Christianity

Matthew 28:6

New International Version (NIV)

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

You know what drives me nuts? Crazy Christians. Of course, you might be thinking, "Well Gabrielle, you spend hours writing about Jesus and reading the Bible every day. You are the definition of a crazy Christian." Alright, you have a point there. In that sense, I am a crazy Christian. I love God, I love going to church, and I love the Bible. However, that's not really crazy to me.

What is crazy to me though, is claiming to believe something that you know nothing about.  Please allow me to explain. In high school, I remember having class with an agnostic and a Christian who would regularly discuss their beliefs. On several occasions, I remember my agnostic classmate asking my Christian classmate why she's Christian. Each time, my Christian class mate would say, "Because I believe that Jesus died on the cross to save my sins." Thus, my agnostic classmate would ask my Christian classmate why in the world she would believe that. The only thing my Christian classmate could respond with was, "Because I'm right."

I'm sure you can tell based on this conversation alone how strong this girl's faith was, and I applaud her for that. Nonetheless, I don't think that sort of discussion gives Christians any kind of credibility as far as their beliefs go. Christians need to know why they believe what they believe for multiple reasons: to strengthen their own relationship with God, to bring others to Christ, to reduce the chances of experiencing doubt. Knowing why you are a Christian is terribly important.

To help Christians understand why they are Christian, I could go on to discuss the Kalam Cosmological Argument in which something (as in the universe) cannot come from nothing, so there must be a being of some sort greater than the universe to create it. I could also go on to discuss Occam's Razor, explaining that the simpler explanation of the universe being created by something (or someone) is far more likely than it just happening on its own. Still, believing in God doesn't make a person Christian, for many, many religions believe in some sort of god. I could go on to describe the Bible and how archaeologists have evidence that prophecies dealing with the nations (such as the destruction of Edom and its capital city of Petra) were written down many years before they were fulfilled, proving that they were not falsified documents but the actual Word of God. Once again though, the Bible isn't really what makes Christians Christian (for the Jewish Tanakh is, in essence, the same as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.)

Since neither God nor the Bible sets Christians apart from other religions, I feel that it is appropriate to throw out a few facts about Jesus. I'd rather not waste time trying to prove the existence of Jesus Christ, considering the abundance of nonbiblical evidence proving his existence, but if you can't take my word for it, feel free to look it up. There is more evidence that Jesus Christ walked the earth than Julius Caesar. Instead, I would like to point out that out of all the many people who have claimed to be the Messiah throughout history, Jesus Christ is the only one whom people still follow and worship 2,000 years later.  Also, Jesus is the only Messiah who has fulfilled EVERY messianic prophecy of the Old Testament (see Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, or view a full list here.) In addition to this, hundreds of people admitted to seeing Jesus after he had already died, verifying that he rose from the dead. I could go on all day, but I think you get the point.

When Christians are unsure of why they believe what they believe, Christianity as a whole looks crazy. Plenty of evidence proving our faith exists, we just have to make the effort to look into it.  C.S. Lewis, a former atheist, set out to prove Christianity false and ended up becoming a believer himself. After his religious transformation, Lewis said, "A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."  Simply believing in God because "it feels right" is great, but there comes a point where we must dig deep into our faith and make sure we fully grasp what we are believing.

Therefore, inform yourself with the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and walk confidently knowing that our God is very real and very alive.

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Greed

Luke 12:34

New International Version (NIV)

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Isn't it funny how a couple thousand years after Jesus' time, we still struggle with the same issues he talked about back then?  The work place today generally consists of, in my opinion, many people who are trying to move up in their industry. No matter what the job is, we always want bigger and better; we are rarely satisfied with where we stand. We work our whole lives trying to get a bigger office, better pay, and a nice retirement fund.

