God

Can’t-trianity or Freedom?

March 31, 2015 0Comment

I can remember growing up in Eastern Kentucky very vividly. I can remember my parents talking about so-and-so getting “saved”. At that time, I didn’t even know what getting “saved” meant. I’d hear my parents say that so-and-so got saved. Then so-and-so also stopped smoking, stopped drinking, stopped going to bars, and stopped “running around” with members of the opposite sex. In my juvenile brain, it sounded like so-and-so just became very uncool.

So, my idea of Christianity became “Can’t-trianity”. You can’t smoke, you can’t drink, you can’t listen to rock-n-roll music, you can’t go to a bar, and you can’t have sex. I wanted no part of “Can’t-trianity”. I realized much later in life that there’s much more freedom in Christianity than there is “can’t”. Some of my misinformation was simply ignorance on my part. I hadn’t read the Bible; so how was I to know what you can and can’t do? The rest of my misinformation came from Christians. And like I’ve said in other blog posts, often Christians aren’t the best examples of Christ.

I believe that many people today feel the way that I once felt about Christianity. They feel it’s just a bunch of “can’ts” that suck the fun out of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would like to discuss some of the “can’ts” and some of the freedoms.

1) You can’t smoke if you’re a Christian- I can find nowhere in the Bible where it addresses smoking. People shouldn’t smoke because it causes cancer. Case closed.

2) You can’t drink if you’re a Christian- Jesus drank wine. Communion often uses wine. Paul said to stop drinking, since it leads to wild living. So, if drinking causes you to sin, stop drinking. In other words, if drinking causes you to become disrespectful, neglectful, abusive, or any other unsavory adjectives, you shouldn’t drink. Otherwise, a grown adult, drinking in moderation should be okay. To me, drinking is kind of like French fries and Coke. Occasionally for dinner, I can eat French fries and wash them down with Coke. However, I wouldn’t want to do that every day.

3) You can’t have sex if you’re a Christian- God gave us sex. Shocker, huh? Therefore, he is A-okay with us having sex. He did give us some guidelines for our own good. Break open a bible, if you don’t believe me. Explore the guidelines for yourself.

Now, I completely concede that God gave us some laws. In fact, 7 of the 10 commandments deal with stuff we “can’t” do. However, how many laws does our government give us? Well, google couldn’t answer the question. There are an estimated 3,000 federal criminal laws. That number doesn’t take into account any other types of laws, such as civil laws. That also doesn’t take into account state and local laws. And we complain because God gave us only a few laws. If God only gave us a few laws and the government gives us exponentially more laws, then God obviously cares more about our freedom.

But God didn’t stop there. He knew that we couldn’t follow the few laws that He gave us. Instead of punishing us for breaking the laws, He sent His son to take the punishment for us. So, not only did He give us only a few laws to follow, He then gave us a pardon on the punishment. Does that sound like someone who is more concerned with laws, rules, and “can’t” OR does it sound like someone more concerned with our freedom?

I’m ending all my posts with an invitation to accept Jesus. If you would like at accept Jesus simply pray the following prayer or one like it: “Dear Lord, I’m a sinner. I acknowledge that You sent Your son, Jesus, to die for my sins. I humbly accept Your son, Jesus, and I now further acknowledge that I am forgiven of my past sins, my present sins, and my future sins.” If you prayed that simple prayer, you are saved. Now, you need to follow Jesus. Start reading your Bible. I would suggest starting with Matthew, reading all of the New Testament, then reading the Old Testament. Also, find a good church. Christianity was never meant to be done alone. You need to be in community with other believers.

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My Friend Shawn

January 25, 2015 2Comments

I belong to a men’s group at my local church. There’s about 10 of us who meet at 0630 on Thursday mornings. As one would expect, we’ve grown very close to each other. We share our successes and our struggles. A few months ago, I gave my testimony during a morning meeting of my men’s group. Also, during that particular meeting, a new guy named Shawn Parker was present. After I gave my testimony, Shawn nearly broke down. He said that he had the same issues with anxiety that I once had. He also said that he absolutely knew that God wanted him to be at the church that morning to hear my testimony. I had actually been somewhat apprehensive to share what I had always considered to be an embarrassing part of my life. However, when I heard Shawn’s response to my testimony, I became more transparent. That day Jesus acted through Shawn to encourage me to be more transparent, to be more of a risk taker, and most importantly, to use my struggles to glorify God.

Later, we learned that Shawn was going through a nasty divorce (is there really any other kind?). Shawn was realizing how much he needed God. Although I never heard him say it directly, he knew that he had contributed greatly to his marriage’s demise. It was difficult for him, but he was trying to change his life for the better.

