Above The Influence

The state of American Christianity

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:53:00 +0000

Pagans today have more of an understanding of christianity then most professing christians. If you asked a "christian" today what it means to be a christian, they'd say that they said a prayer accepting Jesus into their hearts then said "Uh Huh" to 4 or 5 statements, then were welcomed as believers. And as a result of their "sacrifice in making these statements they receive eternal life in a giant playground called heaven where they can do anything they want. If this were all it took then any person not being a christians would be a complete idiot to not do this. Eternal life for merely saying yes to a few statements?
If this were true why are there even pagans? The answer is that pagans realize there's something more, they understand they'll have to give up the things they enjoy doing. while most professing christians keep doing the same things they did before and deny that they have to change. The greatest tragedy in today's world, is not the sins of the Pagans, but the sins of modern Christians. Pagans understand that becoming a christian involves change, while "christians" believe the only distinguishing mark between them and Christians, is there going to heaven. This is a lie, and if I were them I would fear for their souls.

The Logic of the World

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:15:00 +0000

The Logic of the World

He lay there naked, cold and bare,
His state so wretched, poor men stare,
His body bore the sting of blows,
Revealed in the Sun’s piercing glare,

He got no mercy from his foes,
He lay there in his dieing throes,
He shook a fist fiercely up high,
And cursed God loudly for his woes,

If there’s a God up in that sky,
I ask one question, I ask why?
For what bad deed has this been wrought,
Or do you delight when men die?

He disliked the answer he got,
In fact his question was for naught.
In the silence his body grew taut,
There is no God he madly thought,

Shakespearian Sonnet

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:46:00 +0000

wow i had stopped writing on this blog, but much to my suprise it's still be getting a good amount of traffic, so i've decided to post again, for now at least. Here's a poem I wrote for my mom as a little boy. I don't really understand it either lol but it sounded good, and she liked it so who cares.

Shakespearian Sonnet

O how my tears would flow upon that morn,
If your budding flower withered down,
You're little leaf since the day I was born,
To the day my leaf fadest to the ground,

I pray that every day this plant will grow,
And shine in it's glory nay the pride,
This present from the ground with grandeur bow,
Shall ever live as beauty nature cried,

O dew continue falling here I pray,
Let the sun conquer darkness' hate,
The love that binds this plant furlong the day,
May light triumph as was deemed for it's fate,

For ages yet forever flourish on,
And end the darkness by the waking dawn.

How to gain traffic to your blog

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:56:00 +0000

I found this great site that gives information and tutorials on how to, gain traffic, and make money on your site. It's is relatively new but they have been posting often recently. So check it out and get some great hints, and tips.
mastersofseo

A Teenager's book

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:24:00 +0000

I was recently looking through my past school papers and such and I found something rather interesting. When I was about 11 or 12 I started writing a book. It took me a couple months and ended as more of a short story only 33 pages, but I was very excited because to me that seemed like a ton. I've decided to post that story a few chapters at a time for your enjoyment. Please remember I wrote this a long time ago and I haven't gone over it since then so it will be a little uh, rusty... I guess. Please comment on this page if you like it. Here's the Story

The state of America

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:51:00 +0000

All that is needed for evil to suceed, is for good to do nothing.

Dramatic Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:06:00 +0000

These are dramatic quotes that I enjoy.

The greatest news is that which is never heard, for everything good must be sought.

Morality and Religion are the walls keeping life in check, without these life would fall into utter chaos.

Nobody knowing the truth dies for a lie.

Lives fall like leaves that we cannot change, but what we can change is where those lives go following death.

An athiest is merely misguided boy, firm in his belief of the eternalness of a mighty oak. Yet blind of the storm that awaits it's eventual destruction.

Judge me not by the heights to which I have climbed, but by the depths from whence i've come.

Dramatic poetry

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 02:12:00 +0000

this is a short dramatic, but somewhat depressing poem called "What is Left." It's meter is eight beats per line.

