change.

Echo of Sacrifice

2010-10-25T00:36:00.001-04:00

Why does self-sacrifice resonate so well inside of the human soul? I mean, think about it, the most heinous of crimes throughout history are basically selfish acts and the most praiseworthy and honorable traits and actions are self-sacrificial. There is power in one human beings giving of themselves for the sake of another. It’s quite inevitable that I look to Christ to see the greatest example of this sacrifice of self, and I stand in awe of it, but a peculiarity worth noting is the itch in my heart to see actions of self sacrifice and be a person who acts and gives self sacrificially.

John Eldredge says that in movies the things that stir us most are things our hearts long for and desire. Tonight even, watching a kids movie, “How To Train Your Dragon,” in one of the final scenes (spoiler alert) the main dragon sacrifices himself and dives into a vast gulf of flame and almost certain death in order to do anything he can to save his master. This scene sent shivers down my spine, tugged at the strings of my heart. There are more stories than this, stories of people giving beyond what they can, stories of martyrs dying for others, stories of people running into flaming buildings because there is the possibility that someone is still inside. This is honor; this is courage; this is valor, to lay down one’s life for another’s. It is as if God had written this law into us, this law of self-sacrificial love; which, if obeyed brings true peace, joy and contentment, but if disobeyed or broken brings pain, unsettledness and discontent. You know this to be true, don’t you? I know I do.

Thus continues Christ’s act of sacrifice, echoing through the ages. For grace reaches, perpetually. Redemption acts, continually. Restoration breathes in and exhales wholeness, newness… life. This is the very call to honor, the very deep crying to deep, resonating and resounding in the deepest fathoms of our hearts. His act is the statement of freedom, the pronouncement of life abundant for all of His sons and daughters. But, consequently, it too is the mandate for you and I to go and do likewise. So, may you… further, may I… answer this call to give up and give of ourselves.

An Exploration in Redemption

2010-10-20T17:06:00.002-04:00

The past can suffocate the present, the future can blind the present and in the present you cannot easily forget the past and stop thinking of the future. This is my experience during the past 2 months. It started with focusing too much on the future.

Dreams and aspirations, I think, have always run high in the idealistic minds of college graduates. I was looking forward to future career, future marriage, and future place to live. Looking forward, like looking through binoculars down the road while driving, so what was around me was completely blurred or blinded. You see, while focused so much on the future you aren’t able to dream in the present. To dream in the present you have to be fully present; passionate about where you are, and aspiring to be a better you in whatever situation you are placed in or have decided to go. However, straining for the future can only doom the present.

I forgot about my life then and there. I forgot about simply being who I expected myself to be in the future. Righteousness didn’t matter, for I would be righteous; happiness didn’t matter, for I would be happy; worse yet, wholeness didn’t matter, for I would be whole. As I said, it can only doom the present, and doom my present it did. Everything fell apart; though, probably for good reason. Even though it completely messed with me, it also humbled me; this caused me to think about who I am and what I am doing. After this crashed down on my head, it felt as if I had nowhere to go. After my relationship evaporated before my eyes, I was completely broken; I didn’t do much but cry and think about what happened and why.

This was a problem though, because I began to agree with the doubts that had been circling around in my head for so long. Doubts that stated I am no good, that I will never be anything, that I am a low-life hypocrite, etc… These, however, wouldn’t be all that bad should they have been based in and stayed in the past; if I would have thought that I was no good or I was a low love. Now those thoughts had leaked and leeched their way into the present.

I feel the need to get a little philosophical here, in order to help myself understand these events. The present, though only a moment, is still a part of life. The present carries the same weight as the past and the future. I have heard it said that we are to live in the present, that the past has passed and the future will come inevitably – so don’t worry about it. I cannot forget though that the past and the future play into the present. The “past” is a culmination of all of our stored memory; the places we have been, the things we have seen, the people we have met and all of the experiences there in. The “future” is a summation of our hopes, desires, dreams and aspirations which haven’t had the dissatisfaction of being thwarted by upset and pain or even had the satisfaction of being assured and added too by triumph and courage; the future hasn’t happened, but it is just as real – whether that is idealistically or pessimistically.

What makes the present different is that it is, at it’s nature, an act. Every moment and instance of the present is full of things to do, and choices to be made. This is the beauty of the present. Only in the present do you have the active sense that you can do or be and act accordingly. The present is power to the uttermost, it is the apparent ability of taking your own fate into your own hands; being who you want to be, acting as you want to act. But then you remember the past, you see your actions, you see the path you have been on; while at the same time you discern the future, and think that you are to continue on that same path as dictated by your past. And with that, as Thoreau states, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” we become convinced that we no longer have a choice.

This, simply is not true. Even Thoreau continues, “When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices.” Every moment, as we can see in the definition of a moment, is new and capable of something new. Every moment is capable of great good or great evil, but to disregard the capability of good or bad, every moment is simply and beautifully capable.

I have been stuck on this for the past 2 or 3 months, because i have struggled to believe this. That my past does not dictate the present, nor does my presumed future inhibit the present.

Do you see the magnitude of this??? (Do i see it, for that matter?) This is the promise of redemption that you and I have received from God, that we are not our past; that Israel is not doomed in it’s sin; that Paul is no longer the Pharisee he once was; that peter is no longer resigned to run from responsibility or cower in fear; that you and I are not lost, that we are not abandoned, that we are not beyond hope, not beyond restoration and redemption. Christ has cleansed and sanctified the past, and has given hope and dreams for the future; thus he redeems you and I here and now.

If i have made mistakes, and made them i have, they do not have any bearing on the present. If i have had victories, and victories i have had; they do not have any bearing on the present. This God given present is outside of everything I know because I have the ability to be who i have longed to be for so long, if only i choose to act, decide to be.

Here and now is new. Here and now is different, yet the same as every other moment. You have never been who you are here and now. And you do not have to be who you were there and then. This is the fullness of redemption, the extent of restoration that God offers us.

"...for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for i have redeemed you." - Isaiah 44:21b-22

What do you think?

What is redemption?

To what is it’s extent?

Is this true for you? Rather, have you seen it or experienced it in your life?

2010-09-09T14:13:00.001-04:00

Redemption.

That's what my next post will be about; I'm not ready to write it right now.

The Dark Night

2009-09-17T09:43:00.002-04:00

"Let it suffice to say, then, that God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of his love for us, urges us to grow up. His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason he takes us into a dark night. He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness." - John of the Cross

That's quite the last name, "of the Cross." And i think i can understand why he received that name; because like David he was a man after God's heart. This idea of the "dark night of the soul" doesn't sound like some sort of thought from a great father of the church, rather it sounds like something some trendy youth pastor would speak about today. Comforting, may it be, that throughout the history of the church Christians have been plagued with times of separation from and seeming abandonment from God. Dr. Tim Elmore even talked about this at school this week; talking about how sometimes we will be all "buddy, buddy" with Jesus and feeling good about life, while at other times Christ will take a step back and we will feel this separation and abandonment. Thank you John of the cross for giving an explanation for this, that God is in fact urging us to "grow up."

Growing Pains

Just as when you are growing up from a child to a teenager, or even from a 20-something to a 30-something; it is awkward. Growth doesn't flow, it doesn't have a set pattern, and it doesn't care how we feel about it... but we grow none the less. Out of the "inward darkness" and "dry times," God is urging, shouting even, "grow up!" Live in my light!

But man, it doesn't feel good, it is awkward, it doesn't flow, it doesn't have a pattern, and sure enough even though we don"t feel too great about it; it doesn't matter. This growth is utter necessity.

Here is what John says at the beginning of the chapter: "At a certain point in the spiritual journey God will draw a person from the beginning stage to a more advanced stage. At this stage the person will begin to engage in religious exercises and grow deeper in the spiritual life. Such souls will likely experience what is called 'the dark night of the soul.' The 'dark night' is when those persons lose all the pleasure that they once experienced in their devotional life. This happens because God want to purify them and move them on to greater heights."

Fighting

At the end of this thought on the dark night of the John says, "In doing so he is able to take away all these vices and create virtues within us. Through the dark night pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes moderation, envy becomes joy, and sloth becomes strength. No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the dark night."

We fight our own growth because what would have been virtues (humility, strength, joy, peace, etc...) turned into vices, "capitol sins." Where we focused on humility, we became prideful, in focusing on simplicity we lust in greed, in trying to be strong we become weak and lazy... This happens not because of neglect or some failing in yours or my spirit, but because of our reliance on our devotions and our church services and our "motions." I have been heavily involved in the local church the last few years, but all that has happened is the degradation of my soul because i haven't looked to Christ for growth, but when God stopped giving me joy and fulfillment through worship or messages, i turned all the more to those things... instead of turning to God. We rely on our devotion, devoting ourselves to ourselves. We become prideful, greedy, envious, gluttonous because we never take our eyes off ourselves; our needs, our wants and our desires... Sure, my chief desire, want and need could have been to be near to God, but i didn't go to God and surrender that, i focused on myself, became critical and self-centered. My focus was inward, not out.

Hope

But that is why we feel the dryness, and the abandonment... Because God wants us to truly grow up, to continue to kill the old self, not just the old sins and the old habits, but the old idols, our masks, our charades; to get rid of our reliance on ourselves and our competency to get along in church and pull strings and continue in the motions.God wants to recreate us, we become full, our "pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes moderation, envy becomes joy, and sloth becomes strength."

God, help us grow up, we know you are calling us deeper.

We surrender our feelings to rest on what we know.

You are good, you love us, and you know us.

Cement those things in our hearts.

Amen

Long time no post.

2009-07-22T16:26:00.003-04:00

The last post was over a year ago.
A lot changes in a year.
Friends change, places change, people change... Everything changes.
Not sure who said it, maybe some math guy... they said, "Change is the only constant."
I'd think that to be true.
I have learned a lot about myself. Good and bad, primarily bad.
The flaws in my character have finally reared their ugly heads and smacked me in the face.
It's about time really.
It still hurts though.
Not just myself, but others too.
There has been good in this past year though...
I have learned that in order to be a man i must be a son first.
That's difficult.
Difficult to understand and even more difficult to believe.
To believe i can be a son of God the Father, that is.
I might start posting in here again sometime soon.
Not sure though.
No promises.
If anyone even reads this.
Maybe it would be even better if this was all to myself :)
That would be kind of nice actually.

women.

2008-05-25T01:44:00.003-04:00

... with a catchy title like that who wouldn't be interested in this post???
I am reading three books at the same time right now, the cost of discipleship by dietrich bonhoeffer, a biography about rich mullins, and through painted deserts by donald miller. It is weird to juggle three books in your mind, but they each kind of talk about the same thing in different ways. Bonhoeffer talks about life idealy, the biography talks about rich's life, and Miller talks about living life.
All about life.
So, inevitably, reading about life makes you think about life. And i have been thinking about a lot, but in this chapter in Through Painted Deserts Don and his friend Paul are driving and they are talking about the ideal woman. Paul says his idea first and pretty much wants some hippy girl that will go with him and be with him in all his travels and craziness, but then in a glimpse of seriousness Paul says, "I guess I'm looking for what any guy is looking for. I want a companion, you know. Just someone to share life with. I want her to be my biggest fan and i want to be her biggest fan too. I want us to raise kids in a home where they know their parents are in love with each other and with them. I guess that's all i want."
Then, as Don's answer to the question, he says, "A friend. A true friend, someone who knows me and loves me anyway. You know, like when I'm through putting my best foot forward, shes still there, still the same. I meet these people and its all conditional, like you were saying..." (Paul was talking about how often we conditionally love people based upon physical appearance and that beauty is in every girl equally, or something like that.) "...They are in it for themselves. They are friends with you because you fit the image they want to portray. It's a selfish thing. Do you know what i mean? I'd like to get a girl who doesnt think like that. Dont get me wrong. Shes got to be proud of her husband, I know that. I dont mind trying to make it easy on her in that way. But all in all, theres got to be some sort of soul mate thing going on. Thats gonna take work, I think. There are some people in this world who love their spouse because they provide them with the life they want, and there are others who love their spouse just because theyve chosen to, or because love has chosen them, or whatever. Something way back endeared one to the other and they made a decision to lock into it."
The second quote may be harder to follow but i think both of them have truth in them. When anyone wants a relationship they just want a couple basic things: To be loved, To be supported, To be connected. I think that might make sense.

Love is a big thing, a big and crazy thing, it is so big that it is totally incomprehensible.... yet small enough to be present at all times.
Thank you God.
I'll just end it there, otherwise i would keep typing to try and explain what is going on in my head... there is no end to that though. So.... uh... toodles.

church.

2008-05-20T14:08:00.002-04:00

Im reading a biography about Rich Mullins right now, and here are a couple of crazy quotes...

"It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects - education, building, missions, holding services.... The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose."
- C. S. Lewis

"I think that all these doctrinal statements that all the congregations come up with over the years are basically just not very worthwhile. I dont mean to sound mean toward the people who came up with them. I understand in the past there have been many heretical movements, and we still need to maintain sound doctrine... But i think our real doctrine is that doctrine that is born out in our character. I think you can profess the Apostles' Creed until Jesus returns, but if you dont love somebody, you never were a Christian."
- Rich Mullins

"Everything that has ever happened has failed, and it will continue to fail. But i think that's because God is a jealous God. And He will not share us even with our best ideas about Him. And when Christ has stripped away all of our "phoney-baloney" kind of systematic theology, all of our lame, Protestant kind of stupidity, all of our Catholic hang-ups, when Christ has stripped away everything that we have invented about Him, then maybe we will encounter Him as He really is. And we will know ourselves as we really are."
- Rich Mullins

The purpose of the church:
To love Christ.
To love one another.

I like simple answers... Though this one takes a while to get your mind around as to how you will actually do it.

new.

2008-05-12T18:43:00.002-04:00

Per the statement of my friend mike "you need to update this more" or something along those lines, i will do so.
Please note that this blog looks different than it used to, and i did that on purpose. I was just thinking about the last year, and ive realized how i have changed quite a bit. For some reason the old orange and brown color scheme of the theme of the blog didnt communicate any sort of change, rather the same feeling as that of when i first started this blog 3 years ago.
This may not seem like im saying much, but think about it, we've all changed a lot in the past 3 years. 3 years ago i was still in high school, i thought i had a total grasp on the world, and all of my friend called me conscience. I was the one that people went to for advice, but that people steered away from when they messed up because they didnt want to feel guilty from my words of "that was bad" or "that was wrong." I was graduating and i wanted to go to school for ministry, to be a senior pastor at a normal church right here in the u.s. of a. I had it all figured out, i thought i was closer with God than i had ever been before and really, i just thought the world of myself, without actually thinking the world of myself.
Then that summer hit, i worked at a camp south of Grand Haven, called Christian Reformed Conference Grounds, and it was that summer that i reached an all-time spiritual low. I didnt like that job a whole lot, and i didnt really connect with most of the people there, so i just felt lonely. So when i went to school in the fall it was a God-send.
And it truly was, getting to school i was able to make a few really close friends that have poured into me, and helped me to grow a whole lot. It was during freshman year that i first realized and actually truly believed that God loved me (after reading Romans). It was very good and a good year for a lot of growth and just figuring out who i was (not entirely, but at least a little).
That Spring i went to Albania, and it was there that i began to realize a call that i may have to go into some sort of missions work, maybe not in the normal sense of the phrase, but i just knew i needed to leave the U.S. That also made me change a lot because i realized that America wasnt as great as previously thought, and i grew quite cynical; which would take a long time to process through, only with the help of mentors was i able to find some sort of balance that would get rid of a sort of constant guilt of "not doing enough."
Then that summer i was going to work at the conference grounds again, but God had other plans and instead i traveled on a drama team through Indiana Wesleyan. That summer stretched me a lot, i had to be outgoing, i had to live on less than 7 hours of sleep every single night while during the day playing games and giving a hundred percent to keep up with middle schoolers and high schoolers during their week of summer camp (and my 8 weeks of summer camp). I have never been so tired, and i had never had to really rely on God like i had to that summer.
So even starting off this past year i was quite different, only to change more. I was the desk manager in my dorm and I used that as sort of my ministry to meet with guys and mentor them, so i met with 6 or 7 guys regularly each week for about an hour, pouring into them, and just trying to get to know them. They ended up teaching me more than i could have ever taught them. It was a really stretching year, with a lot of different things that happened.

All of that said, heres the kicker... if i can take away one thing from the past few years, one concrete thing, is that no matter what happens, one thing is constant: change. I think that some famous person said that one time, or something along those lines, but i think im starting to understand that. I dont think i have everything figured out right now, i know i have some things that i have learned and places where i am growing but i have merely started running in this race. And i suppose that is all one can do... run. Well, at least move, and hopefully move forward, that is what growth is. Growth isnt getting bigger, or gaining more knowledge, but it is simply going some place where you have never been before and pushing through it.

