Establishing Your Identity: The Exchange (Part 1 of 2)

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Transformation is the reason why Christ came. It’s the reason why we’re still here on earth. The reason we find transformation and change so difficult is because we try to go on doing it by ourselves; but we were never meant to. Before we can begin this transformation, though, we need to look under the microscope of who we are in Christ. There are three fundamental questions we ask ourselves in regards to our identity:  Who do I say I am?, Who do people say I am?, Who does God say I am? All too often, we base our identity on the answers to the first two questions rather than the third. When we do this, we arrive at wrong conclusions about our self-worth basing them on what people say; then what God says of us. A firm understanding of who God says we are is vitally important in our growth and maturation in Christ. Who does God say we are? Here are some answers found in Scripture:

•  You are a child of God.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” John 1:12

• You are accepted by Christ.

“Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” Romans 15:7

• You will not be condemned by God.

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1

• You have been set free in Christ.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; there keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

• You are God’s workmanship created to produce good works.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

• You are a citizen of Heaven.

“For our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20

• You have been raised up with Christ.

“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:1

• You are a new creature in Christ.

“There is anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

There are many erroneous views on our identity that have crept in theological thinking including the following:

False: We can no longer sin, or repentance of sin is unnecessary

True: Although we no possess the Holy Spirit within us we are still subject to sinning. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:18-20. But we are no longer bound by sin and have been given control to the Holy Spirit. Once we are born of God, sin is now contrary to our new born nature: “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” 1 John 3:9. Our full redemption is not yet complete; God wants us to transform more and more like Christ each and every day. When we sin, though, we need to be repentant  towards God and be willing to turn from it.

False:  The Passive approach to life: “Let Go and Let God, life is all about Jesus and none of me.

True: Jesus came to give us life and life to the fullest not to take it away from us. When we die to ourselves, it is then we truly become who we were meant to be. Although, Christ is the focal point of everything we do in our lives, it doesn’t mean we stop making decisions and living our lives! Christ may be in control, but he still gives us personalities, skills, spiritual gifts in order to carry out His will for our lives.

False: The spiritual life is sudden and instant.

True: From the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, into the moment we die; we’re constantly growing more and more like Christ. Through this process there are many setbacks, struggles, and stumbles. Through it all God is working in us so  ”that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6. As we mature, we’re able to face more difficult situations, appreciate more of what’s given to us, and have a better understanding of who God is.

False: We are to follow rules and rituals in order to God to love you more.

True: When we serve, love others, and sacrifice out of obligation just to earn God’s love we sadly fail to see that we can do nothing to either make God love us less or more. God loves us with a unconditional love that doesn’t depend on what we think, say, or do; we should serve and love others out of our love for God; not to make God love as any more.

 Now that we have established some basic truths about who God says we are and the incorrect views on our identity let’s now change gears and look at our needs. Humans at the core have three basic needs that can be divided into three major categories:

Everyone needs the security that comes from feeling unconditionally loved and accepted.  We are incomplete without a sense of belonging. We want to belong to our family, friends, church, school, community, etc. The problem is that this need is met at best imperfectly and in some cases completely unmet. Wherever it may be: rejection by our parents, peers, society because of our looks, skills, race, gender, social status, and so on.

People desire a sense of personal significance and identification with someone or something greater than themselves. They have the desire to feel self-worth and that life has purpose. We can’t stand to partake in things that have no meaning or personal significance! Through experiences of personhood rejection lead us to try to find worth in owning the right things, wearing the right clothes, having the right friends, or having enough money.

The final basic needs we as humans have is to make a difference and accomplish something in life that will last. This is conflicted with performance rejection and this leads to inadequacy. We then seek to validate our worth through achievement and performance.  Thus, we seek to find personal worth through appearance, status, and talent. From this we fall into materialism, greed, aggression, and excessive competition.

Now let’s look at how God meets these basic needs we have:

God’s answer to our desire to be unconditionally loved and belong is laid out in His plan to create a spiritual family that He can love and accept in eternal fellowship. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” Ephesians 2:19. We are part of this family and as members of God’s family, our need for unconditional love is fully met.

The second basic need of personal significance and identification is fully met through God’s design of the spiritual body. We are that body, and Christ is the head. “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” Ephesians 1:22-23. God did not save us according to our works “but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” 2 Timothy 1:9. When we join this family, we discover that we have  individual parts to play and God has a special plan for each and every one of us.

Finally, God desires to create a community of spiritual beings who will receive and reflect the likeness of God and glorify Him forever. The Holy Spirit has blessed every believer with spiritual gifts, and we have been given the time, opportunities, and abilities to accomplish His purposes for us. This is met by His plan to create a spiritual temple of living stones that are competent to serve and glorify Him. We are the temple, and Christ is the cornerstone.  ”As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:4-5. As the living stones in God’s temple, our need for making a lasting difference is fully met. Now that we have looked at who God says we are and how He fulfills our needs; let’s look at how we’re exchanged our old life for the new life that God offers us:

Before we came to know Christ, we were enemies of God. Our minds, emotions, and wills were under the dominion of sin. Our eternal destination was not heaven, but hell. We were under condemnation because of our sin before God and had no hope of restoration. “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”Romans 8:8. Everything inside of us groaned and ached for a redemption, restoration, and resurrection.“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:22. Out of legalism we try to “do”, draw on our own resources, we produce out of guilt and condemnation, and this creates a life on bondage, duty, and obligation.

We then moved from knowing the truth to believing the truth. Our desires, wants, pursuits, and will were surrendered to Christ and He took control. We died to ourselves and accepted God’s gift of grace; we identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection life. This is symbolized when we were baptized. The old life of sin, decay, selfishness, and legalism was buried and the new life of freedom, peace, fulfillment, and blessings took its place.  Once we accepted God’s grace, we declared “It’s done”, this led us to draw upon God’s resources, produces a life of acceptance and security; and this creates freedom and victory which we once could not obtain by ourselves. “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”

When we think of the word, metamorphosis, we usually think of the butterfly. The caterpillar forms a chrysalis and begins the process of transforming itself into something beautiful with wings.  Like the caterpillar, we desire to transform into something beautiful. In order to take flight, we must be willing to change.  The process is often long, hard, and trying as we strive to break free. Unlike the caterpillar, though, we are provided help in the process of our metamorphosis. God is there guiding us along the way giving us the strength and tools needed to become who we were meant to be. We are given the Holy Spirit, the indwelling life, instead of an independent life. Another example of the transformation that takes place in inside of us is the metaphor of a tree that Jesus gave to his disciples:“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5,8. When we abide in Christ, our lives are overflowing with fruit and blessings; when we try to change and grow without Christ, our braches wither and die. So in order for this transformation to fully take place we must continually seek Christ through His Word, prayer, fellowship with other believers, and worship.

In summary, we need to remind ourselves daily of our true identity disregarding what our own feelings and how others view us. God’s opinion of us is all that matters in the end. Also all our needs are met and satisfied in our relationship with God; when we look outside of Him we will come up empty and frustrated. It is through grace that we are given a new identity that exchanges our old one giving us freedom from the bondage of sin. Our desires, decisions, drive, and destination all are changed! Finally, transformation is found when we abide and live inside of the life that Christ has provided for us. It is then that we can break out of our cocoon and soar effortlessly side by side with Christ! Let transformation begin to take place today!

**I will be on vacation next week, so there will be no blog written. The next blog will conclude the short series on our identity in Christ and then we’ll begin a short intro into enlarging you vision during the first two weeks of June. Also both the launch of the SPECIAL and Manual sections will be delayed a few more weeks, due to unforeseen circumstances. I want to give this projects the full attention, detail, and care that’s necessary, so please be patient, I promise the wait will be worth it! Also a Profile on Albert Pujols (the reigning 2009 National League MLB MVP) is targeted for the first weekend of June. God Bless**

Sources:

Kenneth Boa. Conformed to His Image. Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2001.

Surrendering Your Life To God Part 2 of 2: Are You Madly in Love with God? (Reader Discretion Advised!) 

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

“Lukewarm living and claiming Christ’s name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God.”-Francis Chan

**Warning: What you are about to read will offend you–I guarantee it! It offends me and I wrote it! My responsibility is to present the truth of the gospel–not to puff you up and make you feel good about yourself. Also, I personally am NOT except from what I’m about to write, so if you’re willing read on… **

There is one and only one God and… He loves us! Think about it! This should blow our minds! He created everything before us–trees, rivers, animals, the sky, mountains, colors, laughter, music–and gave us life– yet we take little notice of Him most of the time! In fact we live our lives on most occasions as if God doesn’t exist! This is a huge accusation to make–but it’s become the truth that now characterizes our society and yes, the church. We’re comfortable with what’s easy, safe, comfortable, and just looking out for our well-being. We give God only a little part our lives and think that’s enough. We give out of guilt, serve out of obligation, worship only to show off our musical talents, engage in Christian media to be entertained, and attend church to earn brownie points with God. God is our “magic genie”–He’ll give us what we want and live to serve our needs. The God of the universe is here for our benefit; to make our lives happy and fill our plates with everything we could possibly ever need or want out of life.

