People who sin cannot get into heaven???

Ok, so I was out getting some tires in Wilmington the other day and came across some tracts from some publisher. This one caught my eye! It said "3 things God cannot do!" First of all there is NOTHING that God CANNOT do if HE wants to do it!

I open the tract and look inside and see the 3 things.

The first is "God cannot lie", while I am sure He can lie if He wanted to since He is God, but I think this would have been better approached by saying that God does not falter from His promises or something similar to that. I mean I get the idea behind these tracts but to me this whole scare tactic of this particular one is not going to get the attention of someone who has fear in them already! How many times does the Bible say do not fear? 365 times! Is that a coincidence to how many days of the year there are? I think not!

Numbers 23:19
God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

#2 God cannot change! I agree that God does not change and He is the same God today that He has been since the beginning of time!

Psalm 55:19
God, who is enthroned from of old, who does not change— he will hear them and humble them, because they have no fear of God.

Alright now here is the one that got me in a little bit of an uproar while reading it!

#3. God CANNOT allow sinner into heaven.

Can I stop for a minute and say that God and Jesus must be awful lonely up in heaven! They would be all alone! My Bible doesn't say that if you HAVE sinned you CANNOT get into heaven! It does however say this:


Romans 3:22-24
New International Version (NIV)

22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Being redeemed sounds 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better than being condemned! My God is THE redeeming God, My God is THE God of Salvation, My God is THE God of Love, My God is THE King of Kings, The Great Deliverer, The Alpha and Omega, Yahweh, The Way The Truth & The Life, Advocate, Prince of Peace..... I could go on and on!

It bother me that some random person is going to pick up one of these tracts and read that statement "God cannot allow sinners into Heaven" and read no further because of how condemning that will make them feel.

Shouldn't it read "God loves you enough that He gave His best just for you, and even though you have junk in your life He is SOOOO BIG that He will accept you just the way you are junk and all!" instead?

Am I wrong to be upset by this tract? Am I the only one who is strong in their faith and as a Christian kind of finds wording like this offensive?

Please any and all rebuttals welcome!

Feeding your Flesh.....

The first thing I want to say today is that Phil Nelson can REALLY bring it! Whether it is delivering powerful in your face worship, or a powerful in your face convicting sermon, this guy really brings it!

I said before and I will say it again! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way our leaders at Elevation are challenging us. Get ready church because I along with the help of a few others am putting together a video to help promote the Elevation Youth Group and we intend on challenging you even more with that as well!

Quote of the month for me so far comes from Phil's message today. "Christians are not sinful because they are living in the world, Christians are sinful because the world is living in them". How astonishingly true is that?

Phil also asked what are you feeding yourself? He used the analogy of a lion vs. lion fight!

If you feed one lion the best meats, and keep it healthy, and you starve the other lion, which one is going to win the fight?
















What are you feeding your flesh? Are you feeding it spiritual things or are you feeding it desires of your flesh?

Read Colossians 3 and ask yourself if you have put to death things of this Earth! It was kind of neat to hear his sermon today, because some of what he addressed is in the same direction that I am feeling led to take with this video we are making for the Youth Group!

He also read.....

James 4:4
English Standard Version (ESV)

4(A) You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Who wants to be an enemy of God? Not me I will tell you that! I have friends that are worldly and I still want to be friends with them, but at what cost or for what purpose? Do I do it for the attachment of the world still, or do I do it because I love my friends and I want to see them gain the same love that I have in Jesus? Ask yourself that question! Test yourself!

The passage from 1st John today basically says "Do not desire things of the world because they are not of God! If you do you do not love God! Because God is not of this world!"

I love God. The more time I spend soaking in his word the deeper and deeper I fall. The more I spend time at home worshipping Him through praise either by listening to music or playing it on the guitar the more and more I want to draw closer to Him. I want to live a life that revolves around the very essence of who God is "LOVE", that displays what Jesus is and was all about "SERVING", and is totally filled and consumed with what the Holy Spirit is about "A Burning Desire to draw nearer to the Father, while being led in my heart from the very presence that is God". I want MORE, MORE, MORE but make no mistake about it, it's not more earthly stuff I am seeking, but MORE OF JESUS! MORE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MORE OF THE ALL ENCOMPASSING POWER THAT IS OUR FATHER GOD!

