I used to believe like everyone else and thought it was a bad idea to be in a relationship with someone not of the same faith. I believed this because that's what I was taught in church and by my Bible school professors. I entered seminary and took a class in Christian Ethics my first summer in seminary and we were writing papers and I was writing about divorce and remarriage and I used the passage 1 Corinthians 7 for the basis of this paper. And during the presentation I said that I have always heard pastors preach that believing and unbelieving spouse came into existence because the married when they were both unbelievers and one came to the Lord. The professor corrected that, and said that we are not given a context as to how this marriage came to be. It could be what most pastors preach, it could be that they were both Christian and one fell away and it could have been that the married just as they are one a believer and one not. Whatever the scenario it is clear that unbelieving spouse is sanctified through the believing spouse. I had trouble understanding what that meant until I looked at 1 Peter 3:1-2, "Wives, submit to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives."
I also learned in this class that there is no biblical basis for telling someone who they should and should not date because dating didn't exist then.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
What does it mean to be a Christian?
I apologize for not writing in a while. My life has been a little on the crazy side. But I am hoping as things calm down, I can get back on track with the blogging.
So, the past week or so, it has been on my heart to try to explain what being a Christian really means.
There are many people in the church who identify themselves as a Christian but do not actually live the Christian life. I realize no one is perfect and there are times when we sin ans struggle, but someone who is following Christ will feel guilty and remorse for their sin, they will ask for forgiveness and turn away from it. Someone who is following Christ and truly loves God will never want to hurt of disappoint their Heavenly Father. And when they do, knowing that they have hurt their Heavenly Father would actually hurt themselves, and that is where repentance plays a role.
There are many so-called Christians who think that because they have accepted Christ as their Savior and are saved, they can still go about doing what they want (EX. underage drinking, or even drunkenness for those old enough to drink, premarital sex, and whatever else is going on). But this mentality is wrong, Christ died for your sins to make you holy and righteous so that you are able to stand before God and not be condemned to hell. But if you continue on living a heathen lifestyle please do not call yourself a Christian, because you are giving the rest of us a bad rap. And also, the fact that you continue in your unrighteous ways means that you are rejecting holiness and righteousness.
Matthew 16:24-27:
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
1 Corinthians 10:31:
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
Hebrews 10:9-10:
"Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Repent now Christian, live for Christ, love for Christ, be transformed for Christ. Stop living for the world.
So, the past week or so, it has been on my heart to try to explain what being a Christian really means.
There are many people in the church who identify themselves as a Christian but do not actually live the Christian life. I realize no one is perfect and there are times when we sin ans struggle, but someone who is following Christ will feel guilty and remorse for their sin, they will ask for forgiveness and turn away from it. Someone who is following Christ and truly loves God will never want to hurt of disappoint their Heavenly Father. And when they do, knowing that they have hurt their Heavenly Father would actually hurt themselves, and that is where repentance plays a role.
There are many so-called Christians who think that because they have accepted Christ as their Savior and are saved, they can still go about doing what they want (EX. underage drinking, or even drunkenness for those old enough to drink, premarital sex, and whatever else is going on). But this mentality is wrong, Christ died for your sins to make you holy and righteous so that you are able to stand before God and not be condemned to hell. But if you continue on living a heathen lifestyle please do not call yourself a Christian, because you are giving the rest of us a bad rap. And also, the fact that you continue in your unrighteous ways means that you are rejecting holiness and righteousness.
Matthew 16:24-27:
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
1 Corinthians 10:31:
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
Hebrews 10:9-10:
"Then he said, 'Here I am, I have come to do your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Repent now Christian, live for Christ, love for Christ, be transformed for Christ. Stop living for the world.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
The heart of a Christian
What inspires my blogs are things that I see or hear throughout my day or week that I would like to respond to because well, I have a lot to say. I may seem quiet on the inside, but on the inside the brain in constantly thinking and analyzing things, hence the insomnia. However, I cannot talk the credit for everything I blog about, a lot of the things I say is from what I learned in school. However, I do not buy into everything that professors tell, I analyze it and choose for myself whether I agree or disagree. I believe every Christian should figure out for themselves what they believe and do not believe, but it is also important to have biblical support for what you try and tell people. Biblical support does not mean taking verses out of context, it means really studying the passage and interpreting correctly. It doesn't take a genius to take a verse and have it mean what ever he/she wants to. And this leads me to the point of this blog.
I have heard this verse many times and I think most of us have. It's Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick (some translations say wicked); who can understand it?"
This is verse is quoted so many times by people who do not know the true meaning of it meaning it's out of context. And sadly it is quoted by Christians to Christians. Okay, some may be thinking "why is that a bad thing?" "isn't it good to quote Scriptures and speak truth into someone life?" Well, it is great to memorize Scripture and it is great to speak truth into someone's life. However, would you like it if someone came up to you and said that your heart is deceitfully wicked? Probably, not.
So when we quote verses out of context, it does become a bad thing especially if that person has a real problem or is seeking you for counsel.
What does this verse actually mean then? Well, it means what it says, but it was written by Jeremiah who was a prophet in the OT that had a revelation from God to the people of Israel, actually this particular passage is about the sin of Judah. What this means, it is not to or about Christians.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are a new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come."
Romans 5 talks about we have been justified by the blood of Christ. Jesus says to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." If the heart of a believer was still deceitfully wicked, do you think Jesus would instruct us to love God with it? I'm not convinced that He would.
So, the heart of a Christian is not wicked. So if someone quotes this verse to you, I hope you now know how to approach the situation.
Until next time.
I have heard this verse many times and I think most of us have. It's Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick (some translations say wicked); who can understand it?"
