“Be careful when you can hear the word of God and do nothing, because it quickly becomes a habit.” - Francis Chan The Bible is not a leisurely read. I honestly don’t even think half the people who say they are Christians read the Bible regularly. Who can possibly make time for it? Wouldn’t God want you to focus on your work, school, obligations, etc. so that you can succeed? Isn’t He happy to fit in wherever and whenever rather than being your top priority? I don’t think so. The Bible is a Book about action. When Jesus asked people to follow Him, He didn’t say, “Follow Me with your heart and in your mind, and think of Me every once in a while as you are going about your normal life just as you did before You knew Me.” Quite the opposite, actually. Here’s a couple things He did say: “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:37-39 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27
There’s some common themes here. I’ll discuss three. (1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. I’ve talked about this verse in a previous post, but that’s essentially what Jesus is saying here. If we are truly loving the Lord our God with everything we have, there’s no room to replace Him with our love for family or friends. Does that mean we shouldn’t love our family and friends? Of course not. We’re also told to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that those who hate their brothers are probably going to hell. But does that mean you should rethink your priorities and consider how much time you’re spending with God as opposed to how much time you spend with your family and friends and make some changes there? Probably. (2) Deny yourself / lose your life. If you think you can keep living your life as you did before you knew Jesus, you’re unfortunately mistaken. We don’t get to make the decisions here. In choosing to follow God, we submit to His authority and we agree to do what He wants of us. Yes, we become slaves. Everyone hates that word, but whether you know it or not, you’re already a slave to something. No one is free. “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:15 “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” 1 John 3:10 We’re either children of God, or children of the devil. There is no in between. Society today likes to believe in a middle ground. They say, “I’m a good person, I care for the poor and am nice to people, but I don’t really believe in God and it’s not like I worship Satan or anything. I’m in the middle.” No such thing. As I said in the last post, we’re either with God or against Him. There are no other options. The Bible is very clear about this. (3) Take up your cross. What does it mean to “take up your cross”? I don’t know. I’m not a biblical scholar, I’m a business major. There’s probably some hidden metaphorical meaning or maybe some extra insight you can gain from really digging deep into what this meant in the original tongue it was written in, but lucky for us we don’t all have to learn the Bible’s original language to get its message. I assume it means this: carry your cross and follow Him. I may not be a biblical scholar but I know that crosses are quite large and quite heavy. I also know that they were meant for crucifixions, so if you were carrying a cross it probably meant you’d get hung on it. I also know that the word “follow” does not mean “sit” or “do your own thing” or “ignore.” When you follow someone you’re doing two things: (1) you’re moving, (2) you’re not in the lead. So, put all that together, and it sounds a bit like this: stop trying to save your own life, do something about your faith (don’t just hear the Word), and submit to God’s authority. “Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.” - Francis Chan Christianity today is complacent. We are content to attend church once a week (unless we accidentally sleep in—whoops!—but God wants us to have rest, right?), to pray when we want things, and maybe spend some time with God when we finally have a small opening in our crazy busy schedules. But this is not Christianity. We are talking about the God of the universe, who is the very reason we are breathing and who can take away our lives at any moment and Who will do so when we least expect it. We are talking about the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present Creator. What do you mean we can’t seem to find time for Him?!
When we’re really following God, our lives look different. We should be hearing things like, “You woke up at 5am just to spend time with God?! You spent 4 hours reading the Bible instead of using that extra time to study for your exam?! You went on a missions trip during the one week you got off from work/school?! You must be crazy!” Yes, we must be crazy. Our lives shouldn’t make sense to people who don’t believe in God. We should be living lives that require faith. No safety nets, no back-up plans, just a whole-hearted, relentless trust in a God who keep His promises.
