"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead."
-Philippians 3:13
As this year is coming to a close, I thought I would talk a bit about looking back. I have mentioned a couple times on this blog that it is important to reflect on the things that we do and how they are helping achieve our purpose. Instead of repeating myself over again, I am going to share my reflection of 2012 which I wrote during a retreat a couple days ago (tweaked a bit). Hopefully this will be encouraging and will show you how to view past events.
The year of 2012 was very similar to other years of my life. There were some successes and many failures and disappointments. This year, as every other year, is a reminder that I am nothing without the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Every day I have fallen short of God's standards, but every day I was covered in His grace. I tried very hard to fight against sin, but I have lost that battle many times. The past year was a painful reminder that I'm nothing but a sinner that is saved by the blood of Jesus.
As 2011 was coming to a close, I decided that I wanted 2012 to be a time of growth. I wanted to read the bible and pray consistently. One of my new year resolutions was to read the old testament in 2012, but I didn't come even close to reaching that goal. Despite having good intentions and a desire to read the Bible, my love of distractions and my lack of discipline held me back.
I wanted a renewed purpose in 2012, so I chose a key verse that was very purpose oriented. I read Philippians 3, and I chose verse 10 to be my 2012 key verse. Philippians 3:10 reads "I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death." This verse made it clear that my purpose is to know Christ by experiencing Him. I have to experience His suffering and death. His suffering and His death were both because of sin, so I also had to suffer and die to sin. I was still trapped in my sin, and I could not deny myself and die to my sins. I could not experience the resurrection power of Christ because of that.
My key verse was not completely useless though. I really thought about the purpose of my life and what I am doing to reach it. I tried to analyze myself without any bias, and I found out that I was trying to achieve happiness. It seemed that everything I did was to make myself happier. Later in the year I began to read "Desiring God" by John Piper, which gave me hope. He says that everyone is trying to be happy, but we all try to be happy in different ways. No one can find true happiness in themselves or in anything of this world, but only in God. I realized that I was seeking pleasure in the things of this world rather than in God. I knew that I had to experience God to find true happiness.
In 2012 I had a lot to thank God for. I graduated from high school with good grades, and I was accepted into the University of Maryland. I also finished my first semester of college without many problems. I had good health, I made new friends, and I learned a lot. Most of all, I am thankful for's God amazing grace for us.
-Smart
Receiving
"For if, by the trespass of one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ."
-Romans 5:17
This is the day of the year that many people have been looking forward to; Christmas. The joy of seeing family and friends, getting gifts and food, really makes Christmas a special time of year. The one aspect of Christmas that many people like the most is getting gifts. Last year I talked about giving gifts, and why that is important to showing appreciation and improving character. This year I want to talk about something that is the opposite. While giving is probably a better way to show appreciation, receiving is another way. What do I mean by this?
A couple years ago I read a book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. The book was pretty good, but for some reason only one part sticks in my mind, even after reading it years ago. While Don Piper is in the hospital after his car crash, he is helpless and can't do anything he wants to. He can't even roll over to change his position on the hospital bed. It would be terrible to be on your back for weeks on end. He can't get up to walk around, can't get up to use the bathroom, can't get up to eat, get a magazine, nothing. During this time in his life, his friends did what you might expect good friends to do in this situation. They constantly visited him, and they would ask him if he needed anything; a book, magazine, food, water, anything. He never asked for anything at this time, so people would just leave him.
After a while of this, a friend of Piper approached him. This friend noticed that Piper never let his visitors help him. The friend talked to Piper and told him that he was being selfish. Piper was confused, and said that he is actually helping people by not making them do stuff for him. The friend said that these people love Piper so much and would do anything to ease his pain in this time. However, Piper wasn't letting people love him, because he wouldn't let them help him. Even though getting a magazine or food is not a big act of love, it was something that people could do to love him. Reluctantly, Piper agreed to let the next person give him something. Even after the confrontation, Piper still struggled to say yes to the people's offers. Finally, as one person asked him if he wanted something, Piper said he wanted a magazine. The person's face burst with happiness and he rushed to grab a magazine, bringing the entire stack to Piper.
I tell this story because it is a reminder that while it is very important for us to love others, it is important to let them love us. One of the five love languages is gifts. All of the love languages are different ways for people to receive love, but also to give it. For some people, giving gifts is a way that they love other people. Don't deprive them of that gift. Just receive their love and appreciate their love for you. Christmas has been so commercialized to the point where people only focus on small and unimportant gifts. Christmas is the time of year where we are supposed to celebrate Christ. The gift of Jesus is far more important than any other gift we can get. Jesus is also the most important gift that we have to receive.
-Smart
-Romans 5:17
This is the day of the year that many people have been looking forward to; Christmas. The joy of seeing family and friends, getting gifts and food, really makes Christmas a special time of year. The one aspect of Christmas that many people like the most is getting gifts. Last year I talked about giving gifts, and why that is important to showing appreciation and improving character. This year I want to talk about something that is the opposite. While giving is probably a better way to show appreciation, receiving is another way. What do I mean by this?
A couple years ago I read a book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper. The book was pretty good, but for some reason only one part sticks in my mind, even after reading it years ago. While Don Piper is in the hospital after his car crash, he is helpless and can't do anything he wants to. He can't even roll over to change his position on the hospital bed. It would be terrible to be on your back for weeks on end. He can't get up to walk around, can't get up to use the bathroom, can't get up to eat, get a magazine, nothing. During this time in his life, his friends did what you might expect good friends to do in this situation. They constantly visited him, and they would ask him if he needed anything; a book, magazine, food, water, anything. He never asked for anything at this time, so people would just leave him.
After a while of this, a friend of Piper approached him. This friend noticed that Piper never let his visitors help him. The friend talked to Piper and told him that he was being selfish. Piper was confused, and said that he is actually helping people by not making them do stuff for him. The friend said that these people love Piper so much and would do anything to ease his pain in this time. However, Piper wasn't letting people love him, because he wouldn't let them help him. Even though getting a magazine or food is not a big act of love, it was something that people could do to love him. Reluctantly, Piper agreed to let the next person give him something. Even after the confrontation, Piper still struggled to say yes to the people's offers. Finally, as one person asked him if he wanted something, Piper said he wanted a magazine. The person's face burst with happiness and he rushed to grab a magazine, bringing the entire stack to Piper.
I tell this story because it is a reminder that while it is very important for us to love others, it is important to let them love us. One of the five love languages is gifts. All of the love languages are different ways for people to receive love, but also to give it. For some people, giving gifts is a way that they love other people. Don't deprive them of that gift. Just receive their love and appreciate their love for you. Christmas has been so commercialized to the point where people only focus on small and unimportant gifts. Christmas is the time of year where we are supposed to celebrate Christ. The gift of Jesus is far more important than any other gift we can get. Jesus is also the most important gift that we have to receive.
-Smart
Connecticut Tragedy
"Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Now we know that if the earth tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."
-Barrack Obama quoting 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1
Recently there has been a shooting in Connecticut. This shocked people all over the U.S. and has dominated the headlines in the news for days. A man went into a school and shot 26 people, and then eventually himself. This was obviously very shocking news, especially because 20 of the people killed in the incident were elementary school students. Parents of these children were greatly hurt and will no longer get to see their children. It's wrong for a parent to have to attend the funeral of their child, it should be the other way around.
The shooting has brought up many different arguments, regarding gun control laws and whatnot, but that's not what I thought about after this incident. The first thing that came to my mind is what drove the man to do such a terrible act. The answer to the question may never be found, because the man took his own life. The next thing I thought about was how corrupt the world has become. Events like this are becoming more frequent, but I see something good in this event. People still know what is right and what is wrong. People care about the families that lost someone, and people want to do something to prevent this kind of thing happening again.
Lastly I though about a hypothetical situation. I am certain that if I went to one of the parents of the children who were killed, and I asked them if they would take the place of their child, they would all say yes. Most, if not all, parents would much rather die then have their children die. What allows a parent to say this honestly? Some might say a parent has lived a long enough life, and a child hasn't even lived very long. While this is true, I'm pretty sure that's not what is going through a person's head when they are asked this question. A parent is able to say this because they love their children. They would do anything for their well-being.
Sadly, even though a parent would be willing to die for their child, they can't. As much as they want to, they cannot change what has happened. This is truly unfortunate, but that's just how life is. However, I'm not going to end like that. I have good news. There is one parent who has given his life for all His children. This parent has the power to do so. This person is God. He gave His life in order that us, His children, could have life eternal. All we have to do is accept it. So I have a challenge for us all; let us fix our eyes on what is unseen.
-Smart
-Barrack Obama quoting 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1
Recently there has been a shooting in Connecticut. This shocked people all over the U.S. and has dominated the headlines in the news for days. A man went into a school and shot 26 people, and then eventually himself. This was obviously very shocking news, especially because 20 of the people killed in the incident were elementary school students. Parents of these children were greatly hurt and will no longer get to see their children. It's wrong for a parent to have to attend the funeral of their child, it should be the other way around.
The shooting has brought up many different arguments, regarding gun control laws and whatnot, but that's not what I thought about after this incident. The first thing that came to my mind is what drove the man to do such a terrible act. The answer to the question may never be found, because the man took his own life. The next thing I thought about was how corrupt the world has become. Events like this are becoming more frequent, but I see something good in this event. People still know what is right and what is wrong. People care about the families that lost someone, and people want to do something to prevent this kind of thing happening again.
Lastly I though about a hypothetical situation. I am certain that if I went to one of the parents of the children who were killed, and I asked them if they would take the place of their child, they would all say yes. Most, if not all, parents would much rather die then have their children die. What allows a parent to say this honestly? Some might say a parent has lived a long enough life, and a child hasn't even lived very long. While this is true, I'm pretty sure that's not what is going through a person's head when they are asked this question. A parent is able to say this because they love their children. They would do anything for their well-being.
Sadly, even though a parent would be willing to die for their child, they can't. As much as they want to, they cannot change what has happened. This is truly unfortunate, but that's just how life is. However, I'm not going to end like that. I have good news. There is one parent who has given his life for all His children. This parent has the power to do so. This person is God. He gave His life in order that us, His children, could have life eternal. All we have to do is accept it. So I have a challenge for us all; let us fix our eyes on what is unseen.
-Smart
Worship (Part 2)
"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
-Psalm 103:1
At first I was going to only make one post on worship, but the story I told last time was much longer than I had expected. This post is going to be more like what I normally do, but I will definitely try to tell more stories in my blog because of the positive feedback last time. Last time I mentioned that worship is revering and honoring something. Worship is a word normally reserved for God, but it is definitely possible to worship something other than God. What do I mean by this?
When most people hear the word "worship", they will think of people singing hymns or other songs to God. While this is definitely the most obvious form of worship, it is not the only one. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes "whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God". Paul is saying that we can worship God in whatever we do, as long as we do it to the glory of God. People normally don't think about eating or drinking as a form of worship, because it is just a bodily need. Even in the simplest tasks that we do, we can worship and honor God.
It should start to make sense how we can worship things other than God. While we are not singing songs or bowing down before money, we can definitely worship it. If you always are looking to get more money, or if you find that you always want more money, you can start to worship it. We have to very careful when we look at what we want and do. What you worship reflects what you believe. If I worship God, I believe that He exists and that He is worthy of my worship. If I worship money, I believe that money can solve my problems and is worthy of my thoughts and effort.
When we worship God in song, it can be empty worship. I started to notice that I had this problem when I was in praise team in youth group. Instead of focusing on worshiping God, I was worried about how the worship team sounded. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because a praise team should sound good, that shouldn't have been consuming my thoughts. What I should have been concerned with is whether I was truly worshiping God with all my heart, and whether the worship team was leading others to true worship.
If you are in a worship team, I encourage you to read this next section carefully and think it over. Even if you are not, you should still read anyway. I believe that the first job of a worship team is to worship God. While this sounds incredibly obvious, I know from experience that it is very easy to become preoccupied with music rather than with worshiping God. The second priority of a worship team is to lead others to worship. This means making sure the music sounds good and isn't too flashy where it will distract people from worship. The best way to do this however, is to worship God yourself. If people see that you are not worshiping God, they probably won't either. Don't take this to mean that you have to lift your hands or close your eyes or sway back and forth. While these are great expressions of worship, they can be meaningless also. Just worship God to the best of your ability, and people will follow. If people don't follow, it shouldn't matter, because the only thing on your mind at that time is worshiping God.
Be careful what you worship and how you worship. If you find that you are consumed by something; money, a hobby, a person, or anything but God, ask yourself if you value that more than God. God is the only person worth all your effort and praise. He is the only one who has saved you and sacrificed everything just so He could be with you. Also ask yourself if you are worshiping God with all that is within you. Pray that your worship would be pleasing to God, and make every effort to worship God everyday.
-Smart
-Psalm 103:1
At first I was going to only make one post on worship, but the story I told last time was much longer than I had expected. This post is going to be more like what I normally do, but I will definitely try to tell more stories in my blog because of the positive feedback last time. Last time I mentioned that worship is revering and honoring something. Worship is a word normally reserved for God, but it is definitely possible to worship something other than God. What do I mean by this?
When most people hear the word "worship", they will think of people singing hymns or other songs to God. While this is definitely the most obvious form of worship, it is not the only one. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul writes "whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God". Paul is saying that we can worship God in whatever we do, as long as we do it to the glory of God. People normally don't think about eating or drinking as a form of worship, because it is just a bodily need. Even in the simplest tasks that we do, we can worship and honor God.
It should start to make sense how we can worship things other than God. While we are not singing songs or bowing down before money, we can definitely worship it. If you always are looking to get more money, or if you find that you always want more money, you can start to worship it. We have to very careful when we look at what we want and do. What you worship reflects what you believe. If I worship God, I believe that He exists and that He is worthy of my worship. If I worship money, I believe that money can solve my problems and is worthy of my thoughts and effort.
When we worship God in song, it can be empty worship. I started to notice that I had this problem when I was in praise team in youth group. Instead of focusing on worshiping God, I was worried about how the worship team sounded. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because a praise team should sound good, that shouldn't have been consuming my thoughts. What I should have been concerned with is whether I was truly worshiping God with all my heart, and whether the worship team was leading others to true worship.
If you are in a worship team, I encourage you to read this next section carefully and think it over. Even if you are not, you should still read anyway. I believe that the first job of a worship team is to worship God. While this sounds incredibly obvious, I know from experience that it is very easy to become preoccupied with music rather than with worshiping God. The second priority of a worship team is to lead others to worship. This means making sure the music sounds good and isn't too flashy where it will distract people from worship. The best way to do this however, is to worship God yourself. If people see that you are not worshiping God, they probably won't either. Don't take this to mean that you have to lift your hands or close your eyes or sway back and forth. While these are great expressions of worship, they can be meaningless also. Just worship God to the best of your ability, and people will follow. If people don't follow, it shouldn't matter, because the only thing on your mind at that time is worshiping God.
