I was thinking the other night how thankful I am to be a student at the college I’m at. This is because the professors here don’t just stand up and tell us what the Bible says, they teach us to think. At Summit we are being equipped to analyze passages of scripture in their context, to analyze the syntax of each verse, to look at how the passage fits in the overall theme of the book, and overall figuring out what the author of was trying to convey. I got to thinking about this the other night, and I realized how much more important is it for someone to be taught how to seek answers independently rather than listening to what someone else says about the Bible. In the future when different questions come up that you may not have the answer to, it would be far better to know how to find the answer on your own than to depend on other sources to give you that answer.

I heard an example a long time ago from a missionary who was talking about people only knowing what they are taught. He used the illustration of a pen, which we know is used for writing, but he said if you went to a country who has never seen a pen, pencil, or any other writing utensils and you told them that the pen a citrus fruit piercing device, they would believe you because they don’t know otherwise. You have to imagine, the locals in that country have never seen a pen before in their life, so they have no clue what it is. The only thing they know at that point is exactly what you tell them, and if you tell them its a citrus fruit piercing device, that’s exactly what they will see it as until they are told otherwise.

What if all we do is go to church each Sunday and fully rely on the pastor to teach us the scripture? How well will each person really know their Bibles? I suppose you can say that all depends on how well the pastor teaches his congregation. But essentially no one will know what the Bible says beyond what the pastor has taught them or what other people have taught them before. To take it a step further, what if the pastor is wrong? And I can trust that no pastor would teach his congregation wrong concepts on purpose but lets say, for example, he hasn’t thoroughly studied out a topic so maybe he throws in a little hypothesis into his sermon. Or what if he was taught incorrectly yet he believes it to be correct, will the believers sitting there listening to him ever know the right answer if they just listen to what he says?

I’m not trying to bring any distrust towards pastor’s because I myself preach and I think its an important duty, but what I’m trying to say is its important for anyone to really be active in the word beyond just Sunday morning church services. You may find answers to questions, or what the bible says about different topics that your pastor may have never even covered. In Matthew 10:24 Jesus says that a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. But it is enough for the disciple to become like his teacher. In other words, we can’t learn beyond what someone teaches us if we only rely on that person and nothing else. We can learn everything that person knows, and therefore we would know the same amount of material as they do. But if that person doesn’t know an answer, for example, we can’t learn the answer from them. We have to seek the answer from somewhere else.

By all means, don’t stop trusting your pastor, nor stop going to church. But be active in studying scriptures beyond what you are taught on Sunday mornings. Someone who can seek out the answers independently is by far more important than someone who knows a lot of answers already because each person deals with different issues, and the question is how are you going to face those issues if you don’t know to because no one has told you how. But we can search the scriptures ourselves, and find out what the Bible has to say about them.

I know from personal experience of preaching that we are our own worst critics. I’m really hard on myself when I preach because I always wonder if people are really getting the message I’m presenting. I ask myself constantly: Are they remembering this stuff? Are they applying it to their lives? I used to look back at every message and think that I did a horrible job. I always thought I could have done something better, or even worse, that I wasn’t cut out to be a preacher. But the youth pastor that was training me at the time used to always drill this verse into my head, and I have never forgotten it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

“For as rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it

We all know that God’s word has a purpose. According to 2 Timothy 3:16 its to teach, correct, rebuke, and train people in righteousness. The gospel itself teaches us that Christ died so that our sins could be forgiven. The great thing that God is saying here in Isaiah, is that God’s word never goes out without accomplishing its purpose. It doesn’t matter who we are whether we are preachers, teachers, accountants, chefs, construction workers, etc. As long as we have the knowledge of scripture and we are willing to share that with others we are doing the work of God and we are making an impact.

I personally have never seen anyone brought to Christ by my own effort to share God’s word with them. And maybe you, as a reader, have never seen that impact made from your experiences either. Often times, its easy to get discouraged when we don’t see change. When people don’t mature in their faith even though we put so much effort into teaching them something. But I like what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth.

I’ve seen a lot of preachers who be really persuasive in their preaching. I, on the other hand, am not good with words. I don’t know how to persuade people, all I know how to do is teach what the Bible says. But what I realize from what Paul says, is even the most persuasive preacher doesn’t have the ability to change someone anymore than the dullest preacher on the planet. We don’t have the power to ultimately bring someone to Christ and make an impact. All we can do is plant seeds, and once those seeds are planted God is the one that causes them to grow.

