#EndOfTheWorldConfession

So today marks the long awaited day that the world is supposed to end, or at least so says some people who apparently misunderstood the Mayan calendar. Anyways, it's been a highly anticipated day for a long time, and guess what...Nothing seems to be happening. Is anyone surprised? Hopefully not really. I know that for me personally I didn't really believe that anything was going to happen today, but I must admit, there is a part of me that was kinda hoping for something.

I've said it before, "I want to live in a post-apocalyptic world. I want there to be some sort of societal collapse, and humanity to have to 'start over' in a sense." I think this is why I like the shows Revolution and Falling Skies. And, that is why I was slightly hoping that something happen today.

Here's my questions though:

1. Does anyone else secretly hope for something like this, or am I the only crazy one?
2. Why would I want something like this?

When Religion Becomes a Reason To Hate

I read an article yesterday that made me absolutely livid. It was about the Shooting in Connecticut last Friday, but it wasn't about the shooter or his family, the school, the victims, or the survivors. It was about Westboro Baptist Church and their planned picketing of the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.

Now, there are a lot of things that make me sad and upset in this world, and the shooting last Friday is definitely one of them. I cannot possibly begin to understand what would possess a human being to shoot 6 and 7 year olds dead, for no reason, and right before Christmas no less. I don't get it, and it infuriates me and fills me with grief. Yet, I can still say, as I have written before, that that man needed God's love and forgiveness as much as anyone else, and I am as devastated over the fact that he took his own life as I am over the fact that he took the lives of 26 others.

When Osama bin Laden was killed I was not gleeful and joyful. I didn't celebrate his death, despite the fact that he was responsible for the deaths of thousands.

In the shooting in Aurora earlier this year, I wrote that the shooter needs forgiveness, and we need to pray for him, just as we need to pray for the victims' families.

All of these men are/were evil and committed unthinkable atrocities, and yet, I find the picketing of the funerals of these victims, these children, to be almost worse.

In response to WBC's announcement, the hacker group Anonymous launched a campaign against WBC with the intention of bringing them down and destroying them. They hacked one of their Twitter accounts, hacked their website, and posted personal information, including phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, and SSNs. They even successfully filed a death certificate for the "church's" spokesman, Shirley Phelps-Roper.

Thanksgiving IN ALL Circumstances

With Thanksgiving approaching I thought it fitting to write a little bit about giving thanks, but not necessarily in the traditional way. When November rolls around people suddenly get incredibly thankful. You hear people talking about all the things they are thankful for, and Facebook timelines are full of "Day 1: I am thankful for..., Day 2: I am thankful for..., etc..." It won't take you too long to come across all the traditional stuff either: Family, Friends, Jobs, Church, Pets, Homes, Possessions, etc... Almost everyone is thankful for these things in one way or another and post about them. I too, am thankful for all of these things.

However, this month, God has been revealing to me, in several ways, that in addition to all of the obvious blessings in my life, I need to be thankful for the not so obvious blessings, for the way that God works through the hard and difficult times, for what He accomplishes in the midst of agony.

"Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Vampires & Zombies | Suicide & Blood

In honor of Halloween I am going to be writing a bit about zombies and vampires. Now, I traditionally despise Halloween with a passion. I didn't want to have anything to do with it whatsoever: No Trick-or-Treating, no handing out candy, no decorations, no dressing up, I didn't even like church "Fall Festivals." My opinion has changed a little bit, which is a topic for another blog, but for today I am going to fall into the theme of the day embrace zombies and vampires, but not in the traditional way.

A couple years ago I wrote a couple Buzz posts (Do you remember Google Buzz?). Here's what they said.

What if I said you were a vampire, evil & dead to the core & your 1 hope for life, the thing you crave most, blood that's innocent and pure?

 

Would you call me crazy if I said that, in order to live, you must drown, you're a zombie, walking dead, & your 1 hope for life is suicide?

Frankenstorm & Christ, the Storm Whisperer

The East Coast today is facing a major threat from Hurricane Sandy, or Frankenstorm, as it has been nicknamed. It is a major storm, several major storms actually, that are all colliding to result in the potential for serious destruction. There will likely be 11ft storm surges, rain/flooding, high winds, snow, power outages, etc... It is going to very likely be catastrophic.

A few of the quotes from individuals involved highlight the seriousness of this storm:

"This is the most catastrophic event that we have faced and been able to plan for in any of our lifetimes," Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy warned.

"It could be bad," said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior, "or it could be devastation."

When it Rains it Pours

"When it rains it pours."

Everyone knows this phrase, has heard it, and probably used it. Basically, it means that nothing ever comes in small doses. If one thing is gonna go wrong, 10 things are going to go wrong. It's just the way it is, and recently this has proven to be incredibly true in my life. However, it is not necessarily proving true in the traditional meaning of the phrase.

Rain can be both negative and positive. Rain is life giving, refreshing, cooling. It is necessary for life. It is beautiful. It results in splashing in puddles, kissing/dancing in the rain, it adds life and color to plants and flowers. There are so many amazing, fun, beautiful aspects of rain, and I personally love a good rain storm!

Rain can be damaging as well. Too much rain can cause flooding, death, destruction of homes and landscapes. There are also many other dangerous thing that are associated with heavy rain, lightning, tornadoes, high winds, are all usually accompanied by rain. There are a lot of people who don't like the rain, especially lots of it. It makes everything damp and dark.

Shutterfly

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Value in Human Life? Part II

Ok, so a couple days ago I posed the question: Does human life have intrinsic value? I talked a lot about the entertainment that humanity has received from human injury/death throughout history, and how that seems to indicate that human life does not intrinsically have any value, but I also said that I disagreed, that I believe human life does have intrinsic value. So today, I'm gonna talk about why I believe this.

To begin, if human life, truly has no intrinsic value, than life is valued on its accomplishments/failures, contributions to/detractions from society/the world, what it does, or possible even what it has the potential to do, but that last one's moving more into granting intrinsic value. So naturally, we would determine a value of a life by examining it, and that value could change. Most likely, value would be highest during the peak of ones life, and life would be considered less valuable in the beginning, when it is unproven and unsure, and at the end, when the usefulness is winding down. Based on these assumptions, there could be a case made that the value of life is dependent on what it does. We see things like abortion and geronticide in the world, and strong arguments are made for all sorts of mass killings of "useless" drains on society. Whether, this is dependent on age, societal status, race, intelligence, health, etc... there have been plenty of proponents of this way of thinking throughout society, and while they may have logical arguments, they are viewed by most as deranged or evil or something like that. That seems to indicate to me that human life must have some sort of intrinsic value, because if not, why does the loss of life in those "drains" on society upset the general populace so much?

charity: water -- Campaign for Rwanda

I recently ran across this organization, charity: water, through Klout actually, and I think it is great.

Watch this video about their September campaign for Rwanda.

Value in Human Life? Part I

Over the last week or so I have encountered several things that got me thinking about this topic.

Does life have value?

This past week I heard the quote, "Human life has no intrinsic value." I don't agree with it, but it got me thinking...does life have value, simply for being life, or does it only have value based on what it accomplishes?