I just started reading a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer titled "The Cost of Discipleship" and in the introduction it talks about something that i am only beginning to comprehend. I dont understand it all yet, and i dont even know if i believe it or can apply it to my life yet, but this is where i must go next. He writes:

"When the Bible speaks of following Jesus, it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate mankind from all man-made dogmas, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and toture which aflicts the conscience. If they follow Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ. But does this mean that we ignore the seriousness of his commands? Far from it. We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, as appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burde easy, and under its gently pressure recieves the power to persever in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, un utterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. "His commands are not grievous" (1 John 5:3). The commandment of Jesus is not a sort of spiritual shock treatment. jesus asks nothing of us without giving us the stregth to perform it. His commandment never seeks to destroy life, but to foster, strengthen and heal it.
But one question still troubles us. What can the call to discipleship mean to-day for the worker, the business man, the squire and the soldier? Does it not lead to an intolerable dichotomy between our lives as workers in the world and our lives as Christians? If Christianity means following Christ, is it not a religion for a small minority, a spiritual elite? Does it not mean the repudiation of the great mass of society, and a hearty contempt for the weak and the poor? Yet surely such an attitude is the exact opposite of the gracious mercy of Jesus Christ, who came to the publicans and sinners, the weak and the poor, the erring and the hopeless. Are those who belong to Jesus only a few, or are they many? He died on the cross alone, abandoned by his disciples. With him were crucified, not two of his followers, but two murderers. But they all stood beneath the cross, enemies and believers, doubters and cowards, revilers and devoted followers. His prayer, in that hour, and his forgiveness, was meant for them all, and for all their sins. The mercy and lof of God are at work in the midst of his enemies. It is the same Jesus Christ, who of his grace calls us to follow him, and whose grace saves the murderer who mocks him on the cross in his last hour."

What exactly does it mean to follow him? Well, Bonhoeffer says that "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." This is the new place where growth needs to be. This is that strange land where i need to run straight into it and hope not that i make it out alive, but die. Die to myself so that i can live totally in Christ.
Man, that sounded almost poetic.
Alright, thats all i feel like writing, im tired now.
I need a nap.
I will try to continue updating this Mr. Mike Koert.
Ok Bye.

Conversations

2007-09-13T12:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, i realize that it has been a very long time since i have updated in here (last entry was june 2) but i think that is ok because im sure that not many people read this anyway. However, whenever i have something going on in my head i like to write it out and share it with other people, so if you read this, please enjoy.
The past week has been an interesting week for me. I have been learning a lot about what exactly God's will is for my life right now. I know now that it is not God's will for me to have anybody else in my life than Him and only Him. I have found that in my life i have subconsciously been putting certain things before God in my life, and that can never happen, and i never meant it to happen, though, it did.
So that is obviously a problem, why does that happen that one minute you think you are doing everything right and according to God's plan, then the next minute God does the firm slap in the face and you realize how you suck. I have had a lot of conversations lately and by far the most thought provoking have been those with my friend Julian. He and i will sit down from time to time and just think out loud with each other and praise God through the conversation. Lately we have just been talking about what exactly it is to love God with everything, and at the same time love others with everything.
I can look to that passage in mark where Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment and he replies "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself," and i ask the question of how i am supposed to equally love God with everything, and love people with everything. It is quite the paradoxical statement however, i do believe that there is an answer. However, i have yet to be able to word that answer correctly. The best that i have been able to come up with is that in order to love others (in any relationship; friendship, acquaintance, dating) you must first love God. And i say that not to be taken in a light way, but when i say Love God i mean Love God with everything that you are, that means with "all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." And when and only when you love God with all of that then you are able to correctly love others, to love others with Christ's love.
So what does that look like practically? I have no idea. Is it simply devoting every day to following after God and loving him with everything or is it a crazy complex process of prayer, meditation, bible reading and whatever else? Is it a one time commitment where you truly give everything to God and give your life and love to God, or is it a daily submission to God and a daily recognizing of his love and presence in your life? I think it is a little of both. Well, the first answer that i came to was that it must be a daily submission to God, but at the same time i realize that that takes a commitment, a one time commitment that is renewed daily.
There is a quote from A.W. Tozer that i really like, from his book "Knowledge of the Holy" and it reads like this... "All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That he is; what he is like; and what we as moral beings must do about him. The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship him acceptably."
I want that burden and obligation to by my own. I want that burden to weigh on my heart every day of my life, however, it hasnt been at the forefront of my being lately, and that is a problem. I want to learn what it is to have an obligation to have instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey him perfectly, and to worship him acceptably.
Is there any greater point to life? Is there any other way to live? and is that other way obeying him perfectly and worshiping him acceptably?
Maybe that is what is meant by a lukewarm christian. A christian that does not have Christ at the center most part of his or her heart is disobeying God's command for their lives ("the greatest commandment")
I think im done, ive been writing for a long time. Im done.

Lesson 1 : Pride

2007-06-02T11:33:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a while since i have written in here, and i think i am going to do it more often. Over the past 3 weeks (May 9th to the 29th) i was in Albania (thats just north of Greece for those of you who are geographically challenged) on a mission trip through my school. Myself and 8 others helped out for two weeks on a missionary ship that goes around from port to port all over europe and africa. With the ship we mainly either worked on stuff on the ship or we went out into different towns around albania to put on programs (skits, testimonies, hang out) in different youth groups, high schools, handicap homes, and more. It was a lot of fun doing that, though while we were helping out on board i couldnt see the point to it, i thought that it was pointless to just go around say hi then leave, you dont build any relationships. But later i found out that what they do is team up with ministries that are already in the country to kind of help them out and do a little outreach for them in a christian or secular context. Then the last week we were there we helped out at the wesleyan church in durres with a bible school type kids club. We taught stuff about the bible, we taught about art and i helped teach some kids how to play guitar. That was amazing just hanging out and having fun.
What i did, however, is not the main thing that i would want people to know about this trip. I originally didnt know why i was going there, it was totally random how i ended up going (the team leader (melody) coming up to me while standing in line for food and asking me if i want to go on a mission trip to albania, i said ok), but i had been thinking about missions for a while as a full time career and i kind of used this trip to kind of see if that really is what God wants me to do.
However, there were some things in the way of me going into full time missions, and the main thing was that i have never really, and i mean really, surrendered my life to God. Sure i have understood the concept in the past but it never really happened in my life, and on this trip i realized that. A few days into the trip i started a prayer journal, where instead of bowing my head and closing my eyes and praying (i usually fall asleep) i wrote down all of my prayers while i was praying them. Through that God taught me a lot about how to talk to him, and i learned even more about how to listen to him. I can't explain it really but its like prayer isnt like me just venting or talking and talking and talking to myself, its now a real conversation between myself and the God that created me. After teaching me how to talk and listen to him God kind of set out to break me, and more so break my pride. I found that the main thing that has always been in between myself and God has been the pride that has always been there inside of me. Pride that keeps on whispering "you can do this on your own," or "you dont need anyone else or God to tell you what to do, just do what you want." Needless to say that was a very bad thing to have in my life. However over the course of the trip God showed me how that was inside of me, even after i had set out to get rid of pride from my life, its a lot like when paul is talking in his letter to the romans where he says "What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not Covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness." I had been told not to be prideful, and i knew all of the reasons why and all of the ways that pride ruins people, yet pride began to become more prevalent in my life. On this trip God showed me that, and kind of punched me in the face, as he usually does. It was only after i realized that i couldnt get rid of the pride on my own (its prideful to think that you can do it on your own) that i finally did. It wasnt until i realized that i couldnt do anything in life on my own that i finally was able to say, "alright God, you win, you get everything." One day i wrote in my prayer journal this:
"God, i really think that I can do this....
no i really think you are working inside of me.
Help me to realize that i am not doing this
on my own, but by your grace i am. God,
i pray for when i get back to the U.S. help
me to live out the life that you have been
calling me to live.
I WANT TO GIVE YOU EVERYTHING,
so Lord, take all of me. I want my life to be
my act of worship.
Take my life, take everything.
Keep my mind clear and my actions pure. Amen"

The reason i am sharing all of this is not to be like "ya look at me, i have finally figured it out, im a really awesome christian, blah blah blah...." To hell with thinking like that (i mean that as literally as i can, "to hell"). I am saying this because i know that everyone can get to this spot. I know that God wants for everyone to get to that spot where they finally realize their faults, they finally realize their pride. It doesnt help that pride is largely what american culture is based on. In our culture everything is based around ourselves, our wants, our desires, our personal gain. THAT IS WRONG! It has never been right to think that this life is all about moving up, all about having more money, all about having a better car, about having tons of friends. Life is not about what you can get out of it, because quite honestly, if that is your mindset, you will never get anything out of it, you will only get depression. You will sit there at night and constantly question why you are living, why you keep going when the only point to life seems futile because the end is just around the corner. We live in a hopeless society that drowns out those inner cries with things that numb our senses, alcohol, drugs, etc........

....... it doesnt have to be that way though.
We dont have to keep playing out this story.
Even if you dont do that stuff (alcohol, drugs), maybe the thing that you use to drown out pain is religion. Not real religion, but the fake kind. The kind where you go to church on sunday to get your "spiritual fill," the kind where you, like me, tell God "I love you," but you dont really mean it. You are saying it so you feel good, so you think youll go to heaven when you die, so life will be better, but you dont have to do anything about it, itll all be taken care of by God.
........ That is not true religion.
That is not life.
That is a lie.

I will continue this later, if you read all of this I pray that you will think about this and ask some hard questions to yourself and to God.
Until later.
-Matt

Grace

2007-04-06T18:44:00.000-04:00

“Grace is what God gives us when we don't deserve and mercy is when God doesn't give us what we do deserve.” – Anonymous
Sometimes I start thinking, “What’s your deal God? Why the heck do you do this to me, why do you love me, why do you give me a chance to live.” I never really understood why I get so mad at God about that, and I also don’t understand why he does it. I am not going to say that I have figured it out, I don’t think anyone ever can, but we can look at a few different things that explain this idea of grace. One of the best ways we can look at this is by looking at Christian tradition and just what other people think, I will first tell about the Catholic View of Grace and consequently works, then I will talk about the conflicting view, the Protestant view.

Catholicism
Grace by definition means “Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people or
the state of being protected or sanctified by the favor of God,” states thefreedictionary.com. According to a catholic website and a paper that was written on there called “What is Grace?” and, “Grace and the Catholic view of Salvation,” there are two different kinds of Grace. Uncreated Grace, which is the idea of God coming to us in the form of his son (hypostatic union), in the form of his spirit (the indwelling presence of God “in the just soul”) and the “Beatific Vision.” Uncreated Grace is simply God’s basic attributes that communicate his presence and his love to humanity. Then there is Created Grace, which is grace that is apparent in humanity. First there is natural graces, which are created things like physical life, food, etc. Natural graces are simply good things that are purely natural and not supernatural. Then the other part of created grace is “Sanctifying Grace.” Sanctifying grace is more of a supernatural gift that is only transferred into the human soul by the sacrament of Baptism. Sanctifying grace, like the name, is the presence of God’s spirit that allows the soul to communicate to God and be used by God. However that kind of grace is forfeited by a “Mortal Sin,” which is a sin that separates you from God’s love and God’s grace. The papers say that Grace is a gift that God gives freely, but that we do not have a right to; an example of this would be Jesus Christ himself.
Catholic tradition states that God created humanity with three gifts, natural gifts (simply existence), supernatural gifts (like sanctifying grace) and preternatural gifts (which is physical immortality, freedom from suffering and control over sinful instincts and desires). Adam and Eve, in the garden forfeited preternatural gifts because of sin, and this sin also separated us from sanctifying grace. However, Catholicism states that the fall did not totally corrupt human nature, and it says that sanctifying grace is able to be reached again (but can still be forfeit because of mortal sin), and that preternatural gifts are only possible when Christ returns to earth and resurrects the dead. Humanity is therefore born with natural gifts (life), but is only capable of having supernatural gifts like sanctifying grace through baptism. Before baptism people are capable of natural good works, but those good works cannot play a part in the salvation of the human soul, grace must be present for that to happen. After grace comes through baptism then you are able to do salutary acts, those are good works which are performed “by the just” and are inspired and carried out by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Salutary acts are integral to the salvation of the soul (as stated clearly by James chapter 2), and they are how we work out our salvation (according to Philippians 2). It is actually a common myth that Catholic tradition says that salvation is by works, it was said in the Council of Trent (6th session, canon 1) that justification by works is not justification without divine grace through Jesus Christ. So in essence, seen as children of Catholic parents are baptized as infants then when their parents teach them about good works they are teaching them actually about salutary acts, of which grace is the only way those can be acted out.

Protestantism
Sola gratia, latin meaning “grace alone,” is one of the five main points of Protestantism. This idea went against the Catholic view that salvation was by a reliance on a mixture of God’s grace and one’s own works which are preformed out of love and grace given by God. As stated earlier in the section on Catholicism, Catholics believe that salvation is only obtainable through the free grace of God by water baptism, but it cannot stop there but must continue in the salutary acts after the baptism, in order to be an instrument of God’s grace. Protestantism went against this however, in that it said that those “salutary acts” were not necessary for the salvation of the believer, instead salvation depended totally on the grace of God by faith that Christ is enough for eternal salvation. Instead of the salutary acts being a necessity for salvation they are rather a testament of the believer to their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior. Protestant tradition states that the believer is saved “without any regard for the merit of his works – for no one deserves salvation (wikipedia).” Grace, instead of being a byproduct that is only recieved by the sacrament of baptism, is rather a freely given gift to anybody that professes faith in Jesus Christ as savior. However, that point would be debated among different protestant denominations, some denominations state that it is not necessary to be baptized in order to receive grace and therefore salvation, while some others would agree more with Catholicism that baptism is a necessity to the believer because without it they have not received God’s grace and are therefore not saved.
The idea of grace being enough for salvation stems off of the other idea of “sola fide,” which is latin for “faith alone.” Protestantism states that salvation is by faith alone, instead of by faith and works like catholic tradition states. The main place where Catholicism gets the idea that there must be faith and works is from James chapter two where James writes about how faith without works is dead, consequently salvation is dependent upon faith and works. However Protestant tradition (according to my understanding) tells that James 2 is not saying that faith and works are equally necessary for salvation, rather faith is the only thing necessary for salvation, but that the good works are going to be a natural and consequential byproduct of faith in Jesus Christ.

Where I rest my hat…
I side more with Protestantism on the basis that salvation is only and totally obtainable by faith alone and by grace alone. I do not think that grace is only imparted onto a person by water baptism, I think that it is a free gift which God gives to those who call on the name of Christ and believes with his heart in the salvation of Christ, as stated in Romans 10:9-10, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
The reason that I side with the protestant idea is because I strongly believe that scripture is totally specific on this point and that Catholicism is more focusing on the tradition of their church and not the bible. When I look at the book of Romans from chapter six to chapter eight I can see where Catholicism would get the idea that salvation is dependent upon water baptism and that grace only comes from that baptism. So whenever the bible says baptism people usually think about water baptism. However, I would say that this is a misinterpretation. The baptism it refers to is not water baptism, but rather baptism by the holy spirit through faith in Jesus Christ and grace from God (as seen in Acts 1:5); if you look at the Greek the word “baptizo” means to immerse, submerge or to make fully wet, usually we think of that in terms of water, however it means even more so that you are immersed in the holy spirit, totally submerged in the person who is the Holy spirit, and fully wet in the grace that God has given you. Therefore grace is rather communicated to the believer through the baptism of the holy spirit which only comes through belief in God, and faith in Jesus Christ in that you have sinned and you don’t deserve anything less than death, but Christ paid that price through death on the cross; that love is characterized through the term “grace.”
I do think however that Catholicism has something good going for it in its strong emphasis on good works. I do not think that salvation is dependent on there being faith and good works, however I do think that good works should be present. Without good works it is easy to question whether or not someone is truly saved, because good works are a defining characteristic of faith and belief.
Grace is truly something that we do not deserve. As a part of fallen humanity, after the fall in Genesis, we are all rightfully condemned to be slaves to sin, however for no apparent reason, God imparts his grace into our lives in order to make it so that we are no longer bound by our sinful desires and we are no longer to answer to the law, which is spiritual – but it is not infinite, the law loses power after death, so if we live our lives according to the law then we die we are not justified by the law. Rather we are only justified by the baptism of the holy spirit and the grace of God. Paul says in Romans chapter seven this, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” It is the great paradox that we while being of the flesh want to do good, however we are incapable of doing so, this is why Paul says, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” This is great news! God gave us grace, he gave us his son, in order that we may be able to live, even though all we deserve is death.
The word, grace, comes from the Greek word “charis” and that word means “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in life.” I will never understand why God gives it too us, I will never understand the concept of it, I just hope that I will someday come to truly believe it. It is just hard for me to believe that God loves me that much, its hard to believe that God would do that, for no apparent reason, but just out of his love. Praise God for his grace that he freely gives.