You are probably in self defense right now, questioning whether this is really true about your own life. Before you completely accuse me of being judgmental or ignorant you need to really dig deep and look at your life. Ask yourself: Are you truly madly in love with God? To you live to serve Him and others wholeheartedly? Do you put yourself in positions where you’re vulnerable and you MUST trust in God at all costs? Do you give beyond what’s comfortable and easy?  Let’s first look at the problem before we discover how we truly lived surrendered lives to Christ.

Our society is all aimed at keeping us comfortable and safe. From our cars to our home security systems–we  love the feeling of  being safe.  Also we like to be entertained with movies, television, concerts, music, videogames–as long as we don’t have to think for ourselves, make risky decisions, and step out of our comfort zones. The pursuit of happiness has become the American dream. Once we have a sizeable income, with a fancy home, cool gadgets, a stylish car, the latest versions of technological advancements–we’re made it in life. We’ve become prisoners of our own pursuits, pleasures, and preferences that God has become just an afterthought and His purpose for our lives is utterly prevented at all costs. Sadly, we fail to recognize that this is not how God measures success. In the parable of the sower given by Jesus there are four different responses to the seed being sown in the soil. If we’re honest with ourselves we would see that most of us are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns in our lives. (Luke 8:4-15) A thorn is anything that distracts us from God. There’s just too much stuff in our lives. Money, activities, sports, addictions, television, the internet, shopping, parties– are all piled on top of our relationship with God. A lot of different things are good by themselves, but when it’s all put together it keeps us from living passionately for God.

In the church today, numbers impress us. We gauge the success of an event by how many people are in attendance or how many come forward. Big crowds wow and amaze us. Everything is measured by the amount of members our church has. The goals of American Christianity seem today are having a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, a comfortable lifestyle with a suburban home, and having enough savings to retire at the age of 65. But actually taking the words of Christ literally is almost never considered. That’s only for the “radicals” and missionaries. Most of us want a balanced life of control, safety, and one that involves no suffering. So now we have to ask ourselves, are we madly in love with God or do the words lukewarm, halfhearted, sometimes committed come to mind in regards to your relationship with God? Here are a few descriptions of lukewarm people taken from Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. Take a close look to see if they describe your life:

• Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living. If they have a little extra and it is easy and safe to give, they do so.

• Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict. They desire to fit in both in the church and outside of it; they care more about what people think than what God thinks of their lives and hearts.

• Lukewarm people don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don’t genuinely hate sin and aren’t truly sorry for it; they’re just sorry because God is going to punish them.

• Lukewarm people are moved by stories about people who do radical things for Christ, yet do they do not act. They assume such action is for “radical” Christians, not average ones.

• Lukewarm people rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends. They don’t want to be rejected and don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.

• Lukewarm people gauge their morality by comparing themselves to the secular world. They’re satisfied because they don’t swear, watch rated R movies, drink alcohol, attend wild parties, or gossip while the people around them do.

• Lukewarm people will serve God and others, but there are certain limits to how far they will go with their time, money, and energy they are willing to give.

• Lukewarm people are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, but rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.

The following profiles are not meant to be used as ammunition to judge a believer’s salvation. Instead it’s meant to be an examination of whether or not we are living completely surrendered lives to Jesus. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5. We are all flawed human beings, and no one is totally immune to the above examples. There is however a big difference between a life that is characterized by these mentalities and those who are being radically transformed by Christ. Now let’s dig a little deeper in the main issue:

So how does God deal with the lukewarm? In Revelation 3:15-18 He tells us: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” Jesus’ call to commitment is clear: It’s all or nothing. You’re either hot or cold. For Him or against Him. There is no in between! The truth of the matter is we’re only willing to make changes in our lives if we think it affects our salvation. We ask questions such as: Will I still go to heaven if I go to a party and get drunk?, Do I have to get baptized to be saved? If I have sex with my girlfriend, am I still a Christian? Do I have to give 10% percent of my income to my church? Our concern is more on going to heaven than loving Jesus and this has become the tragic state of our hearts.

We usually don’t mind offering God our leftovers. We find it easy to fill ourselves with what the world has to offer and then give God whatever is left on our plates. Hosea 13:6 states: “When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” A flimsy two minute prayer once a day, a few dollars in the offering plate, reading a chapter of the Bible when we feel like it,….we throw scraps to God because we think something is better than nothing. God on the other hand considers this point of view as evil. Yes, evil. Our initial response is to say giving something is better than nothing. But is it? Does anyone enjoy praise because it’s out of obligation or guilt? Why would we think God would want any differently? “When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty.” Malachi 1:8. God is not pleased with when we give Him what’s leftover…He wants your best and only your best!

Success to God is measured by how we love and not much else really matters in the end. To follow Christ isn’t something that can be done halfheartedly on the side when we feel like it. How many of us would really leave our families, jobs, friends, homes, communities if Jesus asked us to? No explanation, no directions, no roadmap–Jesus just asks you to leave everything behind and follow Him. Are you really willing to follow Him at any cost? How we spend our time, what our money goes towards, and what we do and say is all equivalent to choosing God or rejecting Him. Nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God. Nothing. Holding nothing back is what true faith is all about. It’s betting everything we have on the hope of eternity, not what we can see in front of us or what feels right.

The answer is love. When you’re in love with someone you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You talk with them even if you’re busy or in a hurry, and you’re willingly to spend a small fortune of money of them. Being apart from each other is painful, miserable, and unbearable. You spend all your time thinking about them–any chance you get to be with them you jump at. The same should be true with our relationship with God. The solution to the problem isn’t to try harder, fail, and then make bigger promises to God just so we can fail again. When we love God out of obligation, we focus even more on ourselves. Instead pursue His love, running towards Christ, remembering that He is all you’ll ever need. Through Christ we are free, and loving Him and others becomes more natural. The more we focus on Him, the easier it is to love Him and others. This is where true satisfaction is found. Look at these intimate words to God written by the psalmists:  “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” Psalm 90:14. “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16:11. When you look at your relationship with God as a chore, a sacrifice; then you are getting the glory–not God. God gave us life so that we might seek Him, know Him, and love Him, not because He needs us!

Sometimes we assume that if we’re nice, kind, and polite; people will know that we are Christians. Truth of the matter is it doesn’t usually work this way. There are a lot of non-believers who are kind, generous, and fun to be around with. True love, though, makes you stand out. You have to become obsessed. Obsessed with your love for God. What does it look like to be obsessed? Here are a few descriptions from Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love on what it means to be obsessed:

• Obsessed people love those hate them and who can never pay them back.

• Obsessed people aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else. They care more about God’s kingdom coming to earth than being shielded from pain and distress.

• Obsessed people live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another.

• Obsessed people are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected of them. They do things that don’t always make sense with what the world defines as success.

• Obsessed people seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known.

• Obsessed people do not consider service a burden. They take joy in loving God by loving people.

• Obsessed people a characterized by committed passionate love for God, above everything else and every other being.

• Obsessed people have an intimate relationship with Him and are nourished by His Word every day passionately seeking Him.

Are you obsessed with Jesus? By now you’re probably wondering what all of this means to you? The answer can be stated simply, but is complex to grasp: We have to start living our lives in faithful, committed, whole-hearted surrender to God. I’m not saying you should sell everything you have, quit your job, and become a missionary for a third-world country. Instead take a hard look at your life. Are you totally committed to Christ, living as if every person you came in contact with was Christ? Are you truly the person you proclaim to be;  loving with reckless abandon?  Also when doing this, don’t compare what you’re doing for Christ to someone else’s life. God calls us to be ourselves not someone else. God has created unique people to accomplish a vast array of purposes throughout the world. Another thing to keep in mind is that it takes a deliberate pursuit and attentiveness for Christ to live a fully surrendered life. If you stop pursuing Him, your relationship will deteriorate and die—just like any other relationship. Finally, remember you are never alone. God is always with you and has given you His Holy Spirit. It is by His Holy Spirit that we can live lives that God has called us to live. He provides all we need; all we have to do is trust Him to carry out His will in our lives. Then at the end of your life when it’s all done and said you can say: ^“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7. So don’t settle for a lukewarm approach to God’s love; give Him everything you have. Declare  your love of Jesus to the world! Let Him become your magnificent obsession!  After all, who loves leftovers?

**Next week we’ll begin looking at the first principle of SPECIAL: Our Identity in Christ. Also the Manual and SPECIAL sections will be launched sometime next week and it’ll add on to the brief intro I’ve given you on surrendering to Christ in these past two blogs. There’s also a new Profile on Francis Chan who wrote Crazy Love which is the book that inspired me to write this blog. I highly suggest reading this book if you haven’t already! God Bless.**

Sources:

Francis Chan Crazy Love. David C. Cook Distribution: Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2008.

Surrendering Your Life to God (Part 1 of 2): The Struggle for Control

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

“All to Jesus I surrender; All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all;  All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.” -Beloved Hymn by Winfield S. Weeden

We are at war.  At the very moment we were conceived, we were at war with God. We had conflicting goals, want, desires, strategies, and loyalties that are in contrary to God’s will for our lives.  Then the message from God was sent to our hearts: There can be no peace until you’re willing to accept my terms–unconditional surrender.  We then came to realize that surrender was our best and only option, so we agreed to accept His terms. We waved the white flag; we gave our lives to the One who gave His life for us on the cross–the One who demands and deserves our wholehearted allegiance and devotion.  God then gave us a new heart; a heart to love Him and to obey and follow Him as our Captain and Lord. This is the beginning point of surrender–what the Bible calls being ”born again.”  The act of surrender does not save us by any means; it is Christ’s work on the cross, His sacrifice, that is our means of salvation. But sadly, today more than ever we succumbed to the idea that whoever prays the salvation prayer and says the “magic words”  that we’re saved. The Bible does not recognize such a profession as genuine.

