Christ Follower X Christian : Being distracted

When we watch this video is hard to focus on what the man is trying to tell us. Looking at what the man behind him is doing is much more interesting and amusing. I mean, how many times have you heard this passage? How many sermons people make out of this passage? It's always the same thing...
Many of us have been distracted by the wrong things, we have been distracted by our "friends", by addiction, by temptation, by entertaining ourselves with other things rather than God, making up exceuses for not going to church, for not serving, for not praying, and for not seeking God. It's really easy to be distracted by other things. Get led astray by more "interesting" things than God. The problem is that when we start being easily distracted by other things , we begin falling into religious rituals and we begin thinking that reading the bible for a couple of minutes a day will do, praying before lunch is enoguh, or how about giving a homeless guy some coins that were left from your brand new 52" inch LCD TV. You get so easily distracted that you begin to think that it's ok to trade God for a game on TV, it's ok not to pray once in a while, because you know , tere was this real good movie on TV, it's alright to not read the bible everyday, because I had some papers to finish for work or school , for next week. It's ok, it's alright, no problem...
Really? Is it really ok to trade the creator of the universe, the God who left everything to be nailed to a cross for my sins and your sins, the everlasting Father and the lover of your soul for things that will pass away, things that will not be eternal? Is it really ok to live a life being distracted and making up excuses for not serving God and serving others just because you rather fulfill your personal needs? God is calling us to live fully devoted to Him and dedicate everything in our lives to Him. It's not wrong to have some personal entairtment and enjoyment, but it is wrong to trade God for your personal satisfaction! Think about it, how easily have you been distracted and drifted away from God? Isn't time to go back to His arms and let Him be everything for you?

The choice we have!

In the first post about Adam that I placed here I talked about how Adam was created and how he carried on his life in the garden and at the same time how he kept a close and intimate relationship with God. After the fall, the human being race lost this privelege that was later on restored through the death of Jesus in an incredible act of grace and Love from the Father. Christ was beaten and nailed to a cross because of my sins and your sins so that we could have that intimate relationship with God that once existed in the Garden of Eden.Everyday we are given the opportunity of walking with Him, everyday He reaches out His hand for me and you in an infinite act of love, everyday we are left with the choice of being totally dependent of Him and living within His purposes or being indenpendent and "think" we are living the best part of life. Due to Jesus' amazing love for us the veil was torn and our connection was once again restablished with our God. There's nothing that should be compared to having a life lived in total dependence of God. The bible tells us that when we find God , it's like finding treasure. There's nothing in this world that's worth holding on to, theres nothing in your life that can be compared to the greatness of knowing Jesus, there are no plans nor dreams that are bigger than God's plans or dreams for your life. Today, make the choice of having Him as your closest friend, make the choice of going back to the garden of Eden and having a personal and intimate relationship with God. Make it count , make it Eternal!
For God so love the world that He gave His only Son, that so whomever belives in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. This should be the anxiety of your heart, this should be the cry of our lives. John 3:16

Choosing Independence...

As they grew closer in their relationship with God they also began to grow closer to each other. At the end of the day, at sunset, God walked with them thru the green fields of the garden and God shared with them moments of unforgatable experiences.Everything was so good and perfect. In the midst of their wanderings along the garden, Eve set out to grab something to eat and as she walked along the shore of the Pishon River, she suddenly found herself staring at the tree of Konwledge of good and evil. She remembered that Adam had mentioned about "Not eating from this tree". However, her curiosity was greater and as she drew nearer to that tree, she was able to see a unusual animal, craftier of the other ones, it was a serpent. As she approached it,the serpent said:" Did God say you really can't eat from this tree?"
Eve Said: " We can eat from all the trees form the garden, but God told us to not eat from this tree".
The serpent very smartly replied:" Of course He would say that, cause He knows that once you have eaten from this tree , you will be like Him and Knowing good from evil"
Eve thought about it while staring at the tempting fruit and imagining what sort of things she would be able to know and have! Little did she know....
She couldn't resist the thought of having this power, she grabbed the fruit and took a bite! Probably seeing that nothing had happened at the immediate moment, she took it to her husband and without resisting or giving it a second thought, He took a bite out of the fruit.
As Adam swallowed the fruit he felt the blood running faslty thru his veins, his body shaken by fear and his eyes opened to reality. With this, came shame and they immediately grabbed fig leaves and covered themselves from nakedness.
Moments after, they heard the voice of the Lord,the same voice that was once pleasing and welcoming , at that moment, drove a regretful feeling thru their body, knowing that they had done something unpleasing to the Lord. They hid behind the bushes of the Garden, as if that would hide them from the "Presence"
The Lord Called out again: " Adam...Eve...Where are you?"
Adam replied: " I heard you were in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked!"
The Lord asked: " Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree?"
The man immediately replied:" It was the woman you gave me, she handed me the fruit"
The Lord asked Eve: " What is this you have done?"
The woman at its turn , also blamed the Serpent! "The serpent deceived me and I ate"
In the same way as it had all began, it had ended. All those marvelous things that surrounded them, had become history. Now, they had given the first step to the longing desire of the human being of living independently og God's will.