She (Grace) carries a pearl
In perfect condition
What once was hurt,
What once was friction,
What left a mark,
No longer stings

Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace finds beauty
In everything
Grace finds goodness
In everything
“Grace” – U2

Thinking

2007-01-15T19:15:00.001-05:00

It is interesting how people always have a preoccupation with this want/need for purpose. Asking themselves questions like "What is the measure of a man?" or "What is the point of life?" What i want to know is why no body has ever given a very good answer. Sure, we can all say that the measure of a man is in how he has lived his life, whether for the good or for the bad, or we can say that the point of life is to strive for some "greater good." The problem i have with that is, while we say that, we live something else. What our culture is giving as an answer to those questions is that the measure of a man is how much money he has, or what he does for a living, and then the point of life, is to have a family, house, and get more money. Why have we lost sight of the true goals that some very smart people came up with.... actually, that question is a load of crap. We havent lost sight of the goals, we simply dont care, and sadly enough the people came up with them were pretty smart, but i bet half the time they were just saying stuff to be noticed. Thats what it is about right? Getting noticed, having power, having prestige.
I know im not the first to say it, but life should not be about that stuff, whether it is the selfish goals of being great, or whether it is the seemingly great philosophical goals from sages of old. The problem with most of those goals is that they are selfish in nature, because you are in fact trying to find meaning for your life, not somebody elses. I wonder what would happen if instead of trying to find meaning for your own life, you disreguard that altogether, and just try to help others out. True, that sounds rather utopian in nature, but im serious, what if it was no longer about us, but rather about what we could do for others. I think that is a worthy aspiration.
However, sadly enough, i can write this, but not follow through myself. I find that I am selfish by nature, and i hate that. Also, i find myself asking the same questions of what is the measure of a man and what is the point of life. Maybe the answers are very simple to those quesitons, maybe the measure of a man is the love that flows from him and the point of life is to love.

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God: but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testify that the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love god has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love Gd, whom he has not see. And he has given us this command: Woever loves God must also love his brother." - John, a fisherman

"Just do it"

2006-12-10T09:32:00.001-05:00

Obedience: The act or practice of obeying; dutiful or submissive compliance.
What is it about that word that kind of makes people kringe, something seems to shudder deep down in side because you like to think to yourself "I am a man (or woman), i obey myself" and you think that in a very prideful arrogance (i dont know why im saying "you" because i am the same). Over this past semester i have been thinking about this word, Obedience. I have thought about it long and hard, sure, there have been the moments of philosophical triumph when i finally say "ok God, youve got me, ill obey you," but there have also been more moments of humanistic pride where i forget what i said and be disobedient to God.
See, obedience is something that humanity has struggled with, since that fateful time after the dawn of creation when Adam and Eve made the same mistake that we do every day, sin. The old testament is filled with many instances of disobedience, God tells Israelites to do this, they dont, God tells Israelites to do that, they worship Baal, It seems like a never ending cycle of disobedience to God. Well, im not here to say that it isnt, that we are doin great, perfectly obedient to God, if i said that, i would be a liar. The truth is that it truly is a never ending cycle with seemingly no hope of an end. The problem of this cycle is that we, as people, have this thought that well, we are sinful by nature, so whats the point in trying, and we forget about God altogether through all of the distractions that are out there (pride, alcohol, sex, sometimes even music). I wrote in my last entry that there must be a change....... well, no, there was no change, because in order for a change to happen you must first live it out yourself.
No, i dont have an answer as to how people can be obedient to God, other than, well, "Just do it" (good ole Nike).
Actually, I am going to stop right there, i dont need to explain the rationale behind me saying that, just think about it, Just do it, dont think about it, dont contemplate and end up doubting, just GO. Go be the change that you want to see in the world (i dont know who said that, but i didnt make it up). Find out where it is you need to go (dont worry, God will tell you) and well, just go, just do it.

My take

2006-09-21T19:40:00.001-04:00

In my prevous quote by C.S. Lewis out of "The Great Divorce" C.S. Lewis is digging into something quite a bit deeper than what may meet the eye as he usually does. I guess most obviously speaking he is talking about how there is a downside to knowledge, there is the part where sin can enter an pride can come right along with it. So many times as people we dont really care any about what God thinks, but it becomes more important to us what people thing. I can honestly say that i have struggled with this a ton, just because i have always had this kind of need to be accepted. But lately i have just been thinking about what does that matter anyway. What does it matter if people like you or not, and wont they like you if you are following christ and doing what he wants you to do? Why is it that so often we just put Christ on the backburners and just take the helm by ourselves thinking that we can handle whatever.
Now yes, i know what your thinking, about how this has been the subject of probably billions of sermons, on millions of sunday mornings, but you know something, i dont care. The problem is that it is true, and the bigger problem is that we continue to to do it, we continue to take our life in our hands, even though we have heard "that message" many times. A change needs to happen, and contrary to popular belief it is not God that needs to change. It is us that need to change. I know that there are many people out there who say that the church is corrupt and its just a big hypocritical community of those who call themselves christians. But what we fail to realize is that the word church doesnt mean the building, it doesnt mean the denomination, it only means the body of christ, the body of believers. Getting back to the change that i spoke of, this change needs to happen in us. God wants to do great things, and given those things will happen no matter what, but in order for those things to happen this change needs to happen, people need to actually be on fire for christ instead of just going to church, raising their hands during worship, and praying fervently in the spirit. We, individually, need to get ourselves back on track with God, I almost want to say stop worrying about other people, because first you need to learn to listen to and obey God, then you can help others do the same. I dont know what God wants to do with the world, i dont even know why he would want to do it, because we are unbearably stupid, and always run away from him, but i know he is going to do something, i just dont know what it is. All i know is that Change needs to happen, and instead of talking about it, we need to act on it. Maybe no one will read this, maybe only one person will read this, but what i have to say right here is just for you, -Let God use you, stop thinking about what you can do, and just let God do what he wants to do through you, act on His word.
I will try and elaborate on this later, to clarify what i mean.

Ponder this....

2006-09-15T19:27:00.000-04:00

This is an exerpt from "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis

A conversation between two intellectual people, one lives in hell one lives in heaven(Dick is his name), the one in heaven has the chance to convince his friend in hell that he was wrong and that he must repent in order to have salvation, this is part of the conversation, the first one talking is the one from heaven(Dick).

"Do you really think there are no sins of intellect?"

"There are indeed, Dick. There is hide-bound prejudice, and intellectual dishonesty, and timidity, and stagnation. But honest opinions fearlessly followed - they are not sins."

"I know we used to talk that way. I did it too until the end of my life when i became what you call narrow. It all turns on what are honest opinions."

"Mine Certainly were (honest opinions). They were not only honest but heroic. I asserted them fearlessly. When the doctrine of the Resurrection ceased to commend itself to the critical faculties which God had given me, I openly rejected it. I preached my famous sermon. I defied the whole chapter. I took every risk."

"What risk? What was at all likely to come of it except what actually came - popularity, sales for your books, invitations, and finally a bisphoric?"

"Dick, this is unworthy of you. What are you suggesting?"

"Friend, I am not suggesting at all. You see, I know now. Let us be frank. Our opinions were not honestly come by. We simply found ourselves in contact with a certain current of ideas and plunged into it because it seemed modern and successful. At College, you know, we just started automatically writing the kind of essays that got good marks and saying the kind of things that won applause. When, in our whole lives, did we honestly face, in solitude, the one question on which all turned: whether after all the Supernatural might not in fact occur? When did we put up one moment's real resistance to the loss of our faith?"

I will update soon on what i thought of that.

Yep

2006-06-24T19:30:00.000-04:00

Well, im home today, as i have been about once a week or so. And im sitting here with Abbey Duer, because i am leeching off of their wireless internet. Camp has been going good, i like the people, and i like the work, i just got my first pay check yesterday, it was like 340, and that wasnt like a full paycheck, tomorrow is my grad party, hopefully people show up, thatd be nice, but ya, pretty much everything is going good.
I read a book last week called "The Visitation," its a Christian Fiction book by Frank Peretti, i liked it and it was about like a false prophet, and demons, and whatever else, not something to base theology off of, but it was still entertaining. I did take something away from the book though, the book was written on the point of view of a pastor that left the church after his wife died because he was angry with the church "stuff" that goes on. He says in the book stuff like how it is a game pretty much the game of how many can the church get saved, how many people can you get to come, and whatever else. And it just delves into a lot of how the church is hypocritical in the sense of it is now more of a corporation, instead of what it should be, a community of believers. When i was reading all of this i was just thinking that i dont want to be a pastor of a church like that. I dont want to be the pastor that is only in the christian bubble, but more part of the community, i dont care what people think of me. Like in the book the pastor goes to bars and stuff, hes out of the church, but he doesnt go to get drunk or anything, he just goes to talk to people and to eat food, thats how i want to be, i dont want to be so consumed with myself and my church that i forget that there are people who dont know christ in the community.

I'm Leaving....

2006-06-04T22:41:00.000-04:00

Well, this will be my last post for probably a couple of weeks, or months. I just want to say thanks to everybody for being such great friends for me. I guess whats on my mind right now is that i will miss all of you....... this year has been the best year of my life thus far, i can confidently say that. I can also confidently say that I really do love each and every one of you. But ya, i am going on to work at the camp now, Christian Reformed Conference Grounds, (take 31 south until lincoln, take a right, then take a left on lakeshore and go about a quarter to a half mile, and youll see the entrance on the right side of the road - for those of you who want to visit me). When i am done there i will be around for a week or so, at the end of August, then i leave again for college in early september. But i want to say, please, no matter who you are, stay in touch with me, my cell phone number is (616) 502-4655 and my email address is mattman644@gmail.com as i stated in my last post. I would love to hear from anybody. I dont really know what else to say, so i guess ill say whats on my heart, thats a good start.
Well, high school has been pretty cool, aside from the crappy school part, but it has been an amazing time of just learning who i am, and many of you have been there right by my side while all of this has taken place. But the best part of high school has been this year, i think that i have gained more friends in lower grades than however many friends i have in my own, i dont know why that is, other than that you guys and gals are a lot cooler than them. I really am going to miss every body, even as im writing this its like i want to cry, just because of how so many of you have just affected my life in such a huge way. There is no way that i would be who i am without all of you. I know this sounds so very impersonal, but there have been so many of you i dont want to list every body.
Thank you all for showing me what love means. Love is something that you show someone by caring for them, talking to them, and just being their friend. And thats what all of you have done for me.
I love all of you.
I guess thats most important, so ill end there.

Yep

2006-05-26T12:30:00.000-04:00

Well, im leaving for the camp today, though ill be back next week, this has been a weird day, in that it was my last day of high school, for any of you who want to keep in touch my email is mattman644@gmail.com and my phone number is 502-4655, give me a call whenever, ill get back to you probalby later in the evening. Ill update once more before i go live at the camp permanently. Cya around.

My favorite picture ever....

2006-05-22T21:42:00.000-04:00

Thank you Stacy Guerne for sending this picture, brings back so many great memorys from the mission trip, man was that fun.

Martin Luther : Reformation

2006-05-16T21:39:00.000-04:00

After the Renaissance there was a lot of social unrest and confusion. The Roman Catholic Church was losing popularity, and in order to become popular again they gave into some societal views. The infallible papacy and indulgences were two of those views that gave into humanism. There was a man named Martin Luther stood up against these things, most importantly the indulgences. Thus he gave rise to Protestant Christianity.

The word “protestant” means people that are protesting, and Protestant Christians were protesting against the tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church. There was one document that gave rise to this “protest” and it was Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. In these theses Martin Luther vocalizes his opposition to the money mongering of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther said things in his theses like “The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the commissary, nay, even though the pope himself, were to stake his soul upon it (52).” Clearly in opposition of the papacy and Catholic Tradition Martin Luther was seen as a heretic by the Catholic Church. In the Theses Martin Luther shows just how adamant he is about this, when he says such things as, “Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial (82),” And “Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers? (86)” Martin Luther was biblical throughout all of his theses, sometimes giving scripture references like in theses number 78 “We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I. Corinthians xii.” It almost seems that Martin Luther was the first to have these ideas and to be vocal about them, but that is not so. There was another before him named Jan Hus, or John Huss. John Huss also believed that the common people needed to read scripture and revere God’s truth. Luther hints to this in theses number 53, “They are enemies of Christ and of the pope, who bid the Word of God be altogether silent in some Churches, in order that pardons may be preached in others.”

One of the things that Luther fought against was the idea that you could buy a relative, our yourself out of Purgatory, the place of limbo, not heaven or hell. It was commonly taught throughout Catholicism that if you died and had certain venial or mortal sins that were un-forgiven, you would go to purgatory, and it was also taught that you could buy your relatives or yourself a way out of purgatory through indulgences. In short indulgences were just a money hoarding scheme of the Catholic Church, one catholic preacher was reported to say something along the lines of “as you drop money into the collection the sound of the coins is the sound of souls flying out of purgatory into heaven.” Thus forcing people into the idea that if you didn’t buy indulgences, your family members would not make it into heaven, hypocrisy at it’s finest.

Martin Luther’s view of scripture was that it is the word of truth, and as Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This was important, the church also hated him because he translated the bible into a contemporary language, German, so that common people could read God’s truth. Later the Catholic Church started to encourage people to read the bible, but it was for a long time that it was considered wrong because only priests and pastors could interpret scripture, and the common people were thought of as incompetent. This of course was not the truth.

The Catholic Church also stated that you had to have faith in God, and you had to have works, or be a good person, in order to obtain salvation. This view was also non-biblical and a product of the all-important view of the infallible papacy. Martin Luther wrote a book called “On the Freedom of a Christian.” Published in November of 1520, this book was sent to a pope in order to state that the Christian has freedom from sin by faith alone. That he or she does not need to be a great person, but needs to have faith. Martin Luther believed that Jesus had died in order to pay the price of sin and to give salvation as a gift, not something that must be earned by good works.

The Problems that arose from this became apparent very soon after he made all of these such statements, the Roman Catholic Church would not stand by and be called unbiblical. Thus what happened was there was an inquiry into if there was any truth in Martin Luther’s documents. However the Roman Catholic Church at that time was a metaphorical “monopoly” in the areas of politics and religion. The Church had influence throughout the whole of Europe. That power ranging from the Pope in Rome, who was pretty much the leader of Germany, or the Holy Roman Empire, to the Priests that were under Kings and Queens. The Church had a major role in all state matters, and this kind of power was hard to give up, nor did the church want to give it up. Pope Leo X was the pope at the time of Luther, and reportedly called Luther "a drunken German who wrote the Theses" who "when sober will change his mind." To say the least the Pope did not like Martin Luther. Pope Leo dispatched a theology professor named Sylvester Mazzolini to inquire about the subject. Mazzolini however said that Luther went against the Papal Bull and said that his problems with Papal authority were heretical, thus labeling him a Heretic, also writing a refutation of his theses, saying that the Pope had authority over the church. Luther also took part in a Augustinian convention at Heidelberg, where he presented his views of how Papal Infallibility is a bunch of rubbish, thus being labeled a heretic again. Pope Leo then summoned him to Rome in an attempt to suppress his views. However Luther didn’t have to because of political reasons on behalf of the Catholic Church. Throughout all of this Luther was very adamant about his own obedience to the church, though at the same time he was becoming more and more vocal about his opposition to the authority of the Pope. Later Luther was part of a debate in Leipzig where he denied the divine authority of the Pope, and that is where he said that membership in the Roman Catholic Church was not needed in order for salvation (the Eastern Orthodox Church liked this).

In 1520 Luther was issued a papal bull that stated that if he didn’t take back 41 pieces of doctrine he would be excommunicated from the church. Excommunication was a big deal back then, because if you were excommunicated that meant that you could not have salvation, you could not receive the sacraments, you were pretty much considered dead if you were excommunicated. However to this threat Luther sent a piece of work he had just finished called “On the Freedom of a Christian.” Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther on January 3, 1521, in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

Later that month on the 22 Luther was summoned by Emperor Charles V to a “Diet of Worms” where he was asked to recant all of his writings and say that they were false. But it is said that in reply to this Luther stated “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.” After that Christian tradition says that he said “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” On May 25 of 1521 the Emperor issued the Edict of Worms, stating that Luther is an Outlaw and a Heretic.

After all of these events Luther went into hiding, he went and stayed in Wartburg Castle. There he stayed and preached, and actually got a lot of stuff done. At the castle he worked on translating the New Testament into German, publishing it in September of 1522. He also sent letters of advice to his friends and allies, by one man he was asked if it was alright that reformation preachers weren’t obeying certain fasts and pilgrimages, Luther replied “If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.” During this time Luther was also married to Katharina von Bora, an ex-nun who renounced celibacy as unbiblical. Luther and Katharina had six children in all, two of which died prematurely.

Among his other achievements, the most notable achievement accredited to Luther was translating the whole bible into German, so that normal people could read it, as I stated before he published the New Testament in 1522, later he published a six-part whole bible that was a corroboration between him and 6 others, Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Caspar Creuziger, Philipp Melanchthon, Matthäus Aurogallus, and George Rörer. Luther spent the rest of his life refining his translation of the bible having a hand in an edition right after his death in 1546. Luther’s Bible was considered one of the benchmarks in German Literature, helping to spread German language, and becoming the most widely produced and distributed book ever.