The terms of our surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ are nonnegotiable and unconditional. What is required of us to surrender? Simply–everything. Jesus warned “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of the Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21.  As every new believer soon discovers, the initial point of surrender does not end with asking Jesus into our heart and accepting Him as our Lord and Savior–it’s just the starting point.  Most often we fail to recognize what the implications of full surrender really mean.  Why is full surrender so difficult? Let’s look at a few reasons why we’re so unwilling to give ourselves completely and wholeheartedly to God:

One major challenge of complete surrender to Christ is we don’t know what lies ahead in our futures. We want to know the details. We want to see all the fine print so we can read over it, think about it, and then decide whether we want to sign on the dotted line. Signing on the dotted line is very risky…What will this cost me? Where will God expect me to go? What will He ask me to do? In the whole scheme of things, we cannot lose , because God is in control and He can be trusted. If we’re willing to let Him He will fill in the details of our lives with incredible wisdom, a sovereign plan, that’s written in the ink of His covenant of faithfulness and love.

We don’t like the word sacrifice. In fact, we sometimes cringe at the word; wanting nothing to do with it. The Bible provide a number of word pictures that help us understand what it means to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. One of the biggest images is a burnt offering. Often offered as a sin or guilt offering, burnt offerings were intended to express the worshiper’s total dedication to the Lord. It was a picture of complete surrender to Him. We as believers are called to be living sacrifices: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” -Romans 12:1. Our bodies represent all that we are, all that we have, and all that we do. Notice we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice–we are to go on living in our bodies, recognizing we are not our own and that we belong to God. God may be asking you give money to a certain cause, call someone in need of encouragement, give your time to serve your church, give up going on a vacation to financially help a family in need; whatever it may be remember that whatever God ask us is never pointless. We can be assured that every sacrifice made serves God’s higher, eternal purposes for our lives and for the furthering of His kingdom.

The final main reason we’re afraid of surrendering our lives completely to God is fear.  Our natural tendency is to hold on tightly to the things we think we can’t live without. We’re afraid that if we surrender everything to God–our health, possessions, relationships, reputation, career, rights, and future–He might take us on it! Visions of God stripping away all the things we love and enjoy, or being sent to a third world country flood our thoughts. These fears fall into four main categories:

1) Provision–Will I have everything I need?  The Bible tells us to be content with what we have and not worry about how our future needs will be met. ^“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said  ”Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. Based on this promise instead of complaining or worrying we simply and confidently ask Him to provide for us. If we don’t, we are susceptible to greed, stealing, lying, coveting, or cheating. 

2) Pleasure–Will I be happy? It is unavoidable that we will experience pain and suffering. Suffering is an tool that God used to mold and sanctify those He loves. Despite this, God also created us to experience intense pleasure and joy. The problem lies in the fact that we look outside of God for pleasure and instead turn to people and things. We will never truly be satisfied with less than Him. “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11.  The joy God offers is a breathtaking foretaste of heaven’s eternal pleasures. If we are unwilling to trust God with our happiness we instead turn to the world’s temporary pleasures and become dominated by overeating, sexual promiscuity, pornography, drugs, drunkenness, or gambling.  

3) Protection-Will I and my loved ones be safe? We live in a dangerous, menacing world. Everywhere we turn there’s a risk of getting hurt either physically or emotionally. God doesn’t promise that we will never face danger, but those who take refuge in Him are placed under His protection. He is our refuge, fortress, shelter, and deliverer. “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.” Psalm 91:4. If we fail to trust God with His protection, we will be overwhelmed with fearfulness, worry, mistrust in people, fear of intimacy, hatred, prejudice, or become paranoid. 

4) Personal relationships–Will my relational needs be met?  The key to rich, engaging, love relationships is an intimate relationship with God. God has promised us that He will never leave us or forsake us and be with use not matter where we go or what we do. He is everything we need.  When we believe this we can say confidently: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.” Psalm 73:25. If God is not valued as our primary relationship, we live in fear of losing human relationships and things such as lust, unforgiveness, manipulation, dishonesty,  and jealousy will overtake us.

It is truly awe-inspiring and refreshing to see a human being fully surrendered to the will of God because it is so rare. The greatest example of this is found in the life Jesus lived. He willingly gave Himself up to become a human being and walk among us.  He lived an obedient life towards His parents, resisted giving control over to Satan in the wilderness, and never acknowledged anyone but God as the one in control. Not once did He resist the will of the Father. There was never a power struggle for control–just complete, glad surrender. Jesus even surrendered His life willingly so we could inherit eternal life. ”But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:6-7. If the Son of God was willing to surrender His life, can anything God calls us to do, be too great a cost to sacrifice for Him?

In conclusion, we need to ask ourselves this: What would surrendering to God’s control look like for me? What areas are you holding back from Him? What fears or doubts are keeping you from living a complete, surrendered life to Him on a daily basis? The areas and issues that we could be holding back could be endless: possessions, spending habits, our health, eating habits, our time, addictive habits, our comforts, our thoughts, the words you speak, or your future. We rarely ask, when difficult and hard circumstances come up: “What does God want me to do? What does His Word say about this?” To live a fully surrendered life to God is to say “Yes” to God concerning: His choices for our life, difficult circumstances that come your way, His plans and purposes, His disciplines, and control over our body, time, relationships, our future–our everything. 

One last amazing example of complete surrender is the life of Eric Liddell. At the 1924 Paris Olympics, he dropped out of his best event, the 100 yard dash, because it was held on a Sunday. He instead preached a sermon at a nearby church. So instead of the 100 yard dash he entered himself into the 400 yard dash, which we had not trained for. He ran the race and finished five yards ahead of the nearest competitor, thus setting a new world record and winning a gold medal. From there Eric served as a missionary in China ministered to fellow prisoners in a Japanese concentration camp. While in camp, he suffered a brain tumor that left him partially paralyzed. On the day he died in a hospital bed struggling to breathe and going into a convulsion his last words to His nurse was: “Annie, it’s complete surrender.” May our lives reflect these words as we raise the white flag, bow our knees, and proclaim complete surrender over to Jesus Christ. Only then will we experience a life of peace, happiness, contentment, and joy that only God can give us. Jesus, I surrender all!

**Next week I’ll conclude the short two-week series on surrender by looking at how we can apply complete surrender into our lives and give more examples of what a life of complete surrender to God looks like. Then we’ll begin looking at our identity in Christ and who we are. Stay tuned for the launch of the SPECIAL Ministry and first section of the Manual set to be up within the next few weeks. Also the next Profile, on Francis Chan, will be posted later on this week. God Bless **

Sources: 

Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Brokenness Surrender Holiness: A Revive Our Hearts Trilogy. Moody Publishers: Chicago, IL, 2008.

The Search for the Meaning of Life (Part 2 of 2)

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

“For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible,…everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” -Colossians 1:16 (Message)

Contrary to what you’ve been told and what you want to believe–it’s not about you. It never was and it never will be.  The reason why the search for the purpose has eluded so many is because we look in the wrong places. We look for it in our career, our family, our friends, our peace of mind, our dreams and no matter how hard we try it leaves us feeling empty and lost. Why? Because we start with looking within ourselves instead of looking to God. Why do you exist? You were born by God’s purpose and for His purpose. Until we grasp this nothing in life will make sense. You didn’t create yourself, so how can you possibly know what you were created for! You only exist because God wills you to exist. Only the one who created who knows what your purpose is. Your starting point for discovering the purpose of life is turning to God.

Through God we can discover life’s meaning and with it out origin, identity, purpose, significance, and future. Most self-help books offer this about finding life’s purpose: consider your dreams, set goals, aim high, be disciplined, believe  in yourself, and never give up.  While these suggestions more times than not lead to success, they still miss the purposes for which God created you for. Even if you reach all your goals and find success by the world’s standards you still wouldn’t find what you’re looking for. Money, fame, possessions, accomplishments can’t fulfill the longing for meaning in your life and God made it that way so we find true satisfaction only in Him.

So we have two options to consider when it comes to the purpose of life: speculation or revelation.  If we speculate we’ll just guess on the meaning of life and hope we’ve come to the right conclusion. The alterative is revelation from God’s Word. If you want to know the purpose of something look what to you usually do? You look at the owner’s manual. In this case, the Owner is God and His manual is the Bible. The verse, Ephesians 1:11, found in His Word tells us: “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”. God is not only the starting point of your life, He is the source of it. So to discover the meaning of life you must turn to God’s Word, not what the world tells us to find meaning in. So now that we know the source of meaning and where to turn to find the answers for discovering our identity, purpose, significance, and future; let’s look at an analogy of life that we can relate to when looking for the meaning of life:

In many ways, life is like a play performed on a theater. God is the director, writer, stage manager, and coordinator of the play that is before us. The script was written before time began and your part was chosen to fulfill a specific role necessary for the play to run properly. For the play to work well, everyone needs to know their part and what the director, God, wants them to perform. Also, no part is bigger than any other part, everyone’s specific design and abilities is used to carry out the role necessary for the play of life to be performed. You may be asked to take a lead role, a surrounding cast role, a backup role–every role is important in God’s eyes. Another important thing to keep in mind is that there are no tryouts–everyone is part of the play regardless of where they are in life. It’s our responsibility to find out what role we’re supposed to take part in the play of life.