They laid the dead man in the dirt,
And all his happiness and hurt,

Faded away that day as one,
Despite which one on earth had won,

His hate and passions, loves and fears,
Gone as the eternal sleep nears,

All his quests and goals are now dead,
O the sorrows of the life's bed,

What is left of this young man?
Nothing, he is no more in the land,

Famous quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:46:00 +0000

These are a collection of quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte that I really enjoyed. I know you wouldn't think of Napoleon as having great quotes but you'd be suprised at some of these, I know I was.

Death is nothing; but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
Napoleon Bonaparte

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte

It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Napoleon Bonaparte

"There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous."

"There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit."
A leader is a dealer in hope.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A man cannot become an atheist merely by wishing it.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A picture is worth a thousand words.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.
Napoleon Bonaparte

A true man hates no one.
Napoleon Bonaparte

Ability is nothing without opportunity.
Napoleon Bonaparte

And my favorite

"Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him."

Amazing sermon

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 02:41:00 +0000

This sermon has change my life, I hope it can do the same for you. Be warned it is very bold and piercing but that is good, sometimes we need to be shaken up. And it is also very true.

and let me know because I understand that it's very long if you would like me to post it in smaller video clips over a couple day period.

Emotional Poetry

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 02:08:00 +0000

Here is one about a Homeless man, thoughts are appreciated.

The torture of my memory,
Makes me wish I cannot see,

There is no light at the end,
My scars of woe I cannot mend,

Against the world alone I stand,
Drowning in water desperate for land,

The ghosts of fate are not my friend,
If this goes on my life will end,

Friends have deserted but hundreds of foes,
I'm filled with pain by Satan's arrows,

The agony I feel makes me lay down and cry,
I am sitting alone and wondering why?

What did I do to deserve all this,
What happened to the years of bliss,

Why should I go on what's for to live?
By my horrible choices I'm a captive,

The grief the distress the torture the pain,
All of my striving it's all been in vain,

The bench in the park is my home now,
My chances are gone I sit with head bowed,

O just one more chance to redeem myself,
It's all one need's to save himself,

But here I sit my live is over,
The time goes steadily getting colder,

And there you go walking by,
A flare of hope and then it dies,

You make yourself think someone else will,
You know its a lie and it's me you kill,

What would've happened if you'd hadn't ran,
What would've happened if you'd given a hand,

Humbleness

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:35:00 +0000

Today I would like to talk about a famous man by the name of John the Baptist. John is role model of mine for many reasons, but one of the reasons is because he was an incredibly humble man. It is very hard to be humble but John was, let me explain how.
John chapter 1. It has many verse so I won't post them all, i'll save you the trouble and summarize it. Basically John the Baptist who is a cousin of Jesus, was preaching in Israel. And he was gathering quite a following. He was sharing the gospel, and most notably preparing the way for the lord. This is a somewhat difficult position to be in. I mean who likes to prepare the way for anyone, we all want to be the person in the spot light but John said no, my job is to prepare the way.

Now because he was gathering so many followers and performing miraculous signs people began to wonder if he was the messiah. They asked him, are you Elijah? are you the prophet? are the the Christ? wow what a hard position to be in. Are you the Christ. What if he had said yes. Do you realize how humble he needed to be to say no to essentially an opportunity to rule Israel. If he had said yes the Jews would have followed him and he could have easily led them in rebellion.
This was John's response.
"I am the voice of the one calling in the desert, prepare ye the way of the lord." He described the true Christ to them as, "He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."
This man was truly humble.

Later on in chapter 3. Jesus’ is becoming more and more popular and the people are rallying around him. Now John is in an awkward position. He used to be the guy but now he submitted of his own free will to let Jesus be the leader. John was related to Jesus. They were cousins and Jesus was younger. So he was submitting to his younger sibling and saying he is my lord and I’m unfit to untie his sandals. He was a humble man.