Over the past 10 years the issue of same-sex marriage (for this blog we will call it LGBT Marriage, which means Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender) has been on the minds of many nations across the world. Since 2003, countries like Canada, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, and South Africa have all legalized LGBT marriage. Within the United States only a hand full of states have legalized the act. Those states include New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont, and even more recognize same-sex couples as being married. Even though same-sex marriage is a large issue today, the idea of being homosexual isn’t anything new. In fact, the oldest reference of the action that I have found comes straight out of the Bible and goes back to the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah, 3,713 years ago. Genesis 19:4-7 says:

Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.”

So here we have a bunch of men in the city of Sodom coming to Lot’s house to have relations with other men. Do you notice how Lot replies to them? He says “Don’t do this WICKED thing.” Even 3,713 years ago just the act of homosexual relations was considered to be wrong. The Bible makes it very clear that these actions are not acceptable to God. Even under the new covenant they are called perverted. Paul addresses the topic in Romans giving it a clear definition. Romans 1:26-28 says:

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. “

Four key words stick out in these verses, indecent, shameful, perverted, and unnatural. The act that the Romans were participating in was clearly wrong. Paul not only makes it clear that its a perverted act, but he says that it’s unnatural. God never intended for marriage or “romantic” relationships to be between two men and two women. No where in the Bible does it talk about same-sex couples. It always addresses the relationship between a husband and his wife, and a wife to her husband. Genesis 2 gives the account of the creation of man and woman as well as marriage. Verses 23 and 24 says:

“The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”

I’ve heard a pastor say one time that marriage in God’s eyes is like a covenant. That when a man and a woman have relations for the first time, they become one flesh because of the way the man’s body is made and because of the way the woman’s body is made. 1 Corinthians 6 even says that if a man has relations with a woman they become one flesh, and thats even outside of marriage. Two men could never become one flesh, and two woman could never become one flesh in God’s eyes. I wish I could go into more detail about why that is, but for sake of my readers I will keep more mature content like that off of my blog.

There’s another issue with LGBT marriage that makes it unnatural. In Genesis 1:28 God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. In other words, have kids… lost of kids. Who will in turn have kids that have kids, and so on so forth. It’s common knowledge to know that in order for a child to be born it takes both a man and a woman. Even for someone who is a die hard believer in evolution, its obvious that the relationship between a man and a woman is more natural simply because of childbirth. Two men alone could never have a baby (thankfully), and two women by themselves could never have a baby. Our bodies just simply don’t work that way.

LGBT relations and marriage is clearly a sin. If Romans and Genesis wasn’t enough to prove that, consider 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, which says “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

So does this mean that people who are gay aren’t Christians? For the most part, yes. Because the definition of Christian is someone who follows Christ. Being a Christian takes more than just belief in Christ. There is obedience that is involved. If someone remains gay even though they know its wrong, they are being disobedient.

My purpose for this blog is to show what the Bible says about LGBT couples and marriage. Do I think that we as Christians should reject them? Absolutely not. We should treat them as human beings even if we don’t agree with their actions. If someone who participates in those actions attends a church, I don’t think they should EVER be kicked out. As Christians, we are called to share Christ with others. The best we can do is build friendships, build trust, and show them what scripture says. Then let God do the rest.

Over the past week there has been a lot of discussion going on about the earth quake in Haiti. Everyone is heart broken for the country because of the tragedy that has happened. But one question that has crossed many peoples minds is whether or not God is punishing Haiti. An acquaintance of mine, Ted Grant, wrote an article addressing this question and I personally don’t think it could have been answered better. Here is the article he wrote:

John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Luke 10:36-37, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

It seems like every time a catastrophe strikes somewhere in the world, the question comes up, “Is God punishing _______?” It happened with the recent comments by Pat Robertson. It happened after hurricane Katrina, and it happened after the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia.

This is not a new idea, and people often quote events from the Old Testament like the Flood, the plagues in Egypt, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as evidence for God’s judgment on mankind. These Biblical events that usually come after a city or nation refuse to repent and turn to God, lead us to wonder if we are experiencing such acts of judgment today.

When Katrina flooded the city of New Orleans, some people pointed to the immoral and decadent festivities surrounding Mardi Gras as cause for God’s anger and punishment. When the tsunami hit Indonesia, people cited the severe persecution of Christians and the corrupt government as the cause for God’s wrath. Now that Haiti has been decimated by the largest earthquake in decades, some people are pointing to the prevalence of voodoo and witchcraft as the reason God is punishing the people of Haiti.

