What is a Christian?

Yesterday I had a quick thought that I sent out via Ping.Fm that posts to all my social networking sites. It said, "Don't attend church, don't tithe, don't volunteer, don't read the bible and are a Christian, yeah that makes sense..." It didn't take long for me to realize that I had just opened a can of worms! I was actually reflecting on my own past and even some current behavior, but specifically a point in my life where I as living like Hell and calling myself a Christian.

I heard a pastor talk about the old days when the Sunday school teacher would tell you to pray a prayer and you go to heaven. That's not what the bible says at all. If you think that simply "believing" in God gives you a get out of hell free ticket, lets think about this. First, Satan "believes" in God, secondly Matthew 7:21 says Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Also in Luke 6:44 Jesus says, "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? Many respond to this saying, everyone sins, and that is completely true. God is not looking for perfection, He is looking for repentance, a changed heart.  The word in the New Testament usually translated “repent” is the Greek word “metanoeo,” and the word translated “repentance” is “metanoia.” Both of these Greek words have the same basic meaning: “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently.” God's desire for us not to sin is demonstrated in the story of the the adulterous woman in John 8. Many people like to quote this verse about not casting stones, however the story ends with Jesus saying in John 8:11  "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." So yes, Jesus did not condemn her, but he also said sin no more. When you become a Christian you should have a desire to live differently and do things differently and constantly be growing and becoming more Christ like.

Speaking of growing, that brings me to one of the other four areas I mentioned, church. I said church because it was a tweet, and there was not a way to elaborate on it, and most people know what that means. Hebrews 10:25 talks about not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some. Forsaking means abandon, renounce or give up. It's pretty cool how God knows us well. I want to make sure you understand, I am not judging anyone! I was one of those people that stopped going to church because I started to focus in on people that did wrong, and what I was not getting from church. I now understand that even if another church member does you dirty, what does that have to do with God? God didn't do you dirty, a person did. I've found that going to church with a spirit of giving, instead of getting makes it much better. We are also there to worship and serve God, our Lord, Savior and Father, not to be entertained. 

Many are quick to point out that assembling together does not necessarily mean church.  I totally agree. I also agree that there are some people that go to church that do bad stuff. Most of the people that are quick to point this out are not assembling together with other Christ followers either. Why point out that assembling together does not mean church, when you know you are not assembling either? If you are assembling together, over the next 30 years your group should grow as a result of inviting people to your group and sharing your faith. Eventually your group will outgrow the building you are meeting in, and guess what, you have a church because you cannot physically fit everyone in your house or the Panera bread.

One of the four areas I mentioned was reading God's word, the Bible, and a Christian's instruction manual. If you are not reading the bible, and you are a Christian, how are you supposed to do what God says? This is definitely an area I struggle with and I am trying to do a better job. The verse above says only those that do God's will enter the Kingdom of heaven, and since the Bible is the instruction manual, it seems like a good idea to read it!

One of the other four areas I mentioned was tithing. Again, this is an area I have struggled with. A lot of people including myself get defensive when you start talking about money! It took me a few years to embrace giving.  What is interesting about money is we leave the world with the same amount of money we came into it with, yet much time is spent trying to make it and hold onto it. The bible says in Matthew 6:19-21 to be storing up treasure for heaven, not Earth. Again why is this so hard!! I cannot tell you the number of times I have had to get my focus off worldly stuff like a new car etc. If you have enough money after your tithes and offerings to buy a new car, there is nothing wrong with that either, but I am not one of those people so I need to get my focus off of it. I believe because of our sinful nature that we must learn how to be cheerful givers. I remember the first time I wrote a check for over $1,000.00 I wasn't real cheerful about it. Let be honest here, when you start doing 10 percent off $10,000 or $100,000 you are talking real money. A lot of people would say, if I made $100,000  I would gladly give away $10,000 because I'd still have $90,000, but it's not that easy. The other thing is some people give what they feel like. You know the churches where they pass the offering plate around? It's funny I hardly ever see any checks in there. Some people give so little, they aren't even worried about getting a tax credit for it. They put 10 bucks in there like it's an admission fee for a movie or something. Let say someone decides I'm going to give $5,000.00 off $100,000.00 because that's a lot of money. You might even get some thanks for giving the money, but really it's like jumping up and down screaming touchdown on the 50 yard line. That's not being obedient, and God's not impressed. God is all about obedience, and has been since the Garden when Eve ate the apple and gave it to Adam.