When we put more of ourselves into our making money and moving up in our work place than we do working on our relationships with God, though, God becomes dissatisfied with us.  All throughout the bible, we hear that we should not have idols; what we sometimes fail to realize is that money can oftentimes act like an idol for us.  We put so much attention into making more of it that we fail to give God the attention He desires from us.

In Luke 12:13-21, we hear about a rich man who acts in this same way.  This is how it goes:

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” ¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ ¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Yikes! That's embarrassing. I'd seriously hate to be called a fool by Jesus. My favorite line in this passage is verse fifteen. "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed."  What different types of greed can you come up with?  Most people associate "greed" in their minds with money; however, I believe Jesus is implicating in this passage that people can become greedy of all sorts of items. 

The dictionary definition of the word greed is an "intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food."  It goes beyond just those items, though. If I am always dissatisfied with the amount of electronics I have, and I consistently want the biggest and best on the market, that's greed.  Any desire can turn into greed if we seek it before we seek God. 1 Corinthians 6:10 states, "Nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Now, I do believe that even they can be saved by grace through faith, but can you understand the severity of that sin?

The desires of this world are meaningless in the next. Jim Elliot once said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Therefore, instead of investing in worldly things that will not last, invest in heaven. Invest in a relationship with your Lord and Savior. For God is everlasting, but the things of this world will perish.

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In Everything

Ephesians 4:6

New International Version (NIV)

[There is] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

 

Once upon a time, my little sister read a book called The Shack by William Young. I hear it is a very controversial book; some people love it and others think it's heresy, whatever that means. Personally, I haven't read it, but I know that it is possible to get some good insight out of it (whether the book itself is good or not) based on the conversation I had with my sister after she read it.

I'm not quite sure how the conversation came up. She was probably listing her favorite parts of the book or something like that, but either way, she ended up explaining something to me. She said, "Some people think that their life is like a pyramid of priorities and that God should be at the top." Of course, at this point, I was definitely one of those people. I nodded my head vigorously, and told her that's how it should be. God should be the most important thing in our lives, and then probably family, followed by school, friends, and so on and so forth. My sister was very patient with me as I said this, but she told me she wanted to show me a passage from The Shack for a moment. The following is what she showed me:

“Mack, I don’t want to be first among a list of values; I want to be at the center of everything. When I live in you, then together we can live through everything that happens to you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of a mobile where everything in your life — friends, family, occupation, thoughts, activities — is connected to Me but moves with the wind, in and out, back and forth, in an incredible dance of being.” “And I,” concluded Sarayu, “I am the Wind.”

In this passage, Mack is the main character, Sarayu is the Holy Spirit, and Jesus is the one speaking.  In short, my little sister had just schooled me. She's right. God doesn't want us to prioritize our lives with God first, then family, then friends, and so on, as if God is kept separate from family and friends and such. Rather, he wants to be in it all. He should be in our friendships, our occupations, our thoughts -- He shouldn't be kept separate and above it all, but involved in everything.

For this reason, the word "secular" can become obsolete. Think about it; we use the word to distinguish the religious aspects of our lives from our nonreligious aspects, but God calls us to involve Him in EVERY aspect of our lives. Does that mean we should only hang out with Christians, listen to only Christian music, watch Christian movies, read nothing but Christian books, and only wear "church clothes?" Actually, I think it means the exact opposite. I think we need to learn how to see God in the secular music as well as the Christian music. We should notice the emotions and complexities that are in secular movies and books that God has given humans. We should look for the good that God has placed in the hearts of people, even if they aren't Christian. God created the world and everything in it; thus, even secular things have characteristics of God showing through them.

When you involve God in every situation and circumstance in your life, God can help you through your times of sadness and laugh with you through your times of joy. It really is a wonderful exercises to not only involve Him in all that you do, but strive to see Him in everything around you. When you live your life with Christ, involving Him in all that you do, your life changes drastically. Your life can go from being centered around your priorities, to being centered around Your Lord and Savior.