I have been reading The Hunger Games, and am almost done with the last book. I, personally, really like the story, but at the same time, it is extremely disturbing. What makes it so disturbing is the total disregard for the value of human life exhibited by many of the characters, and the entertainment value that so many derive from watching people, kids, slaughter each other. In the books (just in case you know nothing about them) 24 teenagers are forced to fight in the "Hunger Games," which are a nationally televised fight to the death that serve as a way for the government (The Capitol) to control the people, but also as a huge source of entertainment for the citizens of The Capitol.

For lots of people in our world today, the concept of watching people kill each other for amusement and entertainment seems horrid, at least initially, but sadly. I don't think that people, in general, are nearly as horrified at the concept as they portray.

Lost in the Depths of True Life

I was listening to "Lost" by Red on my way to work this morning, and it just struck me so I thought I'd write about it. It reminded me of, what has become, one of my favorite verses:

 

"Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls;
all Your breakers and Your billows have swept over me." -- Psalms 42:7

 

God is so immensely deep and incredible. There is no way that anyone could ever know the depths of who He is, of His love, His righteousness, His wrath, His justice, His wisdom, etc... We can truly spend our lives lost in Him, and not just our lives, but all eternity, every moment finding something new, and it is amazing!

Slowness to Speak in a World of Instant Communication

So, I started to touch on this point ever so briefly in my last post about dumb things that politicians say, but I'm going to dive into it more here in a much more practical manner.

The Bible says, "My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness."

This is quite a challenge, especially in today's society. We are saturated with all forms of instant communication. Your cellphone is now basically another appendage that never leaves your side. There was a recent study that found that over half of teens "couldn't live without their phone for a week." We have the capability, through Facebook, Twitter, smartphones, etc... to know, within a matter of minutes or seconds even, what is happening anywhere in the world, from huge world events, to the fact that your acquaintance living halfway across the globe is tired today. Not only do we have access to this information, but we are expected to participate in the conversation in the same rapid speed. I remember when I was a kid, if my mom and I went out to the store we may be gone 30 minutes or 4 hours, and we didn't have cell phones to call and check in, and that was ok. Today, if you send someone a text or give them a call, and they don't respond within about a minute you start to worry or wonder what is wrong or if you offended them in some way. And, I am just as guilty as anyone else of all of this.

Akin & Obama: Dumb Quotes by Politicians

A few days ago Rep. Todd Akin (R) made a few statements regarding abortion in rape cases that caused widespread upset. Here is what they were.

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

“Let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work, or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.”

There has been a huge backlash against his statements, with people saying that he is just ridiculously stupid and making things up or that he is inferring that if a rape victim does get pregnant then it wasn't really rape.

It's Time To Fight

As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for everything, "a time for war," and I think that we are entering into a time to fight.

Let me explain what I mean...

In today's society, everyone is incredibly concerned with peace, with not offending anyone, with being "politically correct," whether on a personal, public, business, or international level. It seems like that is all anyone cares about, and it is a big concern. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a huge war advocate, despite what this post is gonna sound like, and I want there to be peace as much as anyone else. Afterall, God tells us in Romans 12:18 "If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone." However, I think there is something incredibly dangerous in pursuing peace above all else, especially the way so many in the world define peace.

As I said before, people in the world today are so incredibly easily offended that in order for us to "live at peace with everyone" we have to tiptoe around, keep all of our beliefs, convictions, opinions, thoughts, etc... to ourselves, and apologize profusely anytime something you say or do happens to upset someone else because they don't agree with it. We are living in an age of relativity where everything is right and valid except for the belief that not everything is right and valid. If you happen to disagree that every belief is correct then your belief is not only incorrect (which fundamentally makes no sense), but you are labeled as an ignorant bigot full of hate and detrimental to society and progress. This is a dangerous world to be living in, but what is even more dangerous is that so many people buy into it hook, line and sinker, and so many people who should be fighting it, are allowing themselves to be conformed to the patterns pf the world we live in.

A Fairytale Life

Fairytales, in some fashion, have been around in virtually every culture since the beginning of time. We are fascinated with them, with the fanciful elements, the larger than life events, the extra evil villains, the super passionate romances, basically all the stuff that makes a fairytale and fairytale. Often, fairytales end with a "Happily Ever After," but not always.

For some reason (which I am going to guess at here), people are obsessed with fairytales. We love (or hate) them, but so much of what we do is based on them. They are the subject of countless movies, books, television shows, songs, etc... Disney has built a massive worldwide company, and it is largely around fairytales of some form.

While fairytales can be fun, fanciful stories, inspiring the imagination, and, especially today, leaving us feeling all warm and fuzzy, there are a lot of people who have a negative outlook on fairytales because they portray an unrealistic view of life, of love. I have heard the argument that fairytales (and that concept of idealized life, idealized relationships) are detrimental because they instill unrealistic expectations within people that leave them depressed or constantly searching because life isn't actually the way it is in the fairytale. No man is a Prince in Shining Armor. No woman is the perfect Princess. Good and Evil are not always so clear cut. Best of Intentions do not always work out. There is rarely a "Happily Ever After."

Crazy Christians

Christians really are pretty crazy. The stuff they believe, and the stuff they do (if they truly live their beliefs) is really crazy. So let's start by defining "crazy."

"senseless; impractical; totally unsound"
"intensely enthusiastic; passionately excited"
"very enamored or infatuated"

I was thinking about it recently, and many aspects and truths of Christianity are seemingly crazy. I can understand why there are so many people who genuinely don't get it, and genuinely think that Christians are nuts. I mean, seriously, while Christianity is sound, and can be proven logically, a lot of the truths seem illogical and insane until they are experienced.

Chick-fil-A "Do you serve gay people?" "Ummm...no...we serve chicken."

If you have not heard about all the hoopla recently surrounding Chick-fil-A, where have you been? JK, but not really. It's a bit insane. There are huge protests and Chick-fil-A Appreciation events going on, and it's all over a single issue. Gay marriage. Now, regardless of where you stand on this issue, this whole thing is a bit insane if you ask me! Here is the quote that started it all:

“we’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude that thinks we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is all about.”

"We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,"

Cathay was making comments regarding his and his companies beliefs and foundations. They operate based on Biblical principles. He was also speaking his personal beliefs and convictions, and in fact nothing that he said was discriminatory. The man was answering questions, and his conviction and belief and honest answer is that he supports traditional, Biblical marriage. What's the problem with that?

A Shooting, a Shock & True Happiness

Last night an absolutely tragic thing occurred. During a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises a man busted into a theater in Aurora, CO, threw in a smoke bomb, a opened fire on those present. 12 people were killed, 38 were injured, this includes a 9 year old and a 3 month old.

Upon hearing of this event, my initial response was shock and sadness, with a feeling of "What is wrong with people? What is wrong with our world?" I just cannot understand how in the world someone could ever do that. How do you willingly inflict such terror, fear, and pain into the lives of anyone, much less those who have done nothing to you and are simply enjoying a movie.

I am sure that there are countless explanations, reasons that will be given about what drove James Holmes to go on a shooting spree. Possibly he was just psychotic, possibly he was having issues with finances or his job, maybe it was family, friend or relationship problems, maybe he was depressed, who knows. Whatever it was though, it doesn't make sense and it is completely tragic.

