I am preparing my lesson for youth group tomorrow night, in my preparation I have have been studying Gal 2:17.  I have not “found” anything “new”, but I have been greatly impressed by what Paul is saying!

Gal 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

Paul is addressing the issue of Peter moving away from the Gentiles because they were not following the Mosaic Law. Paul speaks this verse as a great challenge and accusation against Peter! He is saying: If while you are saying you are justified by grace, yet you are still seeking to be justified by the Law, you are saying that the grace of God was not good enough to justify you. In fact you are saying that even after the grace of God you are still a sinner! This is not true because Christ is NOT the minster of sin! If you are looking to the Law to justify you, you are saying Christ what you did wasn’t good enough!!!!

What a strong accusation!

There are two applications from this verse:

One, if you are unsaved, Christ’s grace is more than you need to be justified, there is NOTHING you can do! Following the Law will not justify you. Christ is not the minister of sin, but if justification and if you are seeking to be justified any other way you will not be justified!

Two, if you are saved, you are already justified! And as Paul says in verse 18, if you seek to go back to works to justify yourself you are make yourself a transgressor and not justifying yourself. The Law was NEVER meant to justify, but to show that one was a sinner and needed a savior!

I hope that you have been challenged as I have been! Not to look to the Law to make me a better person, but to look towards Christ! The Law is there to help teach us what is wrong so that we look to Christ for what if right!

~ Nate

This morning (8/20) I gave a devotional at our men’s prayer breakfast. I know it was practical in my life and wanted to share it here as well.

Hebrews 4:16

“Let Us” – Prayer is not one person praying, while everyone else is thinking about everything else in life. When one person leads in prayer we need to all be praying with them, they are “leading” in prayer, not praying on behalf.We need to pray individually. Prayer is not just a collective event, but is something that each one of us need to be doing individually as well. Last under this phrase, prayer is something that we need to teach our families, and to those around us. It is an us factor, therefore we should help others to be part of the us, and not just someone who listens to others pray.

“therefore come boldly” – We do not have to fear God. I am not saying that we don’t reverence God, I am saying that we don’t come timidly. “Boldly” means “openly” or “confidently” we are joint heirs with Christ, we don’t have to be timid before God. It is not “proudly” though, there is still a reverence.

“unto the throne” - We come before the King of kings. He is not just another man. He is not one of many gods, he is the supreme being of all the universe. He has no equal. We don’t have to wonder if he can do it, we don’t have to wonder if he has the authority. He is on the throne!

“of grace” - The character of the one sitting on the throne. He is graceful to us. He sent his son to die for us on the cross, what more grace is there than that. Who in this world would sacrifice their son for you. Some may be willing to sacrifice themselves for someone who loved them, but who would be willing to sacrifice themself for one who hated them, and was in outright rebellion against them? Yet this is what God did for us. Grace!

“that we may obtain mercy” - Not getting what we deserve. How often does this happen to you on a daily basis? You have done something wrong that deserves punishment, and you pray to God and in his mercy he doesn’t give you the punishment that you deserve? When he died on the cross he provided a way to obtain mercy and not face the death that we deserve for being a sinful people.

“and find grace to help in time of need” - Getting what we do not deserve. Does this not also happen on a daily basis? I can think of countless times when God has given me many things that I do not deserve. The greatest of these was salvation. We do not deserve the salvation that he provided for us, but because of his grace, we have that which we don’t deserve. I think one of the most interesting things about this phrase is “in time of need”. Those good things that happen to us daily that we don’t deserve, often happen when we need them to. There are times that God is just gracious and does something for us out of the blue, but often it is in our time of need that we see him giving us what we do not deserve to get.

So remember first of all that it is our individual privilege/duty to pray. That we come before the King of kings who has the power and the authority to do what we ask. We are joint heirs with Christ and therefore we come before God as sons and daughters. His character is one of grace, and from him we can find deliverance from what we deserve and be given what we don’t deserve.

~ Nate

James 1:22 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

I have been in a class the last week or so, dealing with the Divided monarchy of Israel (Israel and Judah). It is interesting to look at the prophets ministry during that time period. They were continually warning the kingdoms of their impending doom if they did not get right with God. For the most part the kings didn’t heed their warnings and there were many judgments because of that. The times when the kings did listen to God, when they trusted and obeyed him there was miraculous provision and protection. Yet, even after they had seen the hand of God working for them, they would still turn back to their idols and forsake God.

(There is MUCH more that can be studied with Israel and the prophets, but this is enough for what we are considering today.)