Martin Luther can easily be accredited with a lot of ideas and things that happened in his life. The most important of these was the rise of Reformation and Protestant Christianity, and the translation of the bible into contemporary language. Without Martin Luther the reformation still would have happened, but would have been stalled, without a leader such as Luther. It is amazing the amount of work he did in his life, and it is amazing the impact of his work that still has an affect today. Luther is in essence the father of Protestant, or evangelical, Christianity. Though there were many later reformers that elaborated on some of the more “detailed” aspects of Christianity, such as John Calvin, John Wesley, Dwight Moody, and many more. Luther sparked an idea that was unheard of since the beginnings of Christianity, that common people could read the bible, and be transformed by it on their own. The word of God finally had life again, after a time of darkness under the Roman Catholic Church.

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.com/
www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/ninetyfive.html
www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-luther.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09438b.htm - Funny stuff (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Christianity in the Middle Ages

2006-05-08T23:54:00.000-04:00

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it could be clearly seen that some things were brought down with it, in this instance, religion. The result of the Roman Empire dividing was that eventually Christianity divided as well.

There were quite a few causes of this, but let us first look at the political and societal catalysts. The Roman emperor, Theodosius the Great, was the last Roman emperor to rule over a united empire. After he died, in 395 A.D. the empire was split into two parts, the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, which was also called the Byzantine Empire. After that happened some other factors came to arise. The language that was widely used in the Western Roman Empire was Latin, and the language of the Eastern Roman Empire was Greek. In the beginning this was not a problem, because most spoke both languages, but over time people like that were hard to find, thus communication was quite the difficulty. And because of this, cultural unity died as well. The church was also split on similar lines, because of where the church was, and even though the Schism was still far off, the church had already started using different doctrines.

There were also many schisms before the permanent schism in 1054 A.D. The church was split from 343 – 398 over Arianism. Arianism was a view of Christ held by followers of Arius of Alexandria, Egypt, where he states that the Son is not eternal like the Father, meaning that the Son had to have been created at some point by the Father. Then the church was split when there was a disagreement over patriarchs in the Eastern Roman Empire but the greatest of all of the Schisms came in 1054, hence the name “The Great Schism.”

The Great Schism is however considered to happen in 1054. The pope of Rome in that year was Pope Leo IX. And the Patriarch of Constantinople was Michael I Cerularius. The two church leaders excommunicated each other, resulting in the consequence of the church splitting into two parts. One part which was based in Constantinople with Cerularius, and the other part based in Rome with Pope Leo IX. Besides the apparent change in power structure there was also a big change in theological and practice beliefs.

Also because of this separation, the two churches wanted to be as opposite of each other as possible. Whether it is in the hierarchy of the church, or just theological discrepancies the two churches clashed. This however was kind of put on the back burners when Muslim invaders began to encroach on the Byzantine Empire, which primarily Easter Orthodoxy. The leader of the empire, Alexius I, called on the Roman Catholic Church to send aid. The Pope of the time was Urban II. The Pope however sent a much larger response than the Emperor had wanted.

Seen as Christianity had spread out through Europe there were many warriors and knights who knew only how to fight, and this new belief system that called for peaceful relations between everybody was hardly what they were looking for. So they would always fight amongst themselves. The Crusades however presented a way for the knights and warriors to fight for the church. There was also an added bonus of whoever went and fought in the crusades was pretty much promised money and power, as well as religious clout. The first crusade, when Alexius asked for help, ended in Jerusalem being invaded, and all of the population massacred by the crusaders. Also there were some plots of land set up for the leading crusaders, such as the Kingdom of Jerusalem. There were in all nine crusades, not including the crusades in places other than the Holy Land. The Crusades are also an aspect of Christianity which is commonly attacked. It seems that seen as the Crusades happened that makes all Christians hypocrites, because they went against the word of God, and waged a “holy war” for very unholy purposes. I would agree with the statement that it was wrong for the Crusades ever to happen, but I would disagree that it makes Christians hypocrites. It can easily be seen that it was not the fault of Christians that it happened, but rather the church leaders of the time, because of the fact that there was no bible in circulation, so what the pope said was as good as the bible.

Even though the crusades seemingly brought the church to an agreement, and how they fought together, it did not heal anything from the Schism. There was another factor which further divided the church. And that was the Renaissance. During the Renaissance the church was put under direct fire because of a new philosophical train of thought called humanism. The rise of humanism added to the division, and it also added to just a disagreement between the world and the church.

Humanism which can be defined as “a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on our ability to determine what is right using the qualities innate to humanity, particularly rationality (Wikipedia.com).” Humanism brought in a whole train of thought to Christianity. Humanism pretty much made the idea that people were the same as God, and said that Man could come up with right and wrong from their own rational thoughts, without God. This took quite the impact on Roman Catholicism. The Idea of Papal Infallibility came out of it. This Idea states that the Pope has the same power as the Word of God, in that what he says can be called Right or wrong. Many probably would have been against this idea at the time; however seen as the printing press was yet to be invented many had no idea that this was unbiblical. It was actually against the law to own a bible back then. In a video by Francis Schaffer he delves into this idea of how the Roman Catholic Church developed out of the original church, which was just a small meeting in usually the basement of a house. In there it talks about how Humanism had a huge impact on that change in just how the church went about teaching, it was no longer just the infallibility of the Bible, but the infallibility of the Pope, that kind of power could go to anybody’s head.

After the Renaissance the church kept with the humanist ideas, because many saw that as the only right way to go. This would continue to degrade the church, bringing it down the metaphorical chute to the level of societal truth, consequently away from biblical truth. This was, however, lost many years earlier.

You may be thinking that this is a rather harsh light to view the Roman Catholic Church in, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is wrong. It is always wrong to go against the word of God. Yes it can be debated that there can be different interpretations of the Bible, but there really can’t, there can only be the interpretation that the author intended us to have. To turn away from the subject of Christianity during the middle ages, I would just like to discuss how our society is continually going down this slope. The slope of figurative interpretation, crafting and molding God’s perfect word into whatever you want it to be. It’s easy, you can do it with any verses, you can get them to say anything you want if you take them out of context. That making context the most important thing when we as Christians study the bible.

And when we look back at the history of the Renaissance and the rise of Humanism in the Roman Catholic Church, it almost seems that it was the exact right time for someone to notice these problems, which happens in the Reformation, with Martin Luther, I will however undoubtedly get to that later.

In Summary the events of the middle ages included three major events which forever changed the face of Christianity. The first event being the Great Schism, resulting in the Roman Catholic Church and The Eastern Orthodox Church. Then the Crusades, which resulted in the spreading of Christianity to the area of Israel, though it was against God’s word to do it to begin with. And ending with the Renaissance and the rise of Humanism into the fundamental and basic beliefs of Christianity, that the word of God is infallible, instead saying that Man’s word is also infallible. The middle ages, also called Medieval Times, and the Dark ages, were just that, dark, because of the recession of learning and just the lack of knowledge and the rise of secular, anti-God thought. The Middle ages were a sad time for Christianity, as well as the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean it is still like that today. Reform has overcome Christianity and we are today going back to more of the original church, rather than the humanist views of the traditional Roman Catholic Church.

Bibliography

1. http://www.wikipedia.org/

2. New American Standard Bible

3. http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/ma.stm

4. http://www.freeessays.cc/db/21/emr39.shtml

2006-05-08T22:53:00.000-04:00

Update on me.

2006-05-03T12:11:00.000-04:00

Well for the past 2 months pretty much all of my posts have been papers ive written for an independent study i have on the history of christianity. But i havent really written in here about how ive been doing and what ive been up too, not that anybody necessarily cares, i use this for a journal as well.
Life is going pretty good right now, the mission trip was really cool, even though it stunk coming back here to the swing of things again. I find it is continually disheartening to be around here, it isnt the people, it isnt the weather, it isnt even in the water. I am just feeling restless, like i need to move on with life. Which i know i do. One thing i have been really thinking about lately is that I will miss the people around here a ton, just everybody that is in my life right now, whether its friends or adults (who are friends as well). I just think that there has been so many people around here that have just poured into me and been just so nice to me, i hope i find that somewhere else as i get older.
One thing that is hard to think about is getting older. I dont know what it is, but i dont really see myself getting older. Its hard to see myself right now as a teenager even. I look at myself in the mirror, andi just think of how i look the exact same as i did when i was 12, though i dont think people see me as that anymore. One thing that i think starts happening as you get older is that your body continues to grow, but your mind wants to hold on to something. Maybe it is holding on to the innocense of being young, or maybe even something physical and just having more energy while young. Whatever it is, part of me does not want to grow up, never has. But at the same time there is a part of me that wants to get older. That is the part that wants to go to college and learn, thats the part of me that wants to have a career, thats the part of me that wants to get married and have kids.
I dont really know how to explain it, but its kind of like your body sees life in the whole scheem of things, even when your mind doesnt. Take for instance when i was 8, i had no idea what would happen in the future, in fact i never even thought about that until i was probably 16. That being when i got a drivers liscense, the space in between my youth and my future was getting smaller, and as college is approaching my future will undoubtedly be right in front of my face. Its interesting to think about though how I dont see it now, but someday, i will think that i wish i was younger, even though right now i am wishing i was older. Maybe its that when you are younger you think you wish you had everything you could, like all the cards on the table, everything that will happen in life, looking for maturity in knowing the future. And then when you get older you stop looking to the future, you dont want to know about it anymore, because the future keeps getting smaller and smaller, and you wish that all of the cards that have been flipped over would flip back and you would be back to that "innocent" and "energetic" youth age.
One statement that i used to say that i havent used for a while is that i want to be wise.... I regret this. It can be speculated that as you get older you 'get wise' even though you really dont, you just have a lot more expieriance, you are not gaining wisdom, you are finding the wisdom that you had all along, you just needed something to spark it. Maybe that is what finding wisdom is about, God knows the plans of your life, and he knows everything that will happen, and he is in fact true wisdom. So in that respect, as you get older, you start to know what has happened and what is happening, and you see a bigger picture, no where as big as the picture that God sees, but it is a picture none the less. And as you see more and more of the picture, you are able to have more wisdom and knowledge because more and more is revealed. But what if you already have that wisdom inside of you when you are young, you just arent looking at the big picture. Maybe having wisdom is just as easy as thinking about the future, not just thinking about what will happen, but thinking about why it happens. Once you can realize why things happen then you have wisdom. Like why to go to school, why to work, why to get married, why to have kids, even why die. The first four of those are rather easy to consider. Why go to school, easy, to be smart..... why go to work, easy again, to support yourself and others, to enjoy life.... Why get married, all to easy, because everyone is looking for love..... why have kids, to keep yourself going through your kids, so part of you can live on with your kids. But the last one, Why die. That ones hard. Some people would say that there is no reason to die, and that we should want to be immortal, people like that would be like Hitler, and Stalin, just wanting to live forever. Then some would say that the reason to die is that there has to be an end..... for the sake of science there has to be an end to everything..... as the oracle in the matrix says "every beginning has an end." That idea is kind of morbid to me. Then the third idea would be like the song closing time by semisonic, that says "every new beginning starts from some other beginnings end." Assuming that is right, you can put that in replace of your life, meaning your life has a beginning, therefore it has an end and another beginning. The afterlife presumably would be that other beginning..... Heaven or Hell. That adds more questions to death, if there is somewhere to go after death, you need to know where that is, and how youre gonna get there. I was watching ABC a few months ago and the name of the program was "Heaven, Where is it and how do we get there"...... Now i see that the program was a waste of my time, they had a bunch of crazy people doing the commentary, but what they said was that there were a bunch of different heavens, one for Jews, one for Muslims, One for Buddhists, One for many other religions, and one for christians. They didnt even answer their own question, i will restate the title, "Heaven, where is it and how do we get there." Sure they said a bunch of places where heaven could be, but they did not say where it was, and said that according to your religion, follow it, and you will get to heaven. They need to do some real research, the harsh kind, not the people pleasing - bunnys in an open field - kind. Everyone needs to do it really. Heaven can only be one place, there cant be more than one, because they all claim to be the same place, but yet they are all so totally different. Seems like everyone kind of needs to come up with that on their own. There are so many different religions, but only one can be right, either you do the research and find out which one is right, or some people pick the one that looks good. Its like on a game show where there are three doors and they say pick one. They each look different, but good in their own way, you could either do eenee meenie miney moe, or you can look a little closer........

Why is it that whenever i write in here it kind of turns into a brief apologetic piece.
No I am not trying to convert people to christianity, but i am trying to just get people to ask that question of themselves, and make a good decision, because the decision reguarding death is such an important decision.....
I guess I am trying to convert people, because i want to see everybody i know in heaven, the only heaven, with the only God.

Canonization of Scripture

2006-05-01T13:37:00.000-04:00

The Protestant bible has 66 books in it, a Samaritan bible has 5 books in it (the Pentateuch), the Catholic bible has 73 books, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church recognizes 81 books in their bible. The question is, who has the right bible? Why are there more books in some than others? Who decided which books were to be put in the bible and under what criteria did they judge the books?
All of these questions can be easily answered by looking at the decisions of our church fathers and different councils of the past. In the Western Church there were many that said which scriptures were to be used or not used. One man, Marcion, in the mid 100’s, only approved of Luke, and ten of Paul’s epistles for the bible, he rejected everything else, including the old testament. Later, Irenaeus, in the year 185 A.D. Approved of the four Gospels (i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and he approved of Acts, and twenty-two of the twenty-seven books that we have today. Irenaeus left out Hebrews, James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 3 John. In the Eastern Church, they had a much different idea. Clement of Alexandria added onto what was in the bible at that time with Barnabas, Clement, Apocalypse of Peter, and Hermas. But the most important of the Eastern Church decisions was by Athanasius who was the first to put the canon of the bible into the way we have it now, as it is, 66 books altogether. Athanasius rejected everything else.
Aside from these men that gave their input, there were also many councils of large groups of people that decided on what books should or should not be included. The first of these councils that said anything about the canon of the bible was the Synod of Laodicea in 363 A.D. At this meeting they did not decide on what books should or should not be used, but they forbade the use of non-canonical books, they assumed that there was a common canon. They were wrong. Later in 393 there was another council, the council of Hippo, which was in Africa, They did decide on a canon, and it is the same order and books as our bible today. There were other councils that revisited this, in 397 and in 419 there were councils in Carthage, where they decided on the same canon, ours today.
At these councils they did not just go by which books or letters they liked or disliked, but they had a criteria for which they decided on which books were biblically worthy. The first criterion was that it had to be written by an apostle, or somebody close to an apostle. Second, the book had to match up with the widely accepted doctrine, and it had to be congruent with the rest of the scriptures. Third, it had to be universally accepted by everyone in the councils, a unanimous vote. Fourth, it had to be written around the time of the Apostles, which was 40-90 A.D. And lastly, Fifth, the book in question had to claim that it was divinely inspired, or claimed as divine by another, accepted, piece of scripture.
The reason that some of the books and letters were under scrutiny, like Hebrews and Revelation, was that in the letter of Hebrews case, there was no claimed authorship. Revelation however, was just not widely accepted, because some didn’t believe that it was true.
There were also many other gospels, and so called epistles that were claimed as the word of God. Some of the gospels include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the book that is newly in the spotlight, the Gospel of Judas. Many ask, why were these books kept out of the bible? There are many explanations for that, maybe the Gospels didn’t match up with any of the criteria that the councils used to decide on the books. Take for instance the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, which is believed to be written by a man named Seleucus, instead of who it claims to be written by, Matthew. My personal thoughts on the matter of these gospels are that they just make radical, irrational, and just play inconsistent claims. Take for instance the Arabic Infancy Gospel that tells how, even when Jesus was just born he spoke to His mom and explained to her how He is the Christ. Or in the Gospel of Philip, which would be congruent with Dan Brown’s book “The DaVinci Code”, because the book talks about how Jesus would often kiss Mary Magdalene on the lips, and it offended the Apostles. Or, my personal favorite, the statement in the Gospel of Judas where the Disciples ask Jesus where he has been and what he did, because he was gone for a while, and Jesus answered “I went to another Great and Holy generation,” which obviously means that Jesus was not a man, and that he time traveled, believable to say the least (note sarcasm).
There should be no doubt in that the books that we have in our bible are the true and inerrant word of God. The books that we have in our bible are congruent with themselves, as well as with the Old Testament, which was long before agreed upon. When people suppose that there is some sort of cover up behind the basis of Christianity, they aren’t even thinking about the history, they are just looking for some way to disprove Christianity, no matter how farfetched it is. The reason that we, as Christians, must study the history of our church is so that we are able to defend ourselves. The art of Apologetics, or defending our faith is one of the most important skills a Christian can have, because with it we can defend our faith.

Bibliography
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf
http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/noncanonical.gospels.htm
http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/index.htm

The Early Church - Roman Rule

2006-04-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

While Paul was still in prison Christianity was flourishing, but it wasn’t long until things started to go awry. With evil emperors of Rome persecuting Christians for their beliefs, and just a common hate for Christians. Rome was in fact a Pagan empire, thus they did not like a new belief system threatening to ruin all that had been gained, like power and land.

