The Hard Questions.

There are certain questions that most churches don't always address; the questions that are controversial or risque. These questions are sometimes avoided due to their nature but they need to be addressed at some point. As Christians we sometimes forget that our faith and relationship with God still needs to look at the topics that we struggle with. Topics like the hard side of our faith, an honest look at our creation, and sex in the eyes of God. All of us have talked about these things at one point in time or another but have we really dug down to the core of them and been honest with ourselves?...

FAITH:
Jesus tells us in Mark 9:43-47: :

"43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.[a] 45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.[b] 47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,"

When He says these things they are meant in a figurative sense. If they were meant literally, we would all be blind and missing limbs. They are given as a metaphor that we should all avoid sin to this extent. Despite the fact that this verse says we should just remove and avoid these situations in our lives, I believe that God puts challenges in our lives to overcome, NOT to run from. If we are faced with a test in school that is hard, we must complete it to the best of our ability rather than avoid it, so how are our tests from God any different? If God were to put these tests in front of us and we were to run from and avoid every one of these situations what would that prove? Where would we be in Gods eyes if we skipped class every time where we were faced with challenges?

Science:
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide."

I was reading a website that gave some interesting insight on the topics of science in relation to our religion. I wanted to take some quotes from the site (including the one above). The author of this work said: "I think that science is a noble endeavor. We honor the Creator when we study His creation." Meaning that our study of our world is an honor to Gods work. God created our world and everything we know so why wouldn't we want to study it? I also believe that many people take this too far and start making assumptions about what we study. God never wanted us to make assumptions from His creation. For example: Just because He created all living creatures both large and small, and gave us the ability to adapt/evolve to our situations does NOT mean that we evolved from single cell organisms. Yes God did give us the ability to assess our situation, make necessary changes, and continue on in the best manner, but that does not mean that we evolved from primates (or any other creature for that matter). Albert Einstein said, “Science without religion is lame, and conversely religion without science is blind.” This is SO true. As a major of science I can see where there are just to many things in our world that are beyond our understanding. It is not our place to understand everything about our world. If it was, we would already know how to predict the future, solve energy and food crisis, and could travel to heaven and back whenever we wanted. God is the ONLY one that is to know these answers. If we were given these answers it would be the same thing as cheating on His tests.

Sex:
I am going to quote the same site from earlier as I don't think I could word it better myself:

"Let’s give credit where credit is due. Sex was God’s idea. Sex is a gift from God. Are there parameters? Absolutely! It is a gift from God to be enjoyed by a husband and a wife in the context of marriage, and in that context it is a gift, a beautiful thing, a good thing and we ought to celebrate it. God never gets any credit for that. Why? Because the enemy has corrupted it, and it is because the misuses and abuses in our culture are ruining people’s lives. But the truth is, it is a good thing, it is a God thing."

This quote is really self explanatory; be happy that God gave us these gifts to enjoy, however be sure to enjoy them at the APPROPRIATE times! Just like any gift we are bestowed with, the same rules apply; enjoy them only at the appropriate times, in moderation, and treat them with respect. Do NOT abuse our gifts from God! Do NOT take advantage of them! If we are serious about being responsible Christians we need to also be responsible adults and act as such. Being a Christian means showing our dedication through our actions, not just our words. Talk is cheap and actions speak louder. Try your best to set the example rather than follow someone else's.

Teaching at The Crossing.

This happened a few weeks back at church and I told a friend about it, they thought I should post it into my blog:

I was teaching the childrens class at The Crossing today (I teach the 5 year olds), when we went to take them to the group class where all the children meet, this little girl jumped in my lap as soon as I sat down. She looked up at me and said "Will you hold me?, I don't feel good." I thought it was cute and I replied "yes of course I will hold you." As the kids watched the skit I was not sure if she was paying attention (she seemed very tired and her eyelids kept fluttering). The skit told about how Christ put love in the heart of the Samaritan to help a Jewish man that was injured after a robbery. As the skit finished I gathered up the kids and held the girls hand as I walked her back to her class. She looked up at me and said "those other people were not nice (referring to the people who didn't help the injured man) but I liked the Samaritan, he helped the man because Jesus told him too." When she said that, I really felt God working not only in her life, but through her to me. When I see Gods works it is a neat feeling. It is really unlike anything else in this world.

Long Time Caller, First Time Listener

I came home yesterday stressed out from the day just wanting to relax and talk to someone. I decided to spend my evening with God. Learning to spend time with Him is new in my life, in the past I have always tried to reach out and talk to humans. I am starting to see where God is always there to listen no matter what. Despite that we can communicate with God easier than anyone else in the world, it is still hard to wrap your mind around speaking with Him. Once I realized that He was there listening, I decided to think of Him as a person that was always by my side, that I could communicate with through telepathy. It sounds silly, like a kid with an imaginary friend, but its true. God is right there with us every second of every day of our lives. Mathew 10:30 says: "For the very hairs on your head are numbered." If God is keeping track of each hair on your head, don't you think He hears you talking to Him?