The audience consists of those of gone before us, the heavenly hosts, and God. They are there watching, cheering us on every step of the way. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1. Every action, word, and thought is observed by the director, God, and nothing is ever unnoticed by Him. There is no backstage where we can hide from the audience of God and be unseen, everything is being observed. He already knows the script and what’s to come, so nothing is a surprise to Him. He takes joy in triumphs, comforts us in our pain, and delights when we glorify Him. God is not only part of the audience– He is actively taking part of the play helping us, guiding us, and directing us throughout every scene take we take place in. He is by no means a spectator!

The play itself is a dress rehearsal for the real play–eternity with God in Heaven. How we perform and fulfill our specific role determines our reward when the curtain falls down on our life. We only get one chance to carry out our part, there are no recalls. So it’s critical that we not only grasp who the writer and director of the play of life is, but who we are and what are role in this play is as well. If we don’t know our role then how will be able to fulfill the unique part given to us by God? There are three critical things God looks at when viewing us in the play of life:

Through this play of life, we are given tests on our character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. There has been many tests already given throughout the lives of people in the Bible: Abraham, Joseph, Ruth, Esther, David, and Daniel. Character is both developed and revealed by tests and God watches how you respond to every problem, success, conflict, and disappointment that you’re faced with. God tests our faith through problems, our hope through how we handle our possessions, and our love through the people in our lives. Tests are often difficult and trying, but God promises to be with us as each test comes our way and through these tests we will be prepared for the more difficult scenes that lie ahead of us.

Not only is the play of life about tests, but also it’s a trust. In taking part of the play, God trusts us with our energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, and resources that He has freely given us to us to carry out the role he designed for you. We are stewards of everything we are and possess. “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” Psalm 24:1. All the props on the stage are His given to us to carry out our role in the play. He has entrusted everything to us for our care and management. It’s our responsibility to use them to the best of our abilities and give glory to the one who gave them to us. We must treat everything we’ve been given respectfully and honorable for nothing on the stage on life–the props, costumes, equipment, our talents and abilities–are ours. They’re His and His alone.

Finally, the play of life is temporary. Eventually, your role will be completed and you’re be promoted to eternity on the great stage of Heaven. So don’t get too attached to your role on earth and the stage you’re on because it doesn’t last forever. Compared to eternity, this play is very short and brief. It’s just a few seconds long in the whole production that God has in store for your life. As King David prayed “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.” Psalm 39:4. So give each day on the stage of life everything you have and don’t hold anything back because you never know when your final scene will arrive.

In conclusion, remember that the point of being part of the play is not to bring glory to yourself but to God. It is a fatal flaw to assume that your role is to gain material prosperity or popular success, as the world defines it. In God’s eyes, the greatest roles are played by people who treat this life as a temporary assignment serving faithfully with what they’ve been given. Everything we do is to glorify the one who wrote the script, gave us parts in play, and made us who we are. The script is not yet complete here on earth, there’s more to your story when you leave the stage on earth. 2 Corinthians 4:18 reminds us: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” When the play of life is over, we’ll finally meet the creator and director of the play welcoming us to the grand stage we were created for–Heaven. It is then that we will hear the words we long for: “Well done, good and faithful servant, now take part in an much greater role I have designed for you on this grand stage that I built just for you! Together we will take part in the script in which every each scene is better than the last one!!”

**Next weekend I’ll be on a retreat, so I’m taking the week off from writing a blog. Starting in the first weekend of May we’ll begin a 6 month look into the different principles of our SPECIAL package: our identity, vision, calling, gifts, past, present, and future. For the first 2 weeks of May we’ll look into what surrendering to God really looks like and entails, and then look into discovering our true identity in Christ. Within a few weeks, I’ll launch both the SPECIAL section and Manual on this website that will add to and complement the blogs that I’ll writing each week. For more information on SPECIAL and the Manual read the information provided on the SPECIAL link on this website. God Bless**

Sources:

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life. Zondervan Publishers: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002.

The Search for the Meaning of Life (Part 1 of 2)

Sunday, April 11, 2010 

“We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside” -Switchfoot Lyrics

What is the meaning of life? It’s the one question that has been discussed and speculated across the ages, cultures, societies, and social classes above all the others. Dr. Hugh Moorhead, a philosophy professor at Northeastern Illinois University, once wrote to 250 well-known philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals across the world asking them “What is the meaning of life?” Some offered guesses, some admitted they made up the purpose of life, and others were honest enough to say they were clueless. A few even asked Professor Moorhead to write back and tell them if he discovered the meaning of life! Today more than ever the question resonates across our society. In TV shows such as LOST, Flash Forward, and Heroes. It’s humored in movies such as Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and pondered in movies such as Forest Gump. Books such as The Purpose Driven Life and The Secret also have tried to tackle this overwhelming dilemma before us. Before we look discover the answer to this incredibly imposing question, first let’s look at the different ways we try and fill our lives with meaning.

There are ten main false pursuits on the meaning of life that predominant in today’s society that we’ll briefly look over. A few things to keep in mind: 1)None of these 10 things listed are evil or wrong necessarily but when they become the purpose for our life they cannot give us the satisfaction and meaning we want out of life 2) Most of this paths intersect into other paths such as possessions and money or popularity and power. We will look at each one individually classifying what a person who pursues this path for purpose looks like and why it leads to a dead-end. Here then are the ten most pursued  perilous paths on purpose:

1.) Prosperous Possessions: The Purchaser is consumed with buying more stuff. Every new fad, fashion, technological advancement is there chief aim to acquire in life. They’re never satisfied is what they have;  it’s never good enough.  Randy Alcorn says: “Material prosperity can begin as God’s blessing, but when we treat it as a substitute for God, it becomes a curse.” We all want stuff. We see it, want it, buy it, insure it, display it, and compare it. If only we had more stuff than we would feel successful or secure. In the United States, we spend $12 billion a year just to pay someone to store our extra stuff! That’s larger than the music industry!  The more stuff we have the more attention and commitment we must give our possessions to get worth and value out of them! Eventually, these material possessions rust, break down, and grow insufficient. Jesus addressed this issue by saying: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21. When we leave this earth, all of these things we own are left behind;  it’s clearly pointless to pursue a life of storing more stuff! He or she who has the most toys doesn’t win–they lose!

2.) Picture Perfect: The Publicly Paranoid are obsessed with their outward appearance. They must get every beauty product and keep up with the latest fashion. They worry about how people will perceive how they look and are constantly distressed about their opinion. They own every dress, beauty product, and shoe they can get their hands on. The mirror is their worst enemy. Today more than ever, appearance is everything. Wherever it be women’s magazines, fashion shows, or beauty parlors we’re bought into the lie that appearance is everything. If we don’t look exactly like the a certain celebrity then we’re looked down upon. But this is not what God sees when he looks upon on: “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7. Our outward beauty will eventually fade away, but the beauty of our hearts will never fade. Looking are best isn’t the problem–it’s our obsession and fascination with it.

3.) Progressive Production: The Performer is someone who is always looking for the next project putting work and production above all else. There’s always work to be done. They work 12-14 hour days, 60 hour plus weeks always striving to get ahead and climb the ladder of success. They associate their value in life by how much they’ve accomplished. Never has work been under more emphasis than in today’s society. What people do becomes who they are. Have we ever considered what work really is? In its simplest form work is moving things and rearranging them. Just stop and think about grocery stores, department stores, factory jobs, restaurants–it’s one never-ending cycle. This is emphasized by King Solomon when he wrote: “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?  Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. ” Ecclesiastes 1:3-4. Work can’t bring us the satisfaction we need and it brings us to utter futility. When work is our all we live for, we’ll end up working for nothing.

4.) Purchasing Power: The Prosperous live to make money, collect money, and spend money. They work just for the sole purpose to make as much money as possible. They have the most expensive stuff, live in elaborate surroundings, and keep everything they own for themselves. John D. Rockefeller one of the richest people of his time said this about money: “The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money.” How much we make today is considered to be of utmost importance. Happiness and money seem to go directly together.  We keep tell ourselves if only we had a blank amount of money–then we’d be content and happy. But it’s never enough, we want more and more until it drives us mad becoming our sole ambition in life. We fail to realize that it’s all temporary. We can’t take it with us when we die. Jesus addresses this in his story of the rich fool: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’  ”Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ Luke 12:16-20. Being rich on earth will only produce loneliness, despair, and discontentment. Money can either be a tool or a curse–it’s the way we view it and how we use it that matters in the end.

5.) Perpetual Perseverance: The Prescription Prescriber is always worrying about their health. They take every medication they can possible take to keep from getting sick. They’re afraid of being in public at times because they might catch a cold or worse. Exercising around the clock is a daily habit. Eating the right foods is a must. They just can’t stand the fear of getting old–it terrifies them! The problem with this philosophy is everyone eventually gets old and dies—there’s a 100% guarantee of this. We spend countless dollars on exercise videos, machines, and weight programs  just because we can’t stand the thought of not being able to live life the way we want to. There’s nothing wrong with exercising, being healthy, or eating the correct foods, but when our sole emphasis is to live the longest and stay away from death we’re only kidding ourselves. John Tillotson says: “He who provides for this life but takes not care for eternity is wise for a moment but a fool forever.” If we fail to prepare for eternity, all the work we’ve done to live a long and prosperous life will be for nothing.

