'removing' God

sometimes happenings in the USA make me want to pull out my hair. we've removed God because we tiny little dots on huge planet Earth think we know better.

example 1: America has decided that abortion is a 'woman's right to choice;' the baby inside is labeled a 'piece of tissue.'

BUT this is the news i saw a few weeks ago: a man was upset at his girlfriend, who was pregnant, and he shot her, 'killing her and the unborn BABY.'

yep, the news reporter said BABY.

can't everyone just admit that we all know it's a BABY??? it's not a clump of nameless, formless, unimportant tissue. it's a living, moving, feeding, feeling human being.

ridiculous how it's a BABY if someone shoots it or if it's killed in a car accident, but it's an 'unwanted pregnancy' or a 'fetus' (sounds like an alien) if a mother wants to get an abortion. 

how can it be murder in one instance, but the woman's right to choose in another???

bottom line: when we remove GOD from creation and make laws based on what's convenient or what gives us immediate gratification, we start to contradict ourselves. our 'truth' changes according to the mood we're in and we lose our ability to make sense.

the life inside a mother is a baby from the first moment to the time it's born. labeling it a 'piece of tissue' so that you can rationalize killing is wrong. somewhere inside, everyone knows this, which is why everyone's gut reaction to an unborn baby being killed is horror and sadness and anger.

it can't be a baby worth saving in one circumstance and a fetus that grew like a tumor in another.... 

example 2: here's another piece of news i heard a couple of weeks ago: a boy and girl in high school went to prom together. afterwards, he took her home and drove himself home. after she'd changed or something, she drove herself over to his house, where they had sex. the news reported that the 'rapist' was now in jail facing charges because of the poor 'victim' who was taken advantage of on prom night. 

WHAT??! come on! she drove herself over there!

the fine line was that she was 17, and he probably happened to be 18. so suddenly she is an underaged 'victim' and he's an adult 'rapist.' ridiculous. she is responsible too.

bottom line: when we remove GOD from our lives and replace HIS VALUES with arbitrary laws, nothing makes sense. if the girl had turned 18 five minutes before they had sex, they'd be 'two consenting adults.' nonsense.

the real problem is that people want to have sex when they want to have sex, regardless of marriage. once you remove sex from the confines of marriage, anything goes. but we still realize that we need SOME sort of boundaries, so someone came up with an arbitrary age. but by making it arbitrary, they have removed the REASON BEHIND the rule.

let me tangent on this a bit...

the reason for sex being in the confines of marriage is that God meant it to be the most meaningful way of sharing yourself completely with another human being. it's a way of showing your commitment, a way of distinguishing this special person from anyone else on the planet. 

ultimately, marriage is the picture of how intimate and personal our commitment is supposed to be to Jesus. in light of this, sex in marriage is one of the most beautiful and amazing parts of life.

outside of marriage, sex is one of the most cheapening, hurtful, meaningless, and sad things you can do with your body.

same with the commitment of our souls. committing your life and soul to Jesus is the most meaningful and freeing and awesome thing you can do. on the flipside, committing your soul to anything else in the world (money, yourself, success, your loved ones...) leads to meaninglessness, to living a totally unfulfilled life, and to spiritual death.

removing God removes all reason.

you may think you have eliminated God from your life, but just because you've denied His existence or decided He doesn't matter, doesn't mean He ceases to exist. and it doesn't mean that you are not accountable to Him.

"'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,

'every knee will bow before Me;

every tongue will confess to God.'

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."

Romans 14:11-12

be careful of the decisions you make. 

are you rationalizing away what's right so that you can be more comfortable?? 

are you forfeiting your sense and reason because you refuse to make a stand for truth? 

are you being careless and wishy-washy with your beliefs because your friends think they're stupid?

where is your allegiance? Jesus said this to those who thought they had it all together:

"You belong to your father, the devil,

and you want to carry out your father's desire.

