How To Live - Guidance from Scripture

Guidance for Christians:

Galatians 2:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  
21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Life by the Spirit (Galatians 5)

16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Job 2:10 He said to her, "You're talking like a godless fool. We accept the good that God gives us. Shouldn't we also accept the bad?" Through all this Job's lips did not utter one sinful word.

Proverbs 6: There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:

17haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

18a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

19a false witness who pours out lies

and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Warning Against Adultery: My son, keep your father’s commands
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.  In Matthew 5:28 Jesus goes even further and says: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Listening and Doing (Pure & faultless Religion)

James 1:19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

1 Thessalonians 4: 11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

1 Timothy 2: 1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Matthew 22: The Greatest Commandment

34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^b 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?

41While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

43He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’

45If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.
(The Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5)

HARRY POTTER & a quote from President Lincoln

HARRY POTTER book and movie series

“In the Christian community, Harry Potter has become something of a litmus test,” she said about both sides. ”One of the things I love about the whole Harry Potter phenomenon is that families are getting excited about reading books together.”

Not a Bad Series. One Christian who’s troubled by the Harry Potter debate is Mark Shea, an evangelical who became a Roman Catholic about twenty years ago. Shea recently published an essay, “Harry Potter and the Christian Critics,” on the weblog for First Things magazine. In this brisk essay, Shea confronts every major criticism aimed at the Potter series, including occultism, Gnosticism, irreligion and the death of God, and moral problems (such as Harry’s lying). Shea told the Journal he wrote the essay because “I’ve gotten tired of people talking as though your views on Harry Potter are an article of faith.”

Shea is especially pithy on charges of occultism. He writes,

The simple fact is this: The books are not occultic. Magic is not real, as Rowling repeatedly has had to state to interviewers who ask her if she “believes” in it. The magic of Harry is, as John Granger points out, “incantational,” not “invocational,” exactly like the magic of Gandalf. Born with the talent for magic, Gandalf says the magic words and fire leaps forth from his staff, just as from Harry’s wand. No principalities or powers are invoked in HP. Indeed, if any words are “invocational” they are the prayer to Elbereth and Gilthoniel uttered in Middle Earth. Yet nobody accuses Tolkien of promoting the worship of false gods. That’s because we understand Tolkien’s fictional sub-creation and its rootedness in Christian thought. I suggest Christian critics try to extend Rowling the same charity.

Shea’s essay makes clear that criticism of the Potter series is not limited to evangelical Protestants. Catholic novelist Michael O’Brien is a proponent of the view that the Potter series actually is an elaborate Gnostic myth. Shea counters: “Dumbledore’s consolation to Harry is that ‘it is our choices’—far more than our abilities—that really matter. And Harry’s choices concern, not ‘secret knowledge,’ but deeply human things such as love, mercy, forgiveness, courage, loyalty, and fidelity. None of this is gnostic.”

“It’s very disturbing to me, as a Catholic, to see Catholics not getting it,” Shea told the Journal. Shea believes nevertheless that evangelicals bear some of the responsibility for anti-Potter arguments. “I think there’s a fear of the Incarnation out there,” he said. “If you let characters be what they are, rather than pitchmen for the Four Spiritual Laws, you’re getting off the program.”

What’s the Trouble With Harry? Shea said he too felt some caution when he first heard about the Potter series. “I was a typical parent when the books first came out,” he said, recalling his initial response as, “Another book about witches—great. But I read the first book, and at about three chapters into it I decided that this was nothing to worry about.”

Ten years after Rowling’s first novel appeared, with her last Potter novel completed and the film series trotting along at an efficient pace, Shea said he hopes believers will not only show Christian charity toward the author, but toward one another. He shudders at the thought of how many anti-Potter books have been written by Christians. “People are going to be reading the Potter books in a hundred years,” he said, and when they see anti-Potter books, they’re most likely to ask, “What was that all about?”

— portions from Douglas LeBlanc article at equip.org

Mark’s Analysis:  I loved the books and read and watched them with my kids.  I saw more of the Christian parallels than my kids did. Such as Love is the greatest power in the universe.  Plot to overcome evil one.  The struggles of families, school, games, choices having consequences, overcoming evil, helping friends, honor, trust, giving, revenge, bitterness, hate, greed, etc.  Its all there.  Good vs Evil packed in a great story and great characters.  The way I see it; Those who actually watch it or read it see the good in it.; Neutral people know nothing of it except what they hear and should not make judgment unless they read it themselves.  All others fall into a category I call :Legalistic critics - who have their own agendas ahead of time and don’t really let themselves get into the characters and just enjoy the movies;  they see what they want to see – a bad evil book/movie.  I pity them.    

Abraham Lincoln put it this way:  “If you look the for the bad in mankind, you will surely find it.” 