6.) Pleasures and Passions: The Playful live to have fun and have a good time. They live for the next party, the big social event, the next big thing. They spend a majority of their time indulging in what feels good to them. Movies, concerts, amusement parks, shopping, video games, sports…the possibilities are endless. It is a philosophy that whatever produces a thrill is our purpose in life. The problem is once again that the pleasures only give temporary satisfaction and they’re always looking for more. Some people look to sex or drugs for ultimate meaning to life–only to experience a deep empty feeling inside. Others want to experience all life has to offer and end up burning out feeling lost and frustrated. The emphasis on pleasure and fun has never been stronger than today. If all they technological advancements, the increase of free time from work, and increase of emphasis on “feeling good” we value having fun.  Pleasures and passions aren’t necessarily bad, they are God’s gift to us; but they can’t possibly fulfill the void for meaning in our lives.

7.) Process of Progress: The Philosopher sees knowledge and education as the primary goal in life. They live to educate themselves and perfect their intellectual nature.  They consume their time with reading and learning about everything from physics to agriculture. Degrees and grades give their lives ultimate meaning and purpose.  The problem is they’re never seems to be an end to knowledge there’s always new discoveries, new information, more facts to learn—we soon realize that we can’t possibly know everything. Even if we did know everything–then what? We still die and everything we learned and know goes down to the grave. Education and learning are very important in life, of course, but they must be more than gaining knowledge to life. There is a limit to how far knowledge will take us, clearly there is something more.

8.) Pursuit of Perfection: The Punctilious Perfectionist can never quite be fully satisfied–everything must go exactly the way they planned or else! They strive for perfection in everything they do–sports, grades, projects–you name it! If something is out of place or isn’t the way they want it they suddenly become very discouraged and irate. It’s the allure of control that captivates them. There’s just one problem—they’re not perfect! No one is–it’s impossible! The Psalmist says of perfection: “To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless.” Psalm 119:96.  We live in an imperfect world, so striving for perfection leaves us with a utter sense of hopelessness and frustration that can never be quite satisfied. Only God is perfect, so we’re kidding ourselves if we think we can somehow achieve it!

9.) Praise from People: The Pleaser is the one who lives to be popular and well-liked. The more friends they have the better. They’re the “life of the party” always seeking the approval of their peers as their primary aim. They strive to become the queen of the prom, the best in the beauty pageant, or the president of their class. Negative words on their character or a bad reputation are avoided like the plague! It just seems like the more popular they are, they more lonely they get. Why is this? We all want to be liked and known. Also we crave praise from our peers, friends, and family. Some more than others. But no matter how known we are or how many people like us this can’t produce the purpose we seek in life. Eventually, we’ll die and be forgotten and the praise we sought we all be for nothing. Look at what Paul wrote to the church of Galatia on this topic: “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10. God’s opinion of us is the only one that matters in the end.

10.) Prominent Position: The Politician is overcome with the obsession with power. The more they have, the more they want. They enjoy making the rules, telling other what to do, and setting the standards. Climbing the ladder of success and fame is their ultimate aim. Whether it be their job, social status, a government position–they want to be in control and on top. It isn’t long that they soon realize that there are things they can’t control–like the weather, the economy, their health, and the timing of their death.  It’s an endless pursuit that gets them nowhere at the end of their lives—they still die and leave their social status in the grave. All the effort and work to achieve power is left in ashes.    

**So what is the meaning of life and what path do we take to find purpose? Tune in next week and we’ll look at why we’ve come up empty in trying to find an answer to this question and where we must start at. Then starting in May I’ll launch the SPECIAL ministry and we’ll start by looking at our identity along with what surrendering to Christ is all about. God Bless.**

Sources: A.W. Tozer, The Purpose of Man. Ventura, California: Regal, 2009.

John Ortberg, When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box. Zondervan Publishers: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2007.

Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions, and Eternity. Tyndale House Publishers: Wheaton, Illinois, 1989, 2003

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life. Zondervan Publishers: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002.  

The Astounding Evidence for God’s Existence: Philosophy/Morals (Part 4 of 4) 

Sunday, March 28, 2010

“…since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” -Romans 2:15

How do we know right from wrong? How do we know that there is such a thing as right and wrong? Did over time they just evolve out of nowhere or are they written in our hearts given to us by a moral lawgiver? These are some of the questions that will be answered as we conclude our look at the evidence for God’s existence for this month. First, let’s look at the basis of the moral proof argument.

First, when we discuss right and wrong actions, we are engaging in the field called “morality” or “ethics.” The definition of morality is the standards of conduct that are generally accepted as right or virtuous. Ethics then is just the system of morality that governs how a person or group should behave.  The entire moral proof can be summarized in three simple, short sentences:

1) Every moral law had a moral lawgiver.

2) There is a moral law.

3) Therefore, it had a moral lawgiver.

Every moral law had a moral lawgiver. We know that laws do not emerge on their own; they must be given or legislated. The laws that govern the United States did not appear out of thin air; countless hours were spent on formulating and issuing them to our society. Another example is medical prescriptions. They are not prescribed by themselves; they need prescribers called “doctors.”  So we also know that the moral law written within us needs a lawgiver and this lawgiver we know as God.

So how do we know that laws did not just evolve over time? Moral principles are discovered, not invented. Moral reforms such as abolishing slavery, giving women the right to vote, and giving civil rights for African-Americans make no sense unless objective moral law exists. Even if it took several centuries for the abolishing of slavery that does not suggest that mortality just evolves over the course of human history. Rather, it readily suggests that moral principles can be discovered and are worth pursuing, even at the very high cost.

When a person says, “Maybe murder or rape isn’t really wrong,” he or she does not need an argument. He or she is deceived. If he or she really believes this,  they need psychological or spiritual help because they are not functioning correctly. A person can justify any action through doing it over and over again. This doesn’t prove that not everyone has a written moral code on their hearts, it’s just some choose  to ignore it and instead follow their own selfish interests that directly conflict with their conscience and thus weakening their feeling of guilt and shame each time they partake it their actions. By having guilt and shame when we act in a moral wrong, it proves that we violated a direct moral law that was given to us.

There is an objective moral law on the hearts of all people, everywhere, at all times. How do we know that all humans know the difference between right and wrong? We can know for several reasons. First, there is a strong agreement by all people that certain things are always wrong. For example, murder, rape, stealing, and lying are seen as wrong by virtually all societies and governments. Another strong indication of this truth is that everyone desires to be treated with dignity, respect, fairness, and courtesy. If there was no moral law than we would expect a wider variety in what people believe to be wrong. Also, we find that even those who deny that there is a moral law live their lives as though there were. For example if  didn’t give them a opportunity to speak during an objection they would be upset for being treated unfairly and denying them an opportunity to speak. Their reaction to injustice, especially when directed at them, show their true belief in a moral order. So it’s not necessarily by their actions that prove what they believe it’s by their reactions. Yet another case for this argument is those who deny that there is a standard of right and wrong overlook certain values that should be denied to anyone. In example, all people value their own right to disagree, think freely, eat, live, breathe, etc. But if one of these values were to be denied, we would quickly find out a person’s true belief about morals. Finally, we often make judgments such as “the world is getting worse”, “the government is more corrupt”, “our media is more corrupt than it was 10 years ago”; these statements are impossible without a standard outside the world for what is “best.” True progress can’t be measured without an ultimate standard by which to measure it.  

Aren’t there moral conflicts as well? At the surface this appears to be the case. Some cultures for example allow polygamy. Yes, but marriage customs and vows that bind marriages together also prohibit adultery.  So even though they allow a moral wrong, they still include a moral right in their law system. While applications and expressions of moral principles may differ from culture to culture, there are basic moral principles that cut across cultural lines.  Consider this point: We start with morally clear cases and work to the unclear.  This is what lexicographer Samuel Johnson says concerning this issue: “The fact that there is such a thing as twilight does not mean that we cannot distinguish between day and night.”

Some atheists or secularists may argue that we have ethical systems that make no reference to God. Although some make very positive contributions to society their systems are still incomplete. They still do not tell us why human beings have intrinsic value, rights, and moral obligations. This system of ethics only help us survive and only gives us a biological worth. We then have no foundation of moral obligation and human dignity. As the cannibal and sexual predator Jeffery Dahmer said: “If it all happens naturalistically, what’s the need for a God? Can’t I set my own rules? Who owns me? I own myself.” Even atheists doubt how moral laws could exist without a moral lawgiver. Atheist J. L. Mackie said “if there are objective values, they make the existence of a god more probable than it would have been without them. Thus we have a  defensible argument from morality to the existence of a god.”

