Idol Worship

When the book of Haggai was written, the Israelites were in this cycle of: Turn from God, go into captivity, repent, come home and rebuild... restart. And they were in the rebuilding stage. These people were lucky like nothing else! The guy that had captured them, King Darius, this guy would let his prisoners practice their own religion and beliefs. And then, when they were out of captivity, he gave them money and resources to build their temple. But they didn't, they starting building their houses and neglecting God, and God was tired of it. Because they did that for 10 years.
Now, fast forward to us: God's temple is us, we are His church. Are we building our own houses spiritually? Think about the things that take your time: TV, Video Games, Internet, what ever it may be. But do we neglect God? Leave Him out of our lives?? God should have a place in us.

Let's put it this way, imagine a cabinet with several shelves, and each shelf has a certain amount of compartments. Now put a word in each compartment to represent what you devote your time to. TV, Computer, Family, Friends, Phone, Video Games, hey! Let's even put God in one of those. And whatever else you may spend your time on. What do you see wrong with that?

Well, God should not be in a compartment, He should be the entire shelf! Whatever you do in life, should be judged by God's standard, if it does not line up, is it worth it?

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that every Christian should spend time with God. Just them and God, studying God's word. Not just reading, studying. I am not perfect at this. But I have a method to keep me in line. This Blog. I have made a promise to whoever reads this, that I will do my best to have something every week... at least. My deadline is Thursday. I absolutely have to have something up by then, it keeps my accountable. This is why I write this, so that I must read my Bible, because if I don't, then I would probably have an extremely hard time to read consistently. I still do. I don't expect anyone to be perfect in this. But all throughout the Bible it is clear that time spent with God is essential for a Relationship with Him. Read through the Gospels, Jesus went into the Wilderness several times. And when He was tempted, He used verses to fight Satan, do you have a way better than what our Savor used? There are a few others who did the same, I cannot remember who though.

Read Philippians 1:9, it backs me up. That our love may abound more in knowledge and discernment. Our love in and of Christ, may abound more in knowledge and discernment of the word.

So give God some time, and build upon your relationship with God.

We degrade God a lot. We are given Scripture so often, that it has gotten "casual" to us. I hope you don't put something before God. You can correlate that video to so much more than Football.

Well, next week, I am going to start a study in Ephesians.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Christmas Story: Retold...

It was no silent night, that is what I am going to talk about. You see, if you read Revelations 12, it talks about a Spiritual war between the Angels and the "Christmas Dragon" as I have recently heard it referred to as. That is the Spiritual picture of Christmas day. A huge fight, Satan--the Dragon--literally threw stars down from the heavens. What happens after that, kind of confused me. Satan is thrown from heaven. But as I began to think about it, I realized something. You see, the Spiritual world does not perceive time as: Past frozen, Present only to pass, and the future to come, it must be anticipated. Christmas happened for them, at the same moment in time (as we perceive it) when Satan was thrown out, the same time as now. They wanted so badly to stop what they knew was happening. But God stepped in, He cast Satan out. Now you may be saying that physically it was a silent night. Not exactly.
Let's back up a few months ago.
An Angel of God comes to Mary and says: "Hey, you are favored in God's sight. So you are going to give birth to the Son of God." (Paraphrase)
Can you imagine her reaction to that? How she felt? We actually get to read it:
"Whoa, wait, what?? I am going to be pregnant?? How? I have never done something like that with any man." (Paraphrase)
So the Angel reassures her:
"No, don't worry about that. That is part of why you were chosen. This conception is of the Holy Spirit." (Paraphrase)
So she decides to trust God on this. And this, is where the silence ends. I mean, people found out.
"Did you hear?? Mary is pregnant!"
"What? Are you serious! Ugh! What a prostitute, you know what I think! I think she should be stoned. I mean, she is betrothed already to Joseph."
I bet that is the kind of slander that she felt and heard. And that was the law! If someone had been caught in Adultery by law they had to be stoned. (In fact, a woman caught was once brought before Jesus, and the Pharisees questioned Him here.)
But according to the law, she could only be stoned if she was accused by either her father, or husband/fiance. And her being betrothed, the only person who by law, could accuse her, was Joseph. And that puts him in a hard position.

