Idols(part four)

This is the last point and the review in my devotional at creation....

IDOLS OF TODAY
Entertainment is a large idol of our world today. Some things this includes are movies, food, sports, and MUSIC! None of the those are necessarily bad, but they can be. You need to be careful what you are focusing on, this world is not Christ centered and wants you to focus on their product that they are selling you. The reason I bring up this last point is because we are at a huge music festival, and music can tend to be our focus, or in other word or “idol” while we are here. You need to make sure that the reason you are here the reason you are listening to the music is for the glory of God, not for your own personal ejoyment. If Christ is truly your idol you will stive to please him. I found this verse a while ago in my morning devotions that apply to this whole topic of getting rid of your idols,it is 1 Samuel 12:20, "And Samuel said to the people, 'Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart'." At the end there it says with ALL of your heart, you can't serve your idol and God. You must serve him alone, God must be your idol.
CONCLUSION
1. LOCATE THE IDOL IN YOUR LIFE
2.. GET RID OF THE IDOL PUT IT AWAY OR ABOLISH IT
3. MAKE YOUR HEART RIGHT BEFORE GOD
4. MAKE THE LORD YOUR IDOL, YOUR ONE CONSOMING PASSION

Moment of Silence

I believe this is important. I ask only one thing, give one moment of silence just to commemroate the one year aniversary of this blog........well now that is done you can go on with life.

the luggnut

P.S. I do this to break up the seriousnesses of late in this blog. It is not a bad thing to be serious but I thought that it might put a little smile into your day! I will give you some serious material in the next post. Now that my post script is longer than my original script I will stop makeing a fool of my self and my blog.

Idols(part three)

Here is the second part to my devotional for creation. Here is the second point...

IDOLS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
If you have your copy of Gods word please turn to the book of Jonah. Most of you know the story of Jonah. If you don’t remember it I will give a quick recap of the story. The Lord comes to Jonah the Prophet and tells him to go to Nineveh and call out against the great evils that have been going on there. Well, he doesn’t like that idea and so he gets onto a ship and tries to flee to Tarshish. On the way, the Lord sends a great storm, it is so bad it is threatening to tear the boat apart. The men wonder whose fault it for this great storm and they decide that it is Jonah’s. And so, Jonah tells them that he is fleeing from the Lord’s will and to throw him over board. After he is thrown overboard a great fish eats him and he spends three days and nights praying in the belly. The fish ended up spitting him out on the shores of Nineveh where the Lord had wanted him to go in the first place. He went and did what he was supposed to do and life went on.
Well, the whole point to bringing up the story of Jonah is because it shows us very clearly the steps going from and idol centered life style to a Christocentric life style.
What is Jonah’s idol in this story? It is HIMSELF! He was not willing to go through persecution for the salvation of others. Nineveh was infamous for its cruelty, and he knew how they would react to his teachings.
Well there are two steps that go on during this story that bring Jonah from a self centered view to a Christ centered view. There is a physical and a spiritual. So he flees from the Lords will and gets on a ship. The big storm comes and the ship is about to crack and all the other men are wondering why is this happening and Jonah steps forward and says that he is a Hebrew and that he is fleeing from the Lord in verse 9. And what did he do next? What did he do to start himself in the right direction, to get himself where he was supposed be? He had them throw him overboard. This is the physical part of the process, it is to totally do away with the idol, get rid of it, throw it out of your life. He did not think he was going to live, he was being thrown into the sea! He know that he was the problem and so he was going to take care of it. So step number on do away with or abolish the idol.
The fish came and swallowed Jonah and he spent three days and three nights in its belly. This where the second step takes place which is the most important part, the spiritual. While he was in the fish he prayed and made his heart right. He realized his total dependence on God and he acknowledges God’s sovereignty. You have to realize that dealing with idols is a heart issue. Notice that he was not where he was supposed to be until his heart was made right. The physical aspect helps only in getting your heart right to the focus back on God. If you just did the physical without making your heart right, what would stop from making a new idol besides God? Again the heart issue is the most important.

