Miranda's Baptism

Two years ago today my daughter Miranda was baptized. It was a great day and we are very proud of her and the decision that she made. I wrote this poem for her back then and read it to her at lunch when we went out to celebrate with friends and family. We were anxiously waiting / Our dreams to be fulfilled / Full of fear and trembling / As this love was revealed // Our lives were changed forever / She was so fragile and so small / Questioning all we knew / As we journeyed through it all // As we held her we knew / A brand new kind of love / Completely without merit / Her presence was enough // We bowed our heads and wondered / How He could trust us with such a task / We prayed for faith and wisdom / To do whatever He has asked // We’ve been through many struggles / And many victories / We’ve made mistakes along the way / That brought us to our knees // We’ve watched her grow in wisdom / And find peace in God’s embrace / She found joy in “Jesus Loves Me” / And now has comfort in “Amazing Grace” // And as she’s buried in the water / With her life she will proclaim / I was dead in my transgressions / But I found life in Jesus’ name //

My Neighbor

Jesus told us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and until recently I didn't get exactly how much this command demands of me. In order to love others as I love myself I must first ask the question, "Well, how do I love myself?" Then questions must be asked like, "When I'm hungry, how do I love myself?" "When I'm thirsty, how do I love myself?" When I'm sick, how do I love myself?" Because what Jesus is saying is that whatever answers I have for these kinds of questions is what I should do for others when they are hungry, thirsty, sick, and so on. I should treat others as I would like to be treated myself. I know that none of these ideas are new. I've heard all of them before. So what makes this different. What makes it different to me is the question that Jesus was answering when He said this. What is the greatest commandment? Jesus' response, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." Loving your neighbor as yourself is central to the whole gospel message and goes far beyond a warm fuzzy feeling you have for the people you share this planet with. How many of us truly love our neighbors. "On these two cammandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Kingdom of Heaven?

The kingdom of Heaven is referred to many times in the Bible but it has occured to me lately that many disagree about what that is exactly. Then I realized that I hadn't given much thought to what is meant by the kingdom of Heaven. What did Jesus mean when He said the kingdom of Heaven is near or is at hand? Certain scriptures make it impossible to restrict it's meaning to just Heaven itself. So what does it refer to? Sense this is my blog here's my two cents. It seems to me that the kingdom of Heaven, or the kingdom of God, refers to the spiritual domain which is ruled by God and is open to all. Those who put their faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are citizens of that kingdom. It is not something we have to wait for but something that is available now. When I think of it this way I get a sort of "Chronicles of Narnia" feel about my life. I am a citizen in a kingdom that is ruled by an all mighty God. I am more than flesh and bones. It brings to the forefront the idea that I am already part of a spiritual world. The kingdom of God does not seem to be a physical place as we think of kingdoms. And for that reason, it is not limit by borders or walls. It reaches over the entire earth and beyond.

Homophobic Response

I have done quite a bit of reading and have put a lot of thought into the subject of homosexuality recently because the topic keeps popping up everywhere. It has appeared in lessons at church, in conversations on Facebook, and on the national stage (gay marriages approved in NY). In my reading, I admit I was troubled by the widespread acceptance of the gay lifestyle by people who claim to be Christians. I am equally troubled by the hatred of homosexuals by people who claim to be Christians. As Christians we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, and as part of that love, we are called to expose the darkness so that God's light might be seen. If we have faith and believe in what God has said then we as Christians must condemn the act of homosexuality (Lev. 18:22, 20:13, Rom. 1:26-27, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, 1 Tim. 1:9-11) while loving those who claim homosexuality as their sexual orientation. Every one of us is friends with people who sin, and even people who have accepted something sinful as a regular part of their lives, but we don't hate them or disassociate ourselves from them. So why do so many Christians treat homosexuals that way? Why is a homosexual couple ushered out the back doors or ignored while the adulterous husband is prayed over and comforted and promised help?

I believe there are two main reasons. One of these is our societies inability to separate the doer from the deed when it comes to homosexuals. This is the direct result of what gay activists have been pushing for. They have been working for a long time to get homosexuality to be perceived as something they are and not something they do. Because of this, people automatically assume that if I condemn the practice of homosexuals then I am condemning homosexuals themselves. It is ingenious on their part because we cannot condemn homosexual behavior without people responding by calling us bigots or haters. However, liars, fornicators, adulterers, thieves, and more, flood through the doors of church buildings every week and are welcomed with open arms. The church clearly speaks out against the sins that these people are involved in but bigotry and hate do not seem to be present. The sins that they are caught up in are not condoned and yet they are loved. The problem is that many Christians, based on the false perception that has been accepted by society at large, believe that they must either fully accept both the sinner and the sin or reject both the sinner and the sin. As Christians we must fight this false perception and let the world know that this is not a package deal and that we can love someone even as we openly disapprove of what they’re doing.