The last of four areas I mentioned was volunteering aka serving. I know for a fact this is a problem area, they call it the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the work is done by 20 percent of the people. I told my son recently that if you go a whole week and everything that you did that week only benefit's you and your family, there is something really wrong with that picture. There are kids that need mentoring, homeless that need fed, widows that need help around the house, but how many of us get too busy with our own lives and find ourselves not doing anything for anyone else outside our family and work? I will be the first to admit there are times when the focus is all on me and my family, but there is a world of hurting people out there that need us.

If you are a Christian and you have never read the bible, check out Youversion.com they have a free phone app and you can sign up for a one year plan to read the bible. If you are not serving, there are plenty of places you can do so. If you are not going to church or assembling, start doing it and start growing your faith and sharing it with others, I promise you won't regret it if you go in with a giving spirit.

-Mike-

I am smarter than God!

I know you are thinking, what's going on this this title! This particular blog post is specifically written for Christians, if you are not a Christian, there is likely no point in reading further. Most of you immediately thought how arrogant, nobody is smarter than God, but do our actions reflect that? The fact is, we have all done something that would make it seem as if we believe we are smarter than God. As Christians, we have an instruction manual called the Bible. The Bible talks about many things, one of them being sex. God made us, God wired us, so He knows what is best for us. He laid out some rules to help us, not hurt us. The problem is, many of us have decided we are smarter than God and know what is best for us. For example, I'm an adult, so it is okay for me to have sex outside of marriage, or God made me gay, so it is okay to be homosexual. My spouse is not giving me enough attention, so I am going to get attention somewhere else.

The Bible is very clear about sex. It's clear about when and who we can have sex with. First you need to be married. Second, it needs to be opposite sex. I have gay friends, and I know someone is going to eventually read this and get steaming mad, but listen, I did not write the Bible. You need to take that up with God. The excuse that I was born this way doesn't cut it either. There are babies that are born crack babies, and people that are born predisposed to alcoholism, but that does not make it okay to smoke crack or be a drunk. Read this verse and it becomes very clear you are playing a dangerous game with your eternity. I would encourage my Christian gay friends to explore the Bible more about sexuality. Denial is a false happy place, but God is very serious when it comes to how we handle sex, and it is our responsibility to research and be obedient. God flat out says, if you do certain things, you are not going to Heaven, and just because "you believe" in God, does not necessarily mean you are getting a get out of hell free card. Satan "believes" in God too! The good news is that all God wants us to do is repent, and start living for Him. We all have messed up!

I really just wanted to be thought provoking with this blog. We spend plenty of time watching TV or with our hobbies, so I would encourage you to get out your Bibles and read a little more about the topic of sex.

=Mike=

Geeky Blast from the Past-My WWIV BBS

I was just thinking today about how before we had the public Internet we had Bulletin Board System's or BBS'. I can still remember pestering my parents to buy me a Hayes Smartmodem 1200 which was around 300.00 in 1984. 10 years later I started my own WWIV BBS, and as you can see in this post, at an early age, I was already using the Internet for marketing! Notice that by then, the speeds were 9600 Baud. Who could forget the sounds made by a modem connecting. It's crazy, but listening to that sound actually triggers old memories I have.

On a related note, I can distinctly recall in college at Middle Tennessee State University that the Internet they had was a T1 line that was 1.5u/1.5d Mbps. Back then, that was incredibly fast because you must remember there were no high resolution cameras, and games were very small files because the graphics were not hi-res either, so the files you were transferring were small.

Early on, there were already Internet addicts. There was a guy that lived in the dorm that was totally addicted to IRC Chat. He was a little Indian guy of short stature who was the child of a well known heart surgeon at Vanderbilt. I remember finding a file he had stored that said "Girls I have had Netsex with". He told them all he was 6'0" tall, and I actually now wonder how many of them were actually guys pretending to be girls. I know that we would send out e-mails with forged addresses like God@mtsu.edu which ironically freaked people out. Again, back then they had no authentication for sending messages or spam filtering so it was easy to pull off. The Indian student ended up flunking his classes because he spend all his waking hours online. That summer, he was arrested and given a no tresspass for breaking into the dorm to use the computers. Back then there was no automated system to activate/deactivate accounts, so after the semester was over his access was still active.

