An Otherly Will

What if the Spirit speaks to us not directly in the moment, but has already spoken to us by the transformation of our life?

What if the decisions we have to make day-to-day and the controversies we have to establish an opinion on are not led by a "Guide by our Side" who is whispering instruction, but from a teacher who has already given us the algorithm to solve every practical equation we will come across in our life. The Bible never specifically mentions abortion or pacifism, so how can we establish a biblically-grounded opinion about these things?

When we have experienced a life transformed by the Spirit, the need comes to act out the principles of Christlike-ness in modern issues. The Holy Spirit speaks through our transformation. By overhauling our old life, He gives us instruction on how to live today.  

We do not act in a way that pleases God so that we will be transformed or live up to the standard of transformation, but because we have already been transformed.

There is a triple cooperation between the Holy Spirit, God’s revealed will (Scripture), and our cognitive functioning, where all work together to guide our reasoning by the established pattern of a Christlike life. I think today in our individualistic culture, we are so concerned in nailing down the specific will for our life that we remove the focus from God’s eternal revealed will in scripture. We put the siding up before the walls!

Practice humility. Take care of yourself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Get on your knees and pray. Study Scripture not for the sake of answering questions but for the sake of finding God. Love people. Serve in your community. Protect the weak.

When we are pursuing all of this – a life fully devoted in every aspect – will we fully be led by the Spirit. The work of obeying God creates in us the cognitive habit of instinctually pointing our opinions, thoughts, and actions in the direction of God. When we fail to do what God has already asked, we spend our time grabbing for things in the dark, wondering why it’s so hard for us to see what he wants us to do; God’s revealed Will sets the foundation and structure of thinking to find the specific Will for us. You see, when we try to push all of the work of forming opinions on controversial or complicated issues off onto the Holy Spirit, without putting much effort into actually trying to pursue the life the Holy Spirit is pointing towards, our opinions become pseudo-spiritual, led not by Not-God, who is usually a murky substitute, wearing the nametag of God but being only that person’s guised will.

This is a complicated idea – so complicated, only a story can really accomplish portraying it.

There once was a man named Self.

Every day, Self was fed three square meals a day (plus snacks!) by his friend, Other. Other did not charge Self anything for this meal, but only asked that Self cleaned up the house day-by-day, to make it easier for Other to come in and get around. Other had a helper, Conscience, who would help Self clean up the house (but he was never the starter for this work; he always waited for Self to start cleaning up before he would get around to cleaning up.) For a long time, Self maintained the house well, Conscience helped him, and Other came in and served him whenever he needed something to eat. The three of them lived in harmony – Other would give Self the perfect meal every time, because he was able to move around the house to get all the necessary ingredients to make the meal.

But eventually, Self began to get tired of cleaning. “Surely skipping a few days of cleaning won’t be a big deal.” He said.

And indeed, it wasn’t – Other continued to come, and Self continued to be fed. A thought began to form in Self’s mind: “Cleaning up my house isn’t really the important thing here – the important thing is that I love Other and he loves me! I don’t need to keep cleaning up my house. He’ll keep coming and serving me nonetheless…”

And indeed, he did. Other continued to come to the house every day and make his way carefully through the growing mess of the house, cooking up many different dishes, and serving them to Self faithfully. But every day, he would point out the different things that Self needed to address in order to make his job easier. Conscience was seen around the house less and less, but Self didn’t seem to notice - he continued to simply sit around the house, waiting for the next meal and convincing himself that it wasn’t really necessary – Other was just trying to be hard-to-get. He’d cave in the end.

But the longer Self went without doing what Other had asked him to do, the harder it got for Other to even get in to his house! He tried not to damage anything, but Self was making it very hard to do so! Trash was everywhere, mixed in with the important items! Other sometimes had to push things out of the way just to get into the kitchen (every once in a while, things would break, and Self would get mad at Other for not being careful enough).

Finally, the day came when Other could not even open the door to get into the house – Self had passively barricaded him out by not doing the simple thing Other had asked him to do – live in the house in a way that invited Other in. Other pounded on the door, but there was so much stuff, good and bad, between him and Self that Self couldn’t hear him anymore.

Hours went by, and Self got hungry.

Days went by, and Self was starving.

A week went by, and Self was crying out for food; but he still did not address the mess that his house was in.

Finally, in the hour that Self felt sure he would die, a rich aroma reached his nostrils.

Sweet, almost sickening, the smell of a rich dinner was coming from his kitchen! Other had finally broken through and was cooking him dinner! Oh, Self was proud of himself – he just knew that Other wouldn’t leave him alone! How silly was he for thinking that Other could possibly be so mean as to leave him on his own! He knew that Self depended on him for food – he said he would always be there to give him a meal – and Other was a man of his word!

But in his excitement of finally getting food, Self failed to wonder why this Other asked for the lights to remain off, or why he wouldn’t let Self get too close to him. 

In fact, so excited was he to see Other’s face, and so long had it been since he saw it, that he failed to notice the strap around the head and the polished plastic of the face of the Other.

This was not true Other, but a masked Conscience! He looked like Other to Self, and he sounded like Other to Self, and his food tasted just as sweet as Other’s, and Self didn’t have to clean up his house for him to come in – so he must be Other!   

Self sat down to eat his dinner, confident in the fact that he had been righteous all along to suffer through a week without food before Other gave in. Conscience smiled behind his mask, knowing that he had truly found his reign now. Other waited at the door, just waiting for Self to invite him back in.

I do hope you understood the meaning of this story. Of course it’s not wholly theologically accurate, and of course it’s a little clumsy, but I really do hope that I have shown what I mean when I say that a life lived in a transformed way acts as the conduit for the workings of God, and his will in your life.

If you are waiting for the Holy Spirit to tell you something or answer those questions you have about what you should do or where you should go, perhaps you might do well to go out and live your life as God has already told you in Scripture.