The Ten Commandments - Mark's Analysis

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 & Deuteronomy 5)

And God spoke all these words:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.(1)

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.(2)

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.(3)

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.(4)

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.(5)

“You shall not murder.(6)

“You shall not commit adultery.(7)

“You shall not steal.(8)

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.(9)

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”(10)

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Mark’s Analysis:  When you read the Exodus version and then the Deuteronomy version you realize God had made the event personal for them.  He added their recent exodus out of Egypt experience as a special note on why they should observe the Sabbath day.  God told them to remember and recall what he had done for them recently so they would stay on the correct path and not stray away and start sinning again.  Here are God’s own words: “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!”  

SPECIAL NOTE for those wanting to go deeper into Gods word: 
Just as God told them to look back and remember what he had done for them. When
Jesus finally came in the fullness of time and died on the cross and rose again the 3^rd day these events were pivotal in the history of mankind and Gods plan to restore paradise lost.  Thus the disciples changed to Sabbath from Saturday which God has established back at the creation of the mankind (Adam & Eve) to Sunday in recognition of Jesus supreme greatness and fulfillment of old testament prophecy.  Only an event of this magnitude  God becoming flesh and becoming the ultimate sacrificial lamb of God to buy back spiritual life for all mankind (past, present, & future).  That’s what I call power! I can apprehend such greatness, but I cannot fully comprehend it.  Its beyond the can of mortal man.  Jesus fulfilled the old testament law and we are now under the new covenant sealed and activated by his shed blood and broken body on the cross of Calvary.  The result is that we now live under GRACE not law.  Those who come to Jesus and surrender their lives by faith and trust in who he is and what he did on the cross immediately become a child of God grafted into the seed of Abraham; child of god; part of the kingdom of God destined for eternity with God in the new heaven and new earth.  The Holy Bible says it this way 1 Cor 2: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 

The process of How we must learn and grow - there are no short cuts!

When learning and growing in anything physical, mentally, or spiritually we must take it in stages.  Math is a great example – you cannot do advanced math without first learning basic concept like order of operations (multiply & divide before add & subtract)  without basic rules to apply we can go no further in the learning/growing process and expect good results.  If we press on without those rules we end up with error – that error begets another error and so on until down the line you think your progressing and all the while your’re so far off the mark its insane and to make it worse you don’t even realize it because you still hold to the original errors you began with. Suffices to say TRUTH is an important starting point.

Getting back to the correct path –  for instance once you know that Jesus is your savior and you’ve given him your life and are living for God and seeking to build his kingdom/church something happens.  Things like prayer and quiet time and attending church to grow and sharpen each other and work to positively influence the society you live in daily come very naturally.  But to those on the outside looking in – it seems foolish and unpractical.  Why is that?  Its because they never got the basics of Christianity properly explained to them and have not accepted it as their own as a true Christian does.  Talk to someone about calculus who has not even taken basic algebra and they will not follow hardly a word you say.  Not that they could never learn it, but at this point in time they simply are ignorant on that subject.  Even though God has written his law on all mens hearts they need to seek that truth and build on it and apply it to their life if they ever expect to get any reward and benefit from it.  Its like having a car in the garage and never driving it.  God is not far from anyone, but they must seek him and his truth like buried treasure – Jesus said: So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Luke 11). 

So you see we need to progress in life gradually, not all at once. Accepting Jesus as your savior may be an exception to this though because until you get saved you cannot become that New Creation spoken of in the Bible.  It's nonsense to unbeleivers;  Born again; saved; redeemed are all the same thing meaning you repent of your sinful ways and through faith surrender your life to Jesus asking Him to come into your life and be your Lord and Master; It's not blind faith but faith in what Scripture says Christ did for all mankind and proved by the testimony of thousands in Bible and Millions who have come after and still follow him today.  There is so much more I could say about salvation but that is it in a nutshell.   Most things worth having take time and effort including our relationship with God as well as family and friends. Jesus was God himself in the flesh and only had time for a dozen close friends besides his family.  Yes he had hundreds if not thousands of acquaintences and people he ministered to but his close long term relationships were limited as they must be for all of us if we are to do His will and keep our sanity in the process.  Much of the joy in life is not in the having but in the wanting which God places in our hearts and we must respond to. Then and only then do we look back and realize the wanting motivated you toward the goal that put you on the journey that directed your entire life hopefully with God's direction and guidance.  Strangely enough the hard times are as needful as the good times to weave God's plan in our lives.

Have you ever noticed that circumstances good or bad have very little to due with true inner joy and peace.  Emotions on the other hand go way up and down through circumstances of life, but with God the joy and peace remain through them all IF our minds are stayed on Jesus.  He is our only hope and it is a sure statement: we can do nothing without Jesus!  To any non-Christian reading this I realize that statement has little meaning, but to growing Christians its basic and understood clearly.

