James 2:14-25

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does noting about physical needs, what good is it? The same way, faith by itself is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone who says, "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. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not out ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the alter? Yuo see that his faith and actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rehab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to spies and sent them off in different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.


In this passage we see yet another call to living out our faith physically. We are all called to serve God's people in one form or another. How do we study and preach about feeding poor yet do nothing about it? Faith without deeds is dead. The passage tells us that even the demons believe there is only one God and fear him so what makes us different from them? Christ gives us specific directions on serving His children just as He served us. But just as faith without deeds is dead, so is deeds without faith. Do not atheist perform acts of community service to help their fellow man? We should be doing all of our actions through Christ and to serve Christ.
We are all called to serve Christ and his people. Each of us have a unique calling and need to just stop for a few minutes and listening to what God is calling us to do. People always ask, well how do you know where Christ wants me to go? For me God speaks to me and gives me plans of actions, I know they are God callings because they eat away at me, I know they need to be done, they way on me, like Christ telling me that He gave me these plans for a reason, why have I not began to fulfill them? Stop and take a minute to listen to God and see where He is calling you. There are a lot of people out there who are already living out Christ calling and serving other people! Awesome! Then this post might just serve as a reminder, for others maybe it is a call to arms, to pick up your cross and fulfill your duties. Being Christian isn't just sitting in a building and saying you believe in the Christ Jesus. Being Christian is living a life as Christ lived. It is dying to yourself and your sinful nature and living a life through Him and for Him. Being Christian is serving His people. Christ said "The least you did onto my people the least you did onto me." so go out and serve, finding your calling, obey God and goes where he wants you without hesitation,
I challenge you to take some time out of your week for the next month and find a way to serve Gods people. I will invite you again to help serve at Tims House at Mt Olive on Fridays. It is a great place that mirrors the early churches. It is just one of the many, many, many ways you can give back and serve Gods people. What deeds are you going to preform? Will your faith here on here make Christ except or deny you before our heavenly Father? Just food for thought, we do not know the minute nor the hour that we will be called up, there is not perfect time to start serving, the time is now. Are you ready for it?

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18-7:1

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of the living God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." Therefor come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."

In this passage we see our call to stand out amongst the crowd. We are not to be conformers to the society of sin. It ask us a simple question: how can you clump God in with sin? These are not two things that go hand in hand, God hates sin. This fact is plain and simple and is repeated numerous times through out the bible. We are called to purify out lives and our hearts. We are told that we, not a building, not an object, but us are temples of the Lord. If we are to have Christ the Lord in us, should be no be free from sin, would we not want only the best for our God?
We also see other very important, amazing facts in this passage. God tells us that by freeing out lives from our sinful nature we will become His children! We are God children and He is our father, how amazing is that fact alone. So we must therefor rid ourselves of our sinful nature and live in the Spirit.
Our call to live a holy, clean, untainted life free of sin is no easy task. As mere humans this task is impossible. But through the power of Christ nothing is impossible. He guides us, gives us direction on how to follow him and live a life free of sin. We are told though that we need to live a life 100% free from sin, we can not have God up front and a little bit of sin in the back. A great example I heard was while I was a camp counselor at Urban Camp. They preformed a skit where a father made their child brownies that they loved. There was a special ingredient the dad had added and the children guessed and guessed but couldn't figure out what it was, and eventually dad told them there there was just a little bit of dog poop in the brownies. The children were grossed out that there was even just a little bit of poop in the brownies. Now this story might not make sense to the context of the blog just yet but let me explain. Our lives are like the brownies and the dog poop is the sin. (silly I know haha). But just look, just like it is not ok to have even the smallest bit of dog poop in the brownies it is not ok to have even the smallest amount sin in our lives. Just like we would spit those brownies out Christ tells us that He will spit us out of his mouth and disown us before God the father. We are called to die to sin and be born again in Christ. Small things and a few big things I still strongly struggle with. There is still poop in my brownies, and as I grow closer with understanding of Christ and his call for man, I also understand that to have eternal salvation I need to rid my life of these sinful things, so I ask for you prayers.
Is there poop in your brownies? Are you partaking in sinful activities that you know you shouldn't. We are told to always be on the watch for Christ, we do not know how long we have left on earth. We can not wait till tomorrow to stop our sinful deeds we need to act now. I challenge you to challenge yourself with this serious topic. Are you living the life you know you should be? I know I am not and need a seriously spiritual reality check. Do you?

