Hey Fam,

I'm back and less than one month later.  Nice!  I thought I'd talk a little about God's seasons of planting (sowing) and harvesting (reaping).  My family is currently in a season of both.  We are currently harvesting the blessings of the seeds of obedience in home schooling, limiting our debt, pursuing avenues of helping at-risk students (for me), and persistently placing God in the middle of our marriage and family relationships.  

God has blessed us with a new-to-us van, a new position at work for me, two children ( a rising Sophomore in College and a rising Sophomore in High School) who excelled academically, a new career path for my wife, and the favor and respect of friends and colleagues.  We are truly rich.  

Proverbs 10:22 says "The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it."

This passage encourages us all because it says that when God blesses us, we don't have to look over our shoulders for God to take it back.

T.D. Jakes said that "Favor ain't fair"  and we may experience some negativity from jealous outsiders when God blesses us, but those fiery darts cannot lessen what God has for us.

I boast in the Lord only because He alone pored out this magnitude of positive STUFF on my family, even though we all strayed from His path at times.   He is truly AWESOME.

Look at your own life.  How has God blessed/honored your obedience in some areas?

Next time, we'll talk about the parable of the sower and the importance of sowing the right seed in the right soil to reap the righteous harvest.

Peace,

Amon

The Rough Side of the Mountain

Hello Fam,

Recently, God has taken me through a study that has led me to the realization that living an authentic Christian life means losing some battles.  There are going to be times when we fail miserably, are lied about, deceived, and disappointed, as well as times when we lie, deceive, and disappoint others.  

So what's the proper response to these experiences?  Throw up our hands in frustration and remove ourselves from the human adventure?  Perhaps we should become bitter and judgmental, expecting little or nothing from others.  A look at the word may help put this in perspective.

Jesus says "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.  Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great in your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12.

This sounds crazy!  How can being lied about and punished for nothing result in a blessing?  How could it possibly be a good thing?  

Physically, and emotionally these things are not pleasant.  They hurt, they damage, they break down, but if we press into God's Goodness at these low times, and focus on His example of how to deal with these types of people (remember as he was being tortured and KILLED from false accusations He prayed for THEIR salvation and THEIR forgiveness) we begin to learn something:

God is bigger than other people's pettiness.  God's purposes for our lives go way beyond the emotional pain caused by others.  So forgive them, let them off the hook so that you can focus on the good work God has planned for you.  We cannot focus both on the pain we fell and the pure, free, merciful, Glory of God Almighty.

When you have a hard time letting  others off the hook, think of a time when you were the cause of someone else's pain, heartbreak, downfall, or stumbling.  How did you feel.   What did you want more than anything?  Forgiveness perhaps?  

Hey Fam.

It's been a while.  Easter has got my head spinning because I'm realizing that Jesus really allowed Himself to be TORTURED and to DIE for sins He never committed.  He WILLINGLY chose the path of the cross, and for what?

For who might be a better way of thinking about everything.  What kind of God would allow His only son to suffer so greatly?  What might God have thought or felt at that time?  Why didn't God Almighty simply reset the whole sin/death thing and give us a full pardon?  Why does it take blood to wash away sin?

A quick look at Genesis Chapter 3 tells us God's original intentions for our relationship: perfect communion and harmony.  It was our choice to look away from God and to assume that our wants surpassed God's commands that messed everything up.  But still, why blood?

Here are some quick blood facts:

1. Blood is the fluid that circulates in a  person's heart, arteries, capillaries and veins 
2. Blood carries nourishment and oxygen to all parts of the body
3. Blood takes waste products from all parts of the body.
   
4. Blood carries the antibodies that protect our bodies from disease and infection
5. Blood is a connective tissue

Now, I won't get to crazy with this, but let it be known that blood is truly the life force of the physical body.  Without blood, our bodies would become so polluted that we would kill ourselves by our own waste products.  Blood = Life,  Life = Blood.  The issue then becomes, how pure is our blood.  I don't mean "racially" or genetically, but purity wise.  How many sicknesses, infections, and microscopic pathogens do we carry in our blood stream from day to day?

Sin is like having a body with infected blood flowing through it.  Sin is lethal.  In order to live, we must have a blood transfusion.  Jesus' blood is pure, life giving, strong, untainted, healthy.  By shedding His blood, we are able to allow His life into our own.  His good blood begins to reproduce within us and make us whole.  His blood brings in the Holiness of the Father, and takes out the infection of our sin-cursed humanity.

It's a slow process, but if we continue to allow His purity into our Spiritual veins, and avoid going back to the diseased, putrid, infected injections of Sin, then there's really help for us all.

God could not have enjoyed watching His only son's torture, humiliation, and murder, but He loved us enough to allow it so that we could be pure enough to relate to Him again.

The Change

Hey Fam,

Okay, so it's been more than a week. Please forgive me. Back to the details. I wrestled with the rift in my life caused by my willful sins. Not just porn, but lust in general, false pride, and chronic selfishness.