Therefore, a moral lawgiver exists. It has been shown that moral law does in face exist within the heart and conscience of humans. If the first two statements are true, then this conclusion is also true. From what is written in our hearts we can know what standards are considered right and wrong and these come from the creator and giver of life, God. As the Declaration of Independence states, humans are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”  Where did this proclamation come from? Why did the founders of this country feel that we should have these rights? From their God-given conscience and the moral code written on their hearts. This country was created because these moral rights were not given to them through their government and they acted out of their sense of injustice. If we had no moral code on our hearts, we would never look upon poverty, abortion, rape, slavery with any sense of outrage or injustice. It would just be part of what seemed right in someone else’s eyes. But, since God laid on our hearts what is right in His eyes we know that these things are wrong and we feel the need to speak out about them and take action. God is the true foundation for all law systems, ethics, and moral codes and until we grasp this truth our nation and we ourselves wouldn’t live the way we were meant to live. This is a direct promise from God: “Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.” -Psalm 119:2. Only when we follow God’s moral law in obedience will we experience lives of joy, peace, happiness, and satisfaction.

**Next week I am taking the week off from writing a blog to celebrate Easter with my church and family. In 2 weeks, we will start our long 5-6 month look into the question of “What is the meaning of life?’” and launching the SPECIAL ministry. We will look into our personal calling in life, our indentity in Christ, our unique gifts that God has given us, how to find meaning and purpose in our work, how to learn from our past experiences and grow from them, live our lives to the fullest, and how to lay the foundations of our future. Happy Easter Everyone and God Bless!!**

Sources:

Geisler, Norman/Joseph Holden Living Loud. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002

 http://www.4truth.net/site/c.hiKXLbPNLrF/b.2832571/k.7E46/The_Moral_Argument_for_Gods_Existence.htm

The Astounding Evidence for God’s Existence: Intelligent Design/Science (Part 3 of 4)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

“We should reject, as a matter of principle, the substitution of intelligent design for the dialogue of chance and necessity; but we must concede that there are presently no detailed Darwinian accounts of the evolution of any biochemical system, only a variety of wishful speculations.“  -Biochemist Franklin M. Harold

Today more than ever it is believed that science is the highest form of knowledge. Science is seen as rational and the absolute truth. If it can’t be tested by the scientific method; then it cannot be true or rational.  Faith and science are seen as two completely different worldviews at odds with each other. The truth of the matter is that science actually supports theistic belief. Over the last fifty years or so, with the advance of technology research methods we’re beginning to see how truly remarkable life is with fine-precision and complexity.

The design proof, popularized by William Parley, is the second of three major proofs for the existence of God. Like the cosmological proof, the design proof can be stated in three simple sentences:

1) Every design had a designer.

2) The universe has a design.

3) Therefore, the universe has a design.

Every design has a designer. This is a very obvious statement that no one dares to debate. Every building, painting, piece of clothing, or computer program comes from the mind of a designer. Intelligent design doesn’t come together at random any more than a dictionary could come from an explosion from a print shop! Design simply states a designer is responsible.

The universe has a design. How do we know this? By looking around and observing the universe. The design we see is intricate and complex. One example of this is by looking at a single-cell animal. In a single-cell animal there is the same amount of information as one thousand volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. If it reasonable to believe that computers, cameras, and cars need intelligent causes like humans to create them, then why do people find it so hard to understand the need for an intelligent cause of human existence? We’ve become blind to the truth all around us; ignoring it and accepting lies.  “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” -Romans 1:19, 20. We have no excuse not to see that everything before us was specially created for a unique purpose in mind. God has made it clear that He is behind the design of life!

Therefore, the universe has a design. If the above two statements are correct, then this is the logical conclusion. Intelligence gives rise to intelligence. You can’t get intelligence from non-intelligence, “natural forces” have never been observed producing the kind of specified complexity found in a living cell. As one scientist figured the odds of a one-cell animal to come forth naturally by pure chance is 1 in 10⁴⁰⁰⁰⁰(or a 10 with 40,000 zeroes after it!) It takes much more faith to believe in this than it does to believe that an intelligent cause is behind life.  Now let’s look at some examples of how impressive intelligent design really is:

The impression of design is simply overwhelming. Life at its root requires information. This information is stored in DNA and protein molecules. Also there’s the evidence for design in molecular machines that defy all explanation by what the Darwinian natural selection. These machines are what microbiologist Michael Behe calls ”signal transduction circuits, sophisticated motors, and all kinds of biological circuitry.“  These biological machines need all of their various parts in order to function. Natural selection only preserves things that perform a function or to put it simply– help the organism survive to the next generation. This is where the term “survival of the fittest” comes from. As Darwin once said “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” As irony would have it, he’s right…

The theory of irreducible complexity is a strong theory that disputes natural selection made popular by the microbiologist Michael Behe.  According to this theory, a system or device is irreducibly complex if it has a number of different components that all work together to accomplish the take of the system, and if you were to remove one of the components, the system would cease to function.  A good example of this is a mouse trap–take just one of the parts away (the spring or the metal bar) and it becomes broken. It doesn’t work at all. As Michael Behe states” Evolution can’t produce an irreducibly complex biological machine suddenly, all at once, because it’s much too complicated. The odds against that would be prohibitive.”

So you ask what’s an example of irreducible complexity? One amazing example is the biological machine that is bacterial flagellum. Bacterial flagellum works like an outboard motor on a boat only it’s even more incredible than this example. The flagellum’s propeller is long and whiplike, made out of a protein called falellin. This is attached to a drive shaft by hook protein allowing the propeller and drive shaft to rotate freely. Several types of proteins act as bushing material to allow the drive shaft to penetrate the bacterial wall and attach to the rotary motor. The flagellum’s propeller can spring ten thousand revolutions per minute! Professor Howard Berg from Harvard University calls this” the most efficient motor in the universe.” One last profound thing about bacterial flagellum is its size. The flagellum is the size of a couple of microns and microns are about 1/20,000 of an inch. Not to mention that the motor of the flagellum is about 1/100,000th of an inch! This is just one incredible example of how complex life is!

Blood clotting is another example of how truly remarkable irreducible complexity is. If your blood doesn’t clot in the right place, in the right amount, and in the right time, you bled to death. Blood clotting involves about ten steps that use about twenty different molecular components. Take one step away from the process and you die. To create a perfectly balanced system, clusters of protein components must be inserted all at once. This is another strong dispute against Darwinism.

The world around us shouts forth God’s glory revealing His character, intelligence, and majesty.  Everywhere we turn we can see the handwork and delicate design of our God. As the psalmist said:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” -Psalm 19:1-4

From creation we can see that God loves variety, is infinitely intelligent, is powerful, delights in beauty, and loves order. Also God has a sense of humor, takes joy in playfulness, and is vastly creative beyond measure! So observe and take wonder in the power of a wave crashing into the beach, the beauty of a butterfly or a sunset, the playfulness of dolphins, or the unique shape of a platypus! Be in amazement at the vast universe around us- the grand, awe-inspiring works of our God! Marvel at how wonderful crafted you are and how the human body works! Never stop learning about the world around you, continue to discover what God has laid out before you, just so you could take delight in Him! How truly marvelous, wonderful, and magnificent our God is!

There are many more examples of irreducible complexity and intelligent design I could give that I simply don’t have the time or space to write on.  For more information, look into one of the following resources: The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel, Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe, Mere Creation by William Dembski, The Face That Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution by Hank Hanegraaff, or Icons of Evolution by Jonathan Wells. Also there’s many online articles and websites that give much more detailed information than I provide here.

**Next week we’ll conclude this month-long series on the evidence for the existence of God by looking at the moral argument. The questions we’ll look into are: How do we know what’s right and wrong?, Does everyone have the same discernment of what’s right and wrong?, and Where does this come from? God Bless**

Sources:

Geisler, Norman/Joseph Holden Living Loud. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002

Lee Strobel The Case for a Creator. Waterville, Maine, Thorndike Press, 2004.

The Astounding Evidence For God’s Existence: Cosmology/Astronomy (Part 2 of 4)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

“Set aside the many competing explanations of the Big Bang; something made an entire cosmos out of nothing. It is this realization–that something transcendent started it all–which has hard-science types…using terms like ‘miracle.‘ ” – Gregg Easterbrook

“In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” -Genesis 1:1. When we first open up our Bibles this is what we read but do we ever sit down and really think about what the implications of this verse means?  Do we truly grasp how amazingly profound it is that a God existed before time began and decided to display His glory by creating a physical realm that we call the universe? Philosophers, scientists, and people across all ages, cultures, languages, and tribes have asked the question: where did we come from? Some say it was all by chance and the universe came out of nothing. Others say the universe is merely an illusion and none of this is real. Yet another explanation is that the universe is eternal and has always been here. We’ll briefly look into why these three assumptions are false and why the cosmological argument makes logical sense.

The first illogical theory of the universe is that it’s an illusion. Simple logic will dispute this argument. An illusion by definition is something that’s deceptive, or unreal. If it’s an illusion it’s not really there, we can’t correspond it to reality.  Since we can touch, see, taste, smell, and hear the reality of the universe around us; this theory doesn’t have any substance to it.

The second illogical theory of the universe is that it’s eternal.  Again by looking at the law of Thermodynamics we can see that this is false:

• 1st Law: The total amount of mass-energy in the universe is constant.
• 2nd Law: The amount of energy available for work is running out, or entropy is increasing to a maximum.

If the total amount of mass-energy is limited, and the amount of usable energy is decreasing, then the universe cannot have existed forever, otherwise it would already have exhausted all usable energy causing a heat death of the universe. So the logical conclusion is that the universe began at a finite time ago with a lot of usable energy and is now slowly running down its energy. One final argument against this is by putting it this way: The universe cannot be self-caused by nothing can create itself, because that would mean that it existed before it came into existence. This is simply an absurd statement, but this is what atheists and secularists must cling to in order for their worldview to make sense.