Then at the end of the chapter, John's disciples approached him saying that some man was baptizing people in the name of God. Basically they were saying this was your job, this other guy is trying to take your job should we take him out? John's response is incredible. He says, "He must become greater; I must become less. This man was Jesus of course and John realized that he needed to submit his will to God's.

John is a perfect example of Humility.

Not Worthy

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:20:00 +0000

Holy, Righteous and Just is God,
What hast we done to spare the rod?

Is there deed we can acclaim to,
Have we done something that came you,

Fire should destroy the whole world,
Judgement what hast stayed your hand Lord,

Wholely evil is all the men,
Why go on there is but one end,

From what hast come this love for man,
Why do you try to save this land,

Look and find but one man of God,
One whose walk is true and not flawed,

Forgiveness every day our plea,
But Lord you know the heart and see,

The lies we hide in every day,
That we refuse to live the way,

That you command for us all time,
Thanks but no we prefer the slime,

Holy, Righteous and Just is God,
What hast we done to spare the rod?

Persecution

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:12:00 +0000

I greatly apologize for my seemingly abandonment of the blog. I've been away from the computer for a week and so I haven't had the chance to post, thank you for your patience. And by the way from now on I'm going to change back and forth from a theology post to a poetry post.

So today I'm going to talk about a very difficult but misunderstood topic, Religious Persecution. Now as you know if you believe in Christianity that Satan is ruler of the world. And he fights as hard as he can with the powers he has to prevent good, and God's will. Now persecution is one of the ways that Satan destroys good. Going back in history to the times of Jesus when so much good was occurring, there was persecution. Obviously because he was tortured, crucified... If you go later on to the early church there was much persecution, Paul was beaten, mocked, stoned, put in prison you name it. This is my first point and one that I believe is based on history, the church has been strongest when the most persecution is occurring. Where there is the true furthering of Christianity, persecution follows. Not necessarily right away but either there or coming very soon.

My second point is talking about the benefits of Persecution. Now I am a Christian, and I believe it is my duty to be willing to be tortured suffer any physical pain for my faith. This is a very bold statement and I will not try to pretend like I am at that point yet. I am striving for it though. This I believe is the main benefit of persecution. It weeds out the nonbelievers, those who say they are a Christian and pretend to act like it but are not. Matthew 13:20-22 says,
"20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
Persecution proves there is a root, it removes the nonbelievers. This makes it almost good because it lets you see where you are really at. A man once said "You only truly love something, when you are willing to die for it." You aren't truly a Christian until you are willing to die for it.
Another benefit to persecution is breaking us down. We can never truly appreciate God, his power, his grace, and his mercy until we are broken down. Till we submit desires and wants to him. 2nd Corinthians 12:9-10 says,
" 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When we are weak God is strong in us and then we are strong.

My third point on Persecution is what the bible says the purpose of it is, Hebrews 12:7-8.
7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
This verse is pretty self explanatory. God uses persecution to teach us things. And the really interesting verse is 8. Those who do not suffer persecution are illegitimate children in essence not Christians. This is a very scary verse. Does this mean that you should go looking for persecution? No of course not but the point is that if you are a true Christian and living the way you are supposed to be living. Persecution will be evident because Satan will be trying to stop you. He will be throwing everything he has at you. But this doesn't mean that if you are suffering persecution that you’re a Christian either.

To sum up, 1st Peter 1:6-7
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Persecution proves the heart, it proves to others your faith, and it sets your mind on what it should be God's will.

1st Peter 4:1-2
1Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 2As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

The Holocaust

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:03:00 +0000

This is a poem I wrote describing the Holocaust, it's not exactly politically correct but I thought it turned out nice. I've also decided I'm going to switch back and forth between poetry, and theology in my posts.

