My Testimony

When I was six years old my church held a Vacation Bible School or VBS. A VBS is a week long event that some churches hold every summer for children. There are arts and crafts, games, competition, singing, and at the end of each night a sermon. At the end of each night the pastor of my church would get up in front of us and talk to us about the Bible and what it meant to us. Wednesday night was a special night of the week because my pastor would not only talk to us about the Bible but would draw us a picture using chalk. He was a very talented chalk artist. He picked a story out of the Bible and drew it out for us. He divided the canvas in half and on the top side he drew a castle shining with angels with wings flying around it. It was very beautiful and bright. A place anyone would want to vacation. On the lower half was completely the opposite of that. He drew flames licking the faces of people who looked to be burning and screaming. No one, as far as I was concerned wanted to go there. Then he turned off all the lights and drew something on the canvas that didn't show up. Then he turned the black light on and the words he wrote shown up. On the top he wrote heaven and the bottom hell. So he presented us with two places and said that Jesus lives in heaven and Satan lives in hell. They both want you to come and live with them, but you have a choice to make. He said that automatically we are going to hell because we are sinners; we have lied and cheated and done wrong. But, Jesus knowing we didn't want to go there made a way to save us from that place. All we have to do is believe in that way and we will be saved from hell. He made me see that night that I was a bad person and was going to hell and needed Jesus to get my out; be my Savior. My cousins were there with me and I was scared to accept Jesus as my Savior in front of them. The pastor asked everyone to close their eyes and the people who wanted Jesus to come forward. Despite my fear, I did. Someone took me to a room and read from the Bible the verses that tell me I am a sinner and need Jesus. Then I prayed to God asking Him to be with me throughout my life and when I die to take me to heaven and not hell. I asked Him to forgive me from all the bad things I have done. It was the best decision I ever made!

I'M BACK!

I got tired of blogging and took off for a year but now I'm back. My love for blogging was revived by a forced project in my Theology class :)

The things we do for football

This past weekend at LU we had our non-conference competition with JMU. I camped outside the football stadium with nothing but a tarp to lay on and a towel for a blanket. Did i mention? It was also raining...the whole night! I woke up at ten and stood in line, in the rain, until four thirty when they opened the gates. My friends and I took shifts for lunch. We ended making a "hobo dwelling" with the tarp over us and cardboard to sit on! Anyways, the gate opened and then had to stand in the rain for three more hours! The game started and the rain picked up. I was soaked from head to toe. Then the wind started to blow making it freezing cold. My body was rendered immobile. I couldn't move and I was having muscles spasms. After all that...LU lost :( It was the most miserable night of my life. All in the name of football :)

Methodology vs. Conviction

Over the past couple of days I have been thinking about the church and how it just "goes". Most of the time we don't even think about "The Why" behind the things we do and the traditions we incorporate into the Christian system of doing things. We tend to look at it as just a weekly mechanical process we are expected to do.
It's like knowing the why behind CPR. You know how to do it, but if you fail to realize the importance of it, someones life could be at stake. Someone could be dying and since you know how to do CPR you give it a try. You do it half heartily, placing your hands in the wrong position, sporadically giving mouth to mouth and then when you decide you've done enough you get up and go about your business.
Is that how we have begun to approach church? Have we failed to realize the importance of church discipline, communion, service, outreach, youth group, invitations, and counseling?
You see, if we do not understand the importance behind a concept we do not have a heart for it. Importance is the catalyst for commitment and commitment is the catalyst for passion. We need passionate people in the church who take their contribution to the body of Christ seriously and put their all into it. It involves conviction.
"Convictions are built, not by practicing the method, but by understanding the principle." - Walter Henrichsen (Disciples are Made not Born)
Without principle communion becomes a Sunday afternoon snack. Without principle door to door witnessing becomes healthy exercise. Without principle daily devotions becomes a chore, public praying becomes a speech contest, and the church becomes a business. Without principle worship becomes a popularity contest between bands. The principle behind what we are doing is very important to understand. We need to take time to think about what we are doing and research the why behind our actions. There is nothing wrong with tradition unless we do it only because we always have and not because we seriously think we are doing it to glorify God. Methodology should not be our focus, rather heartfelt convictions about why the church operates the way it does.
If we focus on methods we close our minds to new and possibly better ways of functioning. Why? Because change becomes a threat. We need biblical conviction back into our churches.

Satan is vanilla extract

okay so this randomly came to me:
Satan is like vanilla extract. He tempts you with the very sweet smell of fulfillment, but when you taste him you want to throw up :) Eph 4:22b

Origin of right and wrong: the unchangeable God.

"The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods." - Socrates
This is a quote from one of the dialogues of Plato. The only things we know about that great philosopher Socrates come his student's (Plato) writings about him. In essence, what Socrates is trying to ask here is this: Is something right because God wills it, or does God will it because it is right? The exception being he was referring to polytheism where I am referring to monotheism. This is a very mind boggling statement which I think I have the answer for. In my GNED 101 (Contemporary Issues) class we briefly hit on this dilemma.
Is something right because God wills it? This is the first of two questions Socrates presents. Well if that is true then God decided what is right and what is wrong. Let's take the issue of rape. We would all probably say that is definitely a sin and is a wrong action to commit. What if God decided it was right though? What then? This approach makes it sound as if God arbitrarily decided what was right and wrong. I t sounds as if God just reached into a hat and pulled out the answers and left it to chance. I believe this is not the nature of God. I believe God is a God of order and preciseness. Ecclesiastes 3:14 it says Gods plan are thought out and permanent and we cannot mess with them.
The second question posed was "Does God will it because it is right?" This question almost readily implies that God is subservient to another cosmic force. God is all powerful and does not answer to anyone else as to what is right or wrong. Psalm 97:9 says "For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods."
If, as you have figured out, I believe neither of these questions are the right answer, then what is?
Here is my answer. I believe what is right ultimately originates in the unchanging character of God. God himself is right and cannot sin or do wrong and it has always been that way. The most profound definition of righteousness is God himself. Look at Mal 3:6 where it says "For I am the Lord, I change not..." and in Psalm 145:17, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." Hebrews 13:8 captures this unchangeable aspect of God. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."

Unpleasant Lunch Buddy

So today I went to the rot to eat lunch. The rot is what we students here at LU call the dining hall. I sat at this table with a guy I knew expecting to have a nice enjoyable lunch. Was I wrong or What! A buddy of a buddy of my buddy (ha ha) was one of those guys who just likes to hear himself talk. Don't those people just get on your nerves?! He made it a point that the topic of every one's speech was going to be about theological debates. He would start off with a general statement about Christ and wait for a response. As soon as someone would say something he would attack them with his "mumbo jumbo". He was really cocky too. He would say statements like "name a book of the Bible and I can tell you everything there is to know about that subject in there." I do not doubt that the guy was smart, but obnoxious.
He wasn't using his knowledge to glorify Christ, but to cause strife and upheaval amongst other Christians. There is nothing wrong with the pursuit of knowledge and I believe there is a place for people with good debating skills. The defining question is therefore this: "What is your motivation for gaining that knowledge?" My observation today led me to the conclusion that this guy was just out to cause strife and chaos and in the process make himself look smart. Is that glorifying to God? Also, I know for a fact someone sitting at that table is struggling with doubting their salvation. Do you think that that display of arrogance and representation of Christ was helping him with his struggles? I think not.
We need to be careful as Christians to not hinder Christ's work in the lives of other Christians by arguing amongst ourselves and attacking each other. I think it would be a far better use of our time to encourage, build up, exhort, and edify each other in the body of Christ.