christianity

Sacrifice

christianity, jesus
Around 75% of America claims to be a Christian, which seems to be pretty good news (considering only 33% of the world says the same). But I wonder if we were really to examine each person’s life, how many of those lives would really exhibit their Christianity. What do I mean by that?
If you ask the majority of these 75% about what they believe, they will tell you that they believe Jesus died for them and now they won’t go to hell, but to heaven by simply believing this fact.
Thank you John 3:16, for being the only verse they know.
It takes more than believing to get you to heaven. I hope this doesn’t shock you. Jesus Christ constantly talked about the price in following Him, which is what “Christian” means—follower of Christ. Jesus told His disciples to drop everything and follow him-their jobs, families, everything. He told His followers to take up their cross daily and follow Him. He told them of the trials and persecutions they would go through when following Him. Simply believing doesn’t cut it. As James, the half-brother of Jesus, talks about in his contribution to the Bible, even the demons believe in Jesus and shudder. Satan knows Jesus as a FACT, and he definitely isn’t going to heaven.
Being a Christian means making a sacrifice for Him who made the ultimate sacrifice for you. But in our culture, we don’t want to sacrifice anything. We are self-centered and don’t understand the importance in putting others before our own self, so no wonder it doesn’t carry over to our faith. I know so many people who genuinely love Christ and believe that He made the ultimate sacrifice for them, but don’t want to do anything about it. They don’t want to change their life, or even make changes to their life. But guess what? Being a follower of Christ means that you are going to have to make changes. This means that you might have to change your group of friends, or even your boy/girlfriend. You might not be able to go to the same places, either physically or even on the internet.
But we don’t want to do that, do we? That’s just too hard. Well how hard is it to live a completely pure life? Be completely and purely sinless. Preach God’s commandments to thousands upon thousands, then get accused of heresy. You are put on a bogus trial for these heresies, and get sentenced to death. Ha, but you know this was your purpose, your destiny, and you take it. You die for the whole world, but it doesn’t stop there. You raise from the dead and reiterate your love and intimate desire for a relationship with the same people who killed you before descending into heaven. The ultimate sacrifice, huh? Maybe sacrificing a few things doesn’t seem so bad now.

A Youth Minister’s Rant…

christianity, youth ministry

What is knowledge if we cannot apply it?


This has been a question I have been asking myself a lot since I have been in college. I go to a very religious school, and spend all my time in the theology department with a lot of very intelligent people. But these people come off very arrogant to the rest of the school. There is the cliche that Biblical Studies majors are a bunch of arrogant jerks. Why is that? Because they sit around talking doctrine and theology all day and don’t seem to be very nice when it comes to the practical matters of life. Because when they see someone stumble, they’re on their case. Because they are extra judgmental. This, to me, is a problem. (especially since I know a lot of BS majors that are sweethearts.)

A brother of mine who is a BS major told me that he thought youth ministry majors need to switch to BS, a “real major”. Youth ministers today prove to be idiots time and time again because they don’t have enough knowledge about the Bible to minister to their youth, and don’t know theology and doctrine like they should. If they want to be effective in ministry, they need to be as intelligent as possible in the area of the Bible. As true as this is, this proves to me how arrogant BS majors can be.

Don’t get me wrong, I COMPLETELY agree that if you are in ministry, you need to understand the Bible and try to gain as much knowledge as possible. But my thing is, what is the point if you have all this knowledge but can’t apply it? I know a guy who when he talks to teenagers, all he comes off as is brilliant…and over their heads. He cannot relate to them as teenagers because he was never taught how. Now this is where I defend the youth ministry program–the program at SBU teaches you how to relate to teenagers, gives you Adolescent Development class so you can learn where teenagers are cognitively/spiritually/physically/etc, and also provides a group of others going into the same field who can provide advice and such.

But my purpose isn’t to defend the youthmin department. No, I want to give you guys two verses that I have found to be true since being in ministry:

1 Corinthians 8: “Knowlege makes arrogant, but love edifies.” (NIV: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”)

How can we minister with just knowledge? It takes more. If we are just spitting out all of our knowledge, how is that going to reach them? It takes more.
(In all fairness, the chapter context discusses food sacrificed to idols, but I think this applies to all things if you read the verses to follow. Plus, it’s basic human truth.)

