I thought my first post should be about faith and what it means to me. At the core of Christianity is faith. Without faith, we are nothing. In my opinion, that is why alot of the Americans are not Christians. We live in a society that wants proof of every thing's existence. Faith is what keeps up pushing ahead in tough situations. My analogy of a faith in God is being at the bottom of a hill looking up at the top that hill. You don't know what is over the top of that hill, but your faith keeps you pushing upward and you know that whatever lies over the top of that hill is God's will for you. Faith in God is the only thing that gets me through hard times. I end all of my posts on bullybasketball with a verse with the keyword faith, b/c it means so much to me.
Matthew 52:21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
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Revelations 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
"The Door" is a blog for those need a place to put the words that rest so heavy on their heart about being a Christian in today's world and their daily struggle to live in Christ's image. "Behold I stand at The Door". He stands at the door and knocks. It's up to you too let him in.
The Door
About Me
- Arliss
- I am an engineer and live in Brandon, MS. My loves in life are Jesus, Family, and Mississippi State Basketball. I'll never turn down an opprotunity to strike up a conversation about MSU basketball.
14 comments:
Hey brother,
Congrats on the new blog. If you'd like, you can take a glance at mine. I only post once ever several months or so. Check it out if you'd like at
www.apilgrimspath.blogspot.com
I appreciate your zeal brother. I came to faith in Christ at Faith Baptist Church in Starkville when I was a junior at MSU in the winter/Spring of 84 I think.
Arliss, I'm sure you know this, and I know that you are not saying that we in any way can do anything to earn our salvation, but, in the example you used above, we don't come 50% of the way, while Jesus comes the other 50%. The Lord Jesus doesn't come merely half way to us, He comes all the way to us, picks us up, and carries us home. So, in reality, we don't "DO" even .0001% when we comes to our salvation. He does 100%. Even our faith is a gift (Eph 2:8-9). He is the one who made us alive when we were dead (Col 2:13, Eph 2:4-9). He is the one who made us into spiritual men so that we could understand spiritual things like salvation (I Cor 2:14). We are saved because we've called on Him to save us. We call on Him to save us, only because he stooped down and breathed life into us.
As the Puritans used to say,
"Salvation is ALL OF GRACE" from start to finish.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves [meaning faith], it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
Sorry, buddy, that's one I've propagated myself in the past. And one that I've heard time and again over the years.
Remember, it is because of Him that you are in Christ (I Cor 1:30ish). God took the initiative. He loved you first (I John 4ish). He made you alive. That is why you have faith.
And as an aside, the scriptures give us plenty of reason to have faith, as does a casual consideration of nature itself. For both the scriptures and the heavens declare the handiwork of God (Psalm 19); and in so powerful a way as to render a man without excuse as it relates to his failure to have faith in God (Romans 1:18-24).
Glad you are venturing into the Devotional realm. I look forward to the mutual encouragment we'll find as we continue our conversations.
Tom
Good first post Tom. I had been pondering about another blog for awhile. The book of Revelations has always been the most interesting book to me. I read several books trying to explain just what it means.
Well, if you ever get Revelation figured out, please let me know! The thing I have to remember about Revelation is that it is a vision; similar to the vision Peter had in Acts 10 which involved the sheet which unfolded like a movie screen before him. The vision was full of clean and unclean animals. As it turned out, the vision didn't really didn't have anything to do with animals at all. Rather, it dealt with Jews and Gentiles, and answered the question pertaining to who and what ethnic groups were to be considered "clean" or legitimate members of God's family. In the same way, many of the images of Rev don't have anything to do with the image itself (a seven headed beast, for instance, points to something else, probably government or successive governments, and not a literal animal). And that is why Rev is so difficult. It is hard to separate imagery and symbolism from literalism. Tough stuff.
At any rate, the group of saints at the Retirment center I pastor and teach in, twisted my arm basically and forced me to teach them Revelation. I had put it off for years. I finally tackled it last year. It was thrilling. I certainly didn't figure it all out. But, I was amazed at the beauty, glory and awfulness of God's power. I see merit in all the different views of Revelation.
Thanks for starting the blog. Come over for a visit sometime to my blog at www.apilgrimspath.blogspot.com.
Tom
Arliss....Will this site ever be as popular as the other? Sometimes I wonder if I'm being lukewarm to the Gospel by participating on bullybasketball.blog. Should we guard our hearts or am I being too comdeming?
I love the Lord and could talk about Him just as passionately. I'm guessing you feel the same way and I imagine we should be praying for more visitors to this site. What would happen if people would be as passionate about Jesus as their favorite team? Probably should have emailed you, delete if you like. God bless
I'm not an ordained pastor and their are countless people who could answer that question better than me. I can't imagine participating on bullybasketball being condeming to your christianty. I spend the most time on bullybasketball b/c I run the site and I still find time for may daily devotional. That being said, we all can spend more time with our walk. The only way it could is if it prevented you from growing spritually. I accompany post with a verse in hope of leading people in the right direction. As far as this site becoming as big as bullybasketball, that would be a great witness and make me feel like I'm making a difference. Last, if all were as passionate about our walk with Christ as we are about our sports team, the world would be a different place.
Only Believe!!!
We are only as good as our faith!
Anonymous,
Do all that you do to the glory of God and you'll be just fine. There is nothing unholy or un-Christian about "bullybasketball." We all love our Basketball. God made us competitors. I think he is pleased when He sees His creatures play. Its okay to play, as long as your playing to the glory of God. After all, who invented games? Satan? I don't think so. I imagine that Jesus played games when He was a youngster, don't you?
No need to separate the two spheres. God is glorified in Arliss' providing a solid blog. Arliss is clearly not hiding his faith. But, the thing that makes Arliss' blog so great is not the Bible verses at the bottom of each article, but that he has a great site with good articles, good input from his insiders and an active blogging community. It is great to see Christians excel. It brings God glory.
Stick a verse on the end a terrible blog, and you still have a terrible blog.
So, keep up the Lord's work at Bullybasketball and thanks for providing this forum for us to talk about our favorite subject of all.
Thanks Arliss,
Tom
I couldn't of put it said it any better, thanks Tom.
Didn't He say if you believed you would see the glory of God.
Does anyone here like Andrew Wommack ministries?
You have to take it a step further than believing.
Salvation is the Gift of God.....It is Finished, Praise the Lord.
God is Love, Keep the Faith
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