Be careful what you worship and how you worship. If you find that you are consumed by something; money, a hobby, a person, or anything but God, ask yourself if you value that more than God. God is the only person worth all your effort and praise. He is the only one who has saved you and sacrificed everything just so He could be with you. Also ask yourself if you are worshiping God with all that is within you. Pray that your worship would be pleasing to God, and make every effort to worship God everyday.
-Smart
Worship (Part 1)
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name."
-Psalm 103:1
I'm going to do something I don't do too often on this blog, but since it is a blog I should probably do it more often. Today I'm going to talk about my experiences and hopefully it will be interesting and informative. More specifically, I'm going to talk about my experiences with worship. First though, what is worship? Worship is giving honor and revering something, normally a god. For this case I am going to talk about worshiping God, who is really the only person worth our worship and praise. God is glorious, powerful, holy, awesome, great, almighty, omnipresent, and the list goes on and on.
The first time I ever encountered worship was probably from the day I was old enough to go to church. My parents brought me to church every Sunday, which I thought was normal for kids. Every Sunday the children's service would start with a time of worship. When I say worship I mean someone playing guitar and singing songs, with everyone singing along. I'm sure the worship leader knew that it would take a lot of time for little kids like me to learn how to truly worship God, but they wanted us to start learning early, which is good.
Most services I have ever attended, even at other churches, start with a time of worship. This was the case in my youth group. However, this time there was something different, I wanted to join the praise team. I had just started playing drums for a year or so, and since there was no current drummer I wanted to join. I thought it would be simple; just attend a practice or two and I would be playing drums for Sundays (and Saturdays). What I didn't know and didn't foresee was that I wouldn't be playing drums for a very long time. I had to wait until my freshman or sophomore year in high school to start playing. I wanted to join since I was in the seventh grade.
It's not like I was a bad drummer or anything, just that the youth group leaders wanted me to learn the true heart of worship. As a praise team we would clean the bathrooms at church every Saturday, and I had to do it without even being able to play yet. I went to those practices every week for two or three years, and at times it was very frustrating. I wanted to know why they wouldn't just let me play. I waited longer than anyone had ever had to wait to join praise team, and I seriously doubted that they wanted me to join at all. It's not like me to quit easily though, and I kept pushing through, and eventually I got to play.
When I started playing drums, it was rough. I thought I was good, but looking back, I really wasn't that good. I even made a sort of motto because of how bad I was; a drummer's primary and most important job is to keep time, no matter what. If the drummer starts to speed up or slow down, it is very hard for the band to correct that. If the band slows down or speeds up, it is the drummer's job to get the tempo back. I was terrible at keeping steady tempos, which really hurt the team. Whenever I have an opportunity to teach drums or just "coach" a praise team, I will tell the drummer to keep it simple and control the tempo.
Then another change happened; people left praise team and other joined. Now I was one of the oldest and I felt that I had to help lead the team. One of the new members played drums, so sometimes I would play piano. Now this was a very, very rough new praise team. I started to notice that the drummer was making the same mistakes I did, the guitarist sometimes didn't know what he was doing, and the singer didn't seem confident. I soon realized that I had to step up and do something about this, because it seemed other people didn't want to.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like we didn't have talent. The problem was just that no one really took a step to lead the team and that caused long practices and awkward worship times on Sundays. So, much to my dismay, I started singing while playing piano. I am a terrible singer, so this was a very difficult choice to make, but I realized that somebody had to do something. Having a mic made it much easier to direct the team and also lead songs into new sections without serious miscommunication. Now this definitely didn't make us perfect, but it definitely helped the flow of worship times.
Unfortunately, sometimes when people step up into a position of leadership, it gets to their head. That happened to me. Once I started "directing" the praise team, I often would get visibly frustrated and I would question why we couldn't be better. I seriously questioned how the youth group leaders let people on the praise team play, especially since they made me wait so long. I would say things like "come on, have you never heard this song before?", and, you get the point. I hope that I didn't seriously hurt anyone's feelings, and I'm very glad that I didn't say everything that came to my mind at that time.
I am currently on the church's praise team, after graduating from high school. I sometimes still get frustrated, but this praise team has been playing together for some time, the leadership is already there, so I don't go as crazy. I pray that I don't do the things I did before and that I would be a blessing to the worship team. I am playing drums again, so I want to stick by my motto; my most important job is to keep the tempo. Nothing is more important than that, except that I have to worship God through my talents and with all my heart. (Sorry this was so long, but if you like this style of blog just comment below and I'll try to do more).
-Smart
-Psalm 103:1
I'm going to do something I don't do too often on this blog, but since it is a blog I should probably do it more often. Today I'm going to talk about my experiences and hopefully it will be interesting and informative. More specifically, I'm going to talk about my experiences with worship. First though, what is worship? Worship is giving honor and revering something, normally a god. For this case I am going to talk about worshiping God, who is really the only person worth our worship and praise. God is glorious, powerful, holy, awesome, great, almighty, omnipresent, and the list goes on and on.
The first time I ever encountered worship was probably from the day I was old enough to go to church. My parents brought me to church every Sunday, which I thought was normal for kids. Every Sunday the children's service would start with a time of worship. When I say worship I mean someone playing guitar and singing songs, with everyone singing along. I'm sure the worship leader knew that it would take a lot of time for little kids like me to learn how to truly worship God, but they wanted us to start learning early, which is good.
Most services I have ever attended, even at other churches, start with a time of worship. This was the case in my youth group. However, this time there was something different, I wanted to join the praise team. I had just started playing drums for a year or so, and since there was no current drummer I wanted to join. I thought it would be simple; just attend a practice or two and I would be playing drums for Sundays (and Saturdays). What I didn't know and didn't foresee was that I wouldn't be playing drums for a very long time. I had to wait until my freshman or sophomore year in high school to start playing. I wanted to join since I was in the seventh grade.
It's not like I was a bad drummer or anything, just that the youth group leaders wanted me to learn the true heart of worship. As a praise team we would clean the bathrooms at church every Saturday, and I had to do it without even being able to play yet. I went to those practices every week for two or three years, and at times it was very frustrating. I wanted to know why they wouldn't just let me play. I waited longer than anyone had ever had to wait to join praise team, and I seriously doubted that they wanted me to join at all. It's not like me to quit easily though, and I kept pushing through, and eventually I got to play.
When I started playing drums, it was rough. I thought I was good, but looking back, I really wasn't that good. I even made a sort of motto because of how bad I was; a drummer's primary and most important job is to keep time, no matter what. If the drummer starts to speed up or slow down, it is very hard for the band to correct that. If the band slows down or speeds up, it is the drummer's job to get the tempo back. I was terrible at keeping steady tempos, which really hurt the team. Whenever I have an opportunity to teach drums or just "coach" a praise team, I will tell the drummer to keep it simple and control the tempo.
Then another change happened; people left praise team and other joined. Now I was one of the oldest and I felt that I had to help lead the team. One of the new members played drums, so sometimes I would play piano. Now this was a very, very rough new praise team. I started to notice that the drummer was making the same mistakes I did, the guitarist sometimes didn't know what he was doing, and the singer didn't seem confident. I soon realized that I had to step up and do something about this, because it seemed other people didn't want to.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like we didn't have talent. The problem was just that no one really took a step to lead the team and that caused long practices and awkward worship times on Sundays. So, much to my dismay, I started singing while playing piano. I am a terrible singer, so this was a very difficult choice to make, but I realized that somebody had to do something. Having a mic made it much easier to direct the team and also lead songs into new sections without serious miscommunication. Now this definitely didn't make us perfect, but it definitely helped the flow of worship times.
Unfortunately, sometimes when people step up into a position of leadership, it gets to their head. That happened to me. Once I started "directing" the praise team, I often would get visibly frustrated and I would question why we couldn't be better. I seriously questioned how the youth group leaders let people on the praise team play, especially since they made me wait so long. I would say things like "come on, have you never heard this song before?", and, you get the point. I hope that I didn't seriously hurt anyone's feelings, and I'm very glad that I didn't say everything that came to my mind at that time.
I am currently on the church's praise team, after graduating from high school. I sometimes still get frustrated, but this praise team has been playing together for some time, the leadership is already there, so I don't go as crazy. I pray that I don't do the things I did before and that I would be a blessing to the worship team. I am playing drums again, so I want to stick by my motto; my most important job is to keep the tempo. Nothing is more important than that, except that I have to worship God through my talents and with all my heart. (Sorry this was so long, but if you like this style of blog just comment below and I'll try to do more).
-Smart
Guilt
"Then when Judas, who had betrayed (Jesus), saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse..."
-Matthew 27:3a
Recently I've been thinking a lot about what guilt is. Guilt is a very interesting and revealing of human nature. What is guilt? The dictionary definition is "a feeling of responsibility, regret or remorse for some offense". If you have experienced guilt before, which I am sure you have, then you know that feeling guilty is not pleasant at all. Guilt eats away at you and sometimes even causes you to act out of the ordinary. Feeling guilty is a terrible feeling, but I think it reveals many important things.
I want to pose a question as I often do, why do we feel guilt? Usually we will feel guilty when we do something we know hurts someone else. A feeling of guilt is especially strong when the person we hurt is someone we know. It's even stronger when the blame is placed on someone other that yourself. If I hurt a good friend by revealing a secret or something, I will feel that I betrayed his trust. If he comes to believe that someone else shared his secret and now continually blames the other person for this offense, I will feel even more guilty. Why would I feel guilty? Why should I care if I hurt someone else?
I want to talk about an example of guilt in the bible. Judas followed Jesus for a very long time, and Judas must have known and believed that Jesus was an innocent and kind man. Despite this, Judas gives Jesus over to the chief priests. Later Judas realizes that Jesus is falsely condemned, Judas felt strong guilt in his heart. He handed Jesus, an innocent man, his friend, to be punished as a criminal. This leads Judas to try to free Jesus, and when he fails, Judas ultimately ends his life. Guilt was so strong in Judas that it caused him to take his own life.
Why would Judas feel guilty for betraying Jesus? Looking from a completely objective and practical viewpoint, Judas traded someone who constantly took attention away from Judas for money. Money is very practical and necessary for life. Judas seemed to get a pretty good deal. So why would he care what happened to Jesus? In the bible it says that people are made in God's image, and I believe that because of this we all have some attributes of God. God does not sin, He does not hurt people, He is perfect. When we sin, we go against what we were made to be, and this throws off our spirit, and we feel guilt. God is love, and when we love others, we feel good. When we hurt others, we don't feel good.
When Judas betrayed Jesus, he sinned against in innocent man, and literally against God. This sin weighed in his heart, and he began to feel deep regret. I know that when I sin, I sometimes feel guilt. Since I am made in God's image I need God in my life and I desire Him. When I sin, I break a relationship that my whole being both wants and needs, and it causes distress in my heart. Sin hurts us just as it hurts God. I realized something though; the more I continue to involve myself in sin, the less I feel guilty. Why is this? I've heard that our conscience is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and it is possible to push it out of our lives if we ignore it. When we go against our conscience, we go against the Holy Spirit, who is God, and it creates guilt.
Make every effort to keep the Holy Spirit strong in your life. The good news is that God wants to be with you. He desires to be with us, just as we desire to be with Him (I'll probably write more about this later). Even if we ignore God to an extreme point, He still chases after us and wants to be with us. Pray that God will give you more of His Spirit and that you can be guided by it.
-Smart
-Matthew 27:3a
Recently I've been thinking a lot about what guilt is. Guilt is a very interesting and revealing of human nature. What is guilt? The dictionary definition is "a feeling of responsibility, regret or remorse for some offense". If you have experienced guilt before, which I am sure you have, then you know that feeling guilty is not pleasant at all. Guilt eats away at you and sometimes even causes you to act out of the ordinary. Feeling guilty is a terrible feeling, but I think it reveals many important things.
I want to pose a question as I often do, why do we feel guilt? Usually we will feel guilty when we do something we know hurts someone else. A feeling of guilt is especially strong when the person we hurt is someone we know. It's even stronger when the blame is placed on someone other that yourself. If I hurt a good friend by revealing a secret or something, I will feel that I betrayed his trust. If he comes to believe that someone else shared his secret and now continually blames the other person for this offense, I will feel even more guilty. Why would I feel guilty? Why should I care if I hurt someone else?
I want to talk about an example of guilt in the bible. Judas followed Jesus for a very long time, and Judas must have known and believed that Jesus was an innocent and kind man. Despite this, Judas gives Jesus over to the chief priests. Later Judas realizes that Jesus is falsely condemned, Judas felt strong guilt in his heart. He handed Jesus, an innocent man, his friend, to be punished as a criminal. This leads Judas to try to free Jesus, and when he fails, Judas ultimately ends his life. Guilt was so strong in Judas that it caused him to take his own life.
Why would Judas feel guilty for betraying Jesus? Looking from a completely objective and practical viewpoint, Judas traded someone who constantly took attention away from Judas for money. Money is very practical and necessary for life. Judas seemed to get a pretty good deal. So why would he care what happened to Jesus? In the bible it says that people are made in God's image, and I believe that because of this we all have some attributes of God. God does not sin, He does not hurt people, He is perfect. When we sin, we go against what we were made to be, and this throws off our spirit, and we feel guilt. God is love, and when we love others, we feel good. When we hurt others, we don't feel good.
When Judas betrayed Jesus, he sinned against in innocent man, and literally against God. This sin weighed in his heart, and he began to feel deep regret. I know that when I sin, I sometimes feel guilt. Since I am made in God's image I need God in my life and I desire Him. When I sin, I break a relationship that my whole being both wants and needs, and it causes distress in my heart. Sin hurts us just as it hurts God. I realized something though; the more I continue to involve myself in sin, the less I feel guilty. Why is this? I've heard that our conscience is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and it is possible to push it out of our lives if we ignore it. When we go against our conscience, we go against the Holy Spirit, who is God, and it creates guilt.
Make every effort to keep the Holy Spirit strong in your life. The good news is that God wants to be with you. He desires to be with us, just as we desire to be with Him (I'll probably write more about this later). Even if we ignore God to an extreme point, He still chases after us and wants to be with us. Pray that God will give you more of His Spirit and that you can be guided by it.
-Smart
Thankfulness
"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever."
-Psalm 136:1
Today is Thanksgiving, and I want to talk about being thankful. Last year I talked about giving thanks for the things we have, because things will not last forever. Today I want to talk about another reason we should be thankful, but first, I want to share a story.
