To the Electric Chair

Imagine yourself outside washing your car. A vagabond-looking man walks up to you and says, "If you leave cleaning you car to come with me, I'll teach you to clean men."

You're thinking, "What? You could use some cleaning yourself, buddy. What are you talking about?"

Strangely enough, you drop all of your cleaning supplies and you leave with him. You and a couple of friends follow him for quite some time. You get to a hilltop and he tells you to sit and wait. Soon thousands of people have turned out to see this mysterious man. He preaches for a long time on a wide variety of topics in ways that you've never before experienced. He claims he's the Son of God.
Then the guy takes you on his Magic Tour. He starts doing all sorts of miraculous things: healing people, stopping storms, etc. Then one day when you're hanging out he turns to you and says, "You know, if you want to continue to follow me, you'll have to go to the electric chair."
Up until now you've just been hanging out. Just assisting when you were needed. Now this guy wants you to die? How can you follow someone if you're dead? Why is he asking me to go to the electric chair?



That's what Jesus asked of his disciples and that's what he asks of us today. He asks us to die. He doesn't ask for a quick, peaceful death either. He chose the most torturous death he could think of, the one he would soon experience: death on a cross.
Matthew 16:24 says, "If anyone would come after me, let him take up him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."  But what does that mean? The disciples probably didn't know either. Jesus continued to say, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Jesus is asking us to take up our cross by denying ourselves. We must deny our selfish desires. We must starve and kill everything in us that is not of Christ. We cannot continue to live selfishly and sinfully if we want to have eternal life with Christ. Our sole purpose is to glorify God. That is why we were created. If we're going to die for something, shouldn't it be for the sake of glorifying the Creator?
It was hard teachings like this that caused many of the disciples to leave in John 6:66-69, "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?"Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God."
So, will the call to die cause you to turn back, or will you be like Peter and realize that your faith is worth the cost?

Intelligent Design...Why Not?

As a Christian who regularly attends chuch services, I hear a whole lot about intelligent design, creationism, and other apologetics. I am constantly told about how our society is being overtaken by the atheist/evolutionist agenda and Christians need to do something. We need to let our voices be heard over the big bang of the majority.

The Religious Makeup of the United States according to the CIA World Factbook:

Protestant: 51.3%

Roman Catholic: 23.9%

Mormon: 1.7%

Other Christian: 1.6%

Jewish: 1.7%

Buddhist: 0.7%

Muslim: 0.6%

Other: 2.5%

We often focus on the huge differences between these groups, but what do they all have in common? A belief in intelligent design. So, theoretically, 84% of the United States believes in intelligent design. Only 4% were recorded as professing atheism. Protestant Christians alone are still in the vast majority. So, why is atheism a growing problem in the United States? Why is the majority allowing every religious choice or lifestyle to be tolerated except Christianity?

As far as refuting evolution goes, I have a lot of trouble seeing how evolution makes more sense than creation. As Romans 1 tells us, just looking at creation makes me understand that there must have been a higher power in control of such beauty, such diversity, and such intricacy.

So, Christians, where you at? Yes, Matthew 5 tells us to "turn the other cheek," but Christians are not pushovers. Christ flipped tables in the temple when people were being consumers there instead of worshippers. We are told to put on the armor of God and fight with his double-edged sword. Christians are supposed to fight for God with a "spirit of power," not sit back and tolerate God being silenced in our nation for the sake of religious tolerance or equality. If you don't stand up and fight for the future of the gospel, who will?

Brand New Me

So, last week, I, being the genius that I am, neglected to put on any sunscreen while I was at the pool. From 11 to 4 I sat in the ninety-five degree weather, basking in UV rays. I'm usually a stickler for applying 200+ SPF sunscreen once an hour, but last Saturday I just forgot. But don't worry- I paid for it. When I got home I discovered that my entire body was the color of a strawberry and burning as if I was rolling on hot coals. I covered myself in aloe, but it was no use. A couple days ago my skin began to peel. There are few fates more disgusting than this. My arms are slowly shedding, leaving huge red patches of raw skin. Now that we've all thrown up a little, let's talk about why I'm bothering to tell you this.

Sin is like the sun. I knew it could hurt me, but I didn't care. I basked in it for hours. I had a great time at the pool. But I didn't have a great time when I got home. I'm still suffering the consequences a week later, and it looks like I will be for at least another week. We often sin, knowing the consequences could be grave or dangerous, but we do it anyway, just for a moment of what we believe to be pleasure. Then we start to suffer the consequences. It could be anything from a light burn to a life-changing or fatal cancer. The choices we made for a moment of worldly joy will now impact every decision we made in the future. My time in the sun damaged my skin- at least two layers of it. But here's the good part:

My skin started peeling and made way for new fresh skin. God does the same thing with our sinful lives. II Corinthians 5:17 says,

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

God takes our sinful life and he buffs it away so that he can create something totally new. Though the process may be difficult (or as gross as peeling skin) God chips away at our sin until we are new, clean, and perfect. Though we may still carry freckles of sin as reminders, our new lives are stronger, better prepared, and better protected than the old.

Let's not get discouraged by our sinful lives or the difficulty of changing. Instead, let's look forward to the new life that God can create for us if we let him. Let's seek out the stronger life rather than clinging to our weaknesses.

Let's wear sunscreen.

Does God Care about Culture?

I googled the words American Culture & United States Culture and this is what came up:

Whether or not we should be proud of this...well...it's debatable.

So, does God care about our culture? Does God care about what our culture tells us concerning what to eat, what to buy, what to watch, what to listen to, & how to spend our time? Some say, "Yes, of course he cares about our culture. God cares about everything." Still, others say, "No, God doesn't care about our culture because all people are the same to him." Well, I say that the answer is both Yes and No.

God cares about culture because, as I Peter 5:7 tells us, he cares for you. God cares about the music that we're listening to, the shows that we're watching, and the activities in which we're participating, because they can either lead us closer to God or farther away. Culture is unavoidable, but that doesn't mean that we're forced to participate in the negative aspects of it. Our culture should be in the hands of God. Everything we do should honor God, whether it's new fashion trends, political candidates, or the latest box office smash. We should be spending more time thinking on the things of God than we do thinking on the things of this world. We live in a time and culture that offers a lot of opportunity for us to honor God, but that's not always what is most popular.

That being said, God does not care about our culture. We cannot use our culture as an excuse for straying from God. Those who lived in Sodom & Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19) were raisd in a culture of godlessness, but God still held them accountable for their actions. If there is no positive and pure-minded music on the radio, switch it to a Christian station, buy a CD, or turn it off. Same with television. If you can't find modest apparel, go to another store. God no longer overlooks ignorance. We can't pull the "It's Just My Culture" card. God has given us a way to stand under any temptation, even those brought on by culture.

No, God doesn't care about the next episode of Glee, but he does care about the way that it affects your relationship with him. So, no matter what you're doing, examine yourself and see if you are honoring your culture or honoring your God.

Stretch

Being vertically challenged, I often struggle to reach things on the top shelf, hang things, or see in a theater. I can only stretch so far.

The same is true with my life. I often feel stretched in so many directions. I constantly find myself trying to give my all to my friends, school, home, church, schedule, self, and a million other things. But here's the thing. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, "You shall love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." God cannot be a part of my life. God must be my life. I waste so much time trying to stretch myself out and be a part of so many worldly things, that I often forget that the only important thing is my relationship with God and fellow Christians. In reality, it would be so much easier to just give everything to God and let him guide me to where I need to be, rather than try to be a part of everything in hopes that at least one of them is where God wants me.