Lies... When are they acceptable?

So I haven't been on the computer in a very long time because I've been so busy. But I've been, shall we say, inspired by some recent events.
My little sister has been annoying me alot lately. And my biggest problem with her is that she lies and won't own up to things. But I've also noticed that she has lied to some of her friends sometimes to keep her out of trouble. While I think her lies are ridiculous and I CANNOT stand them, I also thim some of her lies are valid.
I, obviosly, have lied before myself, so who am I to judge? Once again, I'm trying to leave my judgement to Jesus, but it is a very hard concept (even for one who preaches it, lol).
I have lied to my parents about things that I was afraid of getting in trouble for, and I felt very bad about it because nobody should lie to those who care about you. But there have been times that I've needed to lie to protect myself from people who might hurt me or help me get myself into trouble. Those people I like to call catalysts. They speed up the reaction, basically, to help you get into trouble.
Well, last year a friend asked me to smoke weed. I just about flipped out (in my mind), because I had NO IDEA she was doing that, and would have never thought she would have tried to get me to do that. So I kept my cool and told her that my asthma was bothering me the past couple of days. Well, obviously, that was NOT the appropriate answer. But it protected me for a time, so that I could collect myself and tell her the truth and also tell her how IDIOTIC it was for her to be doing drugs of ANY sort.
The lie bought me time to escape from her, the catalyst.
An example of this in the Bible is the snake asking Eve whether or not the Lord said not to eat the forbidden fruit. Eve said that the Lord did say not to eat it. Then for her protection she also said that God told her not to touch it either. A lie. God had never said that she couldn't touch the fruit, just not to eat it or else she would die.
This lie was an attempt at self-preservation, protection, whether it worked or not. I think it was quite smart of Eve to set that extra rule even if the snake was still cunning enough to convince her to eat it anyways.

Abraham lied and said that his wife, Sarah, was really his sister so that he would not be killed because she was so beautiful and another man would want to take her for his own.

Well those are two examples. I need to get some sleep. God DOES NOT condone lies, but if you have to lie to keep you from doing something worse than lying, by all means DO IT.

Wolves Dressed as Sheep

Over the past few years I have encountered many many wolves dressed as sheep. And for a while, I was one myself.
What I mean by wolves dressed as sheep is really hypocrites, people who claim to be God-fearing people, Christians, Christ-followers, anything you would like to call them. The people who claim they love the Lord, yet when they leave the sight of those that they can say "I am a God-fearing person" to, they are changed dramatically.
In a teenage world, sex, drugs, cigarettes, money, alcohol, hatred, sin, everything that makes a person bad prevails. These are all temptations that the devil himself has set before us to wriggle under our skin.
Luke 6:37-49 paints little analogies to the hypocrisies of the world:

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

This concept has also been illustrated alot in my church lately. My youth group leader asks us to come to church, live, and learn, but DO NOT call ourselves Christ-followers if we are not going to abide by His rules.
Not only do I appreciate this, but it makes me realize that I am sometimes hypocritical myself, which causes me to think more and see how much I sin. I do not like sinning; It scares me. So I have been more aware of my actions lately than I think I have ever been in my life.

Also, lately, something that has been irking me is the Christmas Season. I am so sick of children making fifty-item-long wish lists, acting spoiled. I'm tired of listening to people at my school talk about what they want or what they are going to ask for. I am tired of people who do not know the Lord to be excited for the upcoming celebrations of Jesus' birthday for their own selfish reasons.
I like Christmas, but I dislike the hypocrisies of Christmas. I know that Jesus Christ's day of birth was not in December. The Bible clearly states that shepherds were out tending their flocks during the night of Jesus' birth. If it had been winter when they were tending the flocks, they would have been icicles with legs. So.

This winter I am focusing on my Bible studies, family, friends, and giving gifts to everybody.