"What do I do? I mean, I love her. But she betrayed me! I cannot believe she did this to me! I could have her stoned. No, no, that is not the right thing. I will not stone her. Okay, here is what I'll do! I will divorce her quietly, I won't make a big deal about it. After that, I guess she will take care of herself."

Then Joseph goes to sleep, and an Angel appears to him, and tells him that what Mary said about her conception was true! It was from God.
Mary was probably feeling extremely stressed about it all. Everyone there was gossiping, slandering, giving her looks. Probably refusing to service her at the market, or marking up prices for her. And not to mention! Since he will not stone her, nor divorce her, so he now is losing business!! So, she decides to visit Elizabeth to relax. After awhile, there is a census across the land, each man must take his family to his home town. Now Mary and Joseph have to travel several miles to Bethlehem. And she is several months into the ordeal. Who knows what they had to go through on the way there!
But alas! They get there, and this town probably doesn't know their story. They look around for a place to stay, and they come upon the last inn, and they ask the guy for a room.
He turns them away. But as he is about to shut the door, either he notices, or more likely, his wife notices that Mary is pregnant. So he says; "Hey, this is probably not much, but, I have a place. Where, well, animals stay. If you would like, I guess you could stay there. It might be warmer in there for the night."
Then Mary gives birth, the battle, the Shepherds come, and they cannot believe that they of all people were shown where the Savior was!!
After that, a few more things go on. But that is the event we celebrate! We don't celebrate the same Christmas that is so commercialized that it holds no message, or the one that makes a fictional character the god we worship.
WE CELEBRATE JESUS CHRIST BEING BORN SO THAT HE COULD DIE TO SAVE US FROM OURS SINS. His name was, and is, Immanuel, meaning: GOD WITH US.

And He truly is with us. He is Immanuel.

Mary and Joseph are two great examples of how Christians should live. They followed God when nothing made sense. And Joseph was faced with a huge task. Not only to take care of the mother of Christ, but to take care of the Messiah Himself!

Could you do that? Would God ask you to take care of His Son?

...Well... He did. He said that if we follow Him, He will dwell in us. And He asked us to take care of Him in another sense. To tell about Him, to share the Gospel, to live a life that would shine the love of Christ. Are you taking care of Christ? I truly hope so, I am not where I need to be. But I intend upon trying my absolute best.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Times get tough:

Life is going to be hard, you are going to be brought down. Just as you laugh, so I assure you, you shall cry. It's really hard to go through tough times in life, and it is even harder to keep your head up when you go through them. Lately, I have come across a chapter that is extremely encouraging. But I am only going to write a few verses:


2 Samuel 22:5-20;
5 "When the waves of death surrounded me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.6 The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me. 7 In my distress I called upon the Lord, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears. 8 "Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry. 9 Smoke went up from His nostrils, And devouring fire from His mouth; Coals were kindled by it. 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down With darkness under His feet. 11 He rode upon a cherub, and flew; And He was seen upon the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness canopies around Him, Dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.13 From the brightness before Him Coals of fire were kindled. 14 "The Lord thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice. 15 He sent out arrows and scattered them; Lightning bolts, and He vanquished them. 16 Then the channels of the sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke of the Lord, At the blast of the breath of His nostrils. 17"He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. 18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me; For they were too strong for me. 19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the Lord was my support. 20 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.


He delivered me, because He delighted in me.
I just really like these verses. I don't really have anything else, sorry. I will have something a bit more thought out next week though.




Thanks for reading,


John Mark,

Are you kidding me?!

I don't know why, but lately I have been listening to a lot of KJ-52's music on youtube, checking the music videos and stuff. (That's, Five Two, by the way.)

And as I listened to some of these songs, out of curiosity, I looked at some of the comments on the video. Because I like to see the impact KJ has on people, some of his lyrics are powerful.

But what I saw has me fired up and disgusted! I would read the comments of people saying how great God is, how He loves us and all that, which I am not condemning. But then, most times without fail, a random atheist had happened to hear the song, and decided to place what he thought of the song. Can you guess the reaction??

