Vine Fellowship

I've not mentioned it much on this blog about how great my brothers and sisters are in my Church.

They are amazing to me and my mom. They are amazingly faithful to us. They have a genuine love for the Lord and an honest desire to follow Him.

I want to show them the same love and faithfulness they have shown to me without any fear.

You can check out our website at Vinefellowship.com

I'm not sure where exactly they stand on the issue of grace, but they are all wonderful.

Real Answers

Well, Joel...You and I overcame similar fears. I called into People to People today and got some advice from Bob. I probably sound like a mouse or something ha. But you guys can listen to the show at http://realanswers.net/radio/index.html

It should be up sometime this evening for Thursday 12/20.

What I asked is sort of what I'm going through again at the moment.

Ain't No Thinkin' Thing

Alright, so I'm confused once again about how I am to live as a believer.

Is it that we are to trust in Jesus Christ and then go out and trust Him to empower us to live Godly lives, or do we wait for Him to change us? When I go out and trust Jesus to live in me, there seems to be a lot of times where I see things that don't look so Christ-like. And I also eventually lose control and cannot get my mind on Jesus. Some days I'm just not able to focus enough to trust Jesus to live in me and through me. When everything inside me feels contrary to what I would like to do, how do I get Christ to live through me? There are times when I simply do not have the capacity to love someone or even be nice and the only thing I know to do is to shut up.

To put it simply, I am asking this: Am I to wait for the fruit, or do I go out and believe Christ will produce it?

When I try to live by faith in Jesus to produce fruit in me, I eventually get exhausted and unfocused.

Where Do You Put The Quarter?

This morning was rough. Mom wasn't feeling well, and I was in a bad mood. I mean as much as I wanted to, I didn't feel any love at all. I felt like telling her to "leave me alone" and "quit stressing me out".

During this time I kept telling myself "Ok...Christ is in you" and "Don't be a jerk". And I was...I let it spew a little. No condemnation. I know I'm not condemned. But I was again confused, thinking I need to do something, being the Christian. I need to help. But there was no ability in me at all to be kind or understanding. I wanted to go outside and pray, but I felt I needed to stay there because mom was upset. But I ended up making things worse. I guess I had the "save the world" mentality.

I was frustrated and I prayed to the Father and asked "How do I activate Your Spirit!?"

I told Him something like, "I don't feel very much like a Christian right now. Nothing in me wants to love. I would like to be loving, but it isn't there. I don't even have the capacity."

Where is the button I push to get things going?

Parable of Sanctification?

I was reading the parables one day and reading these two, I remembered the Holy Spirit and wondered if Jesus could be giving an example of how sanctification happens. If I'm wrong, then you will have to forgive my ignorance. ;)

"And He said the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. but when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." This reminds me of what Paul said in Colossians chapter 1:

"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf."

Also, in Matthew 13: "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened."

Where Is The Love?

I'm questioning how the love of God can be in me tonight.

I realized something when I was at Steve McVey's blog. His recent entry on a believer being persecuted named Weihan Shi. I feel selfish for posting this. I'm only concerned for my well-being.

I ignored this post this week thinking I don't need to do anything because I didn't feel led. I felt I should only do it from a genuine heart of love and if I didn't have the love to do something, then I shouldn't do it. But then I remembered the passage in the Bible on "Seeing his brother in need and shutting his heart up". That's scary. Where is the love?

Self-Righteous VS The Gift Of Righteousness

Rob Rufus has preached another great sermon on God's grace called "Self-Righteousness VS The Gift Of Righteousness".

You can download it here.