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Acts 2:42-47

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and good, they gave anyone as they had need. Everyday they meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.

In this passage in Acts we see an example of some of the first Churches. These churches consisted of Christ followers all meeting and devoting themselves to their callings. They all held each other accountable. They were there for each other. They prayed together, they ate together, there was not a single person amongst them who was in need it says. They would meet daily to celebrate Christ, to break the bread together and to pray. These are great examples of what Church should look like.
Often times when we hear the word church we think of the big, pretty building that we attend every Sunday for service. We forget that the church is not the building, the Church is the body of Christ, his people. We need to dig back to the original roots of the church that our brothers and sisters started after Christ death. This past Friday I had the opprotunity to serve the people of Timothy Ministry at: "Tims House". The meeting that I was given the privillage to attend was a great example to me of what church is.
Tims House takes place every Friday and is a place where those who are homeless or in need can come for help. They can come for a meal. They can get help filling out job applications. Most importantly the come together to share the gosple and pray together and for each other. As I sat there watching my new friends talk about their past, and their lives you would think that they would be bitter and angry towards God, but they weren't. They had a sense of joy and understand for Christ that was remarkable. The way they were sharing with each other was great. Although I have only been to one meeting, and know only a glimps of their lives I could sense Christ was amongst them. I continued to hear different stories of how different people were inviting different people to Tims House and that through these invitions people were coming to Christ. God was adding to their numbers daily. Everything that was mentioned in the passage above happened. Let me explain.
As the day progressed people shared the gospel with each other, giving their own interpretation of how that passage applied to their life. We shared a meal together and over that meal their was praise and glory to God and Mrs. Pilar for taking such care and love in preparing their meal. As we prayed the Lord was providing left and right, small miracles were happening. One person got a interview, another person got a call and received the gas money needed to get through their work week. People don't say miracles happen anymore, but just because the seas are parting dosnt mean it's not a miracle and a gracious act of God.
Helping with Tims House was a humbling experience, making me look at my own relationship with God, my life, and Gods people. I challenge you to really read is passage and see what it means to you. Find someone and call or meet with them as often as you can, find out how their doing and if there was anything you could pray for them. I also invite you to come spend some time at Tims House of Fridays. It is at Mt Olive and starts at 10. I know they would love for you to come and hang out!


I pray for you and your walk in Christ.

1 Peter 4:1-11

Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in the reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regards to the spirit. The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others, ad faithful stewards of God's grace in it's various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God if anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised though Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen,


