Gain the World

Gain the world and lose your soul

As I was driving home from having lunch today with my sunday school class, this song came on the radio and the chorus was "why would I want to gain the world and lose my soul." I knew that the chorus has some scriptural backing so I decided to look it up. The line in the song comes from Mark 8:36. This is the same chapter that Jesus feeds the five thousand and right before this in verse 34 Jesus tells the crowd that if they want to follow him they must take up there cross daily. 

When Jesus talks about gaining world, just think about what gaining the world would look like. You would  have the biggest mansion, the most expensive cars, you would always be the biggest thing in town, you would always have people wanting to do things for you and with you. It would be amazing in the worlds eyes. But now think about losing your soul, according to the dictionary your soul is the principle of life, thought, and feeling. So what exactly would you gain if you would gain the world and lose life, thought, and feeling,  you would have gained absolutely nothing.  

God offers us salvation, something  that will captivate your soul if you truly follow after god with everything  that you have, he will change your soul. Once you die you will have gained the world because you get to heaven. Heaven is a place you will truly gain the world because you get to see god face to face and you can worship him, you can fall on your knees, you raise your hands. It will be amazing you get to worship the creator the of all the earth with other believers. 

Competitive

Something I just don't understand

As I was playing basketball last night at church, I realized something that I knew before but it become clear to me that I completely despise of losing. I just dont hate it, its more than hate its something that I dont understand. Its something inside of me that doesnt want that sour and disgusting feeling of losing.

Its something that drives me to do whatever it takes to win. That drive to win in whatever i do from basketball as a college student to bible drill as a kid. I have always had that drive to win for as long as I can remember but then i see other people that just dont care about winning at all in whatever they do. Some peoples drive to be good isnt always in sports it can be in whatever they do but then you have others who dont have a passion for anything on this earth that is what truly baffles me.

His Grace is All I Need

Gods Grace for Us Is Beyond Words

When i first started this whole blog business I thought the first blog i would write would be funny and what not. In the end I really wanted to talk about this verse, its 2 Corinthians 9-10.

9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Growing up in the church I have heard these verses many times and it never really took an effect on my life. As i have started to grow up a little bit these childhood verses have new meaning on my life.

This is the way i look at it now:

Is that we as humans will endure suffering and trails not that we are going to enjoy those times but through it all we have to realize thats gods grace is enough to get us through it.We always seem to boast or brag about stuff that we are good at "I do a quiet time everyday, I just gave two thousand dollars to people that really need it." We never seemed to say " I suck at forgiving people or I lust all the time." What I believe Paul is telling us that gods grace makes our weakness perfect because we have gods power in us. Which is a perfect power, a power with no flaws. a power that trumps all other powers that this world has ever seen or that this world will see.

With that in mind we should not hide our weaknesses because we should not be ashamed of them because even though they maybe flaws that we see in ourselves. In Gods eyes those weakness are perfect and in reality those are the only eyes that truly matter.

One of the coolest parts of these verses for me is the very last part about how when i am weak that is when i am strong. You know it does sound like a contradiction but the way i see it is that our humanly bodies maybe tired, worn out ,distraught, and discouraged but even though young man stumble and fall those who hope in the lord will raise up with wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, and they will walk and not grow faint.