Today’s Blog: Gaining the world. In an earlier post, I likened the accessories in life to Internet Browsers. I feel compelled to comment further on this. It is a given that wanting the newest item distracts us. But it does so much more. It goes deeper to the point where it actually robs us of love. We put our love in these things and it takes away from our love from God. There is a saying that says kids spell love T-I-M-E. I believe God spells love the same way. After all, how can you love something or someone if you don’t spend time with it/them? So, when we over accessorize, they rob us of our time which essential robs us of our love for God. This amateur music video is an honest attempt to show this with the help of Toby Mac’s song “Lose Your Soul”. It comes complete with the verses I feel I wanted to share. Enjoy!
The song mentioned something that kind of stood out. It said “Forgive us because of the things that compete for our love and PASSION.” (Yes, I know, I paraphrased). It was the word PASSION that stood out to me. Why have we let things become our passion? I could blame it all on T.V. but even sitting here typing this, I am hit with an ad or two for something. Then we see ads on the freeway and ads in the newspapers. Now, even our rides at amusement parks have sponsors.
It’s clear that Satan has done an excellent job at diverting our attention from important things. Satan knows that he can’t separate us from God’s love. But, he can interfere with our time for God. He can distract us with little things that aren’t evil or bad but do just enough to divert our time away from things that we should focus on. Remember Matthew 5? We should hunger and thirst for righteousness. We should seek God. He should be our passion.
Christ is knocking. Have you let Him? Or worst yet, have distractions taken you somewhere that you aren’t even home to answer the door and something else has taken up residence?
Tonight, I leave you with this passage that I believe sums up the song:
“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:34-39 (ESV, Emphasis Mine)
An ongoing discussion I’ve been having with a Christian gone Atheists has proposed that Science proves there is no God and that there is no room for a God in Science. Obviously, I disagree as there are a few laws of science that can allow for God. Granted, it may not necessarily prove just the existence of the Christian God, but it does give a scientific argument for Creationists that secularists can’t argue with. View the following video and then read my continuing thoughts.
We know that the statement “Nothing creates Nothing” is true by looking at science. Have you ever seen a tree appear out of thin air? Do adult humans just suddenly appear or are we born first? We came from somewhere. So if nothing can create nothing, where does “something” come from? Since science confirms that the first law of Thermodynamics is true and can be tested, we are FORCED to believe that “Energy can not be created or destroyed.” So, it MUST have always existed. As the video suggests, it’s either some dumb, unthinking entity or an intelligent Creator that designed the universe the way it is.
One could argue (an Atheists generally do) that more than one energy source is responsible for the matter we have in our universe. This poses a problem. Do all of these intelligent energy sources have the same idea in mind about what to create and how it should work? And, if they are multiple unintelligent sources, how did all this come about without causing utter chaos?
If Science holds true to their own theories and laws, then there are a lot of questions it has to answer for. This means things like miracles would not be impossible even if they fall outside the laws of nature. Wouldn’t the originating energy source be more powerful than the laws of science it created? So, science would by default have to acknowledge either “God” or a powerful Entity outside of our realm of thinking and testable sciences.
This of course would not force an individual to run and seek God and love and worship Him which He desires. It does make it harder to deny His presence and hand in the universe. It just appears to me that Science has stumbled across proof that God exists but our own stubborness as imperfect humans causes us to be blind to the truth–even if we created our own truth that proved the real truth, we still refuse to believe it.
Psalm 14:1 says: “The fool [a] says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.” (NIV, Copied from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2014:1;&version=31;)
Sometimes knowledge gets in the way of truly worshipping God. We are so obssessed with knowing all we can that we sometimes learn to much. That was the whole idea behind the tree in the garden. God knew that by eating the fruit, we would gain more knowledge than we know what to do with. Look around. How many useless gizmos and gadgets do we have? How many do YOU have? This is all based on our pursuit of knowledge.