All throughout the new testament we see our call for follow Christ. These calls shares all the same central themes ever time. We are to die to sin and be born again through Christ. We are to suffer as Christ suffered, and show our brothers and sisters the same love that Christ showed us. This passage is no exception to the rules. In this passage in Peter we see what we are called to do in a life in Christ. We are told that we are supposed to share the same mindset as Christ did. Christ suffered in body and so should be. Christ never once said that following him was going to be easy, he warned us ahead of time that people will hate you for it, families with have each other put to death as a result. But Christ also tells us of the greatest reward of all which is salvation through him, an eternal life in Christ.
We are called to die to our sinful nature and be born again through Jesus. But to do this we must give up everything, we must lay to rest our sinful lives that we once lived. We will all be judged accordingly to our lives. Christ gives us all the same message, to those who are saved through Christ and to those who choose not to be. We will all be judged accordingly and justly. We are called to give up our lives of partying, and premarital sex. We are called to stop putting our jobs and family before God. We are called to stop lusting after things that we do not need. This is where slot of us get snagged up. We want to live a life in Christ but we do not want to give up the life we are living. We convince ourselves that we can still live through Christ and in Christ and still party on the weekends, and still be living with out boyfriend/girlfriends and sleeping together before marriage. As my religion teacher, Mr. Lenzini, once described it: we want our relationship with Christ to be like a grocery store. We want to be able to walk down the aisle and pick and choose what is the most suiting to us. But this is not the case. A life in Christ is a all or nothing deal. He wants us to fully follow him and not to do it half heartedly.
As you continue through the passage we then see a call to love each other completely. The bible tells us the love covers a multitude of sin. We then see another call to use the gifts and talents that God has given us. We are all gifted in various ways and we are all called to use these gifts to further the kingdom of God and to serve one another. We all have different passions in this world that the Holy Spirit has placed in our heart on purpose. If you were to come into my house you would see 6 different passions for Gods people: Aunt Karen: cancers. Rachel: childrens cancers and illnesses, Anna: Africa, Uncle Tony: music, Me: helping others to realize their God given gifts and how to use them, as well as children's ministry. I'm my house alone you see a perfect example of just a handful of gifts and passions God has given us. Look around your house, what gifts and passions has God put into your family? Pretty cool huh!
We should always be warm and welcoming to each other showing hospitality to each other. We should always be examples of Christ, always showing love and grace. We are called to live a life in Christ every day and not just on Sundays, it is said that Christ is coming and not a single person, not the heavens not the Son himself knows the minute nor the hour but only God himself. We should always be on watch for Christ.
I think this passage is one that effects not just me but everybody. When trying to live a life in Christ it is hard for us to give up the comforts that we are used to. Over the past year I have not given as much time to Christ that he has called me to. He has placed "jobs" in my heart that need to get done that I have not given enough attention to. As I begin to find what it is required to live a life in Christ the more I realized how much more I need to devote to him. And the more I find this out the more the devil attacks my heart and ambitions. It went as far as the devil attacking my dreams of youth ministry. While I was at Urban Camp the devil continued to torment my mind making me think I was not cut out to do children's ministry. I actually heard myself think: you suck at this, why and who could I ever think I was cut out to bring children to Christ. But luckly through my prayers, and the prayers of my friends and family I pushed past those attacks and had an amazing week. With the path I am on I am happy that I have a job that allows me to get the time off to serve him for things such as VBS and Urban Camp. I am even happier to say that I get Fridays off every week (starting next month) to help with the Tims House Ministy and then help with Kids Klub (which I am super excited about ask anybody!) Christ works in crazy ways, we just need to stop for a few minutes to listen. I challenge you to take a few minutes and evaluate your relationship with him. Is it what you are being called to do? Are you using the Holy Spirits gifts to the best of their abilities? Are you showing loving compassion you are supposed to be showng? I know I need alot of work, so I asked for your prayers.

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Philippians 1:3-9

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,being confident of this, that he who began good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for weather I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ -to the glory and praise of God.

Praises be to God, Christ Jesus and all of Gods holy people! In this passage we see Paul giving praise to the Phillipians for the continual work in spreading the gospel message. He is giving them a blessing that God works through them as the continue to spread the message of Christ. That they may be able to travel with pure hearts not holding fault to those they may encounter. He holds God as his witness that he is sincere in his letter to them, that through Christ they share the same grace.
Do we know others that are constantly out there preaching the gospel, or living a life that Christ calls us to live? Who is that person in your life that you look up to as Christ example in your life? I urge to continue to pray for them, our bothers and sisters in Christ are very important people in our life. These are the people who hold us accountable for our actions, help us to stay on a direction path to God, they are Christ on earth for us. Pray for these people, turn to these people.
In my life there are a few strong Christ filled people in my life that are always there for me and continue to help me through life when I am struggle to always reach for Christ. The first is a friend from Church, the youth pastor, Tim. I have already mentioned him in a few other post so you might already know the significance of this friendship. Although I have only known Tim for a little over a year and a half he was the one who brought me to Christ. He continually checks on my directions in life and pushes me toward God. The second person is my Uncle Tony. When I was growing up I never would have thought that I would eventually be living in his house, or have deep heartfelt conversations with him about Christ. Over the past year I have gotten to know my uncle on a deep spiritual relationship as I opened up to him about my path to Christ, coming to find out we both had a lot of the same struggles. I love to watch him at church as he leads worship for the service and his heart for Christ. One of the strongest things that stands out to me is when he prays. Countless times my Uncle has prayed over me, and each time you feel the Holy Spirit working directly through him. These are just two people in my life that are my spiritual support and without them life would be just a little it harder.
God puts people into your life with a purpose. You never know quite who could walk into your life and how they might shake things up. The Phillipians were just some of the Pauls support in sharing the gospel. Who is your support? I challenge you right now email, Facebook, text or call whoever is Christ in your life right now and just thank them for being such a strong influence in your life. Ask them if there is anything you can pray with them for. These relationship are dire and a special gift from God.

