Here are the senior picture my sister Kaila took for my high-school graduation. :) (:

How much Faith do you have?

           

            Well here's something I wrote for a competition. Hope you enjoy it! :)

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            Say you have cancer by your brain. You go in for surgery to get it removed. The brain surgeon cuts open your skull… now do you trust this, man, with your life? Not to make any mistake or miss-cut something. Do you have faith he will do the right thing?

           

Growing Faith in God

           

I shall be dealing with the subject of Faith.  My hope is to persuade you today, to understand how we need to build our faith in the God of the Bible. We’re going to cover 3 different points. In the first way we will- Uncover the mystery. Next we’ll look at how to grow in this area. And lastly I want to encourage us to be weaving this in our daily lives. Let’s begin with-

1.      Uncovering the Mystery

Let’s just start out by saying everybody has faith. What I’m going to be talking about is faith in the God of the Bible. People believe or have faith in someone or something, it just depends on what. Noah Webster 1828 Dictionary says faith is- “Belief; …the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority…” faith is- believing something you don’t completely know or understand. Since nobody is all-knowing, every one of us, including those that suppress to believe that there is a Creator of the world, God. We all cannot help but have faith.

Now that we understand that, let’s see what our faith should be resting in.

Rom 10:9 says “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe it in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” We need to have faith or believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord. Meaning truly believe it and not just act like we do then we will be saved. Repentance is a turning away from something to someone. We are to, repent, and turn away from our sin and toward God. We are to have a strong awareness that we have offended a Holy God.

           

When you came in this room and sat down on your chair. Did you have faith the chair beneath you would hold you up and you would not fall to the ground? Well yes you did, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting there. Maybe you chose a different seat because you didn’t trust that one over there. Now your faith isn’t what’s keeping you up is it? Your faith is what makes you trust the chairs strength; faith, is not what’s giving the chair its strength. In the same way God doesn’t need our faith.

Now that we’ve defined what faith looks like let’s move on to my next point-

2.      Growing in Faith

How much faith do you have? Notice I didn’t say how much faith, you think you have because then it wouldn’t be faith. :) How much faith do we need? Matt. 17:20 says “…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.” Jesus Christ said that we can move a mountain by having faith as small as a seed. So why can’t we move mountains? Is it because we don’t believe it will work. Yes, why does Jesus say we don’t need to have doubt?

Ask yourself, Am I afraid? If so, remember who God is! God is surrounding us with His shield. If God is with us, who can be against us? If you believe that God is sovereign (which he is, otherwise he wouldn’t be God) then you don’t have to worry about your own strength because you have the strength of God on your side. No one can stop him death couldn’t even hold Him.

So the first way to grow your faith in God is to repent and believe God has forgiven us of our sins and Jesus sacrificed Himself and your sins on that cross.

The apostles when they were on the boat had no need to fear because Jesus was with them. All He had to do was rebuke the storm and it would stop. It says Jesus was sleeping though the storm and they had to wake Him. Why… they wondered…does he not care, why isn’t he helping us through this danger? Sometimes it seems that way to us, we think God doesn’t care because he’s not doing anything… that we see, but He’s there waiting for the right time, building our faith in Him. To be gripped in terror or fear is wrong even in the normal everyday life situations. We need to transform our fear into faith. Worry is a sin, because you’re not trusting in God’s sovereign hand over you.

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”-Rom. 5:3-5. 

You know obedience is hard, but disobedience is lethal. You have to keep going forward, even if it seems you’re going into the grave as Jesus did. But that wasn’t the end. If you turn back, you’ll sink into the water as Peter did. If you go through it with God’s help you will rise out of it as lava does shooting out of the mountain.

Next we must rest under God, eyes fixed on Him. Trusting in the promises He is sure to give.

Faith is thrown back and forth by various doubts so that the mind of the believer is rarely at peace in God. If we understand, and hold fast to the fact, that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way… it’s waters roar and foam.” Ps. 46:1-3 there you have it, now we don’t have to have doubt.

Have faith… and hope! If faith is the sure persuasion of the truth of God, that it can neither lie to us, nor deceive us, then those who wait on the Lord wait for the promises God will give.

“Faith believes God to be true, hope awaits the time when His truth shall be manifested… Faith is the foundation upon which hope rests, hope nourishes and sustains faith. ” –John Calvin  We must constantly be keeping our faith reinforced in patient hope, so fixed on eternity as to number a thousand years as one day.

Let us repent of our sins, fear God alone, lean on God and follow Him never looking back into the sea, obey Him throughout our life, and hope in God Almighty and His promises.

Moving into my final point-

  3.      Encouragement- including faith day by day

My hope in this point is to show you how amazing it is, if you just have faith in God. If God is with us, who can be against us? Ps 56:4, 11- “In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid… What can man do to me?” All we have to do is get the focus off ourselves and place our attention on God. Helping others who need God’s help as well. When you’re thoughts are constantly on others you won’t have time to pity yourself. Also you will understand the joy of God when seeing His work in other people through you.