Alas the sun refused to shine
upon that fateful day
when the great god above decided
no pity should come our way

the call was quick but ruthless
but it's marks have greatened my strife
the hurts we've received this day
makes me plead it had taken my life

many others by darts are falling
but that day I refused to die
friends and family with their hearts calling
to the god above asking why

i remember the horrible screams
the bullets flying everywhere
there horrid gleeful faces
as they spread death to all still there

despite the wrongs done to us
we refused to return there blows
we prayed for them to our saviour
but they still added to our woes

many tried to run
but their numbers were to great
it seemed to us that day
to die together was our fate

and as the last ones of us were dying
we could sense god was near
while our fates remained pain-stricken
from our hearts left all fear

Forgiveness

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:46:00 +0000

I want to share a kind of personal thing with you guys. When I was younger I had somebody die to save me. I doubt many of you can understand the feelings that this gives. And the most amazing part of all is, I hurt this person, I failed him for my entire life, I didn't live up to his expectations and I ruined his life, yet he still did it. He loved me that much. If you've ever had this happen to you then you can understand the love and attachment you feel for this person, you would do anything for the person, out of love and devotion, how could you not?
He forgave me and sacrificed himself for me. He died for me I was falling into a deep pit with sharp rocks at the bottom that would have killed me, but he jumped in and threw me back up but died at the bottom, the only reason I am the person I am today is because of him. He Died For Me do you realize what this means, You know what is so amazing about it though? he died for you to. His name is Jesus. Not only did he die for me but he died for you to. Now I don't care what you say about me but i'm going to follow him, serve him, and love him for the rest of my life and you can mock me, laugh at me, and humiliate me and it doesn't even matter, because i'm serving the one who died personally for me. Christians often forget that they had somebody die for them. They know the words but they don't think about what it means, to have somebody get tortured, yes tortured he was stabbed, beaten, and then crucified for us. How can we not serve him how can we ignore the price he paid for us. http://www.hopeabides.com/

If you have questions you can email me at hopeabidesforever@gmail.com

Unknown soldier poem

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 15:27:00 +0000

it's time for more poetry this is one I wrote a while ago but have redone slightly. Every line is eight syllables.

"The anthem of the Unknown dead"

The anthem of the unknown dead,
Baptized in a pool of red,

Forgotten through the mists of time,
Both their good deeds and their crimes,

Lost souls buried in foriegn lands,
Retaken by all nature's hands,

These men whose sacrifice was all,
From lives of sorrow blest they fall,

With naught to hold aloft but pain,
Forgotten soldiers die in vain,

But Nay, a bloody battle crown,
Is won on God forsaken ground,

When they fell to deaht's cold fierce bite,
Alone and friendless in the fight,

Life dripping from their face and brow,
They fall to knees and head they bow,

But spirit keeps it's loyal fire,
A belief in a cause that's higher,

One that conquers fear of death,
And give the dieing man new breath,

Honor, passion, quest for glory,
These create the lore of story,

These fuel the heart's desire,
and create the Mental fire,

To happ'ly sacrifice one's all,
To fight in foreign lands then fall,

The anthem of the unknown dead,
Spurs the hearts of man's heros bred,

To boldly conquer any height,
To fight a foe as dark as night,

The unknown dead are hero's born,
Their heart and soul on oath they've sworn,

These hero's are the greatest man,
Who proudly die to save the land.

Is christianity blind faith?

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:35:00 +0000

Today I would like to talk about faith. Now when I tried to share Christianity with people I've heard often experienced a similar response. "well I can't follow your religion because it is blind following, it is blind faith so I can't follow that religion. This is a very common reply but one that I believe doesn't really make sense if it is dissolved.

First of all what is faith. Well according to the bible, Hebrew 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."This is a very straightforward definition. Faith is a huge part of any type of belief. Now most of "these people" that I referred to before, are believers in evolution. But what they fail to realize is that Evolution is also based on faith, any belief is cannot be repeated must be taken by faith. This is hard to understand because faith has been given the bad rap that it is unrealistic. Faith has been separated from belief and for some reason, belief has become something more logical then faith.