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A New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31–34

NKJV

31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Oh my goodness, did anyone else get chills after reading that? The new law is not like the old law in the sense that we have to do do do do do in order to be right with God. Instead, Jesus did and now it's done. Don't get me wrong, we still have commandments to follow, but this time, the consequences are different if we mess up. When we fall short and make mistakes, God won't tear apart our country; He will forgive us and forget our sins.

One of the strongest examples that we see right away of the new covenant is when a woman is caught in an act of adultery in John 8.  The Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus to tell him that this woman was caught in adultery, and Moses' law says she should be stoned to death. What will He do about it?

Jesus responds by saying (pay attention; this is the good part), "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Of course, none of the Pharisees were without sin, so they all walked away, one by one, until no one was left but Jesus and the adulteress. Then, Jesus asks the woman (as if he didn't already know) where they all went. Did no one condemn her? After she informs him that no one condemned her, Jesus said, "Then neither do I condemn you.  Go now and leave your life of sin."

That is the new covenant. Not that we shall disregard God's commandments, but that when we mess up, God forgives us and allows us to walk away from sin. When Jesus came to this earth, he fulfilled the old law (Matthew 5:17) because we weren't strong enough to follow the old law perfectly ourselves.

Romans 8:1-4 states "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. "

The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, but when Christ came to us, we no longer needed a tutor (Ga 3:24-26). The fact that we are under a new law, however, does not mean we have no rules to follow. In fact, when Jesus came to fulfill the law, he raised the bar in many ways by giving us new rules to follow. Now, instead of trying to get away with loving our friends and hating our enemies, we have to try to love our enemies as well (Matthew 5:44). Instead of not committing adultery, we are instructed to not even look lustfully at a person (Matthew 5:28). We still have rules and standards for our lives; the difference is that when we fall short, Jesus can bring us the rest of the way. To look deeper into this subject, I really recommend reading Matthew chapter five.

Therefore, let us thank God for sending His son to fulfill the old law, and providing us with a more forgiving, new law. In what ways does the "new law" affect your life? As you ponder this, please feel free to leave any insight or questions in the comments box below. I'd love to hear from you.

 

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God's Mystery

Isaiah 40:28

New International Version (NIV)

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

 

Lately, although some may think I'm too old for this, I've been reading a book series called The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. The irony about these books is that they are intended as childrens' literature, but quite frankly, they are written with so much symbolism; most children are too young to understand it all themselves. One of the strongest symbols in the entire series is a lion named Aslan.

At the very end of the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan appears to Lucy and Edmund (two of the main characters) as a lamb. The lamb feeds the children a full meal of fish and talks to the children about "Aslan's country," for although Aslan watches over Narnia (and all of the other countries and worlds), he is not from there. As he talks with them, he transforms into his lion shape so that the children can recognize him as Aslan. When the children ask Aslan if he will tell them how to get into his country from our world, he says:

"I shall be telling you all the time, but I will not tell you how long or short the way will be; only that it lies across a river. But do not fear that, for I am the great Bridge Builder."

Wow! I'm not even going to try to get into all of the symbolism on that little page, because there's just too much there to cover in one blog entry. I will point out, however, that Aslan is symbolic of Jesus; he not only appears as a lamb, feeding the hungry with fish, but he also mentions that he is "the great Bridge Builder." He has made a way for us to get to "Aslan's country," or the place that we call heaven.

More important than what Aslan says, however, is what Aslan doesn't say. Throughout the entire series, those who encounter Aslan get to know pieces about him and his character, but there are still always questions remaining. The same way goes for God. In Isaiah 40:28, we learn (or are reminded) that our Lord is everlasting, doesn't grow tired or weary, and created the ends of the earth. Nonetheless, we are also told that no one can fathom his understanding; there are aspects of God that we cannot hope to comprehend at this point. He leaves us so many mysteries -- some meant to be discovered and others not meant for us to know.