The Titanic is another analogy I like to use. It's destiny was the bottom of the ocean just like all people are doomed to hell or everlasting separation from God.  The only solution is to change course or get into a life boat (both options referring to Jesus of course).  Lives lived well by human standards but without Jesus salvation is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (ultimately pointless) - things may make you comfortable or look pretty for a while but doom looms on the horizon unless you take action to permanently fix your situation.

Jesus told stories (Parables) to help people of his day relate to truth (Read Acts thru Jude; the Matthew Mark Luke and John; then Genesis thru Malachi; then Revelation which can only be understood in light of the rest of Scripture.

Story of Joseph how it parallels Jesus story of redemption - one of my favorite passages in Scripture in the later part of Genesis.

Liar Lunatic Lord – only options - Many authors have used this analogy and I agree with it.  Your definition of good is critical and the Lunatic category includes anyone who isn't thinking straight and logically;  When Jesus uses the term good when he said "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." If you are a Christian you know the answer that no one can keep the commandments thus we are all doomed unless we repent of our sinful ways & accept the sacrifice Jesus made at the cross of Calvary and ask Him to save us - one way you know when people have done this is that they declare in publicly to friends and family and neighbors.  Public declaration doesn't actually have anything to do with you actually getting saved, but simply is a proof that you have been.  It's like good works in Jesus name.  They don't have anything to do with God's love for you or getting saved yet they are a sign that you actually have been saved.  You say all this can be faked and you would be correct but to what point.  Why live like that and miss the reward at the end which is eternal life with God and wonders untold that go with that.  It doesn't make sense though I agree it does happen.  Judas was a prime example of what not to do.  He could have freely had all that the other disciples took hold of yet he never did.  He physically & emotionally experienced all the same miracles and talks and persecution the other disciples went through yet somehow he never truly repented & surrendered his heart to Jesus.  It should be very sobering to all of us to be sure we don't fall into that category of looking like a follower like Judas yet our hearts being far from Him.  Liar Lunatic Lord argument goes like this:  Jesus without a doubt claimed to be God in the flesh so that being said all mankind must individually make a choice concerning that FACT.  Either Jesus is who He said he was and we must repent and fully surrender our lives to Him and do what He said to do with our lives.  The ONLY!!!!!! other options open to us to believe are that Jesus was a LIAR and was not God and as a result very evil to have lied and decieved mankind; or your last option is that Jesus was a madman or Lunatic and didn't know he was telling an untruth about himself.  You may ask why are those my only options Why can't I just believe he was a good teacher and guru of some sort;  the reason those are NOT OPTIONS you have on the table to believe because LOGIC and Reason dictate against them.  In the prologue I stated that logic and your defintion of good where critical to this arguement.  If Jesus clearly and without question claimed to be God and He did-- then Logic dictates if you beleive he is not god then you cannot simultaneously believe he is a good man or prophet from God.  A real prophet from God and good teacher would not lie about himself.  So you see you cannot have it both ways to comfort your soul.  God doesn't want us to be comfortable or at peace except in our relationship with Him and even there where we are completely unconditionaly loved and saved God expects great things of us and obediance and letting Jesus love flow to the world through us.  We are His hands and feet in this world.
We disobey at our own risk and are held responsible for the influence we have on others during our lifetime -- if that's not sobering I don't know what is.  None of us knows when God will call us to give account -- and this mortal life will end, but it could be this very day - when this mortal life is through may you be found in Jesus our only hope and stay.  John 3

Many copies will give you the original.  Of the 5-6 thousand manuscripts that still exist of the Scriptures obviously we don't have the originals yet through what the experts call tenacity of the texts the original emerges.  What this means is that when you compare copies with other copies the autograph will emerge because not all scribes and copiers made the same mistakes and spelling errors etc.  Thus we can conclude that though none of the manuscripts today are identical by comparing them the meaning and original wording emerge which is what is important; not that we have a memorex tape of what Jesus actually said but that we understand the message.  Even the Bible itself tells us that there are countless talks and miracles done by Jesus that were never written down. But we have what God deemed enough and what mankind would need to have a relationship with God if you want one.  Luke 16:31 says: 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

All religions and philosophy's believe they have found the truth of man's existence and how to deal with hard questions about the meaning of life and purpose etc.  But if you think about it - logically there can only be one completely true answer.  If I say 1 +1 = 2, and another says 1+1 = 5 we cannot both be correct.  One is truth on which you can build further.  The other is error which will only beget further error no matter how true to additional beliefs are that you add onto it.  Thus the reason Satan sprinkles bits of truth into all his evil schemes and propaganda to keep people from a relationship with Jesus Christ who alone can redeem them.