Even if we accept that a large majority of people in Haiti practice voodoo, is that justification for God “punishing” them with this earthquake? In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18, Abraham asked God in verse 23, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” After some discussion and haggling, God was willing to show compassion to a city as overwhelmingly wicked as Sodom, if there were just 10 righteous people found there. Is Haiti as wicked as these cities, can’t we find even 10 righteous people in all of Haiti?

And, do you remember the story of Jonah? He wanted judgment on the wicked city of Ninevah and ran away from God instead of taking the message of repentance to a city that he wanted destroyed. Jonah was ticked off that God might actually have mercy on his enemies. He says this about God in Jonah 4:2, “He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.”

Jonah knew that God is righteous, but also loving and merciful. To think that God is punishing Haiti or New Orleans, or Indonesia, or any other people group is, I believe – inaccurate. If it were the case, then the events of 9/11 would also have to be God’s judgment upon the USA. And when a tornado wiped out a church in Oklahoma in May 2009, they too, were being judged.

To point at any one natural disaster and not at the hearts of all mankind is a mistake.
The Bible teaches us that to love God is our primary goal and we cannot love God without also loving our neighbor. God’s love for us compels us to take responsibility for those in need. Jesus placed a high priority on those in need when He declared in Matthew 25:40, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

It is in times of crisis that the church can have its greatest impact. The question is, what kind of an impact will the church have?

Many of us have different hobbies and goals that we become passionate about. We think about them constantly, everything we see or hear reminds us of that passion, and we work hard to improve ourselves in that area. But how often do we let ourselves get down when things get hard? When we get stuck in a rough spot or we see ourselves fail, why do we beat ourselves up? When we overcome obstacles we become stronger. Every goal requires effort and sacrifice before it becomes accomplished.

Every man and woman who is in ministry has a goal, and that goal is to share Christ. We all want to teach out of the scriptures so the people we teach will mature in their faith. We want to guide others to make ethical decisions in life especially when it comes to all the trends that flows through our society. But often times ministry can get discouraging. We can spend hours upon hours planning lessons, volunteering our time in churches, and taking care of people, yet we still may not see a change in their hearts. We face the rough patches of ministry that can cause stress and make us want to give up the idea of evangelizing. Even then I must urge you to NEVER give up that goal of transforming others.

Paul is a great biblical example of someone who stays driven towards his goal even though he goes through trials that many of us will never go through. Consider what he says in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28:

“…in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of CONCERN FOR ALL THE CHURCHES.”

Do you see what Paul is saying? I couldn’t even imagine going through persecution like Paul did and persevering through it. The thing that drove him the most during those times was his concern for the churches. Paul saw the bigger picture of what his Goal was, and that goal was to share Christ. His passion drove him so much that even though he went through blood, sweat, and tears, none of the hardships mattered. His priority was to see the churches grow and mature in their faith. Do you have enough passion for sharing the gospel, that you would make the necessary sacrifices to see people grow in their faith?

This is a video created by Battlecry Ministries. It shows statistics about what teens face in our culture. I just wanted to share this video because it’s statistics like these that motivated me to do ministry in the first place:

22% born-again Christians believe that Jesus sinned. 31% believe a good person can earn their way to heaven. According to a George Barna study, most self-proclaimed Christians don’t believe that Satan and the Holy Spirit actually exist. How well do Christians know their Bibles? Not very well. In fact many atheists are beginning to use this weakness to attack Christianity, saying that Christians are ignorant about the Bible and that atheists know it better than they do.

Why are Christians so uneducated? Because they aren’t spending enough of their time reading their Bible. One reason is that our lives are so “busy” that we claim we never have time to read the Bible. Truthfully though, I feel that everyone does have time. But probably the biggest reason, and this might just be an opinion, is that our culture is filled with so much recreation activities, television, video games, and music, that reading is almost becoming obsolete. Unless someone enjoys reading as a recreational activity, most people won’t spend their own time reading out of the Bible. Many blogs and search engines say that only about 10% Christian’s have read the bible from cover to cover. While it is more important to read the Bible to grasp the information and grow spiritually, if this statistic is true it shows how Christians are inactive in their reading.