"Shut up, dude, you got no idea what you are saying."
And things like that, I cannot believe that! I mean, seriously! Think about it, we could be the only gospel they ever see, hear, or witness! We could change their lives and yet we live like its nothing. They are dying, they will burn for all eternity, they will be separated from God! Does that not stir you?! Does that not make you want to rise up and start a riot in the streets? Not a literal fight, but a spiritual war? I want to make Satan screech, I want him to see me witness, if only with my life. And I want him to see me as a huge threat. Because if I start living my life as that example, then I will start witnessing more, and then Satan is in trouble! We live in a dying, perverted, lost, dark, sinful, hopeless world! Though it is hopeless, that doesn't mean it is helpless! On the contrary, God has helped us!!

Are you seriously going to sit and stand, and laugh and play, joke and rave, about the newest trend. But not tell your friends, where true life begins?! Are you seriously going to put your life under a lamp?? Or are you going to do your absolute best to bring them to God?!

It may seem like I am a bit fired up. Well I am, I am fired up with fear. Fear of death for those who are lost! And you could give them the good news! Where are we at Christians?? Do you not know where they are going?? They are hurting, they need a remedy!!

Or, do you even care?? I just got thinking about this, do we care enough about those we call our "friends" that we don't even tell them about our Savior??
I will tell you, I struggle with that. I know that there are a few that I care for, in fact, all the people I know personally that are lost, I do care about them. I'd go as far as to say that I love them. Why? Because Christ loves them, and they are not nasty people. They are just lost, they are God's perfect creation. They are sick, and we have the remedy. We listen to messages like this from guys behind pulpits, we write blogs like this, and we let it slide off our shoulders like, so so. No, this is enough, it is about time we make Satan scream. It is high time we throw away the things that cover out light. It is time that we start a riot and share God's word. We could change the world!! So, are you with me??

I challenge you, to fully examine your life, every aspect, if you don't think you are pleasing God, change whatever makes you feel like that.
To put a target on somebody's back. What I mean by that, is pick a friend of yours, that you know is not saved, and help them. Witness to them, do something. Just because you target one person doesn't mean that you are limited. Go after as many as you can.
But as you take this challenge--which I pray you do--I want you to commit yourself to spending time with God. You got to remember that, before you can impact somebody's life for Christ, you first must be impacted.

So, take with you the words of my Savior, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

I read a quote on Facebook, someone had on there; "You cannot bring everyone you meet to Christ, but, you can bring Christ to everyone you meet."

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,

Are we missing the point?

In reply to a comment on my last post, I made this statement; “Sometimes I think that people miss the point of Christianity.”

But as I have begun to contemplate that statement, I am beginning to understand how truthful that statement is. Also realizing that it was not my own, it could not have been. I had gotten it from somewhere, and that is what I am going to talk about.

Monday night, I lay awake staring at the bunk bed above me, about 12 at night. I can’t explain to you why exactly, but I could not go to sleep, my dad and I believe that my sister accidentally spiked our hot chocolate with some form of caffeine. But as I lay there, my mind began to wonder, as I often let it do. As I contemplated subject after subject, somehow or another I came to the subject of Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23 in particular. I played these words in my mind over and over again giving a commentary to myself;

“And in that day many shall say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ some will even say ‘We have cast out demons in Your name, and done many great things.’ But I shall say to them; ‘depart from Me you who practice lawlessness, I never knew you.’ ”

Then something clicked in me, what it was I cannot accredit it to anything or anyone except God, even if I wanted to take credit for this one, it would not be practical as I look back at it. Read over that, these guys had done some AMAZING things, cast out demons for crying out loud!! And Jesus says; “I never knew you.” This is one of the scariest verses for me, not the scariest, but one of the scariest; because as I read it I realize a lot about me. You who are reading this may not know this, but never in my life have I ever cast out a demon, the greatest cure I have found is for hiccups. Imagine this scene, I walk to the throne of God and say;

“Lord, Lord! Have I not cast out hiccups in Your name??” I am laughing as I type that. These guys were something else, now, if they truly did cast out demons I do not know. My point is, not in fact what they said to God, but one single word that Jesus replies; KNEW.

I never knew you. I want you to point some personal questions at yourself, and answer them absolutely honestly to yourself.

Do you know God?

Or do you only know about God?

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13:5;

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”

I claim all the time that Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship with Christ: Because the actual definition of Religion is; Man trying through works to bind themselves to God.

I honestly believe that, so, let us examine relationship then, if Christianity is truly that.