Faith is the opposite of fear and the opposite of fear is love. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” -1 John 4:18 If you want to stop being fearful have faith in the God who loves you and will cast out your fear with love. God has a perfect love where fear cannot abide.

“No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” -Rom. 4:20-21 Do you want to say that and believe it?

Several years ago my aunt Jodi had been pregnant for nearly 9 months. God had decided He wanted to bring her baby to Him instead. She gave birth to a still born baby, my little cousin. This was a very tough time for all us and especially for my aunt and uncle. But through it all our faith, trust and hope were being built in God during this difficult time. But in the end I rejoiced to know that my little cousin, who they named Christian Covenant Kruse, is safe with the King of Kings.

Today we looked at Faith.  I hope you’ve been persuaded today, to begin to trust in God and understand how we need to build our faith in the God of the Bible. First we looked at- Uncovering the mystery. How we need to just put the faith we have in the One who can save us. Next we saw how to grow in this area. Repent, Believe, lean on, follow, and fix our eyes on the true God. Lastly we found what joy we’ll have in trusting the Sovereign God.

Remember trusting in your brain surgeon who is fallible and finite. A man you’re trusting with your life? Why not put your trust and faith in an infallible God, infinite and sovereign King of the universe who conquered death and became the life.

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Hope you liked it! God bless you!

-Kolten Anderson

This is for me to hear from YOU!!! Please tell me something! :) (: I'd love to hear from YOU!

A Little Mixed Up!!! :) (:

A little poem my Great Grandpa had that made me laugh. Hope it makes you laugh. :) (:

"Just a line to say I'm living
That I'm not among the dead,
Tho' I'm getting more forgetful
And more mixed up in the head.

For sometimes I can't remember,
When I stand at the front of the stairs
If I must go up for something
Or, If I've just come down from there.

Before the fridge so often
My poor mind is filled w/ doubt,
Have I just put the food away,
Or have I come to take some out?

And, then there's times when it's dark out,
W/ my night cap on my head
I don't know if I'm retiring
Or just getting out of bed.

So, if it's my turn to write to you
There's no need in getting sore,
I may think I've already written
And don't want to be a bore.

So, remember that I do love you
And wish that you were here.
Now it's getting near mail-time
So, I must say 'Good bye, m'dear.'

There I stood beside the mail box
W/ a face so very red.
Instead of mailing you my letter,
I had opened it instead!"



-Kolten V. Anderson

Anchor10: Facebook 'like' page!!

Anchor10: Facebook 'like' page!!: Like my page on FB!!! Really EASY and Simple, just click a button and make my day:) (: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anchor10/115786125188...

HI

I just want to say 'Hi' so that you can say something back!!! :) (:

Independence Day!!!

Happy Independence Day!!!! :) (: God Bless you all.
-Kolten V. Anderson

Free Will

This is my talk I gave for NCFCA this year. I'd like to hear what you think about it. :) (:


Can man do everything he chooses? Can man fly to the moon without a machine? Can he take a deep breath and live under water for a day without oxygen? 

Today I will be talking on the topic of:

Free Will

I shall be dealing with the subjects of predestination, foreknowledge, the sovereignty of God, human ability and free-will. Let me just say that this is a very large and deep subject that has been debated for centuries. My hope today is to persuade you to see how we don’t necessarily have a free-will?

The view that I hold is one that was held by men such as: R.C. Sproul, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Owen, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, and St. Augustine.

We are going to explore three points today, 1^st Human Will. 2^nd God’s Will and 3^rd The Importance.

First Human Will

Martin Luther wrote a book entitled “The Bondage of the Will.”  He considered it his most important work because it spoke of the issues that he regarded as being, the cor ecclesiae, the very heart of the church. I agree with Luther and that is why I chose this topic. I will get into this more in my last point. This is a matter of proper knowledge of self and God.  Luther pressed the issue of the relationship between God’s foreknowledge and human events.

I love to play chess. When I’m playing there are many moves during a game I cannot predict with absolute certainty.  Although I can consider the possible moves my opponent can make in the future parts of the game.

However, God’s foreknowledge is perfect and absolute.  He doesn’t have to wait a couple moves to see what will happen. In His predestined plan He knows every word before it is formed on our lips.  Luther’s crucial point is that God wills whatever he foreknows and foreknows whatever he wills.

We have a mind and a will. We have a natural ability to choose what we desire.  What’s the problem then?  What’s the nature of our desire behind our will?  Does fallen man, in and of himself, have a natural desire for Christ?  Jonathan Edwards answers “No!” Augustine’s Latin formula was non posse non peccare.  Meaning- after the fall man was morally incapable of living without sin.