Take the time and spend it getting to know your Father, His Son (Jesus), and allow the Holy Spirit to enter your heart and change your life forever!

Man Up!

In honor of Father's Day Craig spoke today on what it means to "Man Up".

What a great message for today! Although Chuck Tabor did a phenomenal job last week in Craig's absence I really missed his teaching!

So back to the "Sticky Relationship" series and more of the same, talking about things to make our current relationships stick!

Wow! I love the way Craig and the leaders 0f Elevation leave me challenged each and every single week. So far out of the people who I have heard teach, Craig, Phil, and Chuck. I have left feeling challenged by them, but also am feeling challenged by all the wonderful areas that me and my family have opportunities to serve in. So far we are doing Elevation Station, Youth Group, greeting, cleaning a Saturday or two a month, and anything and everything else we can do to just make a difference for Jesus, and to help elevate His name. I want to challenge you too. If you have not committed to serving in some way shape or form yet then get to it! What are you waiting for? We aren't going to beg you! But, as Craig so delicately put it a couple of weeks ago, WE ARE MADE TO SERVE! Cleaning toilets may not sound like a glorious job for the Kingdom of God, but if you are good at it and there is a need for it that you can meet, well then you can help!

Some great "Man Up" references today by Craig, especially of the Miller Lite commercials, which I have to point out this is my favorite, and it makes me think of Phil Nelson every time I see it! (Just Kidding Phil)



The "Meat" of the message was so good today! Telling us to "Walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk". That if we are "Loving" one another the way God has commanded us to we would be living in His light!

I am going to make this one a short one today and hopefully leave you challenged as well with what I am writing. In closing Craig read out of this passage:


1 Corinthians 13:4-8
English Standard Version (ESV)


4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

I am not sure where I heard this next statement at, but I remember hearing a message on this a couple of year ago and the speaker said that while reading this verse can you plug "your name" into where it says "Love"? For Example: Scott is patient (yeah right!), Scott is kind, Scott does not envy or boast. So on and so forth! I really challenge you to put your name into these statements and see if you can make it halfway through this list!

How many times do you challenge God on something He is directing you to do that you don't want to do? I have done it many times, and thankfully I have eventually smartened up and did what I was supposed to do all along!

You can ask most anyone who knows me personally that being patient isn't one of my strong suits! Although I have been working on it, sometimes it gets the better of me! The one thing I resolve to do out of the message I heard today is to make sure that I exercise more patience with my children, and my wife while also making sure that I am being loving and kind in the words that I choose to use towards them! I hope that this blog and more importantly Craig and the other Elevation leader's messages are challenging you in similar ways and if they are I would love to hear about them!

God Bless!

Happy Anniverary to my Lovely Wife of 5 years!