Here's the thing though, my reaction, and that of many people, is shock and horror. Why are we shocked? Why does it seem so out of the ordinary? I have been asking "What is wrong with people?" for years and years. It is constant that there is something on the news that displays the absolute depravity of the human nature. It think that is the point. Humanity is depraved. We are not naturally good. There is a seed of unexplainable evil within us, that all too often, people water and nurture until it blooms in some tragic event like this shooting, but then why are we shocked by it? I think it is because, while we all are evil from birth, this is a disease, a parasite on our very being.

We were not created evil. We we created to be perfect, in perfect relationship with the perfect God, but we messed that up. We contracted a contagion that infected everyone, continues to infect everyone, and takes that perfectly beautiful creation and morphs it into something ugly, something hideous. It affects our minds and our hearts and puts utter discontentment and hopelessness into our lives. It takes a perfect fulfilled existence and transforms it into, what Solomon describes as "meaningless" a "chasing after the wind."

When we are constantly searching for some sort of meaning, purpose, fulfillment, happiness and everything in life is temporary, fleeting, empty, meaningless that leaves us in a place where it doesn't matter what we do or who we help/hurt. Why not give in and let that seed of evil bloom within us? It doesn't matter anyway. Sadly, so many people are at this point in their lives. If something is wrong in their life, if there is pain in their life, or really, if they just feel like it, they have no reason not to sabotage and destroy themselves, through any number of methods, or others.

This is where the Truth comes in. I believe that everyone wants to be happy, and spend their lives pursing whatever makes them happy. We all long for happiness, fulfillment, purpose, meaning, etc... The Truth is that, while there are plenty of things in life that we find happiness in, the only true source of happiness and contentment is found in The Truth (Christ). In Him, one can have happiness, peace, joy, purpose, contentment, fulfillment, all of those things people are longing for, and once we have Him, everything else in life that gives us happiness is a bonus. It's like the syrup, coconut, cherry on top of your ice cream.

All we need, all we long for is found in Christ, and in Him we receive the cure to the soul rotting contagion that afflicts humanity. In Him we are able to be at peace, even if the world is falling apart around us.

Therefore, when I see stories, like this shooting. I am filled with shock and sadness over the incident, but also over the fact that this man was so overcome by the blooming seed of evil in his life that he allowed it to destroy him, and others, when there is a cure waiting to heal him. It makes me all that more aware of the urgent need to spread this cure, to combat the contagion, and to offer hope to the world in the face of despair.

If you currently are living without Christ. Please, I urge you to search for your happiness in Him. If you have accepted Him, I urge you to live like it, live like you have discovered the most precious treasure of ultimate happiness, and spread that to those around you!

To end with a Batman tie-in. Christ is "A hero. Not the hero we deserved but the hero we needed."

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -- Romans 5:8

"For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" -- Romans 5:10

"...Come and share your master’s happiness!'" -- Matthew 25:21

(The Bible:) Too Offensive?

So, yesterday I posted several pictures of explicit LEGO scenes depicting sex, decapitations, childbirth, and various other violent situations. I asked if they were too offensive, if you would want to read or allow your children to read a book filled with these images. Now, here's the thing. The book that I got these images from is "The Brick Bible," a graphic novel style Old Testament Bible completely illustrated using LEGOs. The images each depict a Biblical situation.

• The first is Sodom and Gomorrah after God destroys them with fire.
• The second is when Lot's daughters get him drunk and sleep with him.
• The third is Rebekah giving birth to Jacob and Esau.
• The fourth is Samson killing the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.
• The fifth is David beheading Goliath.
• The sixth is David having the messenger who killed Saul killed.
• The seventh is David looking at Bathsheba bathing.

I didn't include it, but every image is captioned with the Bible verses that describe it. There are many more images as well. Some are happy and appropriate, others are even more disturbing. There are images of rapes, dismemberments, drunkenness, massacres, circumcisions, human sacrifice, diseases, etc... basically, you name it and you can find it. I must admit that reading through it I was both shocked and amused. I was disturbed by the images, and the fact that they were LEGO kinda made it better, but also kinda made it worse. However, what I found most amazing was the fact that the entire Bible is depicted, not just the major stories, not just the popular stories, and not just the pretty stories, but everything.

I started to do some research on "The Brick Bible" and I discovered a few interesting things.

1. "The Brick Bible" was actually pulled from the shelves of Sam's Club for being too offensive.
2. The creator of "The Brick Bible" The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith is actually an atheist who is non too fond of God, and has quite a few derogatory things to say about Him and the Bible.
3. "the goal of The Brick Testament is to give people an increased knowledge of the contents of The Bible in a way that is fun and compelling while remaining true to the text of the scriptures." (from http://www.thebricktestament.com).

So here's my question. Is this too offensive? Does depicting the stories in the Bible, in all their beauty and all their hideousness make it more or less acceptable or appropriate? Does the fact that a man who does not believe in God and (yet) views God as angry, vindictive, hateful, etc... created this book make it any more or less offensive or acceptable?

I actually really like "The Brick Bible" because of the fact that it displays the stories of the Bible, many of which most Christians don't know about or gloss over, and if you go on the website www.thebricktestament.com, there are many more stories depicted. The depictions on the website betray a bit more of the The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith's atheism in the title's for the image collections as well as a few of his own words inserted in bubbles in the images.

The fact of the matter is that the Bible is not G rated, or PG or PG-13. Some parts of it are for sure, but the Bible as a whole is definitely R, if not NC-17. It displays the story of humanity in all its glory and all its despicable filth, and it displays the story of God's love through it.

I have been reading through the entire Bible, something which I have never done before in my almost 24 years as a Christian, and I am amazed at what I am reading and discovering. I am seeing new insights, lessons, and truths in stories I've read dozens of times before, and I am reading stories I have never read before. Some of these stories are really cool, and others leave me very upset and questioning why God would have allowed the events to happen, but all are revealing more about God, about humanity, and about the relationship between the two.

So what do you think? Do you think it is appropriate or acceptable to depict all of the Bible stories in this format? Furthermore, do you think that something created by a man who is antagonistic toward God can be used for good? Or, do you think that this is too offensive and Sam's Club was right in pulling it from their shelves?

Too Offensive?

I recently came across a book. This book has thousands of scenes, all created using LEGOs. Below I have included a few of these images. Now I want to ask you, what do you think about these images? Are they offensive? Are they ok because they are LEGOs? Is this something that you would want to read or allow your children to read? What do you think?

Fight or Flight

FEAR

I've been thinking about this a lot in the last couple weeks. It seems to be popping up in various forms all around me, and God has been revealing some pretty cool things to me about it, so I thought I would share.

Fear is a very natural and very powerful emotion. In fact, I would argue that fear is potentially the most powerful emotion (potentially, because I believe love can potentially be the most powerful emotion, but these two are at odds with each other and only one can reign in your life). We have all experienced fear in some form or fashion in our lives. Sometimes this comes in the form of being scared of the dark, or clowns, or dogs, or spiders, or whatever. If I asked you to share what you are afraid of everyone would have a whole list of things, and most likely it would be filled with these sorts of things. Then there is fear of heights, crowds, public speaking, small spaces, things of that nature. Your list may be filled with several of these as well. Finally, there is fear of things like failure, rejection, shame, being alone, death, etc... Every one of us has these fears as well, but most often they will not make your list of things you are afraid of. They are very personal fears, and they have the capability to determine the direction of your life.