Recently I have developed a kind of obsession with basketball. I used to really like playing football, soccer, volleyball and ping pong, but I never really played a lot of basketball. Over the past couple months though, I got hooked. Basketball is a lot of fun, and I've played it so much recently. I am a fairly athletic guy, and I'm tall as well, so I would say that makes basketball a little more fun for me. Being tall and athletic, I enjoy being able to have a good vertical leap and being able to touch the rim. Well, touching the rim is nice, but one thing I really wanted to do is dunk the ball (of course). I've been able to dunk the ball a couple times, but only barely.
The past couple weeks have been disappointing for me. About three or four weeks ago I sprained my ankle playing basketball, and I had to stop playing to let my ankle heal. A week ago I played again, but this time my knees started to hurt to the point where even walking up stairs hurt, much less playing basketball. Every time I try playing basketball or engaging in any physical activity, my knees start to kill me. This is a true bummer.
Why tell this story? Because this situation made me think. I could choose be bitter and sour about my ankle and knees hurting so much. However, no one likes to interact with bitter people, and being bitter affects your thinking. You tend to be depressed and angry, and have a negative outlook on things. I decided that this is not how I want to be, and reminded by Thanksgiving today, I decided to be thankful. Thankful for what, my bad knees? No, of course not. I am thankful for the times that I could play basketball. Thankful for my life, family, home, food, water, friends, school, country, computer, church, my good health, and last but not least, for Jesus.
Being thankful is a choice. People may say that their situation is so bad that there is nothing they can be thankful for, but you can still choose to be thankful. Why be thankful? Being thankful gives you a different perspective on life. You start to realize all the things that you have, and you become more positive about yourself and about life. Your attitude changes as well. You are more appreciative and aren't always angry and bitter about things. Last year I talked about givings thanks for things that you can't keep forever. Today I propose something else; give thanks for something that will last. I always look at Jesus when I look for an example of how I should live. In Luke 22:19, Jesus is about to give the Lord's supper, and He takes the bread. What does He do beforehand? He gives thanks. Even though He is the Lord of everything, He still gives thanks for the bread He is about to eat with His disciples. Jesus gave us an example of thankfulness, and He also gave us something to be thankful for, which will never end; His love.
-Smart
-Psalm 136:1
Today is Thanksgiving, and I want to talk about being thankful. Last year I talked about giving thanks for the things we have, because things will not last forever. Today I want to talk about another reason we should be thankful, but first, I want to share a story.
Recently I have developed a kind of obsession with basketball. I used to really like playing football, soccer, volleyball and ping pong, but I never really played a lot of basketball. Over the past couple months though, I got hooked. Basketball is a lot of fun, and I've played it so much recently. I am a fairly athletic guy, and I'm tall as well, so I would say that makes basketball a little more fun for me. Being tall and athletic, I enjoy being able to have a good vertical leap and being able to touch the rim. Well, touching the rim is nice, but one thing I really wanted to do is dunk the ball (of course). I've been able to dunk the ball a couple times, but only barely.
The past couple weeks have been disappointing for me. About three or four weeks ago I sprained my ankle playing basketball, and I had to stop playing to let my ankle heal. A week ago I played again, but this time my knees started to hurt to the point where even walking up stairs hurt, much less playing basketball. Every time I try playing basketball or engaging in any physical activity, my knees start to kill me. This is a true bummer.
Why tell this story? Because this situation made me think. I could choose be bitter and sour about my ankle and knees hurting so much. However, no one likes to interact with bitter people, and being bitter affects your thinking. You tend to be depressed and angry, and have a negative outlook on things. I decided that this is not how I want to be, and reminded by Thanksgiving today, I decided to be thankful. Thankful for what, my bad knees? No, of course not. I am thankful for the times that I could play basketball. Thankful for my life, family, home, food, water, friends, school, country, computer, church, my good health, and last but not least, for Jesus.
Being thankful is a choice. People may say that their situation is so bad that there is nothing they can be thankful for, but you can still choose to be thankful. Why be thankful? Being thankful gives you a different perspective on life. You start to realize all the things that you have, and you become more positive about yourself and about life. Your attitude changes as well. You are more appreciative and aren't always angry and bitter about things. Last year I talked about givings thanks for things that you can't keep forever. Today I propose something else; give thanks for something that will last. I always look at Jesus when I look for an example of how I should live. In Luke 22:19, Jesus is about to give the Lord's supper, and He takes the bread. What does He do beforehand? He gives thanks. Even though He is the Lord of everything, He still gives thanks for the bread He is about to eat with His disciples. Jesus gave us an example of thankfulness, and He also gave us something to be thankful for, which will never end; His love.
-Smart
Pursuit
"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God."
-Psalm 42:1
Recently I finished reading "The Pursuit of God" by A.W Tozer, which is a really good book you should read. The book really challenged me to think about what I pursue. So what is pursuit? Dictionary.com says that pursuit means "an effort to secure or attain". This may seem obvious, but there are some special things about pursuit that I want to write about.
The word pursue has a similar meaning to the word look. The look for something and to pursue something pretty much both mean to make an effort to find something. However, there are some key connotative differences. People will use "to look for" when they are talking about something they lost. If I lost my keys, I would explain that I am looking for my keys. The word pursue is used at different times for different. First of all, the word pursue is not used very often. Secondly, the word pursue is often used when someone is trying to attain something that is not lost but rather is difficult to obtain.
Let me explain what I mean further. When a team of policemen are chasing a criminal, they are pursuing the criminal. The are not looking for him. The policemen know what they are going after, but it is difficult to get it. The declaration of independence has the famous phrase "the pursuit of happiness". Everyone pretty much knows what happiness is, but happiness is something that is very difficult to acquire. In both examples, the pursuit takes effort and motivation. One does not pursue something they do not want or care for. A policeman pursues a criminal because he knows that catching that criminal will make people safe. A person would pursue after happiness because everyone has experienced happiness and wants more of it.
Pursuit after something is not easy. It takes time, effort, energy, and care. Also, if you choose to pursue something, it can change the way you live. Actually, it should change the way you live. True pursuit is all consuming, and has a purpose. You should know exactly what you are pursuing and why. I've heard and I personally believe that everyone in their hearts are pursuing happiness. Everybody wants to be happy. How people pursue that happiness differs greatly. Some people pursue it through having a good job, wife kids, others pursue it through pleasure, among other things.
The only way to have happiness though is to pursue after the only one who can satisfy, God. God is happy in Himself, and since we were made in His image, we are happy in Him also. This pursuit, like many others, will change your life and direct your life. It will also take your entire life. This may seem odd, why pursue after something that cannot be reached? If I am thirsty, I could go to a clean river and drink some water. I could continue to drink as long as I wanted, but I could never truly drink or experience the complete river. Similarly, when we pursue after God, He will satisfy our thirst, but we can never truly experience the wholeness of God. When we do pursue after Him, "whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. (John 4:14)".
-Smart
Election 2012
"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity."
-1 Timothy 2:1-2
Yesterday was the presidential election of this year. This time of year is crazy, with ads on who to choose and what ballot questions you should vote on, people talking politics constantly, and the list continues. I'm glad that the chaos of election season is finally over. President Barrack Obama has won a reelection and beat Mitt Romney. Was he the right choice? Was he at least the better choice?
Honestly, politics is way too confusing and time consuming for me to be interested in it, so I have no idea if Obama is better suited to lead the United States. I'm sure there are many people who believe that Obama will do more for this country than Romney, and can state many reasons why. I'm also sure there are people who could do the same for Romney. What am I trying to say here? Both candidates have many great qualities and aspirations, but both also have downfalls.
People will always argue over which candidate is better than which. That's just human nature. However, no matter how great someone is, nobody is perfect and nobody ever will be perfect. Do I believe that certain people can be better suited than others for a presidency? Well certainly, but everyone is limited by an imperfection called being human. Will the US do better with Obama than if Romney was elected? I have no clue, but it doesn't matter. The majority of people have decided to vote for Obama, so we have agreed that Obama will be president. I think what people have to accept is that by choosing Obama as president, we have not only chosen his good qualities but also his bad. We have agreed to let him lead this country, and whether he does a good job or not, we still chose him.
Some people may feel that since they did not choose Obama, they don't need to support him. That kind of thinking is understandable, but not practical. He is our president for the next four years regardless of what we want or believe. His choices will impact our lives, whether we are Democratic or Republican. Many (if not all) people hope that Obama makes good decisions and helps The United States, which is fine. However, just hoping for something doesn't help anyone. So what can we do to help Obama? We can do what the verse at the beginning of this posts urges us to do; pray for him. We may not agree with him, or we may even hate him, but we are supposed to pray for people in authority. Why? The only way authorities on earth are established is by God's will. So when we pray for our leaders, I believe we are praying according to God's will. So take some time to pray for our leaders.
-Smart
-1 Timothy 2:1-2
Yesterday was the presidential election of this year. This time of year is crazy, with ads on who to choose and what ballot questions you should vote on, people talking politics constantly, and the list continues. I'm glad that the chaos of election season is finally over. President Barrack Obama has won a reelection and beat Mitt Romney. Was he the right choice? Was he at least the better choice?
Honestly, politics is way too confusing and time consuming for me to be interested in it, so I have no idea if Obama is better suited to lead the United States. I'm sure there are many people who believe that Obama will do more for this country than Romney, and can state many reasons why. I'm also sure there are people who could do the same for Romney. What am I trying to say here? Both candidates have many great qualities and aspirations, but both also have downfalls.
People will always argue over which candidate is better than which. That's just human nature. However, no matter how great someone is, nobody is perfect and nobody ever will be perfect. Do I believe that certain people can be better suited than others for a presidency? Well certainly, but everyone is limited by an imperfection called being human. Will the US do better with Obama than if Romney was elected? I have no clue, but it doesn't matter. The majority of people have decided to vote for Obama, so we have agreed that Obama will be president. I think what people have to accept is that by choosing Obama as president, we have not only chosen his good qualities but also his bad. We have agreed to let him lead this country, and whether he does a good job or not, we still chose him.
Some people may feel that since they did not choose Obama, they don't need to support him. That kind of thinking is understandable, but not practical. He is our president for the next four years regardless of what we want or believe. His choices will impact our lives, whether we are Democratic or Republican. Many (if not all) people hope that Obama makes good decisions and helps The United States, which is fine. However, just hoping for something doesn't help anyone. So what can we do to help Obama? We can do what the verse at the beginning of this posts urges us to do; pray for him. We may not agree with him, or we may even hate him, but we are supposed to pray for people in authority. Why? The only way authorities on earth are established is by God's will. So when we pray for our leaders, I believe we are praying according to God's will. So take some time to pray for our leaders.
-Smart
Words with Power
"Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"
-Mark 4:41b
Mark 4:35-41 is the famous bible story of Jesus calming the storm. As Jesus and His disciples are crossing some body of water (it's called the sea in the NASB), a fierce storm erupts. Jesus doesn't seemed to bothered at all, because He is sleeping on the boat, most likely exhausted from all His preaching and healing. The disciples are frantic, and they woke Jesus up and said "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing"? Jesus then rebukes the storm, and the wind and waves were stilled.
There are many things that I see in this passage. Even though Jesus rebukes the disciples for having no faith, they still understood one thing; Jesus could do something about the storm. The disciples witnessed Jesus' power and authority through His miracles and preaching. It seems like the disciples knew Jesus could calm the storm, but they don't know if He will, based on their question. There is a lesson in here; when times are tough, we can turn to Jesus and He can and will do something.
The thing I want to focus on in this post is Jesus' words. His words are not ordinary, but have great power and authority. What determines if words have power or not? The person who says the words is generally the biggest factor. If I say to someone, "be quiet", they will probably just think I am rude. If a parent says to a child "be quiet", the child usually will listen because he or she knows that the parent has the power to do something if he or she disobeys. The child understands that the parent has power and authority.
While people with authority certainly get things to happen with their words, their words alone have no power. If a police officer tells someone to put their hands up, that person still has a choice of whether to do it or not, because the words alone have no power. The person will only oblige if they understand that a police officer has been given power and authority.
In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says "All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth". Jesus has all authority on earth, therefore His words have ultimate power. Other than people however, I believe Jesus' words do carry power in themselves. When Jesus gives a command, His words are immediately carried out. When God spoke in Genesis 3 saying "Let there be light", there was light. When Jesus is on the boat and says "Quiet! Be still!", the wind and the waves immediately obeyed.
Here we learn that Jesus' words have power, but how is that practical? We have to do our best to obey His words. But wait, didn't I just say His words have ultimate power and authority? Doesn't that mean if He says something to us we automatically do it? Theoretically yes, but Jesus gave us something called choice (which I blogged about earlier). We can choose whether to obey Him or not to. If we do choose to obey Him, great things can happen in our lives. I don't want to make this post ridiculously long, so I can't share what happens if we obey Him now. When Jesus tells the wind to be still, when it "obeys", it saves the lives of Jesus and the disciples and also shows them Jesus' great power. How do we obey? The easiest way to know how to obey Jesus' commands is to follow His example. Before He calms the waves, He was sleeping. He was still. He tells the waves to be still, or follow my example. We also have to follow the example of Christ.
-Smart
-Mark 4:41b
Mark 4:35-41 is the famous bible story of Jesus calming the storm. As Jesus and His disciples are crossing some body of water (it's called the sea in the NASB), a fierce storm erupts. Jesus doesn't seemed to bothered at all, because He is sleeping on the boat, most likely exhausted from all His preaching and healing. The disciples are frantic, and they woke Jesus up and said "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing"? Jesus then rebukes the storm, and the wind and waves were stilled.
There are many things that I see in this passage. Even though Jesus rebukes the disciples for having no faith, they still understood one thing; Jesus could do something about the storm. The disciples witnessed Jesus' power and authority through His miracles and preaching. It seems like the disciples knew Jesus could calm the storm, but they don't know if He will, based on their question. There is a lesson in here; when times are tough, we can turn to Jesus and He can and will do something.
The thing I want to focus on in this post is Jesus' words. His words are not ordinary, but have great power and authority. What determines if words have power or not? The person who says the words is generally the biggest factor. If I say to someone, "be quiet", they will probably just think I am rude. If a parent says to a child "be quiet", the child usually will listen because he or she knows that the parent has the power to do something if he or she disobeys. The child understands that the parent has power and authority.
While people with authority certainly get things to happen with their words, their words alone have no power. If a police officer tells someone to put their hands up, that person still has a choice of whether to do it or not, because the words alone have no power. The person will only oblige if they understand that a police officer has been given power and authority.