Idols (part two)

Forgive me, for not posting in a sickening like a month and a half. This is the devotional that I did for our group at creation. It is quite long and so I am going to give it to you in shorter sections. This is the introduction and the first point. Here it is...
Today my title for my devotional is Christocentric Living, some of you might be asking yourself, “What does that word mean?”. Well it simply means Christ centered living. The only way to achieve the goal of having a Christ centered life is too make sure that there are no idols in your life that are hindering you from have a more personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

My goal today is to show you how to locate idols in you life and how to get your focus back on the Lord.
Well I have three major points for this morning, first: The definition of idolatry, second: Idols in the Old Testament, and point number three: Idols of Today.
THE DEFINITION OF IDOLATRY
I am going to give you four very direct definitions of idolatry just to help make sure that we all are sure what idolatry really means.
1: Worshiping something other than the true God in the true way
2: The thing that you love or trust more than God
3: Whatever us men depend upon for strength
4: Whatever governs your affections

To locate an idol in you life ask yourself these questions, Where are you placing your loves? In the quiet times during the day when you are just sitting there thinking, what is the first thing you think about? What are you trusting more than God? What are you depending on for strength? What is governing your affections? Have you thought about how ridiculous having an idol is? Here you have Jesus Christ who bled and died on the cross for you, and yet you still turn and go back to these vain idols in your life. People, he created you! He is a jealous God and deserves all our worship and praise. Exodus 34:14 says, “For you shall worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” 1 Chronicles 16:25-26, For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord mad the heavens.” And yet you are thanking him by worshiping something that he created! Romans 1:25 says, “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, whose is blessed forever! Amen. That is mind set of this world exactly, to worship the creation but not the creator.
We are commanded all over Scripture to have nothing before Christ in our life or not to have any idols in your life. What is the first commandment? Anybody remember? YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME! And yet we still worship something else. There are tons of verses in the Bible that state so clearly that our one and only passion in life should be the Lord and thing of Him. This past weekend 0ne28, our church youth group, had a camping trip and the theme of the trip was Christ is Life. The title Christ is life was derived from Colossians 3:4 which says: :When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Notice that it doesn’t say Christ is in your life, but it says Christ who IS your life! Is not just supposed to be in amongst everything in your life, but he is supposed to be your one consuming passion, your driving force, your one and only true love in life. He is to permeate every area in life, he is to be the main influence in your life. My brother made a great analogy when he was teaching at camp, he said that Christ is supposed to be the ocean and us along with everything else in life are to be the boats in the ocean. He is to be your idol.

Seven Little Dwarves

By: Nathaniel David

Seven little dwarves lived in a cottage
That used no wattage
The cottage was built just right
That is how they met Snow White

Seven little dwarves were digging in a mine
While Snow White worked amid the pine
She cleaned it all the day
And the dwarves came back singing away

Seven little dwarves not there to stop the fruit
She almost died because of a brute
Now she’s in a deep sleep
Not even making a peep

Now can only wake by love’s true kiss
And live happily ever after in heavenly bliss
And then came along Prince Charming
Who’s horse was a charging

He broke the witch’s spell
And boy was the kiss sure swell
Now with the witch all cold and dead
The cute little couple rode off all dressed in red

Small Group Sleep Over

Well, I think that it is way past over due to write another post.

Last night our small group had a blast at our night out at Fry guy's house. It was boat loads of fun. Ian and I showed up a half an hour late, but they hadn't really started the serious stuff yet. So we sat down and shared what we had been learning in the Word lately, and that went till about 9:00 or maybe a little later. The rest of the night was male bonding time. We roasted marshmallow, made delicious hot shmoes, and roasted wieners over the open fire. These is the list of thing Big Ben did to me with his hot dog: Washed my hair with its grease, burned my leg, and almost poked me in the eye. Ben had to work in the morning and so he had to leave that night so the rest of the time was just the students, it was fun. Ben and I slid the board off of the teeter totter and he put it up onto this mondo stump. He climbed on top of the stump, and we moved the board so he had to jump down. The rest of the night went from Fry Guy riding cows, to Jacob and Ben fighting with curtain rods that fell in the toilet, to Jacob wasting on Ben with pine cones, to sitting by the fire. Over all we had some pretty good times. I like my small group.

Idols

Idols are all over in our world today. The are sold in every store you walk into and every add or magazine.

