Reading the Word

One thing that has really touched me this semester, is the matter of reading the word and how important reading the word is to our Christian walk. Recently I was at a bible study with some saints in Arlington where we read a chapter out of 2 Timothy. In 2 Timothy, Paul was writing to Timothy telling him to continue in the faith even though the church was declining.

"And that from a babe you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim 3:15

One thing we can see here is that the Word of God, or in this case "sacred writings," make us wise unto salvation. I've really just been impressed that one major thing that the Word of God does for us is that it brings us unto salvation.

And at the same time on the bible reading schedule I was reading Philippians.

Philippians 2:12 says
So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

But in this verse it talks about our salvation being something that we have to work out by ourselves.

Well Salvation has two aspects.
1) Judicial salvation from condemnation and the lake of fire.
-this is the first part of salvation, which is already taken care of the moment we believed and got baptized
2) Organic salvation, which is the day-by-day, moment-by-moment salvation we receive by taking in Christ as Life through exercising our Spirit and touching the Lord in the word.
- this is the salvation that Philippians 2:!2 is referring to.

This is kindof like the story of Noah.
1) He had the eternal salvation because God chose him to live and told him that he would flood the Earth
2) Noah had to work out his own salvation by building the ark, which took him a long time, but he had to do it little-by-little, day-by-day, so that he and his family would be saved.

The answer to how we work out our own salvation is found in 1 Peter 2:2
"As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation."

The way for us to work out our own salvation is through the living and abiding word of God. (1 Pet 1:23) Like babies need milk to grow, we need to take in the word as milk to grow unto salvation.

Praise the Lord for the word! It has really been my salvation this semester.

FTTA Graduation and Screaming Babies

I arrived at LAX yesterday afternoon after a semi-long flight sitting next to a screaming baby. But it was alright, she(the baby) was kindof cute. I thought i was gonna sleep the whole way there; however, the sign next to my seat was a bad omen.

It's because my seat was one right in front of an emergency exit. =_=

Well anyways, long story short, I'm in Anaheim for my brother's graduation from the FTTA. Also ill be here for the rest of the week attending the semi-anual training. And the weather here compared to Texas is AWESOME!!!! not hot at all. It was 73 when I got here.

So here is a picture from the Long Beach graduating trainees party. (My brother was on that team) It was like 65 people in one house.

I Love California

"Oh, Lord Jesus!"

I've been enjoying lately how wonderful it is to call on His name. I'm reading a book called The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ.

Chapter 4 is called "Calling On His Name," and as I was reading it, so many enjoyable things came out. One section is titled "Calling on the Lord to Enjoy His Riches."

And here are some of the things I enjoyed:
Romans 10:12 says that the Lord is rich to all who call upon Him. It doesn't say that the Lord is rich unto all that believe in Him, worship Him, or pray to Him. It says the Lord is rich to those who call upon him. Christ is so rich. He can be everything to us. We can enter into the enjoyment of all the riches of Christ by calling on His name -- "Oh Lord Jesus,"

When Saul of Tarsus was going to persecute the believers in Damascus, he was going to "bind all who call upon Your[the Lord's] name." (Acts 9:14) So we can see that a characteristic of a Christian is that he calls upon the Lord's name.

We are vessels to contain the God. He has completed His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, and now He has become the Life-Giving Spirit (1 Cor 15:45b). Now all we need to do is call upon His name, and he will come and get into us. Try not to think about it too much; it's not about exercising your mind to understand it. Just exercise your mouth and call "Lord Jesus," and he will get into you.


=)

My Goal is God Himself

Hello, this is my new blog. I meet with a group at UT called Christian Students on Campus. I am a lover and enjoyer of Christ, and I love calling on His name. Oh Lord Jesus! This blog is here for me to share my experiences and enjoyments of Christ with everyone. I hope that this blog would exhibit Christ and cause others to pursue the Lord with me.

2009 FTTT Graduation Song

This is the song from the 2009 FTTT graduation, its about the overcoming christians becoming mount Zion, the highest place in God's Kingdom City.