And maybe, just maybe, those questions you have for God will be answered along the way…

--Malachi

    לא נזבנו רוח-אתה;לא נשכחנו דברי-אתה  

Love, Regardless

With all of this hoopla about homosexuality, I figured I might as well put out my socially deviant opinion on the matter. I personally believe that if our government and society continues corkscrewing ethically, morally, and doctrinally,  this country will be torn apart either from within or without within the next 25 years.

I think that the most discouraging thing for me to see or hear is news about another pastor or another church supporting doctrine that is clearly unbiblical. Specifically, I'm troubled with the idolization and legitimization of homosexuality in today's culture. The sociological, psychological, and biological ramifications of this practice set the foundation for an unsustainable society.

Now, I could talk all day about how homosexuality is detrimental to the public or to its propagators or to their loved ones, but really, there is a bigger issue at hand in this.

No matter how terrible a practice it may be, or how great the consequences are, I must still love these people like any other human. They have been created just as much in the image of God as I have been, and I must acknowledge that, giving them the honor and love that comes in the package of being made with the imago Dei. They have the same Breath as I have; their life comes from the same Source; God created them, just as he created me. And so, I must love them.

Within this homosexuality controversy, I see a looming catastrophe in danger of befalling us. I see the possibility of Christians taking a noble stand against the issue of homosexuality and standing up for their beliefs and doing everything they can to preserve biblical standards, and in the process losing a lot of souls as collateral damage. Now, I'm not saying that we should up and allow homosexual marriages in all the churches, for it's clearly against the intent of God for creation, but I am saying that we need to oppose homosexuality in such a way that we don't mow over the souls of the people practicing it.

We are called to stand for the truth, but we are also called to love, and love everyone. What I'm praying for in this issue is that Christians don't lose sight of the most important thing: that our first order of business to others as Christians is to bring Christ into their lives, acting as veritable mirrors of him. I am not praying that homosexuality will be legally forced into Christianity, nor am I praying that Christianity forces homosexuals away. I am praying that we as Christians stand up for what the Bible says, while wholly loving those who are walking outside of its truth. We need to stop seeing homosexual people as a nuisance or a detestable thing, for in the end, we must love because he first loved us. What else are we to do as Christians?

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal." 
-- C.S. Lewis

   

The Heart of the Matter: It's a Matter of the Heart

I just got back from a trip to Washington, D.C. during Spring Break. While we were there, we visited a church that only ran around 80 people in attendance. The worship music was put on by fellow members of the congregation ranging from kids to elderly adults. The music wasn't that great, and the service flow was pretty blocky, but there was something there in that church that made those things unimportant. There was something that banished the reservation that accompanies many believers. Even my fellow students were getting into the worship more than usual. The people of that church were really dedicated to their worship. They sang, they worshiped. It wasn't a concert; it wasn't a show; it was an offering of praise to God, and they produced it from their hearts. It was a matter of the heart.

 It was odd to me. Normally when I hear so-called "amateur" music, it turns me off to the message they are trying to communicate, but this was different. I don't think they were concerned with playing the music correctly as they were concerned with praising God. I think they knew that they were in an environment that ought to be able to see past the off-beats and bad pitches to look at the heart of the matter - that they were offering everything they had to God in order to praise him. It was a matter of the heart.

I think there is a considerable lack of this in churches today. A lack of unreserved praise. A lack of fearlessness. A lack of boldness for the gospel. I think a lot of the time, Jesus is quietly removed from the minds of people and replaced with the beauty of the music and the prose of the sermon and the comfortableness of the service. I think many churches get so concerned with making their congregation happy and content that Christ is pushed out and no one notices. People are happily convicted of their sin once a week in service, and go on to live in sin the other 6 days of the week. I've caught myself singing worship songs on autopilot, not really saying the words, and just singing out of habit. Worship isn't about the words, though. It's a matter of the heart.  

A life in Christ was never meant to be solely Pharisaical. There needs to be something deeper than the outward signs of faith. A while ago, I was working with my family in our yard clearing out some tree branches. I remember working on a branch of one of the trees that hangs over our driveway. From the outside, it looked pretty healthy, but when I cut into it, I found a big colony of ants thriving on the rotten inside of the branch. Sadly, I think this picture defines a lot of Christians today. They put all their effort into appearing acceptable, but they are rotting from the inside out. Whether because of apathy, lukewarmness, or hopelessness, a lot of our fellow Christ-followers are secretly unhealthy. Their actions are roses, but their hearts are the thorns. It's a matter of the heart.

I think many of us need to take a good hard look at the way we're living life and really consider which parts of our lives we are willing to surrender to God, because a lot of us have been living our whole lives keeping a few percentage points "off-limits" to God. There is wholeness, beauty, and love offered in the promise of the New Covenant - but in order for us to reap these promises of God, we need to sow faith in Christ into our lives. It is a matter of our hearts. 

The Sanctity of Life

I'm surprised how many Christians I have met who are in support of the legalization of abortion. Some even provide a biblical argument for the killing of these unborn babies. This goes past all my defenses and strikes me right in the heart. How can a Christian possibly support this murder of children? It may be legal, and you may have every right under American law to kill the child inside of your body, but where can I possibly find support in scripture for this doctrine of abortion? The instances of killing children in the Old Testament are called "abominations" (תֹעֲבוֹת in the Hebrew). These kinds of things throughout the Bible are detestable to God, and forever banned from the life of a christian. Just like homosexuality, the killing of children is detestable and forbidden before God. To do תֹעֲבוֹת before God is to do something that goes completely against the nature of God and is wholly abominable. It kills me to see that our society is now taking steps in order to legalize תֹעֲבוֹת and to give its citizens the right to do these things. I honestly don't know how much longer this country can last if it continues in the direction it's going. 