1 Corinthians 9:19-22: For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

Dr. Malone LOVES talking about the Indigenous Church–how if we are going to reach people, WE need to reach them at THEIR level. That means learning to talk like them, act like them, and learning about their culture and environment. Teens have their own culture, and honestly you have to learn how to relate to that. It isn’t something that comes naturally.

So in summary of this rant… Remember that knowledge isn’t everything. It’s important, yes. But how are you going to reach people if you can’t relate to them? Having knowledge creates a separation between you and that person, it doesn’t bring you closer. So learn how to balance book knowledge with practical knowledge.

(and don’t put down youth ministry majors!)

Even when I am not faithful…

christianity, faithfulness, god, testimony
God is incredibly faithful. I know this sounds like a cliché thing to say, but it is so incredibly true. At camp last week, I had the opportunity of taking an extra class with some of my high school girls that I’m leading as an intern this summer at a church. The class was called Digging Deeper, and it was about digging deeper into the Word of God and how to study it. The young lady who led the class said something that stuck with me—Having a relationship with Christ is more than believing IN Him, but BELIEVING Him. Duh! Haha. But I needed this to become true in my life.
One night at camp I was talking to God as I was falling asleep. I began to thank Him for a particular person that He put in my life that has become a spiritual brother to me, who has been constantly affirming me and speaking Truth. As I was talking to God, I stopped and started to cry. I realized that He answered my prayers, in more ways than I even thought! Going into this summer, some of my biggest prayers were for women to be in my life as disciplers and mentors. There were a few women from the church who were small group leaders for the high school girls. Throughout the week they were encouraging and inspirational to me, and lifted me up constantly. I realized that the Lord answered my prayer, which really has been something I have wanted my whole life. I have never really had women in my life as spiritual advisors (I’ve had two—my old youth leader who left my life in the eighth grade and my old boss. We could also maybe count my grandma). What a blessing from the Lord! And at the end of the week, one of the women told me that she wanted to continue a relationship with me. I am entirely in awe of this. I can’t even believe that this is happening. I mean, I SHOULD believe it, because I KNOW from experience and Scripture that MY GOD can do ANYTHING!
I could use prayer in one area—I need to be more confident in my knowledge. I am incredibly intelligent and have a lot of potential, but I am not exercising that. I am dumbing myself down and constantly telling myself how unfit I am as a teacher and discipler. I know that the Lord has incredibly equipped me for the jobs He has me doing. I trust in that. But I need confidence in it. I am a great teacher. I know how to relate to students. I love to study. I have lots of knowledge and even wisdom (I am not trying to boast in this, I have only obtained this through the Lord’s equipping of me and seeking after Him for it). It’s time for me to be confident in it. I am NOT a ditz. I think critically and philosophically, time to show it! I know this seems like an odd request, but I could use some prayer warriors for this :).

I’m a Saint!

christianity, music

This song has really been speaking to me lately. I feel like it tells my story in a way that I can’t!

Here are the lyrics to the song, listen to it here.
Used to be where I could only trust me and myself

And then that heavy metal devil that could send ’em straight to Hell wit it
Thought it was no helpin’ it, my selfishness was celibate
I sell a bit but I make sure I don’t sit up in that cell a bit
I’d yell a bit but only when hurt came for certain
Illiterate, ain’t know that the Word came
But then that that Word hit me and unblinded me
Jesus paid a price for me
That’s how I gained the right to be the son of God I’d like to be
Changed my heart, gave me a desire for His work man
Kill me if you want but I’m gone get back up out that dirt man
Not yet what I’m gonna be, but not what I used to be
I bless His name forever who would choose me and start usin’ me
Used to love my sinnin’ fulla greed and fulla hate
I might say that I love Jesus, but that talk was really fake
I’d be lustin’ for ya cousin if it wasn’t for His grace
Yeah He took me outta nothin’ and He made ya boy a saint

Hook:
Yeah they tell me sugar coat it, dumb it down, but I can’t
Might as well deny the Christ, be ashamed, but I ain’t
I’m a saint (x8)
Til the day I see the grave I’m going hard in the paint
It’s the only hope we got that’s why I’ll die for the faith
I’m a saint (x8)