I want to ask you a simple question: Are you heeding the prophets in your life? By this I mean, when you read the Bible and it tells you that you need to stop doing something in your life, or you need to start doing something, do you do it? When your teacher, pastor, parents, Bible study leader, points something out from the Bible and you see that you need to change, do you do it? Looking at our verse in James, are you a “hearer” or “a hearer and a doer”? Do you do it?

~ Nate

I once read a quote that really made me think, pretty sure I know who wrote it, but for the sake of not making a mistake I will only say here that it is not my own.

“We are slowed more by a grain of sand in our shoe, than by the mountain we climb.”

What a thought provoking statement. It is so true of many of our lives, I know for sure that I let this happen to me all the time! There are many things in life that happen to us day to day, some things are big, and some things are small.

What slows you down?
- Someone does something different than you would do it?
- Someone is annoying?
- You spilt the milk?
- You are out of your favorite cereal?
- Maybe it is finances?
- You mean I actually have to work at memorizing scripture?
- Maybe you don’t like the color?
- They didn’t use your idea?
- You mean I might have to give up something I really like so that I can become more like Christ?
- People might make fun of me?
- They might call me a goody-two-shoes?
- Ten Percent?!?!?
- You want me to give up my Saturday to help a fellow Christian?
- If I read my Bible I will have to get up 30 minutes earlier!
- and the list goes on and on and on….

What is slowing you down in life? What is slowing down your spiritual life? I will be the first to admit that there are grains of sand in my shoe: I like things to be done my way, everyone knows that being in Seminary is not a get rich quick scheme, and there are others, but I have to work on a daily basis to get those grains of sand out of my shoe, and focus on the bigger picture. I want to live a life that serves and magnifies God, and there are other things that are far more important for me to be worrying about, like living a holy life, than the sand in my shoe.

God takes care of everything, so don’t let the little things slow you down!

~ Nate

Acts 17:6 “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.”

The goal of this post it to cause me and you to evaluate our lives, and challenge us to do more! When you read about the lives of first century Christians this verse would be a great summary verse. They were spreading Christianity to everyone and every nation. Not only that they were changing their world!!!

Today, I want to focus more on ourselves, than on the world. So often we evaluate the need of the world to the neglect of evaluating ourselves!

I have a question that we need to ask ourselves, then evaluate ourselves based on what we find: Are you turning your world upside down?

Our goal is to win the lost to Christ, and this is a great goal, but often we forget that there is so much more that we are to be doing! Think of the example of Christ, and answer me this: Did Christ only provide help to Christians? When Christ saw someone in need did he condemn them to hell on the spot, or did he first meet their need then tell them to follow him?

I am not downplaying evangelism, not at all, I am trying to show us that evangelism is more than just telling someone that there is a heaven and a hell, and that they need to get saved! Evangelism is living a life that shows them there is a reason to trust Christ, and that Christ does care about them!

It is easy not to help people by making excuses; “They are probably faking being homeless.” “They are not fellow Christians.” “They will probably use my help for/to facilitate more sin.” “They don’t need help, they need salvation!”

It is not our job to evaluate the heart and motives of others! It is not our job to regulate the morality of this world! How will they see Christ unless they see him through you? If you think that changing your world, your community, is not evangelism, then think again. Jesus won the lost by showing them he cared for them!

Having trouble evangelizing? Maybe it is because you only ask people if they are going to heaven or hell, and forget to show them that you care about them, and where they are going!

How will they see Christ unless they see him through you?

~ Nate

So in the last post I talked about the importance of Scripture memory. I hope you have started working on your memorization. Sometimes the task or memorization can be daunting, especially if you are at a loss as how and where to start. In this post I hope to give a few tips on Scripture memory.

~ One of the most important parts of Scripture memory is review! Part of your goal when memorizing scripture is to memorize for the long term. If you spend five minutes memorizing a verse, then never look at it again, you are not truly accomplishing Scripture memory. You must come up with a method of review. Keep track of the verses that you have memorized so that you can go back over them weekly. Once you build up a large inventory of verse you may have to come up with a monthly review system. Whatever system you find for review, do it, just make sure you do not stop reviewing!

