Ps 34:17 Jas 5:16

I wrote a post earlier in the week, but I wasn't sure about it so I didn't post it. Now I'm glad I didn't because a remarkable thing happened to me today...

Let me back up to yesterday. Yesterday I was very discouraged about my environment. I'm the only Christian in my department at school. And that's fine. I'm sure lots of people share that experience. People talk about the "myth" of the bible in my classes and how Jesus Christ isn't a historical figure. I never appreciate their error, but I can usually persevere. Yesterday, however, we had a social gathering of sorts to kick off the semester. People talked about things I didn't want to talk about as a Christian, drank things I wouldn't drink as a Christian, acted in a way I just wouldn't act as a Christian. Fine, no big deal, that's my every day. But then something happened that really bothered me. It bothered me so much, in fact, that all of the other things that I usually just let go began to bother me too.      I told my friends I had to leave (before the party was over) and when they asked why I told them that I was going to church and that I didn't want to be late. That made everyone very confused and uncomfortable. Confused and uncomfortable. These people know that I'm a Christian and yet, they don't know how to respond to the fact that I'm acting like one.

That made me very sad. I began to think to myself "Maybe it doesn't even matter to them if I'm a Christian. Maybe the fact that they flippantly reject the Bible is a product of me doing nothing--being nothing different. Maybe I'm wasting my opportunity here."

And then I thought of Ezekiel and how he was commanded to be the watchman for Israel--he was responsible for them. He had to give them the message. Had I not followed his example?

I didn't know if all of those thoughts were true or if I was just being dramatic, but I knew that the best way to handle those sorts of feelings was to pray. I prayed that I would do better. That I would have opportunities to talk to my friends and my peers and that I would take them and run with them. I prayed that I would be given courage to be exactly the person that I needed to be to make a difference, regardless of how I had done in the past.

This where what I want to share with you begins. That absolutely worked. Prayer worked. God worked in my life. And it was a wonderful thing. The more I think about it, the more wonderful it is. The Creator of the universe listened to me begging him to give me the chance to share him with other people, and he granted my request. He let the world continue to exist today, he allowed me to continue living, he let me get to school safely, he let my friends get to school safely, and he opportunity. Because of Him, I get to share this story with you now:

Today one of my friends came to me and asked me what she called "a personal question". She wanted to know how it was for me as a Christian person to study Islam so closely like we are this semester. God opened the door for me in that moment to talk about his gospel and his goodness and why it is that I want people to believe in him, and why it is that I believe in him. And he has continued to open doors so that I will have opportunities very soon to talk with my professors about my faith as well.

What an awesome God I serve. In my weakness he gave me strength and opportunity. That's not me at all. That's zero percent me. Yesterday I said to myself "They don't care about my faith. This is an impossible scenario." When all the while Christ was saying to me "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt 19:26)

Let us praise God's power, his acute awareness of our needs, and his willingness to answer our prayers so that we can serve him more effectively.



“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" Matthew 7:7-11

A Part of the Club

During my undergraduate career, I was privileged to be a part of two different honors societies. These societies accepted people based on grades and had specific standards you had to uphold to retain membership. My senior year, I was the vice president of our school's chapter of Phi Theta Cappa. There was a separate set of requirements that I had to meet and standards I had to maintain for this office. I took an oath and everything.

None of this seemed strange to me. Almost any sort of club or group has rules about joining and maintaining membership. I haven't done any scientific research on this, but the general breakdown seems to be fairly straightforward. To join a club one must:

1. Share the interests of those in the club (whether it be a love of birdwatching, or a commitment to academic excellence)
2. Express interest in joining the club (how will they know to accept you if you don't make an effort?)
3. Usually pay some sort of dues (whether they be monetary or not)
4. Agree to abide by the rules of the club (come to the bi-weekly meetings, maintain a certain GPA, etc.)
5. Actually abide by these rules (once you've made an agreement, there can be consequences if you don't follow through)

Like I said, it's pretty straight forward. So here's my question: Why do we want to believe that there isn't a set of standards that allow people to be accepted into, and maintain a position in, the Lord's body (read universal church)? Now I wouldn't say that the universal church is a "club," per se, but it is certainly an organization with standards. So, it stands to reason that it would have the same sort of requirements of any other group. We like to deny these requirements in the name of "grace" and "acceptance," but organizations don't work that way. Could you imagine if a college didn't hold it's honors societies to some sort of academic standard... "It's okay. You had a good GPA at one point--that's what counts. We'll let you stay in this society even though you have a 1.0 now. No big deal."     That would be laughable. If there isn't a standard that is upheld, there's really no reason to set some people apart as a different group. Nothing defines them.