You got to understand Jesus agreed back in eternity
To sign a bloody covenant and take a deadly turn for me
He ain’t just agree, He fulfilled it to the death of Him
He took that bloody cup that’s meant for us straight to the neck again
Swallowed all that bitterness, pain and affliction
Ain’t a soul in Hell with pain comparable to this one
Brought me to repentance, homie I’m blood-purchased
And daily I’m conformed to His holiness, so I worship
Jesus finished the work, He resurrected on high
That means He beat death and best believe so will I
See some believe they can fly, but I believe I can die
Resurrect, leave the earth and live forever with God
He will march through the sky while the stars sing His praises
The planets dance around while the universe is amazed and
Me, I get to gaze upon His beauty for days
Man if I could be anything baby I’d be a saint

Hook

Now you might think I’m crazy like some kinda urban misfit
But first I hated church, I’d only pray to give my wish list
I’d be just like you, doin’ my dance up in the club, folk
I promise I ain’t it choose it, I was chosen to be loved on
Eyes low, blowing dro, that’s the life I used to know
But Jesus chopped me up and slowed me down just like that Houston flow
A dead man until somebody hit me with the hardest facts
The Gospel hit my heart, I guess that’s what you call a heart attack
I’m looking at Ephesians 2, like what did Jesus see in you?
It’s nothin’, by His grace He chose to love on folk like me and you
And I don’t understand it, homie, I never planned it
I was chasing money and fast women and man
Then I met the great I AM, Son of Man, or the Lamb
Snatched ya boy up outta Hell, and got me workin’ for His plans
Used think I was the man till I met Him
All that arrogance and pride, I dead ’em and fo’get ’em
I’m a saint

Hook

Faith VS Apathy

bible, christianity, faith

I struggle a lot with apathy…or at least I thought it was apathy. I didn’t understand why so much was going on in my life, but I didn’t seem really effected by it. My heart hurt, but I wasn’t reacting the way that I used to, the way I thought I should. I was getting lazy towards the amount of time I spent with God, lazy getting into His Word. I thought I was a horrible Christian. When I asked God to break me, I was hoping that it would be a way for Him to break me out of my apathy. But, as you read in my last post, Him breaking me realized how much trust I had in Him! Which made me think, was I apathetic, or just completely trusting that He had my back? Was my apathy not apathy, but faith?


Hebrews says that faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of the things we do not see. Apathy can be defined as an absence of emotion or enthusiasm. They don’t really sound the same there. Faith is hopeful and very emotional, while Apathy is the feeling (or non-feeling) of uncertainty and carelessness.

Matthew 6:25-30:

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

This shows us that faith is when you trust in the Lord so much, that you don’t worry and don’t care about what is going on around you. It can be mistaken for apathy in that you aren’t overly emotional about your heartaches. You aren’t over-dramatizing things. You aren’t constantly thinking about hardships. Faith is when you give it up to God and believe that He can take care of you when you can’t see the end results of hurts and struggles…knowing that He is sovereign and understanding over your situation. Fully trusting in Him. Is that hard? Heck yes. Is it apathy? Heck no. Not worrying about something is not automatically apathy. I understand that now.
Apathy is not caring, but Faith is letting God take care.

MIRACLES–they aren’t dead!

christianity, testimony

The past week I have learned that God is still capable of miracles. I know you’re reading this and saying to yourself, “Duh, He’s GOD.” But do you really believe that in our society today He still does miracles?


Yesterday in church, the pastor preached out of Acts. He read about how when Paul was in Ephesus, God empowered him to do miracles–cast out demons and evil spirits. His rags were taken and, with the faith of those using them, they were rubbed on their bodies in order to cure their bodies. Even though God was physically not there, and neither was Christ, God empowered them through the name of His Son to still make miracles. So if you’re one of those people who think that when Jesus died on the cross, miracles didn’t happen afterwards, you are obviously wrong.

My pastor told us a story about how when he was abroad in another country, there was a person who had AIDS. His team prayed for this person, who was completely skinny, sick, and the doctors said that there was no chance of healing. They were healed the next day. They, overnight, had meat on their body, was walking, and was healed! A miracle.

