My time with God

Acts 5

2008-07-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

Verse 16: Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

Why doesn't that happen now? Do we simply not have the faith?
What would happen if there where some some people who truly had the gift of healing and if people believed that God would heal them if the sick and the lame went to them and every single person was healed?

I have never seen that happen. Why? I have seen people go to healing services and not get healed. Did they lack faith? Is mass healings something that God doesn't do anymore?

I'm tired.

2008-06-23T22:45:00.003-04:00

But I'm going to do some Bible reading. Then I'm going to do a short devotion with my wonderful wife.

I read Acts 4. Here are some points I got from the chapter:

Not only can God heal cripples, He can instantly rejuvenate the muscles that were not used for a long time.

Have you checked out Share and Encourage?

Its been awhile...

2008-03-29T22:30:00.002-04:00

I finally got my laptop back a few days ago. It was barely under warranty, it had like 2 days left, but I got it fix for free. But when I got it back, the sound and wireless didn't work. So I opened it up and fixed a loose connection :) and now its all working good.

And now on to 1 Corinthians 13

Well, every Christian should read this every morning and do it:)

1 Corinthians 12 and the 'Church'

2008-02-09T15:21:00.000-05:00

Another problem with the 'Church' is that they usually only want you to 'use your gifts' by helping out in their 'Church' building. The problem with that is that we all have at least one spiritual gift. But for the most part, the 'Church' doesn't try to get everyone to use their spiritual gifts. Usually the only spiritual gifts that are used is teaching and helping; and toungs in pentecostal 'Churches'. They don't seem to care much about the rest of the spiritual gifts. That is one of the reasons 'Churches' are so messed up. If everyone was encourage to use all of their spiritual gifts, things would be far better off.

Right now, 'Church' is not a full body. It is a mouth and arms nothing more(those are the parts that make the most sence). Without eyes, you can't see the truth in the Bible. With out ears, you can't hear God talk.

Oh, and please pray for me. I have a crazy idea of me going around to pastors and basically telling them that they are wrong (in nice words of course). Yes, I said me :)

Gifts..

2008-02-03T19:13:00.000-05:00

So we wanted to know what gifts we had; so we went out to day and bought a book that had a test with many questions to see what your gifts are. I read through the list of gifts and to a handful of them, I thought, 'Shouldn't all Christians do this?' So now I am going to go through the Bible and see what all the different gifts are.

Romans 1:11 is the first time that spiritual gifts is talked about(if anyone knows of any earlier verses please let me know).

Romans 12:6-8 - prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, leadership, mercy
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 - message of wisdom, message of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues
1 Corinthians 12:28 - apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, help others, administration, different kinds of tongues

So these are the spiritual gifts that the Bible talks about(if anyone sees any that I missed, let me know):

Prophesying
Serving
Teaching
Encouraging
Giving
Leadership
Mercy
Message of wisdom
Message of knowledge
Faith
Healing
Miracles
Distinguishing between spirits
Speaking in different kinds of tongues
Interpretation of tongues
Apostles? (What gift is this? Is it already included in the list under a different name?)
Helping others
Administration

So according to the Bible, there are 18-19 different spiritual gifts. Which on are you?

1 Corinthians 11

2007-11-08T00:09:00.001-05:00

It has been way too long. :(

There is a lot in this chapter.

1 Corinthians 10

2007-08-04T00:14:00.000-04:00

It says that you can eat or drink whatever is given to you (within moderation of course). But you shouldn't eat it if those who you are eating with think that it would be wrong to eat or drink that food or drink.

Goodnight all

1 Corinthians 9

2007-07-30T01:37:00.000-04:00

I'm tired and its late. But I decided that I should do some reading before I go to bed.

This is what we all should be doing: Starting at verse 19 (The Message)

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view.

This chapter has a lot in it. I recommend that you read it.
Well, I'm off to try to get Malachi back to sleep so I can go to sleep.

Its been way to long

2007-07-22T15:49:00.000-04:00

Progress on my website is coming along nicely. I haven't worked on it in awhile though. I have gotten the sign up, signin and signout all working. Now onto my study.

Today I'm reading through 1 Corinthians 8.

Love builds up
Knowledge cause people to be proud

What things are there that are ok for knowledgeable Christians to do, but not for beginning Christians now a days?:

1 Corinthians 7

2007-07-02T00:44:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm doing better than last night. I am currently not stumped on any bugs at all on the website. But I decided to do some reading first.

