Our babies

Two beautiful babies are now apart of my wife and my life. Chayah and Cherith were born on December 17th 2009 weighing 4lbs 7oz each.

Fellowship

There is nothing like taking time out to fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ! Tonight I spent time with a friend of mine from HBC in Payson, we enjoyed some guitar and banjo playing and like minded conversation. This is just another thing that you don't really learn about in college but you experience in ministry. I want to Praise God for it!

Continuing on liberty 2 Peter 2:19-22

Going back to an earlier post "Call it what it is SIN" I would like to continue with some thoughts on the same strain. 2 Peter 2:19-22 " While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
I believe this could be a good picture of where today's road to Christian "liberties" is going down. In those verses mentioned above Peter was not talking about those who do not know Christ, but to those who have known him and have turned once again unto the world and the satisfaction of their flesh. Earlier in the chapter God tells us of false teachers and their heresies, then He progresses to how they have entangled the believer with "while they promise them liberty, they themselves are servants of corruption.". They promise liberty, but not in Christ, because these liberties are a bondage, once again unto sin, where the absolute definition of liberty in Christ is to be set free from our bondage of sin. God says that it would be better for us not to have known the way of righteousness then to have known it and turned back to bondage of sin. You see sin doesn't look like a bondage when you are in it. It looks pleasurable, it is pleasurable, it is deceitful because its father, Satan is the Deceiver.
Our liberties in Christ aren't to establish a better life for us here on earth, but are to set us free from the sins of these world and its strangle hold on us, so that we may have something to offer in eternity to Christ who set us free! Satan wants us fixed on now and how we can feel good on earth, he fixes our eyes on today " eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" that is his mentality. But for a Christian we must set our affections on things above, our joy is in Christ we should be longing to be with Him and to enjoy the treasure with Him in heaven that we have stored up while here on earth. You see our home is not this world, our conversation/citizenship is in heaven with Christ, we are a new creation, aliens to this present world to this present estate. Our lives should be spent like Paul said, to live is Christ but to die is gain. This is our calling as new creatures not old creatures.
When we start coveting what the world has we start slipping into the state that Peter was talking about "they are entangled again therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.". We forget where we came from, the things that Christ saved us from and we slip into the old nature again. You see the very word "saved" means that we need someone to take us from the old things, it was a drastic state, we were in bondage to those things, why would we go back to the things that wanted to destroy us? Why?

Ministry is from the heart!

" They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." Here is a quote that I am not sure who it comes from but it is very true. I work with teens and younger aged kids and this statement hits home. I am sure it is true with any people or age group that you may minister too. I have come to understand that formal training is a great thing because it gives you the tools to answer just about any question, but experience is a wonderful teachers and that is something that you just can not get in a formal setting!

Where to begin

I have been in Utah for 7 months, and I have not had a great deal of interaction (religiously) with the LDS people. A few things that I have come to realize about them is that they do not call themselves Mormons, but LDS, I do not know if there is any reason behind this or if it is just a preference? I have worked at a few different places while I have been here and all of them had some LDS people and/or influence. I worked for one company that had a special day so that they could christen the building. Today I cleaned carpets at a mans house who was a devout LDS, and like all of my other experiences he held strongly to the good works that he had accomplished, while on the other hand he explained how difficult it is for someone to come to Christ when they are in dyer physical need.
I know that all of Satan's lies work well when a little bit of truth is there to tangle up the person who is faced with them. I sat there today and listened to the man explain his lament over souls that need Christ, while he praised his good works and I wondered where do you works stand, before your need for Christ or after your need is met? I know that LDS theology is apostate and all that the LDS church believes is damnable apostasy, but like most people that practice a religion, they are not familiar with all their religion believes. I struggled today thinking where do you begin to witness to these people, when you share the loving sacrifice of Christ with them, they know they even know what the bible says about it and they say they believe, but what do you say?
That is why I can only trust in the unsearchable wisdom of God and trust in his grace towards man and how He causes the increase, and I just share Jesus Christ and preach only Him crucified.

Just wanted to do a post from my phone

Wisdom is the principle thing

Proverbs 2:1-5
" My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God." The following two verses go on to say (paraphrased) that God will give it to the righteous He has it stored up for them! Well I have been trying to read proverbs in my devotions in the morning, I have been going through a lull in my personal time with God and He has been recently speaking to me from proverbs. How many times do we see the words Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge together, they are synonyms yet have their own meaning about them. I have always understood them to mean Wisdom = facts with common sense, Knowledge= facts, and Understanding = using the previous two together. There is probably a more suitable definition to them, but that is how my mind grasps them.
How often do we does as Solomon and James said to do, to seek after them and God will supply it, it is like He is just waiting for you to ask so that He can open up the floodgate and drowned you in them. You see God is wisdom, He is knowledge and understanding so when we ask Him for them we are asking to be like Him. He gives these with a heart to follow after Him as well. To just have knowledge, well that is useless, we need Wisdom and Understanding to follow right behind because that is where our hearts interact with the facts. How often do you pray for wisdom to minister to the people God sets before you? Or do you just try to minister with just knowledge and experience? God will give you wisdom if you just ask and He will give you the heart to present the facts.