So whats the solution? I think we need to pick up the slack. We need to bring scripture to them. If Christian’s aren’t reading the Bible on their own, then we need to educate them more effectively. Most sermons or bible studies last 30 minutes to an hour, and my challenge to those who have the opportunities to teach is to study the Bible thoroughly. Don’t just study for lessons, but study to have a stronger understanding of scriptures so that you can teach others the truth. Don’t teach the same stories or sermons over and over again, but get to know your congregation and class, find their needs and struggles and bring the scriptures to them. Do research on what is going on in the country or in your home town, and deal with those issues with a biblical perspective. I’ve heard several times that there isn’t any difference between Christians and non-believers. Christians are highly influenced by pop culture and without the guidance of a teacher they will adopt the same trends that everyone else follows even if they are against the Bible.

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14 NIV)

Without us being there to teach, they will never learn. The ball is in our court, and we have to pick it up and carry the extra weight.

“but you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Ti 4:5)

*statistics from www.cbn.com es.

I came across a couple chapters in the Bible this past week that seemed to really cause me to think about my attitude toward the diversity in beliefs among many Christians. For me personally, I have been aggravated with people who believe that Christians should only listen to Christian music, or better yet how many people hold Sunday as a more “holy day” than any other day of the week. It seemed the belief was Sunday morning church services have higher value than a simple small group bible study in the comfort of someone’s home. These were just some convictions in my own mind, but within the church itself we deal with issues such as music and whether a church should have contemporary music or hymns, whether we should have communion once a week or once a month, and whether we should dress up for church or wear casual clothes. These are just a handful of things that I have seen that have caused debates and divisions in churches, and yet the scriptures are silent on all of them, including the arguments that I wrestled with in my own mind.

Biblical silence
In Romans chapter 14 it talks about how each person has the liberty to live for God differently. There are absolutes and commands that are found in scriptures that we need to follow, and I’m not talking about those specifically because everyone who claims to be a Christian should follow the scriptures and the instructions set before us. I’m talking about the areas where scriptures are silent and those issues that we have to use our best judgment to determine how it affects us personally and others around us. Thomas Campbell said “where the scriptures speak, we speak, and where the scriptures are silent, we are silent”. He expounded on this phrase and said that if the scriptures don’t address certain topics we have the liberty to address them ourselves as long as they are labeled as “human creeds” instead of Biblical. Things like church structure, communion, songs, and the day that we hold our church services aren’t addressed in the Bible. Therefore it comes down to us to address those topics and build a system that is convenient for our culture and time.

Individual and personal matters
Other issues that cause some division are over more personal matters such as movies, music, tv shows, and video games. Romans 14 says that “the one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.” The passage literally refers to eating and drinking and how some people view specific foods as unclean. But honestly, there is a bigger principle here that applies to a lot more than just that. There is a principle that applies to our decisions that aren’t addressed by scriptures. We are not to judge each others faith or character because one person refuses to, for example, listen to secular music while another thinks it’s OK. Or for another example, because one person decides its OK to watch a TV series while another person does not. Nor are we to judge another person because they choose to dress more formal on Sunday morning while another person wants it to be more casual. Or the issue of someone holding Sunday in higher value than any other day of the week. In fact, Romans 14:5 directly addresses that by saying “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”

Lean on your own convictions
Each of these things comes down to how it affects our faith personally. If something causes you to sin, then you have the responsibility of saying no to it for yourself personally. If someone chooses to not watch certain movies because when they do they lust after women, then respect their choice to do so. If someone can listen to a music CD that happens to have some vulgar lyrics, yet they can do so freely because it doesn’t affect their faith, then let them. If someone chooses not to drink alcohol because they might lack self control and drink to the point of getting drunk, then respect them for their decision. “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.” (Romans 14:22 NASB)

“He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself, for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:6-8 NASB)

Don’t cause others to stumble
We also have to keep each other in mind. Because anything can become wrong when it becomes a stumbling block for someone else’s faith. Romans 14:15 says “for if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for who Christ died.” (NASB) While we have the liberties to make many choices in our own lives depending our our faith and where our convictions stand, we should never practice anything that causes someone else to stumble in their faith.

Tonight I’ve really been thinking about what the purpose of the church is.  The church structure itself is something that has changed dramatically since the first century.  Just in my life time alone I have seen the music in churches change from hymns to contemporary.  I have seen churches go from wearing a suit and tie to dress how ever you want to.  And from what I have been told, and I do believe because I have seen no evidence to convince me otherwise, churches in the first century didn’t even have praise music when they gathered together  like we do today.

Now there is nothing wrong with music, or even changing the way you dress.  My fear from what I have seen in many churches today is that the true foundation of what the church is and what the church was meant to be has been lost.  I’m talking more spefically about sunday morning services.  I have noticed in many churches today that the foundation that keeps the church going, and the purpose of that church is more based upon man’s own desires rather than God’s.