In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says "All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth". Jesus has all authority on earth, therefore His words have ultimate power. Other than people however, I believe Jesus' words do carry power in themselves. When Jesus gives a command, His words are immediately carried out. When God spoke in Genesis 3 saying "Let there be light", there was light. When Jesus is on the boat and says "Quiet! Be still!", the wind and the waves immediately obeyed.
Here we learn that Jesus' words have power, but how is that practical? We have to do our best to obey His words. But wait, didn't I just say His words have ultimate power and authority? Doesn't that mean if He says something to us we automatically do it? Theoretically yes, but Jesus gave us something called choice (which I blogged about earlier). We can choose whether to obey Him or not to. If we do choose to obey Him, great things can happen in our lives. I don't want to make this post ridiculously long, so I can't share what happens if we obey Him now. When Jesus tells the wind to be still, when it "obeys", it saves the lives of Jesus and the disciples and also shows them Jesus' great power. How do we obey? The easiest way to know how to obey Jesus' commands is to follow His example. Before He calms the waves, He was sleeping. He was still. He tells the waves to be still, or follow my example. We also have to follow the example of Christ.
-Smart
Rights
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast."
-Ephesians 2:8-9
The 2012 presidential election is coming up, and I've been thinking about it more than I do most elections. One thing that came to mind was these things called rights. According to our constitution, all men have the right to vote. We also have many other rights, such as the right to bear arms, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Today I want to really explore what rights are and what rights we have.
Rights according to dictionary.com are claims or entitlements, based on legal or moral principles. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all based on moral principles. The right to bear arms and the freedom of press are more based on legal principles. What does this really mean though? What do legal and moral principles even mean? I believe that the reason we can claim these "rights" are because we believe that we somehow deserve them based on what we believe. If we can be honest, moral and legal principles are both based on what we believe to be true and just. This brings up an interesting question, how can we all agree on rights if we believe in different things? I discuss this in another post on morals (http://aforbes.blogspot.com/2012/04/morals.html).
If we claim to have certain rights, then we also claim to deserve certain entitlements. We are saying that we are worthy of something. For someone to deserve something, they have to have done something that makes them worthy of it. A person deserves to go to prison because they have committed a crime. But what have we done to deserve our rights? Nothing at all, except exist. We don't deserve rights, they are given to us. However, if we don't deserve them, than they are no longer rights, but privileges. Some people may argue that they have done good things and therefore deserve rights. According to Romans 3:23, all have sinned, and according to Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. The only "right" that we have is death, because we all deserve it.
I can't end this post on a bad note, and thanks to God, I don't have to. When I said that we don't have any rights, I meant that we have done nothing to deserve them. If we look only at ourselves, we truly only have the right to die. If we look at the cross, we have the right to eternal life. When Jesus died on the cross, He gave us the right to be in His family. How? I said earlier that rights have to be given because we don't deserve them. Jesus took the punishment for our sin, and in turn justified us. What does that mean? We now deserve life because Jesus made us worthy. We are no longer considered sinners, but God's children. He has made us new, and we have rights that can never be taken from us.
-Smart
-Ephesians 2:8-9
The 2012 presidential election is coming up, and I've been thinking about it more than I do most elections. One thing that came to mind was these things called rights. According to our constitution, all men have the right to vote. We also have many other rights, such as the right to bear arms, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Today I want to really explore what rights are and what rights we have.
Rights according to dictionary.com are claims or entitlements, based on legal or moral principles. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are all based on moral principles. The right to bear arms and the freedom of press are more based on legal principles. What does this really mean though? What do legal and moral principles even mean? I believe that the reason we can claim these "rights" are because we believe that we somehow deserve them based on what we believe. If we can be honest, moral and legal principles are both based on what we believe to be true and just. This brings up an interesting question, how can we all agree on rights if we believe in different things? I discuss this in another post on morals (http://aforbes.blogspot.com/2012/04/morals.html).
If we claim to have certain rights, then we also claim to deserve certain entitlements. We are saying that we are worthy of something. For someone to deserve something, they have to have done something that makes them worthy of it. A person deserves to go to prison because they have committed a crime. But what have we done to deserve our rights? Nothing at all, except exist. We don't deserve rights, they are given to us. However, if we don't deserve them, than they are no longer rights, but privileges. Some people may argue that they have done good things and therefore deserve rights. According to Romans 3:23, all have sinned, and according to Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. The only "right" that we have is death, because we all deserve it.
I can't end this post on a bad note, and thanks to God, I don't have to. When I said that we don't have any rights, I meant that we have done nothing to deserve them. If we look only at ourselves, we truly only have the right to die. If we look at the cross, we have the right to eternal life. When Jesus died on the cross, He gave us the right to be in His family. How? I said earlier that rights have to be given because we don't deserve them. Jesus took the punishment for our sin, and in turn justified us. What does that mean? We now deserve life because Jesus made us worthy. We are no longer considered sinners, but God's children. He has made us new, and we have rights that can never be taken from us.
-Smart
Where is God?
"He must become greater; I must become less."
-John 3:30
I am a pretty active Facebook user, and sometimes the things I see on it bother me. One thing that I see that seems to be a recurring theme is the question of God's existence. There are so many posts that give reasons that either God exists or He doesn't. Whenever someone posts something about God and that He exists, it's a guarantee that someone will actively attack that post. Whether a person is commenting on a post like this or someone is saying that God doesn't exist, the common thing I see is the question of God's existence. "If God exists, where is He?"
The first answer I want to give is the one I hear over and over again from people who think God is a myth, fake, lie, or whatever. They have the idea that God lives in the sky. Actually the phrase they use is "a big man in the sky" or something similar. If that doesn't bother you at all, well then you have the wrong idea of who God is. This idea implies that God is far away, and only lives in heaven. This idea reminds people of the view of an angry God who just imposes rules on people to follow. Most importantly, this idea suggests that people cannot see or experience God because He lives "in the sky".
The next answer I want to give comes from the bible. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me". In John 3:30 John says "He must become greater, I must become less." Another great answer to this question is in the hymn "He Lives". The last line of the refrain is "You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart". The obvious thing that connects all of these answers is the God exists in our lives. Paul says that Christ lives in me. John says that God must become greater in his life, and John must become less in his life. The hymn proclaims that God lives in our hearts.
So if God lives in our lives, why do people think He lives in the sky? Unfortunately, the reason people think that is because God doesn't truly reign in us. Many people, including me, are guilty of thinking that God lives in them, but they still haven't given their entire life to God. How can I make such a big accusation? If you look at Paul or John, one thing that separates their lives from ours is that when other people interacted with them, they saw God. Why? Both Paul and John knew that in order for people to see Christ they had to rid themselves of any desire to glorify themselves. Paul says that He has been crucified with Christ. John says that he must become less.
God does not live in the sky, and we should not allow ourselves or other people to believe that. God is omnipresent. He lives everywhere, but the only way people will ever experience Him is if we exemplify Him in our lives. That means that when people see us, they don't really see us; they see Christ. "I want to live like that, and give it all I have, so that everything I say and do, points to You".
-Smart
-John 3:30
I am a pretty active Facebook user, and sometimes the things I see on it bother me. One thing that I see that seems to be a recurring theme is the question of God's existence. There are so many posts that give reasons that either God exists or He doesn't. Whenever someone posts something about God and that He exists, it's a guarantee that someone will actively attack that post. Whether a person is commenting on a post like this or someone is saying that God doesn't exist, the common thing I see is the question of God's existence. "If God exists, where is He?"
The first answer I want to give is the one I hear over and over again from people who think God is a myth, fake, lie, or whatever. They have the idea that God lives in the sky. Actually the phrase they use is "a big man in the sky" or something similar. If that doesn't bother you at all, well then you have the wrong idea of who God is. This idea implies that God is far away, and only lives in heaven. This idea reminds people of the view of an angry God who just imposes rules on people to follow. Most importantly, this idea suggests that people cannot see or experience God because He lives "in the sky".
The next answer I want to give comes from the bible. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me". In John 3:30 John says "He must become greater, I must become less." Another great answer to this question is in the hymn "He Lives". The last line of the refrain is "You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart". The obvious thing that connects all of these answers is the God exists in our lives. Paul says that Christ lives in me. John says that God must become greater in his life, and John must become less in his life. The hymn proclaims that God lives in our hearts.
So if God lives in our lives, why do people think He lives in the sky? Unfortunately, the reason people think that is because God doesn't truly reign in us. Many people, including me, are guilty of thinking that God lives in them, but they still haven't given their entire life to God. How can I make such a big accusation? If you look at Paul or John, one thing that separates their lives from ours is that when other people interacted with them, they saw God. Why? Both Paul and John knew that in order for people to see Christ they had to rid themselves of any desire to glorify themselves. Paul says that He has been crucified with Christ. John says that he must become less.
God does not live in the sky, and we should not allow ourselves or other people to believe that. God is omnipresent. He lives everywhere, but the only way people will ever experience Him is if we exemplify Him in our lives. That means that when people see us, they don't really see us; they see Christ. "I want to live like that, and give it all I have, so that everything I say and do, points to You".
-Smart
Stress
I've been wanting to do discuss this topic for a while now but I've been busy with other things. The topic is stress and I also want to address priorities along with it. The obvious first question to address is what is stress? Stress according to the dictionary a mental, physical, or emotional strain or tension. From my experience, and I'm sure it's true, stress is usually caused by an event or by tasks. In other words, something has to cause stress.
Generally the people who have the most stress in their lives are people who are busy. These people have stressful jobs, people, or schoolwork in their lives. They seem to always be burdened by something in their lives, and sometimes I wonder if they ever relax (which is very important). Also, these people seem to always be doing something, and if they aren't, they are worrying about something that needs to be done. Sometimes this is caused by an overload of work in their lives, but I don' think that is the only reason they are stressed.
What I didn't mention before is that stress has another meaning, which is to emphasize or accentuate. While these definitions may have not been meant to be linked, I think they are. When people stress (emphasize) the things they have to do, the feel stressed (tension). If you are overly concerned about doing work or doing well in what you are doing, you will start to feel stress. By the way, stress is not very good for you.
Why does this matter? I believe that we stress things in life that, to be frank, don't really matter. You may argue that your job gets you money and school will get you a job, but you know what you are saying? You are saying that you are okay placing a great amount of stress and emphasis on living a comfortable life. Living a comfortable life is a very high priority in your life if you get overly stressed about school, work or whatever. If becoming a "successful" person is your top priority, well then maybe you shouldn't be reading this post. No one can help you get less stressed unless you decide to change your priorities.
Honestly, changing priorities in life is not easy at all. I have wanted to change my priorities for a very long time, and I still struggle to prioritizing my life. I usually try not to get too stressed over the "busyness" of my life, but things still consume my time, effort, thoughts, and attention. Why do I feel like schoolwork or jobs should not be a top priority in life? These things eventually will become what you place your hope in, whether you like it or not. I don't want to place my hope in something that cannot last. I don't want to place my hope in something that cannot save me. That is why I want to change the priorities in my life. I want to place stress on something that I know will not fail my desires and hopes. What will you make your top priority?
-Smart
Generally the people who have the most stress in their lives are people who are busy. These people have stressful jobs, people, or schoolwork in their lives. They seem to always be burdened by something in their lives, and sometimes I wonder if they ever relax (which is very important). Also, these people seem to always be doing something, and if they aren't, they are worrying about something that needs to be done. Sometimes this is caused by an overload of work in their lives, but I don' think that is the only reason they are stressed.
What I didn't mention before is that stress has another meaning, which is to emphasize or accentuate. While these definitions may have not been meant to be linked, I think they are. When people stress (emphasize) the things they have to do, the feel stressed (tension). If you are overly concerned about doing work or doing well in what you are doing, you will start to feel stress. By the way, stress is not very good for you.
Why does this matter? I believe that we stress things in life that, to be frank, don't really matter. You may argue that your job gets you money and school will get you a job, but you know what you are saying? You are saying that you are okay placing a great amount of stress and emphasis on living a comfortable life. Living a comfortable life is a very high priority in your life if you get overly stressed about school, work or whatever. If becoming a "successful" person is your top priority, well then maybe you shouldn't be reading this post. No one can help you get less stressed unless you decide to change your priorities.
Honestly, changing priorities in life is not easy at all. I have wanted to change my priorities for a very long time, and I still struggle to prioritizing my life. I usually try not to get too stressed over the "busyness" of my life, but things still consume my time, effort, thoughts, and attention. Why do I feel like schoolwork or jobs should not be a top priority in life? These things eventually will become what you place your hope in, whether you like it or not. I don't want to place my hope in something that cannot last. I don't want to place my hope in something that cannot save me. That is why I want to change the priorities in my life. I want to place stress on something that I know will not fail my desires and hopes. What will you make your top priority?
-Smart
Niceness
Recently I had a conversation with one of my friends and we talked about nice people. During this conversation, I thought of a question that seems to have an obvious answer; why do people like nice people? It seems like that's a simple question to answer, but that's because it is so natural for us to like nice people. I never thought too much about why I personally like nice people or why others like nice people until I had this conversation. Hopefully I can shed some light on the answer to this question and make some comments on it.
First, I think it's important that I define "nice people". To me personally, a nice person is someone who compliments other people and is overall a positive person. A person who is not nice is someone who tends to put others down and is overall a negative person. A nice person is generally creates a pleasant atmosphere and points out the good in other people. As I said before, most if not all people would rather be with a nice person than a disrespectful or mean person.
So why do we like people that are nice to us? I believe that we like being around nice people because they point out our positive qualities rather than our bad. A very nice person may even exaggerate a quality to make us feel better. I think people try to be nice so that other people feel better about themselves. As humans, we all have things about us that we don't like because no one is perfect. We don't like it when someone exposes our weaknesses. We don't like being reminded of our shortcomings and failures. What we do want is to feel some sense of worth, or acceptance. When people point out what is good about us, we feel like we are accepted and we are worth something. I believe that we all are trying to find nice people to surround ourselves with to make us feel like we are something more than we are.
While I have nothing against nice people (actually I think being nice is great), they can't make us worth something more than what we are. They certainly can make us feel that way, but they don't have the ability to make us better people. Also, no one can truly accept us, because even the nicest people judge other people. No one can accept all of who we are, because everyone has some quality that no one can accept. I'm not talking bad breath or bad hair, but something deeper that is in our hearts. What makes us incapable of being worth something great or completely accepted is that we all have sinned and fall short.
My previous statements were not completely true. There is someone who can make us worth something and accept all of us. That person died on the cross so that we could be accepted and valuable. Jesus took our punishment for our sin and made us righteous and He accepted us into His family. The sad thing is that many people try to replace Jesus with "nice" people. Nice people can certainly make us feel better about ourselves and accepted, but they cannot make us better people and accept us. Only Jesus has the power to become that person we long for in our hearts, and Jesus is that person.
