A Place in History

Yesterday I was listening to a sermon by Steve Lawson. It was a sermon in his Reformation series. I love learning about history, and it's always blown me away to look at how God used men like Martin Luther and John Calvin to change the world. One thing that stuck out to me that Lawson mentioned is that everyone has a place in history.
He went on to say that every little detail is just as important in the big picture. And it's so true, if the little things didn't happen in history, nothing would have ever happened. It's the little things that make up the big things.
I never really thought of that. I have always felt that there are two groups of Christians in the world. The ones who God uses to change the world, and the ones who are just there, trying to live faithfully in Christ. But now that I think about it, maybe I was wrong.
There are many great men, strong men of God who will not be known to the world. They are the men and women who God will use to shape and mold the people who He will one day raise up.
God might not use you to change the world, or to lead a Reformation, but he may indeed use you to change a person. Isn't that incredible to think about? Each and every one of us has his or her role in history.
Perhaps you will be one of the men or women who God raises up for something. And perhaps you will be one of the names mentioned in a man or woman's journal, because you have greatly impacted their lives. And you may never know that you were used to mold someone into who God wanted them to be.
Isn't that something incredible to think about though? It blows my mind away just to think about it!
Each one of us has a place in history.

God Bless,
  A.W.

"Jesus promises you two things: a cross to die on and eternal life."

God Bless,
  A.W.

Why Not Me?

Last week while working on an outline, I kept thinking of what God used to save me. God used a heretic who has led many people astray with his false teachings. I know so many people who have accepted his teachings. It breaks my heart at what this man had done. I deserved to be led astray by that man, just like so many of my friends have. The question that will never leave my mind is, 'Why not me?'.
I didn't know any theology when I first became a Christian. I was so vulnerable to be led astray by that man. I should have been led astray like so many others. I don't understand why God didn't let me though.
It breaks me to see the man's ministry flourish, and to know that more people are being led astray. And to know that I should have been one of those people.
I deserved to be led astray. I would have definitely learned the hard way to know the importance of theology.
I wish I could only know the answer to that question. Why not me? It's been running through my mind all this weekend. Why not me? Why not me, O God?
I don't understand why God would save a wretched sinner such as me, and I don't understand why He kept me from the heresy that the man was preaching.
When I tell people my testimony I can't help but feel that they don't understand it really.
It's hard to know that the heretic who God used to save me has led some of my dear friends astray.
That's what grace is though.
God has given me so much grace in my life! Saving me from myself! Breaking my addictions! Showing me the truth through a man's lies! God has been so gracious to me, to give me the right theology. To keep me from falling into heresy.
But still the question will always remain: Why not me?

The Holocaust

Yesterday I went to The Museum of Tolerance. There were many different exhibits, but we chose to just go to the one about the Holocaust. It was definitely interesting. We had to go through the whole thing with a guide. She explained everything to us, though she did leave some important things out like why Hitler wanted to kill all of the Jews. She just said because he hated them. One thing that she kept mentioning was the children, and how they were killed. She kept mentioning how terrible it was that the Nazi killed them.
At the beginning, one woman started the intro, and first off mentioned the children, and that at least a million were killed. She said it as if it were the most heinous crime in the world. And I'm not saying that it wasn't. But while she was talking, I wanted to ask her if it bothered her that we Americans do the same thing. But I didn't.
Throughout the whole tour, I kept thinking about how they kept mentioning the children dying. They acted as if there was a huge difference between us and the Nazis.
But they have failed to realize that we are no better than they were. We kill babies all the time! And the same women and doctors who make the choice to kill babies are the same people who look back at the holocaust and feel pity on all of the children who died! Think of that! They are pitying children who died years ago, and now they choose to put their own children to death! How sick is that?

Once in the tour, our tour guide told us a story about some Jews who had a child and they had to leave it in a room, and leave. But when they came back, the Nazis started throwing the babies out the window and into an open truck to kill them. And the parents had to watch the entire horrific scene.
It is a terrible thing. But how can I think that the Nazis were any worse than us? We are no better! We kill babies every day! By our own choice, not someone else's!
In the 40s I am sure that a mother would never even think of having an abortion on any child whether she didn't mean to have one or not.
More babies are killed a year in America than children who died in the holocaust. Shouldn't that effect us somehow? Shouldn't it make us sick and disgusted?
Going through the whole tour made me not so sick at the Nazis but at my own country, America.
How sick can the events of the Holocaust make you be when you compare it to the things that Americans do every day?

