Faith Does Not Exist In A Bubble

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. - Matthew 28: 19 - 20

As Christ followers in America, we tend to ignore the Great Commission given to us by Jesus. We go about our daily lives, scarcely giving thought to the eternal destinations of those around us.  We pray and try to live righteous lives, as we should, be we neglect one of our main purposes.  Yes, we are undergoing the process of sanctification and will be doing so for the rest of our lives.  That, however, is not the only reason we’re still here.  God is ready to use us to reach the lost of the world, because he loves each and every person he has created.  We should be living our lives as a shining example of his love, treating each other with kindness and love.  Even then, there are times when we should all step out of our comfort zones and actually talk about Jesus.  Admittedly, this is something I find intimidating.  It is something that has been sorely lacking in my life, but I have been hoping to change that.  For starters, I am currently reading Good News for a Change: How to Talk to Anyone about Jesus by Matt Mikalatos.  I am still early in the read, but it has been interesting so far.

The life of a Christ follower should not be lived in a bubble.  We are not simply the followers of some religion whose requirements we can appease on our own.  I don't particularly care for religion.  I don’t care what religion you are, and neither does God.  Jesus actually has a lot of criticism for “religious people.”  Instead, what God wants is followers, not dogmatic people blindly and ritualistically going through the motions, but earnest followers who want to be in close fellowship with him, because they choose to be.  Religion is about rules, but that's not really what God is concerned with.  He is looking for relationship, and for his people to be his tools to spread the good news of Jesus to the world.  This is about reconciling people to God and saving their souls.  If we look at it as anything less than that, we risk minimizing our efforts and reducing our effectiveness.  We need to talk about Jesus because people need to hear it.  People need Jesus.  We all need him. He is the son of God, sent to defeat sin and death for all time.  The truth must be spread, because the cost of silence is far too great.  Everybody around us is a child of God, and God is seeking to return all his lost children to him.  That is what life is truly about.  Anybody simply looking to “convert” people or win an argument is missing the point. It’s not about numbers. It’s about real people with real lives who need real help, who are at real risk of being separated from God forever.

We each have a faith journey that we are walking, and we are all at different points on that journey.  However, we can all be used by God to further his kingdom and reach the lost.  Why would we want to live in a bubble when there is so much at stake?  God can do amazing things through the faith of his people, but if your faith is so limiting that it is only about you, then how powerful can it really be?  God is a deeply personal god, yes, as we all have come to him on different paths, and he met us in different places and in different ways. But that doesn’t mean it’s private. In fact, if something in your life has made such a significant difference, why would you want it to be private? Is opening up the book of our life not worth the potential that other people could experience the same great changes that we did? Is our privacy worth keeping others from experiencing grace?  It’s not about your rights or your privacy or your comfort. It's about Jesus.  It's about love.  It’s about truth.

[to be continued...]

Logic

I've heard atheists say before that no rational person would believe in a God. They say theists believe in a higher power because they want to believe there is more to life than this Earth. They say that only the unwise would truly think there is a great being in the sky watching over us. They say Christians are illogical and unintelligent, for how else could they believe such foolishness? They call them delusional, senseless people.

I know I live in a world where some people look down on me for what I believe, but I don't really care. I don't believe what I believe because it makes me look a certain way to the world, nor do I believe it because it makes me feel a certain way. I don't believe it due to a desire for peace or contentment. While an atheist may read this and still think I'm delusional, I believe in a God due to something they believe Christians to be incapable of: logic. For even if I had not had "God moments" throughout my life, where God made his reality obvious to me, there would still be the underlying fact that I find the idea of this universe having no God to be completely illogical. It makes no sense.

The theory that this universe created itself is illogical. No matter how many millions and billions of years you go back, there has to be an ultimate origin. We could talk specifics of the Big Bang, evolution, and other scientific theories. Yet such things are mere details, for if this universe is merely physical, then it must have a beginning. If it has a beginning, there must have been a time when there was no universe. If there is no universe at all, there is no matter, there is nothing in existence to take its progression to the next step. It is illogical to think that the universe sprouted from nothingness into something. There must be something more, something higher, something eternal. God, by definition, is eternal, having no beginning or end. Nothing had to create God, because he always was. There is nothing that is merely physical, however, that always has been. There couldn't be. The only way that this universe came to be is if something eternal created it. I do not believe this because I want to or because I feel like it should be true, I believe it because logic forces me to do so.