I think the beauty of God is that He doesn’t require you to know everything about Him. He only desires that your heart is to seek Him. By staying close to Him and reading His words, He will fill us with knowledge as we show a hungry heart. After all, we were told by Christ that “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NIV) We don’t have to have all the answers, we just have to be willing to allow God to reveal His truths to us. Where do you find your knowledge?
I leave you with these words from “The Message”:
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!
Your body will glow with health,
your very bones will vibrate with life!
Honor God with everything you own;
give him the first and the best.
Your barns will burst,
your wine vats will brim over.
But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
a father’s delight is behind all this.
I read a blog by someone who said: “I have to blog to keep my sanity. Everyone needs a voice and this is my sounding board to sound off to. It’s like the saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ only in my case, you could replace the world ‘apple’ by saying ‘a blog a day keeps the doctor away’–the asylum doctor.” I would have to agree. While I obviously don’t maintain the “blog a day” rule, it is a rather nice sounding board. Though at times, it can get people into trouble. A lot of us lately however use it to give our perspective on things in the world. Today’s nuisance: Halloween Cards.
Why do I call this a nuisance? I probably wouldn’t have noticed them except for the fact that I like to browse the card section sometimes while waiting for others to shop. This trip to the store was no exception. It’s fun to read those witty cards that have some kind of laugh out loud phrase that you just can’t wait to show someone else. But while browsing, I came across the Halloween section. I don’t know if this is some new thing or if I have been in denial in previous years, but this year they caught my eye (as anything would having bright orange contrasting with a dark black background).
After reading a few, I really had to chuckle. Not because of the content, but because of the absurdity. What card companies will do to make a few bucks never ceases to amaze me. Now we have “holiday” cards for a day that’s not really a holiday. Just a day for Candy Companies to trick those who don’t celebrate Easter and Christmas to buy an unsual high volume of candy. Albeit, there is some tradition to this morbid dark holiday. “All Hallow’s Eve” is supposedly the one day where the dead can return to walk the earth. This brings me back to the absurdity of a card for this day. Who wants a card to remind them of that kind of a day?
If I were to play devil’s advocate and suggest that this truly was a day the dead returned, I certainly wouldn’t want some card about it. One actually said: “You are the greatest Grandson, have a spooky, scary day.” Wow, there is a card that is sure to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. There were the few that offered the typical money slot found in many birthday and Christmas cards. This made me arrive at another startling possibility: Are people exchanging gifts now on Halloween? Have we really become that consumer driven that we can’t wait till Christmas? Does anyone else see what I see? It appears to me that our world will do anything to belittle Christmas, Easter and it’s meaning. By exchanging gifts and making Halloween look like Christmas, the message behind Christmas becomes muddled (many shops are sellin Halloween lights). What’s next, Halloween dead trees that you decorate with skulls? Actually, I heard that there are some people who do this.
I’m really hoping that the current economical state of our country is what is driving this. I can maybe understand companies trying to make a few extra bucks. But please, if any of you are thinking of sending me a card, don’t make it a Halloween card. It just doesn’t make sense. It won’t make me smile. It will only make me hang my head to realize that we have really sunk that low–that even Halloween deserves to be on the same level as Christmas where it has a whole card section devoted to it.
I had an Athiest tell me that I’m being to religious about things. Many of you know how I feel about being “religious” but he went further as to say that a world without God will be utopian. I don’t have the energy tonight to go into detail about how his thinking was flawed, but I wonder whose moral code the world would then live by. The same people perhaps that decided Halloween was worthy of it’s own set of cards? That’s a disturbing thought and sure to give me nightmares far past Halloween.
And finally, I was at Barnes and Noble today and realized that it’s much more like a library than anything else–except you can’t just check a book out. But this place doesn’t stop you from reading either. So, how does such a place make money? I once saw a guy at a B&N that read a whole book without ever buying it. He would just come in each day and pick up where he left off. Nobody ever tells you to hurry up and decide. They never tell you to put the book back or buy it. They just let you read. Either really stupid, or genius! I’m going to go with genius, since I very rarely hear of a B&N having to close over lack of sales.
