Death

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

-1 Corinthians 15:55

      Today is Easter, so I thought I would write about it. Similarly to Christmas, many people celebrate Easter because it's just another holiday or tradition. However, the story behind why we celebrate Easter is truly amazing and great. Easter isn't about a bunny, it's about the lamb of God. Easter is supposed to be a celebration of the resurrection of our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ.

      The resurrection of Christ is an extremely important event. Christians believe that Christ died for our sins, and was raised on the third day. Many people remember the significance of the cross but forget the power of the resurrection. The cross is where Jesus took our sin, our shame, our guilt, our weakness, and our defeat. His death on the cross is why we no longer are under our sin. His death is what freed us from the power of sin.

      The cross of Christ is the most important event ever, but it's not only because of Jesus' death. His resurrection is just as important as His death. What if Christ was not raised after His death? If Christ was not raised, Paul said that "we are of all men most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:19)". Why? If Christ was not raised, death has won. Death defeated our Savior, so death then has more power than Jesus. Why would I want to follow a Savior that is dead? What hope do I have for myself after death if not even Christ defeated death?

      But because of the resurrection we can have hope. When people think of death, they usually are fearful of it. No one really knows what comes after death. People who have no hope think that after death absolutely nothing happens, which I think is extremely sad. If there is nothing after death, what is the point of living this life? Even if you live life doing whatever you want, in the end there's no reason to. Christ's resurrection gives us hope for our own resurrection.

      The Bible says that we too will be resurrected, and that we will be like Christ. However, not everyone can attain to this resurrection. John 3:16 says that "whoever believes in (Christ) will not perish but have eternal life." Only those who believe in Christ and the power of His resurrection will be resurrected with Christ. There's more than that though. Not only will we be resurrected, but we will also be changed. We won't be resurrected in this weak, physical body; we will be resurrected in a completely new and glorious body that reflects the glory of Christ Himself.  

      Therefore we should have hope for this resurrection we will have. However, Easter is a time to remember why we can have this hope for our future resurrection- Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our shame, dishonor and weakness. He rose again in glory, honor and in power. Sin or death could not defeat Him, and if we believe in Him we too can someday share in His victory. We shouldn't fear death because Christ has already defeated it. "Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:49).

-Smart

        

11 Random Facts

      So recently a lot of people whose blogs I follow have been doing this thing called a Liebster. What is a Liebster? It's some award where a blogger writes eleven facts about themselves, then answers eleven questions someone poses to them. I was considering not doing it, but I decided since most of my posts are not really about me too much, this would be a good way to share more about me. Here are my 11 facts:

1. Batman is my favorite superhero, but he wasn't always my favorite. Before I didn't really have a favorite superhero, but after seeing "The Dark Knight" a second time and playing the video game "Arkham Asylum" I decided Batman was definitely the best superhero.
2. I get obsessed with things for a while, then I eventually stop caring about it. For example, I used to skateboard a lot, but now I hardly ever skate. Right now I would say I'm obsessed with basketball.
3. I started this blog near the beginning of my senior year of high school when I had a lot of questions about my life, but then I realized I could use it to fulfill an English project I got, so I decided to keep it going. I keep blogging now because I enjoy reading what others have to say and I hope to encourage people (and hopefully myself in the future).
4. I am very different when I play sports with people I know and with people I don't know. When I play with people I don't know, I almost never talk and I play really hard. When I play with people I do know, I talk a lot and I don't play as hard.
5. I try my best to always wear a watch because I get really bothered when I don't know what time it is. I also don't like having to check my phone to see what time it is.
6. While I am a pretty disorganized person, I still try to know where everything is. I try to keep my room clean enough so I can still find things and it is livable. Also, when I have to give a speech or lead a discussion, no matter how informal, I always over-prepare for it because I have to have things organized.
7. I really like to follow routines and patterns, which is why most of my blog posts follow the same format. They usually start with a verse, then end with "-smart"
8. Speaking of which, saying "smart" was a joke that I stole from a Youtube channel called EpicMealTime. Whenever they would make something really stupid, they would call it smart. Now I just write to keep my pattern. Also, in my senior year book I wrote "smart" as my "where do you see yourself in ten years" and my nickname.
9. I don't like pets because they usually stink and you have to take care of them. I'm sure my parents feel the same way because we never had any large pets (like a cat or dog), and they already have to take care of me and my brothers. We haven't had any pets in a long time.
10. When I was younger I used to imagine what it would be like to have superpowers. As I got older, I imagined (and sometimes still imagine) what it would take to be a superhero in the real world without superpowers. This is probably a result of Batman being my favorite superhero. I guess getting older took away some of the imagination I had.
11. I can be a very sarcastic and sometimes mean person, but I never want to hurt other people's feelings. I just try to think a little differently than most people do, and maybe even open their eyes to something they haven't realized before. For example, whenever I see people crowding around babies, I sometimes joke that I dislike babies. I don't really hate babies, but I recognize that babies can be very annoying and messy, and I wonder if other people notice or care about that. I know the parents do.