Towards the end of Paul’s life a man named Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus came to be the Emperor of the Romans in the year 54. One night in July of the year 64 a great fire erupted in Rome. Many believed it was Nero’s doing because they believed that he wanted to rename Rome to “Neropolis”. To combat this rumor Nero himself used a scapegoat, Christians. He ordered Christians to be crucified in large numbers, and for them to be thrown to lions in arenas. Gaius Cornelius Tacitus described this event, “Accordingly, arrest was first made of those who confessed; then, on their evidence, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as because of [their] hatred for the human race. Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clothed in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed. Nero had thrown open his grounds for the display, and was putting on a show in the circus, where he mingled with the people in the dress of charioteer or drove about in his chariot.” But despite all of the persecution, many had pity for Christians. This lasted until the year 68 when Nero was thrown out of power.

In the 250’s there was another emperor named Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius, Decius for short. In an attempt to unite the empire under one cause Decius issued an edict for the suppression of Christians. Also at that time, from 251 to 266 there was a plague called the “Antonine Plague.” Now just so there was somebody to blame for this unfortunate plague, Christians were used as the scapegoat. The plague was also called the plague of Cyprian, who was the bishop of Carthage at the time.

The last, and worst persecution of the Christians was in the early 300’s when the Roman emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, known as Diocletian. Towards the beginning of his reign him and Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus, Galerius, set up a great persecution of Christians. They set up “The first edict against the Christians.” In the beginning of it Christian soldiers had to leave the military, then the government began to take away land from the church, and they burned Christian books. There were also two fires in Diocletian’s palace which resulted in even more drastic measures, in which Christians would have to denounce their faith, or they would be put to death. This persecution ended in 313 with the “Edict of Milan” from the Roman emperor Constantine.

After Constantine seen as Christianity was free to spread, it soon took over the Roman empire, in the spheres of both religion and politics, when Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, and when the Pope was put in charge of the Western Roman Empire in 409. Later, the Western Roman Empire would fall, in 476. Now the question is, did Christianity have anything to do with it.

According to a man named Edward Gibbon the Western Roman Empire had fell to barbarian invasions, due to a loss of civic virtue. He states that the roman people had become lazy, and like pacifists. The spark that caused this, he concluded, was Christianity, Christianity brought a new world into the minds of Romans, a new world that was better, and so it wouldn’t matter what you did here, but that when you die you would go to a better place, this, he argues, made the Roman citizens complacent in lack of patriotism. Another part that he blames on Christianity is that the rise of pacifism among roman citizens could be explained by Christianity; Jesus did in fact teach you to turn the other cheek. So he concludes that it was because of Christianity that the Roman Empire fell, or at least one of the causes.

Because all of this happened though, our world has been changed, because Christianity did take hold, there is one third of the world that would say that they are Christians, debatably if they are or not. But it is one of the crowning factors of the history of our planet that Christianity did survive such a brutal persecution, and not just from the Romans, but from the Jews, the Muslims, other Christians, and even modern governments, like Nazi Germany, and more recently the Peoples Republic of China. So I leave on this note, even though Christianity did suffer, it has flourished, because of no good reason.

Life and Teachings of Paul

2006-04-18T15:58:00.000-04:00

A majority of the New Testament is in the form of Epistles, which are letters from apostles. The apostle who wrote most of these was Paul. Paul killed Christians, then he became a Christian, and he was persecuted for it. Eventually he was sent to prison where he wrote letters to the churches he visited, usually to teach, or to just say hello. But nonetheless, his writings were some of the most influential Christian writings of the New Testament.

Paul had a very interesting life. The first time we hear any mention of Paul was when his name was still Saul in Acts, where he is the leader of the mob stoning Stephen, in Acts 7:57-59. Saul was a man who killed and imprisoned Christians; he went house to house and sent people to prison that were Christians. Because of Saul’s efforts the church in Jerusalem was scattered to outlying regions, Acts 8:1-4. This persecution proceeded for some time. Until at one point he was on his way to Damascus to imprison Christians there also, when a light flashed around him and he dropped to his knees (Acts 9:3-4). This light was Jesus and he told Saul to get up and go to Damascus and he would tell him what to do from there. After this Saul got up and opened his eyes and realized he was blind, no one else with him saw the light, but they heard the voice. In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. God spoke to him in a dream to go and lay his hands on Saul. So he did, and Saul was able to see, and immediately the Holy Spirit filled Saul and he was baptized. After that he stayed with the disciples in Damascus and preached in the synagogues. The Jewish leaders figured this out and wanted him to die, but they couldn’t succeed at killing him. Saul left Damascus and went to Jerusalem and joined up with the disciples there, even though they were afraid of him, Barnabas welcomed him in. The next time we see Saul is in chapter eleven when Barnabas finds him in Tarsus and brings him to Antioch. After staying in Antioch Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem. Upon returning to Jerusalem Saul and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy Spirit to Cyprus. In Acts 13 we hear Saul first called Paul in verse 9. The rest of Acts is about his missionary journeys. In Acts 13 Barnabas and Saul are sent to Cyprus, and Antioch of Pisidia to preach the Gospel, and to teach people in those places. The in Acts 14 they go to Iconium and then to Lystra. However in Lystra some Jews had followed him from Antioch and Iconium, and they persuaded the crowd to stone Paul, so they did and they drug him out of the city. Being left for dead, he wasn’t, and he got up and went to Derbe with Barnabas. After teaching people there he returned to Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, in order to encourage the believers there. After that they returned to Jerusalem and told the disciples there about how the gentiles came to believe. In chapter 15 Paul and Barnabas split up over an argument about who they should bring to encourage the churches they’ve set up, Barnabas goes to Cyprus with John, who had recently left them on their first journey, and Paul went to Syria and Cilicia with Silas. Paul and Silas went then to Derbe, where the met another disciple named Timothy. Paul wanted to bring Timothy along so he had him circumcised so the Jews would accept him. So the three of them traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia. While traveling in that area Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man who wanted them to go there. So they went to Macedonia. In Macedonia they met a woman named Lydia, and they baptized her and her family and stayed at her house. While in the city they were followed around by a little girl who could predict the future, this troubled Paul, so he cast the spirit out of her. In doing so, her family, who was earning money of that skill, became very angry and dragged Paul, Silas and Timothy before the authorities. Everybody was against them, and they were ordered to be beaten and they were severely beaten at that. After that they were thrown into jail. While in jail they prayed and sang songs to God. There was an earthquake that shook the building, all of the prison doors flew open, and all of the chains came off of all the prisoners. Upon this happening the guard thought everyone escaped, so he was about to kill himself, but Paul told him not to. The guard came to believe, he and his whole family were baptized. Then Paul, Silas and Timothy were released. From there they went to Thessalonica, and after that to Berea. After those places Paul went to Athens and spoke to everyone about idols. After doing that Paul went to Corinth, while there Silas and Timothy met back up with him and they preached to the Jews that Jesus Christ is Lord. After that Paul went to Ephesus and taught the disciples there about the Holy Spirit and the baptism of Jesus Christ. Paul spent three months speaking in Ephesus. He also spoke in the hall of Tyrannus and all of the Jews and Gentiles in the province of Asia heard about Jesus Christ. While he was in Ephesus there was a riot, and a man died, but Paul brought him back to life, as he did a lot of miracles during those times. He decided to go back to Jerusalem so he left Ephesus. When he got to Jerusalem many were against him, the Jews were trying to kill him but the Roman commander arrested him so he couldn’t be harmed. He was given a chance to speak to the Jews so he told them what happened on the road to Damascus. But the Jews hated hearing this, so they wanted him killed, the Romans were about to flog him, but Paul explained how he was a Roman citizen. He was then put on trial before the Sanhedrin and a fight broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees. So he was taken away. At one point forty men took up an oath not to eat until they had killed Paul, but he found out and the commander of the guard had him moved to Caesarea. But while Paul was in prison in Caesarea, he was taken before the governor, Felix, and had not found anything wrong with him, but heard him talking about Jesus Christ, so he had him left in prison, for a period of about two years. After those two years a new governor came, he was Porcius Festus. Festus put Paul on trial again, but Festus also couldn’t find anything wrong with him, as well as Paul wanted to go before Caesar. But seen as Festus didn’t have anything serious to tell Caesar, he had one of his friends, King Agrippa, listen to him and try to see what should be done. So Paul went before him and again told about himself and his story, as well as what happened on the road to Damascus, and the King admitted that Paul would probably convince him to be a Christian. But seen as Paul had appealed to Caesar he was sent to Rome. So Paul and some other prisoners were put on a ship and sailed to many islands and eventually there was a great storm. The ship was pushed far off course, for fourteen nights, when they came across an island. They tried to dock but ran aground on a reef and the ship sunk, but everyone on the ship was safe, proving a vision true that Paul had where an angel told him, "Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted you all those who are sailing with you (Acts 27:24)." The island that they landed on was Malta, and the natives were very nice to them, Paul even healed many of them in the name of Christ. They all stayed there for three months and eventually made it to Italy, traveling north and eventually reaching Rome. In Rome Paul met with all of the Jewish leaders in the area and told them about Jesus, and his story, some believed, but when he said that the salvation that God had sent was for the Gentiles they all left because they were angry at that statement. Acts ends with "And he," (Paul) "stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered (Acts 28:30-31)."

We know that after Acts Paul is still in prison, but while in prison he still does a lot for the church. He writes many letters, encouraging, teaching and preaching. He wrote these letters to the Romans, the church in Corinth, the church in Galatia, the church in Ephesus, the church in Philippi, the church in Colosse, and the church in Thessalonica. He also wrote letters to individual people, like Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. And throughout all of these writings Paul gives us some very important messages.

Take for instance in Galatians 5 Paul tells us about how as Christians we need the Holy Spirit because “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict (Galatians 5:17).”

In the book of Colossians Paul is writing the church of Colosse in order to over come some false teachings which had surfaced denying the total sufficiency of Christ for Salvation. In Colossians 1:15-18 Paul is telling us about how Christ as a person is sufficient for salvation, and then in verses 19-23 he reiterates that Jesus is God in the flesh. Then in Colossians 3 Paul paints this picture of what is right and what is wrong. He even goes as far to say that we must put to death what is wrong, which is “the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life for that is idolatry (3:5).” But then as a way out he gives us these thins that clothe ourselves with, such as “tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (3:12).”

And finally you have the letters 1^st & 2^nd Timothy and Titus, which are often referred to as the “pastoral epistles.” The reason for this name is that these books give us a few guidelines in which to run a church, how to run our lives, and just how to teach. And that makes sense because Timothy and Titus were both teachers and leaders in the church.

In Philippians 2 Paul tells us that we must be like Christ. That we must be “of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose (Philippians 2:2).” That all meaning that we must be of the same mind, Christ’s mind, the same love, Christ’s love, united in spirit, Christ’s spirit, and intent on one purpose, Christ’s purpose. It is important as followers of Christ we follow this passage. It tells us not only to think of ourselves but as others, and to just do all the stuff that Jesus Christ did.

That leads us to the question of how did Paul die. Seen as there is no record of how Paul died in the bible we are left to guess and speculate as to how it happened. Christian tradition holds that Paul was beheaded by Nero somewhere in 60’s A.D. However no scholars can agree that he was beheaded, nor can they agree when it happened and where it happened, we just know one thing for sure, Paul did in fact die.

Paul had an epic life, ranging from events where he killed Christians to where he became the most influential Christian in the church. There was a reason that Paul’s life happened the way it did, and that is just that Paul was needed in order to spread the gospel and to teach sound doctrine.

Bibliography

New American Standard Bible
http://www.biblegateway.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.biblestudy.org/question/sauldie.html

Teachings of Jesus

2006-04-16T15:31:00.000-04:00

The gospels of the New Testament tell us about our savior Jesus Christ. The gospels tell us about what he did, and more importantly what he taught us. Jesus taught us about a variety of subjects, He taught us about Himself; who he was. He taught us about what the law is and he elaborated on the law. He taught us about the Jewish leaders and how they were hypocrites. He taught us about the “Kingdom of God” and that it was coming. He also taught us through parables. He taught us all of this so that we would be able to follow him and know truly who he is and what he wants for us.
When Jesus taught us about Himself he did so because he had to tell people about how he was the Christ, and under what authority he was doing everything. In Matthew 21 Jesus is asked the question of “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority (Matthew 21:23)?” by the Pharisees. Seen as Jesus often answered in the form of a question he said to them, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men (Matthew 21:24)?” The Pharisees then thought about it and chose not to answer because they saw it as a loaded question; either way they answered they would be in trouble. So they answered Jesus saying, “We don't know (Matthew 21:27).” Jesus said that he wouldn’t answer them, so he began to teach them through a parable. The parable told about a man with two sons. He told both of them to go to the vineyard and work. The first one said that he wouldn’t, and then later obeyed and went. But the second son said that he would, but he never followed through with it. Jesus asked the Pharisees “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” They answered, “The first.” So to this Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him (Matthew 21:31-32).” Another thing that Jesus taught us about Himself was that He was going to come back one day. In Mark 13 Jesus tells about the end of time. How many will come saying that they are the Christ, but they will be lying, and that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken (Mark 13:24-25).” Then Jesus tells us “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory (Mark 13:26).” Jesus tells us all of this so that we can watch for it, and be ready.
Jesus also teaches us about the law, and he tells us, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).” Jesus then goes on to tell us about how time will not end until the law is fulfilled and that, “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” That was a scary thing for people to hear back then, just because they saw the Pharisees as the most righteous men. Jesus also elaborates on many of the laws. He does this many times, he teaches us about how we were once told “do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” but Jesus goes further than that to say that anyone who is angry with another will be subject to judgment. Jesus also elaborates on the law of “Do not commit adultery,” Jesus again elaborates and says, “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Some may say that Jesus does this to make it even harder to follow Him, but I don’t think so, He is just telling us what truly is right and wrong, and trying to get us to develop some character.
Jesus also talks a lot about the Jewish leaders. “‘Be careful,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 16:6).’” Jesus is warning the disciples against the teachings of the Pharisees, as the bible says, “Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew16:12).” In Matthew 23 Jesus even goes so far as to say “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” Jesus actually says it 6 times in Matthew 23. Jesus also calls the Pharisees hypocrites, many other times, like when he says, “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full (Matthew 6:2).”
In the New Testament the phrase “Kingdom of God” is used sixty five times in all, fifty-one of those times by Jesus. So the question is what this “Kingdom of God” is. The kingdom of God that is referred to is Heaven. When Jesus was in Galilee he said “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).” He says this talking about the fact that His kingdom is coming and that in order to get into it we must repent and believe in him. When we die, in order to get into Heaven, we must repent, which means “To make a change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition for one's sins.” Jesus also says that we must believe in Him.
Jesus also teaches us through parables. A parable by definition is a “short moral story.” An example of a parable would be John 6:31-38, “‘Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’’ Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world. ‘Then they said to Him, ‘Lord, always give us this bread.’ Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. ‘But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. ‘All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. ‘For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.’” When Jesus says that He is the bread of life, he doesn’t literally mean he is bread, but he is talking about how without him people would not live for eternity. The reason Jesus used parables to teach is arguably because parables are more interesting than just saying flat out what you’re trying to say. When you use parables you are teaching through getting the people you are talking too to figure it out on their own.
There should be no mistake in that Jesus was a great teacher. However Jesus is more than just a great teacher in that he is the son of God. As C.S. Lewis puts it in mere Christianity, “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Bibliography

1. New American Standard Bible

2. http://www.biblegateway.com/

3. http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/

4. Mere Christianity; C.S. Lewis

5. http://www.twopaths.com/jteach.htm

Washington D.C.

2006-04-02T06:52:00.000-04:00

Well, im gone for a week. So, bye.