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Colossians 4:2-6

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too, that God may open a door to our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

In this passage Paul is writing to the Colossians while he awaits trials in jail. He is asking for their prayers for himself and others followers of Christ who are sharing the message of Christ. He is urging them to devote themselves to prayer, asking them to pray that the message of Christ might be spread freely and openly. He is also asking that they pray the the Holy Spirit work through him that he will be able to know what to say to those he is preaching. He then goes on to tell the Colossians that they need to make the most of every opportunity because you never know who might be watching. That they should speak to others with grace and understanding.
This request from Paul to the Colossians is something that we can do today. We should be praying for those Christians who are being persecuted today all over the world, just for spreading Christ message. We should be praying for those missionaries who are doing the Lords work every day of their lives. We should be praying for "secret churches" who have to meet privately to share the gospel knowing that if they are caught, they will be put to death. We should also be praying for ourselves that the Holy Spirit works in us and through us, that we may be able to share Christ with those we encounter, and do it in the way necessary to the listener.
We should be making the most of every encounter in life we have, we do not know the impact it may have on others. In high school, with the help of a few friends, I started a group called:A.R.K. It stood for acts of random kindness. If you have ever watched Even Almighty then you will know where I stole the name from haha. But the point of the group was that you never know how one event might effect and change somebodies life. An event as simple as opening the door for somebody could change their attitude for the entire day making their day more productive and positive. Eventually, through the grace of God the group was developed into the high schools community service program. We are told to make the most of every opportunity because you never know what kind of Christ encounter we might have. We do not know with who we will have the opportunity to share the gospel with today. Pray that the Holy Spirit moves in you to share the gospel with somebody you might not of thought of before
I challenge you for the rest of the week to pray, seriously pray for those who are being persecuted for following Christ. Then pray for the Holy Spirit to work through you, moving you to share the gospel with someone, or to be more Christ like. That the Holy Spirit works through you that people might look at you and think, there is something seriously different about the person, I like it, I wonder what it is.

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.

Ephesians 6:5-8

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey the not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your hearts. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not man, because you know the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, wether he is a slave or free.



In this passage in Ephesians it talks about our attitude while we are at work. We are called to conduct our jobs to the best of our God given ability. As long as the rules of our job are within Christs law, we are to abide by them. We are to be always to do our best, working as if we were working for God. Not only will this give us favor in our employers eye, making us look good, but it also is another was to glorify God. We are called to be examples of Christ and to bring His word to others, and where do we spend the majority of our lives: at work. By working hard at our everyday jobs people will begin to take notice. Remember when receiving praise from those around you we must give the praise and credit to God our Father.
If you want to look at it simply from a human earthly prospective, by always doing your work to the best of your ability, don't you think that this would better your chances for a better position. But that is just one..little...small...kinda wrong way looking at this passage. We should always be doing our best at everything we do in life to glorify God. Our jobs are just one aspect of our life that we need to excel. We are called to be the best son, the best father or mothers, the best at our hobbies and talents to the best of our God given ability.
Another aspect of this passage is the we are servants of Christ. We are slaves to him, and we are to be doings Gods will from our hearts. This is a crazy concept to some of us, slave, who would want to be a slave? Well, as Christians we should be the first ones with our hands up. A slave is somebody who is owned by another person, who have no control of their own life, who owns nothing. We are slaves to God. We are called to give our lives totally and fully to God...every aspect of it. This is a hard thing for us to comprehend, and something I will discuss in a different post more in depth. But we are called to serve our bosses and our Lord, through Gods will, and with Gods will from our hearts.
I like this passage, it is one of my favorite. It I think of it daily as I go through every flight. Remembering that I am working for God and not for man. When the days get tough I know that I am to trudge through. This does not stop me from moaning and groaning about how unhappy I am from time to time though. (Just ask anybody in my house haha) This short coming is something that I need to work on to better myself with God and with my company. Although I already go out of my way for my job to make people's flights just a little bit better, there is still so much that I can improve on.
No matter what profession you are: a flight attendant, nurse, doctor, pastor, bag boy, or whatever you may be doing there we are always to be working for God. I challenge you for the rest of your week, before you get out of the car for work thank God for all he has given you. Then think about your day and what you are going to be doing, and figure out how you are going to do it to best of your ability. Make the rest of this week count.

I pray for you and your walk with Christ.