      So there are 11 random facts you may not have known about me. I will probably get around to answering the 11 questions posed by Grace sometime next week. Hopefully this shows you a little more about who I am and is a good break from all my other posts.
-Smart

The Little Things

      I've been playing more and more sports recently thanks to the weather getting better. The weather is still too cold for spring I think, but people from my church still play soccer on Sundays so I often join them. I also continue to play a lot of basketball, especially since I can use the gym at my school for free. I really enjoy both playing and watching sports, and I hope I can keep playing for a long time.
      The more I play basketball, the more I realize what makes a good player and a good team. When I play at the recreation center at my school, I see people ranging from very good to very bad. Also, I see a big difference when I play with people at the gym and people at my church. I've been watching a channel on Youtube called "Bballbreakdown" where a high school coach will look at footage from NBA basketball games and breakdown the different parts of the game. This really helped me learn and understand more about how to play good basketball.
      Why am I talking about this? The reason is because I noticed something very important; the best teams are the ones that have players that do the little things. In basketball for example, the team that usually wins is the one that plays good positional defense, takes good shots, and gets rebounds. Rebounds are a great way to judge if a person is putting effort into the game. While getting rebounds is tedious and unexciting, without rebounds a team will never win games. It's a small thing, but you have to do it to win games.
      People often judge players by how athletic or skilled they are. However, I don't believe physical ability is the only thing that is necessary to become a great player. I came up with a rule for sports; the 60-30-10 rule. It pretty much says that (most) sports are 60% mental, 30% effort, and 10% physical. A person can have the greatest athleticism ever, but if he doesn't know what he is doing and doesn't put effort into the game, they will be very bad. In order to become great one has to learn how to do the little things.
      This goes beyond just sports though. If you want to do well in life, you have to do the little things. No one enjoys studying, eating well, going to work on time, exercising or the like, but these things are necessary to becoming a better person. Jesus commanded us to love one another, and a great way to show our love is through small things. For example, you could hold a door for someone, smile at someone, let someone in front of you, and the list goes on. All it takes is a little effort, but it's a great way to show people you love them.
-Smart

Pain

"Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, and said, 'Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?'"
-Matthew 26:67-68
      Sometimes I am really distressed when I hear people questioning if a god actually exists. Specifically, people will question how the world can be such a bad place if a good god does exist and rule over it. Wouldn't a good god never allow pain and suffering to happen in this world? Why would he allow it? I don't have a straight answer to that question, but I do have two things that we should think about when we or others ask this question. The first thing to think about is where our standard of what is wrong and what is right come from. I already wrote about this before (http://aforbes.blogspot.com/2012/04/morals.html), so today I will talk about the second.
      The second thing we should remember when thinking about pain, suffering, wrongdoing, injustice and evil in the world is that we (Christians) believe in a Savior who endured all of these things to the full. I'm fairly certain that no other god that people believe has ever experienced all these things like our God has. Many other gods are portrayed as being far off, judging, expected us to do something good in this world. That's not even a fair thing to expect us to do, because people are naturally evil.
      I'm not an expert in other religions, so if I am wrong on what I may say I apologize, but I'm speaking from my experience and what I hear about other religions. I have a question; do other gods even want us to be saved? Do they want us to go to "heaven?" I know in some religions they believe that in order to get into "heaven" you have to do a lot of good deeds and rituals. Do those gods want us to get into heaven? Do those gods even love us? Do they truly care about us?
      I think the misconception a lot of people who ask the question I proposed at the beginning of this post is that our God is also like that. They believe that if God exist He just sits in heaven and watches as people suffer, and does nothing about it. It seems like God isn't even there, that He doesn't even care about people who are in pain and suffer greatly. What people need to understand is that God isn't like that. God does see the pain in this world, and even more so, He understands it.
      People who believe God just sits in heaven or wherever and watches people suffer don't understand the cross. God sent Jesus to Earth, who was Himself in human form, to suffer and die for us. He didn't avoid pain; He embraced it and endured it. He was the only innocent man to ever walk the Earth, yet people mocked Him, beat Him, cursed Him, mistreated Him, and eventually crucified Him. He helped people by healing them, yet people beat him and crushed Him. He preached good news to people, but they mocked Him. He forgave sinners, but they crucified the innocent.
      Jesus endured suffering and pain that we could never understand. Suppose a man breaks his finger, and always complains that no one cares about him and no one understands him. Then suppose his friend broke his whole arm. Surely the man's friend understands what it feels like to suffer from a broken bone. That friend is Jesus. Jesus suffered more than just physical pain, but emotional and spiritual pain as well. Jesus understands our suffering because He endured more suffering than we ever could. "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed (Isaiah 53:5)." 
-Smart