We can get all wrapped up in defending our rights as Americans to do this, and to protect the mother and support her rights as a free woman, but there's a problem with getting all worked up about our rights: When we surrendered our lives to Christ and were baptized into his spirit, we surrendered all of our rights and replaced them with Christ's commands. It doesn't matter if we "have the right" to kill our children; God commanded us not to, so we cannot! Why is this so hard to make clear to people today? We are so concerned with "being our own person" that we completely leave God behind! I may may have the judicial right to sue a man after he hits me with his car, but 1 Corinthians 6  speaks specifically against the usage of rights for lawsuits - therefore, I cannot rightfully sue this man even though he may deserve it and even though I may legally able to do so. It doesn't matter what my rights are - Christ vanquished those rights and replaced them with his commands. 

When I became a Christian, everything in my old life was refitted with Christ, and I now have to judge everything as to whether it is acceptable in God's covenant. When I look at scripture, there is nothing that supports the killing of children in or out of the womb; I find only scripture supporting the sanctity of human life and the beautiful craftsmanship of God within it. Who am I to counteract this working? As in marriage, I cannot undo what God has joined together. If God has created a child, I cannot undo this. That would be an abomination. 

Can we just try to actually practice some humility before God, and accept the fact that we don't have any rights before Him? We are sinners - willful betrayers of God - we don't have any leverage on Him, and we cannot claim any sort of claim to any right. God's grace to us is a gift - not a right. We have absolutely zero reasons for God to forgive us and allow us into His Kingdom. Let's stop arguing for what we deserve and actually work to obey God's commands.   

Graceful Silence

Mini-soapbox time!

Christians, can we try being graceful and gentle with those people who go against our grain, instead of labeling them "idiots" and reigning over our own little ethical hierarchy?

I just don't think the belief that we're right should be standing in opposition to our call to truth and relationships. It's hard to bring people in to our truth when all they see is how low you place them and how high you are.

I believe that grace, truth, and gentleness should characterize the life of every Christ follower, in every aspect. From our waking to our sleeping - from our rising to our lying down. Every word we say, every person we affect needs to be impacted by the Christ-likeness within us.

We can argue it out with the fact that even Jesus got angry when people were working against the truth, or that Jesus was not always "graceful" or "gentle", but it comes down to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we are not, though some need much convincing of this sometimes. We are not God, and we don't have all the authority to throw harsh terms and harsher judgments around. God is the avenger - we need to continue on and impact the world.

I think sometimes we need to forget how vehemently we believe our ethics and accept people for who they are, even if they believe things contrary to what we believe and even if we know that we won't teach them the truth. We can't give up, we can't treat them any differently, because we are Christians, and we are all sinners.

Just because we know the truth doesn't mean we are any higher or any better than anyone else. We need to get over ourselves and move on to Christ. I think a lot of people are deferred from Christianity because some of us are so set in their beliefs and so passionate about defending them that we actually hinder the progress of the faith. If I can't speak with grace, it might be better for me to learn to be okay with not speaking out so much...

Silent Conversations

The character that defines me and the person that I have become over the years is a direct result of time spent alone with God. Silence and Solitude are the two heavy hitters in my spiritual disciplines for the molding of my person. I've listened to well-put-together sermons and gone to many fantastic conventions and sat through many Sunday Schools and Wednesday Nights, and those have aided me in my pursuit of God, but the times which really alter my soul and my being are the times where I stop trying to actively learn new things about God and let Him speak new things into me. Sadly, sometimes I get so worked up in the joy of increasing my knowledge of God that I forget all about stopping for a moment and listening to Him. 

I am a product of long drives and even longer walks - of minutes and hours alone in the stillness, waiting for God. As foolish as it may sound, the memories of those times are some of the most joyful memories I have, for it is in those times that God speaks into my troubles, my anxiousness, and my fear and calms it; it is in those times that God highlights my successes and my victories. I generally take more intimate encouragement from my quiet times with God than I do with my loud times with friends. My friends speak to my ears and my mind, but God speaks to my heart and my soul; God gets to take a shortcut and split me right down the middle and pick apart my innermost being. When I sit and am quiet before God, He reaches beyond my defenses and gets right to the issue at hand. He convicts, challenges, and encourages without taking any unneeded steps to get there. My community is a great supporter in my Christian walk, but there is nothing better or more necessary for a Christian than an intimate, two-way relationship with God.

What I'm trying to say is this: Even though you've got ten thousand things to do today and twenty thousand to do tomorrow, how much more important are they than your relationship with God? Next time you're driving alone, would you maybe think of flipping off the radio and just listening? When you find you have an extra half hour on your hands, would it be better spent on Facebook or listening to God? I'm not condemning anyone for not spending all their time quiet before God, obviously, but I do know that quiet time is something that I struggle to maintain. I really would encourage everyone who reads this to try and schedule just 10 minutes a day to isolate yourself and spend the time just listening. I know I've been amazed with how far I've come and what I've become through my quiet time with God.

A Ticking Clock

My time on this earth is not promised. I am favored to even be alive on the earth at this moment, and every second that passes by is a second in which we are all allowed to exist. God's grace is silently apparent to all who recognize this wonderful act, for as long as God continues to let his broken creation press on in their pursuit of him, more and more people are drawn to the truth of God and his unfathomable mercy and love.

So where am I going with this? Well, here's the thought that I'm thinking right now (though it's really late, and I'm probably just going off on an exhaustion-induced rant):

This life that I'm living, and this flesh that I exist in has never been insured against a sudden end or termination. I am living a life that can, at any moment, be snuffed out and go from exciting to extinct. I think a lot of people don't realize this, or prefer to conveniently look over it. I wonder how much differently people would act, speak, and think if they knew for a fact that they only had two hours to live. I wonder if they would have a different conversation with their friend in the car if they knew they were both going to die in a head-on collision in 30 seconds. I wonder if the husband would refrain from yelling at his wife if he knew she would die of a heart attack in 15 minutes. I wonder if parents would try to enjoy their kids more and kids would act a little better if they knew that their other family members were close to dying. Have you ever noticed that terminally ill patients seem to be treated so nicely by everyone they come into contact with? This makes me wonder one more thing.

