The Word of God in Pictures

A Graphical approach to the Word of God (for kids)
No copyrights on anything :) click pictures to see a higher quality EMF version.

As Christian, Christ is our Rock, and He is the one we put our faith in. But often as we are maturing, we often put our faith in the wrong place, and therefore we are pulled in different directions. Here are some examples of the many stages we go through as we mature in Christ. (I have been, and often find myself in many of these areas.)

Comfort Zone Christians These type of Christians follow the Lord, attend services, and other church function. But they are only willing to do things that are within their comfort zone. Whenever pressed or tested with anything hard, they fall away. Their lives are often not much different than many non-believers.	Good Luck Christians These type of people follow Christianity because of the blessings from the Lord. They love the Lord’s grace, mercy, healings and comforts in their life. The Problem with Good Luck Christians is that their faith is not in God, but what they receive from God. Their prayers are usually directed on their personal wants and desires. And they fall away when they don’t get what they expect. They know the Lamb side of God, but not the Lion.
Functional Christians These people follow Christianity because it is logical, reasonable and makes sense to them. The Problem with functional Christians is that they follow the Lord only as far as they understand Him. Their faith is not in God, but in their knowledge of God. And they do not obey they Lord when they disagree with Him. They will not step out on faith.	Sunday Christians Some people will only pursue the Lord on Sunday. During these services they will pray, worship, study and fellowship. But during the other 6 days of they blend back into the secular world, and during the week they have no spiritual growth. And they usually live similar to many non-believers. The Problem with Sunday Christian’s is that they are not really committed to Christ, and they mature very slowly, and will struggle when any real testing of their faith comes.
Social Christians These type of people have strong Christian social ties. Many of their friends are fellow believers, and they spend a lot of their time in fellowship activities. The problem with social Christians is that they sometimes put their faith in their Network of friends. As soon as it become unpopular to follow Christ, they really struggle. And they often do not pursue the Lord, unless it is within a social group. Many of us start out as Social Christians, because it is a good way to get connected and it helps us get situated in our faith. But as we mature, we must make sure that our faith is not dependent on our social connections.	Power Based Christians These type of people have great faith in the Lord. They know the power of the Word of God and have seen it. And they love the presence of God. The problem with power based Christians is that sometimes they put their faith in just the Power of God. And every problem is solved by power, anointing, miracles, fire, glory, rebuking and shouting etc. They often do not put faith in the meek, humble, sacrificing, subservient Lamb side of God. On the other side, some people put little faith in the miraculous and powerful side of God. They don’t believe that the supernatural works done while Christ walked the earth are still happening. They will seldom ask for healing, and when they do, they don’t expect it to happen. And anything out of the ordinary scares them, tongues, prophesy, word of knowledge, spiritual warfare, baptism of fire, etc. As mature Christians we need to put faith in both sides of God, His powerful, overcoming, masculine lion side, and his feminine, gentle, lowly lamb side.
Doctrinal Based Christians The type of Christian will focus their faith on a specific doctrine or teaching. They find this doctrine very important, and are ready to defend it. But because of this they often separate themselves from other parts of the body. And they must be careful to root their faith in the whole word of God, not just one teaching.
Personality Based Christians Some people follow Christianity because of a strong church leader. They are fed, entertained and charmed by a powerful personality. Their pastor has a strong knowledge of God, and can present it in a gripping way to the church. The problem with Personality Christians is that they start putting their faith in their leader and not Christ. They are often more willing to tell others about their pastor than they are of Christ. And when the leader falls, so do many of the followers.	Status Based Christians These Christians are well versed in scripture and have earned a place of respect in the Church. They assist others in their spiritual growth and lead church ministries. The problem with status based Christians is humility. Their faith is in themselves, in who they are and what they are doing. They do not like to follow others, or sit at someone else's sermon. They are motivated by the recognition, status and leadership roles they take. They will seldom give up the pulpit to let others teach. And believe that if God is going to speak, it can only come through them. When stripped of their authority, they faith grows cold.