God Bless,
  A.W.

David Brainerd

Yesterday I started reading The Life and Diary of David Brainerd on my Kindle. I have never read a man's journal/autobiography that writes so much about his own sinfulness compared to God's holiness.
It astonished me how little of a self-esteem he had. I mean, nowadays it's all about self-esteem. The world is telling us not to put ourselves down, we need to believe in ourselves, we need to have faith in ourselves. It's all about self-esteem in our day. And while reading Brainerd's entries it feels so different, it would seem so foreign to the world. In almost every entry that I have read so far he writes about how he is powerless and wicked in his heart.
There are not very many people who write like that nowadays. Consider part of his journal:


"I seem to be declining, with respect to my life and warmth in divine things; had not so free access to God in prayer as usual of late. O that God would humble me deeply in the dust before him! I deserve hell every day, for not loving my Lord more, who has, I trust, loved me, and given himself for me; and every time I am enabled to exercise any grace renewadly indebted to the God of all grace for special assistance. Where then is boasting? Surely it is excluded, when we think how we are dependent on God for the being and every act of grace. Oh, it ever I get to heaven, it will be because God's will, and nothing else; for I never did any thing of myself, but get away from God! My soul will be astonished at the unsearchable riches of divine grace, when I arrive at the mansions, which the blessed Saviour is gone before to prepare."

Consider that. And consider Brainerd's age when he wrote that! He was in his early twenties. How many of you know a young person who can write like that? Something that deep and beautiful?
You probably don't know many, if not any at all.
Not only is the world teaching the younger generations to have a high self-esteem, but they are teaching them to stay children even in the twenties. The world is teaching them to have parties and play video games all day; to stay a child as long as possible.
I think we need to take a look at David Brainerd and the young men and women before us who ignored what the world pressed at them and instead fixed their gaze to God.


God Bless,
  A.W.

Herold Camping

Many of you already know that Herold Camping has predicted the world to end today.
It might be fun to joke about it and such, but in reality, it is a serious thing.
I do not believe that the world will end today, but there are many people who do. And they need prayer.
There is no doubt in my mind that people will become suicidal after they realize the world isn't ending.
I know that one church in CA is going to try and reach out to his followers. Thank God for them.
But his followers do need prayer. So please keep them in your prayers.

God Bless,
  A.W.

Theologians

It seems like most of the time Christians don't see the need for theology. Some Christians think that one can't love theology and evangelism at the same time.
I think that many Christians have misunderstood.
When I first became a Christian I didn't think that theology was important at all. I just thought that theology was something for preachers like Phil Johnson and John MacArthur.
But then God brought people into my life to challenge my beliefs, and I was not ready to give an answer.
So many times I have heard the excuse that, "If you like or study theology then you will be puffed up and arrogant."
Just because the Bible warns of that happening, doesn't mean that you can just apply that to everyone who enjoys the study of theology. Yes, it can make one prideful. But for the most part, I find people who, the more that they study theology, the more they have a lower view of man and a higher view of God.
I've also found that others in the church think that theology isn't as important as evangelism so they have an excuse not to study it.
How wrong they are!
And so often the people who think that theology and evangelism cannot go hand-in-hand preach a false Gospel to the unconverted! To evangelize we must preach the true and saving Gospel, not a false, man-centered one.
Theology is necessary for evangelism, and for your everyday walk with God.
Without theology in evangelism we come out with the teaching of, "God loves you, He died for the sins of the entire world, all you have to do is say a little prayer, and accept Jesus into your heart, and then you have a free ticket to Heaven!"
That's what these churches are going around preaching right now. Not even the Gospel! Without hell, sin, the justice and grace of God, and repentance, it's not the True Gospel!
Without theology we have ended up like this. Theology is so important, and yet so many people refuse to study their Bible.
So many of us Christians have missed that: Just like every Christian should be an Evangelist, every Christian should be a Theologian.

God Bless,
   A.W.