Would I act differently as a Christ follower if I knew I was going to die in 24 hours?

Well, of course I would! I would go out and proclaim Christ on the streets! I would go and repair some broken relationships, forge some new ones, plant some seeds, and pull some weeds. I would try to set everything in order that I have for so long been putting off. I would pursue the attainment of harmony in my life before I passed.

So, then, I have to wonder something else: Why am I not living like that right now? After all, I've established that my time is not guaranteed, and my minutes' number is not known to anyone but God. I could die in my bed as I'm writing this post; I could die in 5 minutes; I could die in 5 decades; either way, one thing is certain: I will die. I have a very, very short time to live my life here on this earth, and I am beginning to get sick and tired of myself when I push things off or procrastinate. Honestly, I don't have time to procrastinate; We don't have time to procrastinate. I cannot afford to use my time for myself. My time belongs to God, and God is all about people. And if God is all about people, then that means that I, as a Christian, as a physical mirror of God, must be all about people as well. I must put aside all selfishness and proclaim the Gospel to those in need of it. I need to get down in the mud with people and speak Christ to them. I need to get out of my comfy bed and sleep on hard concrete floors if that's what it will take to bring someone to Christ.

My nervousness, embarrassment, shame, and awkwardness really don't mean anything, because I am not my own, I am Christ's. Everything I am - everything I do, say, think, and pray - needs to be dedicated to God and his purpose. I have a short 80- years to complete the task he has given me, and I'll need every second to do so. I honestly look at the decades I may have and I wonder how in the world I will be able to do all of what I am called to do. But I place my faith in Christ and in his unfailing grace. If he takes me today, he is good. If he takes me in 90 years, he is just as good. The lord takes us when he wills, but we do as much as we can before our end.

To A Nameless Love

Behold! A figure in the West!

Strong! Bold! Full of heart, empty of fear

Eyes as with fire from Hades, but cooled with calm from Poseidon

Her Will fortissimo, as rushing Alpine

Constant, unchanging,– a mountain in seas of reeds

But I could climb it, to see from Olympus’ peak

The utmost secret: her fashioned armor’s chink

Hark! A light in the East!

Lo! The second Sun!

Her Beauty trumps all else; squanders my clumsy tries

An earthquake my limbs, when mine meet her blazing eyes

Wisdom is gone! Learning has fled!

My thoughts are a tumble with her piercing my head

Were I a bird in the sky, climbing toward your radiance

That I may steal the Sun a glance but even for a moment!

Shout! A spirit from the South!

Full of life, empty of death!

In her there dwells no fury; her soul hath not rage

Her life is her stage; her death is a cage

Let no man resist her glee! Death to me thrice for to step on her joy!

Thirty pearls she wears when her twice-gleaming emeralds seize mine

All my wealth, my peace would I give to reach beyond her rhind!

Kneel! A queen of the North!

Fear! Love! See none but her!

Purity made bold; love so true; care seen pure

To stand 'fore is a lifetime; to touch her feet, an eternity!

I am no man before such greatness!

A bug on her tree - nay, a speck of black bark.

My whole life to achieve a fraction of her spark.

Alight! The four ways combine!

Here stands she, for whom you waited the time!

Whole being demanded, whole being I give

But to have you and hold you as long as we live!

Renewal, Redemption, and Restoration

Something that has been eating at my mind when I find myself otherwise unoccupied is the thought of how much focus I and others put on the negative. Whatever situation I am in, I often find myself recognizing what things are wrong with such a situation, overlooking what is good and emphasizing what is bad. I am characterized with a predisposition to test things and to determine whether or not they could be improved, instead of accepting them as they are and giving praise. This of course is two-sided, having one end where I am cursed, not able to shake the haunting recognition of the unsatisfactory, while on the other, I am able to use it to multiply the blessing to other people.

I feel that we often fail to realize the utter goodness of God. We spend our time wailing and feeling sorry for the starving children of Africa or the terrorist attacks or the broken families that we experience or the break-up that we just went through, without recognizing the efforts of God to teach us something or to call us to action. 

When my tire goes flat on my truck, I spend all my time regretting taking the road I did, because I would have missed the nail if I had gone a different route. Then my mind is taken up with making arrangements, fixing my car, paying for repairs, and then continuing my life unchanged. I have so often failed to see the effort of God in situations such as these! He is trying to teach me humility; he is trying to teach me patience; he is trying to teach me acceptance, forgiveness, and satisfaction. Who am I to be frustrated at God for the things he does to me? I have the believe that everything God works for is for Good; I praise him for that and look toward that when I am placed in a situation like this. 

Let us begin to see and find the good in things. This is not a call to optimism, but a call to realism. If you are a Christian, as I am, this ought to make perfect sense - with faith in Christ comes the realization that while everything is not as God intended it to be, the End will be. Everything that happens to us may not happen because God was the cause, but my God is a God of redemption, and he takes even the most broken and twisted things of Man and of the Enemy and reshapes them into purity, holiness, and love. 

This is where I place my trust: If my God can redeem even a man such as me, then he can certainly redeem the evils of this world and the actions of it.  

Purity

I was speaking this week with a group of friends about the subject of purity in our lives, and our reason and method of upholding it. The subject of relationships and how we are to go about them has been a hot topic in my mind recently. I've been putting some thought into just why I am trying to be pure. Is it for my future wife? Is it because I don't want to be a hypocrite? Is it moral? Ethical? Why exactly do I, do we as Christians, strive for purity?

