Baptism

1Peter 3:21
"Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

Tomorrow me along with my brother and sister-in-law, are all being baptized at Newspring Church! I'm JACKED about it! I'm ready to go public for God but also as this verse says. I can't wait to do at least one more thing for the Lord. As I say over and over in this blog, we should all be excited about doing God's work. I'll be the first to tell you that it is very nerve racking and scary at times. I'm a little bit nervous about this Bible Study Kaleb Davis and I are doing, but I know its from the Lord so I am leaving it in his hands. I trust in him completely.
Please pray for everyone getting baptized tomorrow and for everyone who may need to receive Christ into their hearts to be touched by the amazing happenings of tomorrow. Also for the Bible Study, its coming together in a great way and we are all excited about it! Keep us all in your prayers, and thank you for doing so.

Back to the Future

Tonight was the first meeting of the bible study Kaleb Davis and I started working on. We hit a few rough spots and we both got very frustrated about it. But as usual I talked to my girlfriend and she put the voice of reason in my head and I had the most common thought that enters my mind on a daily basis, "oh yea, I knew that". I was telling her all about the meeting and she told me that God's work was hard and full of struggles.That if we weren't fighting any resistance then we weren't doing it right. Well let me tell you if thats true, which I believe it is, then we are defitnitly on the right path. It was an overall successfull meeting though and I thank God for it being so. Our next meeting will be Wednsday September 12 @ 9pm at Ashton Park Theatre. (first building on the right when you pull in, look for Theatre sign over the door)

I ask you for your prayers for our group that we may grow and reach many for Christ.

I looked up this verse in hopes to use it at the meeting tonight but as you well know, it didn't work out. 1 Corrinthians 2:9 says, "What no eye has seen and no ear heard, and what has never come into a man's heart, is what God has prepared for him."

If I had read this verse a year ago it would have scared the crap out of me. But with my new found rock to stand on (GOD) there is nothing to fear. I'm jacked about our Bible Study and absolutly fired up about doing God's work. Thats how you get when you feel the Lord working through you! I'm fired up for God and I can't wait to take the next step for him! I don't care what it is and I don't care what I have to do because I know the Lord will provide and I praise him every day for it. Thank you Lord for what you do for me!

We should all feel this way when doing God's work. I'll be the first to admitt that I get really scared sometimes and worried about how something might go or how it might make me look. But if I step back and remind myself that God will provide a feeling of peace comes over me and is followed by an absolute rush of energy that fires me up and gets me ready to go to war for Christ. I pray that we all share the passion and love that God has given me. I take no credit for anything, I could do nothing without him and I never plan to try ever again.

We should all look to the future with hungry eyes, ready to do God's work. Its an amazing feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment that you can only get by doing great things through him.

This song is by Matt Redman(click here to listen; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIAdgLR1ZGw&mode=related&search)

"Oh No You Never Let Go"

-Matt Redman

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Your perfect love is casting out fear

And even when Im caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I wont turn back, I know You are near

And I will fear no evil

For my God is with me

And if my God is with me

Whom then shall I fear?

Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:

Oh no, You never let go

Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go

In every high and every low

Oh no, You never let go

Lord, You never let go of me

verse:

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on

A glorious light beyond all compare

And there will be an end to these troubles

But until that day comes

Well live to know You here on the earth

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on

And there will be an end to these troubles

But until that day comes

Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

23

I recently, as in just a few minutes ago, I saw the movie "The Number 23". It stars, Jim Carrey and is about an obsession with the many different ways the number "23" is linked into his life. This only being true in the movie of course(I tried). Formerly Jim Carrey's character in the movie had suffered some tramatic experience as a child and became crazy. He would see the number in everything that he did. The number stayed with him until it made him do something crazy. He then forgot who he was and started over in a brand new, good, we'll call it christian, life. That is where I noticed the similarity of the movie and God. Once God finally gets our attention he stays with us. We get almost paranoid about it noticing anything and everything that he has done for us and through us. And the more that we see of God in our lives the more it drives us to do something crazy. It drives us to get completly uncomfortable and doing something way beyond anything we ever thought we would do, FOR GOD. We then become saved after asking Jesus to come into our hearts and give us rest and the slate is wiped clean. From then on out we live a completly new life that is good and that makes us happier than we ever knew we could be. The Lord only wants to improve your life, but you have to invite him to, he's not rude.

It was a decent movie, just one of those that make you think real hard and pay attention. Those types of movies have a way of messing with your mind and makeing you believe things are happening that aren't really happening you're just being paranoid. But being as curious of a person I am I had to give it a shot. I looked through the Bible for some time looking for similarities and cool things that I might discover in the Bible that relate to the number "23" some how. Well as amazing as our God is, there were none. At first I was dissapointed and a little bit frusterated that I couldn't find any, but I thought about it for a second.

Lets say that someone did as I did and searched the Bible looking for these relationships to the number. This person also does not know much about the word of God and was not brought up around a christian atmosphere, which many haven't.

If that person or people found a bunch of similarities linking to the number, after seeing that movie, would that not make the Bible and God himself seem like an illusion? Seem like something that is just a coicendence and more of a magic trick than anything else?

I believe it would and after thinking about that it gave me the idea for this post.

I went through and found a few verses that link to the number "23" and see what God told me though all of these.

1John 3:2(the number 23 backwards)

"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is."

Numbers 32:23(This verse is the very last thing you see in the movie, they did a good job)

"But if you do not do this, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out."

1Peter 3:2

"They see the purity and reverence of your lives."

1Peter 2:3

"If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good."

1Kings 2:3

"and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is writtien in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn."

1Thessalonians 3:2

"and we sent our brother and co-worker in Christ, to strengthen and encourage you for the sake of your faith."