My Atheist friend told me to think in practical terms. Well, what is else is coming up in our world of practical absurdity? Columbus Day Trees? Arbor Day Eggs? Flag Day Stockings? I’m sure next we’ll be expecting Abraham Lincoln to come down our chimney’s on President’s Day. Unrealistic? Nothing is impossible with our society anymore. I’m sure there is someone already jumping up and down screaming: “That a good idea! Arbor Day eggs! What a concept!”
Just to make it clear, I received and email asking what my political affiliation was. I don’t make a public claim to where my affiliations lie mostly for the reason that I am a voter that votes with my mind not with the propaganda spewed out by Republican or Democrat. Obama’s idea about how we shouldn’t give weapons to Pakistan makes sense (duh) but McCain is right that we need to be tough on what is going on in Russia. However, McCain is pro-choice and so is Obama. Can I vote for either one of these because of that? I don’t know. We’ll have to see. McCain makes up for it by having Palin as his running mate. But who knows.
Sadly, there are so many other political parties out there and some really great people running. Why is it that only two parties control the government? That seems bias to me.
So anyway, to answer the email, I am not claiming a political affiliation because 1. it would assume that my views are bias and 2. I don’t agree with everything on either side yet neither do I disagree with everything on either side.
I still encourage everyone to vote. We are blessed to be in this country and I am proud to be here.
Alright folks, it’s time I made a few comments about some observations I have made over the past 2 weeks with the 2 conventions. I must say, both sides are really good at using pretty words. I think a lot of it is fluffed up (from both sides of the issue) and I wonder if both campaigns are turning in to nothing more of a spectacle. Besides that both sides lash out at eachother, the media its self is working double time to try and destroy and change what they call “the Bush Regime” (MSNBC).
They are trying so hard too! I read an article by a woman who was accusing McCain of teaching her child about premarital sex because of the announcement that Palin’s daughter is pregnant (you can read the article at http://www.alternet.org/sex/97320/how_my_7-year-old_learned_about_pre-marital_sex_from_john_mccain/). In the article she states: “Seeing this “Breaking News” on TV when trying to catch news of Gustav and the Republican Convention, my son immediately asks me “But how can she be pregnant if she isn’t married?” and “Does a girl get pregnant every time she has sex with a boy?” Thus ensues the revelation that sex is possible before marriage, and how condoms and birth control pills can prevent pregnancy and HIV.” Are you kidding me? If I remember correctly, not to long ago, every cable news channel was reporting on the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Speers. As a matter of fact, I watched the report on ABC 7 Los Angeles and later on the Fox 11 News at 10 the day the story broke. It was all over the place! Furthermore, it was all over the radio. But, it’s all McCain and Palin’s fault that her 7 year-old learned about sex? I think we have worse things to worry about that a teenager that got herself pregnant and decided to take responsibility for it. That to me is the rare thing–that her and her “man” are willing to accept the responsibility it will put on them.
I think McCain is really a good guy, but I sometimes wonder if his campaign is working to hard promoting his war hero status and his Vietnam Prisoner of War history. It’s almost like they want America to pity him so they will vote for him. Now don’t get me wrong, I think he has done great things–and will do great things as a president, but I think the fact that American people have at tend to act on emotions doesn’t give a political party the right to exploit that.
At least with John McCain; whether you are for the war or not; has told us where he stands. Obama has called for the troops to come back from Iraq. Yet last night on Fox News told O’Reilly that he thinks it worked and is working. Hmmm, not sure if I can trust him. I have other reasons as well. Check out this YouTube video produced by the National Campaign Fund.
I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. I am not going to tell you who I am going to vote for. I just had to comment about the state of things. I loved Palin’s comment to the media about how she doesn’t work to please them. Now, the media is trying to say that she is anti-free speech. My, how they take things out of context.