Well, that's the key right there - "as Christians." Literally, "follower of Christ." As a follower of Christ, why do we strive for excellence, for blamelessness, for purity in our relationships? The first suggestion may be that  we must remain pure in order to become faultless before God in the end. We must eliminate from ourselves any form of impurity so that we may become pure in the sight of God. Purity is our means to attain an end, a goal, that being blamelessness before God.

However, in this discussion with my friends, we talked about a different option. We talked about how ultimate reason of our purity and the real goal of it should not be a "for" but rather a "because." I am trying to be pure because I have been made pure in Christ. I strive for cleanliness in my life because my life has been cleaned by the blood of the Lamb. At least in my life, staying pure in order to benefit my career and my future wife and my friends and my kids are all great reminders, but they are not reasons for it. I use the things that benefit from my purity as reminders that point towards the one and only real reason for my purity - that being Christ, and my new life that I have received. 

The old life is dead and gone. I must live a new live because my old life is gone. I really have no choice in the matter. If I am to continue being a Christian, I have no choice but to challenge the impure things in my life and to overcome them with this new Power. I am pure not in order to become a righteous man; rather, I am pure because I am a man who has been made righteous.

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." -- Romans 6:1-4

People - The most important thing

This next semester, I am going to be volunteering at LifeChoices Pregnancy Center, helping out with phone lines and hopefully eventually being introduced into the counseling side of the ministry. This has been a long time in the making, and I am very excited to get involved with this ministry.

I have a great passion for people. People are the most important thing in this world, and though I tend to hide it behind an unemotional face, I really do care a lot about every person in this world. It tears me up inside when I see girls and guys in broken, damaging relationships.

"Relationship" in and of itself is an area of life that I believe can be the most beneficial to everyone, as well as the most damaging. The reason why the Garden of Eden was so wonderful was not because the fruit tasted amazing or the weather was perfect or the animals were friendly - the reason it was a perfect place was because God was in direct relationship with His creation, man and woman to the point that they empirically experienced Him. Relationship can make a life perfect, but it can also make a life corrupt. Man was given perfection, but continually lowered his standards, and is now paying for it. Abuse, rape, incest - all these things are corruptions of the original perfection that was found in the Garden.

So then, what am I to do? My desire is to reintroduce Perfection into the broken relationships of people. This society is promoting freedom over perfection; by their standards, freedom is perfection. You can choose to have sex with whoever you want, so do it! You don't need marriage; you don't need chastity; you don't need commitment. Live a full life! This is the mindset that I see when I watch modern movies, listen to modern music, and examine modern relationships. It sounds appealing to lots of people - but then they wonder why these relationships are coming up short in their production of joy. For all the love they receive and all the people they sleep with and all the freedom they try out, they can't get rid of that empty feeling inside of them. My want, then, is to provide to these empty people the experience of the fullness that comes in Christ. I want to show them the freedom that comes from being subjected to Christ.

I want to be a helping hand and an open ear to people when they come to find healing. As a Christian, I am called to be a light to the world; as a caring person, I have a huge heart for these people. My current prayer is that God will use me to impact the lives of the people I will be in contact with in order to produce healing and, ideally, new believers.

Christmas Music - An Unacceptable Timeframe?

I love the Christmas season. I love being with my family, giving gifts, cooking wonderful food, and watching movies like A Christmas Story with it's classic "triple dog dare" scene:

 Christmas is a wonderful time where people's attention is rightly turned to the blessing of Christ and more praise is given to God through this time of observance. I have no problem with an annual observance of the gift of God to the world; just as there was a celebration of the "Passing Over" in ancient times, I think it is right for there to be a celebration of the "Coming Down" of Jesus to the world.

There is one thing, however, that I simply can't understand. I listen to "Christmas Music" all year round, partaking in my Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby and other artists who cover Christmas songs as a part of my typical listening music. Certainly, I listen to my Holiday music a little more when the Christmas season comes around, but throughout the year, I enjoy listening to it.

So my beef, then, is with the people who consider listening to Christmas music "out of season" a completely distasteful action. To them, apparently, it has to be "at least past Thanksgiving and not past New Year's Day"  in order to legally listen to Christmas music. When I tell them I listen to Christmas music all year round, I am met with disgusted faces and even condescending looks. Now, I couldn't care less about what they think of my music-listening habits, but my question to them is this: "Why am I, a believer in Christ, being met with disapproval by fellow Christians on the subject of my taste in music?" Is Christmas music heretical when not played in the Christmas setting? Was it originally agreed upon that this music should only be played at Christmas time? Really - what are you basing your claim off of? The claim that Christmas music should be limited to the Christmas season falls apart when it is removed from the context of social life. We think Christmas music should be limited to the Christmas season solely because society believes it. 

Why is it "distasteful" for people like me to celebrate the birth of Christ into the world every day instead of every December? I refuse to schedule my worship of Christ to an annual level - why is that unacceptable to some people? Contemporary music that celebrates Christ's resurrection is alright at all times, but music that sounds Christmas-y and celebrates His birth must be played in the Winter season. What? Show me biblical proof for that claim, and I will obey it.  

I realize that Christmas music isn't the only way to celebrate Jesus, and I'm not saying that every Christian does not every day appreciate Christ's birth into our lives (I myself often do not celebrate this gift, and even act contrary, betraying God's grace). I'm not even saying that listening to Christmas music only at Christmas is a bad thing. All I am saying is that the efforts to appreciate Christ by people who are of a like mind to me, and who listen to Christmas music year-round, should not be being met by opposition by fellow Christians; so then, my issue is not with the music, but with the heart of the people who disapprove of my listening habits.

Honestly, it's just music; why are we making such a big deal out of it? My listening schedule doesn't really affect my theology or the solidity of my faith; neither does yours, so why have we made it such an issue? I should not be having to get these thoughts of my chest - so what if I listen to Christmas music all year round? So what if you don't? I'm a Christian, and hopefully you are as well, so what is the big deal with this? 