(The Amplified version is sure hard to read)

For the most part, this chapter says that if you are single and are fine with resisting sexual temptations, then you should remain single(you don't have to though). But if you can't, then get married. It doesn't mean that being married puts you at a lower status. For they are both equally good.

I'm tired

2007-07-01T01:06:00.000-04:00

The website is coming along. I almost have the signing up all done.

Tonight I am reading through 1 Corinthians 6.

I like how the message says the first half of verse 12: "Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate"

Getting stumped can be good.

2007-06-27T22:12:00.000-04:00

Here I am. For starters, it has been too since I have spent time with God. And He is trying to get my attention:)
The work on the 'bible share' website has been going good. Pylons is very nice to work with. I have a bug now though that I cannot figure out. I am waiting for a response on the mailing list.

I read through 1 Corinthians chapter 5 tonight.

If every Christian really did what verse 11 said, there would be a lot of "Christians" who would be eating alone. But that would be good. It would pressure all of those "Christians" to be true Christians and to work at sinning no more.

Its been too long..

2007-06-17T23:03:00.000-04:00

Depression is annoying. Here I am anyways.

I'm studying chapters 3-4 of 1 Corinthians tonight.

3:12-15 - We don't have to do good things to go to heaven. Even if we only put effort into worldly things, we can still go to heaven. But what fun is that? Build something, get a promotion, ect, things like that will make you happy only for a little bit. However, if you do something for God, like lead someone to Him, you will be eternally happy about it.

There 2 big picture things that I think God wants me to do. The first is to make a RPG like game unlike any other. I haven't completely figured out the part of how it will lead people to God, but I'm thinking of having it full of allegories. Over the years, I have gone back and forth on whether or not this is something that God wanted me to do. I believe it is something that he does want me to do. It has been on my mind for probably close to 10 years now.
I will need the help of other people for the game. I have no artistic abilities, so me creating graphics would probably hurt everyone's eyes :) However, I don't feel that God wants me to go full force in making this game right now. He just wants me to work on planing it all out.
Just imagine, there are some 6 million subscribers to World of Warcraft. Think what would happen if this game had that many players.

The other thing I am thinking that God wants me to make is a webpage for Christians to share and encourage each other. It would be a good way to learn from each other. There would be a prayer requests part. There is also going to be a part where we can share recipes for yummy food.

(I'm going to do some dishes continue to think about that I've read tonight.)

Well, thats all for tonight.

Tired and 1 Chorinthians 3

2007-06-07T03:33:00.000-04:00

Well, its 3:30 am. We just finished doing some cleaning. I decided before we started to clean that I would spend time with God, even if I was tired. So here I am.

I wasn't able to get anything out of chapter 3 tonight, probably because I'm so tired.

I'm in the slow process of making a website where people can post about their time with God and other can comment on it. Its a mix of a blog and a message board.

Goodnight all

1 Corinthians 2

2007-05-21T23:10:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been to long since I've took some time to spend with God. Me and Veronica are tired because we painted our apartment all weekend long. We painted our kitchen, living room and the boy's bedroom. But here is what I got out of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 tonight.

4: It makes me wonder, how often do we try to bring people to Christ by "wise and persuasive words"? We should be loving them. No matter what they do or say. Not only is that something that something that is not always easy, it is easy for me to forget to love other. I'm not talking about being nice and courteous to people. I'm talking about actively loving people. If all true Christians where to actively love everyone, I think things would be different. I don't think there would be much to blame/complain on Christians. The only thing would be that we are not perfect, that we do sin. If there is someone who calls them self a Christian and thinks they are better that anyone, we need to have a talk.

At first, I was thinking there wasn't anything I could get out of this chapter. But I kept reading it over and over anyways. I read it carefully a handful of times or so before I got something out of it. If you are ever having trouble getting something out of reading the Bible, remember that ever verse is there for a reason. You just have to figure out that reason.

I strongly believe that all Christians need to share what they are going through and what they learn/think when they spend time with God. I think that a good way to do this, is for us Christians to share with each other. Having a blog like this one I think is a very good idea. If you are a Christian and haven't started one you should. If we see someone who isn't blogging as much as they should (we should spend time with God every day), we can encourage each other to spend time with God every day. Also, if you do start a blog like this, let me know so I can link to it and read it.
If you already have a blog like this you should push any Christians that you know to do the same. Not that they have to blog it, just that they share their thoughts and experiences in some way often. I just think that a blog is a easy way to let almost anyone to know your thoughts.