June 24th
Love your wife as Christ loves the Church.
Ephesians 5:22-28
English Standard Version (ESV)
Wives and Husbands
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
As I write this I am less than two weeks from my fifth wedding anniversary with my wife Diana. Diana and I have been through a lot in five years. We, like everyone else have been on a roller coaster of a marriage within the last five years. One thing that has remained during our marriage is our immense love of Jesus Christ. I will be completely honest right here and now and say that if it wasn’t for that constant love of Jesus in our marriage it wouldn’t have lasted six months. Thank God, He had a different plan for us.
In March 2011 Diana and I had been having a rough couple of months. We had been bickering over some very dumb things, saying hurtful things to one another, and were just generally in a bad place in our marriage. A lot of what we were going through was the lack of a home Church to attend. We had been searching for many, many months, and had all but given up on our search. Then the signs came, ok I am not being funny! The signs really came! There were all these signs popping up all over town about a new Church coming to our home town, Elevation Community Church. We wrote down the website, went home and did some research. Our next step was to talk to the pastor, so we contacted Pastor Craig Knisley and got the 411 on all of the upcoming events. Grand Opening was less than two weeks away at this point. We had not been this excited in a long time. They had a carnival night set up two Saturdays before the Grand Opening, so I decided I was going to take my daughter to this event. We had a wonderful time. Diana and my son Austin were unable to attend this event so it was just me and Julie. The next morning Julie and I decided we wanted to check out the church service as well, and we loved it. I met Diana later that day, and told her instantly that we had found our home. I was that confident that she would absolutely fall in love with this church and never want to leave.
Flash forward a month or so later: Now we are at April 2011. We are getting really involved at Elevation, and still loving every minute. One problem, we were still kind of at each other’s throats. Then we found out that Elevation was having a marriage seminar. I had wanted to do this for quite some time, but Diana was not on board as much as I was. We had discussed it several times, but we never did make it. This time was different, we felt like we were comfortable enough to attend this one and share whatever we needed to with whomever we needed to. This seminar turned out to be a HUGE turning point in our marriage.
They spoke repeatedly on the verse that I have posted for today’s devotional and we had heard it hundreds of times, but it never sank in quite the way that it did this time. We actually took the time to learn what it meant this time.
Men I will share with you what I have learned from this and I hope you can heed these words carefully and guard them close to your heart as I have. This verse clearly states that we are to love our wives as Jesus loved the church. Let’s think of the ways that Jesus loved the church.
He loved the disciples so much that He taught them through parables on a daily basis.
He loved Mary Magdalene a known prostitute as much as He loved His own Mother.
He loved Lazarus like a brother and went to his dead corpse days after it had begun to smell and resurrected him back to life.
He loved people He didn’t even know the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the dead. The Bible says that “Jesus is God in human flesh” and the Bible says “God is love”. If you have Jesus in your heart that means that love is in your heart not only for your family, but also for the Church. This verse tells us to “Love you wife as Christ loved the Church”.
Ask yourself a question, but be honest when you answer yourself. Have I loved my wife that way? Have I led her as Christ led the disciples? Have I been willing so far in my marriage to lay down my life for her, and to protect her from sin?
Gentlemen, I can honestly say that before that seminar if I would have answered “yes” to any one of those questions I would have been lying through my teeth. BUT, I can proudly say now that the answer to those questions is emphatically “YES”.
Ok Ladies, now it is your turn. Men, don’t lean back in your chair and think I am done with you either! I have much more to say to you.
This verse clearly depicts that “wives are to submit to their husbands”. Let’s take a deeper look at what the word “submit” means in this context.
The definition of submit in the context used in the Bible is the voluntary attitude of giving in, of cooperating, of sharing a burden. In other words, when the word “submit” is used in the Bible, it refers not only to a yielding and obedient attitude of the heart, but also, and equally importantly, to an attitude of cooperation and support.
Ladies, are you yielding and obedient to your husband’s guidance? Do you cooperate with him instead of butting heads with him about every little detail? Do you support him in everything he decides to do, or the paths he as leader of your home chooses to go?
Gentleman let’s get back to you for a moment. Are you leading your wife in the way that makes it easier for her to submit to you?
My wife will outright tell you that when I am leading her Spiritually on a daily basis that this is when it is the easiest for her to submit to me and to follow me. I really like the term “a voluntary attitude of cooperation and support”. My wife gets an A+ at this, she has always been very supportive, and now she is being cooperative as well.
Being submissive is not about being a slave or a doormat; it is about being the helper that God gave Adam in Eve in the Garden of Eden.
It sure does make life a whole lot easier when husbands and wives are doing as God has called them to do in their respective marriages.
Today’s Challenge:
Read this verse together with your spouse.
Men: Ask your wives what you can do to love her better, and/or what you can do to lead her better.
Women: Respect your husband’s God given authority over your marriage, and let him know how much you support him in your marriage.

A Small Taste of my book!

So a few months ago I was driving and God gave me this idea for a book! I didn't have much inspiration for it at first, until I realized that I am living it every day.

So for all of my faithful Blog readers..... I know I only have 4 followers at this point, but many others read it on my Facebook page! Here is a little taste of what my book is going to be like!

I encourage you to envision this on a much larger scale because the ideas regarding this project are so much bigger than you or I could ever even fathom! God has been bombarding me with all kinds of ideas for this project and I cannot wait to reveal them to you as the year unfolds.

I hope you enjoy!

January 8th

Who Dares to Stand Against Me?

Romans 8:31 English Standard Version (ESV)
God’s Everlasting Love
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Wow! What powerful words are these that Paul speaks of in the letters to the Roman’s? If God is for us than who can be against us?

I remember one season in my life that I was going through some difficult times in dealings with my ex-wife in relationship to child support for my oldest son. She was at a point where she was doing every single thing she could to get me thrown into jail. I was beside myself trying to keep up with everything that was going on and I had all but given up.