What's the Gameplan Now?

All right, enough! I spent my maximum of 5 minutes reading political statuses on Facebook.


1. Complaining won't help
2. God is still here


So Obama may win this election. What are we going to do now?

Are we going to give up?
Are we going to sit down and pout?

I hope not...

Could we try praying, instead of complaining? I know a ton of you hate Obama(care), but could we try praying for wisdom for him instead of praying for hindrance? How much will this country benefit if all we do is pray that Obama will be stopped in what he is trying to do? Why don't we pray that God will begin to work in his life, and through that adjust his philosophy? Why don't we stop praying negative and start praying positive?

So our candidate didn't win. This too shall pass - this is a country, it is not eternal. Focus on what matters infinitely. People matter infinitely.

We do what we can with what we are given. If we are given a conservative president, we pray for him; if we are given a liberal president, we pray for him. It is that simple. I care for this country, and I care even more for its people, but this country will fall eventually. Whether when Christ returns or when the economy collapses and we are invaded, it will fall.

BUT, God remains in control. All we can do is trust Him and communicate with Him. Bigger powers than us are on the move here, but we have a direct connection to the biggest Power. Why don't we try inviting Him in to our troubles? Not to get what we want, but to get what He wants.

I understand people's concern about politics, and I myself got out and voted today because I care about our country, but as a Christian, I align myself not under a democracy, but under a theocracy, where God is placed in control of my life, and assumed and trusted to be in control of everything else as well.

Above all, my prayer is that His will be done.

Prayer

There are two very wrong ways in which we approach the subject of prayer. We either see it as an obligation, something that real Christians do on a daily basis, or we see it as a shopping list, where we ask God for our desires, assuming that a truly loving God would give his children the true desires of their hearts. A new car, an Iphone 5, a pretty girlfriend, a handsome boyfriend; we ask these things of God saying, "Here God, this is what I want. I know you're busy, and I know it's little, but give it to me, please."

The problem with our misconception is that it effectively places us at the center of our prayer, using God as a means-of-accomplishment for the things that we desire.

But here's the thing: God is going to do what God wants to do; you don't really have much of a chance of changing God's mind, especially if what you are praying for will not serve His calling to you. Prayer is not a convincing of God to do or not do something. Prayer is simply an agreement with God's will; "Your Kingdom come, your will be done." It is an invitation to God to work his "magic" in your life. God will do what God wants to do, but God will not do some things if you don't ask him. God is the ultimate gentleman, not in the sense that He will not intentionally do some major things in your life, but rather, that he will withhold Himself from some events if you do not send Him an invitation. I believe that God is sovereign enough to be able to limit His own power over you; I believe that if you leave God out of a decision or a situation, He will allow you to do so.

Prayer is our way of speaking to God; like any relationship, "communication is key." Do not expect your relationship with God to deepen and become rich if you are not in communication with Him.

You want God to move in your life in powerful ways? Invite Him.

You want God's will to be done? Agree with it. Let Him know.

You want God in you? Ask for Him.

There are five pillars to effective prayer. All five are necessary to see the most powerful results from your petition to God.

(This was taken from a workshop n the subject of prayer that I took from Simon Mbevi at the "Pray, Reach, Challenge" conference at Southeast Christian Church.

If you truly want to see God's will done, you cannot simply walk in and ask or even agree with Him. God calls His followers to a holy and pure life before they can taste the full richness of his kindness. You must adjust your everyday life before you can see results from your prayer life. We all are called to radical living so we can see radical change.

In the end, God's will be done. I pray so that perhaps I might be part of that will.

Girls... Guys...

I try my best to treat all girls with the same amount of care, regardless of whether or not I'm "interested" in them. Of course, though, I do take more steps to learn more about the girls that I like and do my best to get more involved in their life; at the same time, I also invite them to be more involved with mine as well. I've never dated anyone, but I do know the thinking behind a good and healthy relationship. I'm speaking mostly to girls here, but guys, if you're reading this, learn from it, and become the healthy, godly man that you were meant to be. Do that and have patience, and you'll find the perfect girl for you.

If you're a girl looking for a guy that is healthy and good for you, I would look for a guy that:
   
      1. Shows care to all girls, not just you
      2. Shows care to his family
      3. Doesn't "need" you
      4. Has physical, emotional, and spiritual boundaries
      5. Knows who he is and where he stands

In regard to number 1 and 2: You can basically judge how healthy a guy is by the way that he treats other people. If we have an interest in you, and we're not healthy, we will show you the best side of us, while unleashing our bad lifestyle whenever you're not with us. Girls, if your best friend comes to you and tells you she saw something unhealthy in your guy, don't believe her right away, but don't disbelieve her right away either. Look into it; there's a decent chance that she may be right. If a guy doesn't treat his friends or his parents or his brothers and sisters with respect, you can't count on him treating you with respect; once you enter into a relationship with him, you become just like them to him - a part of the broken, unhealthy family.

Oh, and an extremely important thing: DO NOT (I repeat) NOT, missionary date. Unhealthy relationships have much more power to pull you down than you do to pull him up. If he's not healthy, help him out, but don't date him.

In regard to number 3: There's one thing that I would warn any girl about; one sign of an unhealthy relationship is one where all the guy wants to do is spend time with you, and all you want to do is spend time with the guy. Fancy people call this "codependency", and it's extremely unhealthy. I've seen this happen and had it happen, and the relationship will fall apart, or at the very least be unhealthy in the end - every time, no exceptions. If you care about yourself, run from any guy who wants you to take part in a "highschool marriage" with him, where you are basically living like a married couple, spending all your time together, just without the physical benefits that come with marriage... *cough cough*

Anyway... yeah, run from a codependant guy. As my psychology professor says, "the longer a couple spends vertical, the more likely they are to end up horizontal." We guys are masters of convincing, and you girls are just the sweetest things. Have the courage to get out of a relationship if a guy is showing signs of codependancy. Because really, if you have the guts to say "no" to a bad relationship, you are so much more attractive to all of us healthy guys. I want a girl who would step out of an unhealthy relationship with me - it hold me accountable.