Fishing

"And He said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men."
-Matthew 4:19
      Last Saturday my church's college group decided to go "fishing" at my college. If you have gone to church for a long time, you probably know that I am not referring to the actual act of going fishing. "Fishing" is when a person goes out and shares the gospel with others. In the Bible when Jesus is calling His disciples, He says will make them fishers of men. The disciples were actual fishermen, and probably lived comfortable lives. The disciples saw Jesus approach them, and when He asked them to follow Him, they obeyed. The disciples probably had no idea what Jesus meant when He said they would be fishers of men, but they followed anyway. Why?
      Before I answer that question, I want to recount my experience going fishing. My church group decided to "fish" by handing out flyers that had a brief summary of our church and our contact information. This sounded like a very simple thing to do, but it turned out not to be. As we were driving the short drive to campus, I started to realize what we were really about to do. We were about to ask random people if they wanted to study the Bible in our church. You can't hand out flyers without explaining what is on it after all.
      A couple of my friends and I were approaching a couple of people, and it did not go well. Let's suffice to say that I really screwed it up and made it really awkward. After that, I managed to hand out one flyer by using a very simple and direct tactic. I would go up and simply ask the person if they wanted to study the Bible. This sounds extremely easy, but when I went out and actually had to do it, I started to have doubts. What if people reject me? Even worse, what if they remember me? It wasn't only me; I could see my friends also starting to realize how weird this could be.
      I did manage to hand out all my fliers (there were only 5) with the help of my friends. I wish I had more confidence, but now I know that fishing is easier said than done. Why is fishing so hard? I think that as you go out to "fish" and ask people if they are willing to study the Bible, you begin to have doubts. You start to think about what you are doing, and you become nervous and afraid. I wasn't necessarily ashamed of what I was doing, but I thought about how awkward fishing is. Fishing takes courage and complete faith in what you are doing.
      Furthermore, I believe fishing is hard because it is a spiritual battle. Think about it; Satan doesn't want others to know about Christ or to have an opportunity to study the Bible. He plants doubts and lies in your head to make you uneasy when you are fishing. Satan doesn't outright attack you, but he tries to make you stop spreading Christ with doubt and fear. How do we fight the battle? We have to do what the disciples did; follow Christ and trust Him. I believe a reason the disciples followed Jesus because they realized He was something different, a man with power. We too must follow Jesus and He will teach us to become "fishers of men".
-Smart  

A New Command

"A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
-John 13:34
      If you've been following this blog recently, you probably noticed that most of my posts are ending with me talking about God's love. This wasn't really supposed to happen, but as I write these posts they always seem to point back to God and His love. I believe that there is a reason for this, and I want to talk about that a bit today.
      In Matthew 22:36-40, an expert in the law asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is. To this Jesus replies "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'". He then says "the second is like it: 'love your neighbor as yourself'". While these commands are quite straightforward and self-explanatory, what Jesus says next really got my attention: "All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments."
      What Jesus is saying here is that every command, and there were many of them, are all based on love. In other words, the easiest way to follow all the commandments is to simply love God and love others. It is impossible to follow the commandments if you do not love. I believe this is why it seems like all my posts come back to love; love should be the motivator for everything. There is no one who shows love more than God. "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
      Throughout His entire life, Christ always loved other people, no matter who they were. He healed the sick, drove out demons, and forgave sinners. He did these things because of His love, but also to set an example for us. In John 13:15 Jesus says "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you". Before He said this, He gave the disciples are very simple example of how to love others; serve them. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and He then told them to follow His example. A very practical way to love others is to be humble and serve them.
      Why should we love other people? There are many reasons for us to love others, but I will give two today. The first and most important is because Christ first loved us. If we don't understand God's love for us, it will be nearly impossible for us to love others. God's love should be our motivator for loving other people. Whenever it seems tough to love other people, just think about the love of Christ. A way to measure love is to see how much a person sacrifices and how much the recipient deserves it. Christ sacrificed everything for people that deserved nothing from Him.
      The second reason we should love others is because that is how people will know about God. The verse directly after the verse at the beginning of this posts says "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." In my post "Where is God?" I talked about how people often question because because they don't see any evidence that He exists. The evidence is not supposed to be miracles, wonders, or a great sign, but that His disciples love each other. The proof of God is supposed to be how we live our lives. People cannot see God, but they can see how we, His disciples, live our lives. If we choose to be passive and not love, people will see no reason to follow God. If we live a life of love, only then will people realize that God might be worth following. I hope that we can all learn to be the proof of His love.
-Smart