I do not know all the details of how God created the universe. There are debates on the literal Genesis creation story and theistic evolution.  While such debates are interesting and of some value, the truth remains that, however the universe came to be, that it was God doing the creating and not merely the physical universe bringing itself into being. If we evolved from single-celled organisms, then it was God that authored and guided that process; it did not simply happen of its own accord. Whether God created the universe in six days or gradually over billions of years, the end result is the same: the universe is God's creation.

In short, I believe what I believe because of logic, not despite logic. I know atheists will still call me foolish, but I will not change what I believe simply to fit in to the world.

The Reason for Holiness

The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
- Brennan Manning

As followers of Christ, we should be living our lives in purity and holiness, not straying into the sinful ways of the world. Indeed, we are all sinners, yet we should be holding ourselves up to Godly standards. The world is a dark place, full of seductive temptations that threaten to pull us in and take us over, yet our foundation should be in the hands of our creator, so that when the world comes calling, we can stand on the foundation of Christ and not be overtaken.

Yet, why does it matter? The Bible teaches that we are all sinners and that none of us is righteous, not even one. Are we risking our salvation by living in sin? No, though one may need to question whether he or she was ever truly saved, should they decide to depart so greatly from the teachings they once clung to. Yet, once salvation is truly secured, sin can no longer separate you from the eternity to come in Heaven. Scripture does say that those who follow God’s commandments will have a richer life, and a closer walk with Him, yet if we all end up in the same Heaven, what was truly gained? For this life is only measured in years, while the next life is incalculable.

While we should certainly seek a closer, more intimate relationship with God, I believe that the most important reason to live a life of holiness has very little to do with the quality of one’s own life. Indeed, if I live according to the commandments, my life will be blessed, yet a longer, more profitable life is not the point. Here is the point, which is twofold: first, as the quote at the top of this entry says, a Christ follower living a hypocritical life of sin will only drive away those who are unbelievers. We preach holiness and purity, yet if we do not follow our own teachings, how does that look to the unbelieving world? We look like fools, saying one thing, yet doing another. Why would anyone seek the church and a relationship with God, if all they see are believers who are hypocrites?

The second part is this: a person living a Godly life, following His commandments, becomes a stronger, more able tool for the Kingdom. God will be more able and more likely to use such people to spread His message, for their lives are not weighed down by sin. The effect on the unbelieving world will be greater for those that live a Christ-centered, holy life, and I believe this to be the greatest reason for righteous living. Our lives on this Earth should not be centered around prosperity, but around our savior, Jesus Christ, and the message of salvation that He has given us. We should seek to spread that good news to the ends of the Earth, for all else will fade. There will come a day when the world has run out of chances to accept Jesus, and those who have rejected Him will be sent away into the fire. I would give my life to save the eternity of just one person, and we may be able to help others come to Christ simply by the way we live.

So do not give in to the temptations of the world, not for yourself, but for the unbelievers, so that you may be the tool that God will use to bring them back to Him. For if they look at you and do not see the light of God in your actions, they may shake their head and turn away, and be forever lost.

Your Will Be Done, Unless

Your will be done, unless it makes me afraid. 
Or anxious. 
Or angry. 

Your will be done, unless I'm uninterested. 
Or busy. 
Or lazy. 

Your will be done, unless it makes me leave my comfort zone. 
Or leave something behind. 
Or leave the couch. 

Your will be done, unless I don't understand. 
Or believe it's possible. 
Or think it wise. 

Your will be done, unless I don't trust you. 
Or other people. 
Or myself. 

Your will be done, unless it costs me something. 
Or changes something. 
Or ends something. 

Your will be done, unless my way is better. 
Or simpler. 
Or easier. 

Your will be done, unless I can't see the beginning. 
Or the end. 
Or the point. 

This is often how we think.

We sometimes see God as distant and apathetic.  We don't believe that He has any interest in our lives: not the big things, not the little things, not the day-to-day things.  We wonder why we would pray to a God that doesn't care about us, doesn't love us, doesn't even know us.  We know the world may judge us for relying on the wisdom of a being they cannot see and do not believe in, so we give in, and we take a step on the path of the world.  We save our ego, and our pride, sacrificing a relationship with the one true God.

This is the way the human mind works.

We cannot understand God, and thus, He cannot be all we are taught that He is.  We cannot see Him, so how can He be there?  We cannot touch Him, so how can He be interested and active in our lives?  We cannot hear Him, so how can we believe that He speaks to us, nudging and prompting us?  The world tells us to "look out for number one."  Make your own path.  Do your own thing.  Be your own person.  Trust only yourself.  How can we be a Christ follower in a world that rejects Him?

It starts with faith.