-Smart
First, I think it's important that I define "nice people". To me personally, a nice person is someone who compliments other people and is overall a positive person. A person who is not nice is someone who tends to put others down and is overall a negative person. A nice person is generally creates a pleasant atmosphere and points out the good in other people. As I said before, most if not all people would rather be with a nice person than a disrespectful or mean person.
So why do we like people that are nice to us? I believe that we like being around nice people because they point out our positive qualities rather than our bad. A very nice person may even exaggerate a quality to make us feel better. I think people try to be nice so that other people feel better about themselves. As humans, we all have things about us that we don't like because no one is perfect. We don't like it when someone exposes our weaknesses. We don't like being reminded of our shortcomings and failures. What we do want is to feel some sense of worth, or acceptance. When people point out what is good about us, we feel like we are accepted and we are worth something. I believe that we all are trying to find nice people to surround ourselves with to make us feel like we are something more than we are.
While I have nothing against nice people (actually I think being nice is great), they can't make us worth something more than what we are. They certainly can make us feel that way, but they don't have the ability to make us better people. Also, no one can truly accept us, because even the nicest people judge other people. No one can accept all of who we are, because everyone has some quality that no one can accept. I'm not talking bad breath or bad hair, but something deeper that is in our hearts. What makes us incapable of being worth something great or completely accepted is that we all have sinned and fall short.
My previous statements were not completely true. There is someone who can make us worth something and accept all of us. That person died on the cross so that we could be accepted and valuable. Jesus took our punishment for our sin and made us righteous and He accepted us into His family. The sad thing is that many people try to replace Jesus with "nice" people. Nice people can certainly make us feel better about ourselves and accepted, but they cannot make us better people and accept us. Only Jesus has the power to become that person we long for in our hearts, and Jesus is that person.
-Smart
Devotion
"They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."
-Acts 2:42
Recently in my church's college group, YDJ, we have been talking about fellowship. Our key verse is Acts 2:42, which I posted above. It mentions a very strong word, devoting. What does devoting yourself to something mean? What does it require? Devotion is more than a half-hearted effort or even a good effort. Today I want to show what devotion really entails.
Our YDJ leader gave us a definition of devotion that I really think captures the meaning of devotion. Devotion is doing something with intense effort, despite difficulties. When someone is devoted to something, they will be completely focused and dedicated to what they are doing. People give their all to what they are devoted to. If a person is devoted to music, they will constantly practice and play with intense effort. I think the words intense effort are quite fitting for devotion, because it makes me think of someone who does something until the point that they can't. People will not give up on what they are devoted to.
This brings me to my next point; despite difficulties. This part of the definition is just as important as the first part in my opinion. When a person does something with true devotion, nothing will stop them from doing that thing. Even if it gets hard to devote themselves, they will continue to place an all consuming effort. A truly devoted person continues through any obstacle, just to continue to do what they are devoted to. How does one devote themselves when things get tough?
I think that for a person to become completely devoted to something, they have to believe in what they are doing. For a person to be devoted to sports, they have to believe they can get better and that time they devote to practicing will be worthwhile. A person won't give intense effort to something they don'y believe is worthwhile. In Acts, the disciples were able to devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer because believed that these things were worthwhile. Their belief was even stronger because they knew these things would affect them for eternity. The more you believe in what you do, the more you will be devoted to what you do. What are you devoted to? What is worth devoting yourself to? What do you believe in?
-Smart
-Acts 2:42
Recently in my church's college group, YDJ, we have been talking about fellowship. Our key verse is Acts 2:42, which I posted above. It mentions a very strong word, devoting. What does devoting yourself to something mean? What does it require? Devotion is more than a half-hearted effort or even a good effort. Today I want to show what devotion really entails.
Our YDJ leader gave us a definition of devotion that I really think captures the meaning of devotion. Devotion is doing something with intense effort, despite difficulties. When someone is devoted to something, they will be completely focused and dedicated to what they are doing. People give their all to what they are devoted to. If a person is devoted to music, they will constantly practice and play with intense effort. I think the words intense effort are quite fitting for devotion, because it makes me think of someone who does something until the point that they can't. People will not give up on what they are devoted to.
This brings me to my next point; despite difficulties. This part of the definition is just as important as the first part in my opinion. When a person does something with true devotion, nothing will stop them from doing that thing. Even if it gets hard to devote themselves, they will continue to place an all consuming effort. A truly devoted person continues through any obstacle, just to continue to do what they are devoted to. How does one devote themselves when things get tough?
I think that for a person to become completely devoted to something, they have to believe in what they are doing. For a person to be devoted to sports, they have to believe they can get better and that time they devote to practicing will be worthwhile. A person won't give intense effort to something they don'y believe is worthwhile. In Acts, the disciples were able to devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer because believed that these things were worthwhile. Their belief was even stronger because they knew these things would affect them for eternity. The more you believe in what you do, the more you will be devoted to what you do. What are you devoted to? What is worth devoting yourself to? What do you believe in?
-Smart
Turning Aside
"When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called him to the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."
-Exodus 3:4
I have been reading the book of Exodus and I came across the story of the burning bush. While the story of the burning bush is quite incredible, I remember reading about something interesting in a devotional. It didn't focus on the burning bush, but it was about turning aside. In the passage, Moses sees the bush and doesn't ignore it; he stops what he is doing and he turns aside. This is a good metaphor which I will hopefully be able to explain somewhat.
At first glance it may seem like a burning bush is some crazy thing, but it really wasn't. It's a hot desert, and many things could have caused the fire. However, Moses noticed someone was different about this bush. The bush was burning but was not consumed by the flames. Now that is a crazy incident. In my entire life I have never seen something be burning but not consumed. The key thing to note is that Moses would not have seen this if he did not take the time to turn aside and look at it.
The burning bush event was very significant for both Moses and Israel. God told Moses that He heard the cry of Israel and was going to deliver them. This incident was a turning point for Moses. He heard God and God gave him a mission and a promise. Again I have to stress; if Moses did not turn aside, he would have missed this profound moment for the nation of Israel.
How does this apply to us? We have become a very fast paced and always busy generation. We are constantly doing things for work, pleasure, school or otherwise. It seems like everywhere I look people are constantly doing things. While this isn't always a bad thing, it can cause us miss things in life. I believe it is extremely important that we take time to just "turn aside". We can miss important things if we allow ourselves to be consumed by the busyness of the world.
What does this look like practically? I'm not totally sure. I think something we can do however is to take breaks from our "busyness". Take a 5 minute break every now and then. Don't get on the computer, don't get on the phone, don't watch tv, and don't make excuses for not taking a break. Just sit or lie down (I personally like to lie down) and take a look around. I like to think about different things during this time. It doesn't really matter what you do, but the point is to get away from the busyness of the world. One thing I would highly recommend is to pray and ask God to reveal something He wants to show to you. Let God show you something, it just might be something incredible.
-Smart
-Exodus 3:4
I have been reading the book of Exodus and I came across the story of the burning bush. While the story of the burning bush is quite incredible, I remember reading about something interesting in a devotional. It didn't focus on the burning bush, but it was about turning aside. In the passage, Moses sees the bush and doesn't ignore it; he stops what he is doing and he turns aside. This is a good metaphor which I will hopefully be able to explain somewhat.
At first glance it may seem like a burning bush is some crazy thing, but it really wasn't. It's a hot desert, and many things could have caused the fire. However, Moses noticed someone was different about this bush. The bush was burning but was not consumed by the flames. Now that is a crazy incident. In my entire life I have never seen something be burning but not consumed. The key thing to note is that Moses would not have seen this if he did not take the time to turn aside and look at it.
The burning bush event was very significant for both Moses and Israel. God told Moses that He heard the cry of Israel and was going to deliver them. This incident was a turning point for Moses. He heard God and God gave him a mission and a promise. Again I have to stress; if Moses did not turn aside, he would have missed this profound moment for the nation of Israel.
How does this apply to us? We have become a very fast paced and always busy generation. We are constantly doing things for work, pleasure, school or otherwise. It seems like everywhere I look people are constantly doing things. While this isn't always a bad thing, it can cause us miss things in life. I believe it is extremely important that we take time to just "turn aside". We can miss important things if we allow ourselves to be consumed by the busyness of the world.
What does this look like practically? I'm not totally sure. I think something we can do however is to take breaks from our "busyness". Take a 5 minute break every now and then. Don't get on the computer, don't get on the phone, don't watch tv, and don't make excuses for not taking a break. Just sit or lie down (I personally like to lie down) and take a look around. I like to think about different things during this time. It doesn't really matter what you do, but the point is to get away from the busyness of the world. One thing I would highly recommend is to pray and ask God to reveal something He wants to show to you. Let God show you something, it just might be something incredible.
-Smart
Patriotism
This year 2012 we had the worldwide Olympics. Also, today is September the Eleventh, also known as Patriot day, or more famously 9/11. This made me think about something we don't often question; patriotism. What is patriotism anyway? The dictionary definition says that patriotism is a loyalty to one's country. I think it also has to do with pride in one's country as well. I don't often think about patriotism, until days like the Olympics, Fourth of July, 9/11, Memorial Day or other holidays based on countries (namely USA).
Why does the USA always promote patriotism? The United States promotes patriotism because it wants citizens to follow laws and more importantly to join the armed forces. This is not really a hard question to answer however. A more difficult question to answer is what makes us feel patriotism. We feel a sense of pride when we see war movies, see our flag raised, we win Olympic medals or we hear stories about our country's past. Sometimes we even feel an obligation to serve our country because we feel this patriotism.
I find patriotism to be a very interesting "feeling" if it can even be called that. I think it is just a form of pride placed on our country rather than ourselves. We often have "feelings" when things happen directly to us or things directly affect us. For example, if I get an "A" on an exam, I feel happy and proud of myself. If I lose a game of basketball, I feel sad or angry. While things in our country do affect us, they don't really affect us directly. The thing that most directly affects us in terms of government is laws, but we never feel patriotism when it comes to laws. If the US were to win a war, we would feel pride and patriotism, even if we weren't directly involved in the war. We have a day to remember fallen soldiers, Memorial Day, but we don't have a day where we remember people all over the world dying of hunger and disease. So I'll ask once again, why do we feel patriotism?
I believe that the reason we feel patriotism is because every human being has a need to belong. I mentioned a similar idea in my post on repetition. We were made to need each other and to need to belong. One group where we can feel like we belong is our country. When our country celebrates, we feel like part of that celebration. We like to be associated with our country because we feel that need to belong. We were created to be together and united. That is why I love the name of my country, "The United States". I also really like one of our sayings, "United we stand, divided we fall." How true is that statement.
Why does this matter? Does patriotism matter at all? I think patriotism is good to a certain extent, because it produces people that want to serve their country. More importantly, it is a good indication of our human nature. It reveals our need to be part of something, something more than just ourselves. We need to belong somewhere. Where do you belong?
-Smart (in America)
Choice
"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'"
-Matthew 22:37
Today I want to discuss something I heard about a long time ago and just recently started thinking about again. The topic is choice. Choice is a very interesting concept, and there are many things that can be talked about when it comes to choice, but I just want to talk about two things. The first of these two things is why are we allowed to choose things? Why does God allow us to choose things?
This is a very weird idea for sure, but God does have the power to take away our power to choose. He never had to give us the ability to choose what we want to do. If He wanted to, He could take away any opportunity for us to sin or to stray away from Himself but He didn't. In the garden of Eden, God allowed Adam and Eve to choose what to eat and what to do. However, God placed the tree of knowledge in the garden, which He forbade Adam and Eve to eat from. Why? Why would God plant the tree if they weren't even allowed to eat from it? Why give them a chance to disobey Him?
The answer is that God loves us, and because of that He wants us to love Him back. God's love for us is perfect and unconditional, and He wants us to love Him in the same way. So how does choice factor in? God allowed Adam and Eve to choose sin, because He also wanted them to be able to choose Him. True love is a choice. Without the ability to choose something else, love is meaningless. If Adam and Eve only had one choice, God, then their love for Him wouldn't be pleasing to God. It would be forced love. Because God allowed them to choose something besides Himself, had they obeyed Him, their love for Him would be true. However, they chose sin over God, and suffered the consequences of it.
This brings me to the second thing I wanted to discuss about choice; choice carries responsibility. I wrote about responsibility before, and choice ties into it. We are responsible for sin because we chose to sin rather than love God. Adam and Eve choose to disobey God and sin against Him. They are responsible, and suffered the just consequence. Although the freedom to choose is nice, it burdens us because we are forced to carry the responsibility for our choices. We carry the responsibility for our sins, not anything else.
It sounds like I am just saying choice is bad, but it's not. Choice does make us responsible for sin, but it also allows us to love God in a way that is pleasing to Him. True love is a choice. We can never truly love, because we have sinned, but God can. We continually choose to sin, but God chooses to love. When Jesus came to earth to save us, He had to choose to do so. He could have decided to save Himself many times, but He always chose to love us rather than abandon us. God knew that by choosing to love us He would have to carry the responsibility and consequence of our sin. Even love has consequences. Every choice we make does. The person responsible for making a choice gets the consequences of that choice. God made a choice to love us, so He carried the responsibility of that choice. Now He wants us to respond to the choice He made for us with a choice of our own. What do you choose?
-Smart
-Matthew 22:37
Today I want to discuss something I heard about a long time ago and just recently started thinking about again. The topic is choice. Choice is a very interesting concept, and there are many things that can be talked about when it comes to choice, but I just want to talk about two things. The first of these two things is why are we allowed to choose things? Why does God allow us to choose things?
This is a very weird idea for sure, but God does have the power to take away our power to choose. He never had to give us the ability to choose what we want to do. If He wanted to, He could take away any opportunity for us to sin or to stray away from Himself but He didn't. In the garden of Eden, God allowed Adam and Eve to choose what to eat and what to do. However, God placed the tree of knowledge in the garden, which He forbade Adam and Eve to eat from. Why? Why would God plant the tree if they weren't even allowed to eat from it? Why give them a chance to disobey Him?
The answer is that God loves us, and because of that He wants us to love Him back. God's love for us is perfect and unconditional, and He wants us to love Him in the same way. So how does choice factor in? God allowed Adam and Eve to choose sin, because He also wanted them to be able to choose Him. True love is a choice. Without the ability to choose something else, love is meaningless. If Adam and Eve only had one choice, God, then their love for Him wouldn't be pleasing to God. It would be forced love. Because God allowed them to choose something besides Himself, had they obeyed Him, their love for Him would be true. However, they chose sin over God, and suffered the consequences of it.