Some of you know this, but Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) actually paid me to teach students once a week how to access the Internet via the VT100 terminals in the dorm computer room. I also did a little computer repair which landed me full access passes to the Girls dorm which was very nice at the time. lol

That's all for now! 20 plus years on the Internet for me, wow that is hard to believe!

Hollywood's use of "GD" and "Jesus" in movies

I was watching Green Lantern this weekend and couldn't help notice at the first of the movie, the main character says "GD" twice, and also "Jesus". I really started to become fascinated with the use of Jesus during the movie and let me explain why.

There have been a lot of internationally famous people that have lived, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Socrates, Elvis, we could go on, but for some reason, one name gets injected into a movie that the New York times estimates costs 300 million dollars to produce and advertise, Jesus.

I am really fascinated by this, and if you really sit down and think about it, the fact they are using the name of Jesus Christ, even in vain, speaks volumes in the impact the son of God had on this Earth.

I was almost killed on a jet ski -boating safety Tennessee

Hey guys when you are out on the water, make sure you take it seriously. When I was 26, a boat was speeding, I caught the wake, and I went airborn and crashed into the bridge. I woke up floating in the water with an loud ringing sound. My life jacket was fully buckled prior to the accident, but the impact busted open all the straps but the bottom one. If you are on a boat and your life jacket is not fastened, it is likely not going to do anything. You never know when someone speeding or drunk is going to crash into you, and trust me getting ejecting into the lake is no fun! Had I not been wearing a properly fastened life jacket, I would not be writing this now! Be safe and if you have children, don't assume nothing is going to happen while you are boating!

Volunteering outside our gifted areas

Many years ago I transitioned from working specifically with technology at Faith Promise Church to working with the children's ministry because there was a need. Today I was working children's security during the service and they brought in a crying three year old boy who had a minor injury. Typically I don't have a lot of interaction with the children. They had to get ice, so I watched him for a few minutes. At first I was wondering what to do, but then I realized, duh, you are already raising a boy who is 10 years older than this one, just pretend like he is yours. By the time they got back with the ice, the little boy was laughing and bragging about the paper airplane we had made in an effort to get his mind off his hand. As they were filling out the incident report with the parents, all the boy kept talking about was that paper airplane. It was actually quite amazing how quickly he transitioned from crying to laughing!

Try doing something different this week, you never know where it will lead you!

Golf Ball Sized Hail in Knoxville, TN

April 27th, 2011 is a day that most people that live in the south are not going to forget. Everyone concurs I began to realize something was really wrong when the NOAA weather radio kept going off repeatedly, and I could see and hear the concern of the weather forecasters on the news. Before the storm hit, I prayed that God would surround my house with Angels, and also my son's apartment and protect us. I watched Doppler radar and noticed the storm was almost here, and I also saw that infamous hook they talk about headed right our way. I decided I would set up my camera to try to get some video of some of the lightening when it started to hail lightly. I have lived here most of my life, so I figured I was just going to be filming some pea sized hail, but then all of the sudden golf ball sized hail starts raining down. You can actually see some bounce inside the house on the video below. Within seconds, the entire house was being pummeled with large hail as I immediately slammed the door and headed to the basement. What happened next was scary. This golf ball sized hail was raining down at an angle hitting the house and windows with full force. The noise from the storm was so loud that it sounded like all the windows upstairs had busted and the hail was coming inside the house. This went on for what seemed like an eternity but was probably about 3-5 minutes. I am very grateful that nobody in our sub division was hurt and the funnel cloud spotted nearby did not turn into a tornado. Many lives were lost last night, and my prayers go out to the families.

Sending your Twitter tweets to Facebook is a bad idea.

I have noticed recently that many people using Twitter have started to send all their tweets to Facebook automatically and are not posting directly to Facebook.

This is a very bad idea, and let me explain why. When you post to Facebook using Twitter, Facebook automatically groups your posts with all other users doing the same thing, which is becoming popular. As a result, only one Twitter post is shown unless they click the "See X more posts from Twitter". See graphic above.

In addition to your post being difficult to find on Facebook, it is also annoying to post all your Twitter posts on Facebook. Facebook and Twitter have two very different purposes, and if you keep sending all of your Tweets to Facebook, users will eventually start hiding you from their wall which defeats the purpose of spreading the information you intended.

Solutions:

1) Use Selective Twitter, this will allow you to easily select which tweets go to Facebook.