At Filipino Church this man gave his testimony about how he was lost, so lost in who he was and fighting God. One day we was in his golf cart and was going through a tunnel/mine thingy when the whole cave thingy collapsed on him! Yet, a bubble of air formed as it raised back up a little. His body was pretty much crushed, but the air provided him relief so that he could be rescued. There were a lot of consequences from the accident–he acquired this disease where his legs were badly inflamed, all of the time (as well as back problems). The doctors said that he would never be able to get out of the wheelchair. He drove himself absolutely mad–he started thinking about chopping off his legs and getting prosthetic ones. He started practicing, and got all the things ready–the chair, the belts for his legs, the telephone with the button for 911, and a chainsaw. He went to pull it, and….nothing. He pulled it and pulled it and pulled it again, but nothing happened. He grew angry, sooo angry at God. He yelled at God when suddenly, there was this rush in his legs–he could feel the blood flowing through the rest of it. The burning was gone. He stood up and put one leg forward, in complete disbelief. He put another leg forward, ridiculous! And he walked. At that moment, he dedicated his life to God. God gave him two miracles, and softened his heart so that he would come to Him.

Who says miracles don’t happen? I thought they were dead. I quit believing a looooooong time ago that the relationship between my parents and I would change (especially my mom). My parents went through a very messy divorce that resulted in them basically abandoning me emotionally and I would even say physically. A week ago, my mother and I got into a huge fight when I made this fact known to her. I was sick of feeling unloved, because I hadn’t gotten anything from her in the two years I have been away at college–no letters, phone calls, money; nothing that said, “Hey I’m thinking about you” or “I’m proud of you.” It seemed more like she abandoned me then my father. The Lord, after many years of me not being able to get through to her, softened her heart and made her see my view on things (if only a little). Since last Wednesday, she has bought a cell phone plan and has called me every day, bought a new computer and internet to start corresponding with me that way, and has sent me two letters, as well as giving me a nice sum of money for college. She is texting me, sending me messages, etc. It’s so weird, because for the first time in my life, my mother is putting herself out there to build a relationship with me. We are forgetting the past and moving forward with a new relationship. It’s so weird!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I know that it’s only a miracle from God.

I know that if you read this testimony, it may not seem like such a big deal compared to the others. My point is, God works miracles, they just look different. So if you’re like me and forgot that miracles exist, please forget that. God is mysterious, and it is what makes Him so beautiful ♥

Finally understanding what it means to "die to self"

christianity, testimony

I think that in the back of my mind, I always knew the definition of “dying to self”. We hear it all the time. My absolute favorite scripture (as seen in the heading of my blog) talks about it. Here’s Mark 8:35-38:

35″For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.
36″For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
37″For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
38″For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

A few weekends ago, I asked the middle school girls of a discipleship-now weekend what “losing your life” means. To die to self, deny yourself. We read this passage and they were stumped. I proceeded with this explanation: Before we know Christ, we have a set way that we talk, act, look, etc. We roll with who we roll with, and we act how we want to act. But when we come to Christ, we change all that. We start acting like Christ, and this permeates every part of us. So we are denying our old lives and “dieing” to it. That is why baptism is such a great symbol for us… it symbolizes that not only have our sins of that old life been washed away, but our life itself is renewed, thus our “rebirth”. It makes sense…it’s pretty simple.


I’m going to tell you about the life I died to and why this is so real for me.

Growing up, I dealt with a lot of crap. Life wasn’t easy for me at all (and it’s never gotten much easier). Now I know that most feel the same way as me, but I’m going to explain myself. I grew up in a very secular house; love, especially the unconditional love of Christ, was not present at all. My parents got married because they got pregnant with me. Living in the hood, I got picked on all the time at school. I was beat up every day until I finally fought back. There was a lot of anger harbored in me for quite some time (and still even harbored, I’ll get to that).

Even though I accepted Jesus into my heart, my culture still was a part of me. I grew up in a place where if someone so much looked at you the wrong way, you were expected to fight. And I did. When someone said something that displeased you, you would have to go off on them and curse them out. It was the only socially accpetable way. So the first 17 years of my life, that is how I dealt with things. My senior year of high school, I dramatically changed. I realized that it wasn’t profitable for the kingdom of God. And now that I go to a Christian school, I am better at keeping my cool. It’s weird to think about how different I am from my old self…and I think that people who knew me growing up would agree.

Lately, I’ve seen a bit of my old self, which has sparked this blog post. There was something that happened earlier this week that caused me to behave completely out of my character; I resorted to telling someone off. And every time something has been said to me this week, I have really struggled with not doing the same. I grew up in a culture where this behavior was expected, but I don’t want to be bound by it. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

♥Heather