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.

Universalism

Rob Bell is coming out with a new book that has made universalism the hottest topic in Christianity lately. The video advertisement for his book instantly was met with loads of criticism as well as praise. Universalism promotes the idea that we are all going to Heaven, that a loving God would not send people to Hell. I must admit, I have struggled with the idea of a loving God sending people to Hell as well. He would at least make it a temporary punishment, right? Then I realized that God doesn't send people to Hell. People choose to go there. God has given us grace and a choice. It is not as though God is standing in front of us yelling "go to your room". He says "I love you, and I know I can't force you to love me back, it is a choice you have to make". First though, we have to acknowledge His existence. When we look around this world He created we have to close our eyes in order to deny the existence of some creator. It's the only thing that makes sense. Many scientists spend their whole lives trying to disprove the Bible and creationism instead of focusing on all the flaws in their own theories. None of their theories start with nothing because according to them you can't create matter and what you enter into is an endless cycle which doesn't make since scientifically. That, however, is a subject for another day. The point is, God has given us plenty of evidence for His existence and we must deny what is obvious in order to deny Him. It takes much more faith to believe in theories like the Big Bang, which believe it or not was disproved by scientists years ago but is still taught in school as fact, than it does to believe in a creator. However, I know that the next step in this process is where it gets tricky and where many proclaimed Christians struggle, I include myself in this group. The next step is looking at all those people who have accepted creationism and the fact that there is a creator god, but don't believe that the creator is the God of the Bible. The people who dedicate their whole lives to worshipping god because they see evidence of Him in his creation but at the same time never have faith in the God that I believe in. The God that says the only way to Him is through His Son Jesus Christ. Will these people really be condemned? Well, like it or not that is not for me to decide. What I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that God judges our hearts. What I believe is that some will be saved through Jesus, according to their conscience, based on what it says in Romans. In other words, if someone follows what God has put in their hearts because they didn't have access to His Written Word, that person will be saved by following his/her "conscience". I have always applied this belief to those who don't claim a religion but I really have not made up my mind about those who are of a different religion. Don't get me wrong, i do not believe in universalism. It is a made up concept that is entirely unbiblical and is meant to give people a warm fuzzy feeling and allow them to hear what they want to hear instead of listening to the truth. People who believe in universalism are like a little boy who sticks his fingers in his ears and starts shouting so that he doesn't have to listen to what his parents are trying to say. None of us like hearing bad news and this is a religious way to sweep the bad news under the rug. Why do those who choose not to believe have to suffer for eternity? I don't know. Is it just? I believe it is even though it doesn't feel that way. Why? Because, just as I trusted my parents when I was a small child, I trust God as an adult. I know that God knows infinitely more than me. I just have to trust Him. It's like this. A man entered the woods one day looking for a bear. He followed the bear's tracks and when he caught up with the bear he raised his rifle. The bear saw the man and began to charge. The man shot the rifle and the bear went down. The man walked over to the bear, removed his dart, and had the bear put in a cage. When the bear would regain conscientiousness he would try to attack the man through the bars. However, while the bear was out the man would administer drugs to the sick bear in order to heal it. After a month the man released the now healthy bear back into the woods. Why did the bear continually try to attack the man when the man was only doing what was best for him? Because the bear could not comprehend the man's intentions. He knew nothing of medicine. We are like the bear in the story. We may not always understand God's plan because it is beyond our understanding. But like the man in the story, even though it may seem like He's hurting us at times, God has a greater plan than ours and it is for our good. I have not read Rob Bell's new book and I continue to hope that he really isn't promoting universalism. For those who are reading this, put your faith in God and His loving grace which saves us through Jesus Christ our wonderful Savior and know that God is good, He is just, and He has a plan for your life.
( I was kind of all over the place so if you have questions about anything I said or if you would like for me to go a little bit deeper with any point, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail at mattsemanek@live.com )