Well, earlier this week Shawn passed away. He was 41 years. He died of a heart attack.

There was shock, and there was mourning. Ecclesiastes 3 says that there is a time for everything, and it was a time of mourning. But for me, it was also a time of excitement. It’s hard for me to truly express it because I’m trying to be respectful and considerate of those who are still mourning. However, I’m having a difficult time containing my excitement.

You see, Shawn “finished the race”. He made it. He’s there. He’s in heaven… where everyone wants to be. He’s seeing things that I can’t even comprehend with my worldly frame of reference. He now knows more about God than anyone on Earth ever knew. He now knows the secrets to all those hard questions that humans ask, like “Why is there suffering?”, “Why do you let bad things happen to good people?”, or “Why don’t you make your presence known to everyone?”.

Presently, some people may be asking other hard questions, like “Why did God let Shawn die?” or “Why did he let Shawn die right now, especially when he was turning his life around?”. I don’t know the answers. I do know that Shawn’s death wasn’t some random act of the universe. I mean 41 year old men just don’t die of heart attacks regularly. Proverbs 3 says don’t lean on your own understanding. And really how can humans understand the workings of a being that created the universe out of nothing? Nevertheless, in the middle of my excitement for Shawn, I have questions like everyone else. I have questions that simply won’t be answered until I’m up there with my friend Shawn.

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Why We Do Need God: A Response to “Why You Don’t Need God” CNN.com

January 15, 2015 0Comment

On January 8, 2015 CNN.com published an article entitled “Why You Don’t Need God”. The article is written by Ryan Bell who was once a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. He is now an atheist. The entire article can be accessed via the following link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/08/opinion/bell-god-atheism/index.html

When I first read Bell’s article, I was angry. I write many blog posts for people who are “searching”, searching for purpose and meaning. My personal opinion is that purpose and meaning can only be found through God and Jesus. Bell’s article is basically the antithesis. Therefore, naturally I viewed him as an enemy. However, I remembered that I am supposed to love my enemies. See my previous post: http://rebuildandrestore.com/my-ultimate-challenge-loving-my-enemies/

I’m glad that I remembered to love my enemies because it helped me realize that Bell had just given me template to tell people “Why we DO need God”. While I don’t agree with his opinions, I appreciate Bell using a straight forward and reasoned approach. He brings up some very valid points that believers in God should be able to counter with a straight forward and reasoned approach. You see, I am not one of those people who believe or don’t believe simply because it “feels” right. I’m not a “blind faith” kind of person. I am simply not wired that way. Before I can make a decision on something, such as the existence of God, I need the argument broken down. I need to see the evidence on both sides, and the evidence undoubtedly points to the existence of God. I believe in God because of the evidence, not in spite of it.

1) Bell says ” ….I couldn’t find any other way to find peace and clarity. I encountered major theological differences with my denomination and evangelical Christianity in general, including the way it marginalizes women and LGBT people.”

Response: I concede that churches and church leaders have sometimes marginalized women and LGBT. However, that is an issue with the followers of Christianity and not a problem with Christianity, itself. Christians believe that Jesus was part of God put on earth in the human form. Jesus never marginalized anyone. In fact, Jesus made it a priority to socialize with everyone. One of the greatest contemporary criticisms of Jesus was that he made a habit of socializing with sinners and social outcasts, such as tax collectors and Samaritans. Jesus may have been the first women’s rights advocate as well. See my previous post: http://rebuildandrestore.com/paul-liked-women-but-jesus-was-a-ladies-man/

2) Bell says, “I questioned the problem of evils and God’s general silence and inactivity”.

Response: I concede that there is evil in the world. Because humans are separated from God, we live in a fallen world. Hence, humans have a “mean streak”. The real issue for me is why God lets evil happen. Nevertheless, I want to focus on the second part of Bell’s statement: God’s general silence and inactivity. Conversely, I think God is very active. God is running the universe. You see, science tells us “how” things work: the Big Bang, the human body, quantum physics, etc. But science doesn’t tell us “why” things work. For example, we have laws of science. They tell us how things work, but “why” do we have laws of science in the first place???God???

3) Bell says, “I was struck by how unlikely my existence is.” and “But my experience is that acknowledging the absence of God has helped me refocus on the wonderful and unlikely life I do have.”

