Saturday, April 24, 2010

Interesting Quote


"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark."


- C.S. Lewis



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Monday, April 19, 2010

Modesty, Where Have You Gone?

Okay, I can't believe it, but I have added a video from American Idol to my blog. It may be time for me to hang it up after all!! Seriously though, click play below and watch this audition for a young man named Kris Allen. He has since gone on to record professionally, and I have no problem with his singing. What caught my attention was the advice that young Mr. Allen receives from the panel of judges. Quite frankly... it's awful. As Christians we know that to follow God is to be humble and open to teaching and reproof. Pride is the anti-God state of being. Listen below to how Simon & company exhort Kris Allen to nurture a state of 'stardom' and get rid of his modesty. Is this what our T.V. generation is learning? Is this what they aspire to? Wow!





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Trust vs. Fear


I recently came across an article from gotquestions.org, an excellent Bible question and answer website. An excerpt follows below, the question addressed was 'Should a Christian declare bankruptcy?':

Biblical Principal #1: We have the responsibility to keep our promises and pay what we owe. Ecc 5:4-5 says, "When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed - better not to vow than to vow and not pay."


Biblical Principal #2: Living on credit and not paying back what we owe is characteristic of the wicked. Psalm 37:21 says, "The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives."

All this talk about righteous and wicked servants reminded me of the 'parable of the talents' that Christ told his disciples in Matt 25:14-30. He told the story of a master giving 1 man five talents, another man two talents, and the last man received one talent. When the master returned, he found that 2 of the 3 servants were faithful and trusted his master's command to invest the money. The last wicked servant was too afraid, so he dug a hole in the ground and buried the 1 talent.

We can apply this parable in terms of literal financial repayment (as mentioned in the first article I quoted above), but I am speaking here of Spiritual Repayment. What causes us to take what Jesus has given us (either money, our individual gifts, anything) and hold onto it like a miser? The answer I think is FEAR. The first 2 servants trusted their master and put the talents to work for them… the last servant was afraid. He could repay his master nothing, other than the same amount that was given. There was no return on any investment.

TRUST causes INCREASE. Fear causes stagnation and death. This is a literal principal, as well as a spiritual one. If you hang on to something for dear life, you will lose it. If you are generous and Trust in God, you will gain what you need, with all the rest rolled in. Notice I didn’t say what you want, rather what you need!

So then, in whom are we trusting?


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Can We Survive Atheism?

I have included a video below of up and coming Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll talking about Atheism. It isn’t that he presents the information in a new light, so much as he seems to hit the mark regarding the logical end of this belief system. There is a lot of energy spent on debating whether or not God exists, but not as much energy spent on the psychological effects of believing that there is no one out there that truly cares about you. The symptoms are similar between people who have once had faith and for some reason lost it, as well as with people who have come to atheism from the beginning. Why does America have so much depression and anxiety? In our race to become so intellectually advanced that we don’t need God anymore, we have exchanged Him for a little pill, or a self-help positivity book, or whatever.

Driscoll discusses the truth that if atheism is followed to its philosophical conclusion, then the items below must be true:

* we are ultimately alone
* our existence came from nothing (we are happy accidents)
* we have no real purpose
* this life is all there is
* everyone we know will eventually be forgotten
* we are a temporary blip on the radar screen of the cosmos, nothing more

I’ve said this before, but if this seems a little too depressing and ugly – it’s because it IS! Human beings were not designed to exist as independent and detached entities. Plugging into anything other than God is only a temporary high. Money, success, hobbies, work… you name it; the rush only lasts so long. Even human romance is fleeting. But when we are plugged into God we find a force to sustain us in a different way. Never boring (remember I’m talking about the living God – NOT religion), always faithful. This may sound like more heart-tugging and less like science & logic, but it is more than that. Check out the evidence in favor of God, look around at the other posts on this website even. There is reason to believe that there is something in which we can put our trust and faith, and that it won’t let us down the same way everything else can. It’s amazing what happens when we realize that our existence actually matters.






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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

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Resurrection Sunday Still Matters

The literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of the Christian faith.  It doesn't matter which denomination or slant ...