As I continued through life, all my relationships with others became tainted with my sinfulness. I dealt with it by numbing my pain with marijuana, but when I became a teacher, I began to really worry. Would my lust cause me to enter into a relationship with a student that would ruin me? Would I show up high at a school event and get fired? Would I allow fear to push me out of education?

My life of sin, my disconnection from God had caused me to doubt my own decision making ability. After all, I had done what I KNEW was wrong for so long, how could I suddenly just turn around and DO right? Then God took me to Ephesians 1:4-5. I read,

"For God chose you, in Christ, BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD to be HOLY and BLAMELESS before Him. In LOVE He predestined me to be ADOPTED as His SON."

Really? So I'm not supposed to be this fearful, weak willed, slave to sin? God doesn't delight in judging me, telling me my faults, and being irratated with my constant lack of faith? Not according to this passage. I was never CREATED to be stuck in sin.

I meditated upon this truth every day. I read it aloud to myself as I looked into my eyes in a mirror. At first, I laughed at the ridiculousness of it, but slowly, my voice gave way to God's voice, and I began to hear Him say it. That changed everything. Thoughts?

Okay,

I told you I'd let you know how I know how much Ephisian 1:5-4 could change your life. Here's part one. Let me give you a little back ground info. I grew up in constant conflict between myself and God. The root of the conflict flowed from my early exposure to pornography. When I was 5, my brother and I found a magazine which showed a couple "in the act." I felt dirty, nauseated, and excited all at once. My perception of the relationships between males and females changed foundationally, and profoundly on that day. The impact of this event may be better understood through the stanzas of a poem I wrote:


Identity Crisis
Copy written 2002 D.A.W.G. International Publishing\
Inspired by Jehovah, told through Amon Dobbins

Once had a heart cold as ice, my soul was spliced and twisted.
I believed the world’s lies, didn’t realize I’s spiritually gifted.

Blinded by dimes who’s tight, focused far from Christ
Still cried, “God when will this curse be lifted?”

In ’01 prophecy came from a woman of God, she spoke life into my dead brain pod,
‘cause she saw the inner man more clearly than the homiez in my squad.

She said, “Inner powder keg of joy will destroy the sick ploys of the enemy.”
I was satan’s toy as a boy, but now see that snake ain’t a friend to me.

Focus spent on free chicks, mind spent off splits all these tricks
He spent on me

But when Blood of Christ washed ill from my life, I slowly stopped living trife,
And now I’m a gentle me.

No more a broken man, though my soul began in filth God set me free

Back then, sin crept in amidst weed smoke and D.L. grins
Lust popped up early, and I sexed my first girlie at the age of 10

No way to process that emotional mess, inhibition digress till I sat emotionless.

The mental torment of lusting after fleshly things, and keeping myself menatly, spiritually, and physically clean in honor of my relationship with God was tearing me apart. It was not until I was almost 30 years old that I came to a crossroads with God. Ephesians 1:4-5 played a major role in it. I'll finish this next week.

Hey Fam,

This next series of Blogs will focus on the identity of believers. We'll be looking at key verses to understanding who we are as believers.

Ephesians 1:4-5 "just as He [God] chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will."


We often confuse the bad choices we make, and the painful experiences we endure as labels which shape and define our present and future.

Here's God's truth: We were each hand picked by the Creator of all, BEFORE HE CREATED ANY OF THIS, for the purpose of being holy (set apart) and blameless in His sight.

• You are not what you've done.
• You are not what you've experienced.
• You are God's chosen child, whom He loves.

He showed His love through Jesus, who gave up His position of ruling Heaven, took up the form of His beloved creation, fought through every temptation known to man and never bit, endured torture, betrayal, and death -- BY CHOICE, just so that we can spend eternity with Him, and live lives on this planet free from our, painful past.

Allow this Truth to saturate your thoughts, feelings, and soul. If you truly grasp this, it will free you from fear, doubt and pain like you wouldn't believe.

Next time, I'll tell you how I know.

God loves you, and so do I.

Welcome

Well, I'm new to this Blog thing, but it's what God would have me do. I guess the first thing to establish in conversation is: does God really exist? Before entering into this conversation, let's agree on a couple things:

• No one can either prove or disprove 100% the reality or non-reality of God.
• It takes faith (the belief in something unseen or unproven) to both believe in or to deny God.

Some quick answers:

1. If God is real, then why does He allow bad things to happen?

• If God is real, then Satan must also be real (Satan was first introduced in writing in the Bible). Put the blame where it belongs
• Read Genesis Chapters 1-3. it explains very clearly why bad things happen, and how God feels about it.

2. Where did God come from?

• It's hard to grasp, but He's just always been. Everything we see on this planet had a beginning, but there had to be an original source for all that information. God is that source.

3. Isn't evolution a better explanation for creation than the Biblical account?

• NO! Evolution offers no concrete proof in itself. Valid evidence for missing links is a missing link in itself. The methods of measuring the age of the earth are inconsistent, or incapable of accurately measuring the past.
• SEE answersingenesis.org (see link below) for much more information.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any other questions to discuss? What bothers you about the whole God, Devil, Heaven, and Hell thing? Be honest; be real; be ready to learn.