This is verse is quoted so many times by people who do not know the true meaning of it meaning it's out of context. And sadly it is quoted by Christians to Christians. Okay, some may be thinking "why is that a bad thing?" "isn't it good to quote Scriptures and speak truth into someone life?" Well, it is great to memorize Scripture and it is great to speak truth into someone's life. However, would you like it if someone came up to you and said that your heart is deceitfully wicked? Probably, not.
So when we quote verses out of context, it does become a bad thing especially if that person has a real problem or is seeking you for counsel.
What does this verse actually mean then? Well, it means what it says, but it was written by Jeremiah who was a prophet in the OT that had a revelation from God to the people of Israel, actually this particular passage is about the sin of Judah. What this means, it is not to or about Christians.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are a new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come."
Romans 5 talks about we have been justified by the blood of Christ. Jesus says to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." If the heart of a believer was still deceitfully wicked, do you think Jesus would instruct us to love God with it? I'm not convinced that He would.
So, the heart of a Christian is not wicked. So if someone quotes this verse to you, I hope you now know how to approach the situation.
Until next time.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
The nature of Christ-ians
Philippians 2:1-11, is one of my favorite Bible passages. Just read it and you will see why:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This passage makes it clear how we can be encouraged and comforted, and that's through Christ.
It tells us how Christians should treat each other by looking at Christ as our example.
A week or 2 ago, I posted a question of facebook about what makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. Is it Christ? Community? Both?
Someone responded with this passage. And I have to agree. We are united through the blood of Christ. But what most Christians fail at, is they only favor their own communities. If a brother and sister from their own church or circle needs help, they would not hesitate to lend a hand. But if it was someone from another community or a brother or sister they don't know, they would usually think twice about helping.
We all have a responsibility, but do we only have a responsibility to only our home church or do we have a responsibility to everyone within the Body of Christ? The answer is simple, but the action isn't.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Php 2:1–11.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This passage makes it clear how we can be encouraged and comforted, and that's through Christ.
It tells us how Christians should treat each other by looking at Christ as our example.
A week or 2 ago, I posted a question of facebook about what makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. Is it Christ? Community? Both?
Someone responded with this passage. And I have to agree. We are united through the blood of Christ. But what most Christians fail at, is they only favor their own communities. If a brother and sister from their own church or circle needs help, they would not hesitate to lend a hand. But if it was someone from another community or a brother or sister they don't know, they would usually think twice about helping.
We all have a responsibility, but do we only have a responsibility to only our home church or do we have a responsibility to everyone within the Body of Christ? The answer is simple, but the action isn't.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Php 2:1–11.
Friday, August 24, 2012
"Knowledge puffs up"
A lot of Christians have heard this phrase before "Knowledge puffs up", whether they hear it from other Christians or they are familiar with 1 Cor. 8:1 -Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.
The people who are quoting this phrase are using out of context most of time because when they quote it, they are not using it in a context other than Paul gave.
So what does this phrase actually mean?
I order to determine this, I think we need find out a little more about the Church of Corinth.
According to Henrietta Mears, the believers at the church of Corinth had come because the believers failed to recognize Jesus Christ as Lord. Corinth attracted great crowds of foreigners who worshipped gods of pleasure and lust. There were still some upright Jews here but most of the city itself was the of a debased form of the worship of Venus.
So there is a lot of worldly things going on in Corinth. Let's read the whole into passage.
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
In verses 4-7 we get a clear picture of what this passage is about. It's about people who do not have the knowledge that there is one God, but they have knowledge of idols and other false gods. And then Paul speaks about the food sacrificed to idols, whether or not believers should eat of it or not.
It is clear that the "knowledge" Paul is referring to in this passage is worldly knowledge, people who have a knowledge of the world but not of God.
Many Christians use this phrase "knowledge puffs up" in relation to learning about God. But that is not what it means in this context. And learning about God does not puff up. Learning about God equips people and gives them the confidence to do His work.
So do not use this as an excuse to not learn about God, use this as an excuse to not learn the ways of the world.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 8:1–13.
The people who are quoting this phrase are using out of context most of time because when they quote it, they are not using it in a context other than Paul gave.
So what does this phrase actually mean?
I order to determine this, I think we need find out a little more about the Church of Corinth.
According to Henrietta Mears, the believers at the church of Corinth had come because the believers failed to recognize Jesus Christ as Lord. Corinth attracted great crowds of foreigners who worshipped gods of pleasure and lust. There were still some upright Jews here but most of the city itself was the of a debased form of the worship of Venus.
So there is a lot of worldly things going on in Corinth. Let's read the whole into passage.
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? 11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12 Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
In verses 4-7 we get a clear picture of what this passage is about. It's about people who do not have the knowledge that there is one God, but they have knowledge of idols and other false gods. And then Paul speaks about the food sacrificed to idols, whether or not believers should eat of it or not.
It is clear that the "knowledge" Paul is referring to in this passage is worldly knowledge, people who have a knowledge of the world but not of God.
Many Christians use this phrase "knowledge puffs up" in relation to learning about God. But that is not what it means in this context. And learning about God does not puff up. Learning about God equips people and gives them the confidence to do His work.
So do not use this as an excuse to not learn about God, use this as an excuse to not learn the ways of the world.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 8:1–13.
Introduction
My name is Elizabeth. I am a Bible College Student graduating at the end of this year and going on to seminary next year. I have learned so much and have a lot say about God and His Word, so I wanted to create a blog that allows me to write until my hearts content. I goal is to get people thinking about God and their faith. I am not the type of person who speaks Christianese to people and I try to understand people and where they are coming from. So I hope whoever reads this shows the same respect, although I do appreciate questions. I just ask that people keep an open mind. I will be writing anything from reflections to biblical hermeneutics, basically anything God places on my heart. I hope you will enjoy and gain something from it.
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