Grace / Law

     The “Grace/Law” picture at first glance conveys a message of Jesus the Christ’s grace being sufficient for all religions and beliefs.  It also shows the law dying on the cross, which would remove the notion of sin in the world.  This is very controversial in Christianity today and there is great criticism between the grace and law messages, as well as all of those in between.  The letters of grace each represent a belief system; the beliefs being Evolution, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Gender Equality respectively.  The cross has the Ten Commandments nailed to each arm representing the law being fulfilled through Jesus’ death.  The cross also reinforces this idea with the words, “The Law Fulfilled” engraved on it.

What Christianity Is: Faith or Works?

     Many people try to separate faith and works thinking that you have to earn God's favor or that just faith in Christ is enough to be a Christian.  Those who believe that we have to earn God's favor tend to be harsh and judgmental towards others.  However, those who believe that we only have to have faith tend to be overly sympathetic and accepting of sinful acts.  What I believe to be the correct choice is the middle ground: faith and works are the only way to Christianity.

The Difference Between Pastors and Evangelists

      I hear so many "pastors" in the church today speaking about how wrong some Christians and other leaders of the church are for being on the other side of a topic within Christianity and it really bothers me.  Pastoring a church is not about making sure that everyone believes just like you do because the fact is that everyone's beliefs vary slightly because no one has the same understanding or experience as anyone else.  An Evangelist is concerned with whether others share there beliefs or not, not a pastor.  Many "pastors" seem to be more concerned with people agreeing with their belief system than they are of spiritual growth.  The position of a pastor is to help the members of his/her church grow spiritually, not to tell them how they should believe and condemn them when they don't believe that way.  The job of the evangelist is to bring people to their own understandings.  Many "pastors" will argue against this idea by using the shepherd parables from the Bible*.  They will say that it is their job to keep the sheep pointed in the right direction, however, a shepherd is to feed and nourish his sheep to facilitate growth as well as lead the sheep in the right direction.  This "right" direction doesn't mean that the pastor has to conform the congregation to his belief system, but it does mean that he has to give them a general direction and that it is ok for them to waver back and forth because they are all going to the same place as they are all his sheep.  The shepherd is also supposed to protect his sheep, but this doesn't mean that we shouldn't have freedom to explore ideas, it means that the pastor is to be careful of what he allows in his church.  I believe that a great example of the position of a pastor is my Resident Chaplain (RC), Jake.  Jake is a Calvinist and doesn't believe that we have free will to choose God; he believes that God chooses us.  This does not stop Jake from leading Bible studies on our floor and speaking into our lives whether we agree with Calvinism or not because his job is to help us grow in Christ, not to impose his beliefs on us.  Pastoring is not about cloning your own beliefs, but it is about raising up a generation of strong Christians to change the world!  Evangelists on the other hand are the ones who are supposed to bring people to Christ.  Unlike pastors, they are not dealing with people who are already Christians, but are dealing with those who have yet to come to Christ.  Therefore, evangelists are meant to bring people to their own beliefs in Christ and help lead them into a church where they can make their own assumptions about scripture and grow into a healthy relationship with God.

*1 Peter 5:2-4 "2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away."

Life Is Beautiful

     In our modern culture we too often are too busy to step back and appreciate the beauty of life.  Have you ever just stopped and looked at the trees, flowers, animals, or even the ocean and just thought about how perfect all of those things are?  Have you ever thought about everything it takes for something to live and how beautifully perfect it is?  Look at the stars and take in the amazing sight that they are for they are the light in the darkness!  Look at the plants that live and grow into such beautiful things that give life to everything around them!  Look at the animals who live and do only what is necessary for survival!  There is such an awe striking quality in the complex simplicity of life!  Life gives life so that it can continue to live and grow!  Life never stops, it just moves on from one being to the next!  When one thing dies it provides life for the next, so is it truly dying?  When a living thing dies it can either decompose into the ground and become fertilizer for plants, or it can be eaten by animals and give them energy; both of these things are used to keep living things alive.  Life is the most complexly simple beauty that we have available to us!

 "Nothing.  Nothing cannot exist, because it is the opposite of existing.  To believe in nothingness is just that nothing.  Like death, death is not a state, its the absence of state.  Death to me is very unreal.  All I see is life.  In a dead body, I see simply life, the bacteria have already begun to decompose it.  Where then is death?" -- Chris Featherstone

     Biblically speaking God created all life.  Let that soak in for a moment.  God created all life!  Remember this next time you go outside soak in the life around you and recognize that God did all of it.  The next thing I want you to recognize is that God is life.  God breathed life into Adam and he became alive*.  Breath is commonly associated with spirit in ancient texts, therefore God gave Adam part of His spirit to bring him to life.  We all have God's spirit dwelling in us no matter who we are or what we believe!  God is in the plants and the animals.  God is life!  Therefore life cannot begin or end because God does not begin or end.  God is in all things and thus all things are Holy; this is why it is a sin to kill.  The Bible states that man is not to live by bread alone, but also by the words of God**.  God's words are what created all things and life itself, therefore we are to live by scripture and the world around us!  We are to love the world as God does because it His creation!

