Actively Christian

Well, the day has come at last. This is porbably going to be my final post on edublogs. As of today I am switching over to blogger. My new domain name is http://wanderingwayferer.blogspot.com and the name of the blog is The Mortal Instruments. I hope to see some of you over there. Until we meet again, Atra gülai un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse sköliro frá rauthr. (May luck and happiness follow you and may you be shielded from misfortune.)

Hello everyone. I am sooo sorry about the lack of updating. I just wanted to let update yall on how the world of Alex Spurling is going. School is going alright. I’m not failing any classes but I’m not making straight A’s either. Everything is going good at church too. The majority of my youth group is still going strong for God and the youth groups of several other churches where my friends attend are going strong as well. And for the 1st time on my blog, I will announce how my love life is going. And it’s going GREAT! I am dating the most wonderful, kindest, sweetest, most loving girl in the entire world and I love her to death. And I know a lot of people say that teenagers don’t truly know what love is but I’m telling you I do. Just wanted to share with yall. Hope everyone is doing fine and is continuing to grow in their walk with God. If any of yall have any prayer requests just post them or you can email them to me at aqspurling@gmail.com. God Bless all of you and have a great day!

Its simple really, teachers. Not their personalities per say but the way they teach (or don’t teach) us things is a little messed up in my opinion. They stick a diverse group of individuals into one room and expect us all to learn and understand things exactly the same way, which NEVER happens. There is still hope though. There are some teachers that take our differences into account and structure their class around that fact. Mr. Lineberger, my English teacher from last year, did an excellent job of this. He incorporated many different programs into our curriculum, like Animoto and letting us pick a topic and blog about it regularly. He also incorporated books and movies based on them into our learning as well. There’s an idea for you folks, reading books in an English class. I would never have thought that would be a good way to give students a broader & deeper knowledge of the English language. And they were interesting as well, not some boring book that takes 3/4 of the book until it can be considered slightly interesting. Also, it helps when the teachers pretend, or maybe actually are, they are interested in our education. Just throwing that out there.

Until next time,

Alex Spurling

I’ve decided to use this blog more seriously, as of my last post. I will update daily and will have a big post every thursday, and I will recap the sermon that my pastor preaches each sunday and the one my youth minister does on wednesdays. If anyone subscribes/reads  this blog regularly, let me know what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts on how I’m doing, suggestions on what to do better, etc. God Bless you guys and I’ll talk to you tomorrow!

Yours in Christ,

Alex Spurling

Well, what does it mean? It means to be authentic with our faith, to worship Jesus with every fiber of our being. Our lives should reflect the light and love of the Son as the moon does to the Sun. We also need to be desperate for Jesus but most of us, including myself, fall incredibly short in this aspect. Here is a story that demonstrates what it means to desperately need Jesus.

A man walks up to his pastor, who was a very big, strong man, and they start a conversation. The man says “Pastor, I know I’m saved and baptized and everything but how can I tell if I’m really desperate for Him? ” The pastor then stood up and said, “Come with me.” They started walking and they came to a lake behind the church. They went to about chest deep water and the man said “Pastor, what are we doing? I’ve already been baptized. I just want to know how to tell if I’m desperate for Jesus. The pastor then grabbed the man and held him under the water. He did this while the man struggled fruitlessly and when the man was about to pass out, the pastor picked him up and carried him to the shore. After the man got his breath back he asked the pastor, “Why did you do that? I could have died!” The pastor then said “When you want Jesus as much as you want that next breath, you’re desperate for Him.”

This is a revelation to many Christians in America and all over the world because we say we love Jesus but in reality most of us are only using Him to further our self interests. This is a great travesty and it occurs way to often in our present culture. This past summer I read the book Radical by David Platt. It is a challenge to all Christians, especially those who are living an Americanized version of God’s Gospel, to be truly Christlike and radical in our faith and belief in God. If we truly believe that God will not allow us to perish if we trust in Him (No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13) then why are we afraid to trust Him? He says “Go. Sell all you have and give to the poor. THEN you can come and follow me.” When Jesus said Take up your cross and follow me, He meant it literally. The Great Commission isn’t applicable to some people and irrelevant to others. No, those are the last words spoken by the physical representation of Christ on Earth. They should be taken to heart and be taken extremely seriously. God wants ALL of His followers to share the good news of the Gospel with everyone around them, not just those who’s livelihood is earned by doing so. If we are to be Actively Christian, we need to let go and give God complete control over our lives. Guys, behave like men of God should behave. That girl you are lusting about in your mind, that is your SISTER in Christ. Show her some respect. Live modestly and truthfully, sharing the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus with all. Girls, behave like mature women of God should. Dress modestly & respect your body, for it is God’s temple. (The same applies for guys as well, sorry for not mentioning it earlier.) Strive to be a Proverbs 31 woman and to show the love and kindness of our wonderful God to all. And above all else, worship God the way you were created to. Don’t hold back because you’re scared of people watching or if you aren’t quite sure what to do. Just do what comes naturally and let the Holy Spirit of God flow through your body, therefore becoming an instrument for God to use to advance the glory of His kingdom over all the Earth. Thats what it is all about, brothers and sisters, fully surrendering to God and allowing His will to dictate the course of your life. If we can do this, we shall rejoice when we gather to worship together in the kingdom of Heaven.