He was a murderer from the beginning,

not holding to the truth, 

for there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks his native language,

for he is a liar and the father of lies.

He who belongs to God hears what God says. 

The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

John 8:44, 47

the size of faith

most Christians like to think that they have a pretty good amount of faith in God. we really believe, right? you might not think you feel proud of yourself about your amount of faith, but consider this: if anyone questions your faith, you probably feel angry, even indignant, right? how DARE someone say you don't believe with all your heart!

but think about true faith in God. faith can move mountains! that's not just a saying. read Matthew 17:20. you may be thinking, come on, move a real mountain? yes. that's what i'm saying. Kilimanjaro. Mount St. Helens. Mount Everest. that sounds ridiculous. well, how about we shrink it down a little. how about a tree?

Jesus, who also talked about moving mountains with faith, said:

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, 

you can say to this mulberry tree, 

'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' 

and it will obey you." 

Luke 17:6

how many of you have told a tree to be planted in the sea, and then watched as it uprooted itself and ran off to obey? that is the power embodied in a piece of faith the size of a tiny mustard seed!

do you know how big a mustard seed is? wikipedia lists they diameter as 1 to 2 mm. i've cooked with them and find that they truly are tiny, and they are easily lost as they bounce out of sight through the cracks. here's a photo:

of course, moving land masses and greenery by talking to them is not the point of Jesus' words. the context of His statement is that He was instructing His disciples to forgive a believing brother who'd sinned against them and come back to ask for forgiveness, even 7 times in one day! tough. but Jesus goes on to make the point that having faith and forgiveness are our duty as believers. God won't stand up and cheer or congratulate us or thank us for doing what we should have been doing all along: forgiving others (remember, if you are not PERFECT, you have been forgiven to the same extent as anyone else) and having faith in God (we have no excuse for not believing in Him, as He has blessed everyone with everything from breath to the beautiful nature we see around us).

faith is trusting in the One who created the universe with just words. HE is the object of our faith. it doesn't matter how weak or how incapable you may be; Jesus will be your strength. it's not about you anyway. your life is supposed to be the vessel through which people see God.

and He doesn't just deserve it, He loves you too. He wants what's best for you. trust in Him!

and the next time a brother or sister in Christ comes to you and asks for forgiveness, step out in faith and forgive. it may be hard, but GOD will give you the ability to really mean it. i struggle SO many times when my husband asks me for forgiveness, even for little things. my emotions tell me to refuse him; i'm angry with what he's done! but God says i MUST forgive. it's my duty because Jesus offered forgiveness when i was still doing wrong things, while i was in the act of spitting in His face.

faith and forgiveness are tough. but God builds them up in us as we PRACTICE them. let's not just rest thinking we have faith; let's put them into practice!

for more on forgiveness, please read my post: in the midst of my mess

sudden perfection?

many people seem to think that if you pray to Jesus for salvation, you suddenly, magically, obtain the ability to be a perfect person, and, in fact, you should act perfectly all the time now. you're either 'there, made it!' or totally 'not there, complete sinning atheist'. people that think this way see a Christian falter, even in minor ways, and think 'how could you call yourself a Christian??!!! you didn't say thank you when i opened the door for you! i am never becoming a Christian, because apparently it doesn't work... you're still messed up!'

another line of thinking about becoming a Christian is that you have to somehow get yourself together first, before you can own the label 'Christian'. these people put off committing to Jesus because they think all the fun in life will be over if they follow Jesus. some put it off because they can't seem to get themselves 'together' enough to feel worthy enough to talk to Jesus at all.

the truth is that neither option is true!

in Philippians 3, Paul talks about how, in the world's eyes, he had 'made it.' before meeting Jesus, he had attained the highest religious ranks, he was a perfect citizen, a perfect Jew from the right lineage. he was the ultimate of ultimates. but when he met Jesus, he realized that all those things that made people admire him were total garbage! a waste of time and energy.

you may think, 'how's that possible? he was doing everything required! he met all the criteria! it's got to count for something, right?!'

