About Me

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Hi, my name is Justus, I'm a Christian.I attended Patrick Henry College for three semesters, and I transfered to College of the Ozarks in the fall of 2013 where I graduated as an English major in 2016. I love the Lord Jesus Christ the savior of my soul. He has made me new. He leads me in the Old Path; He is the Way. I am not perfect; my Lord is sanctifying me though.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Soli Deo Gloria

I've been thinking a lot about glory lately.

      All glory belongs to God. It seems like a simple statement, but it has huge ramifications. As Imago Dei and Imago Christi (the Image of God and the Image of Christ) Christians have the responsibility of displaying God's glory. Let me explain. As men we have been created in the image and likeness of God, and, to some extent, that means we bear the image of His glory. As Christ renews us we are given the glory of Christ in our new lives, which is displayed in our actions. Now here is where things get hard. God entusted us with His glory. Are we treating it like it's ours?

      Last semester someone asked, "Can God trust you with His glory, or are you taking it as your own?" This question was merely an interesting way of looking at pride, until this past week. In chapel and my devotions, among other things, I have come accross the word "glory" several times this week. And that question has been resounding through my mind.

     When I started this blog, I was feeling bored, I didn't know how to keep myself occupied. That's rediculous because I have a lot of homework and plenty of friends to fill my time. What I was wanting was something deeper than a time filler. As I was taking a short walk I began to think of God's intentions for my life, but I wasn't thinking much about God. I was focused on myself. In a small group with the guys in my hall or "wing" at school, which is called wing chapel and which we have on Thursdays we talked about Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men." This, I realized, I had not been doing. I came back to school this semester with a selfish disposition. I was stealing God's glory.

     Yesterday in chapel Dr. Graham Walker spoke about Jeremiah 8 and 9. He spoke of how the wise men were stealing God's glory and reminded us of God's commands to give Him glory. He quoted Jeremiah 9:23-24 as well as 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, which command us to do just that. I was struck again. Then, as I mused over this conundrum, I was reading several passages in the Gospels about Christ's birth (Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2). I was struck by how often God was praised and people gave glory to God. Even the angels give Him "glory in the highest"! Today there was another wing chapel, and, you guessed it, glory came up again! (Talk about emphasis.) This time we went through Colossians 1. The whole time we focused on who Christ is and the work He did. We examined the glory of the Gospel. (Now glory was not the topic, but it was clearly evident that God was being glorified in our time together.) The session culminated with a Youtube vidio recording of Dr. S. M. Lockridge's "That's My King", which tries to capture how glorious Christ is and self-proclaimedly fails. How glorious is my King!

     Even in my schoolwork the idea of glory comes through, as I read the Odyssey I was disgusted by the misplaced glorification of men and pagan gods. My King deserves that glory. In my class, Theology of the Bible, we were also reviewing the person and work of Christ. While we were discussing Christ's pre-existant state we read John 17:5, in which Christ prays, "Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was". (There it is again... glory.) As we discussed God's glory and what it means to share God's glory, Dr. Cox made the comment, "we should be jealous for God's glory and desire to remove ourselves from the place where we would recieve His glory". He spoke of flinging ourselves from the light of glory and letting it shine on God. I have learned a little more about what it means to steal God's glory. May we never do so.

Let me leave you, my readers, with this exhortation:
 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

-Blessings
(Colossians 3:23, Jeremiah 8-9, 9:23-24, 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, Matthew 1, Luke 1-2, John 17:5, 1 Corinthians 10:31)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Chasing Blessings

To answer the question posted under "Why":

     I think that there is a fine line between following God for the blessings and following God and accepting the blessings. If one were to simply chase the gain, they really wouldn't be following God to the fullest extent. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth" (Matthew 6:24) One example of this is when Annanias and Sapphira were giving to the Church in Jeruselem and they withheld part of their earnings. (See Acts 5.) They seemingly were serving God, but the Holy Spirit wasn't fooled. In their hearts they were seeking gain from God and from men. (I'm not going to guess at the state of their souls at the time of their death, but the point is that they were not following God.)

     A counter example to look at is that of Abram. In Genesis 12 God commanded him to leave his home and wander about. God promised blessings for doing so, and Abram went. Now whether his motive was the gain or God is not clear, but he was following God's command and God blessed Him for it like He promised.

     All that to say: we should follow God's commands, and where blessings are promised we should expect and even look forward to them, but we should not make the rewards our ultimate goal. (I don't know about all my readers, but I can't wait for the reward I'll get at the end of this life.)

Blessings-
(Matthew 6:24, Acts 5:1-11, Genesis 12)

Why?

Why did I start a blog?
Why did I name it thus?
Why should you read it?

I don't know.
That's the simplest answer. However, life isn't always as simple as we'd like, and that would make for a short post and a boring blog.

To answer more fully I'll give partial answers and let you (the readers) fill it in.

First: I started a blog because: I'm bored, I have lots of aquaintences and friends with blogs, I want to get something about what I think out, and I've been toying with the idea for a while.

Second: I named my blog "Old Paths and Ancient Boundaries" after two specific Bible passages which have very little to do with each other, namely: Jeremiah 6:16 and Proverbs 23:10-11. I like these verses because they give warnings we don't often think about. In Proverbs it warns us not to move boundaries or to enter the fields of the fatherless, both of these have to do with defrauding, stealing, taking advantage, and taking land. God takes this very seriously, in fact offenders answer directly to Him, and it doesn't sound like they'll have much to say. In Jeremiah it warns to stand by and seek old paths. This one is different in that it promises a blessing for obeying instead of judgement for tresspassing. I guess the reason I wanted to start this blog was to uncover some of those old paths and to brush off the plant growth from the boundary markers. Maybe one of these paths will lead me and you (my readers) closer to God and closer to the rest promised in Jeremiah.

Why should you read it? This question is one I can't answer for you. This is where I'll let you fill in. I don't think many people search for the newest blog, because there are so many floating around that one more is just another... just another blog. This blog may not be something special. I may not be something special. But my God is special and what He has to say through me will probably even suprise me. (I'm not claiming any special revelation, simply general revelation through my eyes and ears.)

-Blessings
 (Proverbs 23:10-11, Jeremiah 6:16)