A lot of times us Christians, when asked what our idols, we are like,"Christ is our idol,duh! We are Christians!". We say that without even thinking about what we are really saying. The way that I say is easiest to find an idol in your life, is what is consuming your thoughts day and night. What are you meditating on during the day? What is driving you to do the things that you are doing? Meditate on those questions for a while. What did you come up with? Was it Christ? If it is not, then that would be considered an idol. An idol is anything in your life that you value more than Christ himself.

In this day and age with TV and all the other promoting ideas going on we need to be careful what we are placing our focus on. I found this really cool verse this morning that related to this topic, which I thought was cool since I have been thinking about this lately, it is 1 Samuel 12:20, "And Samuel said to the people, 'Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart'." At the end there it says with ALL of your heart, you can't serve your idol and God. You must serve him alone, God must be your idol.

This is what I have been thinking about lately and I think that it is good for all of us to go back and examine our lives carefully to see what we are worshiping.

The Fool's Prayer

We have to memorize this in English class and I kind of like it so I though I would post it.

THE FOOL'S PRAYER

by: Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887)

The royal feast was done; the King
Sought some new sport to banish care,
And to his jester cried: "Sir Fool,
Kneel now, and make for us a prayer!"

The jester doffed his cap and bells,
And stood the mocking court before;
They could not see the bitter smile
Behind the painted grin he wore.

He bowed his head, and bent his knee
Upon the Monarch's silken stool;
His pleading voice arose: "O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

"No pity, Lord, could change the heart
From red with wrong to white as wool;
The rod must heal the sin: but Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!

"'T is not by guilt the onward sweep
Of truth and right, O Lord, we stay;
'T is by our follies that so long
We hold the earth from heaven away.

"These clumsy feet, still in the mire,
Go crushing blossoms without end;
These hard, well-meaning hands we thrust
Among the heart-strings of a friend.

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept--
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say--
Who knows how grandly it had rung!

"Our faults no tenderness should ask.
The chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
But for our blunders -- oh, in shame
Before the eyes of heaven we fall.

"Earth bears no balsam for mistakes;
Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
That did his will; but Thou, O Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!"

The room was hushed; in silence rose
The King, and sought his gardens cool,
And walked apart, and murmured low,
"Be merciful to me, a fool!"

Quote of the Week Worthy Quotes

"These apples are just like huge water chestnuts!" ~Ian Timothy Lugg

Last night after church we came home and Ian started eating these apples and they had no taste and so that was his response to those big water chestnuts.

"What is this pee reservoir doing in our sink!?" ~Ian Timothy Lugg

Again Last night after church we were eating and Ian walks up to our sink, and my mom was cleaning the container that the toilet cleaning device(whatever it is called)
was held. It was very random and awkward.

"Someday, I am going to buy a beagle and name it Amos." ~Katy Abbott

...That speaks for itself... Sorry I thought that was hilarious.

God's Grace is Sufficient

God's grace is sufficient for everything. Over and over again I have been taught and shown throughout the word and from speakers that we need only to rely on God and His grace.

In chapel a few weeks ago that speaker told us about this family that went to Africa to be missionaries. But, when the mother found her two young kids playing on a log next to a huge snake, that was too much and the father moved them back to the states. Once back in the states the two boys wandered under the house to play and found themselves in a nest of rattlesnakes and were bit multiple times. The father heard their screams and pulled them out, threw them into the car and started to drive off. Not being careful, the father ran over their baby who was crawling across the driveway. The mother at that time was looking out their home's window, and after seeing the father run over their baby had a heart attack. The baby died instantly, the boys died on the way to the hospital, and the mom died within three days.

In attempt to save his family from the wild Africa, he brought them back and were all dead within three days. He did not find his hope or faith in God's grace, he just trusted the "safe" United States and all his family died. This is just one example of not trusting God's grace, we do it everyday. Why are we scared of the dark? You don't want to be killed? Why do we not go to Africa the share the GOSPEL? We have a chance to save people from eternal fire and we choose not to, mainly because of the fear of death. It amazes me at how many things we don't do just because of the fear of death. If you are a Christian and you are finding your faith and reliance in God and God's grace, we have nothing to fear."I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me."(Philipians 4:13) We are a faithless generation, and know nothing of placing our faith in God's grace. This is where I, and I know many of you lack also. Pray that we would find our security in Him.

