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Competition, just like any other aspect of life, can be either healthy or unhealthy depending on the application. Make no mistake about it. Competition is at the heart of the human experience, and that's a good thing. The desire to press on, to push forward. That competitive spirit is definitely of God. But as a Christian, it must be applied to your life in a godly fashion. If not, it
can take a hold of you. It can be become something altogether different in your life, something that becomes problematic, even harmful. Competition is certainly in the air today, and you can feel this excitement as millions of Americans and people from all over the world really gather around their TVs with this anticipation of their team securing the win. Now, the very definition of competition means a contest in which a winner is selected from among two or more entrants.
So this means by that definition that there will there'll be a winner, and of course they'll be a loser. So in a case like the Super Bowl, competition is that propellant. It propels each member of the opposing team to train, to work hard so that they may excel in their performance for this particular big game or any game.
This oftentimes.
I know that athletics can go down an unhealthy path at times, but more often than not, this is a healthy display of the competitive spirit, that spirit that does push you, that does propel makes you want to be better, not so you're better than the other person in some sort of state of judgment that they're actually less than you, but that competitive spirit, that ability to push on and push forward and build your muscles stronger, make yourself quicker,
be able to be more accurate when throwing a ball, when catching a ball, That all these things are about training your body by way of discipline, to do beneficial things. So, if you're involved in sports, and today's obviously a huge sports day, that many of you watching the Big Game are really focused on the fact that this is a place where athletes come together to push themselves beyond normal limits to achieve a goal. That's the competitive spirit in
a healthy place. But there is an unhealthy side to competition as well, one that drives people by way of jealousy and envy that only leads to despair and destruction. This is not the competitive spirit, but the spirit of pride and conceit. The Father certainly does not approve of this kind of competition, James four to six says, but he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble. Giving that grace to the humble is showing that there there is a place for you to be competitive, but to still be in that that that place of humility, knowing that you're pushing your limits, knowing that that as a creation of God, that I designed you to desire to propel yourself and excel, but to also be of a humble spirit. Because when you latch onto pride, when you get to that place of pride, you invite ugliness, that jealousy, that justice. It's
not even it's not even competition. It's just you wanting to push others down, to push yourself forward. Says if you would lie, cheater steel to get to that place, it doesn't even matter how you get there. And to the real athlete, to the real individual with the proper competitive spirit, you want to do things right, you don't do it the right way, it doesn't count. These two different paths or patterns of competition can be seen throughout all kinds of walks of life, not just in athletics.
But you can see where people tried to even apply athletics in a positive way, when when even the world itself was teetering from wars and arguments and ugliness. The original Olympics were abolished in three ninety three a d. But if you look and see the timeline, you'll see that about fifteen hundred years later, in the eighteen nineties, a young Frenchman actually set out to revive the Olympics, and he used this pitch. Let us export our oarsmen,
our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true free trade of the future, and the day it is introduced into Europe, the cause of peace will have received a new.
And strong ally.
This young visionary saw the importance of replacing the negative the inter country competition of war, with a new, healthy inter country competition centered on athleticism, a tradition that continues with the Olympics even to this day. This points to someone who desired a healthy form of competition. This young man saw that the competitive spirit had moved from a place of learning, of discipline, of growing in understanding, and
had become this jealous or prideful excuse for war. He thought, instead of countries actually fighting against each other, tearing each other down, why not compete in a healthy way, propelling
one another by way of competition. God wants you to have a healthy competitive heart, one that pushes you to win, but also to win righteously, to be in a place where you win at all costs, and that it's really not about the challenge itself, but it's more about putting yourself on a pedestal, making yourself look better than someone else, putting someone else down. How is God going to How is God going to bless that? Why would God bless that?
You hear stories of sportsmanship, good healthy sportsmanship, and you hear stories of ugliness. There's even penalties on the field in all in all types of sports because of bad sportsmanship or not playing by the rules. That's why the referees are there right to look on the judge the movements on the field to see who is winning fairly, because that's what should dictate whether the win is worth anything. So you have this competitive spirit you want God to bless.
But if you go about pursuing the things you want in life, pushing yourself in a way that is healthy. God will be there by your side the entirety of the way, coaching, instructing, encouraging. However, if you push the rules aside, only being in that place of pride, only desiring this so called win, that is when it becomes an ungodly spirit of competition. Lisa, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you.
My question is should Christians pat through their bodies?
Well? Should they? Or can they? Should they?
Into scriptures?
Should they? Should they?
Is going to be an individual choice because there's nothing in the Bible that says they cannot. There is Leviticus nineteen goes through some religious laws that some people get confused about. That says, in verse twenty eight, you shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves.
I am the Lord.
The verse there is actually talking about a practice. As a matter of fact, most of these in Leviticus are talking about a practice that the Pagans were doing that our Jewish brothers and sisters didn't want to be associated with and wanted us to look as different as possible from them, And this would fall into the same.