Pray fervently before you vote. Let God lead you in the right decision. The media claims there is a lot at stake in this election (MSNBC, FOX, CNN, ABC 7). There very well maybe. Please don’t stay silent. If you are not yet registered, go do it and voice your opinion. That’s what makes this country great!
I was up at Hamilton High school this afternoon with the drama club. I had to give a quick lesson in how the lighting setup worked for their stage. Since I am moving, I am not going to be available for the shows they are planning on doing. Since I have been the lighting person since the current campus opened, I had to pass on the baton by showing the simple steps to lighting.
While waiting for them to be ready to learn lighting, I was granted the opportunity to watch their drama warm-ups. It was intriguing to watch the drama coach encourage the students to step outside their comfort zones and really give it there all. While there were a couple who jumped right into the game called “Sound Ball”, some nervously participated without so much enthusiasm. After some time though, all had warmed up to the fun and all were willin to act silly.
It’s funny to me how quiet and closed up Christians can be. Sometimes we are afraid to get out and show our true colors because we are afraid that someone will laugh at us. This high school drama club had kids like that. They were so worried about what their peers would think that they didn’t want to show what they could do. Christians have the same fear. Why do we have that fear? We have God on our side.
Jesus talked about us being the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13 says: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?”(NASB) If we are afraid that our peers are going to give us a hard time, how can we “flavor” the world with Christ’s love? I think many Christians even have a worse problem. They don’t need to worry about losing their saltiness because they have never left the shelf. We have a container of sea salt in our pantry. But, it does no good if it just sits in the pantry.
I find it interesting that so many Christians just sit in the pantry under the guise of the Christian Sub-culture. Why do we have a sub culture? Are we trying to ignore God’s command? Matthew 28:19 is that famous verse which says (NASB): “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” So why then are we sitting on the shelf?
Those members of the drama club encouraged each other to get out there and join them. In contrast, many Christians continue in their “holy huddles” and do not encourage the world to join in. They’d rather disenfranchise the world than reach the world. Jesus message was so much different. It is true we are not to conform to this world (Romans 12:2) but we are to embrace the world and look at it as God did. After all, He sent Jesus to die for everyone; even those that do not yet know Him.
I think it’s so beautiful how much God loved us. Can you love someone that hates you? Look at how His creation has turned against Him? God could have given up on all of us but instead loved us so much, that He died for our sins even though we don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve His love anymore than the people who are still lost. Thus, it’s up to me to step outside the Holy Huddles of the Christian Subculture and invite the world “for dinner” as Jesus did many times. He ate with Matthew (Matthew 9:9-13) and sinners. Matthew was hated by the the Gentiles because he was a Jew and was hated by the Jews because he was a tax collector for the Gentiles. But Jesus ate with them anyway.
I challenge you to look at your own life. Are you so consumed with the Christian Sub-culture that the world doesn’t matter to you? Or, are you looking for ways to embrace the world and show them Christ’s love in a way that doesn’t compromise your beliefs and convictions? We can reach the world on their level without violating our Christian nature. I believe we are just too busy trying to build a “box” to keep the world out. Step outside the box, get off the shelf, and “flavor” the world with God’s love.
Greetings to all of you my faithful readers. I would like to welcome the new readers from Temple and Killeen Texas (yes, they have already been made aware of this blog). As a result of my move to Texas, I will be rebranding the Anzanite. I am scheduled to depart for Texas on Monday. Over the next few weeks, some things will be change. The first difference will be my email address. Those of you who email me or receive emails from me will start to gradually notice the change. I will be sending emails at random from the new address. Eventually, all emails will come from the new address. If you have my email address, please email me to get the new address (I will not post it here on this site).
So what is this new branding? I guess you’ll have to wait and see. Sorry, but the suspense will keep you coming back wondering what the new name–err–brand will be. Just so you know, it’s coming soon as I have already filed for a trademark on the new name and will become my new online identity.
Also–I will be journaling my travels from here to Texas. They will be posted in their entirety listed hour by hour after I arrive in my new location.
I pray that you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!