the reality is that he was running full speed in the wrong direction. imagine you're a fan at the olympics, sitting in the stands to watch the 200 meter race. the crowd is sitting in awe and anticipation, the lights brightly shine on the track, the racers are poised in the blocks, the gun pops, and..... wait, one of the runners is running the opposite direction of everyone else!!! he's all alone going as fast as he can clockwise around the track! he's giving it his all... he rounds the bend, like a bullet... the crowd is gasping, the racers cross the finish line, the times come up on the board... he's not on there, and if he is, his name is dead last. even though they find out later that he demolished Usain Bolt's time and would've won the race, his time doesn't count. he wasn't going the right way. the whole crowd of spectators, including you, would agree that he didn't follow the rules; it's only fair that he lost. sad, but fair.

God is fair. He looked at Paul's heart before Paul met Jesus, and knew that Paul hadn't followed God's way. in fact, Paul was crossing the country specializing in killing Christians! he was running full speed in the wrong direction. he had 'gotten himself together' by the world's standards, but it didn't mean a thing.

Paul goes on to say that the only thing that counts is that he knows Christ! that's all there is to it. when he would die and stand in front of God, he wouldn't be bringing up the fact that he was such a great Jewish leader; all that mattered was that Jesus saved him and turned him around so he would run the race in the right direction.

but that salvation from Jesus didn't make him a sudden 'holy man'. he didn't stop being a sin-prone human. he didn't suddenly understand the whole world.

what he says is this:

"Only let us live up to what we have already attained." 

Philippians 3:16

the thing is, God accepted his repentance right when he repented. God took him in while he was still on his way to kill some Christians in Damascus. there were some immediate changes - he didn't go kill those Christians - but he had a long way to go to be perfect! and years later, when he was writing all these letters to churches he had planted, he says that what Christians should do is live up to what we have already attained. when we don't know much, we live according to what we know, praying that God continues to teach us and that we continue to learn. if a kid is in 3rd grade, you don't expect him to know trigonometry. and if he's a senior in high school, you don't expect him to be unable to spell his name. he should live up to what he has already attained.

it's a process, always moving, always changing, always forward. the important thing is to seek God fully along the way, and He will help you grow.

where are you in your journey? what have you already attained?

do you just believe there's a God, but aren't convinced of anything else? live up to that. think about what that means. what is God? all-powerful, all-knowing, He loves unconditionally, He is perfect, He is always right. it means He created everything, and that means everything belongs to Him. it also means He's bigger than everything. sounds like He's worthy of being worshipped! live with that in mind, and He will show you more.

do you believe the Bible speaks God's truth? live up to that. what does that even mean? well, it must be worth reading. God can speak through it to you. and if God, the amazing being Who created everything and is so perfect, allowed His thoughts to be written on paper for you to read, you must be special to Him! live with that in mind, and He will show you more.

do you believe Jesus told the truth? live up to that. what does that mean? it means He was related to God personally as His Son, which must mean He knew some stuff! it means He was wiser than everyone around Him, and that He was like God. He said if anyone saw Him they saw His Father. whoa. it means He predicted His death and resurrection and those both came true - which means He raised Himself from the grave! who else can claim that?! live with that in mind, and He will show you more.

do you believe that you have sinned and that Jesus is the only way to be saved from your sin? live up to that. what does it mean? it means if you don't accept Him, you're in deep trouble! and if you do accept Him, it means you are incredibly relieved and grateful! it means you are covered by His perfection, even though you still sometimes mess up. it requires that you live your life to please and honor the One who saved your soul! and if you're trying to live to please Him, it means you read His Bible and pray to Him to find out what pleases Him, from the way you dress to the way you think. live with that in mind, and He will show you more.

we can always grow. we always have more to attain. it's not a boring life! we are not 'there' yet, and we can't 'get ourselves together'. come as you are. surrender to His KINGship. Jesus is waiting to show you more.