So, ultimately, here's what I would tell a girl who is wondering if a guy is interested in her:

Act like yourself.

We can tell when you're pretending to be someone you're not, and at least for me, that is a huge negative to any relationship. I want to see a girl for who she is, not for who I want her to be. Fancy people also call this "duplicity," where you are living one life, but have a "secret" life that you hide. This is also a killer, and I don't want it and won't have it in any girl that I would pursue. Act  like yourself, and if our personalities don't mesh, so be it; there are more guys for you, there are more girls for me. It's not the end of the world if we break up from a relationship that we've never been in.

I want to date a healthy girl, while also being a healthy man for her. I want a girl who has an interest in me, but would choose not to date me if she saw something unhealthy for her in me. I want her to be independant of me, able to stand on her own two feet, while at the same time, I want to synthesize our lives together in order to produce something fantastic.

Be yourself.

And just maybe, we can be ourselves together.

Desperation/Communication

I just finished attending the conference that just took place at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY; the title of this conference was Pray, Reach, Challenge, and it was based off of the new vision statement of Southeast. They have realized that they need to become not a church that prays, but a praying church.

They brought in Simon Mbevi from Nairobi, Kenya to speak on the subject of prayer and what it means; what it is. He effectively rocked all of our worlds both with his stories and his faith. Simon has literally changed countries with his prayer life - he has healed people, prayed up rain in a famine, and sat with presidents and popes simply to talk about his faith. He leads prayer meetings at 4:30 in the morning and (though he would certainly not tell you) fasts for months at a time for the sake of changing issues in the world today.

We are tempted to say, "Well, Simon is certainly a godly man, but I cannot achieve as much of a deep, spiritual, and intimate relationship to God as he has..." However, something that Simon said tonight removed that idea from my head.

He told us that we wonder why God doesn't do amazing things through us, and why our prayer lives are not where we would like them to be. He told us that the reason for all of this is that we have a lack of faith in God's power, and a lack of desperation for his presence. We must become desperate for God. So desperate that we will sell what we need to sell, do what we need to do in order to achieve his will. So desperate that we will sacrifice anything and everything in order to draw closer to him and prove our agreement with his will.

We in American culture have become far too self-dependant, to the point that we are comfortable with our request-by-request prayer life, and our S.O.S. communication with God, where we really only get into contact with him when we really need help. We will try all other options before we go to prayer; but Simon asked, why is it that prayer is our last resort? Why would we go to a doctor before we ask the Lord of the Universe for his healing? Why would we continue our lives as usual as we pray to God for a change? Why would we continue to depend on ourselves as we pray to depend on God?

Prayer, in itself, is an expression of humility; it is a forcing of yourself out of yourself. By praying for God's will to be done, whatever it may be, is a lessening of yourself and a glorification of God. Prayer is pride's biggest enemy, because it forces you to be God-reliant instead of self-reliant.

Think about it for a second - God, the biggest, greatest, and most high God in all of creation, can be reached simply on the turning of a word toward him. Does this not blow your mind? It is easier to reach God than it is to reach your best friend on the phone! The God who created the world wants to be in contact with you, and all you have to do is put aside a few minutes of time each day to talk with him, and through this, he will change your life, and the world through you.

We must make ourselves completely desperate for God's acting in our lives. So desperate, in fact, that we would place enough faith in him to begin acting on his response before we see it.

We stay in our house for one more week, though we cannot see the money showing up; we pray our friend would be healed, instead of preparing for when they are not. You want God to prove his care for you? Prove your care for him! Prove that you trust him enough to put yourself at risk for his sake.

How long will it take for us to become desperate? How long will we drive ourselves down before we reach for a hand? How long will we toe the line, say the prayer, and run in the wrong direction? Our prayer life must be aligned with our earthly life; what we pray for must affect how we live. Otherwise, in the same way that our faith without works is dead, our prayers will be found dead, having no foundation with no support if we do not place our full faith and trust in God's ability to answer our prayer.

"Our father who is in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

Smallest are Greatest

I'm on vacation with my family right now in Breckenridge, Colorado. I love going on this vacation every year not because I get a week off of school, or even that I get to rest in general, although those things are great aspects of taking this trip. The main reason that I so love Colorado is that I can walk outside and I can view God's landscape:

Such as at Lake Dylan,

Or looking out from my condo's patio,

These awing landscapes make one thing clear to me:

As great as I make myself, as much money as I get or whatever title I achieve in my future job, I will remain a speck compared to the rest of creation.

Seriously, I have a hard time accepting that people in the world can get so wrapped up in the concerns of their lives and their problems, and everything having to do with them, when they are but a raindrop in a downpour. It doesn't matter how fancy our electronics get or how many gigabytes we can store on one hard drive; it has no importance how fast our cars go or how far we can see into space; in the end, we are still so small compared to the work of God's hands.

"For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field" Psalm 103:14

"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" James 4:14

He who makes the sun rise and the earth spin; made heat and cold; light and dark; gravity and friction; He who left His mark on our bodies with Laminin, who limits our lives with genomes; who created genes and molecules and blood; He who created time and logic and thought and emotions... That this person, this Immovable Mover, would love me... that instills in me a God-given feeling of belonging.

Nothing else in this world can make me feel like I belong to someone like my relationship to God. The closest we can get is the intimate relationship between husband and wife, which in and of itself is a fogged mirror of the relationship that God offers.