You see, I can say, that I know someone that I met at a summer camp or a leader at my church. But the reality is that when I compare knowing them to my family, I only know about them, whereas I know my family. See the difference? With a leader at my church, I may speak to him on Wednesdays and Sundays, but other than that I don’t spend time with him. With my family, I spend all the time with them; sometimes it is just me and them. I know them, I know their character, I know their personality; I know them.

So, by that we see that a relationship with anyone requires time spent with them, for a deeper relationship you need time with each other alone. Just there, together. Do you ever spend time with God? Not because you have to, but because you want to?

Some people—including myself—have referred to the Bible as “God’s love letter to us.” Why? Well, because the relationship between a married man and woman is supposed to reflect the relationship of Christ with His church, His bride. And is the church the building?? No! The church is the people, we are Christ’ temple. So, let us go over this, though I have never been married (It’s true.) nor am I old enough to consider that at this point.

I will claim that many relationships, marital or otherwise, crumble because of a lack communication. Would that be a fair statement? I believe so, now consider this;

“If you spoke to your wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/best friend/husband, as much as you speak to God, would your relationship with them be as good as it is now?”

What about with how much time you spend with that person?? No, of course not. If Christianity is a relationship it is time that we start treating it like that. I mean, do you ever take advantage of your good friends? You shouldn’t, I don’t suspect that you do.

But a lot of people take advantage of God. They say; “I prayed my prayer, I made my profession, and yes I do believe. I’m done.”

Jesus says that we are to be His servants. In that day and age servants were not like slaves, where as slaves had no choice, most times in that culture slavery was a punishment. Servants served by choice. Either to marry the daughter of their employer, or in some other service. In fact, if someone was a slave, when his ‘term’ was up, he could choose to continue serving as a servant. Servants were friends of their master, who talked to them about things a slave would not hear. And obeyed out of loyalty, not out of ‘I have to do this or else I die’ attitude.

Do you know God? Or about Him?

If the Bible is our love letter, than why don’t we study it like we would the words of a lover? Why don’t we yearn with our souls to be with Him, to talk to Him, like we do a lover?

God deserves better, far better.

I know that some of you may be thinking;

“You are saying that if I don’t spend time with God, then I will go to hell?”

I am not saying yes or no, I am saying that it is something to consider.

I believe it was C.S. Lewis who said; “I would rather live my life, and believe that there is a God, die and find I was wrong, then to live my life denying a God, and find out that it is true, that there is a God.”

Let me change that a bit; “I would rather live my life believing that I absolutely have to spend time with God, and get to know God, in order to be saved, and find out I was wrong, that I was ‘overly radical.’ Then to live my life as so many American Christians do, with God on Sundays and Wednesdays, believing that it is fine that way, than to die and learn; Jesus never knew me. And I never knew Him.”

I am not suggesting that you can lose your salvation, not at all. Once you are saved, you are saved. I just want you to consider, you entire life judged against how Jesus said His followers would live, and I want you to know, by all accounts, that you know God, and that you are truly saved in the  first place.

God knows of you, but He wants a personal relationship with you. So much that He is willing to send His Son to die if that is what it takes… Oh wait, He did do that.

I am NOT, what so ever, proposing a ‘do’ theology, I know that is grace through faith that we are saved. (Ephesians 2:8-9.)

But Jesus said that if you to be His disciple, you would have to love Him so much that in comparison you would have to hate your family. (Luke 14:26.)

But how can you love someone you do not know?! You may say to me, that Jesus said that we are to love everyone as ourselves, and that is how we love someone we don’t know. You don’t understand then, we are to love humans despite whom they are or have been. We are to love Jesus because of Who He IS. Tell me, can you love someone you do not know? If you look at a man on the street, lo according to the words of Christ you are to love him, though in your heart you may care about him, no, you do not love him. You have never met him! How then can you claim to love Christ if you do not know Him when we love Him because of who He IS?

Don’t think that I am asking these questions to everyone but me, believe me, I have been firing these bullets at myself all week, and as I write this. It is not an easy thing to imagine that our Salvation which we believed we had we never had because the definition of what we claimed to believe we never accepted. Do you KNOW God?

Even if KNOWING God is not a requirement, why wouldn’t you want to??

And if you are unsure about it, why risk it?

Spend time with God because you want to, not because you have to.

Thanks for reading,

John Mark,