God Provides

"He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." Acts 14:17

Today I will be focusing on Genesis 22 and Matthew 6:25-34.
Genesis 22 is a well known story of Abraham taking his only son Isaac (who was conceived during Abraham's old age of 100 and whose mother died at the age of 127), and giving him as a burnt offering to God. When Abraham was about to slay his son, God intervened and said that Abraham is a true God-fearing man, and not to lay a hand on Isaac. Then a ram appeared, with its horns caught in a thicket and Abraham took it as a burnt offering instead, then named the place the-Lord-will-provide. This passage shows us that if we put our faith in the Lord, He will provide for us even when all seems hopeless.

The second passage, Matthew 6:25-34, is called "Do Not Worry." The Lord says to not worry about what we will eat or drink or wear. Now, I'm almost positive this isn't insisting that we run around naked or starving and hope that clothes will be thrown on us out of the sky or our stomachs will just magically be full (rarely has anybody seen clothes fall from the sky, although there are organizations that drop food and clothes off in needy places). But at the end of the passage, well, that's the meat of it.
"For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will learn about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:32-34
This gives you an equation to finding what you want and what you need:
A) Put all of your faith into the Lord
B) Do not worry about tomorrow
C) Live today to your fullest

God wants us to live in the present and live as if it was our last day. God will provide for us if and only if we give ourselves to Him and try to live holy lives to the best of our abilities.

God is Love

"Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you-- majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. "In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling..." Exodus 15:11-13

"...but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Deuteronomy 5:10
"...Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." Deuteronomy 7:9

Today I'm going to explain Genesis 29, but I will condense the whole passage, of course. I read the passage three different times and got the same meaning out of it each time, but before I explain the meaning, I'll describe the passage itself.
In Genesis 29, Jacob meets with shepherds and a shepherdess named Rachel. He finds out that they are from Haran, where his uncle, Laban, lives. It just happens that Rachel is Labans son. Jacob begins working for his uncle, who promises to give Jacob his youngest daughter, Rachel, in marriage. After seven years of hard work Laban tricks Jacob and instead of giving him his youngest daughter in marriage, he gives his oldest named Leah. Jacob becomes angry and Laban explains that it is tradition to give the first daughter before the others in marriage, so he then offers Jacob Rachel. After several years, God saw how unloved Leah was, and saw that Jacob did not want her. God looked into Rachel's womb and saw she was barren so He blessed Leah with a son. When she gave birth she said, "now my husband will love me." Twice more did she give birth, and twice more did she say the same thing, yet Jacob still did not love her like he loved Rachel. Finally, Leah gave birth to a fourth child. "Now I will praise the Lord," she said...and stopped having children.

I had a hard time deciding whether my belief about the passage was correct or not, so I asked my Gammy. I asked her what its importance was, and why on Earth did Jacob have two wives!?
My Gammy responded that the Bible can only be interpreted scripture by scripture. And that she doesn't think that one chapter or verse can be taken out of context and interpreted alone.
She also told me that when God created Adam and Eve he told them to be fruitful and multiply; there were not taboos about plural marriages. But when Christ came He ordained marriage as one man and one woman...basically the New Testament's laws replaced the Old Testament's rules.
But I decided the first, second, and third time reading, that this passage represents God's love. Even when you feel alone, unloved, or forgotten, God listens, He hears, He reacts, and He surrounds you with His love! Even as a sinner, if you believe in God, if you submerse yourself in His being, He will love you, just as He loved Rachel and blessed her. Maybe she didn't realize that God was with her, but He was watching over her with love and devotion.