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I remember many years ago I was Skyping with one of my cousins. I wasn’t a huge fan of her at the time because she was quite arrogant, but she was also family so I put up with her for maybe an hour. In the middle of our conversation she stopped short—as if she was about to tell me something, but changed her mind. “What were you going to say?” I asked, curious. “Oh, nothing,” she said, rolling her eyes slightly, “I just don’t think a 12-year-old like you would understand.” She was 8. I look back at this conversation now and laugh, but at the time it was pretty insulting. Here I was, prideful and arrogant as well (but more on the inside than out), being told be someone two-thirds my age that I did not have the intellectual capacity to understand what she was about to say. She eventually ended up telling me, and although I don’t remember exactly what she said, I do remember thinking it was so stupid a 4-year-old could have understood. So why did she think I wouldn’t be able to? I’ll never know. I thought, "Who is this 8-year-old, to tell me, a 12-year-old with 4 more years of experience and intellect, what I can and cannot understand?" I wonder if this is similar to how God feels with us sometimes (minus my flaw of taking offense due to my pride). “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?” Romans 9:18-20a Who are we, human beings, to talk back to God? I think too often we look at God’s choices—His creation of hell, His election of some and vengeance on others, etc. and we think, “A good God wouldn’t do that.” Or we look at history and all the horrifying events that have occurred and we think, “A good God would never allow these things to happen.” Or we look at our own lives and how miserable we are at times and how nothing seems to go our way and we think, “A good God would never leave me this way.” But who are we to tell God what is good? Who are we to tell the One who is Goodness—the one after whom our world’s flawed version of goodness is modeled—that He is not in fact good? I think this rebellion is rooted in human beings’ natural tendency to think highly of themselves. We think that we are always right and we have difficulties accepting when we are wrong. So when we look at God and disagree with something He has done, we are too quick to assume ourselves right, or to rationalize some way that His obvious command is actually in line with what we believe. For example, countless verses in the Bible tell us to fear God. I remember reading those verses and thinking, “That’s insane. No way a loving God would want us to fear Him.” But that’s what it says. “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 Does this mean we shouldn’t love Him and call Him “Abba, Father”? Of course not. The Bible says to do that too. But we cannot ignore the verses we don’t like and favor only the verses we do like. We have a wrathful, just God who has the power and right to punish those who go against Him. Just as much as we should love Him for forgiving us and allowing us to believe in Him, we should also fear Him for the terrifying power He possesses to destroy us if we disobey. Just think of every instance in which a person in the Bible came before God or one of God’s angels. How did they react? Did they say, “Hey God, I disagree with You on this. You should do things this way, because then You’d really be good.”? Of course not! They fell to their faces, trembling in fear. “'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'” Isaiah 6:5 If Isaiah, a prophet of God who probably looked pretty much as close to perfect as a human can get in the eyes of believers around him, was certain the Lord would destroy him right then and there, how much more will we tremble in fear when we come before Him for the things that we have done as people who are not prophets—who struggle with even accepting that God asks more of us than to simply believe He exists?
Have you thought about God this week? How many times? Have you talked to Him this week? For how long? Have you talked about Him this week? How often? How about the person you’re in love with, or for us single folk, a favorite TV show or pastime, or maybe a crush. Have you thought about that person/thing this week? How many times? Have you talked to that person/enjoyed that pastime this week? For how long? Have you talked to someone else about that person/thing this week? How often? Here’s the point I’m trying to make: we are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and strength. But what does that love look like? The answer is: it looks like any other love, for the most part. “When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together." - Francis Chan, Crazy Love This same love we often have for other humans or for certain things belongs to God. While it’s not inherently wrong to love other things, it becomes an issue when our love for those things becomes more passionate than our love for God. How could we ever compare the God of the universe to a flawed human being? Or to a TV show? Or to absolutely anything ever? How could we ever think something in this wicked, temporary life could be better than the eternal, living God? God doesn’t like to be tolerated. Lukewarm Christianity, in which we ask God to fit perfectly around the outside of things we care more about than Him, is not Christianity. “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Revelation 3:15-17 This is a serious verse. I’ll get more into the rich part later, but a lot of us are lukewarm Christians. We'll say things like, “Yeah, I believe in God and Jesus and all that, but I’m not super into it,” as if those Christians who give their lives to God and pray to Him constantly, reading His Word whenever they can, are the crazy ones. But isn’t that what loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength means? Does the verse say to love the Lord with some of your heart, soul, and strength—so you can have room for all the other things you love? (The answer to the previous question is no, see Deuteronomy 6:5). "Whoever is not with me is against me.” Matthew 12:30a We’re either with God, or we’re against Him. And if we aren’t following His command to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and strength, I don’t think He would consider us to be “with Him."
“Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness." Romans 4:4-5 If righteousness were earned by works, then it would be owed to us like wages are owed to an employee. God would then be obligated to pay us righteousness as wages for our good works. But because it is not work that justifies us and provides us with righteousness, and because the work of our hands is evil and not worthy of any wages of righteousness, God owes us nothing. In fact, God actually owes us punishment. If we were to say to God, “See, I’ve been so good. Look at all my good works. I have earned forgiveness and righteousness because I do good things,” but we also do bad things, and we think bad things, do we really believe we deserve righteousness? We are at war with our sinful desires, and most of the time we lose. Should God ignore all our shortcomings and reward us for the few good things we have done? If you had an employee who ruined your product, lost most of your customers, fought with the other employees, spat in your face and went against everything you told him to do, but gets you a sale or two each year, would you reward him for the good things he had done? Just as an employer would send away any such employee who does evil, so does God with us. Yet worse still, because though an employer may need an employee to do his work and may excuse wickedness for this very reason, God does not need us. If we continue with such a metaphor, God as the employer would be hiring us as employees out of pity for our unemployment. Poor, wretched, naked, and evil he takes us in and says, “Here, find rest and peace in working for me. Be fed and nourished and safe from the wickedness you were born into.” He gives this same offer to all people, and so there are plenty of hands to do His work. He keeps us on staff not because He needs us, but because He loves us. We are the worst employees He could have ever hired. The work of our hands is evil and contrary to the work He desires for us. How justified is He to say to us, “You wicked and evil employee! The work of your hands contradicts the work I have commanded you to do, and you go against My will. You are stubborn-hearted, and you will not listen to Me. Therefore, I am sending you away. Return to the wickedness you were born into—hungry, homeless, naked, poor, blind, suffering. I have enough workers who desire to do the work I have commanded them. My factory is full. I love you, so I gave you time and instruction, hoping you would turn from your wickedness and follow My commands. But your time has run out. I have seen no change in your heart. There is no hope for the evil work of your hands to turn good. So from this day forth I send you away.” But praise and glory be to our God who gives us a way out of such punishment. Though he rightfully sends away those workers who do not seek Him and follow His commands, He looks upon the workers who desire to do what He has commanded them and says, “Well done, good and faithful servants. Though the work of your hands is evil and the desires of your hearts wicked, you have sought after Me, listened to My instruction, and repented from your errors each time you committed them. Because of this, I welcome you into My presence. Toil no more, suffer no more, cry no more.” “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” Romans 2:4 God gives us our whole lives to realize this. He shows us kindness, forbears punishment, and is patient with us, revealing Himself to us in everything so that we may turn to Him and repent from our old way of life. I should have been annihilated long ago for going against God’s commands, but He forbore punishment and allowed me to continue living in my sin until my eyes were finally opened. In this life, it’s never too late to turn to God. But he is patient with us until death, and then we face judgment. Better to prepare ourselves now rather than assume we have our whole lives ahead of us. “You never know when God is going to take your life. At that moment, there’s nothing you can do about it. Are you ready?” - Stan Gerlach TLDR: Romans. “For many, they see the book of Romans as…maybe the most important book of the Bible. Because while Paul has gone place to place preaching the Gospel, here in the book of Romans he actually elaborates on the Gospels. He explains it systematically.” - Francis Chan, "The Book of Romans: Part 1" Many people have tried and failed to read the Bible cover to cover. They usually get stuck around Numbers. While this is a noble effort, if it doesn’t motivate you to keep reading, don’t do it. It’s better for you to jump around the Bible than get so bored going cover to cover that you stop reading it all together. The goal in getting to know God is to hear what He has to say in these Scriptures, and, honestly, He’s a lot more obvious in the words of Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John, and all those other New Testament folks than He is through the stories of the Old Testament—for me, at least. The way I see it is this: say you want to study some subject, like computers. You’re likely not going to start by learning about the very first computer ever and then studying each and every historical event that happened to make computers what they are today. Most