The third and final argument is that the universe came out of nothing. Using the cosmological argument we can logical see that this is impossible. There are three simple reasons:

• Everything which has a beginning has a cause.
• The universe has a beginning.
• Therefore the universe has a cause.                                                                                                                                                             

Once this begins to compute this into our minds, we then jump to the question of who made God? This question in itself is illogical because we would have an infinite amount of causes that would go on forever. An infinite regression of finite causes does not answer the question of source; it merely makes the effects more numerous. God unlike the universe, had no beginning so He doesn’t need a cause. Since God, by definition, is the creator of the universe, He is the creator of time. Therefore He isn’t limited to the time dimension that He created. God is infinite and eternal thus as an eternal being He can be demonstrated to be the uncaused First Cause.There are some things that can’t be explained no matter how hard we try! This is simply behind our comprehension and we must leave it at that.

Now let’s look at the astronomical reasons for God’s existence. The earth’s unique position in the universe has been debated throughout the centuries. With recent scientific studies the evidence that earth came into existence by mere chance becomes more and more absurd as we’re discovering how unique how planet’s location is in the universe.  This is contrary to what we’re told today. We’re told that life flourishes in countless locations across the universe and that water is the only essential element needed for life to exist. In summary, they state that Earth isn’t privileged and it’s quite average. The proclaimed atheist Richard Dawkins states: “The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” The truth of the matter is that this statement is the exact opposite of what we find.

Earth’s location, its size, its structure, its atmosphere, its temperature, its internal dynamics, and its many intricate cycles are all essential to life. The oxygen cycle, the sulfur cycle, sodium cycle all testify to how fine tuned the earth is to life. While it is true that you need water for life it’s only one of 26 essential elements for human life to exist. Ongoing life depends on many other complicated interactions from the magnetic field to plate tectonics, to the carbon dioxide cycle. One example of this is the scientific fact that the solid state of most substances is denser than their liquid state, but the opposite is true for water. If water were like virtually any other liquid, it would freeze from the bottom up rather than from the top down, killing aquatic life, destroying the oxygen supply, thus making the earth uninhabitable. There are many more elements that must be in place for life to exist but let’s focus on two astronomical reasons:

The key to life on earth, of course, is the sun which provides us with consistent warmth and energy from 93 million miles away. First off, the sun is very unusual compared to most stars found in the universe. It’s among the ten percent most massive in the galaxy unlike 80% of stars, which are red dwarfs, which are much smaller in scale.  If our sun was a red dwarf, Earth would have to be much closer to it than its current location. Also our sun emits the right colors of radiation, a balance of red and blue. If we were orbiting a more massive star, called a F dwarf, there would be blue radiation and it would build up the oxygen and ozone layer faster causing a flood of highly intense ultraviolet radiation.  Finally, massive stars don’t live as long, about a few billion years. Our sun is estimated to last a total of at least 10 billion years on its main sequence.

A second main reason that astronomy affirms that Earth is in a unique position is the moon. Without the moon, the Earth wouldn’t be able to stabilize the tilt of its axis. Without a tilt, there would be no seasons and without seasons the Earth’s climate would be very unstable. This would result in major temperature swings and one pole of the earth (north or south) would be exposed to sun while the other in darkness. The moon also helps to increase tides. Tides serve an important role of flushing out nutrients from the continents to the oceans, which keeps them more nutrient-rich than they would be otherwise.  Finally, if the moon were more massive the tides would be too strong, thus resulting in slowing down the Earth’s rotation. By slowing down the rotation of the Earth, they temperature differences between night and day would be much greater, creating devastating results.

In conclusion there are many reasons why Earth is in the perfect location for life to exist and that we indeed are the privileged planet. There are many, many more scientific facts to that confirm this that I don’t have the time or space to address: plate tectonics, solar eclipses, geology, the earth’s mass, or the perfect amount of oxygen in our atmosphere.  For more information on cosmology or Astronomy check out these websites: www.christiananswers. net, www.alwaysbeready.org, or the following books: The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norm Geisler, or The Privileged Planet by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards.  The Privileged Planet goes into detail on not only why Earth is so fine tuned to support life, but also why it gives us the best view of the universe as if it were meant to be discovered. I highly recommend this book!  I’ll leave you with this quote by John A. O’Keefe, a planetary scientist, with NASA from 1958 to 1995: “We are by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted,  cherished group of creatures; our Darwinian claim to have done it all ourselves is as ridiculous and as charming as a baby’s brave efforts to stand on its own feet and refuse his mother’s hand. If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.”  

**Next week we’ll look at intelligent design and how amazing the complexity of life really is.  In two weeks, We’ll conclude this short series by looking at the morality argument and how we know what’s right and wrong. Feel free to give comments, questions, and feedback and I’ll try to answer them. God Bless.  **

Sources:

http://christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c038.html

http://christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c039.html

Lee Strobel The Case for a Creator. Waterville, Maine, Thorndike Press, 2004.

Hank Hanegraaff  The Bible Answer Book. Nashville, Tennessee, 2004.

The Astounding Evidence For God’s Existence (Part 1 of 4)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, has a more direct bearing on the moral decisions made by individuals or the purpose proposed by society, than belief or disbelief in God.” - Ravi Zacharias  

It’s the one question above all others. It’s a question that challenges every thinking person and demands to be answered. The question “Does God exist?” continues to be most debated, speculated, and researched above every other one we could propose. Philosophers, theologians, and scientists have long wrestled with this question throughout the ages.  For Christians, our entire faith, worldview, and reason for existence lies in this one question.  If God does not exist, than He can’t possibly have a Son (Jesus), the Bible isn’t the Word of God, and there is no difference between right and wrong. Before we look at the evidence for the evidence for God’s existence let’s look at what atheism is and the dangerous implications it brings if it’s true:

Atheism simply states there is no God.  According to a recent study, approximately 2.5% of the world’s population is atheist. The atheists that have had a lasting impact on society today are Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud. In today’s society the self-proclaimed atheists who are well known are Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens.  Books such as God is not Great, A Letter to a Christian Nation, The God Delusion, and the Blind Watchmaker have all reached the New York Bestseller list.  Atheist thought is predominant in school textbooks, movies, and in our government.  Atheism is on the rise in our society but why is this?

Why do atheists passionately fight for their position? What’s so enticing about atheism? If there is no God, then there is no right and wrong. There is no one to answer to for our actions that we make on a day to day basis. We are in control of our lives, our destinies, and how we want to live. Suffering and pain are unnecessary and should be avoided at all costs. Pleasure, fame, materialism, and money are all the idols to be pursued above all else. It’s survival of the fittest—whoever has the most toys wins. Live however you please, say what you want, do want you want, and when you die it’s all over and there are no consequences. This train of thought is becoming the predominant in Western society. We want our lives to be our own; we want all the glory for ourselves; we want to be God. This is the greatest lie of all–we can become like God. This is what Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden with: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” -Genesis 3: 5. Before we look at the dangers of atheism let’s look at the main flaws in its thesis.

Atheism in itself is impossible to confirm. One would have to be omniscient and omnipresent to be able to have all the facts and know for certain that there is no God. In other words, they would have to be God in order to say there is no God. Only someone who has been present at all times and a perfect knowledge could know can make such a statement. As Ron Carlson and Ed Decker state in Fast Facts of False Teachings: “…to be an atheist you must have infinite knowledge in order to know absolutely that there is no God. But to have infinite knowledge, you would have to be God yourself. It’s hard to be God yourself and an atheist at the same time!”  As stated in the Bible in Psalm 14:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

Atheists state that science, evolution, or the existence of suffering and evil in the world are reasons that God cannot exist. In the recent studies in biology, astrology, geology, physics, and many other fields of science  it has been confirmed that the universe is fine tuned and that science actually supports creation-not evolution. The Cambrian explosion is just one example of this. Science and creation don’t contract one another–they support each other!  Also the existence of suffering and evil is not an easy question to answer but it certainly doesn’t prove that God doesn’t exist. There are many plausible arguments on why God would allow suffering and evil in the world. As Dan Story so boldly put it: “Today, people continue to rebel against God. We curse Him, ignore Him, and flaunt our disobedience. Motivated by pride, greed, and selfishness, people destroy one another and willfully abuse and pollute God’s earth…it’s amazing God has not lost His patience and destroyed all of us. Rather than condemning God for allowing evil, we should be thankful that  He withholds the punishment we deserve.”  We should first look at ourselves before blaming God for evil and suffering in the world! So the argument that claims that because there is evil in the world, there must be no God, is illogical. Now let’s look at the implications of atheism:

Why is the worldview of atheism so dangerous to our society? First, without God, there is no basis for what’s right and wrong. There are no morals and we are free to make our own law system without any restrictions.  Lying, stealing, drunkenness, or  adultery are acceptable if  it feels good and benefits us in the end.  Moral relativism, the quickly rising worldview of this generation, strongly supports this way of thinking. It’s a chaotic system that promotes lawlessness, corruption, and debauchery. It teaches that there is no standard on which to live and we need to tolerate everyone’s different moral values.  Those who are weak, poor, or unintelligent are seen as useless and there’s no reason to show love and compassion to them. With no basis of what is right and wrong, laws seem pointless and only from one person’s point of view. There simply is no foundation for any law system, no correct way of living, and no reason to follow rules. It creates a system of chaos and calamity without a care or a cause for concern of others.

