He is Risen!

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!
Just writing that makes me want to jump for joy! Why? Because I know that my Redeemer lives! HE LIVES!! The one who has pulled us up from the grave and washed our guilty stains away with His own precious blood has overcome sin's punishment, yes, even death itself! And for this we will praise  Him in eternity!

Our church service was a different type of sermon this morning. The pastor drifted from the common and normal passages and themes to address a question that we maybe have lost sight of the answer for. He posed the following question: What was the point of Christ death and resurrection?

Of course it was to cleanse us from our sins and to satisfy the wrath of our loving, yet just, God. But yet, what was the motive behind this?

The obvious answer is God's endless and abounding love for His children. However, there is a desire that runs parallel to this attribute. In the book of John, chapter six, verse forty, Jesus was speak about How He is the Bread of Life. He said this "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:40 ESV). Jesus clearly states that His Father's will is that all believers should gain everlasting life with the Father and Son in Heaven. However, because there had been no atoning sacrifice, eternity the great Holy of Holies, or Heaven, was not possible.

God wants His followers, that had already passed on and who were yet to be born for generations to come, to be with Him in paradise for His glory. Christ death permitted that. He cried "it is finished" and the curtain was torn exposing the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle to anyone to enter, thus showing that His Son's death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice and sinful man's debt was paid and he could enter into the presence of his Maker.

Rejoice, fellow Christians, because God has made a way to Him through Jesus Christ, His only Son! Amen!
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Changing gears, you probably noticed that this is the first time the DC team has posted anything on this blog in over a year! We apologize for the inconsistency and are happy to announce that this Easter, to commemorate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, we are bring the Dedicated Christians blog back to life again as well!

Some of the original authors have moved on, but we are also bringing in new blood to give you a fresh perspective. We also want to give a big thank you and shout out to Josiah, the original administrator of this blog. He has moved on from this part of his life and is seeking the Lord where God has him now.  In his place, the other Matthew on the team, Master Matthew Wood, has stepped up to serve as administrator! I would also like to recognize the rest of the team that has been part of the posting in the past! They have offered so much to making this blog what is is! Thank you!

As I said, we will be enacting new authors, so it may be some time before we start getting back into a regular posting schedule, but we will be doing our best! If you desire to see this blog advance and are willing to help, we ask that you consider becoming an author. If you are interested, you can email the team at dedicatedchristians@gmail.com.

We look forward to presenting you with God's word as He speaks to our hearts through His Word!

Have a blessed Easter and remember to rejoice in The Lord always for HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Matt Dustin for Dedicated Christians

What is the point of Easter?

What is the point of Easter? Is it to celebrate with family and friends, eating chocolate and candy, collecting little plastic eggs? No... It's about the wonderful news that our Lord and Savior is risen! :-) Jesus has risen and is with us today, everyday!

Matthew 28:1-8
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightening, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shoot for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you." So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

May you all have a wonderful day, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

God bless,
Dedicated Christians

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas is over. The presents are all in use and you might want to stay up late and watch some glass ball thing fall on New Year's Eve. You also might be working on your New Year Resolutions. As Christians, what should be our resolutions as we go into 2012? I want to present to you today 3 points that you should add.

We should read our Bibles.

Reading our Bibles is known theologically as "special revelation," the way God reveals Himself to us. It is a sure way to draw us closer to Him. So I challenge you to consider a yearly Bible reading plan with me. If you'd like to do this, please leave a comment so that we can keep each other accountable to it. Or if you'd like, you can send me an email at dedicatedchristians@gmail.com.

We should pray.

Where are you in your prayer life? Do you really believe that God answers prayers? Well, He does. He's answered many prayers in my life, even for small things that most people would think God doesn't care about. He really does care about you and what your individual needs are. Praying is our way of talking to God, a direct line, if I may. Praying is another vital part of the Christian life.

And last, but not least...

We should reflect on and share the news of Jesus Christ.