Yours in Christ,

Alex Spurling

This past autumn, I discovered one of the greatest Christian artists ever. His name is Matt Papa. He has great lyrics that show his deep passion for Christ and great arrangements that make the music sound great too. He also has a blog (www.mattpapa.com). Its pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Another great artist is Kristian Stanfill. Definitely worth checking out. Thats all folks. Hope yall are enjoying your New Year’s so far and haven’t already fallen off your Resolutions yet. Peace be with you all!

Hypocrite. This is the answer most non-Christians give when asked why they are against Christians. (This is all coming from my own personal experiences) They call us hypocrites and liars and sinners. My response to them is… you’re absolutely right. We are all of these things and so much more. That is the whole point of the Good News of Jesus, the Gospel of Grace! Because God sent His son Jesus to die a terrible death upon a cross, we don’t have to. When Jesus died, he took all of the sins of the world and placed them upon himself. Because of this, we no longer have to fear the grave and hell. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 15:55 “Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”. If we trust in God and believe in His Word, our souls are His forever and the Devil has no power over us. This is so because Jesus overcame the grave and the world. This doesn’t mean Satan doesn’t have power, far from it. He has tremendous power, not enough to match that of God but an impressive amount nevertheless, but he can only exercise it over you if you or Jesus lets him. This is evident first in Job 1:12 “Very well,” the LORD told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.”. This passage also demonstrates God’s love and protection over us. He puts everything about Job’s life into the hands of Satan except for Job’s life. The second example I found was in Luke 22:31 “Simon, Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” The next verses show both how eager Peter is to serve God and that even the great Apostle Peter is a hypocrite.  ³³ “Lord,” he told Him, “I’m ready to go with You both to prison and to death!”  ³⁴ “I tell you, Peter,” He said, “the rooster will not crow today until you deny three times that you know Me!”  And that is exactly what happened. He denied Him three times and then was overcome by grief. Luke 22:32 and Job 1:12b strengthen the point I made earlier about how we are forever in God’s loving hands. As long as you are in God’s hands, you are safe, for He will always have your back, whether you deserve it or not. Also, nothing in the world can cause you to fall out of His hands. It says in Romans 8:38 & 39  ³⁸ For I am persuaded that not even death or life,
angels or rulers,
things present or things to come, hostile powers,
³⁹ height or depth, or any other created thing
will have the power to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Peace be with you brothers and sisters in this merry season. 

I just wanted to let everybody know that when I put music in my posts, you can download it for free. All you have to do is right click on it and click Download Linked File. Enjoy everyone!

05 All The Pretty Things

The Bible says in Exodus 20:3, ” Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This is one commandment most of us don’t think about as much as we should. We think that we can’t possibly get this one wrong, that the days of idol worshipping have long since passed. Well… we’re wrong. This is the most broken commandment out of all 10 of them. Anything that we consider to be more important than God, whether it be a physical relationship or a valuable possession, is, in God’s eyes, a god we are putting before Him. I love music, especially Christian music. I can fill my ipod up to the brim with music praising God and the wondrous things He was done, but if it is at any time more important to me than my relationship with the one true God, then it is a stumbling block in my journey on God’s path. I can’t stress how much I wish the modern church could get back to the basics of Christianity. The early believers are the best example of what Christ means as “the Church”. They were a group of believers who gathered together at someone’s house and praised and prayed to Jesus. They didn’t seclude themselves from society , they embraced it with open arms. They also truly gave from the heart. It says in Acts 2:42-47 “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” If Christians today would embrace this teaching of the apostles, the secular world wouldn’t be as hostile towards believers. If they saw Christians living life the way it was meant to be lived, they might be more open to what the missionaries have to say. Just wanted everyone to think about that. If you have any questions, feel free to comment! God Bless!

P.S. : Merry Christmas eve eve eve everyone!

10 The Lord Is a Warrior (feat. Shai Linne)