Fear has one extremely powerful attribute. It is capable of paralyzing. You've heard the expression "frozen with fear," and this is exactly what fear does. It freezes us, as least for a moment. This is obvious from life, from movies, etc... How many times do you see yourself or someone else get afraid and just freeze, or curl up, or hide, but you don't move. You get quite and still. You see this in the Bible as well.

Peter, after Jesus called him out onto the water, became afraid of the water, and instead of continuing to walk toward Christ. He froze and began to sink. Later, after Christ was arrested, Peter, who was brash and zealous by nature, became frozen with fear, hiding, and refusing to even admit that he knew Jesus. In the Old Testament you see the Israelites become fearful of the people in the Promise Land, and that fear caused them to stop following God, to stop moving forward, and resulted in them, literally, walking in circles for 40 years.

Fear paralyzes, but the natural response to fear is the complete opposite. This post is entitled "Fight or Flight." I'm sure you do, but in case you don't know, that is the body's natural response to fear. We are flooded with adrenaline, and we are prepared to either fight the danger that is scaring us or flee from it and protect ourselves. Either way, out bodies overcome fear by preparing us for action. What's interesting is that we can all see this with certain fears, such as if someone is attacking you, a tree limb is suddenly falling above you, someone is in a car accident, even with fears like bugs and dogs, but the concept is true for all fears.

Fear is overcome by action. When Peter began to sink, he reached out for Christ. He moved toward Him and was saved. In response to Peter's three denials of Jesus, Jesus, three times, called him to action "feed my lambs," "take care of my sheep," "feed my sheep." And, the Israelites, after 40 years, emerged from their fear induced wandering to widespread action, entering the land God promised and fighting those they were once afraid of.

How many times in our lives do we let fear paralyze us, and I'm talking about that last set of fears, the personal ones. How many times are we afraid of failure so we never try, afraid of being hurt so we refuse to love or open ourselves up, afraid of rejection or ridicule so we don't share God's love with those around us? I've seen it in my life many times. I let fear dictate what I will (or really what I won't) do, and many times it is something that God is calling me to do, but I don't because I let fear reign instead. But, just like fight or flight, living in that state of fear is not good for anyone, and the only way to break out of it is to act, and often that action is to do the very thing your are afraid of. Face your fear.

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God told Joshua, on many occasions, "Be strong and courageous." Courage, interestingly, is not necessarily being free of fear, but it is acting and pushing on in spite of fear. So be courageous.

Finally, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the two most powerful emotions that I see are fear and love.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment." -- 2 Timothy 1:7

"There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear..." -- 1 John 4:18a  

God makes it clear in Scripture that we are not meant to be fearful. He has not designed us with a spirit of fearfulness. Rather, we are given a spirit of love, and where there is perfect love (Christ), fear is driven out. This gives new meaning to "with God all things are possible." With God (perfect love) all things are possible because He drives out fear, which paralyzes us, and invites us to action with Him.

What is God calling you to do in your life that maybe you are afraid of? What have you been frozen from doing because of some fear? Take the time today to ask God to drive out that fear and to help you to act in His love! 

*If you want to read a good fiction book that deals with fear and love. I suggest Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee.

 

Young Examples

Over the weekend we went to a play at The Adobe Theater entitled "Is Life Worth Living?" I wrote a blog Monday about this play and some of the lessons and questions that came from it. Today, however, I am writing about a different experience we had at the play.

We had gone for my mom's 50th birthday so there were a lot of us, 14 to be exact, and the theater, which is pretty small, it only seats about 90, was completely sold out. From the moment we got there the lady taking the tickets, who was, I guess, in charge of the place, was complaining about how large our group was and how she had no idea how we were able to get such a large group in, and we had no idea how difficult it was for them to accomodate us. This was quite confusing because: 1) We weren't sitting all together taking up entire rows in the theater. No more than 4 of us were sitting together in any one place. 2) We just called and bought 14 tickets...I'm not sure what was so difficult about that. Would it have been easier if 14 people had individually bought the 14 tickets? I mean come on. We were not that difficult...

Anyways, the 2nd thing that this lady did was immediately pull Manda and I aside and tell us that this was an adult play and she was not worried about what Mallory was going to hear, but what the 90 paying customers were going to hear from Mallory, and the moment she started to make any noise we would have to leave the building. Now I can understand letting us know that if Mallory was loud we may be asked to leave, but the way she approached it was like Mallory was a horrible intrusion and the paying customers shouldn't have to endure her. I think she kinda forgot that Mallory was one of those paying customers and 13 other paying customers were with us... So this was a little annoying, but it got worse. She then came up to us on 2 more occassions and told us that Mallory should not be there, that she should not have been invited, that there were so many things wrong with our reservation, and got upset at us because we told her that an empty seat next to us was Mallory's seat. She told us Mallory could not have a seat, even though we had paid for it, and she should not be at the play. Keep in mind, this whole time, Mallory is being perfect. She's not crying screaming, being loud in any way. This lady is making much more of a scene than Mallory was.

Anyways, we got to stay in and the play started, and continued for 3 hours. During that time, Mallory watched intently. She loved it. She loves plays. She never made a single noise. In fact, she was the quitest one in the whole place. She was perfect.

This whole thing got me thinking about a lot of things. One of which is how people just assume that because a kid is young they are going to be disruptive and annoying. Kids, of any age, are human beings, just like the rest of us, and their age has nothing to do with whether or not they are disruptive. It is said that children only have an attention span the same number of minutes as their age, so Mallory should only have a 2 minute attention span, yet she sat still, intently watching the play, for 180 minutes. Also, the play didn't start till 8:00pm so by the time it was over, it was well past her bedtime, and she was tired, but she was still paying attention and enjoying it.

So here's the lessons I learned from it.

1. In life, don't look at kids as some annoying group that must be tolerated until they grow up. They are people with likes and dislikes. Maybe a kid is throwing a fit cause they genuinely don't like what is going on, and if they do like it, they are capable of paying attention and participating. Children are people, so treat them as such.
2. As Christians, there is an important lesson, that is outlined in 1 Timothy 4:12 "Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." There is an important lesson here, regardless of which side of the "age line" you are on. If you are a younger Christian, be an example. Age is not an excuse to slack off, falter or fail, just because a lot of people think you will. You have a responsibility to be an example, not only to younger Christians, but also to older Christians. Your calling to follow and obey God in EVERYTHING is not dependant on your age. If you are an "older" Christian don't be like the lady at the play. It may be easy to dismiss younger Christians as immature or inexperienced, and this can have a variety of results, from "think[ing] less of" them to patronizing them, disregarding what they have to say/teach, not learning from their examples. However, the Bible is clear that younger Christians should, and therefore CAN be examples for ALL believers, so allow them to be.

In the end I was very impressed with and proud of Mallory, she was fantastic, and there were so many people that came up after the play to tell her how amazed they were at how well she did. It was a good feeling. However, I would love if people weren't amazed and shocked when kids did well in situations. I would love if people recognized that children can do things more than they are given credit for, and on the other side of things, we are often amazed/inspired/impressed when young people do big things, are examples of what a true Christian should be. I would love to get to the point where we are not impressed, because young people are consistently being and setting examples and older people are consistently expecting young people to be and set examples.

Is Life Worth Living?