Messianic Prophecies of the Old Testament

2006-03-28T12:38:00.000-05:00

In the later writings of the Old Testament there was this sense of anticipation for a coming “Messiah.” This Messiah would be the deliverer of the Hebrews and He would be the Son of God. Many prophets wrote about the Messiah, telling who He is, what He would do, and even how He would die. In order to understand who the Christ is you must understand the prophecies.
So, What exactly is prophecy? Prophecy is a prediction of the future, made under divine inspiration. In this case, which I will be talking about, prophets are writing about a future man who will be the deliverer of all mankind. However, in order for prophecy to have any grounds of truth it has to someday happen. Take for instance when in Ezekiel 26, which is claimed to be written around 586 B.C. Tells so vividly about how God is against the country of Tyre, and He sends nations against it. It says, “therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Tyre, and I will bring many nations against you, like the sea casting up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and pull down her towers; I will scrape away her rubble and make her a bare rock. Out in the sea she will become a place to spread fishnets, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD (Ezekiel 26:3-5a).” Historians tell about this part of history, a story of Alexander the Great, who besieged the island-city of Tyre in the year 332 B.C. Alexander’s army destroyed the mainland of Tyre and consequently threw the rubble into the sea. Alexander’s army did this because they were in the process of building a causeway to the island. Historians also tell us of how they even scrapped away the dust and just left bare rock. That is just one example of biblical prophecy being fulfilled. But what does the Bible say about the Messiah?
The Book of Isaiah tells us about certain aspects of the Messiah. In Isaiah 42 God is telling us about who the Christ is going to be, His mission on earth. The Messiah is called the “chosen one” and God’s “servant.” This chapter states that among other things the Messiah will bring justice into the entire world. However it says that it will not be in conventional ways, the Messiah will do it without yelling, arguing and violence (verses 2-3). But the Messiah will do it by faith, that God will do everything. Also, this chosen one, will not get discouraged because He will have faith that all will happen as God has planned. God tells of this plan of how He will always be there with the Messiah and He will always help. God talks about how the Messiah will be “a light” to the gentiles and to the lost, thus the whole world. At the end of verse nine God says that this is all going to happen, He is just telling us before it does. In Isaiah 53 God tells us of how the Messiah is going to suffer. The Messiah will suffer physical pain as well as being mocked. However the reason this has to happen isn’t because the Messiah deserves it, but because He takes the pain of all of our sins. “But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).” That verse tells us that in order for all of creation to have peace and forgiveness there must be one that is totally innocent to bare the consequences and pay the price for how we have done wrong.
In the book of Psalms God tells us a more heroic story. In Psalms 16 we are told that the Messiah will rise from the grave after dying, “because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay (Psalm 16:10).” In Psalms 110 we see that the Messiah will be “exalted” to the right hand of God. And that it is by God that all other kings will be destroyed and victory will be accomplished by God’s power. It also starts to depict a story of a man that is cast out that will be the foundation of forgiveness. In Psalm 118 the book tells us of a stone (the Christ), that will be rejected by builders (the Pharisees), that will become the cornerstone (of faith). In Psalm 2 God tells us about how the Messiah is His Son, and about how He will become ruler of all the earth. “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery (Psalms 2:8-9).”
In late prophetical writings God starts to elaborate on specific things, such as the whereabouts of the Messiah’s birth, when it says “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times (Micah 5:2).” God even goes so far to state that the Messiah will come into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). God tells us about how the Messiah will give us a “spirit of grace and supplication,” which is the Holy Spirit and that it will come from one that has been pierced by Jerusalem. In Jeremiah we see a glimpse of how the Messiah will come as a sort of new covenant with God, like the covenants with Levi or Moses, and that He will forgive us of our sins and not remember them anymore. “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34).” In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, God tells us about how He will send his “messenger” to the temple, and that his messenger will testify against all unrighteousness (Malachi 3:1-6).
The Old Testament paints a picture of a Messiah, that will have power, that will pay for our sins with his pain, that will be born in Bethlehem, and that will be rejected. There are over three hundred prophecies of the Messiah. The odds of one man fulfilling forty of the prophecies would be one in ten to the 157th power. Now for one man to fulfill three hundred, I once heard it compared to “fill the state of Texas with two feet of Oreos, all black, reach in and pick out a white one.” Think about this, 268,820 square miles of texas, every square mile covered with 2 feet of black Oreos, with one white Oreo. What are the odds of randomly picking out that white one? This tells us one main thing, that there is no chance in who the Messiah would be. A mathmetician by the name of Dr. Peter S. Ruckman claimed that the odds of 60 of the prophecies being fulfilled by a person who claimed to be the Son of God, and who died on a "tree" on Calvary, and who rose the 3rd day are one out of ten to the 895th power. So, how can there be any debate on the messiah? Why is it that so many people are up in arms because one man said that He was God’s son, fulfilled all of the prophecies, and died innocent. This man was Jesus of Nazareth. He is the only man ever to fulfill all of the prophecies. He is the only man who ever had grounds to claim that He was the Messiah. He was born in Bethlehem, He was the son of a virgin, He never used violence, His own people rejected Him, and His own people killed him. What other proof is needed? God tells us exactly who the Messiah is, why is it so much of a mystery for some of us, that we do not want to believe. I will never understand this nature of humans, to reject their only hope, to reject their only forgiveness. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3).”
Bibliography
http://www.biblegateway.com/
http://www.allabouttruth.org/biblical-prophecy.htm
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.messianicbible.com/prophecies.asp
http://biblia.com/prophecies/jewish.htm
NASB Study Bible

Consistancy

2006-03-20T12:21:00.000-05:00

I find that I have trouble with being consistant. Consistant in just what I do, whether its what I do for other people or what I do for myself. By that I mean like, I've been trying to keep a journal entry going every day, in a notebook, not on here, but its been hard, i went for like a week, then i skipped a day, and its been on and off. Or if its for somebody else, like when I set aside time to prepare for my small group at fusion, sometimes i neglect doing that. Ive just been thinking the past couple days that I could be doing so much more, but I dont, because I'm kind of a slacker. One of my goals has always been to do all that I can, whenever I can. Though, i find its hard for me to do that just because I cant stick with it, back to the consistancy problem. Maybe just thinking about this will help me, but hey, whatever works.

First Priority 3/15/06

2006-03-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

"By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
- Genesis 2:2-3

The Sabbath - in other words the day of rest, is something we often forget about. In our busy lives we forget to leave some time to just sit, and think or pray. For me it is extra hard, im always running here and there, doing this or that, and i never just set apart some time to just sit down and relax. I forget that i need a "vacation," however God tells us to remember it. ("Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy - Exodus 20:8.")
So, when i was thinking about this i just thought, why would God want us to be lazy for a day? But i quickly decided on the answer that it is because He knows that we (as humans) can't go and go without taking a break every once and a while, we need to spend time just sitting down, or sleeping, and most importantly reflecting on Him. (He knows better than us, He created us) That is why God helps us out with it, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30)."
So heres a good question, who can give up a day? Like, I know for myself that I am too busy to give up a day, if i gave up a day i would get behind in homework, or church stuff, or whatever. But I dont really think that it is so important that we give up a day, but that we just give up any time whatsoever. Say its a half our a day, you could just spend that time thinking, or praying, it would really help out our spiritual lives.
Yesterday I had a conversation with Cameron First and Zac Collins (Zaqu Collinz) about how sometimes people need to stop caring so much for others, and only worrying about others, and just spend some time thinking about how they are doing. For instance, if someone is giving advice and stuff, and helping out friends, but the person doesnt like take any of his/her own advice, because they dont care enough about themselves, then it is bordering on hipocracy. So first, get yourself right with God, then you can help out others.
"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" - Matthew 7:3
Now, i realize that this isnt a very personal way of challenging you(the reader), but here is my challenge. Start up a journal, write in it at least once a week and just write about like stuff going on, what youre feeling, or just write something to God, like a prayer. For me it has helped emensely over the past few days, just as ive been trying to just sift through my thoughts and I just want to grow in my faith.
And if you arent a christian, then hey, no problem, a journal would probably be good for you too, as well as some rest, any body will agree on it, but hey, God first said it (haha).
Leave comments, yo.

Postmodernism : Philosophically Speaking

2006-03-10T19:56:00.000-05:00

This was a paper i wrote for english, i havent updated in a while, so this will work as an update.

In life people embark on a path of self-discovery, questioning their beliefs, questioning their definition of right and wrong. What happens when there is no clear definition of right and wrong? Postmodernism defines truth as a belief that is relative to one’s own views. I stand firmly against this, in that I find it hard to believe that there are other definitions of right. There is truth; you just have to look for it.
So, what is postmodernism anyway? Can something define a movement where the movement stands against any definition at all? Le Différend (1984) so delicately put, “Postmodernism is the view that different realms of discourse are incommensurable and incapable of judging the results of other discourse.” Meaning that your actions aren’t comparable to somebody else’s, its up to you only to decide whether what you’re doing is ok or not, and if you decide whether it’s ok or not it cannot be applied to anybody else.
“The ‘truth,’ since it can only be understood by all of its connections is perpetually ‘differed,’ never reaching a point of fixed knowledge which can be called ‘the truth’”(wikipedia). This however is a volatile piece of thought in the world of philosophy. The idea undermines any idea of a mutual reality. What I mean by that is if the postmodern idea is right, then there would be no true reality. Reality would be a sort of hideous assumption. This is an idea that is truly irregular, and totally irrelevant to the world we live in.
Postmodern thought comes up in three main areas: Morality, Culture and Religion. Morality is defined as “The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct” (dictionary.com). Postmodernism throws a curveball to that and it would probably be worded as “The quality of being in accord with your standards of right.” This is a problem, if everybody went by their own standards of right the world would be utter chaos. “In a world governed by reason, the true will always be the same as the good and the right (and the beautiful). There can be no conflict between what is true and what is right”(Dr. Mary Klages). In this world of postmodern thought what would stop “bad” stuff from happening? You could no longer say it was bad if a man raped a girl, it would be thought of as “ok,” because that man would see no problem in it. Needless to say this idea is preposterous. As troubling as this is, there is hope. However, there is hope that there will always be somebody out there to stand up and say “this is wrong” when nobody else realizes it.
Presently, our country is at war, not with a country, but with a culture. A culture where killing yourself and others is commonly accepted, a culture where fear is the only tool with which too survive. Terrorism is the enemy, but postmodernism makes us ask the question “why?” Why are these “terrorists” our enemy, they are just doing what is right according to their beliefs and their culture. It is easy to look at your own culture and say “we are right, they are wrong.” Even if that is true, why is it true? Why is it that our definition of right and wrong is true and theirs isn’t? “There are no universal truths” (Barry Burke). They think it’s ok to murder for the sake of Allah, we don’t think its ok to murder ever. We think it is ok that women are seen as equals to men, they think that women are a lesser creature, good for only pleasing males and only fit to stay at home. How can it be that evil is good to some and good is evil to others? Further than that, how do we know what is good and what is evil? Two things so opposite cannot both be equally right.
In any religion there is always a sort of definition of what is right and what is wrong, without that definition the religion would be pointless. When Buddha said “Hatred does not cease in this world by hating, but by not hating; this is an eternal truth,” he was stating a definition of right and wrong, in this case saying hate is wrong. When the Qur’an says “If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice” (4:3), it states that it is right for a man to marry four wives. A Hindu proverb says “They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing,” Saying that it is good to give. And when Jesus said, “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). he was stating that he is the only way to heaven, no other way is right. All of these religions say something about believing a certain thing, they state a truth, but which religion is right? It is safe to conjecture that either one is right, or none are right. The postmodern idea would be that they are all right, but this is absurd, just because again, two things so opposite cannot be equally true.
Reason is defined as “The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence” (dictionary.com). We all have the capacity for logical thought, we all have intelligence, so instead of pleading ignorance, I plead with you, look for the truth. Truth is not what you want to make of it, but it is out there as a fixed statement. It may be hard, but it is truly worth it, with truth comes wisdom, and knowledge. Whether you are looking for true morality, or true power, knowledge will get you there, and in order to have knowledge you must have the truth. In conclusion, postmodern thought and ideals are absurd, sure they sound good, it is always good to think of ways that we can be less judging, I mean, how could you judge when there was nothing to base the judgment on? What I’m getting at is this, even though something may sound good, it may not really be right, even though something may look good, it may as well be the most evil thing known to man. Ask yourself just one last question, “Why do I believe what I do believe?” Don’t be afraid, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jesus Christ).

Old Entry, New Thought

2006-02-27T23:27:00.000-05:00

Well, this entry will be about truth.There is one truth, one way, and one life.
Whether youre a christian or not.
That brings me to the next step, how do you know thats the truth?I'm not going to answer that, because you need to research it on your own.
Dont just be a person of blind faith.Faith is not blind, true faith is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1)
Just think about that....its the assurance, and the convictionAre you sure of the truth?
Are you certain what you believe?
(Conviction is a synonym for certainty)(The definition also goes on to say that it is a "Fixed or strong Belief")(www.dictionary.com)
For me, the answer has been no.Because whenever i would ask, i would be told to take it by faith.
That is right and wrong, there is a difference between faith, and blind faith.Like what Hebrews 11:1 says, faith is knowing, its the assurance, and the conviction, or the certainty, of what you believe.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. I believe that no one is saved except for through his redemption.
No one goes to God except through him.
I believe that the bible is the literal word of God, and i believe the bible is definate, the absolute truth.
And I am not just saying that because thats what im told to believe, I believe it, because i have done, and am doing the research.
Thats what i challenge you to do.Do the research.
Understand your faith.
The first step to asking questions is whether or not you believe the bible to be the truth.
Then you can start on the other topics.I am not going to say ask me questions, i'm going to say research it on your own.
Look at the evidence.
I think many forget to do that.
I know i did.
Heres a good website for questions http://www.gotquestions.org/ or www.icr.org
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handly the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15
"holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain." Phillipians 2:16
Study the word.
Believe.
-Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Right now i am doing a paper for english on Postmodernism and the affect it has on philosophy and cuture. Postmodernism pretty much says, "Your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth, we are both right." This doesnt make sense, If i said i was sitting on a chair, either i am or im not, both cant be right. Though that is a primitive analogy, it gets the job done. What do you believe, and why?
The Key question being "WHY?"

Questions that i got a long time ago.

2006-02-21T21:39:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine once gave me a piece of paper with a bunch of questions on it, i finally got around to answering them.

Answers to your questions
By, Matt Bedwin

Did God create sin?

- Well, ok, ill even broaden the question to did God create evil. First of all, evil is not a thing (a rock, electricity) you cant have a jar of evil. In essence evil has no existence of its own; it is merely the lack of good. When God created everything, he created everything good, and he created people with the ability to choose what is good, however, in order to have that “good” thing you have to have something not good, that’s where evil comes into the picture. I hope that answers that, but ultimately we as humans can’t understand everything about God, he’s a whole lot more than we can comprehend, I don’t know why God created us when there was sin in the world, or why he didn’t just send us straight to heaven where we could lead perfect lives. I figure it’s just because he didn’t want a race of mindless robots, but that’s for God to know and for me to wonder about.

Who do we pray to, the father, the son, or the Holy Spirit?

- That’s easy, we pray to all three, because they are all in affect the same thing, God.

Is baptism necessary for salvation?

- No, baptism is in effect just an outward way of saying “Hey, I'm a Christian, and I love God,” so, in order to be baptized you must first believe, and if you believe then you have salvation.

Why did God create us with sin in the world?

- Refer to question #1.

Would someone go to heaven if they had never heard about God or Jesus?

- This is a commonly debated question, which I cannot fully answer, because I just don’t know the answer. I do know however that God did create more than just ourselves and the bible says that a person can see the works of God by just looking at his creation, so somebody could believe in God, they just may not know all of God’s teachings…. I don’t know how exactly it works

Guy comes up to you and says “kill yourself or ill kill your family” would it be alright to kill yourself?

- That is a tough question, and I don’t know the answer, however I do know that prayer is powerful and even if you didn’t kill yourself something could happen to the guy to where your family was never harmed, or you found a way to stop that from happening, you don’t know what’s going to happen, so don’t give in so quickly.

Why does the evangelical church say there are no contradictions in the bible when they are plainly there for all to see?

- “We often get questions along the lines of “Explain how these verses do not contradict!” or “Look, here is an error in the Bible!” Admittedly, some of the things people bring up are difficult to answer. However, there are viable and intellectually plausible answers to every supposed Bible contradiction and error. There are books and websites available that list “all the errors in the Bible.” Most people simply get their ammunition from these places – they do not find supposed errors on their own. There are also books and websites available that refute each and every last one of these supposed errors. The saddest thing is that most people who attack the Bible are not truly interested in an answer – all they want to do is attack. Many "Bible attackers" are even aware of the answers, but they continue to use the same old shallow attacks again and again.” http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-errors.html

Why are there hypocrites in the church?

- I have no idea, and I am so sorry that they are there. It is crazy how people can so quickly decide that they hate Christianity just because one person isn’t living the right way, Its sad how that pushes so many people away. I am truly sorry if that has affected you in any way, and I just want you to know that those people, if they are hypocrites will receive their judgment by god in the end, so you don’t have to worry about it, God will deal with them.

Is Christianity like a clan?

- The definition of a clan is: A division of a tribe tracing descent from a common ancestor. So no Christianity is not a clan because we all did not descend from Christ, but I bet you didn’t mean clan, if you meant cult, I can answer that. A cult is: A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader. I guess you can call Christianity a cult because we do follow a pretty extremist guy, Jesus, he said some pretty ridiculous things, like he’s the son of God, and we are told to live in an unconventional manner, such as we aren’t supposed to hate our enemies. But Christianity is not a cult, it is not false, because it is the religion based on Jesus being the son of God, there are cults in Christianity, such as Jehovah’s Witness, or Mormonism, they are clearly seen as cults however, Christianity is not.

Can a person be totally unselfish?

- I’m sure it would be hard to do but you’ve heard the saying, anything’s possible. We as Christians are called to be unselfish, just like Jesus, who was unselfish, however I know that myself I am not totally unselfish, so that’s one area that needs work, out of many. I can’t really generalize an answer to that because that is an individual question we must as ourselves in order to reform ourselves.

God can over power Satan right? Why doesn’t he make the world have less suffering?