     *Genesis 2

     **Matthew 4:4

The Creation Account and The Big Bang

     If you look into what science and Christianity have to say about the origins of the world, then you may be surprised and you may realize that there must be a God. In the big bang theory everything began as a small dense fourth dimensional mass which can be seen as in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. God is timeless and so is the fourth dimension according to most science fiction writers; coincidence? I think not. Science doesn't know what cause this immensely dense fourth dimensional mass to expand(not explode), but they do know that the reason it did is because somehow light began to separate from the mass causing many chemical reactions. The Bible states that God said, "Let there be light". How would early Christians know that light came first without access to the amazing science that we have today unless God clued them in on it? Then the Bible says that God separated the waters of the Heavens from the waters of the Earth, thus the Heavens and the Earth separated and grew apart as the universe expanded. But wait, there is even more to these theories. Science states next that there was so much heat from the expansion of all of the molecules that the light was muffled by a dense fog-like state of the molecules and light would not return again until the sun and stars were formed. This explains why the Bible recreates the separation of light from dark and God creates the sun, stars and moon. As the stars appeared in Science everything began to cool and thus planets were formed. I don't think that it is a coincidence that everything lines up almost perfectly with the Bible. How could early Hebrews know the order that science has determined the world came to be in without divine enlightenment from God? I don't think they could have.  These are my thoughts on the topic and I know the two theories don't fit together perfectly, but they are close enough that you have to wonder how the Hebrews could have gotten so close without our modern advances.

     Genesis 1

Defending Christianity With Other Beliefs

    When someone questions, denies, or attacks your beliefs you are to defend them if you are a Christian*.  In order to defend your beliefs, you must know what the other person is saying about your beliefs.  To know what the other person is saying about your beliefs, you must know what they believe.  To know what they believe, you must research the ideas of their beliefs.  If you do not do this, then they will not listen to you because you will not be able to defend your beliefs against theirs.  Once you do know what they believe and the main points of their beliefs, then you will be able to have a conversation with them without looking(and sounding) like a fool.  Many Christians today would avoid everything about other religions at all costs because they believe that even discussing them will lead to confusion and the dangers of "falling off the path".  They believe that learning about these religions is a sin because you are somehow denying God.  These are the same Christians who are generally sola scriptura and they have no idea that they are denying the Bible by refusing to learn about other religions*.  The scripture reference that you will find on the bottom of this post tells us to always be ready to defend our faith, but to do it with care and respect.  This doesn't mean to tell them that we claim our faith because of something in the Bible or something that we have experienced.  Why, because they don't believe in the Bible and are not going to start because we can quote a scripture and if we try to use our own experiences they will write us off as crazy.  Once you realize this, you may ask what else you can do.  You can research their beliefs and find out what makes their beliefs so appealing to them.  Show them the common points in your beliefs and how they tell the same story and how their beliefs actually point to yours because that will affect them a lot more than mindless quoting of scripture.  Now you may ask how you would stay respectful and kind in doing this.  My answer is that you present your common points and show them that you understand where they are coming from and then explain how the Bible shows where everything adds up in the gray areas of their texts.  This won't offend them and the worst that could happen is they think their beliefs suit them better and then you can still talk to them regularly and gain a new perspective on the world.  Another way to share your faith is to not be disgruntled or angry when it is questioned.  So many Christians fall into the trap of non-Christians and get angry, defensive, and confrontational when their beliefs are disrespected or questioned.  Instead of going into a frenzy and trying to throw scripture at the attacker, defend your faith by showing that it is real.  How do you do that?  You do not get angry and throw insults back, you respectfully disagree and either move on or do as I have instructed above.

Lets face it, you cannot defend God, convincingly. You can offer explanations and all that but the truth is no one is bound or obliged to believe how you think your God is good. To an atheist, a Muslim praising his God, a Buddhist praising Buddha and a Christian praising Jesus is all the same.  Most atheists display a remarkable ignorance of faith and its inner working. And so very often if you are going to quote your bible, my bet is it is not going to work because to the atheist it is a “crap load of fabricated stories”.

 Regardless of what you believe, he is entitled to his opinion. But my point is, do not step into something you can not achieve, and that is you can not defend God and the truth is you are never asked in the scriptures to defend God. There is a difference, you are called to show how God changed your life. Don’t be pissed off, do not be angered, frustrating as it may be, do not give into it. God is more than adequate to defend himself, for that he doesn’t need you. But your faith is something that only you can defend and that is something you should always remember.

Read more:  http://johnadavid.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/defend-your-faith-not-god/

 

    The Bible calls us to defend our faith and argument against that are not Biblical.  Some will say that the word of God doesn't need to be defended, but in defining what the word of God is you are defending it.  If someone asks you what exactly the word of God is and you tell them it is the Bible, then you have just defended the stance that the Bible is the word of God.  If you claim that someone talked into faith can be talked out of faith and use that as a defense against reasoning someone into believing in God, then you need to read 1 Corinthians 15, for in it Paul gives reason for believing in Christ**.

Those who oppose these clear biblical teachings and examples may say, "The Word of God does not need to be defended!"  But which of the world's writings are the Word of God?  As soon as someone answers that, he is doing apologetics.  Some claim that human reason cannot tell us anything about God-but that statement itself is a "reasonable" statement about God.  If it's not, then there is no reason to believe it.  A favorite saying is, "If someone can talk you into Christianity, then someone else can talk you out."  Why is this a problem?  Did not Paul himself give a criterion (the resurrection) by which Christianity should be accepted or rejected in 1 Corinthians 15?  It is only misplaced piety that answers in the negative.

Read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/defend-faith.html#ixzz2wnPOM2wf 

    There are countless other passages that would reinforce reason in the Bible and if you need more, feel free to ask me.

     *1 Peter 3:15 - "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  But do this with gentleness and respect," New International Version

     **1 Corinthians 15