Take for example any historical fact, all of them are something you have faith in. It could all be made up you don't know you've just read it in books and assumed it was true. You have faith in the writer and the historian who claimed to find it, that it's not just a story. Or that the world is round, how could you prove it? we take somethings for granted. Now I'm not disagreeing with these I'm merely stating that we take very, very many thing by faith, though many of us refuse to use it for religion.

Now why do we have faith in these historical facts? Because we have proof backing it up right? We used other things to prove another thing or to assume it's true because blank is true.

My point is, is Christinaity faith. Yes. Is it blind, No unless everything else you believe about life is considered blind to.

As Christians we believe by faith certain things because we cannot prove them. But we believe them because other parts have been found to be true and proven, and it makes it a reliable witness to prove other things. We will never no everything about Christianity, it says in the bible hundreds of times that we are saved by faith. We are going to just have to believe in certain things with out having proved them.

So is Christianity based on faith, Yes hugely. But is it Blind? No.

Purpose of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:05:00 +0000

A few weeks ago when I was on my way back from a vacation in Ohio, I was reading in the airport waiting for my flight, when I heard a lady talking on the phone behind me. I tried not to eavesdrop but the book was getting kind of boring. She was talking about a friend of hers who had been feeling a bad headache the week before. And then the next day she died of a stroke. I began to feel bad for the lady. She continued talking and said yeah well that's just proof of that fact that we should live like there's no tommorow. And I was agreeing inside we should live that way but her next comment saddened me. And then she kind of laughed and said let's party enjoy life while you can. This is from a 50-60 year old lady.

This is really saddening for me for several reasons. First of all that is the opposite of what our perspective should be, and Second I know that alot of people live misguided this way.

Our perspective on life should not be "Enjoy life while you can because life is short," I agree that life is short but because of that we should accomplish something with our lives. By saying enjoy life while you can she's not only being selfish and only thinking about herself, but making her life into just another failure story. We as christians know that their is a higher purpose. Here on earth is not our life, this is the prelude that determines the ending. We have knowledge of information that can save the world. We need to share and spread it otherwise we indeed waste our lives and might as well be partying. Our goal in life does not need to be to party but it should be to make a difference to make a change. To spread the good news. I encourage you find out what your living for, and to make sure it is centered on God. Don't waste your life.

The truth shall find you out

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 02:05:00 +0000

Today I'm going to discuss an interesting verse I found in Matthew, 7:21-23.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Now there are several important things that we can draw from this verse. First of all which is something that threatens the very existence of christianity today. Is the amount of fake christians. People to claim to be christians yet who aren't. People who cry "Lord Lord," but the Lord doesn't know them. These people have infiltrated The World of Christendom and now nobody can be sure of anyone else until the Judgement day. That's why for once we all must worry about ourselves before we can help others. You know on the planes when they tell you about the oxyegan masks, they tell you to put on yours before helping others. We must be sure of our place with God before we can try to lead other people. Otherwise it shall be the blind leading the blind.

The second conclusion and the one that has most captivated my attention, is what is says in verse 22-23. That not only will people claim to be christians yet aren't, that is not that uncommon but that they were able to prophesy in his name, drive out demons, and even perform miracles. What fascinates me is that these people, who were fake christians who said they followed Jesus but rejected him in their's hearts, these people who God says he despises were able to preform miracles? cast out demons, prophesy? How is this possible, how can people that deny God have his power? yet others who search whole heartily for him are denyed?

Now the only plausible answer I can come up with is that it's Satan's power, because I mean who else is there? And it would seem to make sense, the bible says that Satan is very crafty and this would seem to agree with that. That he could trick people who everyone looks up to as heros in the cause of Christ into actually being against God. Makes sense right? Yet another verse in Matthew causes me to wonder. Matthew 12:25-28

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Well… then who is it? I know this is rather unfair of me to end this with a question, but I don't know. So what is this third power that gives to humans the might to do the supernatural?