Over the weekend we saw a play at The Adobe Theater entitled, "Is Life Worth Living?" It was a good play, a comedy, and yet quite depressing at the same time. The basic gist of the play is that an acting group comes into a small quiet town in Ireland and puts on these serious plays that tackle deep/dark issues, which in turn reveal all the problems and issues in the town that no one acknowledged where there. They compare it to moving a stone in a grassy field and revealing all the creepy crawlers, worms and bugs. As a result of this, people start going nuts, killing themselves, killing others, all because they start to realize how messed up everyone is, and they start to ask the question "Is Life Worth Living?" and for many, the answer is "No." The play ends with the town kicking the acting group out before the cause more problems, and replacing them with a circus, where people can go and simply enjoy life. They relate it to putting the stone back over the worms and bugs. It is meant to be a happy ending, but I think it was one of the most depressing parts of the play. You see, everyone's eyes were opened to the fact that they had problems, that deep down they didn't find any purpose or meaning in life to validate continuing to live, and rather than seeking some answer or trying to fix what was wrong, they pulled the wool over their eyes again, plastered on a fake smile, buried their doubts and fears, and went to the circus.

This was an interesting play because it touched on a topic that so many people struggle with. Is life worth living? What's the point? It's so sad that so many people truly cannot answer this question, and w/o an answer, what is to keep them from ending their lives? This is something that people have struggled with since the beginning of time. In Ecclesiastes 1: we see Solomon say, "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind." This was Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, and he questioned whether there was any purpose or meaning to life, if it was worth living.

So I ask you, is life worth living? What do you think? If you say it is, why? What makes life worth living? What gives life meaning and purpose? This is a philosophical question, but a vitally important one. I recently heard a story of a man who had lost his wife, job, career, and because of it, because of the loss and the shame, he killed himself. He had asked someone close to him if he could give him some direction, some meaning, and this person told him he didn't know. This lack of hope, lack of meaning, lack of worth, resulted in absolute loss of life, which is devastating.

Some say family and friends give life meaning. Some say love. Some say helping others. Some say their jobs. Some say possessions/toys. Some say a purpose or cause to work for. Here's the problem though. All of those things can be taken away. If all of those things are taken away and you are stripped bare, what gives your life meaning. What makes life worth living? What makes it more than futility?

Solomon said that everything is futile, and for 12 chapters he goes on about how literally everything anyone does is meaningless, but in the final verses he comes to this conclusion: "When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity."  It all boils down to this. Is life worth living? Absolutely, but it's not worth living because of love, family, friends, pets, causes, jobs, money, possessions, health, helping others, etc... Those are all benefits of living, but they are not what makes life worth it. Life is worth it because God created you. He created your life and loves you. Our goal, our purpose should be to honor, love, and obey Him, and in and through that we find meaning and worth in life. Paul stated in Acts 17 "From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 For in Him we live and move and exist..."

In and of ourselves we are messed up. We have worms and bugs crawling beneath the surface, hidden by the makeup of a circus clown, but no matter how much laughter and enjoyment we use to cover up our problems, to place the rock over our issues, they are still there, and will eat us alive from the inside out until we are nothing more than a hollow shell that is easily shattered. We have nothing left inside, and in that place, life is not worth living. However, God supplies us with hope, with purpose, with meaning, with worth. He removes the rock over our lives, exposes all of our nasty worms and bugs, and rather than cover them back up, he gets rid of them. He removes the rock and allows that filth to be replaced with grass, flowers, life. We are emptied, but are not hollow shells, we are filled with His life and our worth is not found in the fleeting pleasures of this life, in the circus, but our worth is found in Christ! In Him we LIVE and MOVE and EXIST! He is LIFE and He gives us that life, and in and through Him, life is definitely worth living!

The White Savior Complex

Yesterday I wrote about the little boy we are sponsoring in Ghana, Felix Kusi, and it got me thinking about this concept that I have become more and more familiar with in the past month or so, The White Savior Industrial Complex.
Basically, and I am sure I am oversimplifying this, the White Savior Complex is the idea that as White, Western, Americans we are "heroes" or "saviors" to the rest of the world, primarily non-white, impoverished peoples in Africa and the like. It is viewed as a very negative thing, with many asserting that those with this "complex" simply ride in on a white horse to make themselves feel and look good, but don't actually accomplish anything to alleviate real problems, and are insulting and belittling to the people they "help" by either implying or directly stating that they have no power to help themselves. Essentially, they are "saviors" who are rescuing the pitiful masses who can't do anything for themselves. At least that is the portrayal and generally what is meant when someone talks about the "White Savior."

Recently, Invisible Children has been accused of this, especially with the KONY 2012 campaign. Being that I am a ssupporter of that campaign, and that I am sponsoring a black child in Africa I thought it would be relevant to write a bit about this "complex."

I'm not going to write pages about this, afterall, it is a very complex issue, and I can see the point behind those that taut that this "White Savior Complex" is a very bad thing, but I tend to disagree, and here's why.

1. While there are definitely deeper rooted problems behind much of the poverty, hunger, sickness, etc... around the world, it doesn't change the fact that there are still these problems, and for many "white saviors" who are sending money/contributing to humanitarian efforts the desire is not to make themselves feel good, but to help those who are in need. Many individuals cannot change the governments that are contributing to these problems, and even many organizations cannot change these governments. They can contribute to helping the relieve the effects of these governments, and as such, is what they do. However, this is not to say that there can be nothing done. If anything, I think that the KONY 2012 campaign has shown that people can get active about causes, and influence their governments to take action. It is in this sort of campaign, one that involves governments, that change can be made to the causes behind the situations around the world.
2. The fact of the matter is that, in America, no matter who you are, you are riduclously rich and powerful compared to a lot of the rest of the world. What you spend on a coffee or burger in the course of an hour or so on any given day is probably more than the monthly income for many families around the world. To quote SpiderMan "With great power comes great responsibility" and to quote Jesus "Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more." -- Luke 12:48b  In America, as well as in many European countries, we have been given much, we have abundant blessings in food, money, shelter, health, rights, etc..., and therefore, much is expected from us. It is our duty to help provide for those who do not have, not as some "savior," but as fellow human beings.
3. The argument has been made that before trying to "fix" the situations of others we should fix our own country's foreign policies, etc... many of which may contribute to the poverty in Third World countries. I agree that we have an obligation to try and change these things as well. If there is a hole in your boat you eventually have to plug the hole, not just keep throwing buckets of water out of your boat. If you don't plug the hole, eventually you will sink, BUT if you are working on plugging the hole, you still have to throw the buckets of water out or you will sink. We need to fix foreign policies, etc... that contribute to corrupt governments and Third World poverty, but while working on that, we cannot ignore the fact that there are millions of men, women, and children dying of sickness and starvation.

So, there may be some who only want to help in order to give themselves a good feeling and a "hero" status, but I believe that this is not the case for the majority of those who help. The fact is that there are people who need help, and there are many ways to help, and many things that need to be done, but to essentially discount any assistance as a "White Savior Complex" is misguided in my opinion. Should we be seeking to fix underlying issues of corrupt and evil societies and governments? Of course! Should we be seeking to fix the corruption and greed in our own governments that contribute to this? Of course! Should we be giving money/assistance to help provide food, health, shelter, education to the people in need? Of course! Are we in America and other First World countries blessed beyond belief? Of course! Do we have a responsibility to use what we have been given to help those in need, whether in our own country or around the world? Of course! Are we saviors? Absolutely not! However, we are to show the love of the Savior to those around us!