- Yes, God can over power Satan, Satan has to first as permission to do evil, permission that is only given to him by God, I.E. Job. But this gets back to question one, in that I don’t understand why God allows Satan any control, but it goes along with free choice and evil being there, just because we as people have the right to choose between Good, and not good.

If you are in denial about struggling with your faith then are you in denial of Christ? If that makes sense at all.

- It makes a little sense, and I think I can answer it by just this, denial about struggling with your faith can happen, but what it gets down to is having doubts, you can doubt and still be a Christian, but sometimes it gets really hard, I don’t think you’re in denial of Christ when you’re in denial of struggling with your faith.

If you talk to God and or ask him to talk to someone that you knew that is dead, can he pass the message along?

- I don’t think so, the bible does talk about how once someone dies they cannot communicate with people back here in order to warn them about hell, or say that its all real, so I don’t think you can really talk to a dead relative because that mode of communication is cut off.

How do you explain how God has been alive forever and ever?

- Hard concept to grapple in the first place just because we as humans think very *finitely* and God is a very *Infinite* guy. What I mean by that is it’s just hard to understand because our minds can’t grasp it. I once read a quote in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, and Ill try to recite it, but he said something like “We as humans see time as a line, and if you put time in a line from the beginning to the end, that’s all we can see, however, God is not bound by that line, God is like all of the area surrounding the line, he sees everything at once, is everywhere, every time, he as just always existed and will always exist, there was no beginning and there will be no end to God. God was not created, he was just there, always was there.

If God was here forever then why didn’t he create us, or other earths earlier… like forever ago?! If that makes sense.

- Again, I don’t know the mind of God, because I am not God, I just know that he did create us, and that we are here now.

People that like worship the devil… believes that Christ is real, but don’t believe/worship him/his word. Correct or incorrect?

- Worshipers of Satan are human beings just like us and they can believe in Christ, but they have been deceived by Satan into believing that Satan will triumph over God, the believe that Christ is real, but no they do not worship him or believe what he has said, because that goes against what the great deceiver (Satan) says. If that makes sense.

Do people of other religions all go to hell, even if they live a godly life? Like different kinds of Christians, do they all go to hell or not?

- Jesus said this “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me” and he also said “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” Those two verses agree on the one thing that you must believe that Christ is the son of God and you must believe that he is your savior, if not then you do not share in Christ’s forgiveness, thus you are not forgiven, if you don’t know Christ, then you wont go to heaven, hard to handle, but its true. And when like Mormons, who believe in Christ, but they are fundamentally wrong and have added on to the bible they do not really believe in Christ, they believe in something totally different, and in revelation it says “whoever takes away or adds to this book will receive the plagues” and whatever else described in this book, thus it’s a sin to add to and believe stuff added to the bible. Hopefully that makes sense.

Is Satan a guy or girl?

- I know you just asked that out of being funny, but ill answer it, Satan is neither guy nor girl, he is an angel, a fallen angel, and angels do not have gender.

Is the Bible true?

2006-02-21T18:34:00.000-05:00

I had a conversation in my fourth hour today and it based largly around the question of "Is the bible true? Has it been changed?" And those are quite the good questions, which I have also grappled with.
This means you have to do research, find out the facts. And when you look at the facts its astonishing.
The Old Testament books (Genesis - Malachi) were writtn from 1400 B.C. to 400 B.C. and the books of the New Testament were written from 40 A.D. to 90A.D. So, doing the math, anywhere from 3400 to 1900 years have elapsed since a book of the Bible was written originally. Today, most of the original manuscripts have been lost, or likely dont exist anymore, also the books have been copied again and again. So, its reasonable to question the inerrancy of the Bible. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the bible says that it is inerrant and God-breathed when God originally inspired men to write it. That doesnt apply to copys of the manuscripts. In early times scribes devoted their whole lives to copying the bible exactly, but no one is perfect, so minor differences have resulted in various copies of the bible, and of all the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts in existence no two are alike until the 1500's when the printing press was invented. But, if you ask any unbiased document scholar they will agree that the Bible has been remarkably preserved over such a long period of time. Copys of the bible from the 14th century ar nearly identical to copys from the 3rd century. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found it was amazing how similar they were to other ancient copys of the Old Testament, even though the dead sea scrolls were hundreds of years older than anything previously found. So, no matter how hard of a skeptic you are you have to admit that the bible has been transmitted over the centurys far better than any other ancient document. Also, there is no evidence that the bible has been revised, edited, or tampered with in any way. The number of manuscripts would immediately point out one that distorts God's word. There is also no change in biblical doctorine by the minor differences that have appeared, because those differences were probably just misplaced periods or mispelling of peoples names or other things. We can have all the confidence that the Bible is the same as it was originally written, because God has protected his word even against people trying to destroy it, how else could it last so long?
The bible is unique in its continuity, it was written over roughly a 1600 year period by 40 authors, some fishermen, others politicians, kings, shepherds, and historians. They were from three different continents, and wrote in three different languages. They wrote about hundreds of controversial subjects, yet they wrote everything in agreement and perfect harmony. They wrote in dungeons, temples, on beaches, and on hillsides, during peace and during war. Yet their words sound like they came from the same source. 10 people today couldnt write about something and totally agree on one controversial subject, yet God picked 40 different people to write the bible, and its in total agreement.
The bible is unique in its cirulation. The invention of the printing press in 1450 made it possible to print books in large quantities. The first book printed was the Bible. Since then, the Bible has been read by more people and printed more times than any other book in history. By 1930, over one billion Bibles had been distributed by Bible societies around the world. By 1977, Bible societies alone were printing over 200 million Bibles each year, and this doesn’t include the rest of the Bible publishing companies. No one who is interested in knowing the truth can ignore such an important book.
The bible is unique in its translation in that it has been translated into over 1400 languages, no other book compares.
The bible is unique in its survival. In ancient times, books were copied by hand onto manuscripts which were made from parchment and would decay over time. Ancient books are available today only because someone made copies of the originals to preserve them. For example, the original writings of Julius Caesar are no longer around. We know what he wrote only by the copies we have. Only 10 copies still exist, and they were made 1,000 years after he died. Only 600 copies of Homer’s The Iliad exist, made 1,300 years after the originals were written. No other book has as many copies of the ancient manuscripts as the Bible. In fact, there are over 24,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts, some written within 35 years of the writer’s death.
The bible is unique in withstanding attack. No other book has been so attacked throughout history as the Bible. In A.D. 300 the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered every Bible burned because he thought that by destroying the Scriptures he could destroy Christianity. Anyone caught with a Bible would be executed. But just 25 years later, the Roman emperor Constantine ordered that 50 perfect copies of the Bible be made at government expense. The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1728, but the Bible lives on. The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.
The Bible has also survived criticism. No book has been more attacked for its accuracy. And yet archeologists are proving every year that the Bible’s detailed descriptions of historic events are correct.

Q: How is the Bible different from other religious books?
A: The Bible not only claims to be God¹s Word, but the verifiable evidence from archaeology, fulfilled prophecy, and its self-testimony authenticate this claim.

Q: How did we get the Bible?
A: God guided human authors to write down His Word without error. Then it was copied and recopied by professionally trained men, reproduced in print and preserved in the words we have today.

Q: Who has the right interpretation of the Bible?
A: The Bible, like any other book, can be misinterpreted. Interpreting each phrase within its context by considering its historical background, taking the words in a plain, ordinary, normal way, will clarify the author¹s meaning. The correct interpretation is what the author intended his readers to understand.

Resources:
me
www.gotquestions.org
www.evidencebible.com
www.relationalconcepts.org

Update

2006-02-10T22:32:00.000-05:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, thinking of what the future is going to be like. The rest of this school year is going to stink, except next trimester because i have two independent studies, so that will be nice, graduation is going to be weird, just because that means ill realize that im really going away. Next thursday i have a job interview for a summer job at christian reformed conference grounds, i will be the middle school ministries leader, pretty much youth pastor, but ill just be leading bible studys and worship, everything i already do, but ya, im really looking forward to that, though ill be gone, right after graduation, ill live at the camp, in grand haven, so i dont know, itll be fun, but no ones gonna see me all summer. Then after this summer i am obviously starting college at iwu. Which is going to be awesome, I've been talking to kyle lately about just how much fun its going to be there, I'm looking forward to making a ton of new friends. But ya, my plans for all of this are finally unfolding, i just hope that i get that job, but i have a plan b for that, an asphalt laying job, itll be hard work, but ill get a lot of money for school. Thats all i have to say about that.
On a more recent note, we had half days this week, and no school today, that doesnt mean ive gotten tons of rest, the complete opposite actually. Last night i hung out with Cameron and Brent and we just played video games and stuff, and wednesday and thursday there was fusion both days, fusion is going to get really hard, just because im going to have to do both fusions now, with Mike and Adam quitting. Oh well.
Thats just an update on my life right now.

Who am I?

2006-02-07T20:16:00.000-05:00

Matt Bedwin: (N) 1. ________________________________

I'm still blank, I guess I havent yet figured out who I am.

But I'll be there someday.

I guess everyone can ask that question of themselves.

Who are you?

Honest questions deserve honest answers.

Thoughts of right this moment

2006-01-29T19:21:00.000-05:00

Well, im sitting at the church and we just got done with a hungry service, and I dont know i just want to give everything that happened tonight to God. When right at the beginning i was just praying under the desk and i dont know i just felt like i needed to get some things right, dont we all, but i just dont know, i guess i just felt like i needed to get up and do what God needed me to do right then, so, i got up and i went and prayed with brent marshall, and i dont know it was just amazing how when i was praying with him it just didnt really feel like i was praying, its like i was praying brent's prayer for him and when we got all done brent had tears running down his face and i just knew that God spoke to him, through what i was praying. Gosh, nights like this are amazing, its like sometimes i just start getting doubts and whatnot, and tonight it just reafirms a lot, just telling me "shut up matt, just listen." And i did listen, i listened through just saying "God, talk to me." And in whatever really cool way he did, i dont know how to explain that sort of thing, but during worship i was just really feeling that i needed to just break my heart and just get back to the basics of seeking after God through just praising him. During worship I just felt like i wanted to just scream my lungs out because inside, i needed to. During the last song I did something i rarely do and i went to the altar and just started praying, i havent done that in probably 3 years, i always pray for other people and not myself, and i guess i just need to do it more often. I prayed that God would just use me throughout my life and i just dont want anything else to get in my way, whether its just the trivial sins of every day, hanging out at school doing what everybody else is doing, it just hurts me how i fall into it, i know i do, but i just hate it that i dont address it, and the way that i need to address it from now on is just bringing it to God through prayer, and if it helps at an altar. Its just like, when i was praying i was just crying my eyes out, which i also havent done for a long time, i just want God to use me in my life, not that i would use my life, but that God would use my life. What i mean by that is just like if i was leading my life i probably wouldnt be where i am, i probalby would have the friends i have and i probably wouldnt just be doing all this stuff. But somehow God has been in the driver's seat, and i havent noticed it, at least part of the time. There is a big reason why i got involved with just the church and stuff after a time of just going to church because family told me to, or whatever, i thought church was boring..... wait, let me correct myself, church is the body of christ, so we are each the church, not one building. But in interest of keeping on rambling i just want to get all of my thoughts down.
God, I just want to follow after you with my life, i dont care what i want i just want to do what you want. I dont care what people think about me, I dont care if they hate me or think im awesome, i wont let either go to my head because i just want to know what you think about me, and what you think about me is i am a unique creation of yours and i just havent noticed this as much as i should have until now. Lord, i just dont want to be made into somebody by the people around me, i dont want to be doing the stuff i do just because its "good," but i want to do it for the bigger reason of just doing what You want to do with my life, and i just want to do your will. i just dont know sometimes where im going and i want to take control of everything...... which i know i shouldnt do i need to trust you, and not my stupid thoughts, thatll probably make things worse. God, just thank you so much for tonight and all that and just thank you so much again for all of my friends and all that they do for me, i thank you for just the adults that have poured into my life and all that they have done for me, i have been put where i am because of the adults and friends that i have. But from now on im going to just souly follow after you, because well, i know i wont always be able to trust in them, no matter how bad that sounds, but i know that i will always be able to trust in you, so God just lead my life, as i prayed earlier, i dont care anymore about what i want or anything like that, i just pray that you keep me away from all that stuff that brings me down, and i just pray that you would just lift me up when i may stumble, God be my rock.
Amen

today

2006-01-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

Theres one thing in my life that continually makes me feel bad about myself, but at the same encourages myself to move further. Theres always this thing inside me saying "You can be perfect." However, this thing inside me saying this i do not like to listen to, i like to just say back "no ones perfect, leave me alone." I guess its a struggle of mine, i always think that i can do better, in any facet of my life..... though this may be a good thing, because it reforms my actions, but i just get so down on myself. I think, "come on matt, stop slacking." or just plain "you suck." And see, the bad thing is the voice saying "you suck." usually wins out over "hey, keep up the good work man." This is probably why i have such a problem with encouragement, I just plain dont like people telling me how much the appreciate me or how they think im so great.... i dont want to hear it, i dont want it to go to my head, i just dont want to be stuck up....... but i inadvertantly get stuck up in saying "shut up," to the people complimenting. I am finding out that i need to stop thinking so badly of myself and just start being "content" with my present self, not happy with myself which would cause me to think im awesome, but at the same time not mad at myself which would cause me to think that i suck and im worth just about the same as a piece of dirt. And i guess i need to start accepting compliments.... but do NOT take advantage of me saying that, whoever is reading this. I want to be humble. I dont know how to accomplish that, but ill make a fighting effort, with all the help God throws my way.

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really folish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
-Clive Staples Lewis : Mere Christianity

James 3-5

2005-12-12T21:13:00.000-05:00

Now, the theme of my life right now is this "be wise," it's a little slogan i came up with. However, I am finding that wisdom is one thing that is darn hard to figure out, and especially live out. Chapters 3-5 talk directly about that, i mean come on, even looking at the headings of each paragraph in my bible spells it out.... being wise is taming your tounge, getting wisdom from above, not giving into the world and its views, dont boast - and always do whats right, to be rich (materially) is short lived and in vain, being wise is to be patient, and being wise is to pray with faith.....
Chapter 3:1-12 talk about how 1, lots will come your way if you become a teacher, and that you have to be able to stand up to it, and 2, tame your tounge and the words that you say so that you can be blameless and without fault, never telling lies, or cursing. In verses 1-5 it talks about how ya, if you want to be a teacher, then get ready cause your are going to be judged harshly, and that even as a teacher we will stumble sometimes, because well, we are not perfect....... Which, is sometimes the easiest excuse to get out of something... if you go and get drunk some night then someone confronts you about it, the easiest thing to say is "i'm not perfect".... didnt you know that you were created so that we would be perfect, God intended each and every one of us to be perfect, however, due to our sinful nature, and our own personal choice, we decide to stray away from that... But the good news is, we can be perfect, by grace, and grace alone. But anyway, im getting off subject, and will therefore get back to what im talking about. This passage talks about how even though its a small part of our body, our tounge controls so much, especially how others see us. It says in verse 7 and 8 "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." Interesting how us as humans can tame so much, all of creation, however we cannot tame the our own tounge. Even in verse 10 when it says "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." That makes me think of that saying "You kiss your mother with that mouth?" after you swear. Interesting how at one time, your mouth is full of just being nice, talking of God, blessing people, and not being cruel, but then at other times, you are swearing, or talking about somenoe behind their back or just cursing the very existance of someone. It doesnt make sense to me, and the bible even states this when it says "these things ought not to be so." We must work, day, night, sunrise, sunset, to combat this evil which is our own mouth... whether it is just not swearing, or even not telling dirty jokes, or just not making fun of someone..... i know, i know, "I was just having fun," my question is, why the heck is fun always at the expense of someone else, why cant fun just be hanging out and talking with friends, without all that other stuff... It hurts me when people go around saying the dirtiest of things, even when they are christians....... is that what christians should say, is that honoring God?..... I think you know the answer........
To be continued....(i still have to go over the rest of 3, then 4 and 5, however, im tired)

James 2

2005-12-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

The whole of everything I am going to talk about is in the verse James 2:1 "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory," my question when i started reading this was just well, "what does that mean?" Well i can tell you exactly what it means. First of all, what is partiality? Partiality - n 1: a predisposition to like something.... other definitions state it as a "Favorable prejudice or bias," or, ever so simply, "The state of being partial." But in laymen's terms its just "Liking some one or something better than you like another person or thing." (At least thats the best way i can describe it.) Anyway, all throughout the bible it talks about not judging, because everyone is to be held to the same high esteem. Sure, you can think about that and just think, eh, whatever, i dont care. Well, i know you've heard it preached a thousand times, but, for christians this isnt an optional trait to follow, it is a command. In verses 2:2 - 2:4 it gives example of how to be partial and then asks the very self-compromising question of "have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" If we are to truely follow this we must recognize the fact that where Jesus talked about how the poor in spirit will inherrit the kingdom of heaven(Matthew 5:3), and that when Jesus said "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God(Mark 10:25)," he was saying to ultimately humble yourselves...... rich or poor, strong or weak, humble yourselves, especially for those of you rich and strong, because pride is a hard thing to over come...... I think of myself and how I continually struggle with this, one of the things that I've been trying to do lately is just think less of myself and more of others, and to just humiliate myself, just to get away from all the stuff that is making me feel better than everyone else, because i am not better than anyone else. In verse 2:10 it strikes out against people like me and says "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." Which, is honestly just the blow i needed, because i cant correct my wrongs until i know whatever im doing is wrong. But then, gladly, it says in verse 2:13 "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. " Thats telling me that i need to show mercy to others, and just not be so darn harsh, staying away from whatever judgements i have made, because who really cares about all those judgements, that isn't my place, and as a human, i am sure as heck not a fair judge. From verses 2:14 on to 2:26 it is discussing that common error which so many of us fall on...... the belief that "Hey, im a good person, so I'll go to heaven," i know ive heard it a million times, and i shudder every time i hear it, because i never knew how to respond. This portion of James talks directly about that because it clearly says that 1. Faith without works is dead, and that 2. (as the other side) Works without Faith is in vain. Clear, concise, and straight to the point, Yes, it hurts when you think about how "Wow, even if I am a good person im still going to hell" and even "Wow, even if i say im a christian, but i dont follow christ, im going to hell." Its amazing how, saying and believing are two different things..... i could say that i was a watermelon, however, im not, it goes the same with a person dead in sin, they can say "Im a christian" however, the belief is not there..... Its scary how easy it is to lie to yourself.