When people look at us, we want them to see Jesus shining through us and His joy radiating from us. This is also vital. Acts 4:13 says: "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Do you want that to be said of you? That you were with Jesus and people could see Him through you?

Not only should people "see" Jesus in us, but we should "tell" them the Good News! We do this by witnessing every chance we get.

Contrary to popular belief, we do need to change. As Christians, we continually go through the sanctification process. We are changed to become more like Christ. Through the things I have discussed above, you can cultivate a deeper relationship with Christ.

I challenge you today to include these into your resolution-- that you'll read your Bible, pray, and reflect Jesus by sharing the Good News.

If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, feel free to contact me through my email address (above) and I'll try and help answer any questions you may have.

God Bless, and Happy New Year!

Matthew

dedicatedchristians@gmail.com

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Christmas is a time to celebrate the time of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!

A long time ago, I decided to see if Christmas was biblical to celebrate. Now, I’m not talking about the gifts, Christmas tree, and other traditions people have for the holiday. I’m talking about the celebration of Jesus’s birth. Should we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ? Does the Bible clearly say we should?

I asked several people for their comments on the question, and I got some pretty awesome results.

A fellow blogger and friend said this:

So CHRISTmas..... Well, you have probably heard the whole Christmas tree subject discussed in reference to Jeremiah 10... I think it's pretty obvious that it's talking about an idol, not a tree, but a carved wooden image. I don't think it's wrong to have a tree, but I don't particularly like the idea of it just because; it distracts from Christ,
fake trees are ugly, and real ones are expensive,
if you can't have Christmas without it, then it IS an idol, what's the point?,
and why can't we pick something like a Nativity scene instead?!

I think Christmas started up north somewhere, maybe Iceland?? When these pagan people got saved, and the Christian leaders made up a holiday during "Yuletide" (or whatever it's called, that probably isn't it! ;) called "Christmas" so that the people wouldn't want to join the pagan celebration. Of course it's hard to know because there are so many different supposed origins of Christmas that it gets confusing, as my comment is probably becoming about now...

The thing is, I don't think that the Bible clearly supports (or is against) celebrating Christmas. So, since there is no Biblical proof, I think it is up to each person to know what God is telling them they should do.
Of course we know that Jesus wasn't even born in December, but in the fall, more like around September or October, during the Feast of Tabernacles. So it's weird that we celebrate it on a totally wrong date. I guess we Christians could really be rebels and celebrate then...

ANYWAYS..... Yeah. I don't think it's wrong or right, really. Except Santa is disgusting, and too much spotlight is given to the gifts. It seems right (to me, personally) that we would want to celebrate the day that our Lord was born, just like we celebrate the day He died/rose.

This helped me determine where Christmas started from, and when is became a holiday. I looked more closely into the subject I am amazed at some of the facts I learned. I learned most of these facts at a site I used for college; http://www.history.com/topics/christmas. Like the comments above, this holiday, “Christmas” it started in Germany, and several places in Europe. Now, this day was not celebrated for Jesus, instead, it was celebrated for their pagan god Oden. The time was set to celebrate Oden, during December, because that was when the farmers would have the most meat (from cows that they slaughtered for food) and didn’t have much work to do. In Rome, they would celebrate two pagan gods, the planet Saturn, and Mithra (and infant god born from a rock). December 25^th was the day Rome, celebrated Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun.

So, this gives a little information about how the holiday got started. When Rome and Europe were celebrating these holidays, America was yet to be colonized.

This brings me to my next point. Christians did not celebrate Christmas, instead they only celebrated Easter. Which the Bible, 2^nd Timothy: 8-9, says that we need to remember Jesus’s death and resurrection. So Easter was started for the remembrance of His death and resurrection.

Jesus wasn’t even born during the December 25^th, so why do we celebrate it then? Well, Christians in the past didn’t want to celebrate pagan gods; however, they too had an abundance of food and time to celebrate. So they decided to celebrate their God, Jesus, who was born. So that’s how Christmas got started, and this I believe is glorifying the Lord in a remarkable way.