Let's look again at the standards for membership in a club as they apply to membership in the universal church. To be a member of the Lord's church one must:

1. Share the interests of those in the club (Christians must be of the same mind [Philippians 2:1-2]--reaching always toward Christ [Philippians 3:14-15])
2. Express interest in being a part of the body (this includes confessing Jesus as Lord [Romans 10:9], expressing love and desire to serve him [John 14:15], and turning away from a life of sin [Mark 1:15])
3. Be baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (This constitutes paying "dues" only in that it is a requirement for salvation just as dues are a requirement for membership in some other type of group [Acts 2:37-38])
4. Follow the rules outlined in the bible/ abstain from sin (Jesus exhorts those he has healed or forgiven to "sin no more" [John 5:14] and Paul reiterates this exhortation in Romans 6:1-4) 

They may be rigorous standards, but they aren't complicated. They are the same sort of standards we see for any other club, and although we have God's grace to help us in our weakness, we should not be unwilling to live up to the standards he has set for those who want to be a part of Him. If we will comply with standards in other things, why wouldn't we comply with them for the Lord?

Why I don't say "I believe"

I was recently writing a letter to one of my friends in which I wanted to talk about why I will continue to believe the message of the Bible. I struggled with this topic because I was tied to the phrase "I believe." I wrote things like "I believe the bible is the word of God," and "I believe that the bible has the answer for everything." These are certainly things that I believe, but they don't inherently cause me to continue to believe them. People stop believing in things all the time (Santa, the Tooth Fairy, etc). I wrestled with this problem with quite some time, until I decided to phrase my letter in a way that was true, but that made me very uncomfortable. I ended up telling my friend very simply that the Bible was the word of God whether or not I believed it, and that I am the type of person who acts upon things I know to be true.

It's interesting to me that Christians are so often uncomfortable with presenting the Bible as fact. I had another situation recently in which I was not courageous enough to talk about the bible in a way that really reflects what I know about it. As I was having a conversation with some colleagues, I said that I believed that there was only one "correct" religion. After I had written so plainly in my letter about the truth of the bible, it felt very disingenuous to call my relationship with the bible "belief." I used "believe" as mediating language to make my stance seem less exclusive instead of presenting biblical ideas as absolute guidelines that I follow.

You may be saying to yourself at this point: "You can't be 100% sure about the Bible or God or Jesus Christ, so really belief is the right word to use when discussing it."

In some ways I would agree with you, I suppose. I thought to myself several times that belief isn't necessarily an incorrect word, but then I thought about the surface of the sun.

I know the surface of the sun is very very hot. It is so hot, in fact, that I know that a person couldn't go there to find out exactly how hot it is. I don't know that anyone would disagree that the sun's surface is very hot, despite the fact that no one can go there to tell us for sure. There are several reasons that this is the case:

1. People smarter than us have assured us that the surface of the sun is hot.
2. We feel warmer in sunlight than out of sunlight
3. We see the other effects of the heat of the sun in the world around us
4. Other facts we know seem to support the idea that the sun is hot.

Without knowing 100% for certain that the surface of the sun is very very hot, we treat it as a fact. I have never heard anyone say "I am not going to go outside today because I believe that the sun is very hot." People say that they will not go outside because the sun is hot. Their confidence in what they know about the sun eliminates the need for a qualifying statement. Whether or not they "buy into" the idea of a hot sun makes no difference. The sun is hot andthat heat informs their actions.

The same sort of thing goes for God and the truth of the Bible. I don't have to qualify actions by citing my belief in different aspects of the Bible because I am assured that what I know about them is true. Many wise people who I respect very much have taught me that the God of the Bible is the true and living God. I feel the effects of prayer and the benefits of living a Christian life. Additionally, I see the Creator in the world around me (Romans 1:20). Everything I know points to a Creator, and things I know about the Bible show me its truth. My belief of disbelief is irrelevant. I act the way I do because of the absolute truth I have been exposed to.

I'm not sure what the practical ramifications of these ideas are, necessarily. Nor am I confident that I have fully explained everything I have to say on this topic. I don't think we should eliminate the word "believe" from our vocabulary, or refuse to acknowledge the faith we have as Christians. Faith is a fundamental part of my Christian walk.  However, if I understand the absolute truth of the Bible, I should not be afraid to treat its contents as facts. I think that's really what I'm getting at. Treating the Bible as a fact isn't the popular thing to do, and in modern society it can be scary to discuss anything as "absolute," but the message of the Bible is as true as the heat of the sun--and that's something that is worth standing up for.