Faith that He is more than myth.  More than stories.  Faith that He is as real as you and as real as me, and as real as anything you can touch with your hands.  Faith that when you pray, you are not merely making noise.  Faith that the only true source of wisdom is the exact thing this world rejects.  Faith that the wisdom of God is greater than the wisdom of man, and that we should always follow Him and His leading, no matter what worldy objections there are, and no matter what excuses our human minds can conjure against it. 

And it continues with perspective.

We are the tools God uses.  We must understand our place in the kingdom of God.  We each have a purpose, a part to play, in that kingdom.  The world needs Jesus, and knowing that should change how we look at everything.  We begin to make decisions through God's eyes.  We begin to put Him first.  We begin to go to Him in prayer about everything.

We do not allow ourselves to be influenced by the ways of the world, for we are living to be used by God, and we do not desire God's uses for us to be diminished by our own foolishness and flaws.  We see other people as God sees them: His children, greatly loved and cherished by the one creator of the universe.  They are no longer simply nameless faces we walk by, but real people with one real need: they need Jesus.

Instead of being Sunday Christians, who give glory to God once a week and then continue as though He is not relevant, we allow Him into every part of our lives.  We grant Him authority in our financial, occupational and relational choices, because we know that His plan encompasses every aspect of the way we live.  We do not shove him away from the decisions that affect our family, because we want our family to live according to His wisdom.  We choose the will of God over our own desires.

While we do not and can not understand the vastness of God's plan, to consider our own ways better and wiser is foolish.  It is the wise person who seeks the will of God in all they do, following Him down any path and in any storm, knowing it to be the right path.

Your will be done, even if it makes me afraid.
Your will be done, even if I don't understand.
Your will be done, even if it costs me something.
Your will be done, even if my way is easier.

Your will be done, God, in all we do, so that you may be glorified, and that the world may be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Christianity is Not God's Plan

According to the labels of the world, I am a Christian, a follower of the religion known as Christianity. From an outside, unbelieving perspective, that makes sense, but it isn't what God wants for us. We should not label ourselves merely as Christians, but as Christ-followers. We should not simply be a follower of Christianity, but we should live as a part of the body of Christ. Christians are not just another subgroup of society, another label to throw around and apply to people with certain preferences.

Religion is man-made. It consists of rituals and regulations. It is something that man created in order to give a name and a structure to our beliefs. It makes sense to do such a thing, certainly, but we shouldn't live for Christianity, nor should we look at our faith as only a religion, for that diminishes our faith and minimizes God's influence in our lives. God is real and his promises are true; we must live for the truth instead of living simply to follow a religion. But how do we do that? How do we live for God instead of living for a religion?

Understand that God is real and that He loves you, just as you are. He doesn't only live at church. He doesn't only talk to those people who are living righteous lives, and here is the truth: none of us are living righteous lives, and no amount of religion is going to change that. We are all sinners, each and every one of us, and that sin is separating us from God. There is no power you hold and no good deeds that you can do that will erase that sin. It is there, stained on your heart, and God knows it. He sees it and yet, He love you anyway. It is only the power of Christ and the sacrifice that Jesus gave on the cross that will wash away our sin. A lifetime of good deeds won't do it, neither will following every commandment or fulfilling every religious ritual. No amount of effort on your part will even lighten the stain. Yet, in an instant, the stain can be gone, as though it were never there at all. It is not in our power to become sinless, but God has already done what is necessary to wash that sin away. All that we can do is say yes. Yes, God, I believe you are real, I believe you are more than stories and more than a mere religion. Yes, God, I believe your son came and died for me. Yes, God, I believe you have washed away my sins. Yes, God. Yes.

And then you will be saved.

It is grace that saves you, faith in the sacrifice of Christ. It is not baptism, for that is mere water. It is not communion, for that is merely bread and wine. There is no offering you can give and no service you can perform. All that can be done to save you has already been done by the son of God. You just need to believe.

Life is not about perfect living, for that is something none of us can accomplish, not even those who have accepted Christ as their savior. Yet I try to live my life in certain ways because I seek to live by God's standards, not because I live to fulfill some religious legality. I choose to live my life by those standards because I know I have been saved, and because I choose to show my love for God in that way. For instance, it was a long time ago that I decided to save myself for marriage, not because I did not have certain desires, but because I truly believed that it was best for me to wait, and that following God's commandments would bring me closer to Him. I did not do it because I felt it was the "Christian" thing to do, for living as a Christian isn't the point. I felt it was the Godly thing to do. And now, being married for almost twelve years, I know it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Righteous living will not save you, but being truly saved gives you the desire to live righteously, and to become closer to God. It is the relationship that matters, not the religion. Live righteously out of love, not out of obligation.