To close this out I thought I would post some pictures that I found when I do a Google image search for White Savior Complex, just for fun. What do you think?

Felix Kusi, Ghana

Yesterday Manda and I got a packet in the mail. It was our Sponsor packet from Compassion International. This packet contained all the info about the little boy, Felix Kusi, that we recently sponsored. This little guy lives in Ghana, and is about to turn 5 on April 30. He is super cute, as you can see in the picture, and we are so happy to be sponsoring him!
It's amazing the dual heartache and joy that comes in sponsoring a kid across the globe. As we initially searched for a kid to sponsor, it was almost overwhelming, the sheer number of kids who live in poverty and sickness, who need help and support. It was impossible to pick a kid. I mean, how can you pick one over another? So we just basically sponsored the kid who had been waiting the longest, and that was Kusi. Now after that heartache, there is an incredible joy in knowing that we are going to be contributing to helping this little boy, to providing education, food, clothing, shelter, and the love of Christ.

This is something that we have been talking about for a long time, but always put off for various reasons, usually something along the lines of "we can't afford it right now," but really, we can absolutely afford it, as can a lot of people in the world, and almost everyone in the US, and secondly, if God is telling us to do something we need to do it, regardless of whether or not we think we can.

I am looking forward to getting letters from Kusi and getting to know more about him, and looking forward to writing to him and letting him know about Manda, Mallory and I! Since his birthday is coming up soon here, if anyone wants to leave a short birthday message for him we will try and send those in a special birthday note to him as well. :)

I encourage you, if you are not already, go sponsor a child! It's extremely rewarding, and you are giving hope and needed supplies to kids around the world.

Two organizations that I know are good are:

Compassion International
Website: http://www.compassion.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/compassionintl
Twitter: http://twitter.com/compassion
Google+: https://plus.google.com/107104884705564139268#107104884705564139268/posts
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/CompassionIntl
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/compassioninternational

World Vision
Website: http://www.worldvision.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/worldvision?lpos=bot_img_facebook
Twitter: http://twitter.com/WorldVisionUSA
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/worldvisionusa

"Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." - James 1:27 HCSB

"Isn’t the fast I choose:
To break the chains of wickedness,
to untie the ropes of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free,
and to tear off every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
to bring the poor and homeless into your house,
to clothe the naked when you see him,
and not to ignore your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will appear like the dawn,
and your recovery will come quickly.
Your righteousness will go before you,
and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard." - Isaiah 58:6-8 HCSB

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him

I wrote this 3 years ago around Easter. I meant to post it yesterday, but couldn't access it on my phone for some reason, so here it is, a day late, but it's still close enough to Easter. Plus, it's true no matter what time of year it is.

These words were made famous by Friedrich Nietzsche*, but I am sure he was not the first to think or utter them. Close to 2000 years ago there were many with these words on their minds and mouths. Some were screaming them in total joy; others were whispering them in disbelief, shock, and horror, and still others were weeping them in mourning, but, just like Nietzsche*, all were wrong.

2000 years ago in Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, a common punishment of the time, for heresy. There was something different about this death. Jesus was killed for claiming to be God, but the fact was that He was the Son of God, Jesus was God, God was dead, and all the forces of darkness and evil were thrilled, but they were wrong.

While Jesus died as a sacrifice for us. He did not stay dead, and no one killed Him. There has been controversy since He was crucified about who killed Him. Some blame the Jews, others blame the Romans, and Satan took pride in thinking he had slain his arch enemy, but the fact, again, is that no one killed God. He went willingly to the cross and laid himself out to die because He loves us, and in that one ultimate sacrifice, He saved us all eternally.

So when Nietzsche* says, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him," he, along with everyone else who ever has or ever will think or speak these words, is wrong.

God died (in an act of ultimate sacfricial love). He rose from the dead and remains alive today. He laid down His own life. No one took it from Him.

"Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" -- 1 Corinthians 15:54b-55

*For all you philosophical people out there, I know that Nietzsche was not necessarily talking about the physical and literal death of God, but about the symbolic death of God through the death and dissolving of religion and morals. While this is somewhat true, true religion, that which God accepts and is in, is not what Nietzsche or most people view it has. It has nothing to do with ritual or tradition.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." -- James 1:27

This type of religion is not dead because the author and creator of it is not dead.

Happy Easter!

KONY 2012: Part II - Beyond Famous

It's only 20 minutes. Watch it. Get involved. Stay involved.

A Loving Relationship

Wow, I haven't written a blog in a quite a while! I've been pretty busy and lots of craziness going on, but life is good and God is good!

This weekend is Easter, which is so exciting! I love Easter for so many reasons, I love the brightly colored eggs and Easter egg hunts. I love Easter baskets full of toys and candies. I love the food and the time spent with family. But most of all, I love the fact that we are celebrating the single most important event in the course of human history. Christmas is my favorite holiday overall, but when it comes to significance, especially in relation to God, Easter is at the top!

Easter is a time to celebrate the fact that God defeated death! He was tortured, and crucified for my sins, which is an unbelievable example of His love, but His death, what happened on Good Friday, would be essentially pointless if it wasn't for His Resurrection on Easter. Easter is the celebration, the remembrance that God is truly ALIVE! It is His life that enables us to have salvation, to be reconciled with Him, to have a relationship, and that part is important, RELATIONSHIP.

See, God didn't die and rise again just so that we could have an impersonal worship system, or an intellectual reverence for Him. He suffered, died, and came back to life so that we could have a personal relationship with Him. Yes we worship and revere Him, but not as some God aloof, but as one our souls are passionately enthralled with. This is something that God has been convicting me of lately. I have fallen into the trap of knowing and revering God intellectually and worshipping Him systematically, but not loving Him passionately, and I need to. Without that passion and love I am missing out on what this whole Christianity thing is all about. I am missing the purpose for Christ's death and resurrection. I am missing the true meaning of Easter, and I am missing the complete fulfillment that God is longing to provide me.

So regardless of where you are at this Easter, whether you have zero relationship or desire for a relationship with God; have that relationship, but are stuck in the "religion" and the systematic worship and intellectual reverance of God; or you are passionately enveloped in the loving relationship that Christ defeated death to gift to you, I encourage you to seek to love Him more, to fall deeper and deeper in love with Him and to truly understand both the sacrifice Christ made for you and incredible power and gift that came as a result of His coming back to life.

We don't worship a dead or made up God. We worship a God who is well and alive and who is offering us life and joy and relationship. The ball is in your court whether you will accept it or not.

"“You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has been resurrected! He is not here! ..." -- Mark 16:6b

"Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me." -- Revelation 3:20

From Passion to Action

This whole Invisible Children #Kony2012 campaign has kinda blown up, and it's been really awesome to see Twitter, Facebook, and everything else flooded with news about the campaign over the last couple days. The video on YouTube has received over 52.5 million views since 03/05, and the White House has responded to the campaign.

In case you haven't watched the KONY 2012 Trailer, here it is. Watch it...but don't stop there.
 