The direction that many churches seem to be going today leans more towards entertainment and numbers.  The theory seems to be that if pastors can get up every sunday and put on some “clown act” to entertain the congregation then the number of people will grow as well as the amount of money brought in from the offering.  A large church is fine and dandy but my feelings are that numbers have become the biggest concern for pastors these days.  The problem I have seen from interning in a church much like this is that hardly anyone seems to really be growing spiritually.  The goal of that specific church has become so focused on just bringing people in that it seems like everyone forgot why they were really there in the first place.

Is just filling the pews and having a packed service the only thing that really matters in churches?  or is there something more?

Jesus gave us a very specific command which is known as the great commission, which as you all know says to go and make disciples.  But at the heart of that comission Jesus says to teach them everything he has commanded.  Understand that the word Christian as it is used in Acts comes from the greek word Christianos, which means to follow Christ.   This is exactly what a disciple is; it’s a student who is dedicated to following the teachings of Christ, which in the long run leads to obedience in Christ.  In Acts when the churches met together, they met to dedicate themselves to the apostles teachings,  to prayer, to fellowship, and the breaking of bread (Acts 2:42)  Their purpose of meeting together was God.

A church without God as the foundation has lost it’s purpose.   When churches become more and more focused on just bringing people into the church by means of being entertaining, they lose the focus of discipling and teaching the people who are already there.  In college I heard a quote that I emphasized greatly in a recent paper I wrote for a missions class, and it says this:

“Methods are many, principles are few.  Methods may change, but prinicples never do”

The ministry that one does is the method that they use to carry out certain principles.  Our principles should be exactly what Christ commanded, which in summary is to go and make disciples.  There are so many different methods to make disciples that each have their own strengths and weaknesses and target audience.  Therefore I find it hard to believe that one method of ministry is stronger than the other.  But whichever method we choose to disciple someone, the foundation should always be God.  Our goal should be to teach scripture to the people whom we have the benefit of doing so.  Not just filling the chairs, because even if the chairs are full, the people can still leave empty.

PS: I am by no means condemning mega churches, or large churches at all.  But I do want to emphasize that the purpose of the church or any minstry for that matter, should be to impact peoples life with scripture.

As I was having a conversation today I remembered that three years ago I got into a car wreck just a couple miles from my house.  I was traveling down a road and heading home  when all of a sudden as I crossed an intersection my truck was hit at the driver side door by another vehicle.  I remember closing my eyes after I was hit and screaming in fear, and my first thoughts were that my truck was going to roll over.  Luckily, my truck stayed on the ground, and when I opened my eyes I was sitting on a corner in my truck which was now totaled.  Neither me or the other driver was hurt, but when I exited my vehicle I realized that not only was my truck totaled, but the vehicle that hit me was totaled as well.

I then realized that I had accidentally ran a stop sign that I didn’t see on the corner.  I felt so bad about how I caused a wreck that not only affected me but affected the other driver as well.  I quickly ran over to apologize for what had happened, but the other driver was so furious about their car that I just got yelled at.  But at that moment, there was nothing I could do to make things better.

I pondered for days after that about what would have happened if I would have seen that stop sign.  If I would have known better that the stop sign was on that corner, I would have stopped.  The traffic would have passed on the other road, and no one’s vehicle would have been destroyed.  I would have saved a trip to the hospital to make sure I wasn’t injured, and the $700 bill from the ambulance ride that followed.  I would have also had a vehicle to continue on through the winter, and I wouldn’t have had to be dependent on family and friends for rides to work.

Car wrecks or never fun, but whats even worse is doing something that affects your whole life.  The Bible is like a guide to our lives.  From it we can learn when to stop and when to go.  We can learn what is wrong and what things we should stay away from.  I can look back in my life and remember things that I have done that were completely against what God would have wanted for me.  I’m talking about indulging into sin.  But at that time, if only I would have known just a little bit better.  If I would have known how running those “stop signs” would have affected my life, I would have never done the things I did.  The only thing I knew that was bad about them at that time was that my parents didn’t want me to do it.  I didn’t have any explanation, nor did I have any knowledge in the Bible that would have convinced me to stay away from those things.

Proverbs 30:5 says “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

I feel that this is why it is important to stay active in God’s word, even though sometimes we get so involved with our busy schedules that we forget to make time for it.  When we stay in God’s word, we not only learn who God is and grow closer to God, but we learn how we should live.  We learn were all those stop signs are that will stop us from putting ourselves through a “life-wreck”.