Church is a valuable part of life. We can worship God together and gain understanding of Him and His plan. We can form relationships with other believers and partake in Godly fellowship. Yet we must not live for church, for that is not God's plan. We must live for God. Salvation does not come from the church or any other Christian organization. Such institutions are often valuable assets to our faith and can do many great things in the world, but that must not be our focus. Christ is our focus; the church and other Godly entities are tools for God to use in our lives and throughout the world, but they are not something to live for. We must keep our eyes on God.

The Bible is not a mere guide, like a how-to book for computers or some other hobby or activity. The Bible is a God-breathed document that we should consider to be the greatest words in the world. God gave us His book to teach us and rebuke us, to correct us and to train us. We must not view it as simply another book, but the book that holds absolute and eternal truth.

In closing, we must not become wrapped up in the squabblings of religious people. God created us and redeemed us to work together as the body of Christ, and we must not trap ourselves in meaningless bickering about unimportant things. God is truth and Christ is our salvation. Let us come together not as followers of the same religion, but of lovers of the same great and glorious God, for it is the same blood that saved each of us. To God be all glory, from this day forward, into the eternity that we see before us.

Thank you God, for your great love, and for your sacrifice. Show us how to live for you. Show us how to love like you do. We know you are the absolute truth of life, and nothing we can do will ever repay what you have done for us. We love you, now and always. Amen.

The Path You Follow

You need to stop basing everything you do on what the world thinks.

The world is like a flower; here today and gone tomorrow. If we live our life to gain such temporary approval, what have we really gained? We should not base our decisions on such things. God calls us to holy lives. We must live with an eternal perspective with our eyes fixed on Christ. The world cannot offer what God can offer. Living for this life is living without purpose and is not really living; only through God can a life be real and fulfilled.

Being human, I know this is harder said than done, for we have limited minds, weak morals, and mortal bodies. It is hard for us to live for eternity, for we cannot comprehend eternity. We can see the pleasures of this life that are right in front of us, and they are easily attainable. Only through God’s intervention and with His strength can we truly begin to live as we are meant to live. We will still certainly stumble and sin, but that isn’t really the point anymore. We are saved by grace and live by faith, and when that happens, we no longer want to think like the world thinks and act like the world acts. We no longer seek the world’s pleasures. We seek the will of God in our lives, and we desire His guidance. It isn’t about being a “Christian” and living by a set of rules. It’s about being a follower of Christ and living by grace.

The world won’t lead you to Heaven, and it won’t bring you closer to God. The world is out there to destroy you. Do not be taken in by the acceptance of a shallow world. Instead, fall into the arms of God and be cleansed by the depths of His love. Christ died for each of us, and we must now live for Him. The world will not forgive us and redeem us; it will only seduce and diminish us.

The path you follow in this life is the path you follow in the next life.

God is calling.

Hope

The world today offers us a million different things to put our hope in. 

We can put our hope in our jobs and our ability to provide for our loved ones.  But, as many of us know all too well, jobs don’t always last.  What do you lean on when the pink slip comes?

We can put our hope in our looks, for those who have such things to begin with.  But what do you lean on when age kicks in or you put on a few pounds or you are no longer seen as attractive?

We can put our hope in a good retirement and the enjoyment of our golden years.  But what do you lean on when the retirement fund starts to run dry?  What do lean on when your health starts to fail and you start to see the end of your life?

What do you lean on when your friends and family fail you?  When your health fails you?
What do you lean on when your life is taken from you at too early an age?
What do you lean on when all hope is lost?

There is only one thing in the world that transcends all things.  There is only one hope that will never fail you.

When God sent his son Jesus to Earth to die on a cross, he defeated all the trials this world could throw at you.  No matter what happens, when you place your whole being in his hands, there is nothing this world can drag you through that will take away your hope.  Because your hope is no longer in this world.

As the scriptures say, we should be storing up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6: 19 - 21).  When we put our hope and faith in Jesus, we no longer live for this world, but we live for the eternity to come.  We live for Heaven.  This world is not our home, as we are citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3: 20 - 21).  The first thing we must do is accept that we are sinners in need of a savior, accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the means of our salvation.  We then need to start seeing things as God sees them - in the light of eternity, not in the limited scope of our lives on Earth.  Life is but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow (James 4: 13 - 15).  Why do we believe that something so limited could truly hold our hope?  No, the only hope with any staying power is the hope given to us by our creator.  Once we look to God as our hope and the stronghold of our lives, the trials of this life start to lose their grip on us.

Even though people suck and we all deserve to be telefragged, there is a God who loves us and forgives us, and he is the only hope we have in this life, and the life to come.