This brings me to the second thing I wanted to discuss about choice; choice carries responsibility. I wrote about responsibility before, and choice ties into it. We are responsible for sin because we chose to sin rather than love God. Adam and Eve choose to disobey God and sin against Him. They are responsible, and suffered the just consequence. Although the freedom to choose is nice, it burdens us because we are forced to carry the responsibility for our choices. We carry the responsibility for our sins, not anything else.
It sounds like I am just saying choice is bad, but it's not. Choice does make us responsible for sin, but it also allows us to love God in a way that is pleasing to Him. True love is a choice. We can never truly love, because we have sinned, but God can. We continually choose to sin, but God chooses to love. When Jesus came to earth to save us, He had to choose to do so. He could have decided to save Himself many times, but He always chose to love us rather than abandon us. God knew that by choosing to love us He would have to carry the responsibility and consequence of our sin. Even love has consequences. Every choice we make does. The person responsible for making a choice gets the consequences of that choice. God made a choice to love us, so He carried the responsibility of that choice. Now He wants us to respond to the choice He made for us with a choice of our own. What do you choose?
-Smart
Repentance
"As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him."
-Matthew 3:16
What is repentance? Repentance is an act of turning away from sin and deciding to change. Repentance is necessary for everyone to do in order to approach God. Why? We all have sinned, and as I mentioned in another post, we are all responsible for our sins. We chose to sin. Therefore we have to repent for our sins because we are the ones who have committed them. We cannot blame someone else or something else. We are the ones who need to repent.
So how do we repent? Repentance has four steps, according to "The Jesus Creed". The steps are conviction, confession, commitment, and consequences. In order to repent we need to be convicted of our sins, and realize how much they hurt God. We need to tell God the truth about our sins and confess to Him. We need to decide to change our actions based on our confession, and we need to demonstrate that we have truly repented. I think it is easy to fake repentance, or not repent completely. We usually can be convicted and confess our sin, but we often forget that true repentance requires change in our actions and attitude toward sin.
There is a problem with repentance; we aren't perfect. Only a sinner needs to repent, but only a perfect person can repent perfectly. What am I taking about? We are so caught up in sin we don't even realize how bad it is. We think we understand, but our sinful nature corrupts us and we fail to truly comprehend the destructive and evil nature of sin. However, a perfect and sinless person really understands sin and how much it hurts God. They aren't corrupted by sin and therefore can truly perceive it correctly.
Well we aren't perfect, and if we were, we wouldn't need to repent. So what can we do about this? Truthfully, nothing. We can't repent perfectly- but Jesus can. Jesus was the only perfect person who lived on this earth, therefore He was and is the only person who can repent perfectly. In the bible Jesus asks John the Baptist to baptize him. Baptism is part of repentance. Why did Jesus repent if He was already perfect? Jesus lived on the earth for one reason; to demonstrate His love for us. He lived for us. Jesus was baptized not for His sins but for ours. He repented for our sins and He did it perfectly, so that we could live without guilt or shame. He only asks that we allow Him to repent for us and participate in His repentance. We still need to repent but we also need to participate in the repentance of Jesus, because it is perfect.
-Smart
More Than Enough
"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.'"
-John 4:13-14a
This post is going to similar to the one I did on entertainment, just slightly different. I've continued reading "The Jesus Creed" by McKnight and he brings up a point I think about a lot. Today I want to talk about desiring things. More specifically, desiring more than enough. Many people would agree that they want things. I personally want a lot of things; a car, basketball, xbox games, new clothes, and money in case I want to buy more things. We all desire a of things, and we also want money so that we can continue to buy more things. Why?
The reason I ask why is because we already have enough things. Think about it; if you are reading this you have to be alive, and more likely, you are pretty well off. This really bothered me for a long time and still bothers me a little bit. Why do we want more things if we already have plenty? Animals and creatures don't want more than they need, so why should we? Why can't we be satisfied with food water and shelter? Why do we need more and more things?
The only explanation I could come up with was summarized very well in "The Jesus Creed". To summarize, the reason we feel like we always need more is because of the deep yearnings in our spirit. What makes people different than animals is that we have a need for meaning in life that is eternal. This need is the source of the hunger for the meaning of life, and it refuses to be satisfied with any meaning less than the eternal.
The bible says that God made us in His image, so I think it is reasonable to conclude that means we desire the things God desires. I think God is only satisfied in Himself, so that means we also can only truly be satisfied in Him. This aspect of ourselves is often tainted by our sinful nature, and we think we desire more and more things of this world. Our sinful nature is not our true nature however, because God made is in His image, not in sin. That is why we can never be satisfied in this world, because this world can only give us "enough". God can give us what we really desire; then and only then we will be satisfied with more than enough.
-Smart
-John 4:13-14a
This post is going to similar to the one I did on entertainment, just slightly different. I've continued reading "The Jesus Creed" by McKnight and he brings up a point I think about a lot. Today I want to talk about desiring things. More specifically, desiring more than enough. Many people would agree that they want things. I personally want a lot of things; a car, basketball, xbox games, new clothes, and money in case I want to buy more things. We all desire a of things, and we also want money so that we can continue to buy more things. Why?
The reason I ask why is because we already have enough things. Think about it; if you are reading this you have to be alive, and more likely, you are pretty well off. This really bothered me for a long time and still bothers me a little bit. Why do we want more things if we already have plenty? Animals and creatures don't want more than they need, so why should we? Why can't we be satisfied with food water and shelter? Why do we need more and more things?
The only explanation I could come up with was summarized very well in "The Jesus Creed". To summarize, the reason we feel like we always need more is because of the deep yearnings in our spirit. What makes people different than animals is that we have a need for meaning in life that is eternal. This need is the source of the hunger for the meaning of life, and it refuses to be satisfied with any meaning less than the eternal.
The bible says that God made us in His image, so I think it is reasonable to conclude that means we desire the things God desires. I think God is only satisfied in Himself, so that means we also can only truly be satisfied in Him. This aspect of ourselves is often tainted by our sinful nature, and we think we desire more and more things of this world. Our sinful nature is not our true nature however, because God made is in His image, not in sin. That is why we can never be satisfied in this world, because this world can only give us "enough". God can give us what we really desire; then and only then we will be satisfied with more than enough.
-Smart
Achievements
"The death He died, He died to sin once for all".
-Romans 6:10
I posted a long time ago about success, and today I want to talk about something similar. Today I wanted to share my thoughts on achievements. Achievements are things that we accomplish and take pride in. Achievements are usually something great that we do and want to be noticed for. Everyone wants to achieve things in their life, although those things differ. I believe that everyone wants to do things that they can take pride in and possibly get noticed for.
When we think of achievements, we often think of great people that have achieved great things. Michael Jordan is known for being one of, if not the, greatest basketball players ever. He has won many NBA finals and has many trophies. He has done this with his amazing athleticism and by practicing hard everyday. Now he is in the basketball Hall of Fame and is recognized for his greatness in basketball.
This is only one example, but it describes someone we often hold up because of his achievements. While that may seem great, I don't believe it is that great. Sure he was one of the greatest basketball players, but what does that do for him? He gets paid well and gets to keep many trophies, but when he dies will that matter anymore? His achievements can't follow him to the grave, unfortunately. Even though he has worked so hard to achieve things in his life, it won't help him when dies and it won't last.
It may seem that I think that nothing is worth achieving or doing, but that isn't the case. Michael Jordan has done something I think is worthwhile- using his money to help charities. While he might not be known or recognized for that, I think he should. His basketball career won't make as much of an impact as his funds to charity. I think the achievements we should be working towards are ones that help other people more than ourselves. Why? Doing things for ourselves is nice, but it won't matter after we die. Doing things for other people can change others and maybe even the course of history. Martin Luther King Jr. is recognized for helping achieve freedom for slaves in America. He changed America and made an impact even to this day, just by doing something for others. I think that is an achievement worth recognizing.
The more we do for other people, the greater our achievements become. Rather than strive to earn medals or self recognition, we start to help others and make an impact that will last. The greatest achievement ever was Jesus dying on the cross. Why? Jesus died to save and help other people, not himself. He died for all people, and in the process earned nothing but death for himself. These are the greatest kinds of achievements; ones where a person gives up something to help other people. Jesus gave up everything to help us. Through his achievement all people benefit and history has been changed. Now we aren't all supposed to do amazing things like Martin Luther King Jr. or Jesus, but we are supposed to do the best we can to achieve something to help others. What do you want to achieve?
-Smart
-Romans 6:10
I posted a long time ago about success, and today I want to talk about something similar. Today I wanted to share my thoughts on achievements. Achievements are things that we accomplish and take pride in. Achievements are usually something great that we do and want to be noticed for. Everyone wants to achieve things in their life, although those things differ. I believe that everyone wants to do things that they can take pride in and possibly get noticed for.
When we think of achievements, we often think of great people that have achieved great things. Michael Jordan is known for being one of, if not the, greatest basketball players ever. He has won many NBA finals and has many trophies. He has done this with his amazing athleticism and by practicing hard everyday. Now he is in the basketball Hall of Fame and is recognized for his greatness in basketball.
This is only one example, but it describes someone we often hold up because of his achievements. While that may seem great, I don't believe it is that great. Sure he was one of the greatest basketball players, but what does that do for him? He gets paid well and gets to keep many trophies, but when he dies will that matter anymore? His achievements can't follow him to the grave, unfortunately. Even though he has worked so hard to achieve things in his life, it won't help him when dies and it won't last.
It may seem that I think that nothing is worth achieving or doing, but that isn't the case. Michael Jordan has done something I think is worthwhile- using his money to help charities. While he might not be known or recognized for that, I think he should. His basketball career won't make as much of an impact as his funds to charity. I think the achievements we should be working towards are ones that help other people more than ourselves. Why? Doing things for ourselves is nice, but it won't matter after we die. Doing things for other people can change others and maybe even the course of history. Martin Luther King Jr. is recognized for helping achieve freedom for slaves in America. He changed America and made an impact even to this day, just by doing something for others. I think that is an achievement worth recognizing.
The more we do for other people, the greater our achievements become. Rather than strive to earn medals or self recognition, we start to help others and make an impact that will last. The greatest achievement ever was Jesus dying on the cross. Why? Jesus died to save and help other people, not himself. He died for all people, and in the process earned nothing but death for himself. These are the greatest kinds of achievements; ones where a person gives up something to help other people. Jesus gave up everything to help us. Through his achievement all people benefit and history has been changed. Now we aren't all supposed to do amazing things like Martin Luther King Jr. or Jesus, but we are supposed to do the best we can to achieve something to help others. What do you want to achieve?
-Smart
Reputation vs. Identity
"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
-Ephesians 2:10
Recently I have been reading a book titled "Jesus Creed" by Scot McKnight, in which he discusses the two greatest commandments; love God and love others. One of the chapters is about reputation and identity, and he focuses on the story of Joseph. I want to give my thoughts about this topic.
A reputation is what someone gets from other people. It's what other people say you are. If you are seen studying a lot, your reputation is that you are a studious person. If you are very kind to other people, your reputation is that you are a kind person. A reputation is based on what other people think you are or what they think you do. Therefore, the only actions you do that will affect your reputation is what you do in front of other people. What you do at home by yourself can't damage or help your reputation. People can only give you a reputation based on what you do in front of them. This allows people to make themselves look better than they are, because they are able to do things in front of others that make them seem like good people. A reputation is easily built and easily changed.
An identity is different though. It is what you really are, not what others perceive you to be. It is independent of how you act, how you dress, or what you say. It is based on where you belong or who you belong to. Knowing your identity is crucial to living a purposeful and productive life. Knowing your identity allows you to ignore what others say because your reputation no longer matters. Once you know who you are you start to live the way that you are supposed to be. You're not worried about building your reputation, but protecting and proclaiming your identity.
I want to end with an analogy. A reputation is like a nickname. It is given to you based on what others think of you. If someone gives you the nickname "brains", people believe that you are smart, regardless if you really are or not. Your identity is like your real name. It is who you really are and where you belong. It cannot be changed based on what others think, because that can't change who your parents are. Your identity can't be changed by your reputation, but your reputation can be changed by your identity. What other people believe about you doesn't change where you belong. The more you show your identity, the more people start to recognize who you are and your identity and reputation become the same thing. To show your identity, you have to know it first though. Where do you belong?
-Smart
-Ephesians 2:10
Recently I have been reading a book titled "Jesus Creed" by Scot McKnight, in which he discusses the two greatest commandments; love God and love others. One of the chapters is about reputation and identity, and he focuses on the story of Joseph. I want to give my thoughts about this topic.
A reputation is what someone gets from other people. It's what other people say you are. If you are seen studying a lot, your reputation is that you are a studious person. If you are very kind to other people, your reputation is that you are a kind person. A reputation is based on what other people think you are or what they think you do. Therefore, the only actions you do that will affect your reputation is what you do in front of other people. What you do at home by yourself can't damage or help your reputation. People can only give you a reputation based on what you do in front of them. This allows people to make themselves look better than they are, because they are able to do things in front of others that make them seem like good people. A reputation is easily built and easily changed.
An identity is different though. It is what you really are, not what others perceive you to be. It is independent of how you act, how you dress, or what you say. It is based on where you belong or who you belong to. Knowing your identity is crucial to living a purposeful and productive life. Knowing your identity allows you to ignore what others say because your reputation no longer matters. Once you know who you are you start to live the way that you are supposed to be. You're not worried about building your reputation, but protecting and proclaiming your identity.
I want to end with an analogy. A reputation is like a nickname. It is given to you based on what others think of you. If someone gives you the nickname "brains", people believe that you are smart, regardless if you really are or not. Your identity is like your real name. It is who you really are and where you belong. It cannot be changed based on what others think, because that can't change who your parents are. Your identity can't be changed by your reputation, but your reputation can be changed by your identity. What other people believe about you doesn't change where you belong. The more you show your identity, the more people start to recognize who you are and your identity and reputation become the same thing. To show your identity, you have to know it first though. Where do you belong?
-Smart
Sanctification
"May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through."
-1 Thessalonians 5:23
Recently I had the pleasure of cleaning my family's trash can. It was nasty and disgusting, but it had to be cleaned because flies were constantly in it and started laying eggs. I wondered what the point of cleaning it was, since it would just get dirty again. After all, a trash can constantly has trash put in it and is always full of trash. Why bother cleaning it? Even though I knew it would get dirty again, it was so disgusting I couldn't just leave it in that state. I know I will probably have to clean again, but I'm willing to do it because I don't want it to have flies in it and stay dirty.