~ Meditating on God’s Word is another great way to aid memorization. Sometimes sitting down and memorizing a verse or few is not always the best idea. There will be times that you just sit down and read over a passage a few times, then think about it throughout the day. The next day you do the same thing again. After a time of doing this you will find that you begin to know what is coming next when you are reading, and that you are memorizing it. Right now my goal is to memorize James, I do this on a regular basis. At the same time I spend some time meditating on 1 Thessalonians. I have printed it off and keep it with me so that when I have five or so minutes here and there I can read through it. This way I am actively memorizing James, and through meditation memorizing 1 Thessalonians at the same time.

~ Memorize in complete thoughts. Often we tend to memorize one word at a time, or one phrase at a time. This is often a bad idea. The result of memorizing in this manor is stumbling through a verse as during recall as you try to remember the next part. If you memorize as complete thoughts you will be recalling a complete thought and not just the next part. At a minimum memorize one verse at a time. Read the verse over and over, then try to say it without looking, if you get stuck look at the verse to get through, but finish the verse before starting again. I prefer to memorize in paragraphs. You can find out paragraph divisions in some Bibles, and through some Bible software. If you need help determining a paragraph, talk to your pastor, or email me though the contact page.

~ Use memorization software. There was one mentioned in one of the comments on the last post, but there are many other programs as well. Sometimes they are free, sometimes they are not.

~ Writing out the verse, or verses, is another great way to aid memorization. If you don’t what to do a lot of writing sometimes I will just write the first letter of each word. So John 3:16 would look like: fgsltwthghobstwsbihsnpbhel. This is a great way to see if you have memorized correctly without sacrificing a lot of writing and paper.

~ One more thought on memorization. Do a little bit every day. If you spend two days and memorize the verses, then 363 days and do not memorize anything, you are not reaching your goal. It is better to read over a verse in the morning and at night and only memorize a verse ever few days, than to memorize none at all.

Once you get a system down, memorization becomes a lot easier. You may not be able to memorize the whole Bible in a year, but you should be able to put a way a large amount of verses.

~ Nate

Scripture memory is important in the life of every believer. Recently, in the youth group that I work in we have been studying the book of James and I have challenged the teens to memorize the entire book of James. I truly love the book of James, and my love for this book started back in Junior High. It was our summer VBS, and we were given a challenge tom memorize the entire book of James in 4 four days! Yup, four days! My friend and I both succeeded in doing so. That is 27 verses a day. I spent probably nine to ten hours a day memorizing. The only downside was that I did not keep up with the memorization, and it quickly slipped away. Over the years since then I have memorized portions of it again, trying to get back to the place where I have the whole book memorized. Now that I have challenged the Youth Group, I myself have undertaken again to memorize James completely.

The Bibles says that we are to hide God’s word in our heart, so that we don’t sin against God. The benefits of memorization are endless. Many of the Old Testament scribes had much, if not all, of the Old Testament memorized. Memorization is a great fortification to the believer’s life.

There are many different memorization plans, a couple that I like are: The Two-Edged Sword, by Evangelist Jerry Sivnksty, and The Word of Life memory program. The best program by far though is the one that has you hiding God’s word in your heart.

I hope this has encouraged you to memorize. I know the teens in our Youth Group have taken to it wholeheartedly. It had been a blessing to see them enjoy memorization.

I will flow this post with a post on some methods and good habits to have in scripture memory!

~ Nate

It has been almost three months since the last time I posted. Things have been really busy as this is my last semester of school! I have four classes this summer, and then I graduate! I am truly excited, and thankful to the Lord for his help!

With graduation coming, Cindy and I have been looking for a church that God would lead us to. There are many churches that needing help, and there are always our own desires, so how do we know where God is leading us? Finding God’s will sometimes seems like an allusive ghost, we are often taught that God’s will is hard to find. Well, I do not think it is as hard as we make it sound sometimes, it is just as hard as we make it, that is all. I believe there are four easy steps to finding God’s will.

1). Pray. Prayer is our way of communicating with God. Have you ever know somebody wanted something, but you waited until they asked for it before you gave it to them, just because you wanted them to ask first? We as humans my do this for many different reasons, but God only does it for one, he wants us to demonstrate that we need him.

2). Read the Bible. This is one of God’s ways of communicating with us. If you do not listen to someone, how do you know what they want you to do? The same applies to God, if you are not reading his Word to you, how can you know what he wants you to do!

3). Follow where he leads. Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” We often want to see the big picture, we want the “10 year plan”. This is not the way that God leads, God leads step-by-step. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, had to follow the pillar, so we must daily follow God. This point and the next tie together.

