THE BIBLE: LIVING WORD OR NICE TABLE ACCESSORY?

In this day and age, it might sound silly to ask this question, but at the risk of sounding like a total moron, I’m going to go ahead and ask it anyways.

What exactly do Christians use their bibles for?

Now, I don’t present this question because I’m legitimately confused as to the purpose of the Bible in a Christian’s life, I present the question because I believe people now-a-days are legitimately confused as to the purpose of the Bible in our culture.

Let me start off by saying that the Bible is not some ancient text that is completely irrelevant to a young persons life in today’s society (a thought all youth have had), it is not a cool huge book that takes up a lot of space on a bookshelf, it is not something you place on your coffee table because it will make people feel more comfortable in your home, and it is certainly not something that should be carried around in order to convince people that you are something you are not. The bible is the “sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). The bible is not something that should just be tossed around aimlessly, and carried with no purpose. It should be where we turn in order to grow in relationship with our God, and where we go when we want to know how to deal with problems that life throws at us.

There was a t-shirt my sister had when she was younger that stated the phrase, “Life’s Instruction Manual” and underneath that phrase was a picture of the bible. This t-shirt has always stuck with me because I was one of the people that fell into the lie that bible isn’t for me, the bible is irrelevant, and all that matters is what I perceive to be true in life. A thought that is directly contradicted in Hebrews 4:12, which states, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The point this verse hints at is that the word of God is not dead, the Word of God is just as alive now as it always has been. It never goes out of style, it never falls behind the times; it is always relevant, always useful, and always necessary in the walk of any Christian. The bible not only guides us in our faith, but it also discerns where our the treasures of our hearts are truly placed, and what we are placing above God’s love and grace in our lives.

So those who go around saying that the Bible isn’t necessary in my life, and I’m “spirit fed,” and just live their lives based on whims that they feel are God speaking to them are not living according to the Spirit they claim is feeding them. You cannot have any clue to what God is actually telling you without reading and studying his Word. God teaches his followers through His word, and the only way to find His word is rooted in the scriptures. Without the Word of God, you are suppressing the truth, and thus limiting God in your own life.

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Paul spells out the principle purpose of the Bible in every person’s life: that we may study the scripture, which is the living word of God, and in that knowledge attained through studying allow ourselves to molded by God, and equipped for all things in life.

The Bible wasn’t given to us as a cool accessory, a nice addition to our library, or a way to somehow enhance other people’s views of ourselves. It was given to us for the sole purpose that we may study it, set our standards by it, and accept nothing less than a life lived according to it. IT IS 100% GOD’S WORD, do not treat it any differently, and do not disrespect it in anyway. Most importantly, use it as a weapon to fight the hardships in life, and to study the One who created you for a specific purpose in this world. It's called a sword for a reason. Make War! Fight Hard! Hold on tight to the Rock! 

God loves you, and gave you His word for a reason.

How will you treat your Bible?

God bless,

Trip Starkey

The Glory of Suffering

Hello everyone,

For my next blog post, I have decided to attempt to tackle a topic that has been extremely intriguing to me lately, and one that is fairly controversial amongst skeptics and believers. The topic of this blog is that of suffering. Specifically, I will be dealing with what comes out of suffering, and ultimately why it is that humans are subject to it.

            First and foremost, we are told that all human beings are subject to suffering. In 2 Timothy 3:12-13, Paul states, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” We see that believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are subject to suffering because they believe that Christ is the TRUE savior of all creation. Jesus Christ, the same man, who is fully God, who was rejected by all mankind and God himself, so that through his rejection, those who believe may all have life. John 3:19 claims, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” These are the other people that Paul speaks of in 2 Timothy, the people who not only reject the followers of Jesus, but also reject Jesus himself. These are the people that will suffer because they will forever be wallowing in “the darkness,” constantly being deceived by Satan, and rejecting the Light that died for them. All mankind will reject God at some point, due to sin, because we are all sinful, and we all will suffer due to our sin. ALL SUFFERING ON EARTH IS DUE TO MAN REJECTING GOD, AND CHOOSING DARKNESS OVER LIGHT.  The difference comes either when you decide to accept God’s grace through Jesus’ sacrifice, or if you reject God, and dwell in the darkness.