Who else can unlock my heart as God does? Who else can look into my heart of hearts and understand what is going on? Who else speaks in the whispers of the winds and shows Himself in the sunrise? What other person would create a universe so expanse, and place a man, made in His image, on a single planet and use that man to work out His plan?

This, then, is the reason that I so love the outdoors and being alone in nature. When I sit in the quiet and view God's workmanship, I hear through the silence God's calling to me to come and belong. I find strength in silence not because I strengthen myself, but because I hear God's voice through silence and through the vision of His amazing craft.

So, the reason why I love going to Colorado or going out into the woods or sitting by a creek or taking a long walk is because each time I do, I come back with a renewed feeling that I belong to God.

When I am trampled by this world, I withdraw to a quiet place just as Jesus did; often times, I don't even pray, I simply quiet my voice, my mind, and my heart, so that I can listen to God.

Through these times, I am being transformed into a firmer reflection of Christ, which is all I desire for this life.

"Be Unto Your Name" by Gary Sadler and Lynn DeShazo:

We are a moment, You are forever 
Lord of the Ages, God before time 
We are a vapor, You are eternal 
Love everlasting, reigning on high 

Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty 
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain 
Highest praises, honor and glory 
Be unto Your name, be unto Your name 

We are the broken, You are the healer 
Jesus, Redeemer, mighty to save 
You are the love song we'll sing forever 
Bowing before You, blessing Your name 

The Testimony of Creation

Whenever I begin to lose the awareness of God's importance and magnitude in my life, there is one thing that continually reminds me of the awe-demanding power of God. Every time I observe the heavens - the clouds, stars, sun and moon - I am reminded of my utter smallness in the universe; I am reminded of my "cosmic specialness." That God would create a massive universe, the ends of which we have not discovered, despite our state of technology, and within that universe he would place a small planet, suspended in space, held in perfect harmony with the rest of creation so as to support the life of his children, is purely astounding to me.

I cannot look at the sky and convince myself that it all happened by chance. I cannot support than the 6 billion people on earth are here purely by accident. In the same way that I do not find a watch on the sidewalk and wonder "what elements had to combine to create this", but instead wonder "who's hands created such a marvel," I look upon the earth and the heavens and cannot fight my natural instinct to afford such a marvel to Someone's hands. The natural imprint of people (especially children) is to credit wonders such as creation to a Maker; I hear children ask "Who made the world."

The sun and the moon have worked more in my heart than many teachings or studies that I have observed. Silently, their light has moved my heart to much extent and has solidified much of my faith. When I look on the sun in the day, I am reminded of the blazing glory of the Creator, and how he cannot be contained or boxed in, for his power is too great; when I look on the moon, I am quietly humbled and reminded that my life may be small, but I have been called to fulfill a purpose great enough to be noticed by the Creator of the universe.

Regardless of how small I may be, how clumsy my words, or how broken my spirit, I know one thing: that I have been called to be a child of the great Creator, who crafted the universe to reflect his glory, and placed his children in a small part of it to rule. Who am I to reject this call? I, a little man on a small planet in a huge universe; one of 7 billion. I am not the smartest, or the strongest, or the wisest, or the holiest, but the Great Calling can be fulfilled by me, as well as every other person.

Great rewards await those who will answer the call.

Will you?

Continue the Pursuit

I am blessed as a pursuer of Christ to be surrounded by a group of brothers, sisters, and fellow believers who each possess an individual spark of every characteristic that I want to be known for when I become a leader; whether it be patience, kindness, clear-headedness, reliance on prayer, knowledge of the Scriptures, or any other of the multitude.

These people act as examples for me in that one specific area - they usually don't know it, and I usually don't tell them, but I look up to them secretly and silently. Those people may be reading this post, and if you are, then I deeply thank you for being the example that you have been, and I would encourage you to continue the fight and keep in it - for you stand as an example for many people (who you may never know about.)

Not only do I thank you, but I would give a commission: we who stand as examples must seek to refine each and every part of our lives in order to remain standing as a mirror of the One to come. For our example can be used by the Lord even without our conscious effort to bring both the lost and the believer closer to Him.

We do not know how many the Lord has affected through us, but I pray that we would never forget that it is not just the evangelism that we ourselves consciously do that affect the people around us, but also the unintentional testimony that is given through our lives. Lifestyle evangelism provides a solid starting base for a new believer to begin pursuing Christ, and it also gives fellow believers comradeship and encouragement while they run the race.

Pursue the Spirit and uphold a God-pleasing life in every aspect, for you do not know the number of those who are looking up to you.

Refined by Love

I think that as I am refined by God in my pursuit of His heart, my heart for His people is slowly being redefined and renewed. When I see a person making so many mistakes, and I can clearly see their drifting away, my heart breaks for them, and I see just a glimpse of the sadness that God has for His children.

The situation is made clearer to me every day - I see with greater shame the fact that God sent His Son to earth and went through the horror of tearing a piece out of the Godhead in order to save us. And yet, at the same time, I feel an equally strong feeling of thankfulness and love for this Father who loved me enough to do all of that. Every day, it seems like, I see or hear about another one of His children rejecting this amazing sacrifice and pursuing the world. Every time it seems to hit harder and deeper in my soul. I feel a terrible anguish for the people around me.

I am in the process of writing a paper for one of my classes. It is on the subject of Hell and its necessity, and how it can be balanced against the idea of a loving and caring God. As I study the horrors of Hell and the reality that is portrayed in the Bible, it further makes my heart cry for a change - I so desire for they whose souls (and bodies) will burn in anguish in a literal, eternal, dark fire for all of eternity for the simple reason that they could have, should have accepted the message of God.

I have always prayed for God to reveal Himself to me and to form me to Himself. I believe that He is beginning to do that - starting, perhaps, by creating in my a deep love for His people and a great longing for them to be reconciled to Him. I pray now that this would continue - that I would always be refined to greater purity and greater love, that I may show only a glimmer of the Light.