Christian. But not the kind that pushed rules and scripture, one that talked about Christ as a synonym to Love. At first I chalked it up to her being raised in another country, as most of my experiences were with Americans, specifically those from the North East. I soon began to realize that it was due to her church not her country that she could be such a Christian. I also began to see that she didn’t have that longing in her that I had always felt. So we talked about Christianity, on my terms and when I wanted to. I gained interest in this “new Christianity” and her, and her father, would explain the Gospel to me. Before I knew it I was humbled and delighted to be married to this woman, in her church, in her country, by her Pastor; who was able to see beyond my past and see the good I had in me. Here – people that knew me for only a short time, saw things in me that I couldn’t see in myself. This is when I really started questioning my lifelong perceptions and beliefs.

My introduction to His love

Then one day in May of 2004 I was in a Hallmark store, looking for a mother’s day gift for my mother, where I found a neat little poem that read:

One night I had a dream. I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to me and the other to the Lord.

The Lord replied, “my precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you during your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints it was then that I carried you.”

I turned to my wife and said, “Wow, how cool is it for you that God will carry you through your tough times in life”. To which she replied, “He will carry you too.” And I said, “No, He knows what I’ve done. There’s no way He would help me.” She smiled and stated with confidence, “He loves us all the same. You, me, anyone; if you accept Him as your savior He will be there for you too, no matter what you’ve done.”
It wasn’t even a question. That moment, in Hallmark, I was hooked. Without knowing how, or what it meant I knew that I wanted in. I wanted Him to be my savior and to love Him the way He loved me.
Just over a year later I was blessed with a true miracle. In the spring of 2005, regardless of the chemicals I put in my body and the hatred I had displayed in my life, I was blessed by God with a perfect little girl. A true miracle right before me and from second one I knew that she loved me unconditionally. God had sent a message to me through her, and He still provides me lessons through her to this very day.
Years later our family, in search of a church, attended a Christmas Eve service. As we drove onto the campus we were confused to see people going into a gym rather than the Chapel, but we went with it. Due to us being late, there wasn’t a chair to be found. As my wife, daughter and I stood at the back of the gym a very unassuming man with a wooden cross around his neck, wearing a rust colored sweater and blue jeans offered up his seat to my wife and daughter and said, “Hello, and welcome”. I thought to myself that this man is a Christian the way I thought Christians should be. Within minutes an usher found us seats, and moments later I was awestruck to see that man walk up on stage and provide a moving message. It was then I realized what God was showing me that night; that humble, caring, Christian was the senior pastor … at my first ever home church.

Baptism

Finally, that thing I longed for all my life was there; a relationship with God. The unconditional love that I always perceived as not getting, I realized can only truly be provided by God.
A few months later I chose to be baptized. That day as I proclaimed to all in attendance that Jesus Christ is my savior, and that I am risen with Him from sin; we exalted Jesus’ name. Let it be proclaimed with glory that on that day, the enemy lost one of its followers; and, as it has happened so many times in the past, the Love of Jesus Christ had won over in me. From that day on, I’ve decided that one of my missions in life is to share and foster the unconditional love of God; to live, love and serve like Jesus.

We are currently writing, revising and editing more conversations for this blog. The website is virtually finished and the forum threads heating up.

A number of sponsors have been added, and we would appreciate if you could shop through those links as foreveryahweh.org receives a percentage of the sales on most items through those links.

Lastly, there will be an attempt to include a “Rebuttal” section to each conversation in our blogs.  This is done to present an arguement that may be provided by a non believer so that:

A) Those that would like to evangelize can prepare themselves for worldy questions
B) Non believers have a chance of having some of their questions answered/viewpoints addressed
C) This site glorifies God not only in “preaching” The Word, but also showing why it is considered the “Living Word of God” that applies not only to those that lived when it was scribed, but also to those of us receiving the message today.

Hopefully you will find the blogs informative, thought provoking and helping you to have a closer relationship with God.