Mutilation of Words

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:53:00 +0000

I bear sad tidings of a revelation I have received, we have forgotten the name of God.
Now I don't mean literally but we have forgotten it's meaning which leaves us in grave danger. The common names for God are obviously, God, Christ, Lord, and Saviour. I don't think people even realize what these words mean anymore. What all these words have in common is that they emphasize a Master and a servant. And I'm sorry but we are not the master. We are servants, we are people who have failed and should be humbled by are weakness. Yet these words God, and Lord slide off our tongues so easily. We don't even realize what we are saying anymore. If you think about it words like God and Lord have even more personal effect then if their was a king of the entire world. If you have a lord or master you would be a slave to his every whim, Now God is not calling us to that but yet we call him Lord yet deny what he asks of us with saying things like not now lord I'm busy, Or I want to finish this first. If he is truly our Lord and and he is truly our master and truely our God How Dare We refuse him.

God is even higher then that. Your God is infinitely higher then any man made position or king. If God is truly your God then you worship him, you sacrifice everything you can for him, you'd do anything in the world to please him because he is your God your ultimate devotion. With modern Hollywood today people idolize certain people they dress like them talk like them and act like them, they even study them, these people are their idols. Yet we can't even do the same thing for Our GOD?

And the small difference my friends between an idol and a God, is that an idol is fake and temporary, and God is real. How dare we not have the same curtsy for our God, The person who saved us, who loves us, who cares for us, who never leaves us, who will never forsake us, who died for us, who created us people.

Where do I get this you ask? first of all from the divinely inspired word of God, the Bible. Romans 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Or Romans 2:24 As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
So you want more then biblical proof? Well then listen to how many times people say "O my God."

We have fallen away from the true meaning of God and Lord, and we are in grave danger. It is time that we restored God to his rightful place as a holy and righteous God who is coming out of his way for us, Not us making time for him. Think about this next time you say the words Lord or God. And think about if you really mean it.

above the influence poems

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:20:00 +0000

I've had some requests for more poetry so here are two poems that I have written. The first I've already posted on a former blog, and the second is a variation of the first so I would like you to vote on which is better the first or the second because I am torn but like them both.

I looked in her eyes,
And I saw fears,

I looked in her heart,
And I saw tears,

I heard her words,
And felt the pain,

I heard her cries,
And saw the stain,

There she stood alone,
No one on her side,

No one was her friend,
And so alone she died,

No one held her up,
No one found her name,

And when she yelled for help,
Nobody ever came,

Alone in the world she stood,
No one offered a hand,

She died a lonely death,
A woman searching for land,

that was the first

here is the second

Her fears were pictured,
In her eyes,

Her heart is full,
Of tears she cries,

Her words are burdened,
With the pain,

Her crying leaving,
Eternal stain,

Hopelessness,
Is all she'll find,

Veiled by pain,
She is blind,

Pierced by life's dagger,
Won't someone save her,

There she stands alone,
All, on her own,

1 or 2?

An interesting verse

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:41:00 +0000

I would like to share an intriging verse that I have stumbled apon in my readings of the bible. Isaish 38:2-5. It says, "Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah: "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.

Now this is a pretty simple verse but if you read into it then there are three important things in it.

Number one, and probably a pretty obvious one but important, God has the ability to change the future, Because he granted Hezekiah an extra fifteen years to his life.

Number two, and this is important and hard for me to deal with but there is an ultimate plan, determined before hand. I get that from verse five where it says, I will add fifteen years to your life. Now to add something, take math for example, there must be something to add it to. You can't just have "3 +" you must have two things. In this case the original plan, and then the changed one. There can't be a changed one and not be an original. Both must be their or neither.

And this brings me to my third point that I'm also struggling with.
Number three, this plan was not perfect. For God to have to change "the plan" then it must not have been originally perfect. This does not seem to all add up because everything God does is right, he doesn't need to go back and redo his work. Because it is all perfect originally.

So unless there is something drastically wrong in my reasoning which is entirely possible, there is a Major contradiction in this verse. Could anybody help me out?