Then I read Romans 8. It is my favorite book and chapter in the entire Bible. There are so many outstanding messages in just this one little chapter. I am positive you will be ready more from this chapter later in this book.

Seriously though, If God is for us than who can be against us? Our God created EVERYTHING, He raises people from the dead, He heals people of cancer, He makes the sun rise and fall each day, He breathes life into every single living thing so if He is for you….. Think of it like this. Who dares to defy your God? He is in your corner!!! Sure some days it may not seem like it, but He is there!

Today’s Challenge:
Write this verse on several 3”X 5” index cards and place them throughout your house for you, your spouse, and your children (if you have any) to see every day! Memorize this verse!!!

Teaching Sunday School

Today Diana and I taught Sunday School together for the first time ever. I'll admit I was very apprehensive about it because I typically do not do well with 1st and 2nd graders, and usually do better around the older kids around the ages of 10+.

Our lesson plan was on Jesus' last days. About everything that led up to the Crucifixion.

We particularly read on how Jesus at the Last Supper washed the Disciple's feet in order to show them that even Jesus could bow before others to serve them and that is what we were called to do!

Diana (I totally cannot take credit for this part) thought it would be a good idea to wash our feet, and see if the kids would want to participate by washing each others feet. I was blown away by this response! Me first!!!!! lol

I took a little video in class of the kids washing each others feet and this was truly amazing to see how just about every single one of the kids jumped up to get in line quickly pairing up with a friend they were comfortable with to serve them and wash their feet! It was awesome!!!! I was truly blessed!

The other thing that was cool is their Bible verse was Romans 8:38-39 which is my favorite Bible verse! We did a little experiment that I modified using a paper clip, a clear glass filled half way with water and with some black tape around the bottom, and a magnet.

I took the the paper clip and said "This paper clip is you, the water is your life, the glass is your body/soul, and the black tape is sin, and the magnet is God and His love for you! I took the magnet and put it up to the glass, and sure enough it attracted the paper clip through the tape/glass/water, and made it rise up to the clear/pure water". I then said "this is what Jesus can do for you, and this is exactly what your Bible verse for today means. Nothing can separate us from the love of God!"

These kids got it! Who knew 1st and 2nd graders would grasp that so well. I had an amazing time. I missed Craig's sermon this morning, but got just as much out of seeing these kids and how they react to ours too!

Revealing the Sons of God

Today I was asked by one of my best friends a very pondering question..... Some food for thought if you will. I have decided that this in going to be implemented into my book I am working on. This is no coincidence that Dave asked me this question, whereas I had asked him to assist me (and he volunteered) in a few dealings with my book. He is proofreading it for me, and I had asked him to write the foreword for it as well. I cannot think of any one man I admire more than Dave Hinman that presently walks this Earth, and the only person I know of that I hold equal admiration for is Allen Willoughby. These guys are two of the greatest servants I know.

The question Dave posed to me was... What do I think the phrase "Revealing the Sons of God" means in this context.

This is how I responded to him:

Dave,

You asked me what I thought of the phrase “Revealing the Sons of God” and what it meant in this context.

I think that it means that as Christians we are all Sons of God because we hold Jesus in our hearts and that makes us the portrait of Christ in God’s eyes, or at least that is what we are/should (be) striving for as Christians. Men and Women are created equal in God’s eyes and even Jesus I would say considered Himself to be more equal with us that God according to Philippians 2. Jesus never considered equality with God something to be grasped! So that would mean He viewed Himself more as a man, than as a Supernatural phenomenon!

With all of that said, back to the “Revealing” part of all this. I believe this means that Christians are to reveal daily in every aspect of their lives the very essence of who Jesus is in their lives, and who is through God’s eyes! This means revealing Him at work, kids sporting events, etc. etc. and letting the Holy Spirit just ooze out of our pores EVERYWHERE we go and in EVERYTHING that we do!

I hope this helps with your pondering! Not that my insight could be any greater than that of your own!

Love ya man!

Give the girls BIIIIIIIIIIG SCOTT HUGS for me!!

Love,

Scott Smith

Please feel free to weigh in and let me know what you think of this phrase as well and what it means in this context! I feel as though I have an excellent grasp on what it means, but would love to have others input as well!