So you've watched the video, and probably shared the video, but what now? It is so easy to get passionate about something, to feel it tug at your heartstrings, to get fired up about something and speak loudly about it, but at some point, that passion that you feel has to transform into action.

In the case of KONY 2012, that action needs to be in the form of writing/calling your Representatives and Senators, encouraging them to continue in this effort to bring Joseph Kony down, because it doesn't matter how many times the video is shown if the ones who have the power to enforce/enact law are not behind it.

Here is a link where you can find contact info for your elected officials: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

This concept is true, however, of not just this campaign. Think about it. How many movements, campaigns, organizations, ideas have you come across that you support, are passionate about? Maybe you feel very strongly about it or talk to those around you about how great it is, but then you stop there. Your emotional passion stays just that and is never transformed into action.

I've seen and felt this many times myself. It is easy to feel the passion, but the action takes a bit or a lot more work. It takes sacrifice of time, money, security, status, etc... and for many, myself included, the action is not worth the sacrifice, or at the very least, the sacrifice scares us unto inaction.

I, sadly, see this all too often with Christians. We are loud to speak out about issues, or invite people to come to church as long as we are online, but if we are asked to give up an afternoon to go feed the homeless, some money every month to support an orphan, or our sense of security to actually talk to someone about Christ or simply get to know, and show God's love to, our neighbors we shy away. What we become so passionate about in theory we shy away from in action because of the work and sacrifice it involves.

So I encourage you today, stand up for your convictions, whether they be political, religious, social, etc... Turn your passion into action. If you believe something enough to talk about it constantly online, stand convicted in it enough to act on it offline.

Child Soldiers & Sex Slaves -- Stop at Nothing

Last night I attended a screen filming, at which I learned about a man who has been abducting children out of their homes and villages for the past 26 years and forcing the boys to become child soldiers, killing their own parents and mutilating the faces of other people/children, and the girls to become sex slaves. In the past 26 years he has abducted over 30,000 children and forced them to join his army, an army that is not fighting for any real goal or purpose.

This man's name is Joseph Kony. He is the #1 indicted war criminal for the International Criminal Court, and he was indicted 7 years ago, yet, a lot of people do not know who he is. The purpose of the film last night was to bring awareness of who this man is and the atrocities that he has committed. The organization behind this film is Invisible Children, seeking to make the plight of these "Invisible" Children in Africa "Visible" to the entire world so that something will finally be done to stop Joseph Kony.

The film, entitled Kony 2012, makes the plea that this year, 2012, needs to be the year to finally arrest Kony. There has been momentum in getting the US Government/military to assist the Ugandan government/military in finding Kony and bringing him to justice, but it needs to happen soon, this year, before interest and concern wanes, because when that happens, when people stop caring, the US Government/military will pull out, and w/o their help, the Ugandan government/military will have a very difficult time finding Kony.

Invisible Children has done a ton of good to help these children, to warn families when the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), Joseph Kony's army is coming, to let people in the LRA know that they can leave, and now they are reaching out to the world. They are reaching out to politicians, celebrities, athletes, talk show hosts, and every one of you, the general public, to band together and stand against the terror that is happening every day in Africa, to demand that governments do something, stop Kony.

Here's what you can do:

1. Sign a pledge of support to arrest Kony and disarm the LRA: http://www.kony2012.com/
2. Share the video Kony 2012, which goes live to everyone on March 5
3. Message the specific Culturemakers that Invisible Children has targeted. Ask them to get involved.
4. Message the specific Policy Makers that Invisible Children has targeted. Ask them to get involved.
5. Post posters and stickers, post Status updates and Twitter updates, talk to people, do whatever you can to make Joseph Kony famous, or infamous as the case may be. Make sure that there is no one who doesn't know who Joseph Kony is and what he has done! 

I had heard about Invisible Children in passing, kinda knew what they stood for, but didn't really have any idea what was going on until last night, when I saw the film and I heard a woman speak, a woman from Uganda, who grew up in the midst of these horrors, whose family and friends have been taken by Joseph Kony, some to escape and others never to be heard from again.

So, I urge you to get involved, make your voice loud so that those who have the power to capture this man know that the people demand it, and so that Joseph Kony is finally arrested and brought to justice this year, 2012.

For more info check out http://invisiblechildren.com/; http://www.kony2012.com; Follow Invisible Children on Twitter: @Invisible and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/invisiblechildren

Also, check out my cousin, Danny Porter's Facebook page, as he is the one who brought this to my knowledge, and he is dedicated to helping. https://www.facebook.com/sylvesterstallone

Heaven: Part II

Last week, in X-session, we talked about what Heaven is, what the Bible shows it to be, and what we might be doing there. This week, we talked about Heaven again, but in a different way.

I have a question: During the course of the day, what type of things do you think about? What are the top themes that occupy your thoughts? For me, its a wide array of things, including:

• Family (M&M)
• Church/Youth Group
• Money
• House/Yard/Projects
• Sci-Fi Stuff (Black Holes, Time/Space, Aliens, End of the World, etc...)
• Death
• Job

And there is a ton of other things I think about during the course of any given day, just as, I'm sure, you have tons of things you think about. Now, my 2nd question is this: What percentage of your thoughts are about Heaven? That can be Heaven directly, or how it relates to something else. For example: Heaven comes into my thoughts thinking about my Family, Church/Youth Group, Death, and even Sci-Fi Stuff. However, Heaven does not constitute a majority of my thoughts, and I doubt it does for most of you. But it should.

Here's what the Bible has to say:

Colossians 3:1-4 (NLT)
1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.


We are told very clearly that we should "think about the things of heaven." Heaven should be on the forefront of our minds. We should be thinking about Heaven all the time, not about the things of earth. So what are the things of earth? Pretty much everything that we think about. Bills, money, job, planning, friends, family, clothes, gadgets, popularity, school, and the list goes on an on. What takes up most of our thoughts are things of this earth, but it shouldn't be this way. Heaven is such a remarkable, incredible promise for us, we should be thinking about it, thinking about the God of Heaven, thinking about ensuring others get there as well, but why?

We are also told:

Matthew 6:19-21 (HCSB)
19 “Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

This takes it one step further. Not only should the things of this earth not occupy our thoughts, they shouldn't occupy our homes, storage sheds, wallets, etc... We shouldn't be obsessed with gathering worldly possessions, whether that be money, clothes, iPods, cars, gadgets, whatever. These things aren't bad in an of themselves, but they are temporary, and when we get so obsessed with collecting these "treasures" we lose sight of our real treasure in Heaven that is not temporary, does not decay or break or fall apart, and cannot be taken from us. "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," and our hearts should not be here, but why?

Here's why:

1 Peter 2:11 (HCSB)
11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

As Christians, we are strangers, temporary residents, foreigners, aliens to this world. We don't belong here and this place is not our home. To think about it, in the course of eternity, our time spent on earth is a thousandth of a fraction of a second, too small to even think about. We will be spending eternity in Heaven with our Lord, so we shouldn't be placing too much though/energy to this world. If you think about it, when you go on vacation, you have a good time, you enjoy yourself, but you don't delude yourself into thinking that that vacation spot is your home. It is the same with us, this world is not our home, so we should not store up treasures here, we should not focus our thoughts on things of this world, and we should not engage with the things of this world that separate us from God. We should behave, think, act in such a way that we point to God, we point to Heaven, and we encourage others to take a look.