Last night I wanted to really make sure God was hearing what I had to say to Him. I was thinking about all the ways I could communicate with God when the idea came to me to send Him a text message, again silly but I did it anyway. I got out my phone and entered 000-000-0000, (by the way thats His phone number if you didnt know ;), careful who you go giving that out to). I entered what I wanted to say to Him, and sent it.

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As absurd as the whole idea was, it helped me come to terms with how easy He is to talk to. I was not trying to "humanize" God or disrespect Him, it was more to help my brain see that I could just talk to Him through thought. While there are many ways to speak with God, you must back up your words to Him with your actions for Him. Asking God for forgiveness then going and doing that sin again is not right. God wants us to ask for forgiveness, learn from our mistakes, then move forward with that knowledge. Talking to God isn't just asking for forgiveness or for things in our lives. We should thank God, pray for others, and just ask Him everyday questions that we have in life. He is there for every thing we might have no matter how large or small.

P.S. Thank you God for answering my prayers :)

Back to Trust.

I wanted to return to the topic of trusting in God as I have some new understanding on the topic. Over the past few months I have noticed a reoccurring theme in my life where God feels most present in my life in the mornings for the most part. As the day progresses and evening falls, I feel Gods strength leaving me. I suspect this is my mind growing tired as the day goes on, or possibly the devil trying to grab ahold of me, or a combination of the two. In the evenings is when I doubt, fear, and worry the most. I see where this is not the right thing to do. A friend told me: "Doubt and fear are from the devil; hope, faith, and peace are from God." This makes sense to me. I have learned that instead of trying to reach out to others when we go through a time of crisis, it serves us well to reach out to God. Using His help we are able to overcome these problems on our own. Learning to hold Gods strength in my life is trusting in Him. Whenever I am going through a rough time and go to reach out to someone, I stop myself and say "wait, is this something I can deal with on my own." God is helping to give me strength to do this.

There is a Veritas Bible study coming up this week that I am looking forward to. the topic is doubt. I may have to come back and add to this later but I'll share it for now.

In Tune With God

On the drive back home this past Sunday night I was listening to a radio station that I found in Kansas City called K-Love, a Christian radio station. As I was driving down the highway, the station started to fade out slowly and in its place a hard rock station of some sort. The stations kept fading back and forth as I traveled, for some reason it popped into my mind that it was symbolism for the fight between good and evil. I know it is just a radio station, but the Christian music would fade to horrible heavy metal and back again. I don't think I could have found a better metaphor. I took this with a grain of salt as I continued to drive until I came upon a billboard that said: "XXX Nude Girls". A rather offensive billboard, evil and sin is represented by it. I started to see more of them as the drive went on, then a billboard for a church, then one for the Humane Society. A reoccurring theme was presented of good and evil bombarding me as I went on my way. Aside from the blatant instances of good vs. evil in our lives, there are so many subtle ones that we unintentionally filter out everyday. Violence, cursing, lust, greed, envy; all these things are forms of sin. Our minds learn to block these things out around us. Does this mean we are turning a blind eye to sin, or just accepting that we don't have the power to change everything around us? What does God think of this 'filtering' process we do?

Psalm 27:13 says:
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

I think this tells us that we should focus on Gods works in this world, not take them for granted. As far as the bad things surrounding us; I have talked to other people on this topic and have heard consistently that the only thing we can truly change is ourselves. Just because we are in this world does not mean that we are of this world or have the power to change all the things around us. We may filter out those bad things because we cant change them, but we can change ourselves and not contribute to those things. God does not expect us to fix everything, that is his job, however he does not want us to create more things to fix. Do not contribute to sin or Gods laundry list of things that need to be "fixed". Instead learn to set an example of Him through our actions, hopefully this will rub off on others along the way.

"East of Eden"

The larger topic I have been working on still isn't quite ready so I thought I would jot down my thoughts on tonights Veritas bible study topic. The topic was disappointment in our lives. Genesis 2:8-17 talks about the garden of Eden and sets up for Genesis 3:23-24, where God kicks man out of the garden of Eden for eating the forbidden fruit. Now that we as people are forced to live in this world rather than a utopia, we are continually disappointed and discontent. The overall focus of the bible study was to try to learn to accept things the way they were, learn to look forward to God bringing back our utopia rather than trying to create it ourselves, and not having false hopes for this world.

The leader of Veritas mentioned that we were continually trying to make things better, to recreate our Eden. This made me think that rather than trying to recreate our own utopia, we should allow God to work through us to try to create someone else's utopia. If we try to help others who may not be as fortunate as us, they may feel that it makes all the difference in the world. While only God can create true utopia, it should not stop us from trying to use His strengths in what we do. No matter what disappointments we have in this life, how hurt we are, or what losses we must endure through, God will help us through it. We must not forget to serve God in the present despite our condition.