I believe that the second reason why homosexuals are treated different is because we like our churches to be safe comfortable places where we can shelter ourselves and our loved ones from the world. Homosexuals are not the only group of people who fall into this category. If I tried to invite a murderer or a sex offender to church it would definitely cause a stir. I understand the risks of welcoming someone who has murdered people, or someone who has served time for raping little children into our buildings. I even understand why some people are afraid of letting homosexuals in. I would be lying if I said it wouldn't make me a little uncomfortable. But since when was being a Christian supposed to be safe or comfortable? Our fight to stay safe and comfortable contributes to a picture of the church as a bunch of haters and bigots. We are looked upon as hypocrites because our actions do not model the actions of our Lord and Savior.

It is my prayer that as Christians we will not let society control our actions and that we will start living a little more dangerously, being true models of Jesus Christ!

What's It All About?

Ask different Christians what the Christian life is all about and you will get different answers. Some Christians claim it is all about following the commands of God. Some Christians claim that it is all about serving others. Some will say it's all about love. And others will give you entirely different opinions. So who's right? I believe they all are to a degree. To me the Christian life is about continuing the journey, about constantly seeking God's will and trying to implement that into our lives. God asks us to follow His commands but we must be careful to remember that it is by His grace and not our works that we are saved. He asks us to serve others but again the focus must be on God and not ourselves. He claims that the greatest among faith, hope, and love is love but we must undertand that God is love and what love truly is. In other words, no matter what part of Christianity we tend to fucus on, we must remember that our focus must be on God or there will be negative consequences. Focusing on our SELF is the root of SELFishness. And selfishness is the root of greed, lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, adultery, etc. All of which are hurtful acts that tear apart families and relationships. When we focus on God we are heading in the right direction. We are taking the focus off ourselves and on someone with pure motives. This is obviously a short and simple explanation and I could spend much more time on the subject, but then you would probably get tired of reading it and would stop visiting my blog.

Is Hell Eternal?

An interesting question was posed in Rob Bell's new book, "Love Wins". That question was, 'is punishment in hell eternal'? I hope upon hearing that question, your heart leaps for hope for those who leave this world unbelievers. If your first thought is that of attacking such a thought, I would ask you to evaluate where your heart is. It is, after all, God's desire that none should perish. However, He loves us enough to give us a choice. The arguement for such a belief is based on the idea that the word for eternal has been translated wrong. The word is 'aionion' which is argued to mean 'for an age' instead of 'for eternity'. The arguement has some basis in the fact that Aionion can mean 'for an age' in certain contexts. However, the arguement hits a bit of a road block in Matthew 25:46. The text can be read one of two ways. Either, "And these will go away into eternal (aionion) punishment, but the righteous into eternal (aionion) life." Or, "And these will go away into an age of (aionion) punishment, but the righteous into an age of (aionion) life." If taken the second way we must acknowledge that either we are not eternal, we will cease to exist at some point after our physical death, or we must acknowledge that those who are saved may fall in the afterlife. Neither of these translations are as appealing as a one way road leading out of hell to Heaven. To be honest, the only interpretation of this passage that cannot be true is the one way trip to Heaven, any of the other three have a fairly good arguement. Which do I believe? At this point in my studies, I honestly don't know. What do you think?

What Am I?

All my life I have been asking a very important question in some form or fashion: Who am I? However, another question has been brought to my attention that is equally, if not more, important: What am I? I'm not asking whether I'm a mammal or whether I should have my own classification apart from mammals. I am talking about the spiritual aspect of my being. First of all, I have accepted the idea that I have a soul, which without this acknowledment this question is void. So now that I have made that acknowledgement, I should be asking the question "What am I"?

To this point I have lived my life as a body that has a soul. The majority of my actions are proof of this. I live my life with my body as a high priority. I am constantly thinking about what I'm going to eat, what I'm going to wear, whether or not I should start exercising more, whether or not I can do something to improve how I look, what do other people think about my appearance, etc. This is funny to me because even though I try not to put a lot of emphasis on what other people think about me, I still struggle with this.

Now I am aware that the Bible teaches us to take care of our bodies to some degree but I am also aware that God puts much more emphasis on taking care of our souls. Which brings us back to the question at hand. The question is: Am I a body that happens to have a soul or am I a soul that happens to have a body? This is an important question because how you answer it could change your whole outlook on life. If I am a soul that just happens to have a body, then a lot more attention should be focused on my soul. Now as I walk through life, people's physical appearance should have less of an impact on how I approach them. How I relate to people should change. I should stop perceiving people as temporary and start seeing them as eternal. I should stop worrying as much about what they're wearing and start focusing more on enriching their souls in any way possible.

So, I hope we all will start asking ourselves, What am I? Ask it often and act accordingly.