Experiences with Death and Seeking Personal Salvation

"I am the ressurection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall not die." John 11:25-27

"not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." John 14:1-7

A month and one day ago I lost a friend, named Marissa, to suicide. I had been helping her in chemistry. Nobody really suspected that she was aching. She was not able to help herself. I feel that when people become that "low" we must not pull away from God, but restore our faith to its limits.
Romans 14:7-8 asserts, "For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord." Because the Bible says this, I know that Marissa was with God when she died, and He was holding her through all the pain, whether she knew it or not.
Now, this brings me to a speculation on salvation. What must a person do to achieve it? How does a person go about seeking it?
I read the Bible, go to youth group/church, pray. I believe that if you are connecting with God, and love Him dearly, you will find salvation however you choose to do it.
John 3 describes Jesus speaking to Nicodemus who is a leader of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a Jewish group that often conflicted with Jesus, and they often did not see eye to eye. Nicodemus merely states that Jesus is a teacher sent from God, and that God is with Jesus. Personally, I think the conversation is odd, but it brings Jesus to say one of the most famous lines in the Bible: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have ever lasting life." John 3:16
Several passages in Romans emphasize this. "...for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes..." and "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..." Jesus died to pay for our sins; He is our whipping boy, for He feels the pain of all our sins, and takes them and forgives us when we accept Him into our hearts, and ask for His forgiveness. He seeks salvation for us, as we must seek salvation in Him.
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..." Romans 5:1

Punishment and Forgiveness

I wrote a blog for tomorrow as well but I'm not quite sure I'll have time to post it so I'm putting it up now. This is the continuation of the last post and a display of something i read and learned in my youth group.

"to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of his sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace"
Luke 1:77-79

"The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."
Exodus 34:6-7

God is known to be a wonderful God, forgiving the sinners of the world so long as they come to Him in repentance. Now I want anybody who is reading this to pull out your Bible, dust it off and turn to Jonah and read it.
This displays God's forgiveness because He asked Jonah to leave to Nineva, who boarded a boat and caused tempests around him. The men aboard cast him over the side where Jonah was then swalloed by a fish for three days and three nights. I am not going to lie, this part is rather absurd, but it was a miracle and it is not the main point of the story that I wish to communicate.
Jonah did not want to go to Ninevah in the first place because he did not like those people. But when God rescued him from the fish, he did not refuse again. He went to Ninevah and said to them "Yet forty days, and Ninevah will be overthrown!" The people believed in God and repented for their sins as Jonah waited for their destruction.
You must remember, Jonah did not like these people, and pretty much wished them dead while he was waiting. But God saw that these people were changed and had repented from their evil ways. Jonah became angry at the forgiveness of his God. He left the city and created himself a shelter. When he fell asleep God created Jonah a plant that would shade him from the sun and Jonah was thankful. But the next morning God sent a worm to destroy the plant.
Jonah became angry again, where God basically said that Jonah did not spend any time laboring and helping the plant grow yet he was still upset about it, though it was not his own. He told Jonah it was His plant, and the people of Ninevah were His people and He had a right to destroy or not destroy whatever of His creations He chose.
God showed His forgiveness to these people even when Jonah could not. And that is the main point of the story.
Not only does God forgive, but us humans, who were created in the image of God, can too. When somebody does us wrong do not seek revenge. Seek the ability to forgive.

Leave the Judgement to Jesus

Today in church, there was a guest speaker, who said this great quote that stuck with me. Now I've been thinking about creating a blog to my own Bible studies and observations but today i felt was the best day to elaborate on my thoughts of everything I learn and read.
Today's quote that stuck out to me was "release your 'right' to get even." Followers of Jesus Christ do not have a right to seek revenge on those that have done them wrong. Just like in Hinduism, people all build up karma (although followers of Christ do not call it karma). Their karma or how they appear in God's eyes decides for the person what happens to them after death.
Now I myself have alot of "issues" with wanting revenge on certain people but i read a passage in the Bible that showed me to let God decide who gets punished in life and for what reasons. For instance, when I was younger I stole a set of earrings from the store. I started to put them in my ears in the bathroom and one fell out and went down into the sink. God saw what I had done and punished me and I knew it.
Psalm 91:8 reads "you will observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked."
So the verse isn't beautiful for us wrongdoers because we all commit sins, transgressions, but we see that when people do us wrong, it is not our job to punish them. We must leave the punishment to God, as it is his duty and we are his people.

The next post will elaborate on what happens after we are judged and punished.