Category.
Now, people that have problems with it, would have problems with other parts of it too, because just above it it says you shall not round off the side growth of your head, nor harm the edges of your beard. So if you shaved, you'd be falling into the same category of tattoos. Then also, the word used for cut would be the same that you'd use for pierce. So any woman that pierces her ears would now have problems.
So any man that shaves, or any woman that pierces her ears would now have a problem, not just the tattooing. So really, when it's speaking about tattooing here, it's not it's speaking about a process that was done to the dead or for the dead by Pagans, and that it should not be brought to pass by Christians. But having a tattoo for a Christian is not inherently wrong. It depends on the content, of course, but it's not inherently wrong for a Christian to have a tattoo.
All right, thank you, you're welcome.
How come I got the impression that maybe that's not the answer she was looking for. Sometimes pick up on subtleties, tiny little subtleties.
That's kind of what I do here.
But the Bible is filled with many things, and the best advice I can give you is to see that the entirety of the Bible and understand that there's a difference between prescription and description. These are two very important principles I want you to hear, and I want you to understand the difference between a difference between prescriptive language and descriptive language. Descriptive language is Jesus woke walked up a hill. Now if I walked up a hill, I
walked up a hill. There's nothing really to be done. It's describing something that happened. If it's prescriptive, there's an admonishment, there's a statement of understanding, this is what you should
or this is what you should not do. And with the Christian it gets even more difficult because now you are looking into what you refer to as the Old Testament, and you're seeing things in there that are based on context of things that were going into the lives of our Jewish brothers and sisters, and they were trying to abolish appearing to look like your average every day he then who did whatever. There most certainly are rules to live by, and scripture is filled with them filled with plenty,
oh polenty. There's more than ten commandments. Let me assure you it's not just ten. There are over four hundred commandments in scripture, and to hear those and to respond to them is wonderful. However, don't get lost. Don't get lost in some of the statements, some of the descriptions of things going on, and assume them to be prescribed telling you you must because there is a difference, and there's some that have been pulled over through the entirety
of scripture. The context is going to be important in those places as well. That's the key, Jack, Welcome to the Jesus Christia. Yeah.
Hi, I just got a quick question about this thing called lordship salvation and non lordship salvation, where the lordship salvation guys believe that genuine saying faith includes the Williams repent from one sin and submit to the lordship of Christ. And then the non lordship guys say they don't see repentance from and the willingness to submit to Jesus's lordship
is essential for salvation. And that I got into a conversation with the guy and he said that that by me telling someone or by Christians telling someone to repent from their sins and submit to the lordship of Christ. That's adding works to the Gospel. So I want to ask you what your thoughts were on that.
No, it's not adding works to the Gospel. Here's the thing.
And a lot of people get confused based on what happened versus what had to happen. For instance, people talk about Judas. Should it be put on Judas. Here's this major plan, this big plan. It's going to go down, it's going to put me on the cross, it's going to cover the sins of the world, and everything's going to be taken care of. So why would people look
down on Judas? He just helped it along. Well, because Judas as an individual, specifically decided to jump in and to participate in a specific way, and it really felt, you know, kind of whittled down to the fact that he wanted things to be done sooner. So when it comes to things that are going to be done, there's a difference between somebody who is trying to create fire by flapping their wings versus the passing along of a torch.
And really, when you're going.
To spread the gospel or share about any of that you're just passing the torch. But it's the flame of God always, and it's not something it's not a work that you yourself can build upon. You can't bring somebody to the salvation of Christ.
You can't.
Right God does, and God will use you in that process. So when it says that no man should boast, it means there's no bedposts that you can put those notches of how many people you share the gospel and who've come to know the gospel through because they're not yours. They're not yours. So there is no works in that context. Now, the lordship salvation, uh has you know, some nooks and crannies. In the basic line of things, it comes down to, you're receiving God. It's not about you the things you've
done wrong. It's about how good God is.
It's not about.
Anything that you've done. It's not even about what the good you've done. It's about who God is. And that's that's the simplicity of it.
When you talk about repentance, right, yes, a lot of people get confused. I get confused on it. But as repentance more like a change of a heart, it's not really necessarily an act always so, so like we're saved when we get saved, we're saved from half sins, present sins, and future sins. Is that right?
Yes, of course, but so.
So these lordships are the non lordship guys go, well, it's impossible not to sin. Is you're gonna sin until you get into heaven. But that doesn't give you a license to sin. So there's like a fine line there or or do you understand what I'm trying to get across?
Of course, they were arguing in the in this in two Timothy, I mean it's it's not new. The whole point is are you a good guy?
You good guy?
Jack?
And I don't mean in the biblical sense. I mean you don't go out murdering and raping in any of those things? Right, No, okay, so that's just not who you are. So I come to you tomorrow and I say, hey, I'm doing this thing. We're gonna shut down any any access to law enforcement tomorrow in your area. There's gonna be no video cameras, there's gonna be no way for them to find out. And I just wanted you to know.