Salvation

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:01:00 +0000

Now today I would like to talk about a very important issue, Salvation. Now Salvation is simply put the Christian view on how to be forgiven from your sins, so that you can spend eternity in heaven instead of hell. I am writing an essay on this so any thought you can give me would be appreciated. But the typical view is that to become a christian and be saved you must genuinely ask Jesus into your heart and admit that he died for you to save you from death, making you righteous then you will be saved, forever. Now i'm sure many of you christians are nodding your heads, well i believe there is more to this then that. Though that is the first step, accepting Jesus I believe that the sign of salvation is Good works. Now you catholics are nodding but the good works do not, Do Not grant your salvation they are merely a sign of genuine acceptance. They are not the only one and you can never judge purely on this and you should never be judging at all. But when someone has genuinely accepted Jesus then Good Works will be impossible for him to not do. His life Will Be Changed, permanently. It says in Matthew 7:16-17, By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

If you see someone accept Jesus even if it is geniune, then going back and doing the same things they were before and not having or seeing a problem with it, then they were merely caught up in the emotion of it and I believe they won't be saved. A good example of this I heard by a pastor. The pastor said, "Say I were late today, and I finally got here to preach and you said Brother Paul your late what happened," Brother paul said, "Well I was driving on my way here and I swerved to avoid a deer on the highway. I swerved into the next lane and got hit by a 18 wheeler going that way going 90 miles an hour and it flattened my car. You would look at me and say brother paul that's impossible. You can't be hit by something as big as a 18 wheeler and not be changed. And so he replied, well what is bigger a 18 wheeler or God.

You Cannot truely become a christian and not be permantly changed. You won't listen to music like 50 cent and Eminem with out a guilty "conscience," key word being conscience. Now is the music so bad that it cancels your salvation? No! but if you accepted Jesus into your heart and made him Lord of your Life, your will, you sacrificed all your wants and desires before him till he is King of your heart mind and soul. You won't listen to that music and still be a christian.

It says that few will enter the kingdom of God. Now simply using logic all of people who claim to be chrisitans can't be true follower of Christ, because christianity is the largest religion in the world by millions, and simply by knowing that, we know they must be false. Because few isn't half the world or 40% or 30%. We are missing some great detail that makes us christians because it doesn't work logically. If you asked these people what made them christians they would all say that accepting Jesus into their heart and making them Lord of their life. Though some might say more then that, that is the basic answer. That can't be all, we are missing something.

I believe and obviously all of this has been my interpretation and thoughts it's obviously not foolproof. But I believe that the first step is geniune accepting Jesus that is proved through works and other things. And then I believe there is a third step, but I don't know what it is so for now I shall not go into that. Thoughts are appreciated.

Tithing

noreply@blogger.com (Above the Influence) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:52:00 +0000

Today I would like to talk about a topic that I believe is very important, Tithing. However it is not for the typical reasons that people think. Let me just make this clear, God does not need your money. This is a common misconsumption. God does not need our money to accomplish good, it is after all his money that he has given to us. These verses in Malachi support my point, "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. That was Malachi 3:8-9. So if God does not need the money, then what does he want it for? Well I shall tell you. In the bible it mentions many times that wealth, and money is evil. Is money actually wrong? Of course not but the love of money is the root of all evil the bible says. 1st Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And Matthew 19:23-24, Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. These are just several of the examples that shed light upon this topic, why is it so important? Well because as these verses says Money is the root of evil, simply put money seperates us from God. The bible lists it as the number one physical thing that keeps people away from God. Matthew 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. So my point is Tithing is something by God used to keep the love of money in check. By giving money away every week at church a large percentage of our income it is hard to fall in love with it. As long as we are willing to give it up we are safe. But at any point if it gets to difficult to give it away we know that we struggle with the love of money. So to wrap up, the purpose of tithing in my opinion is to prevent the love of money from separating us from God.