"It isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is not faith at all—it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, 'Some people have faith; others have good deeds.' I say, 'I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds'” (James 2:17-18)

James 1

2005-12-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

The writer of the book of James is... quite clearly James, and this is the oldest of the new testament writings, so if your bible were in chronological order this would be the first book of the new testament... Read more about it from the link I provided. But anyway, the purpose of me writing this is my observation of the text, the interpretation of the meaning, and finally the application which can be taken from the writings, this is one thing I am trying to learn how to do, so here goes.
Well it starts off like all the other letters from apostles I have read, introducing the Author as a servant of God, and it specifically says where the letter was intended to go, which is the "twelve tribes in the dispersion," so, Israel. After the intro he gets right into the guts early and starts off with talking about testing of your faith. It says in verse 2 "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." (ESV) This verse can be cross referenced to verses with the same subject matter of standing firm when hard times come (Matthew 5:12, Luke 6:22, 1 Peter 3:14, 1 Peter 4:14). The passage goes on to say "And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Stating that we are to be perfect and complete because of the faith that dwells in us and the sanctification (perfection) which is possible through grace. In verses 5-6 it talks about two of the very most important things, wisdom and faith. Go to God for wisdom, however do it with faith, having no doubt, because like it says in verse 6 "... for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." Because if you have doubts, you can be pushed around by anybody, because you arent even sure of what you believe....... Now hold on a second, because I know what you're thinking, you are thinking ".... crap, i have doubts.... i suck" or something along those lines. I am one that will testify to the fact that doubts are easy to come by and hard to get rid of, I feel that it is so hard not to have doubts because the rest of the world is putting stuff in your mind that would even make the strongest rooted person faulter even a little. But the one thing I want you to think about is that out of those doubts you can learn so much as long as you research, and just ask the famous question "why?" The trouble is that it is so easy just to take what you hear in church, or what you hear from me as just the exact truth. Research what people say, so that you can know what the truth is and base your faith on fact, which will allow your faith to grow once it is strongly rooted in truth. Truth cannot be beaten.
Therefore when it says in verse 19 "...let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger," It is talking about having patience, and listening, instead of jumping to conclusions, or just talking a whole lot and not listening. Above all else staying away from anger, verse 20 "for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires." I find it interesting that the ESV translation says "requires" because that is saying that God isnt really asking for us to be righteous, but he requires that we are righteous....... hard thing to grasp, and surely a hard thing to pursue, however it can be done with God's help (Matthew 19:26). Verse 22 goes onto say "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." It discusses it in the verses after that, but it is pretty much pointing to the fact that we need to hear the word, and in turn do what we hear, apply the word to our lives, and live in a way which God would want us to. And even in the verse before 22 it says "... receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." Saying humble yourself and engrain the word of God into your life... thus hearing it and doing it. Verses 26 through 27 really stick out to me. because it is calling for a true realization of what true religion is, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God." -verse 27, and it even gives an example of this kind of religion.. it says "to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." Thus saying don't be proud, and just help out other people less fortunate than yourselves and secondly, dont give into the temptations of the world, dont be tainted by society's pull for a worldly and materialistic existance.
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." -Titus 2:11-14

2005-12-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Today
Well, today i am officially getting rid of the xanga, cause i feel like it, and im doing this instead, these are all the meaningful entrys from the xanga.... i like them, because they are from my head. i like thinking.
Read them if you feel like it.

Monday, November 21, 2005
I have had a very great, and eye opening day.Seems to me that if i just think long enough on one thing, a rational answer comes to my head, then other things start fitting into place. I have just really thought of well, in a broad sense, what reform is, and how i can reform myself (make myself better). Intelectually speaking i could go to school and try to learn and whatever, but that isnt what i need right now, i am pursueing philisophical, and spiritual reform, with the ultimate goal of being wise.However, that is quite the daunting task. Wisdom is, according to the dictionary, "The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight." I guess my definition would just be "The process of finding what is true, right, or everlasting." Because, well, the way i see it, wisdom isnt just something you can have, or fully have over time, its a process, a process of learning and discerning right from wrong, meaning, when its the right time to do stuff, am i right when i go and do this, why is that right, or why is that wrong, there are so many questions associated with it, that it (right and wrong) can not be found. And wisdom is the process of learning and discerning truth, which brings about so many questions such as even, what is truth, or where does truth come from, why is that the truth, how do you know thats the truth, whatever, there is an apparently infinite line of questions to go along with that, and im sure there is an infinite line of answers..... but well, no body has all the answers.... the process of becoming wise is, to me, 1. Learning the truth.2. Applying the truth.3. Learn more.It is a process that will seemingly go on forever, just because there is always that question of "why?" It's a wonderful question, one that opens the door to more questions, and eventually getting to truth. In school right now i am in a class called "HOSTS," it is where i go to the elementary school and read with kids and stuff, its awesome, but anyway, the one thing that ive noticed from being with those kids is that they always ask why. Its like this innocent sense of just trying to find truth, trying to find understanding of the world around you. I find that as we get older we are tempted to stop asking the "why" questions and just settle with what we know, truth, or not, because it is easier that way..... However, as we all know, the easy way out, isnt always the best way out, and in this case it is not the best way, nor is it a good way even, it is just, plain and simple, the worst way. Some argue "Ignorance is bliss," i argue "Ignorance is not bliss, it is just a state of lying to yourself, and others." And well, you can disagree if you fell so inclined, nobody likes a liar, and nobody likes lies.I want to challenge you to do this one thing......... it doesnt have to be deep, it doesnt even have to make sense, but just ask "Why?" Because out of that you will learn, no matter how small of a piece of information it is, you will either learn truth, or you will learn one person's idea of truth, thats why you ask many people, and many sources. Somebody, or something, is right.
The truth is out there, you just have to look for it.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction." -Proverbs 1:7
"A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel," -Proverbs 1:5
"A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, But knowledge is easy to one who has understanding." -Proverbs 14:6"
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid." -Proverbs 12:1
Proverbs is a good book.......... teaches you a lot.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Life is a mosaic of choices.... to every cause there is an effect and that goes without me saying for every effect there is a cause. Which therefore arises the question "why cause a bad effect"... so what I mean by that is why is it that people make choices in their life that will end up hurting them in the end? At first when i thought about this i took the easy way out and just explained it as blissful ignorance, but after looking into it i see its much more than that, see sometimes you make decisions and find it as right, you see yourself in right, and there is no thing or person telling you differently. So it arises to what is right, and what is wrong. In order to know that you have to have a belief system, so to speak. Like for me being a christian, i believe some things are right and some things are wrong that maybe somebody else would disagree with, i.e. I think its wrong to worship cows, but the hindu religion would strongly disagree with me. So what im getting at is there for everyone there is a different system of right and wrong. However, at the same time everybody has the same basic rules that govern their concience, like how in your mind you need to live, you need food, the basics that tell us what we need to survive, the primitave sense so to speak. And in addition to that you have the descernment that society gives you.... a cultural way of looking at things, like maybe for some people its about sex, in popular culture today it is ok to have sex and sleep around, but you know what im talking about. Those two systems of your concience are apparent in everybody, because you get it from just being alive, however, there is another system. The system of right and wrong according to your beliefs. So, if you were a hindu and you hadnt eaten in say 30 days, and you were wandering around in a desert and you came across a cow and a fire....... your natural concience would be saying "EAT!", your cultural concience would be saying "eh, go for it, whatever dude", and finally your belief concience would say "HECK NO!" or something like that. But then again for me sure my natural and cultural conciences would be saying the same thing, but my belief concience would be saying "youve gotta eat." So once again, that lead into something else.... and that is what is the truth? What is the true belief system to follow? I'm pretty sure you know what I believe, and I just hope that you believe whatever you do because of fact, not now you grew up, or anything, but actual research. Question your beliefs, it will either strengthen your beliefs or destroy it. For me, its strengthened it. I can honestly say that.http://www.gotquestions.org/absolute-truth.htmlThe reason i was talking about concience was because your concience is how you will be able to make good choices in life. God created you with your natural concience, you grew up into a cultural concience, and then the most important thing you can do is start reading the bible and develop your belief (biblical) concience, which is ultimately right. The three parts of your concience are the things that you base your decisions off of, its the system of knowing what right and wrong is. Again, however, it is possible to sever your concience. For instance, a serial killer doesnt have a concience because they probably dont see what theyre doing as wrong, they just become numb. Dont be numb. Do whats right.
“what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools,” (Romans 1:18-22)
Well, cya later.
-matt

Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Well, this entry will be about truth.There is one truth, one way, and one life.
Whether youre a christian or not.
That brings me to the next step, how do you know thats the truth?I'm not going to answer that, because you need to research it on your own.
Dont just be a person of blind faith.Faith is not blind, true faith is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1)
Just think about that....its the assurance, and the convictionAre you sure of the truth?
Are you certain what you believe?
(Conviction is a synonym for certainty)(The definition also goes on to say that it is a "Fixed or strong Belief")(www.dictionary.com)
For me, the answer has been no.Because whenever i would ask, i would be told to take it by faith.
That is right and wrong, there is a difference between faith, and blind faith.Like what Hebrews 11:1 says, faith is knowing, its the assurance, and the conviction, or the certainty, of what you believe.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. I believe that no one is saved except for through his redemption.
No one goes to God except through him.
I believe that the bible is the literal word of God, and i believe the bible is definate, the absolute truth.
And I am not just saying that because thats what im told to believe, I believe it, because i have done, and am doing the research.
Thats what i challenge you to do.Do the research.
Understand your faith.
The first step to asking questions is whether or not you believe the bible to be the truth.
Then you can start on the other topics.I am not going to say ask me questions, i'm going to say research it on your own.
Look at the evidence.
I think many forget to do that.
I know i did.
Heres a good website for questions http://www.gotquestions.org/ or www.icr.org
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handly the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15
"holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain." Phillipians 2:16
Study the word.
Believe.
-matt

Monday, May 30, 2005
Drama (n) 1: a dramatic work intended for performance by actors on a stage; 2: an episode that is turbulent or highly emotional3: the literary genre of works intended for the theater 4: the quality of being arresting or highly emotional(dictionary.com)Well, just to state the obvious, this little blurb will be about that common, yet overly used noun by the name of drama. Some of you may know the name by a class youve taken, but i have come to take it as a way that people around me (and myself) act. In that way, i mean people can be some what dramatic in their everyday lives, sometimes on purpose, but im sure most the time on total accident. Drama, as the definition, says "highly emotional." Emotion can be any number of things, such as (you dont have to read this little bit)Affect, affection, affectivity, agitation, anger, ardor, commotion, concern, desire, despair, despondency, disturbance, drive, ecstasy, elation, empathy, excitability, excitement, feeling, fervor, grief, gut reaction, happiness, inspiration, joy, love, melancholy, passion, perturbation, pride, rage, remorse, responsiveness, sadness, satisfaction, sensation, sensibility, sensitiveness, sentiment, shame, sorrow, sympathy, thrill, tremor, vehemence, vibes, warmth, zeal.(thesaurus.com)(start reading again)All of those emotions are common, normal human attributes, some bad, some good. Just, why is it that we think its ok to be highly emotional, when we let emotions get to us is when we start breaking up old friendships, its when we start hating those around us, its when we start holding petty grudges because of meaningless disputes, its just plain when we start not caring. Everyone begins to think about themselves, and not others, thus deviding everyone that we know, say you have two friends that just got mad at each other and now hold a grudge, that grudge will devide a whole group of friends just because of the sides being taken and the things that go untalked about, and left hidden, not out in the open..To sum things up, Drama as i have come to know it is the thing that kills the friendships around me, it makes people think that their problems are more important than the ones around them, thus deviding everyone up. As it has done to so many of my good friends.I guess, all i can say is, start caring about others, make things right between you and the old friends that you have lost. Because whatever problem you may have with them or what they are doing isnt worth the ensuing anger and hate, which devided your friends. As the famous Rob Bell catch phrase goes, "Love Wins" - that meaning, not hate.Please comment and add to what i have said, your experiances, and your opinions, tell me im wrong, tell me im right, just please speak up, and take a stand for what you believe.-Matt"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves."Philippians 2:3 NIV-I know i need to work on that, how bout you?

Monday, May 16, 2005
"There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tounge of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18 ESV. If you dont understand maybe this will help, "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." NIV. Well, if you didnt think of it from those two renditions of the same verse, I am talking about sarcasm. Sarcasm is probably the most widely accepted way to lie and mock someone, seen as it could be considered the humor of our generation. I am from now on protesting this so called "humor." I believe that sarcasm is just as the dictionary says "A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound." - dictionary.com. Why is it that it has become such a funny thing, its like if i was to walk up to you and be like "i hate you, youre retarded" not say anything else, but i know im kidding. What would that other person feel? I know i sure as heck wouldnt be like "oh hes just kidding" cause i dont think people are lying to me all the time, so i take such things seriously. Which, in turn, makes me feel like crap, and if i confront them about it, they just say they were kidding and make me feel like i should have known that...... How the heck am i supposed to know? Like it says in Proverbs 12:18 "Reckless words peirce like a sword," which they honestly do, i mean come on, its the bible, its not going to lie. And its also not like its totally condemning you for doing such things, it gives the way out, with "the tounge of the wise brings healing." The word wise means " Having the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting" so what the verse is pretty much saying is, if you want ot be wise, know what is true, right and lasting. Then say something that brings healing, i would say preferably encouragment, because everyone could use that, but words that bring healing is also simply the truth. Sarcasm could also be taken as gossip, if you are talking about someone and you say something like "ya that guy is such a stoner" or anything like that, you may know that he doesnt do drugs and it may have even been in the context of how they act or whatever, but people may take what you say as the truth, and it hurts everyone around you. "A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer seperates close friends." ESV but is also translated in some contexts as "A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends." Proverbs 16:28. In the way that Sarcasm is a lie trying to hurt someone, it really is the thing that causes gossip, cause you could talk about someone behind their back and unknowingly hurt them because it may be a lie (sarcasm). I think i have said enough on this subject, I am just now realizing a lot of stuff i do wrong and that i need to change, and i will start with sarcasm. I just pray that i have the discernment in my speech to veer away from sarcasm, and I pray that everyone else would just realize that sarcasm and gossip are things that dont do any good, it just hurts people, maybe not at first, but later, after they think about it. Please, tell me what you think, tell me if im wrong, I want to know what everyone has to say.-Matt"The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious, and adds persuasiveness to his lips." Proverbs 16:23 ESV

Monday, February 07, 2005
Seems to me that with the whole "holiday" of valentines day coming up, there are some things that need to be discussed, for instance that dreaded and/or anticipated 4 letter word so many people abuse, Love. Love is not just a word, but it is more of frame of mind, and even a lifestyle. Like, if you say "I love you" to someone, you just need to ask yourself "do you mean it," but of course you would say yes, because you so need the whole idea of love in your life, that you would even lie to yourself and say you mean it. That statement is mainly directed at the relationship of a guy and girl that are in "like" (notice, not love). However, Love is a very great thing, like between friends for instance, it is a word that can easily show admiration and respect to those that you hold so dear. But what im getting at is, Love is something you should only say if you truely mean it. Like in those relationships with the opposite gender, only say it, if you truely, and utterly mean it. Chances are you wont mean that before you are out of high school, and even college. You first must understand the word, and all it entails. No, i dont understand it, but i do understand that good things come in time. So as the age old expression goes, -patience is a virtue-.Thats all i have to say about that.....Matt

2005-11-30T14:23:00.000-05:00

well, for my first post, i will just say buh