Starting my study in Corinthians

2007-05-16T00:39:00.000-04:00

Well, I decided to start studying in Corinthians. So here is what I got out of it:

10-17: We should be followers of Jesus, nothing more. So we should not follow a person, a movement or some denomination The only things that the Church body should differ in is worship style and opinions on things that the Bible is not clear and concise.
22-23: Its interesting how back then, people where very similar to now. There where people looking for miracles just like there is now. Also people tried to explain things by philosophical wisdom, aka use science to explain away God.

Thanks to God, I got somethings out of what I read tonight. In the past when I read the Bible, I would rarely get something out of it. I wonder what it would be like if there wasn't different 'Church' denomination. What do you think?

Why don't we encourage more?

2007-05-13T22:57:00.000-04:00

Why don't we encourage each other more?

Hebrews 3:13 - "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

I think it would be easier to encourage each other daily if we all had blogs that we posted to daily. Has anyone started such a blog? Anyone willing to start one?

Bible Study.

2007-04-29T23:55:00.000-04:00

I didn't just want to read the Bible tonight. I want to get something out of it. I want to study it. I decided to study things that pertained to my 'no more to hell' idea.

Matthew 18:14 - "In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."

I think is verse is a good base for 'no more to hell'

Luke 19:10 - "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

Since we are to follow Jesus and Jesus didn't just save people, He seeked them first; So we should not just passively witness to people. We should seek to find people who need to be saved.
After reading this, I realize that seek doesn't just mean look. It is a much stronger word. I like the means 1b(to seek [in order to find out] by thinking, meditating, reasoning, to enquire into) and 1c(to seek after, seek for, aim at, strive after). To seek, you can't just casually look around. Seeking requires you to actively doing something. Also when you seek, you don't stop if you don't find what you are looking for, you just keep seeking until you find it.

Well, that is all the reading I'm doing for tonight. I am going to try to come up with some ideas on how to seek. Here are some of the ideas that I have come up with for seeking:

Mission trips
Going to places like hospitals, shelters, ect where people might need to be comforted
Go to online chat rooms and after a while of talking, try to slowly bring up the topic of God
Go talk with someone who you know is not saved and who you wouldn't see much if at all normally

Well, that is all I can think of. I'll add more if I think of them later. Also, if anyone gives me any good ideas I'll add it to the list.

No more to hell..

2007-04-25T02:15:00.000-04:00

Since the shooting in Virgina, I'm been thinking a lot about all of those people who are not saved. It's really sad all of the people who die all the time that are not saved.

I've come up with two things that all Christians are to strive for. They are:

To not sin (yes I know that covers a lot)
To not let anyone to die and go to Hell

The first point is easy to know how. Actually doing it is the hard part. I myself have been depressed for a long time now. Because of that, it has made it very easy to be lazy in a lot of things. But when I'm spending time with God everyday, the feeling of depression doesn't matter because I know that I am doing what God wants me to do.

If there is anyone reading this who has a hard getting around to spending time with God, you should go to the place where you feel the most connected to God and just talk with Him. The first time doing something is usually hard, but it gets easyer to do the next time. For me, it's being outside alone.

The second point is a lot harder. Simply trying to be a good example and getting over fears of talking about Jesus with other people is hard for a lot of people (myself included). But thinking about not letting anyone die and go to Hell seems impossible. However, if you can get over the part of how impossible it seems, it will remind you the urgency of saving the lost. Does anyone reading this think that is is possible? To me, it seems impossible. However, the idea is not to think about whether it is possible or not, the idea is to strive for that goal. That is what I am going to work at. How am I going to do that? I don't know yet.

Well, if you are still reading this, I hope it wasn't too hard to read. I am now inside because my toes are cold.

Reason for this blog

2007-04-25T02:10:00.000-04:00

I've needed a good place to put my notes about things I think about and talk with God about along with a place for recording my Bible reading along with my notes. I decieded that a blog would be a nice easy place to put all of my notes and thoughts. Also, this way, others can comment on it if they want to. That way there is a good chance that I will learn more.

ps. It is nice to be able to sit outside in the nice 50 degree weather at 2am :)