Organization Based Christians Similar to personality based Christians, organization based Christians are usually connected to a strong church structure. Their church is often very vibrant and successful, and it captures their hearts. The problem is that some people will root their faith in the organization, and not necessarily in Christ. These people would never attend a different church, because that would be a form a cheating, or sleeping with the enemy. They will often spend more time promoting their church than promoting the Kingdom of God. And they often become isolated from other parts of the Body.	Knowledge Based Christians These type of Christians have a very rich understanding of scripture, theory and doctrine. They have devoted many years to studying Christianity and the pursuit of knowledge. The problem with these type of Christians, is that they often pursue a knowledge of God, over a relationship with God; knowing of God, but not knowing His Spirit. And they will fight vigorously when anything doesn't align with their absolute doctrinal purity. This makes it difficult when God tries to reveal to them anything that they don't already know. And they must be careful, because knowledge often puffs us up, and in our pride we don't listen to anyone we disagree with. They will often spend too much time of the minor issues, and miss what is most important.
Roller Coaster Christians These people serve to the Lord with fire and vigor. Eager to to please God, they attend many religious services and functions. This is a great time for them, and it can solidify their Christian foundation, but often this is just a phase in their life. And after time, they start cooling off. Their pursuit of the Lord is very emotional. And when their emotions fight them, they have a hard time staying strong. As Christians we are in it for the long haul. This is the way I started out my walk with the Lord. Remember Jesus said in Matt 10:22, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved."	Desperate Christians Like many of us, some people won’t look up until they land flat on their backs. And this is how many of us came to the Lord. In times of desperation, we call out to God and find Him. The problem with Desperate Christians is that they only call out to God when they are in great need. But when everything is going their way, they forget about the Lord and don’t seek Him until the next tragedy. On the other side, some people will only seek the Lord when everything is stable and under control. And the moment things get out of hand, they go back to their own devices to fix it. As Christians we must call on the name of the Lord, during tragedy and prosperity.
Ritual Based Christians These people often attend services that are heavily structured, meticulous rich in custom and tradition, and often repeated. But they only know God through practicing rituals, receipting prewritten prayers, and listening to others. They go through the motions of Christianity but are not close to our Savior. This structure is good for giving a person the fundamentals of the faith. But they must not replace a deep personal walk with Christ, with just following rituals, receipting prayers, and listening to Sermons.	Tradition Based Christians These are people that grew up in Christian homes. They often attended Sunday school, and worship services with their family. They usually follow the religious customs of their society. The problem with Tradition based Christians is that many follow Christ because it is the norm, the traditional thing to do. Some have never made a individual decision to follow Christ. Many times their faith is tied to politics, therefore they would switch Religions before they switched political parties. We must all make the decision to follow Christ, whether our family and society agree or not. And we must all be willing to do things for the Lord, even if it is different than the way we were raised.
Works Based Christians These type of people serve the Lord diligently. They get involved in many different ministries, and help many people in their faith. And this is great, but they must be careful where they put their faith. Their faith can sometimes be rooted in their works and their ministries, but not in Jesus. And sometimes they can be so caught up in ministries, they they are not spending quiet time with the Lord. They must also be careful not to do God's work, without His guiding, for this is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.	Hard Rock Christians In good times or in bad, whether they feel like it or not, whether angry or happy, whether fun or boring, in strength or weakness, whether they understand or not, whether they agree or not, with tradition or against it, with the crowd or against it, with friends or alone, whether they’re popular or not, no matter what people might say, whether anyone is looking or nobody notices, whether leading or following, whether being blessed or rebuked, whether they stand to gain or lose, whether they will be rewarded or not, whether their prayers are answered or rejected, in fast times and in slow, any day of the Week, and in it for the long haul, no matter what testing or challenges comes their way, they stand firm in their love and faith of Jesus Christ. We're called to be Hard Rock Christians.
Tailgate Christians These type of Christians have the opinion that since Jesus won the Victory, there is nothing else to do but sit back. They do not consider things like; bringing glory to the Lord, advancing the gospel, maturing in their faith, helping others, being a lighthouse or preaching the Gospel. Just getting saved is enough for them. They often believe that if the Lord wants something done, it will get done with or without them, never realizing they they are the body of Christ. When the devil comes against Tailgate Christians, they are an easy pushover. When they face the Lord's judgment seat, they will be ashamed that they wasted their lives away.
Institutional Christians These type of Christians will only pursue the Lord when someone else is directing and encouraging them. i.e. Someone takes them to Church. But, when left alone they don’t study, pray or worship. And without constant guidance they will grow cold and fall away.

