Assassin blade

The assassin's blade struck me before I breathed a single vowel, deep within my being and trapped by darkness somehow.. The fruit of love spoiled by greed and kings and princes sterile my seed. A fortress awaits my yearning heart and a challenge of one to be set apart. Before the fall and screams of death..only three nails and a cross are left..preparing a way to deliver the light and extinguish the conflict of a soul in strife..bound by blood from an unblemished lamb..producing salvation from nail pierced hands.. eternal unknown my body goes to fodder and my soul rests peaceful in the arms of the Father

An Open Letter To Arby's

Dear Arby's,

could you please change your current slogan and marketing run? i find it to be annoying and false. good mood food? was there a sale on the letter O at the sign shop? What do you mean by these three words.. you should only eat it when in a good mood, or that it will make a bad mood into a good mood.

i was in a neutral mood the other day and my dad gave me a popover from your menu... i believe the flavor was to be called chocolate.. however all i tasted was air and pastry. this made my ok mood into a not so happy mood. and what about that time you tried to take my life by indigestion with a beef n cheddar?

i think i will stick to overly caffeinated actors at wendy's... and the royalty of burger king... whatever happened to Arby's is different? you're different alright..

Sincerely.

Lucas Jeremiah Bones

You Can Keep Your Politics

It's been so long since i've written any blogs of any sorts. Life is crazy, but I keep seeing t he things people post.. year after year.. nothing changes..

every year at Election Time.. I see Christians posting political statuses and articles. Some are left.. some are right.. some are just plain silly.. however it makes me wonder where their trust lies...

there was a time when I was very political. I wrote rightwing articles for an online magazine, and I stood very much behind my rightwing ideals. Through the years, tho, I have realized that we're mostly just puppets spouting the things the media wants us to say. Almost to a point where we start believing that OUR CANDIDATE is the Saviour of the world.. or at least country..

we have One Saviour.. His name is Yeshua.(or Jesus in greek). As christians we shouldn't be taking advantage of the democracy as much as we should be living under a monarchy. God is our king.. Yeshua is King of kings and Lord of lords. No law or bill passed is more powerful than the nails and blood at Calvary.

Stop trying to look for a “christian politician” to make laws that will allow us to live in a “christian society”.. start going out and living like Yeshua taught us to live, and show people the love He gave.. our lives have more power to change hearts than any politician.

People say GWB is a born again christian. He's also supposed to be pro-life.. yet.. abortion is still legal.. instead of protesting and bombing clinics.. we as christians should be sharing love with one another.. sharing the truth of the gospel.. sharing the truth of life to anyone that could be in a situation where an abortion could happen... abstinence. .. adoption... taking responsibility for your actions... these are all CHOICES that the pro-choice activists forget about.. but a pro-life person can share with love, rather than hate..

in short. What i'm saying is that we need to focus on heavenly things.. not the ways of this world. Government is corrupt.. politicians are liars... satan is the father of lies... what does this say??

if we would stop fighting over left and right.. and come together under the truth of the cross.. . Maybe we can make a difference...

Elijah... the Prophet..

Lets talk about heroes of the bible....

yea.. we all know that Jesus Christ would be everyone's first pick for a dodgeball team, but lets say He's gonna play referee... if you had to choose your favorite personality from the bible, who would it be?

I would have to say Elijah... most would think Elisha, because of the whole “go up you bald head” incident, but i'm sticking to my first round pick..

The life and works of Elijah are so.. awesome.. the power that God showed through him, I guess that's why people like Pastor Albert Kang are so involved with Elijah Challenge Ministries... but i'm done name dropping for now..

I've been paying attention to a sermon series about seeking first the Kingdom of God.. it's based on Jesus Christ speaking of the birds and the flowers.. and not worrying about what we will eat tomorrow.. good theory statements.. He's giving instruction, letting us know that when we put God first, He will sustain and provide for us. I have seen this happening in my life, and I look back to see when it was happening with Elijah..