As I thought about these things, I realized that this is similar to how God "cleans" us. Sad to say, we are like the trash can. We always sin and are full of sin. By nature we are sinful, just like by nature a trash can has trash in it. Despite what most people think, we are not "clean" people. In other words, we are not righteous people, but sinful and dirty. The good news is, just like I was willing to clean the trash can, God is willing to cleanse us.
Why cleanse us if we are just going to sin repeatedly? Trust me, God knows that we are sinful people and we are going to keep on sinning, but He also doesn't want us to be that way. God cleanses us so that we can do what we have been called to do according to His purpose. He doesn't just clean us once; it is a continual process. He wants to sanctify us everyday. He doesn't want to leave us in the sinful state we are in, but He wants to sanctify us everyday to make us more like Him.
This brings up another important question. Why did Jesus die on the cross if we are just going to keep on sinning? Jesus died for us once for all. This means His grace covers all our sin- past, present, and future. All of our sins have been taken by Jesus on the cross, and His righteousness has been given to us. Obviously this cannot mean His righteous character because we continue to sin, similar to how Jesus did not have a sinful nature. Rather, we take the consequences or benefits of Jesus' righteousness, just as Jesus took the consequences for our sins. Jesus died so that we might be considered righteous before God.
Sanctification occurs so that we develop a righteous character. God knows there is no possible way that we can become righteous before Him, which is why He sent Jesus to die for our sins. He sanctifies us to make our character more like Jesus' character. God is not satisfied with our sinful state, and He wants to continually make us more and more like Jesus. The point of sanctification is not to save us, for that is what the cross has done, but to allow us to do good works for God. Let us continually ask God to sanctify us and make us more like Jesus.
-Smart
-1 Thessalonians 5:23
Recently I had the pleasure of cleaning my family's trash can. It was nasty and disgusting, but it had to be cleaned because flies were constantly in it and started laying eggs. I wondered what the point of cleaning it was, since it would just get dirty again. After all, a trash can constantly has trash put in it and is always full of trash. Why bother cleaning it? Even though I knew it would get dirty again, it was so disgusting I couldn't just leave it in that state. I know I will probably have to clean again, but I'm willing to do it because I don't want it to have flies in it and stay dirty.
As I thought about these things, I realized that this is similar to how God "cleans" us. Sad to say, we are like the trash can. We always sin and are full of sin. By nature we are sinful, just like by nature a trash can has trash in it. Despite what most people think, we are not "clean" people. In other words, we are not righteous people, but sinful and dirty. The good news is, just like I was willing to clean the trash can, God is willing to cleanse us.
Why cleanse us if we are just going to sin repeatedly? Trust me, God knows that we are sinful people and we are going to keep on sinning, but He also doesn't want us to be that way. God cleanses us so that we can do what we have been called to do according to His purpose. He doesn't just clean us once; it is a continual process. He wants to sanctify us everyday. He doesn't want to leave us in the sinful state we are in, but He wants to sanctify us everyday to make us more like Him.
This brings up another important question. Why did Jesus die on the cross if we are just going to keep on sinning? Jesus died for us once for all. This means His grace covers all our sin- past, present, and future. All of our sins have been taken by Jesus on the cross, and His righteousness has been given to us. Obviously this cannot mean His righteous character because we continue to sin, similar to how Jesus did not have a sinful nature. Rather, we take the consequences or benefits of Jesus' righteousness, just as Jesus took the consequences for our sins. Jesus died so that we might be considered righteous before God.
Sanctification occurs so that we develop a righteous character. God knows there is no possible way that we can become righteous before Him, which is why He sent Jesus to die for our sins. He sanctifies us to make our character more like Jesus' character. God is not satisfied with our sinful state, and He wants to continually make us more and more like Jesus. The point of sanctification is not to save us, for that is what the cross has done, but to allow us to do good works for God. Let us continually ask God to sanctify us and make us more like Jesus.
-Smart
Mexico Missions- The Cross
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures."
-1 Corinthians 15:3
Throughout the missions trip I read a book (and the bible) named "The Cross of Christ," which I mentioned in a previous post. The book and the bible stress the importance of the cross. As a matter of fact, the cross is central to whatever we do. 1 Corinthians 15:3 says that Christ dying for us is of most importance. Nothing else is as important as the cross. Why is that? The cross is where God really showed His love to us by demonstrating it through His son. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)". During missions we often get caught up in all the different things we are doing, like VBS, praying for healing, distractions, or other things. While not all these things are bad at all, they can take our focus off of what really matters most; the cross. I really like what our leader said to us, that the VBS that matters most is the one about God's love. The cross is where God showed His love for us and therefore should be preached.
As I mentioned in the previous post we encountered many difficulties on the trip. It was easy to doubt God's love for us in that time, but Paul says that "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)". To summarize, nothing is able or will be able to change the love that God has for us. Although many things seemed to be against us, God still loved us. Sometimes it's hard to see the love of God, which is why we have to look at the cross. If God would send His son to die an excruciating death on the cross out of love, what wouldn't He do for us?
A parable I came across in Mexico while reading my bible was the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15). In the story, a father has two sons. One son goes away and spends all of his inheritance, but then realizes he has to go back to his father because he is more secure being in the father's house. The father then has a party for his son out of his love. "But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found (Luke 15:32)". All we have to do to receive God's love is to go back to Him. He wants us to go back to Him. We are more secure being in God's love than anywhere else. While the story may make it seem that the father freely accepts us, that is not the case. A price had to be paid for the us to be accepted. In the parable, the father humiliates himself by running after the son that was returning. In those times, it was a disgrace for a man to run, but the father was willing to run after his son to receive the son. Nothing would stop the father from loving his son, not even humiliation. In the case of God and us, the price was the cross. God was willing to come down as the Son and die for us just to love us.
The last thing I want to talk about is what we are supposed to do with this love. God wants us not only to accept His love but to give it to others. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (1 John 3:16)". We are supposed to show the love of God to other people, by loving them. Love is not only a word, but love should be demonstrated with action. In Mexico, the main way we wanted to show love is by playing with the kids. It may sound simple, but we wanted to do anything that we could do to show our love to the village. We also got them many gifts and donated money to the village. That wasn't it however; the village also showed love to us as well. They gave us a home to live in for the week we were there and welcomed us. At the end of the trip they held a church service for us and gave us hugs to show their appreciation and love. Love can show itself in many forms, so we are to love others in any way that we can.
-Smart
-1 Corinthians 15:3
Throughout the missions trip I read a book (and the bible) named "The Cross of Christ," which I mentioned in a previous post. The book and the bible stress the importance of the cross. As a matter of fact, the cross is central to whatever we do. 1 Corinthians 15:3 says that Christ dying for us is of most importance. Nothing else is as important as the cross. Why is that? The cross is where God really showed His love to us by demonstrating it through His son. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)". During missions we often get caught up in all the different things we are doing, like VBS, praying for healing, distractions, or other things. While not all these things are bad at all, they can take our focus off of what really matters most; the cross. I really like what our leader said to us, that the VBS that matters most is the one about God's love. The cross is where God showed His love for us and therefore should be preached.
As I mentioned in the previous post we encountered many difficulties on the trip. It was easy to doubt God's love for us in that time, but Paul says that "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39)". To summarize, nothing is able or will be able to change the love that God has for us. Although many things seemed to be against us, God still loved us. Sometimes it's hard to see the love of God, which is why we have to look at the cross. If God would send His son to die an excruciating death on the cross out of love, what wouldn't He do for us?
A parable I came across in Mexico while reading my bible was the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15). In the story, a father has two sons. One son goes away and spends all of his inheritance, but then realizes he has to go back to his father because he is more secure being in the father's house. The father then has a party for his son out of his love. "But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found (Luke 15:32)". All we have to do to receive God's love is to go back to Him. He wants us to go back to Him. We are more secure being in God's love than anywhere else. While the story may make it seem that the father freely accepts us, that is not the case. A price had to be paid for the us to be accepted. In the parable, the father humiliates himself by running after the son that was returning. In those times, it was a disgrace for a man to run, but the father was willing to run after his son to receive the son. Nothing would stop the father from loving his son, not even humiliation. In the case of God and us, the price was the cross. God was willing to come down as the Son and die for us just to love us.
The last thing I want to talk about is what we are supposed to do with this love. God wants us not only to accept His love but to give it to others. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (1 John 3:16)". We are supposed to show the love of God to other people, by loving them. Love is not only a word, but love should be demonstrated with action. In Mexico, the main way we wanted to show love is by playing with the kids. It may sound simple, but we wanted to do anything that we could do to show our love to the village. We also got them many gifts and donated money to the village. That wasn't it however; the village also showed love to us as well. They gave us a home to live in for the week we were there and welcomed us. At the end of the trip they held a church service for us and gave us hugs to show their appreciation and love. Love can show itself in many forms, so we are to love others in any way that we can.
-Smart
Mexico Missions- Faith
This year in missions I really learned a lot from the time there. I believe God really showed me a lot of things that I want to remember. Today I want to talk about faith. On the way to Mexico we experienced a lot of difficulties. First of all our flight got delayed which caused our group to arrive in Mexico on three different days. There was even a point when a person said that we might not even be able to go on the trip. I was a little disappointed but I was determined not to let myself feel defeated. Then I remembered my VBS key verse; "Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 45:8)". I was reminded of the theme of my message, God's hope for you. God doesn't have small plans for our lives, He has big plans that He wants us to fulfill. We can't do that on our own so we need faith. The bible says that "and without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6)". God wants us to have faith so that we can carry out the plans He has for us despite the obstacles we face. Joseph had many problems in his life but he never let them stop him from having faith in God and His goodness. In Mexico we also broke some musical equipment that actually caught on fire. We decided to pray that it would still work. That seemed impossible because the thing was smoking and on fire, but "with people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27)". We can have faith in God because He can do all things. We also broke a water heater in Mexico, and some of us were afraid we would have to buy a new one. "But when Jesus heard this, He answered him, 'do not be afraid any longer; only believe...' (Luke 8:50)". We did end up buying them a new one, but I still believe that having faith drives out fear, just as love does. At the end of the missions trip, we got a lot of hugs from the people in the village. I wondered why they would appreciate us so much even though it seemed we only did so little, but I was reminded of a verse given me before the trip. John 6:8-9 says "One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, 'there is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?'" Andrew only brought a little bit to Jesus, but Jesus was able to multiply what he gave. Sometimes it seems we only give a little but God can multiply what we give if we believe He can. Just give to God what you have in faith. Matthew 17:20 reads "For truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." A similar verse says "have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him (Mark 11:22-23)". All we need is a little faith and we can move mountains. After reading these verses I was really encouraged because I know that God is able to remove anything that stands in my way no matter how big it is. I just need to have faith in God and He will move mountains. I believe God is waiting for those people who will have faith. I think God is excited and wants to move mountains. Sometimes it may seem like the mountains are too big. We shouldn't be telling God how big the mountains are, we should be telling the mountains how big God is. All we need is faith in God and amazing things will happen.
-Smart
-Smart
God's Holy Love
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
-John 3:16
This post combines the last three posts together. How? Well, the title is called God's Holy Love, so you might think that it only deals with the post on God's holiness and His love, but consistency plays a role in God's holy love as well. God is a consistent being. He never fails to be who He is and is faithful to Himself. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; He never changes. What does this have to do with His holiness or love? Everything. God is holy; therefore He cannot stand to be in sin; He is sinless. He is consistently holy, so He can never sin or be in the presence of sin or sinners. God cannot ever change His holiness so therefore He can never be in the presence of sin. Next, God is love. He loves us without us doing anything for Him. He loves the people that He created, and pursues after them. His love actively chases us and God wants to be with us. This is the problem- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". We are all sinners, and God is holy. Because of that God cannot be near us, because we are sinful beings. However, God is love also, and He wants to be with us. More specifically, God in His love cannot bear to leave us in the state we are; He cannot bear to be away from us. He has to stay consistent to both His love and holiness. So how can He be with us? The answer lies at the most amazing moment in history- the cross. God sent His son to die for our sins so that He could both love us and remain holy. This is able to happen because Jesus took the sins that we have committed and suffered the punishment that we deserved for it. He has taken our place in God's wrath; we have taken His place in righteousness. God is able to remain holy because He punishes sin, and is able to love us because we are considered righteous. The cross has saved us from our sin and has allowed God to love us and still be a holy God. Now this isn't the only reason that Jesus died on the cross, but I can't get into other reasons right now. How do we receive this love? Believe that Jesus has died for your sins and saved us from death, and the bible promises you will have eternal life.
-Smart
-John 3:16
This post combines the last three posts together. How? Well, the title is called God's Holy Love, so you might think that it only deals with the post on God's holiness and His love, but consistency plays a role in God's holy love as well. God is a consistent being. He never fails to be who He is and is faithful to Himself. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever; He never changes. What does this have to do with His holiness or love? Everything. God is holy; therefore He cannot stand to be in sin; He is sinless. He is consistently holy, so He can never sin or be in the presence of sin or sinners. God cannot ever change His holiness so therefore He can never be in the presence of sin. Next, God is love. He loves us without us doing anything for Him. He loves the people that He created, and pursues after them. His love actively chases us and God wants to be with us. This is the problem- "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". We are all sinners, and God is holy. Because of that God cannot be near us, because we are sinful beings. However, God is love also, and He wants to be with us. More specifically, God in His love cannot bear to leave us in the state we are; He cannot bear to be away from us. He has to stay consistent to both His love and holiness. So how can He be with us? The answer lies at the most amazing moment in history- the cross. God sent His son to die for our sins so that He could both love us and remain holy. This is able to happen because Jesus took the sins that we have committed and suffered the punishment that we deserved for it. He has taken our place in God's wrath; we have taken His place in righteousness. God is able to remain holy because He punishes sin, and is able to love us because we are considered righteous. The cross has saved us from our sin and has allowed God to love us and still be a holy God. Now this isn't the only reason that Jesus died on the cross, but I can't get into other reasons right now. How do we receive this love? Believe that Jesus has died for your sins and saved us from death, and the bible promises you will have eternal life.