How you handle the mistakes from others, reveals more about you than them.
(Mar 26, 04)

1. At the first sign of weakness, the man of fear will separate from himself from you. Putting his own reputation above your relationship.
2. At the first sign of weakness, the bully will start to pounce. Though he might have appeared innocent before, now his true nature comes out. Like sharks swimming in water, they will not bother each other. But when one starts to bleed, all come in for the feast. The bully will often confront you in the presence of others, to maximize your shame.
3. The Assassin will not wait until the first sign of weakness appears, he will actively search out your faults, and delights when he finds one. With the appearance of looking for truth, and defending what is right, he is really a predator at heart. And he will actively spread whatever dirt he finds about you, with everyone, in order to discredit you.
4. But at the first sign of weakness, a friend will not attack you; because out of love, his concern is for your restoration. Then at an appropriate time, will advise you of your mistake.

First the evil one attacks your mind by tempting you with unclean thoughts. In this stage you must learn to throw away any evil thought that comes to you, and confront it with scripture.
(2 Corinthians 10:5) "Take Captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ."
But a foolish person will allow his mind to dwell on these evil thoughts, and the evil one will easily break down this wall.

Once the evil one has invaded your mind, he attacks your heart with all kind of ungodly emotions. At this point you must learn not to dwell on these emotions. For example, if you're frustrated, take a nap. If you're furious at someone, step away and cool off. (Eph 4:26) "...Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." But a foolish person will allow these evil emotions, (Rage, Bitterness, Lust, etc.) to grow in his heart, until they are consumed by them.

Once your heart has been broken down, and you're feeling all kinds of ungodly emotions, there is still one more barrier. Your Body. We learn from (Eph 4:26 ) "In your anger do not sin..." Just because you are angry with someone, doesn't mean you have to curse at them. Just because you're lusting after someone, doesn't mean you have to commit adultery. Just because you jealous of someone, doesn't mean you have to steal from them. This is the hardest wall to secure, but you must keep this barrier up. Immature Christians find themselves at this stage all the time.

The Lord's perspective is radically different than the devil's perspective. When a person wears the Devil's glasses they get depressed because everything looks gloomy. The devil distorts everything. But with the Lord's glasses on, everything looks glorious. Two people can be looking at the same event and have have different reactions. Here are some examples.

In dealing with others, use a Velvet Glove. (But not to the point that you condone sin.)
In dealing with yourself, use a Iron Fist. (For discipline, but not to just beat yourself down.)

Both the Lord and the Evil one talk to us continually, but sometimes it can be hard to tell which VOICE we are listening to. Look at the Fruit. The Lord's voice leads to Good fruit, the devil's voice leads to bad fruit. If you find yourself depressed, angry, upset, short tempered, etc. then you're probably listening to the wrong voice.

When you are confronted with another person's sin, there are 3 ways of handling it. And each path produces different outcomes. One path is to accuse, the other is to "Self Justify" (as shown be the Pharisee in Luke 18:9), and the other is through the ministry of Jesus Christ, intercession.

Hearing the voice of the Lord is like turning the dial to find a radio station. After searching, you finally start picking Him up clearly, and He speaks to you, and reveals a little bit of Himself. But the Lord is not stationary, but fluid. Next week He might be speaking on a different station, but we keep taking our hand off the dial. We see a little bit of the Lord, and we get complacent, but there is much more of the Lord that we haven't seen. People also get complacent because they've seen more of the Lord than others, and that satisfies them. If you know the Lord, but haven't heard His voice in a while, get your hand back on the dial, and seek the Lord. Hearing from the Lord gives you a fresh and new appreciation of His never ending glory, but when you take your hand off the dial, you become religious.

For every level of maturity in our Christian walk there are traps set by the devil. (I call them Spiritual Banana Peels) And those without vision will fall victim to these traps. You need to recognize and avoid these as you grow in Christ. And remember you can fall at any level.

A Man Reaps What He Sows
(Sept 2, 03)
Whether good or bad, what we put into this world will eventually come back on us.

Testing Christian Charity
Many things are done in the name of charity. Some better that others. The Bible teaches us to be good stewards of God's resources. Luke 16:10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. " How do we know what is a good use or our charity. Here are 6 tools we can use to test how strong your charity is.

The Filter of Man. When God speaks through His servants. His message can be diluted when we are not fully surrendered to Him.

Our actions on earth, have spiritual consequences. When we choose to do good or evil, there are repercussions far beyond what we see. For example, when Adam and Eve sinned against God, they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. On the physical level it didn't seem like much happened, but in the spiritual realm it was a disaster.
In the same way, our actions (good or evil) can release forces in the spiritual realm. And these are seeds that will produce fruit (good or bad) for generations to come. Do not take sin lightly, but follow in the Lords footsteps, because your actions will either leave a great blessing or a curse.

Which is more valuable, 1 bottle of pure wine or 1 barrel of wine which has a little poison in?

Though there is more wine in the barrel, the little bit of poison has made it useless. The same with our deeds, it is better to do little things with a good and pure motive than to do great deeds with an unclean or impure motive.

The value of a man's advice.
When a kind and generous person, tells you to also be kind and generous, he is speaking from his heart. He is enriching you in both the physical world, by you hearing his advice, and enriching you in the spiritual world, because it came from his heart.

But when a hypocrite tells you to be kind and generous, it does not come from his heart. It might seem like he is enriching you by his advice, but in the spiritual world he his only handing you hypocrisy.

1. a rich man who gives a million dollar donation to charity in order to impress someone of how great he is, or
2. a faithful man who gives $100 to charity because he loves God.