God Bless!

R.I.P. (For real this time)

So I realized today that my post yesterday may have been somewhat callous as it was entitled R.I.P. and was a joke about my car dying, when, in fact, there was a tragic school shooting in Ohio yesterday in which 3 kids, as of now, were killed.

So, I just wanted to take this time to offer my condolences to the families of those who were killed, and say that I am praying for them, for all of the students at the school, and for the student who comitted the shooting, as well as his family.

I may never understand why things like this happen, and it is so tragic when it does, but regardless of whetehr or not we understand the darkness in this world, I know that there is a light that pierces through the thickest darkness, that light is Jesus. He is hope, peace, comfort, and salvation when everything else is falling away.

R.I.P.

On February 24th, at approximately 21:20, HX passed from this life. A last ditch effort to save him on the afternoon of February 25th proved unsuccesful. He was 12 years old. He is survived by Hybrid. During his life, HX was a great car. He provided transportation for many people to and from work, church, movies, putt putt, dates, restaurants, and much more. He transported concrete, sod, furniture, clothing, wood, presents, books, and more. He was ridden in by babies, children, teenagers, young adults, adults, and seniors. Unfortunately, during the course of his life he experienced several accidents, which caused permanent damage and scarred his appearance. As a result of these accidents, he received life ending injuries, which, while allowing him to live and function for several more years, eventually took his life. He will be missed.

(My 2000 Honda Civic HX finally died on Friday. The transmission went out. I will now be looking for a new car, but for now I am driving my mom's baby blue bug.)

Speak the Truth in Love

Today is SWAT Seminar 2012! I know I already wrote a blog about it, and I'm not going to duplicate that, but I did want to write a quick blog about apologetics in general. In case you don't know, SWAT stands for Spiritual Warfare & Apologetics Training, and the focus of the seminar is exactly that, spiritual warfare and apologetics.

So a few quick things to note about Christian apologetics. Apologetics is the study of defense of your faith, in this case Christianity. This means using science, yes science, (astronomy, geology, biology, etc...) history, archeology, philosophy, logic, etc... to show evidence and proof for different claims about Christianity, the Bible, and God.

If you are a Christian, a few important things to note about apologetics:

• It is important to be able to show why you believe what you believe, to be able to give a defense for your faith.
• There are many things that the Bible claims that actually can be proven, much more than most would assume.
• Critical thinking, logical reasoning, and having an open mind are essential.
• You do not have to completely abandon science, history, archeology, etc... to be a Christian.
• Not everything about Christianity, the Bible, and God can be proven, and not everything will be able to be. There are some things that must be taken on faith.

If you are not a Christian, a few important things to note about apologetics: (Mostly are the same):

• There are many things that the Bible claims that actually can be proven, scientifically, logically, etc..., much more than most would assume.
• Critical thinking, logical reasoning, and having an open mind are essential. Don't let bias cloud facts.
• You do not have to completely abandon science, history, archeology, etc... to be a Christian, and there are many extremely educated people, and scientists, who hold many degrees, who are Christians, and are able to combine their faith with their education without compromising on either.
• Not everything about Christianity, the Bible, and God can be proven, and not everything will be able to be. There are some things that must be taken on faith, but an important thing to remember is that an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

One more thing to remember as you dive into apologetics. The purpose of apologetics is to provide proof and evidence for your faith, but it should not be used to beat people over the head with all the facts and proof you have. First and foremost, God is all about love, and while it is important to learn and educate yourself and be able to provide an answer when people say your faith can't possibly be true, it is important to do so in love. "Speak the truth in love." Ultimately, it was God's love for us that caused Him to sacrifice so we could be with Him, and our most important directive is to love Him and to love others, and while it is incredible how much we can prove and how much evidence God has left. God does not need us to defend Him. He stands alone.

So learn about how to defend your faith, learn all the incredible things we have evidence for, learn to think logically, about God and the world around us, but in it all don't forget to love those around you!

If you want to come to SWAT, it is tonight (Feb. 24) from 6:30-9 and tomorrow (Feb. 25) 8:30-3:30 (lunch provided) at the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum. Admission is $25. Speakers include J.P. Moreland, Craig Hazen, and Luke McKinnon. Topics include: Christianity Among the World Religions, Case for the Existence of the Soul, Evidence for the Resurrection, Apologetics & C.S. Lewis, and In Defense of Truth & Ethics. www.swatseminar.com

"DuckTales, Woo Ohh ..."

I came home yesterday, and my mom had bought TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Rescue Rangers for "Mallory" or Manda & I, whichever. This is incredibly exciting! I used to watch all of these as a kid, and I absolutely loved them. Thinking about it now, however, I can't really remember much about either TaleSpin or Rescue Rangers. I do remember, however, that I had a plastic TaleSpin plane with all the characters that I would play with when I was younger. :) Fun times.

As far as DuckTales goes, I remember that one the best of the three. I think my favorite episode, and I can't remember if it was a single episode or a movie or what, was the Hand of Midas one where they had a golden duck, or goose, or something like that, that would turn anything it touched to gold, but before long it started to go crazy, and they had to get it back on this fountain before it turned the entire world, and everything in it, to gold. :) Not sure if that is included in this set or not, but I'm excited to watch and find out.

One thing I can't remember about DuckTales, however, is the theme song. "Duck Tales, Woo Ohh ... duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh ... Duck Tales, Woo Ohh ..." Does anyone else remember the lyrics?

Happy Wednesday!

Fat Tuesday

Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, a day to indulge before Lent, 40 days of fasting. I've never really participated in either of these events, Mardi Gras or Lent, but I find it interesting that they are so closely tied together. Today is a day of revelry and partying, embracing everything from fatty foods to alcohol to sex. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with throwing a party and having a good time. Unfortunately, there is a lot wrong with many of the activities that take place along with the parties and celebrations on Mardi Gras. What I find so confusing about this celebration is the fact that it is so closely connected with Lent, with a time of fasting and worshipping God. So many people in the world give up something for Lent, and tomorrow marks the beginning of that with people placing ashes on their foreheads to mark mourning and repentance to God for their sins and faults. Now, what seems odd to me is why have a day in which you purposefully indulge in everything that you will then repent of the next day?

People are messed up, and people screw up all the time, but as a Christian, Christ has freed us from sin and given us salvation. The freedom does not mean that we can now indulge in whatever we want, whenever we want, because all we have to do is repent and everything will be ok. Repent, afterall, doesn't mean to say, "I'm sorry." It means a turning of the heart, true remorse over your actions and a desire and commitment to change. If you repent and fast for 40 days, but all the time knowing that the next year you will indulge again, this is not true repentance.

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." -- Galatians 5:13

"Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" -- Romans 6:1-2

I find it so sad that the parties and celebrations revolve around the fact that people are indulging in .. whatever. Essentially, it is a celebration of the sin in our lives, and almost a mourning over the fact that it will be going away for the next 40 days. Instead of throwing a party as a last hurrah for our sin, as Christians, we should be throwing a party every day in celebration of the freedom and salvation we have in Christ, not mourning or missing the old life that we gave up, and not using our freedom as an opportunity to sin more, but using it as an opportunity to love those around us! So today, instead of showering others with beads, shower those around you love.

God Bless!