What is wrong with the world??

I know that we started talking about Adam's life and how his story relates to our lives but today I was surfing thru the site "tangle" and I think God wanted me to see this video so I could share it with all of you. Sometimes , we ask the question :
- Why is the world like this?
- Why are people starving,hating or comitting wrongs deeds?
- Why is the world so devastating?

One word : Independence of our Creator!
Watch this video and you will probably get an idea of what I'm talking about.

The most beautiful Creation

If there was ever a man who felt to be satisfied in his environment, this man would be Adam. There in the garden he had all these creatures, vegetation with its fruits and above all, the presence of God. But it wasn't enough, something was lacking!
Deep inside his soul, Adam urged for something or someone beside him.
So God's voice came to Adam and said , It is not good that you may be alone, I'll make you Helper suitable for you. First he was drowsy and then a fatigue came over Adam and he laid down on the grass and closed his eyes. It was like a flashing moment, then right after falling asleep , he woke up. While trying to focus on the scene, he could see another being laying right beside him, His heart started punding inside his chest from seeing the beauty of this creature, somewhat like him, diferent though from other types of creatures. When he got up on his feet, Adam offer his hand to the woman, helping her to get up. They smiled and gently reached out their arms towards each other until they were finally embracing each other. Adam slided his fingers over the woman's cheek and her presence filled the emptyness in his heart. A PERFECT PARTNER.
Adam had an unexpected sensation of fufillment. She was someone that he could share the beauty and wonders of the garden. Happiness flooded his heart and made him smile.
"I'm Adam" he said.
She smiled accordendly.
"And you're Eve"
He took her by the hand and they went into the forest. He began to tell her about his "birth", the living creatures, and the taste of the fruits that could be found in the garden. Adam told Eve about the God and how Eve was the answer to his dreams.

Adam and Us

He suddendly found himself laying there and for the first time he has opened his eyes and found everything around him to be amazing and new. He could not really understand what was going on. Beautiful scenery, incredible creatures, everything seemed so perfect. "Where am I?" , he asked, astounded by the things that were sorrunding him, fascinated by the wonders that reached beyond the horizon. Suddenly he heard a authoritic, but yet gentle and loving voice saying: "I've created you, with my hands I molded you into my likeness, I have chosen to gracefully love you and be your Father and you will be my son, and so I'll give you this place as an inheritance to represent my fathership ; you shall dominate all the things that your eyes can see and every living creature will be under your command.Everyday we will walk together and we will share an intimate relationship just like a Father and a Son.
Adam was amazed! How could this be?! Even so, Adam could feel peace and above all feel something that was beyond any explanation, TRUE INFINITE LOVE!
As days went on, they walked together and Adam could experience unforgetable moments with His Father. Moments of authentic intimacy with the Father, where Adam could share his life with the everlasting God.
But the best part of the creation was yet to come....

Faith X Deeds

Hi everyone! I gotta confess that what I'm about to share with you guys is something that is somewhat polemic and in fact I can't quite answer this question myself:
Is your faith valid if you don't do any deeds for the kingdom of God?
As we read Romans 10:9 , it is clear to us that " if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved".

But somewhere along my meditations and reading of the bible I also read this verse found in James 2:16-19 "If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. "
And then it the last verse it says , "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

I gotta say that this really placed a lot of questions in my heart as to what "having faith" really means!
So, I'll probably place more questions than comments on this specific post.
You see, nowadays people are going to "church" for all sorts of reasons , except for the right one. As we read back in Acts we start realizing that the "church" we are used to experience today is totally different from that of Acts 4:32-35. People believe in Jesus not for Who is but What He can offer to them and definetely the last word people want to hear is "sacrifice" and " Serve".
I mean, I'm not putting into doubt here the grace and the love of Christ , because once you confess that He is saviour and Lord of your life, our lives are changed. However, what James is literary saying is: " Your words help you, your actions help people".
In my mind, authentic faith comes by actions and if we are not willing to serve and reach out/ serve other people , I really don't think we much faith at all. Because we won't be able to be so close to this Wonderful,graceful, loving God and still not have an urge in our hearts to serve and love others. It may seem a little radical, but I'm guessing here that if you are not able to serve and to help others in need , than your "faith" is a corpse. It's dead , it's useless. What James is telling us is, you are not a Christian by the things you say but by the things you do! We have to stop bragging about how awesome we are at playing an instrument at church, or how well we can memorize bible verses or how many bumper stickers we have in your car with little fishes , brag about how much we believe in Jesus , when even demons believe(but that doesn't mean they are saved) and in the end your actions are meaningless, you don't have any God-like actions. You see, I'm not really sure how God will judge people once we awake from this world, I don't know what standards He will use to judge us, but if you wanna take the risk of sitting at church and "appearantly" be a christian and just because you made a confession once in your life that Jesus can save , go right ahead! I rather go along with this song from Cating Crowns and not take this risk!