2) Start posting to Facebook directly. This is the best option to avoid having your post buried.

3) Use a less popular service like Ping.Fm Less people use it, less grouping of posts.

One last thought, Facebook reaches far more people than Twitter, so your emphasis should be on Facebook not Twitter.

Hope this helps!

Mike Biddle

http://www.websiteworld.com

Get off your blessed assurance

A few weeks ago I heard pastor Chris Stevens at Faith Promise Church in Knoxville, Tn used this statement get off your blessed assurance. A couple of years ago I decided to feel sorry for myself because of some personal family problems I was dealing with. I think we are all guilty of feeling like we have it all under control sometimes. The truth is we don't. If you believe what the bible says, there is an enemy who wants to steal, kill and destroy. Satan knows you, your anscestors and your weaknesses, which makes targeting our weaknesses childs play. No matter how much money you make, how famous, how perfect your life seems, satan can make a shambles of your life, and very easily if your eyes are on the world. People we love, our kids, grandkids may never know the Christ we know because we have decided we don't need church. Some people reading this will think it is nuts, many which are Christians, but the bible is clear we need God and we were made to worship. If you are a Christian you need to be 1) in church, you need to be 2) sharing your faith you need to be 3)serving someone else besides yourself. If you are not going to church because of an array of excuses, those excuses are lies. Remember..kill steal destroy.

Get off your blessed assurance! This week is your chance find a GOOD local church and get involved.

I am at the gym on the ascent trainer so excuse typos!

Love ya!

Mike

My Weight Loss Story

About seven years ago I woke up one day and my size 38 pants were getting tight. I decided to brush off the dust from the scale and see where I stood with my weight. I was horrified to discover that I was a whopping 252 pounds, a number that is forever etched in my mind. My clothes not fitting were the least of my worries. I had major back problems that actually kept me in bed at times for days. I went to see an orthopedic physician and he said I did not have any major back problems, it was all muscular related. I decided I was going to do something about it so I started doing the Atkins diet. I did the diet for an entire year and lost 60 pounds. This is reflected on the before/after photo you see above. Unfortunately the weight loss was short lived. I was not exercising and I slowly started gaining weight back. A year ago, I joined Workout Anytime in Knoxville. I started to work out and watch what I was eating, but I started slacking off. Then one day at the end of the summer I read that my cousin Mark had a heart attack. I was a little freaked out since he is not much older than me so I decided to make a conscious effort to work out. Since then I have lost 20 pounds and have gained a lot of muscle mass that I have never had my entire life. I am actually stronger and more physically fit now than I have been my entire life! If you are reading this, and you are overweight I want to encourage you to do something about it. I am writing this blog because another person I grew up with a year younger than me also had a heart attack! Even being overweight 10-15 percent can have serious consequences both physically and financially. Also, just because you are not fat on the outside does not mean you are not fat on the inside, skinny people get clogged arteries too!

In our society, drug use and alcohol abuse are frowned upon, however some of the same people who would never use drugs or abuse alcohol are killing themselves with food. It is never too late. If you are extremely overweight do not be discouraged! Simple changes in your lifestyle such as drinking water instead of soda will allow you to start losing some weight. If you are willing to work hard for a year, you can really made some serious progress and you will feel great. Remember, like me, it took years to put on all that weight it does not just instantly go away in a month. Despite the fact that I weigh more now than my first weight loss (212 at the time of this post), I actually have a smaller waist already because I have been working out at the gym. For the first time since I was in college I bought 34" jeans!

Did you know that by taking care of your body you are honoring God? I also believe you honor your family, and also will change your family tree by passing along good habits to your children. It is really not hard once you start making good choices. I was overweight from REALLY bad choices, not because I was not following a fancy diet plan. I did not need to start doing some die hard diet to lose weight, I just had to stop consuming too much food and stay away from the bad ones! The exercise was hard at first, but now it is actually enjoyable. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. This passage as a whole speaks of sexual immorality, but I believe God does not limit it to that.

Update: April 4th. Last night I heard TobyMac's drummer Brian Haley give his testimony about a 50 pound weight loss and he quoted Joshua 1:9 which talks about being strong and courageous. Awesome verse, and this was great encouragement to keep going to the gym.

Update: December 17, 2011: I am happy to report that I am now 196.0 pounds and still working out and gaining muscle mass!
Update: January 28, 2012: I am 18.1 percent body fat and keep making progress!