Heavenly Minded

The other day as I was looking at some other people's blogs and I was noticing how everybody had an actual name to their blog. I realized how stupid my name was, which was,"The luggnuts blog". After pondering it for a while I came up with and idea and I think is a good blog name, "Heavenly Minded". The reason I made this the name of my blog is because I so often find myself so engrossed with the things of this world, and one of my prayers lately is that I would be more heavenly minded or have a heavenly attitude about me. Also, that I would never neglect a moment to praise and worship my Lord and Savior. I want people to be able to see reflections of christ in me.

Lube

Bringn' back the old goodies(actually it is quite pointless)

Lube
By NATHANIEL D. LUGG
Lube is a hunk
That acts like a punk
He is so cool
Cause he plays with spools


He’s buff as an ox
Cause he plays with blocks
His legs are like an iron rod
Which is quite odd


Since he is all that
He owns a bat
So he went to the beach
And sat on a leach


It started to suck and pluck
So Lube went to go take a swim
To wash limb to limb
He got bit by a shark with a terrible bark
And cried out with pain O My Great Dane


He got out of the water
And found a leach on the beach
That said, ”If you marry my daughter I will give you whatever you wish
Then swish he was gone


If you take a look in the history book
It will say vanished into thin air
Quoted by Blair
That’s all we have to say, today
THE END
dedicated to the weirdest guy on earth- Kramer Kevin

The Man Upon the Cross

The Man on the cross
Nathaniel David Lugg

Blood streaking His face
Hanging there for the human race
Thorns upon His head
Crucified, the giver of bread

Hole in His side
Dying by pride
Pierced hands and feet
With only the devil to beat

Back slashed and whipped
Clothes bloody and ripped
Only one last breath
The conqueror of death

He was laid in a tomb
Thirty-three years after the womb
Three days later he rose from the dead
Still with the marks of where he bled

He died for you and me
Upon that hideous tree
But all I wanted to say
Is that I am free from pay

Ye of Little Faith

The other day I was reading in Matthew and Jesus says,"For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." I realized how small my faith really is and how often I remember to palce my faith in him for the "BIG" but not the "small" stuff. Christ says he who has faith the size of a mustard seed you could move a mountain without resistance. I was amazed at how little that was and I know that I can't move a mountain, and so I know my faith isn't the size of a tiny little mustard seed. For those of you that don't know how small a mustard seed is, it is about the size of like a quarter of a marble or so, in other words it is tiny. Just that big! I challenged myself to place my faith in him more often and not only on the "BIG" stuff but the "small" stuff too.
-Nathaniel David Lugg

Be Still and Know

Lately I have been thinking about what my broken cisterns are, and I have notice a lot of them come up when I have free time. I always have to be doing or watching something all the time and I think that the reason is because I am not taking to heart this verse,"Be still, and know that I am God." I think that to many times we totaly forget to medatate on Christ and His word. I was feeling very convicted yesterday when Mr. Higgins was talking about how much time Jonathan Edwards spent in prayer and mediation. We need to just be still free from distractions and meditate on his word and just praise God for how great He really is.

This might be my last chance

Well last night as I was getting ready for bed a line from a song popped into my head, the lyrics were,"This might be my last chance to tell Him that I love Him." I started to think about these words and what they meant and this is what came to me: How often do you say to your parents or somebody close to you "Love You" or "Love Ya"? If you counted how many times you do that in a day you would be amazed. Well what I am trying to get at is how often you say "Lord I love you." He controls everthing in the universe and we can't even think to say I love you. We owe Him everthing and those words are so simple but meaningful. Well think about it and I would love to hear you comments.

New Year Resolutions

From now on as I think of my new New Year resolutions, I will post them. Here are a few for now.

1. That I will stick to and not slack off of my "Read the Bible in a Year" program.

2. That I will deal radically with my sin. Ever since SKH has been teaching out of Ecclesiastes I have felt very convicted.

3. That I will go on a run at least three times a week.

Well that is it for now but tune in later for more. I am leaving for the Higgins house to watch the Texas Longhorns get wasted by USC.