The fact that he only gives us some information, however, amplifies the importance of said information. Since he leaves some questions answered, we can infer that the questions he does answer are of great importance to us. The things he tells us about himself are things we need to know. Here is a very short list I found on Pinterest:

There's so much more than just this little list though. He loves justice (Isaiah 61:8); He is to be feared (Acts 10:34-35); He is the rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield, stronghold, and horn of salvation (Psalm 18:2). I think that sometimes people struggle with taking it all in; we want God to make complete and total sense to us, and thus be either something to fear OR something to love. We cannot fully comprehend that God is complex, and doesn't fit into any type of stereotype we build for him.

The best way to learn about God's character is to read about it in the book that He breathed. Flip through the book of Psalms and learn about how His power and love. Glance through the books of the prophets and see God's idea of "tough love." Pick up the New Testament and hear about His mercy and compassion. How can you give God the praise He truly deserves if you don't know who He is or why you're praising Him?

Therefore, get to know your Father's character so that you can know why He is so praiseworthy; trust that some mysteries God can handle without us knowing every aspect of them.

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Thoughts

Philippians 4:8

New International Version (NIV)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

As a teenage girl, I spend way too much time on social networking websites. Twitter, which I've spent quite some time on, has this cool little feature where you can see what topics are "trending." In other words, I can see what the world, or the United States, or even my own city has been "tweeting" about. Currently, my little trend box is set to see the trends of people in the United States.

This is the little box I'm talking about. After reading through the list, I was caught off guard by the fourth trend on the list: #PornHasTaughtMe. The fact that people think porn can actually teach them anything other than how to ruin future relationships is truly scary.

Philippians 4:8 instructs us to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. Quite frankly, porn doesn't fall into any of those categories. It certainly isn't true; many if not all aspects of it are exaggerated. It's not noble, pure, lovely, or admirable. In fact, if most people were to meet a porn star, I'm under the impression that they would not admire them for their noble career choice. I may be sounding like a harsh crazy Christian here, especially considering the fact that I'm talking about something I don't have much personal experience with, but I don't need experience with porn to know that it isn't what God wants for our lives.

In an article written by Rebecca Hagelin in The Washington Times, Hagelin discusses the destructive harm that occurs when people become addicted to porn. "So what’s the harm? Dr. Hilton’s article explains how the production of the natural and powerful hormone oxytocin, which occurs during sexual encounters, helps us form emotional bonds with our mates. Dr. Hilton writes, 'We are wired to bond to the object of our sexuality.' In the case of the pornography user, the sexual side of the user, 'becomes, in a sense, dehumanized.' Many develop an 'antisocial lust devoid of most values' and the high they get from pornography 'becomes more important than real-life relationships.'"

That's code for "pornography can literally destroy relationships." God doesn't give us commands because he doesn't like us or because he wants us to live boring, miserable lives. Rather, he gives them to us to protect us. Sometimes, hurt is unavoidable in the world; we can't control other people's actions that negatively impact us. Nonetheless, there are some hurts and pains that are avoidable, and God desperately wants us to avoid them! His commands are "How to" instructions on how to avoid that sort of pain.

All of God's commandments follow this pattern. We might hate the fact that God commands us to avoid certain activities that the world tells us is fun, but we have to trust that God knows what he's talking about. Actions in life have consequences; sometimes the consequences are great, and sometimes they sting like a slap in the face. Sometimes, the consequences don't show up until many years down the road. If we follow God's instructions for us, then when the consequences finally happen, we won't have anything to worry about.

Don't get me wrong; my intention isn't to condemn those who have struggled with pornography, or any other sin for that matter. Sometimes, it isn't easy to follow God's instructions. I know I have made my fair share of mistakes. However, why would we continue in that behavior when God gives us hope for a better life?


Therefore, let us be thankful that we have a Father who loves us enough to give us these instructions; trust that, although they may be hard to follow at times, they are truly for our good.

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