First, lets take a look at 1 Kings 17... so much good stuff... He predicts a drought, and then goes and stays by a brook... when the brook dries up.. ok.. no water now.. he goes into the village and sees a widow woman gathering sticks.. she says she's going to make some bread for her and her son, and then they will die... all they have is enough for one meal, and then they starve... but Elijah tells her to take a bit of what she has.. make him a snack.. and she'll be good...

does the woman really go about doing this so quickly? Or does she sit here and question why this lunatic wants to take some of HER food that she doesn't even have enough to live on... nonetheless, she follows his instruction, makes the food.. and her and her son never run out of flower and oil.....

she put God first..

Then when the showdown happens.. and Elijah challenges the prophets of baal to pray and cause fire to their sacrifice.. some more of this awesome heroics takes place.. It's now Elijah's turn to pray for fire.. so.. you figure he'd get the best, driest, most flammable .. (maybe a bit of gasoline).. so that when he prays.. the thing lights up like a rocket... instead.. he takes 12 jars of water.... remember.. this is WATER... the brook dried up.. it's been 7 years of drought... they don't have culligan man here... but he takes TWELVE jars of water... and pours it over the wood of the sacrifice... not only will this thing not burn... but these people are now 12 jars short of the only hydration in the nation...

yet.. he does it... and he prays....

and just when everything seems hopeless...

and impossible...

and we're about to fall over and die..

God sends the fire... and consumes our sacrifice.. consumes our lives.. as we are the living sacrifice..

and yea.. Elijah even had a moment of discouragement... but God spoke... not in the mountain.. or in the wind... but in the still small voice...

and He's speaking to everyone reading this … saying...

“Trust in Me.”

Do it yourself

I don't understand society..and to a greater degree, christians.
Somewhere along the way we've lost the idea that we can control how we are..even our situations..
But today everyone has a welfare mentality...they want it handed to them..yes..i am making a broad generalization and saying everyone, when I only mean a select multitude.
society wants the politicians to fix their problems.. Christians want men to fix the problems that they need to take to God. Waiting on a profound word spoken from a man as opposed to opening their hearts to let God change them...
You want a touch from God? Do it yourself... No mediator is needed.. Christ is the mediator.. Hes waiting for US to come to the altar instead of sending religion before us.

End rant

A House Divided

Matthew 12:25 (New American Standard Bible)

25And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.

Ya'll might call me crazy, but that's nothing new to me. I have been blessed with the ability to see God in things that you don't often look. It's nothing about me but all about Him. His kingdom is more important to me than this life, and I can't sit back and stay quiet, I guess..

anyway, I have found myself watching TNA Wrestling, lately. I know wrestling is staged, but it can be somewhat entertaining. It takes me back to when I was a kid and Hulk Hogan and Sting were my heroes. Sting and Hogan are still around and so my attention is kept. This one particular Main Event caught my eye and mind about something far beyond just sports entertainment.

Sting is the champion, there are two men that want to battle him for his belt. And then there is a faction run by Hulk Hogan that is trying to break all three of these men. It was announced that Hogan's guys would have to fight a team of Sting and his two contenders.... in a steel cage. When the time came for the battle, Hogan's guys (the bad guys) were unified and Sting and his team could not set their differences aside to defeat their common enemy. They fought amongst each other to a point where they were obliterated by their foes.

This is pretty much what happens EVERY DAY in the Christian world. We are so wrapped up in our petty squabbles, we don't realize we're trapped in the confines of a world that has a unified enemy out to destroy us. Some may think i'm too militant about this faith, but i've seen how these differences turn people away... not because they exist, but because of how we, as Christ followers, handle it. Gone are the days when I am ashamed of being counted among the believers, but some of our actions, I am ashamed. Who will stand up and stand together?

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

preached on march 20, 2011 at Iron City Church www.ironcitychurch.com

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

This is a difficult verse for me because I know who I am, and I know that I don't always have a pure heart. I'm a sinner. The definition of pure is to be free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind / untainted with evil; innocent.. so in order to have a pure heart, we have to be untainted by evil, not contaminated by things of this world.

In essence, I would have to say that Jesus is telling us that the only way to see God is to not sin.. to have never sinned, and to not want to sin.