-Smart
God's Love
"This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
-1 John 4:10
Sorry this post is overdue but I was on a missions trip to Mexico recently which was a really great experience (recap post coming soon). A couple weeks ago I talked about God's holiness. Today I want to talk about the flip side of that, which is God's love. This is a very difficult topic to talk about because the love of God has so many aspects to it. I can't even begin to cover all of the love of God because it is so vast and deep. God's love is like no other love that exists on this earth. How? God's love is unconditional. What does that mean? This means that there are no requirements to receiving His love. Anyone can receive the love of God, it's given to all. Most love that we experience is conditional, meaning there are things we have to do to get love. For example, when a guy "loves" a girl, he usually has a couple conditions for continuing that love for her. For many guys it is that she is attractive, and if she loses that, the guy will no longer love her. God's love isn't like that. He loves us regardless of our condition. Another aspect of God's love is that it pursues after us. It's not a kind of love that is only received by us, but it is given to us by Him. What I mean is that we don't have to go to Him to receive His love, He goes to us and gives it to us. There are many instances in the Bible where people ran away from God but He chased after them. A great example is Jonah. There was a nation that had fallen in sin so much, but God wanted to redeem those people. God sent Jonah to be the prophet that would go to that nation and preach to them. However, Jonah refused, and ran away from God. Jonah went away from Nineveh to Tarshish. A storm arose on the ship, and Jonah realized that he had to get off the ship because he was the one causing the storm. After he was thrown off, a fish swallowed him up, and spat him up in 3 days. Jonah finally went to Nineveh and spoke the word of God to the people there. What can we learn from this? God showed His love to Jonah. Even when Jonah literally ran away from God, God still saved His life and allowed Jonah a second chance. God's love pursued after Jonah. But that isn't all. God also saved the people of Nineveh who sinned greatly against God. God didn't let Jonah's disobedience stop Him from loving the people of Nineveh or from loving Jonah. God's love is truly unconditional. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
-Smart
-1 John 4:10
Sorry this post is overdue but I was on a missions trip to Mexico recently which was a really great experience (recap post coming soon). A couple weeks ago I talked about God's holiness. Today I want to talk about the flip side of that, which is God's love. This is a very difficult topic to talk about because the love of God has so many aspects to it. I can't even begin to cover all of the love of God because it is so vast and deep. God's love is like no other love that exists on this earth. How? God's love is unconditional. What does that mean? This means that there are no requirements to receiving His love. Anyone can receive the love of God, it's given to all. Most love that we experience is conditional, meaning there are things we have to do to get love. For example, when a guy "loves" a girl, he usually has a couple conditions for continuing that love for her. For many guys it is that she is attractive, and if she loses that, the guy will no longer love her. God's love isn't like that. He loves us regardless of our condition. Another aspect of God's love is that it pursues after us. It's not a kind of love that is only received by us, but it is given to us by Him. What I mean is that we don't have to go to Him to receive His love, He goes to us and gives it to us. There are many instances in the Bible where people ran away from God but He chased after them. A great example is Jonah. There was a nation that had fallen in sin so much, but God wanted to redeem those people. God sent Jonah to be the prophet that would go to that nation and preach to them. However, Jonah refused, and ran away from God. Jonah went away from Nineveh to Tarshish. A storm arose on the ship, and Jonah realized that he had to get off the ship because he was the one causing the storm. After he was thrown off, a fish swallowed him up, and spat him up in 3 days. Jonah finally went to Nineveh and spoke the word of God to the people there. What can we learn from this? God showed His love to Jonah. Even when Jonah literally ran away from God, God still saved His life and allowed Jonah a second chance. God's love pursued after Jonah. But that isn't all. God also saved the people of Nineveh who sinned greatly against God. God didn't let Jonah's disobedience stop Him from loving the people of Nineveh or from loving Jonah. God's love is truly unconditional. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
-Smart
Consistency
I was going to write another post to follow up the last one but I recently went to a retreat and learned something that I feel is important to remember and share. Before I talk about it I want to briefly share why I have this blog. This blog may seem like it is used to share my thoughts and hopefully encourage other people, which it is, but there is another reason I started it as well. I want this blog to be a place where I can write down different things that I learn and can look back on. I want to be able to read this blog down the line and remember important things that I have learned. Anyway, at the retreat I went to, known as the Grace Retreat, I learned a lot of things, but one thing stuck out; consistency. Consistency is being true to principles or ideas that we have. In other words, being true to yourself. People who are consistent usually don't do things that are unexpected, and they are usually reliable and trustworthy people. They are steadfast people; people who are firm in their purpose and unwavering. Being a consistent person is very important because being true to your values is critical. It's also important because a consistent person is able to be trusted by others because they know that when you make a commitment you will deliver. A consistent person doesn't contradict himself/herself, and always adhere to what he/she believes. There are many people in the world who aren't consistent people, because they always change how they act or feel, or even what they believe. One day that person is happy about something, the next day they are sad about it. One day they have a viewpoint, the next day it changes. Consistent people do not change who they are or what they believe very easily. This doesn't mean they won't experience different emotions, because everyone does, it means that consistent people know what they believe and are able to control themselves better. So how do we become more consistent people? First of all, we need to have core values that we really believe in. One core value mentioned at the Grace Retreat was being positive. If you believe that you need to become more positive, really try to live it out. Say one nice thing to somebody everyday. To be consistent we also need to find out who we need to be and become that person. Those core values should help you achieve this. We also need to do things that will help us be consistent. A great example is reading the bible. I personally want to read the bible everyday, so I can learn different things that will help me be a more steadfast and consistent person. There is one person who is a great example of consistency- Jesus Christ. What do I mean? Jesus was the same person everyday, every minute and second. I will talk more about this and connect it to my previous post later.
-Smart
-Smart
God's Holiness
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is filled of His glory"
-Isaiah 6:3
I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really thought of anything to write about. Today I wanted to talk about holiness. What is it? Many people who go to church hear that word a lot, because it is used in the bible many times. What does it mean though? Being holy means being set apart, or being sacred. A holy person might be known for being saintly or godly. I understand the second definition, but what I really like is the first one. Holiness is being set apart. Why do I like this one better? I think it describes who God is in a better way. Yes, God is a sacred being, but that is what makes Him set apart. God has so many qualities that we do not have. He never sins, lies, and He always loves. We cannot even compare to the greatness of God because we always sin, lie, and we don't love like God does. Even the best of us can't compare to God. His character is so much greater than us. We are like a shirt that has permanent stains on it, God is like a shirt that cannot be stained. If you were to see the two together it would emphasize the ugliness of the shirt with the stain. As a matter of fact, you probably shouldn't have to two shirts in the same place because you might ruin the good shirt. This is obviously a flawed example because we really can't ruin God, in fact, He would ruin us. If we were to see God as He is in our natural human state, we would die. This is the reason He is set apart, because He can't be near us, or more realistically we cannot handle His awesomeness. No one in their natural earthly state has seen God, because He is holy. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah sees God sitting on His throne, and seraphs (I guess angel like beings) said "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty." Notice that they say holy three times to stress God's holiness. Even these seraphs had to cover their faces because even they could not handle being in the almighty presence of God. Then Isaiah said to himself "Woe is me! I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." The prophet Isaiah could not bear to be in God's presence because he was a sinful man. As I said before, being near God emphasizes the ugliness of ourselves. So what can we do about this? How can we have a relationship with a holy God who cannot be with us? Well, actually He can, but that will be covered at a later time.
-Smart
-Isaiah 6:3
I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really thought of anything to write about. Today I wanted to talk about holiness. What is it? Many people who go to church hear that word a lot, because it is used in the bible many times. What does it mean though? Being holy means being set apart, or being sacred. A holy person might be known for being saintly or godly. I understand the second definition, but what I really like is the first one. Holiness is being set apart. Why do I like this one better? I think it describes who God is in a better way. Yes, God is a sacred being, but that is what makes Him set apart. God has so many qualities that we do not have. He never sins, lies, and He always loves. We cannot even compare to the greatness of God because we always sin, lie, and we don't love like God does. Even the best of us can't compare to God. His character is so much greater than us. We are like a shirt that has permanent stains on it, God is like a shirt that cannot be stained. If you were to see the two together it would emphasize the ugliness of the shirt with the stain. As a matter of fact, you probably shouldn't have to two shirts in the same place because you might ruin the good shirt. This is obviously a flawed example because we really can't ruin God, in fact, He would ruin us. If we were to see God as He is in our natural human state, we would die. This is the reason He is set apart, because He can't be near us, or more realistically we cannot handle His awesomeness. No one in their natural earthly state has seen God, because He is holy. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah sees God sitting on His throne, and seraphs (I guess angel like beings) said "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty." Notice that they say holy three times to stress God's holiness. Even these seraphs had to cover their faces because even they could not handle being in the almighty presence of God. Then Isaiah said to himself "Woe is me! I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." The prophet Isaiah could not bear to be in God's presence because he was a sinful man. As I said before, being near God emphasizes the ugliness of ourselves. So what can we do about this? How can we have a relationship with a holy God who cannot be with us? Well, actually He can, but that will be covered at a later time.
-Smart
Rising
This is a very weird topic for me to blog about, but with the next movie in my favorite movie series coming out I thought I would talk a bit about it (kinda). The movie I'm referring to (if you haven't guessed) is "The Dark Knight Rises". This movie is getting a whole lot of hype because the previous movie "The Dark Knight" was really good. When I first heard that the title of the new Batman movie was going to be "The Dark Knight Rises", I wondered why the title was so weird. It only added one word to the title of the previous movie, the word "rises". The next question that came up was, why did they choose that title? What does it mean to rise? Obviously this doesn't mean the literal meaning of something that is raised or lifted. It also doesn't mean for someone to get up or anything like that. It means something more than that. However, it does use those definitions for a symbolic meaning. For something to rise, it has to be in a place to rise or have fallen. I think this is significant for the movie because in "The Dark Knight" Batman was chased by the police and admits to killing people even though he didn't. His reputation has fallen and he is now known as a bad person rather than a hero. It is said by multiple people in the movie that Batman is not a hero, but whatever Gotham needs him to be. In this case Batman takes responsibility for Harvey Dent's actions, making him a murderer. He does this to protect the image that people have of Harvey Dent and to give them hope. The point is that at the end of the movie Batman is no longer the hero people knew him as and has fallen. I think the new movie is titled the way it is because Batman has to rise up and become that hero again because Gotham needs him when they are attacked. How does he do that? I don't know because I haven't seen the movie yet. Sometimes in sports when a team is losing, a person on the losing team will rise up and get the team back in the game. How do they do that? They put more focus and energy into what they are doing and they genuinely want to win. If you feel like you've fallen and you want to rise up, or you just want to do better, you have to believe in what you are doing. If you don't believe in yourself and what you are doing, you'll never be able to rise up and accomplish anything. An important step in rising up is to believe in yourself. Another important thing you need is other people to raise you up.You need people to encourage you and keep you going. Encouragement can do a lot for you especially when you feel down on yourself. Don't underestimate other people's ability to raise you up. Sometimes it may feel like people just won't help you or they fail you. Unfortunately, people will do that. I believe that we have an inclination to rely on other people because we know we aren't perfect and we need other people to lift us up. However, we can't rely on other people because they fail just like we do. I believe we need someone that won't fail and will always want to help us rise.
-Smart
-Smart
Seek
"seek and you will find"
-Matthew 7:7b
Today I want to talk a little about seeking. We all know what seek means in its most basic form- to look or search for. To look, search, and seek all mean the same thing, but we use them at different times. We use to look when we lost something and we are looking for it. We use searching as kind of a more extreme version of to look for. Seek is a little different than that definition though. We don't normally say we are seeking something when we lost it. Actually we don't use the word very often at all. Two different times we use the word seek is when we are talking about a non-concrete item (I am seeking the truth) or when we are talking about trying to find a person. So why is this important? When you read Matthew 7:7b (above) you will notice that the Bible uses the word seek. This is significant. Why? Because no one uses the word seek when they are talking about something that is unimportant. Also as I said before, this probably means the verse is referring to finding either something non-concrete or a person. Let's suppose that it is talking about a non-concrete. What is this telling us? If you seek for something like the truth, you will find it. If you seek for something like meaning in life, you will find it. While I can see why people might take this interpretation, but I don't think this is the right one. How can you ever find the truth or the meaning of life or something like that? You can't really. Also, as I said before in my post about truth, when you want to seek truth you have to seek Jesus. In the rest of the verse which I didn't post, it says "knock and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7c)". An abstract idea cannot open doors. That would be ridiculous. So now that we know that we are supposed to be seeking a person, who do we seek? That answer is obvious, and I said it already. We have to seek Jesus. He is the only person or thing that can give us meaning to life and truth, and anything else we are seeking. The more important and difficult question is how do we seek Jesus? There are many things you can do to seek Him. However, I won't point all of them out today, I just want to make one important statement. Jesus is a person. How do you seek a person? You have to put time and effort into looking for them, and you have to have a relationship with them. You might be saying, "wait, that's not what seeking means", but I believe it is a part of it. If you are seeking someone you are probably also seeking a relationship with that person. You can't just find Jesus and be content, you have to keep seeking Him all the time, and learn more about Him. You can't know a person just by finding them once, you have to keep talking to them and spending time with them. It's exactly the same with Jesus.
-Smart
-Matthew 7:7b
Today I want to talk a little about seeking. We all know what seek means in its most basic form- to look or search for. To look, search, and seek all mean the same thing, but we use them at different times. We use to look when we lost something and we are looking for it. We use searching as kind of a more extreme version of to look for. Seek is a little different than that definition though. We don't normally say we are seeking something when we lost it. Actually we don't use the word very often at all. Two different times we use the word seek is when we are talking about a non-concrete item (I am seeking the truth) or when we are talking about trying to find a person. So why is this important? When you read Matthew 7:7b (above) you will notice that the Bible uses the word seek. This is significant. Why? Because no one uses the word seek when they are talking about something that is unimportant. Also as I said before, this probably means the verse is referring to finding either something non-concrete or a person. Let's suppose that it is talking about a non-concrete. What is this telling us? If you seek for something like the truth, you will find it. If you seek for something like meaning in life, you will find it. While I can see why people might take this interpretation, but I don't think this is the right one. How can you ever find the truth or the meaning of life or something like that? You can't really. Also, as I said before in my post about truth, when you want to seek truth you have to seek Jesus. In the rest of the verse which I didn't post, it says "knock and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7c)". An abstract idea cannot open doors. That would be ridiculous. So now that we know that we are supposed to be seeking a person, who do we seek? That answer is obvious, and I said it already. We have to seek Jesus. He is the only person or thing that can give us meaning to life and truth, and anything else we are seeking. The more important and difficult question is how do we seek Jesus? There are many things you can do to seek Him. However, I won't point all of them out today, I just want to make one important statement. Jesus is a person. How do you seek a person? You have to put time and effort into looking for them, and you have to have a relationship with them. You might be saying, "wait, that's not what seeking means", but I believe it is a part of it. If you are seeking someone you are probably also seeking a relationship with that person. You can't just find Jesus and be content, you have to keep seeking Him all the time, and learn more about Him. You can't know a person just by finding them once, you have to keep talking to them and spending time with them. It's exactly the same with Jesus.
-Smart
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)