Jonathan Edward’s said this, “A man never, in any instance, wills any thing contrary to his desires, or desires any thing contrary to his will.”  -Think for a second about the choices you made today, like coming to judge and why this category?  Perhaps it was because all the other events were full and you had to, which I hope is not the case, but still you had to make the choice to agree to judge anyway.  A choice is made because of your strongest inclination at that moment.  What about sin?  Christians have a desire in their hearts to obey Christ.  Yet we sin.  If we always desired to obey Christ more then we desire to sin, we would never sin.  Rom. 7:19 “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

Our will is not free in the sense that it’s in bondage to our own desire and our desire is in bondage to our sinful nature.  Our will is free to choose what it desires but our desires our enslaved to sin. Rom. 3:12 says “…no one does good, not even one.”  Our will and abilities are, because of the fall, corrupt and we are completely unable to do what is right. This leads me into my second point.

God’s Will

I’ve come across many people who refer to 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord…not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  

They imply that God isn’t in complete control because He doesn’t wish that any perish.  He wishes that some things happen and that some things don’t happen.  God is just waiting for us to make a decision toward repentance that He hopes we will make.

In response to these statements we need to define and distinguish God's decreed will from His declared will. We must distinguish between what God actually does will to happen and what He would like to see happen, and both of these things can be spoken of as God's will.

What do I mean when I say the decreed will of God?  This is Gods secret will of decree when he predestined everything that comes to past before the foundations of the world.

What about the declared will of God?  This is Gods revealed will where he declares what we should and shouldn’t do. We all can and do resist this will and fall short of the glory of God.

An example of the two wills of God can be clearly seen at the cross. At the cross we see a difference in what God would like to see happen and what He actually does will to happen.  The Father willed the death of His perfect Son while at the same time forbidding murder. It was according to His decreed will (His plan) but against His declared will (His law).  In other words there is a sense in which God willed the delivering up of his Son, even though the act was sin.  We must distinguish between what God would like to see happen and what he actually does will to happen.

It is not His declared will that any should perish but it is His decreed will to save some and not others.  "For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." (Rom 9:15-16) The Holy Spirit will work in the lives of the elect so that they inevitably will come to faith in Christ. We do not ‘choose’ to be saved by our own will,

Left to our own fallen-will we are unable to choose without the Father first choosing us. John 6:44 says "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him."

Rom 9:17-23 – “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.”

God’s wills are perfect and they affect how we act and what happens.  We need to understand this before we can understand ourselves. Without God’s grace we are going to sin without a doubt. Bottom line, God is God and we are not. Now that I have explained the different wills, we will now look at their importance. My last point…

The Importance.

We need to understand this because when we don’t we tend to fashion a god in our mind who is lesser than the true and all sovereign God.  Instead of God molding us into his likeness we try to mold Him into our likeness. The sovereignty of God, as Luther said, is at the very heart of the Church.  Why is it?  I’ll tell you why. Our fallen nature wants to be in total control and so we fashion a god in our minds who is less than sovereign; we than break the 1^st and 2^nd commandments by creating a false god who allows us to stay in control.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray and if it wasn't for God’s sovereign and irresistible Hand drawing us to Himself, even while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we would still be lost.

We don’t come into the world and turn back saying, “Hey, I never said you could make me; why didn’t you ask for my permission?”  Lazarus also didn’t say “I never said you could raise me from the dead.”  Lazarus didn't need to give Jesus permission to raise him from the dead.  "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus"  Eph 2:4-6

On the way to this tournament we prayed that we may have traveling mercies and that God’s sovereign hand may be over us and protect us.  When we pray this way we are admitting and presupposing that God is God, God may intervene, and transcend individual free-will in order to keep us safe.

If we are ignorant of the foreknowledge of God, Martin Luther said.  “Christian faith is utterly destroyed, and the promises of God and the whole gospel fall to the ground completely; for the Christian's chief and only comfort in every adversity lies in knowing that God does not lie, but brings all things to pass immutably, and that His will cannot be resisted, altered or impeded.”

When I’m playing chess, my opponent can set up traps that will destroy me. I cannot foresee all things in the game because I did not foreordain every move my opponent makes. God, however, foreknows and foreordains all things. He cannot be lead astray in His foreknowledge and predestination. Nothing happens outside or against His decreed will and so there can be no free-will in man.

We looked at 1^st Human will. How our will is free to choose what it desires but our desires our enslaved to sin. 2^ndly God’s wills.  God’s wills are perfect and they affect how we act and what happens. Lastly The Importance. We saw that having the wrong view of this can cause us to doubt our faith and limit Gods sovereignty.

In conclusion, can man do whatever he chooses? Can he fly to the moon without a rocket? No. Man's will is not free because it’s limited by his nature.   I hope I’ve persuaded you to go and search the Scriptures. Know where your stand is in this great debate!

Broken House Drawing!!! :) (:

http://anchor10art.blogspot.com/2011/05/broken-house.html

17th Birthday!!! :) (:

     Well today is my 17th Birthday!!!  I am so blessed with many things and I thank God for them all.  I hope this year God will be glorified through me and that his light will shine all around me.  My hope is to become more of a man, as he would have me and grow in the knowledge of his word.
-Kolten V. Anderson