Romans 3:23 says that All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Without understanding the Christian faith, this looks extremely bleak. Like there's no hope for any of us. We won't see God because we don't have pure hearts, no matter how hard we try. Some parts of the non-christian, and even in some areas of the church world, see Jesus as being a perfect individual, God made flesh, came to the earth to do all sorts of great and wonderful things, miracles, and teaching.. only to not give us any hope for getting to heaven because we're “not good enough.”

in Dr. David Jeremiah's book How To Be Happy According to Jesus, he says there are two types of Purity. The first is Perfect Purity. This is the purity that Christians will experience in the afterlife. When we're in heaven and are given new and perfect bodies. Our flesh will be done away with and we will be pure new creations serving God in His Kingdom. (that kinda gives me goosebumps)

The second is Positional Purity. This is where Christians are right now. Those of us that are striving and desiring to be pure, have accepted Jesus Christ's sacrifice as payment for our sins, yet.. still have our problems of stumbling. The fact is that if we were able to attain Perfect Purity, this side of heaven, than there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ to walk this earth... in perfect purity, and have His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

This positional purity should be a driving force behind us making changes in our lives to fill our hearts with the things of God and not the things of man. It's almost like practicing or preparing ourselves for the day when all sin is finally taken away.

An example I thought of while reading this was that of David. Prior to becoming king, he was a shepherd. The only battle he ever really did was when he would have to kill animals that were looking to steal and kill his sheep. After Saul had lost favor in God's eyes, David was anointed the successor, once Saul was removed from power. Even tho it would be some years before this happened, David began to fight. First was his battle with Goliath that we all should be familiar with. Then as he joined Saul's army, returning from battle the crowds would cheer things like “saul has killed thousands, but David tens of thousands”. Even tho he wasn't a king yet, he was in position to be a king. He acted in more ways that a king would act as opposed to a shepherd.

In our position as sons and daughters of God, we are in position to be perfect and pure. However we aren't there yet, we're a work in progress. It is our duty as God's people to act in more ways that a pure heart would act, as opposed to a sinful heart.

It's not enough to say “i'm saved” and then go about a regular day of lying, cheating, cursing, lusting. You can't claim to be ok because of positional purity. It is our lifestyle that needs to be changed to remove all these things from us.

The best check list to follow would be the very thing we're studying in this sermon series. How can we strive to have a pure heart? We can have a humble spirit. This was the first beatitude. Having a humble spirit will help us to recognize that we ARE sinners and need to walk in the ways of Christ.

As a recap, to mourn is to be broken and focused on God for comfort, and comforting others in their time of need. Understanding the hurts others feel. Two obvious ones are being gentle, and merciful... and of course hungering and thirsting after righteousness. When we do these things, the joy and the peace the surpasses all understanding comes from The Holy Spirit.

We are vessels of the Holy Spirit, and when we sin, it taints part of us. Right? But when we pray and fill our hearts with the things of God, and have the Holy Spirit poured into us, the sin gets washed away. It's like if you took a glass of coca cola, and began pouring water into it. The coke represents a heart filled with sin. The water is the Holy Spirit. Eventually, all the coke is removed and the only thing left is pure, clean water.

In 1 john 1:8-9 it says If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

You see, the confession of our sins, to God, will cleanse us. So if and when something happens and you stumble.. sin gets back into your heart, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us.

If you find yourself in a situation where sin keeps creeping in, stealing your joy, and making you frustrated that you can't retain the happiness that comes from God, pray and look at the situation. There was a man who had no problems throughout his day, he was able to focus on God and his job, but as he got home, he would have impure thoughts, and they stole his joy away. Looking at his actions, he would walk home from work, and the part of town he had to pass through was more or less a redlight district. It was the quickest way home, yet.. just taking a few extra blocks would be able to keep his mind and his heart from sinning.

Sometimes our lives can change so much for the better, and have such a greater relationship with God if we just make a small directional change. For others it might not be so small a direction, but in all temptation, God gives us ways for escaping.

It is my prayer for all of us that we can find our hearts purified by God and His Holy Spirit. This doesn't just happen, it is a way of life. Fixing our heart on Him and His ways, praising Him instead of cursing our situation, seeing how He works in all things rather than seeing everything as just another obstacle, these are traits of growing and maturing Christians. Practicing in the position of purity that we will achieve when we pass from this life into the next.