likely, you’re going to learn about the technology that is current and relevant today, and then you’ll become so passionate about it that you actually want to go back and read up on the history and earlier models of computers. For me, the same goes with Scriptures. I started with Romans and read all the way through to Revelation, and am now making my way through the Gospels to Acts. If you’re prayerfully reading the Bible and asking God to reveal Himself to you, He will. I got so much out of reading the New Testament, and now I can’t wait to go through and read the rest of the Bible to see what He has to say everywhere else. Even better, the Bible is a living Word. God says new things each time we read. Even now as I am rereading Romans for the fourth time I’m picking up on things I never noticed before. But we have to be careful when we approach Scriptures, for two main reasons. (1) Reading the Scriptures will always be dry and dull if we read them as a way to learn about God rather than as a way to hear from God. When we read the Bible like some history book that talks about dead historical figures, it’s boring. It’s dull. It doesn’t speak to us. But when we recognize that a living God is revealing Himself to us as we read His living Word, then reading the Bible becomes exciting. We get the opportunity to hear directly from the Creator Himself as we meditate and pray over His Word. It’s one of the most obvious ways He communicates with us. (2) We have to remember the main purpose of reading Scriptures: getting to know God. If we read the Bible because we want an excuse to do something we think might be wrong, we’re missing the point. Bible reading should never have any agenda other than seeking God and leaning in to what He has to say to us—not arguments we can use against someone else, or ammo for judgment of others. The Bible is a way for us to each individually communicate with God. What we want to be true and what it actually says might not always align, but we have to be okay with that because our only agenda is to listen, not argue. "We all want certain things to be true. And so even as you’re reading through the Bible, you have to be able to differentiate between what you want it to say and what it actually says—to be fair to the scriptures. Because the truth is, a lot of what God writes is offensive to us…So as you’re reading, just understand that this isn't going to be popular, and sometimes we’ll even read the Scriptures and wish it said something else. But the goal is to say, ‘Okay, Lord. I know that Your thinking is different from my thinking...I want to read Your Word and hear what You have to say is truth.'” - Francis Chan, "The Book of Romans: Part 1" So, if you’re asking me where you should start with reading the Bible, I recommend Romans. Paul explains the Gospels well in Romans, and I’ve found God has said a lot to me whenever I read that book. Start there and find out what He says to you.
It is my hope that whoever reads what I have written on this website will begin to understand the importance of the issue at hand. There is a God, and if you do not yet believe this then my website will not be what changes your mind. I am not a theologian nor an expert in apologetics. It is a miracle that anyone can believe in God and if you have not yet discovered this, nothing I can say will change that. The Holy Spirit alone can soften your heart. I seek instead to speak to the community of believers who know there is a God to some capacity, but do not let this change them. “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” James 2:19 There is so much I would like to discuss, which is why I have created a means to do so and reach whoever I can, but in this introduction I will not go much further than warning the reader of what will unfold in following posts. You believe there is a God, but if you have not sought after Him, then you do not know Him. And if you do not know Him, then neither will he claim to know you at the end of your life. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23 I have one purpose for this website: push people to get to know God. If you, the reader, would prefer to read my ramblings and interpretations because you find some value in them, great. But know that there is a perfect Book (The Holy Bible) that has been given to us in which God has openly revealed Himself. I would much rather you read that Book, but if you are not yet convinced or motivated, I ask that you would allow my passionate ramblings and prayers for you to persuade you.
I am not infallible. In fact, I am probably wrong about most everything. However, in the following posts I will unfold what I have discovered in my own reading of the Bible and why it has created in me a sense of urgency to share with as many people as I can. You may disagree with me on things that I say. You may also just straight up dislike what I say, but I pray that you would allow your arguments with me to push you to read that perfect Book for yourself rather than taking my word for it. I don’t need you to agree with me. I just want you to get to know God. |
AuthorFighting complacency and advocating change in myself for the world around me. Posts by Date
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