4). Take the Open Door. I have found the easiest way to follow God’s will in my life is to take the open door. Now there is a few things you must be doing in order to know that an open door is the will of God, and not a trap by Satan: You must be doing the first three steps, and you must evaluate the open door to see if it is in line with scripture, or contradictory to it! If you feel that God is leading you in a direction, then begin to head that direction, with prayer and seeking his will. If the door stays open, then go through, if the door closes, then God must have a different door that he wants you to go through. The key is to just go/live one step at a time!

I hope this is an encouragement to you, it is to me I know. When I begin to get stressed about what I need to do next, this is what I focus on, God leading me step-by-step, and I know if I approach life this way I cannot go wrong!

~ Nate

This is the time of year that we all decide to turn over a new leaf and start different aspects of our lives again. There are many good things to start in a new year: diet, Bible reading plan, working on a relationship, and many other things. One aspect I do want to emphasize, our spiritual life!

Now, I’m not saying that you need to begin your spiritual life, hopefully you already have (if you haven’t you need to trust Christ as Savior, and start your new life today). What I am saying, is actually two fold: one, we need to understand what spiritual life is, and two, some of us have it, but we need to start living it.

Eph 2:1 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

First, we need to realize that before salvation, we were dead! Salvation, didn’t just make us “good” people, but rather it took us from death to life! Before salvation we couldn’t have a relationship with God, because we were dead. Now that we have life, we can have a relationship with God! What a difference that is!

Second, we must live like we now have life!  We were dead in sin, we had no life, but once we received Jesus, we received life. Eph 4:22-24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true.” Even though we have this life, many choose to go on living as though there was no change to them. They choose to stay the old man, and not become the new man. They choose to live life as a dead person and not as a living person!

It’s a new year, a new beginning, realize that God has given you life, and live life in light of your relationship with God, not in spite of it!

~ Nate

The last few weeks have been busy, projects to write, crazy work schedule, and life in general! Yet, it is always good to look back and see how God has worked in your life and things he has taught!

Though the classes that I had this semester were not my favorite over all, there were great things to be gleaned from them. One class that I had was a class studying the books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. I think one of the greatest things I learned this semester was from Joshua. We must obey God in everything he tells us to the fullest extent. Can you imagine when God came to Joshua and gave him the battle plan for Jericho? “March around the city and do not make any noise. To me that sounds like a pretty silly plan. This leads me to a question, if it had been me there and not Joshua, would I have followed God’s plan? What about you, would you have followed God’s plan???

Another thing that I learned was the consequences of not completely obeying God’s commands! The Israelites were told that the land was theirs and all they had to do was go take it and there would be rest and no trouble! Yet look at Israel in the Old Testament and even today. It does not look like they found this rest! What happened? They did not COMPLETELY follow God’s plan. God said to completely wipe out all the Canaanites, and this is something that Israel did not do. Because of this we find them in idolatry, we find them oppressed, and we find them away from God! It is important when God tells us to do something, that we do it completely! Have you ever started to work on an area in your life that you know needs work, then when you have almost got everything in order you stop! “Oh, it’s good enough,” we say, or “look how much I’ve improved.” Yet, even with this progress we have missed the goal, because we have given up before achieving the end!

So, two important lessons! Always obey God! There may be times when we feel that what he is asking does not make sense, that is okay. God does not ask us to understand everything that he wants us to do, he just wants us to do it! Also, when God tells us to do something, when there is something that we are doing, we need to make sure that we complete that task, that undertaking. Failing to complete, is failing to succeed!

~ Nate

It has been awhile since I have posted! Been a busy month, lots of school, and great things happening in my life. I thank you for those of you that have kept reading. We are still working on getting a larger readership, so if you enjoy reading what is posted here, please tell your friends and family!

Well this week we have Thanksgiving and there is one thing that I really want to share.

A special speaker said something at our church this week, something that I had been thinking, and I would like to reiterate it here!

As Christians we should not be celebrating Thanksgiving only one day a year! I can name many things that God has done, and been doing in my life. Yet, so often I don’t say thanks except for once and awhile. We all do this, I know. We need to change!!! God is good to us all the time, we should be thanking Him all the time!!!

SO this Thanksgiving, remember that this is only 1 of the 365 days of Thanks Giving that we have every year!

~ Nate

Well, I along with many other students are gearing up for another year of school, or have already started it. Many K-12th schools have been underway for a few weeks now, while most colleges and universities have just recently started, or are about to start. I attend Pensacola Theological Seminary and am beginning my last year of classes. This will be my seventh year of “higher education” and I am looking forward to being done studying for awhile (although the idea of a doctoral degree still lingers in the back of my mind). On the thought of school, two verses came to mind that should encourage every Christian student, as well as Christians in general.