And you found that out, Are you going to go out raping and pillaging because you're not gonna get caught.
No, no, because it's not your nature.
There's no such thing as a as a get out of jail free card. The whole point here is the assumption of the world is, oh, you're gonna you've got this high life now and you can do whatever you want, and God's gonna love you. God's always loved everyone, right, That's always been the theme that hasn't changed. Now the reconciliation is different. The reconciliation knows that get to heaven is different. So those that have this so called free they do whatever they want just as long as they
believe they wouldn't misuse it. By the very definition of what it is. If a kid goes out and gets new cars from his family and every single time crashes it and goes, oh, well, not only does that kid not appreciate that car, that kid does not have any feelings for his family, right, And that's different than just a family going you crash the car, It's bound to happen. At least you're okay, come on, let's take care of you and then we'll talk about the car.
There.
It's a matter you've got either allegiance, which is going to be bumpy allegiance because because you're human, you're going to stand versus rebellion, which is you specifically ignoring the Gospel, ignoring the word of God, the will of God, and doing whatever you want. And they're two different things, and trust me, they have two different endings. You can't rebel yourself away from the knowledge of God. You can ignore what He has for you to the point of death.
There's a lot of ways to reject. But as a Christian, it's not about you. It's about God, right, and not how bad you are, but how good God is. Every other religion, every one of them, Jack is always focused on man. Oh man is going to receive christ consciousness, or man is going to receive total consciousness, or man is going to be so high he's gonna These are weird, wanna be God things. Christianity is the only one that says nah and man, even good man doesn't do it
very well. So God is going to send his son, and his son's going to step in and be the bridge.
So someone could be saved and still struggle with sin.
Right of course, okay, of course, what the perfection is going to be in heaven when it's washed away finally. But there, of course you're going to have sin. There's not one preacher, not you know, one Bible thumper, one Bible reader. There's not one that isn't struggling. And there isn't one in the Bible either.
These are the same guys. They'll bring up Matthew seven to one. You know about not judging, and I go, I told the guy, so, well, you can judge actions, but we can't really judge the heart. Is that a correct statement.
Well, yeah, it's a you know what you tell me someone that is upset because you said they looked good, Hey, you look really nice tonight. That's a judgment. Not one person goes, don't judge me, They go, ah, thanks, right, judgment is fine judgment. What in scripture, the judgment that they did not want was met with this newfound understanding of who God was and how it interacted with their life. They didn't want them running around saying I am better than I am somehow closer to God than you, And
that was what was wrong. Trying to read men's hearts, that's what was vulgart. That was the problem, not saying, hey, that whole pipe you have in your mouth. Yeah, the one you're smoking crack with. That's bad. Don't judge me. I will judge you plenty. Louis Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Yes, I have.
I'm confused when I go to Mass and I listened to the Apostle Creed where it indicates Jesus descends into Hell, and I'm confused, and I don't understand rightly.
So it is a little confusing.
And really what it has to do is that there's many words that are translated as Hell, but they do mean different things depending on how they're used, one of which is Shiol. Sheol simply means the place of the dead or the place of the departed souls or spirits. In the New Testament, it's well, in the New Testament, the equivalent of Shiol is actually Hades, So Hades is the place of the dead, and that's what's being spoken about,
not Hell's. But it often gets translated Hell, so it can be quite confusing to hear that and think that that's where Jesus went. But that's not the case. He went to Hades, which shall also refers to the place of the dead. Other scriptures of the New Testament would talk about the same thing and refer to shiol or hades as a temporary place where souls are kept as they wait for their final resurrection and judgment. You find out more at Revelation twenty eleven fifteen. So it's really
one of those things that it's like heaven. If you think of heaven, it often refers to the layers of heaven, and the layers of heaven really are not layers of heaven at all. It's different heavens. So they talk about the first heaven. The first heaven is the sky that you see if you're standing on the Earth and you look up and you see blue sky, it's the first heaven. Second heaven would be space. You see space, that's when the atmosphere drops and changes, the sun goes down, you
actually get to see the stars in the heavens. That's heavens, right, So that's number two. Number three heaven is actually the domicile of God, and that's different. So it depends how it's used as well, and sometimes they have different references and people get confused based on those. So they're going, well, was he in heaven or was he not in heaven?
Where did he go?
So, yes, it can be confusing. It's because those words are often mistranslated into hell. But if you get a good lexicon and you want to do some word studies, you can go back and forth and you can see which word was used where, even for the word hell, which word was used, how.
It was defined.
Those types of things that might give you some clarity and understanding that otherwise might be lost. And that's not the first and only time that happens. Things like that do get tossed in there. It's not necessarily a bad translation, it's just a confusing translation if you're not familiar with every other word that's going on in conjunction with it.
So if you're just looking at that, you've kind of well, I know what hell is and I know what heaven is, and I've kind of put those into their own category, and you keep going.
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