            To deal with the topic of suffering, I have chosen three passages out of 1 Peter. Three passages that I believe can give believers a clearer picture of what exactly the purpose of suffering is, and why we must go through it.

            The first passage comes in 1 Peter 1: 6-7, which states, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” What Paul is stating here, is that many times, believers are put into trials and suffering as a way of polishing our beliefs and faith, so that we may come out as pure as gold. We are placed into trying times so that the genuineness of our faith can shine through. If you are put into a trial, and you totally turn away from God, it just goes to show that your faith wasn’t very strong in the first place. In turn, if you go through a trial, and rely solely on God and the community He has placed around you, then it proves that your faith is very strong, and that is a testament to everything that Jesus Christ did on the cross and in your life. In John 15, Jesus refers to Himself as the “true vine,” and that we are all branches of the main vine (himself), and that we will constantly be pruned. This goes to say that the dead, fallen branches will wither away with no faith, but the ones who are fruitful will stay and remain to bear fruit in His name. Elbert Hubbard states, “If you suffer, thank God! -- it is a sure sign that you are alive.” So in simple terms, if you suffer and continue to bear fruit, thank God that he put you through that, it a sign that He’s working through you.

            For my second passage in 1 Peter, we will look at verses 4, and 9-10, which states, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious…But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” This is saying that those who believe have been rejected by society, by those who dwell in the darkness. Believers, though rejected, have been chosen specifically by God to be the cornerstone that he builds his church upon. We who are chosen will suffer, so that in our suffering, we can proclaim the goodness of God, and all the he has done for us. If we remain faithful in our suffering, we will receive the mercy that God offers to us. Through our suffering, we receive mercy, come out of it shining like gold, and will be the people that God builds His earthly ministry upon. Jesus claims that through the Holy Spirit, we will achieve greater things on earth than He did (John 14). Thus, through our suffering, we will receive mercy, and achieve great things through his Spirit. Mercy can only come through suffering.

            For my third and final passage, we look to 1 Peter 2: 19-25, which states, “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”  What this passage is saying is this, “when we suffer, we are as close to feeling like God as we can possibly be.” I know some of y’all are thinking that this is heretical because we can never be like God. I do not mean “like God” in the sense that we somehow morph into gods, I mean that we get the feeling slightly of what God experienced on the cross. In his book A Reason for God, Tim Keller says of Christ, “Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and god-forsaken. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.” This is saying that Christ experienced suffering further than anything we could ever imagine on the cross. He did it solely so that mankind could, through Him, someday live without pain or suffering. So we could live in a world free from sin, and dwell with the God who created and loves them more than anything. So when we suffer here on earth, it is the closest thing we can get to being like Christ. Especially when we suffer due to no fault of our own. Christ came to earth and lived perfectly, without blame. He suffered not only under human hands, but also at the hands of God so that we could be saved through His blood. Our survival of suffering is a testament to us receiving the grace of Christ that we do not deserve. Through suffering we have grace and salvation. Through suffering, we are close to God. Paul praises suffering all throughout his letters, because he knows that he is experiencing just a small fraction of what Christ experienced so we could have life.

            In conclusion, take heart in suffering, because in it, if you remain faithful, you are growing closer to God constantly. When you question suffering, remember, without it, we would have no salvation and no grace. Christ died for us, He died so that we could have life. He loves you more than anything, and he suffered for YOU. Don’t dwell in darkness, but hold fast to Him. He is unwavering. Remember that.