Another danger of atheism is the lost of purpose. With God there is a reason for our existence and we have an identity. Without God, there is no purpose, no meaning, and we have no identity. In the worldview of atheism, everything happens by chance and it’s all one big chaotic mess of a universe. There’s no reason on why we’re here, why we feel pain and suffering, why we long for certain things, and why we can’t seem to be completely satisfied. With this train of thought, everything we accomplish in life, every act of love, every sacrifice–has no meaning and it’s all a waste of time. So then we buy into the lie to live for ourselves, gain wealth and power, and get as much pleasure as we can simply because when we die–it’s over; so why waste time building up things that wouldn’t last past the grave? As King Solomon wrote:  ”Meaningless!  Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” -Ecclesiastes 1:2-4 When we lose our purpose; we lose hope, and when we lose hope; we only gain despair.

The final danger of atheism is the lost of relationships. If God doesn’t exist, than building loving, meaningful relationships is futile. Once  someone dies, they’re gone forever–that’s it. There is no hope seeing them again no matter what they believed. Love is seen as a cruel emotion that shouldn’t be used and avoided with all costs because nothing has lasting value. Why love, if it’s all for nothing?  Again with this worldview, the only logical conclusion is to live for one person–yourself. So with the atheist reasoning, relationships are given little to no emphasis and above all else; you own survival is seen as the ultimate good. When you die; you die, death is the final blow to your existence.

So with all of this said we can now see that the question “Does God exists?”  is of utmost importance and changes the entire basis of our existence. In the upcoming three weeks we will examine the three main proofs of God’s existence: cosmology, intelligent design, and morals. We will look at the scientific reasons, philosophy reasons, and the common sense reasons. This research is by no means exhaustive but it’s a good basis for proving to someone that God does indeed exist. The evidence is simply overwhelming for God’s existence and I hope by the end of this month that your faith will be stronger because of these truths. Then you can boldly tell the world “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist!”

**Next week we will start off with a look at the cosmology argument and the often asked question: “Who made God?”. Also we’ll briefly look at why Earth is so privileged and the amazing facts behind its unique location. Then in two weeks we’ll get a brief look at the incredible design of life and why science supports creation. Finally, at the end of the month, we’ll look into the moral argument and why we have a sense for what’s right and wrong. God Bless.

 Sources:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism#cite_note-1 

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0051a.html

Discovering Love Languages

Sunday, February 28, 2010

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35

Relationships are what life is all about. We are made for relationships. To experience love and show love is the greatest privilege there is to be human. Love today is easily the most misused word in the English language. It’s used with little thought and with anything we have any affection towards. People say they love their car, dog, a meal, a new shirt, or a movie being quick to point it out with little hesitation. When we say “I love you” to a significant other, we often do it as an obligation or to get something in return from them. For some people love has become elusive and simply impossible to express correctly. If relationships are what life is all about and love is how we develop and grow in relationships; how do we express that love effectively to others?

There are five primary ways we as humans express love: words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, quality time, and physical touch. Everyone has one primary way to express love and also a primary way they like to receive love. Usually they are the same, but this is not always the case. Also you may be very effective in expressing more than one love language, but keep in mind that you have more wired to express one primary love language. Learning to speak your love language to others and what another person’s primary love language is; is the key to enhancing all of your relationships. Here is a brief overview of each of the five love languages:

Words have a powerful impact on us. While actions may speak louder than words, the truth of the matter is words still influence us greatly. That’s why words of affirmation is one of the five love languages. Words of affirmation is much harder for someone growing up in a negative household than someone who’s been encouraged with positive words by a role model or parent figure. But no matter where you are with this love language, it can be learned. It just takes practice and discipline to develop this love language. Simply learn how to convey your words for love and appreciation towards others.

Within words of affirmation there are many different dialects. The first is words of appreciation, which is expressing sincere gratitude for some act of service received. Words of encouragement are also a dialect and basically are when we inspire courage in one another. Another dialect  is  the dialect of praise, which is when we recognize someone’s accomplishment.  Finally, kind words is another dialect of words of affirmation. These dialects are done not only with what we say but in the manner in which we say it.  Words are very powerful indeed, so when speaking watch not only what you say, but the way you express it.

Giving gifts is one of the fundamental universal languages of love. The importance of gift giving is not in the gift itself but the emotional love that was communicated by the gift.  A gift must be given without strings attached, or it ceases to be a gift. Also it’s not a gift if it’s given just to cover up past failures. Gifts in their truest form are visual symbols of love. Gifts can be any size, shape, color, or price.

Gift giving is one of the easiest love languages to learn. Where do you begin?  Simply listen to others interests and what they care about. If you listen carefully, you will be able to pick up numerous clues as to what would be appropriate gifts for an individual person.   Just remember that buying for someone’s affection is not a good reason to give a gift! When you give a gift for the right reason, you will find joy and satisfaction that is hard to compare to anything else in the context of your relationships.

The third primary love language is acts of service. Life is filled with opportunities to express love by acts of service. It can be as simple as giving someone a ride to work, walking an elderly person across the street, or washing the dishes for your spouse. In every vocation, those who truly excel in life have a genuine desire to serve others. Those who are the most successful in all areas of life have learned the art of serving others. Service to others is the highest pinnacle man could ever scale.

Quality time, when used as an expression of genuine love, is a powerful emotional communicator. What is quality time? It simply means doing something together that two or more people enjoy. The activity itself is secondary, what’s important is the sense of togetherness. By spending time with someone, you show that you care about them and enjoy being in their company.

Just like words of affection, in quality time there are dialects. The most common dialect is quality conversion. Within this conversation there must be hearing and talking.  You must be willing to listen to what someone has to say with a genuine desire to understand their thoughts, feelings, and desires. Then we must be willing to verbalize our own thoughts, emotions, and desires to create a direct line of communication that creates a close bond between two people. The other main dialect of quality time is quality activities. This is simply doing anything in which one or both of you has an interest. The emphasis is not on what you are doing, though, as much as why you are doing it. The examples of quality activities are endless: seeing a movie together, sharing a meal, playing a game together, or walking in the woods together. Any time spent drawing closer to someone can be considered as quality time. When we spend time with someone we are entering their world and becoming part of their unique story. Life was meant to be experienced with others!

The final primary love language is physical touch. The body is made for touching and unlike the other four senses, touch is not limited to one localized area of the body. Through touch we can perceive something as warm or cold, hard or soft, painful or pleasurable. If  physical touch is your primary love language, then touches will speak much louder than hearing or saying the words “I love you.”

There are many ways to express physical touch but there are many inappropriate ways as well. First, we must learn from a person whom you are touching what he or she perceives as a loving touch. Also when touching someone of the opposite sex we must be use caution and care when using physical touch. When we misuse this love language it can become sexual harassment or even physical abuse. Also keep in mind the setting of a physical touch. What is appropriate in one place may not be appropriate in another. Finally, remember that not everyone likes the same kind of touches. Every individual is unique, so learn not only what a person’s love language is but also they dialect they best receive love.  When used correctly, physical touch can be powerful means of expressing love.  A  simple pat of the back, a hug, holding hands, or giving someone a massage are all ways in which to show love.

How do I discover my love language?  First you must observe your own behavior. How do you typically express love and appreciation to others? If you are always encouraging others, then most likely your love language is words of affirmation. If you are constantly giving gifts on special occasions to others, then your love language is probably gifts, and so on. Next, observe what you request of others. If you are always asking friends to help you with projects, then acts of service may be your love language. Or if you are asking loved ones to give you a hug, then physical touch could be your love language. Finally, listen to your complaints. This could be either your verbal complaints or the silent ones you don’t express. If you complain to your friends that they have no time for you, then your love language could be quality time. Or if you complain constantly that no one is helping you clean the house, then maybe your love language is acts of service. Our complaints reveal our deep emotional hurts, so the opposite of what hurts you the most is probably your love language.

Once you confirm your primary love language, discover what your family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors love language is. Simply do the three steps that you did to find your love language  for each of them. How do they express love and show appreciation? Observe their requests from others. Look into their complaints and see what emotional hurts them the most. By following these three simple steps, you can begin to love others in the way they are built to be loved. Once you establish love languages, let others know what yours is and start expressing yours to others in all your relationships. Once we learn how to love lavishly we begin to experience life the way it was meant to be lived full of joy, significance, and purpose!

**Next week I will begin a very lengthy series on the two most important questions we are faced as human beings: Does God exist? and What is the meaning of life? In March we will look at the amazing evidence for God’s existence and why we should be confident in our faith. Then starting in April we will begin a five month journey looking into discovering why we’re here, who we are, finding our calling, our unique gifts we possess, how to use our strengths to serve the church and much more. For more information on this check out the page titled Special on this website. Also starting next week my blogs will be featured in the Northside Christian Church blog site at  http://northsideccblog.wordpress.com/ on Mondays. Have a great week and God Bless.

Sources: Gary Chapman Love As a Way of Life. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Waterbrook Press, 2008.

Gary Chapman The Five Love Languages For Singles. Chicago, Illinois, Northfield Publishing, 2004.