Psalm 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Often times I hear of students who quit their studies only part way through the year. When things get overwhelming we must remember that if we have been seeking God’s will and he has lead us to where we are, then that is where he intended us to be! “Be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” Do not look for a reason to quit when everything seems tough, but rather look to the reason that you headed to where you are now. If you were following God and he lead you to where you are, do not think that he will lead you away, but rather that he will lead you through what he has for you.

Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We often know that we cannot quit what we have started, yet we cannot see how we are going to make it through either. We must remember that as Christians we do not have to rely on our own strength to make it. I say “we do not HAVE to” because it is a choice that every person must make. You can choose to try and make it on your own strength, and you may or may not make it, if you do it is only by the grace of God. Rather than try to make it on your own strength and not be sure what will happen until it is over, you can chose to allow God’s strength to be what caries you through. If you are leaning on Him, there may be times that seem hard, but you need not worry, because you are leaning on the everlasting arms!

I hope this encourages some students, as well as other Christians. Remember that if you are following God He will direct you to where he wants you, and that whatever He has for you can be completed through His strength

~ Nate

Recently a friend of mine wrote a post on his blog concerning Bible Reading. It is an area that many Christians struggle with including myself. His post brought it to the forefront of my mind once again and challenged me. One thing that he said is a key to the importance of daily Bible reading; that is that through daily Bible reading we are able to get the “big picture” of scripture.

Let us discuss this subject a bit. God gave us His word so that we could learn about Him, so that we could have a relationship with God. A thought comes to mind when I think about the importance of Bible reading: Often when we buy a new electronic or some type of equipment we receive a user’s manual with it. Some people will read the manual before they even turn on their new possession, some will read it when they can’t figure something out, and other will never read it just hoping that they can figure everything out on their own. I think that I can say that I have taken my turn in each of those scenarios. Have you ever been in either of the second two, you think that you are getting along fine, then someone comes along and says “hey did you know that that can do this?!?!” I’ve been there, and I have asked the question “how did you know that” to which they reply “I read the manual!” This is often how we treat God, though the Bible is not a “manual” on God, is does allow us to get to know and begin to understand things about God. Yet often times we find ourselves in the place where we don’t know much about God, we see other Christians who seem to be getting everything and are super happy, yet we don’t understand how they do it. My friend the answer is simple; they have read and are reading the “manual”.

Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

If we want to have a right relationship with God we must read the Bible. If we want to have a right relationship with others we must read the Bible. If we want to have a right relationship with our family we must read the Bible. If we want to have a proper outlook on life we must read the Bible.

2 Timothy 3:16,17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

There are different ways to read through the Bible, Jeremy has a couple ideas on his blog and there are many that you can find by searching the web, or asking your pastor. A few interesting ones that I have run across are: Reading Chronologically, Some have it arranged so that you can read every day from the OT, NT, Proverbs, and Psalms, and there are some that will read from the different divisions as well. If you have read through the Bible many times and are looking for a way to change things up for awhile there are some other methods as well; there are some reading plans that may have you read all the words of Christ. Others may deal with specific doctrines, and others focus on certain books. One of my favorites is not designed to get you through the Bible in a year, but to get founded strongly on scripture: Read a small book every day for a month, you will be surprised what you learn and how well you know the book by the end of the month, this can also be adapted for longer books.

I hope this has been encouraging and will motivate us to a stronger Bible reading life. I also recommend going and reading Jeremy’s post.

~ Nate

Today I have spent some time working on the site and not a lot of time preparing a new post. I haven’t decided yet, if posts will be a daily thing, or just a regular thing, we will see. I did want to post some thoughts today though, that I got from some recent Bible Study, and from my favorite book of the Bible, James.

The theme of James is Practical Christian Living, and that is were I got the theme for this blog. As one reads James it is clear that James is giving Christians many instructions for daily living. The thought that I want to leave with you today is this: Are you a hearer or a doer?

In the end of chapter 1, James says that we are to be hearers. He also says the looking into the Law Of Liberty is not enough, it is only hearing. He says that we must continue/abide in the law and apply it to our lives if we want to be a doer. So when you read Scripture, do you stop with the reading, or do you change your life? When you go to church, Sunday School, or Bible Study do you apply what is taught, or are you only there to LOOK spiritual?

I hope this challenges your heart, it has mine!

~ Nate