I will now share with you another comment from another friend:

I did some research on the topic of Christmas last year and did a little more now. I do think some of the parts of Christmas came from wrong origins but overall I think it's a good thing. But in the last year I've found the terrible effects of taking "Christ" out of CHRISTmas. Many companies will not allow their ads to say Christmas in it, instead it has to be "Happy Holidays." It's really sad. Below is a segment of a blog post (that never actually got published) I wrote a while ago, I don't know if I agree with it all now, but I think it's good food for thought.

"...The birth of our Lord Jesus was an amazing thing. A group of people have decided to make December 31 the day we celebrate his birth. All of the things signify something in our holiday.

·         The tree (What Jesus did on the cross)

·         Lights and ornaments (representational of the glory and wonder of what Jesus did on the cross)

·         The gifts (God gave us the gift of Jesus on his birth, the wise men gave Jesus presents, and Jesus also gave us the gift of salvation on the tree. We continue the tradition by following in the joy of giving gifts)

As for "Santa," I've heard about the "Satan" thing before and I believe it may have turned into that. The following quote illustrates what I mean.

"...Young children sometimes confuse Santa with Jesus Christ since "he knows when you've been sleeping, he knows when you're awake, and he knows if you've been bad or good . . .

The idea of gifts for good behavior can connote a "reward for good deeds" mentality which is opposed to God's gift of His Son through faith. Scripture does promise rewards for obedience."

And later on the same page:

"The Santa Clause idea originated with a man by the name of St. Nicholas who was the Bishop of Myra in Lycia in the area of present day Turkey. He went about, often at night, giving gifts to poor and needy children. He later became the patron saint of children in the Roman Catholic Church. From here the story grew and became legend in country after country with various details were deleted and added as the legend of St. Nick grew."

It's all very interesting to think about. We've never done an extensive study of it (I study things for fun all the time) but I think, in ways, it has gone wrong. But we have to remember that around the season it can give opportunity to explain to others where the "Christ" part came from, how He came to earth to die for our sins. What a gift! That should be what we celebrate over Christmas!!

This helped me get a better understanding of the “symbols” we use during Christmas. Such as: the Tree, the gifts, and the ornaments on the tree. I agree with these, however, I noticed that they also glorify the fact that Jesus died for us. So they are linked. Christmas is a way to celebrate Jesus’s Birth as a way to remember he died for us. However, I don’t think most Christians explain this part to their family during Christmas. And most of the families I know (none of you following my blog) don’t even state the fact that Jesus was born.

I will share one more comment from a good friend, and then wrap this up:

At first I thought that it was kind of a silly question!!! Of course Christmas is biblical; it is celebrating Jesus Christ and his Birth! I couldn’t think of any verse or anything though. So I started to look it up in the bible. I still could not find anything about celebrating his birthday! The only thing I found that was sort of close was “...rejoice and be exceedingly glad in His birth…”!!!
And since I couldn't find it in the bible I started to look it up on the internet!!
I found several “Ideas” about how it started … lots of mocking Christ and the “traditional” Christmas, but not much else!
About the tree being an idle… I agree with the previous comment when they said “if it’s not Christmas without it than it is an idle” . I don’t think that it necessarily distracts from Jesus, but if it does than I don’t think that it is right to have one. But I personally think that Christmas trees are so much fun and smell wonderful!!

The Lord, Jesus Christ, was born and we can celebrate his birth. Why? The Bible says to remember and think of Him in all way do. This is why I believe Christmas is Biblical. However, santa and the other things we celebrate such as elves and some of the “symbols” we use during this day, I don’t believe glorify the Lord.

Thanks so much for reading my post, I know it was long, but I learned a lot, and I know I won’t think of Christmas the same way again. Also, I know I will be thinking about Jesus’s birth, as well as His death and resurrection.

God bless,

Josiah