God Bless,

Trip Starkey 

My Purpose

Hello blogosphere,

My name is Trip Starkey, and for those of you who do not know me, I am an eighteen-year-old, college freshman who will be attending Texas Christian University in the fall. I have spent this summer as a summer-staff intern at Parkway Hills Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and recently graduated from Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, Texas. I want to spend a little bit of time on explaining my purpose in starting this blog, and my reasoning behind the things that I will talk about and hopefully get your feedback from in this blog. First and foremost, I am starting this blog because I believe it is my purpose in life to share the loving-grace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to as many people, on as many different platforms as I possibly can. I am a sinner, saved by grace, and it is my joy to be able to share with people what it is specifically that Christ has done in my life, and what He can do in your life. I would also like to say, that I in no way have everything figured out, I have plenty more to learn in my stay here on earth, and I find no greater joy than to learn about my Savior in fellowship with and through loving all the people God has placed around me. That brings me to my purpose in this blog. My main intention of this blog is to be able to not only help others (and myself) to grow in basic, essential doctrinal beliefs, but to also try to tackle some key issues amongst people my age in a theologically sound manner.

In 1 Timothy 1:7, Paul states that, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”. I believe that in this day and age it is a common theme among young people to not speak their minds about what they believe, either because of a spirit of timidity and fear, or due to a sense of apathy towards most of the things life throws at them. It is my goal that this blog can give anyone who reads it a sense of power, behind their Savior to stand up for what they believe in. Also to help build essential doctrine within their belief system, and answer many key questions in our society in a Biblical and Christ-like manner.

I firmly believe that Christ has called us not only go forth and spread his word and grace to those who do not have it, but also to grow continually in fellowship and community with fellow believers. We must have no selfish intentions in this, but solely the purpose of growing and strengthening the body of Christ. Mark 16: 15-16, Jesus tells His disciples (and all of His followers), “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” As Christians, we have been called to share with everyone the message of the Cross, and the sacrifice of Jesus. The common misconception here is that we are only supposed to tell those who have not heard the message before. We are not only supposed to tell those people who have not heard, but we are also supposed to tell the fellow believers around us what we are learning about in reading the scriptures, and to process them with one another, so that we are constantly strengthening the body.

Once again, my purpose in this blog and many future posts on it, is to share among those who are fellow believers, those who are interested in learning more about Jesus, and to those who are skeptics, what is means to truly live a life for Christ, what we as Christians should truly hold fast to as a core belief system, and to truly grow with my fellow believers in a real relationship with Christ.

Again, I do not have all of the answers to life, nor do I claim to. I intend to use the doctrine placed before us through the Word of God, to help share what He commands believers and followers of him to live by, and to help answer some of the questions life presents. I welcome responses to anything I post on this blog, and I hope that you enable yourself to search for your own answers to questions.

In parting, I will leave all you readers out there with this. “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24). Throughout the ministry of Jesus Christ, we received the greatest example of how to love, serve, forgive, and live contently than any other example we have ever seen. This example came from God Himself, a God who humbled Himself before creation (the creation He created, nonetheless), served creation, and through obeying the Father, died on the cross, so that all of His creation, which had fallen to sin, my now accept his free gift of grace, and spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Life will not always be easy, it will not always be a “walk in the park,” but we have a God who went through far worse than we could ever imagine. When He was hanging on the cross, He was bearing the weight of the world on His shoulders, all of man’s sin was placed on Jesus’ back, and he was our sacrificial lamb who atoned for all of our sins. Hebrews 4: 15 states, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Any sin that you are dealing with, or difficult situation you are going through, or any predicament you could EVER find yourself in, Jesus has been tempted the same way and gone through it. Not only has He been tempted with it, but because of the Holy Spirit, He is also going through it with you. God died a criminal’s death, as a holy and blameless man, so that YOU, by accepting His free grace, may spend eternity in Heaven.

He loves you, and made the ultimate sacrifice for YOU.

I look forward to growing in love and fellowship with all who read this blog.

God Bless,

Trip Starkey