Response: I concede that the human existence is unlikely. However, it is this very “unlikeliness” that is actually evidence of God’s existence. Generally, when something odd or unusual happens, people say it is either coincidence or divine intervention. Well, the human existence is odd, unusual, and unlikely. For life to evolve, several factors must be in play: distance of the planet from the sun, the presence of an atmosphere, the presence of water, etc. While there is a little variability, all of the factors must work in the right combinations to support life. So, what are the chances that we could be born on a planet that has all of the factors for life to not only exist, but also to flourish? What are the chances that we could be born on a planet where life flourishes enough to produce intelligent life, such as humans? It “could” be a coincidence. I mean someone has to win the lottery, but what are the chances of you or me winning the lottery? Similarly, is our existence the equivalent of winning a cosmic lottery? Or is it more likely to be divinely inspired? My money is on the latter.

4) Bell says, “Ironically, my Christian upbringing taught me that this life ultimately doesn’t matter, which tends to make believers apathetic about suffering.” and “Without dependency on a cosmic savior who is coming to rescue us, we are free to recognize that we are the ones we’re waiting for. If we don’t make the world a fair and habitable place, no one else is going to do it for us.”.

Response: Life matters. If it didn’t, Jesus’ death wouldn’t have atoned for our sins. Additionally, I have come to accept that there will be suffering on the Earth. However, I am not apathetic towards it. Furthermore, I don’t think other Christians are apathetic about suffering either. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have organizations like the Salvation Army and Compassion International.

I concede that Christians sometimes wait for God to fix something, when God actually wants to use Christians to fix something. It’s like the Matthew West song goes: we shake our fist at God and ask him why he doesn’t do something. Then God replies, I did. I created you. We were created to serve God and do his work. Furthermore, even if Christians were apathetic towards suffering, that’s an issue with Christians, not God. God has given us the directive to do his work. We simply struggle to carry out that directive.

In summary, it appears that many, but not all of Bell’s issues with God come from his experiences with Christians. In my very first blog post, I explained the shortcomings of Christians. See http://rebuildandrestore.com/three-things-that-ticked-me-off-or-why-churches-fail-to-reach-people/

However, God set the bar pretty high, when he sent Jesus as an example. One of the basic tenets of Christianity is that we have failed to live up to God’s expectations, and we need a savior. So, while disheartening, the struggle of Christians is not only understandable, but it is also expected. However, is it unfair to doubt the existence of God simply because his followers can’t get it right.

For more on the existence of God, and more specifically the existence of Jesus, see: http://www.leestrobel.com/channels/CFChrist.php and http://coldcasechristianity.com/ .

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Stay Humble and Carry On

January 4, 2015 2Comments

“Whoever honors himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be honored.” Mathew 23:12

Sometimes it’s easy for me to get cocky and borderline arrogant. I was smart. I made good grades in school. I was on the academic team and won several awards. I was also athletic. I played sports. I went to college on an academic scholarship. When I started working, I moved up quickly. By the time I was 24 years old, I was in charge of a business with over a million dollars worth of assets. After I began my career as a public servant, I was promoted to a supervisory position within 4 years.

Up until about 10 years ago, I thought that I had accomplished all those things on my own wit and determination. I didn’t realize that all of those accomplishments were blessings from God. I had started to honor myself. I was honoring my intelligence, my athleticism, my determination, and my hard work. And God humbled me. In the span of about two years, I was passed over for promotions three times in a row. Back then, I found my identity and self-worth in my work. Being passed over for promotions three times in a row was devastating to me. I became angry, bitter, and completely pessimistic. But God isn’t a mean, vengeful God. After he taught me the lesson, he put me on a trajectory where I wound up with a much, much better job. Today, I work for a very prestigious law enforcement agency.

You may be wondering what’s wrong with being smart, athletic, determined, hardworking, etc? Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with those things. I simply forgot WHO made me smart, athletic, determined, and blah, blah, blah. I started honoring myself, instead of honoring God. And he taught me a lesson that was painful, but necessary.

So, how can we avoid those painful lessons in humility? Don’t be a glory hound. Don’t expect praise. Emphasize other people’s contributions. Don’t brag, boast, or flaunt, but maintain a quiet confidence. When we need an example of humility, look to Jesus. He was all-powerful. He was part of God himself. He could have been born into a royal family. Instead, he was born in a manger. He could have had aristocratic friends. Instead, he hung out with fishermen, prostitutes, and tax collectors. He could have had servants. Instead, he was a servant. He could have chosen not to die. Instead, he chose to die. He could have chosen to die an “honorable” death. Instead, he chose to die like a common thief. My friends, that is hard-core humility.

I’ll never be as humble as Jesus. But when I need an example or a reminder, I know where to look.

Can’t-trianity or Freedom?

My Friend Shawn

Why We Do Need God: A Response to “Why You Don’t Need God” CNN.com

Stay Humble and Carry On

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