Pick Up Your Cross Daily

I sometimes have an overwhelming desire to remain motionless — sequester myself from society and the busyness of people as they carry out their seemingly frivolous lives.  I just want to seal myself inside a cocoon and hibernate until the stresses that life creates subside.  But I am wholly cognisant of this asinine thought pattern because in order for stress to be eliminated you have to deal with it, not hide away like a coward and just wish for them to magically dissipate.  So as I sequester myself inside my time frozen cocoon I forcefully catapult myself outside and just live life.  As a prospecting pastor I realise that this is a foolish thinking pattern, but I'm still human.  I still have faults; I am nowhere near to being flawless and I never will be, so neither should people expect me to be so flawless or even strive towards it.  It is a futile attempt.  The attempt of its futility alone would bring with it more unnecessary stress and strife.

So why, as human beings, do we strive towards perfection?  To me, a perfect life would be boring.  Neither is there such a thing as a "normal life"; there's just life.  Life is not some invisible construct that drives unknown forces such as "luck" and "bad luck."  Luck is the most quintessential human delusion.  Life is simply a gift given by God.  How you decide to live your life is just life — not a normal life, or a rich life, or a poor life.  The poor can be richer than the rich just as the rich can be poorer than the poor.  But that depends on how one chooses to perceive things.  For me, as a Christian, the poor man who has Jesus Christ in his heart is far richer than the rich man who does not have Jesus Christ.  In the same way, an atheist can view that as completely insignificant, for they refuse to believe in something greater than their own logic — human logic, overall, which is in itself of fleeting value, ergo ultimately undependable and unreliable.  Furthermore, as a Christian and therefore God's authority being the ultimate authority and the wisdom He has decided to bless me with in which I now write, I believe myself to be correct in all that I speak in matters of God because I speak on God's authority.  Do not become presumptuous and choose to believe that I am saying I'm never wrong; I'm wrong plenty of times.  When it comes to matters of God, however, I only speak them when I know they are indubitably true, for it is the Holy Spirit speaking through me on God's authority.  Ergo, the poor man in Jesus Christ is far richer than the rich man without Jesus Christ, and no matter the opposition I may face, that fact, as it appears to me, will always remain true.  Yet to the atheist mind, it is false, simply due to their limited logic.  However, in spite of their belief in its professed falsity, they are always erroneous because of the authority of God, who has authority over all things and all beings.  Belief in God does not bring Him into existence; He does not need us to believe in order for Him to exist.  He just simply is.  A large number of people who do not believe in His existence and authority does not make either of those things false.  Because this is infallibly true, their minds grow frustrated and therefore come into a state of contention.

It is often because of this atheistic contention that I often wish to sequester myself inside my cocoon of complete isolation.  Not forever, though.  Only for a time to get a break, but because this is life I will never get a break, and so I continually seek the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit may decide to divinely administer Himself unto me as guided by Jesus Christ, or He may choose to act through another human being — a fellow brother or sister of Christ.  However He decides to administer Himself always comes as a surprise, and comfortingly so, and always at the perfect time.  However, it is fair to say that not all atheists are contentious, of course.  As the majority stands out, that's where the focus often relies.  If it's not the majority, statistically, then it carries with it an overabundance of animosity and negativity that makes it stand out more than it should.  A Christian example is the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members preach extreme hatred and condemnation towards homosexuals.

I have spouted enough exposition, so now to this blog entry's topic:  It is indubitably true that the Bible (and therefore God's Word) condemns homosexuality as an abominable sin, among other sins, but the Bible also teaches love and mercy, especially towards our enemies.  (Homosexuals are not our enemy, but they feel that they are.)  It is also indubitably true that not all Christians (most, actually) are like WBC, but because they are indwelled with such a spirit of animosity, negativity, hatred, and even iniquity, they stick out the most and people start to believe that all Christians are like WBC church members and share their beliefs (or dare I say, cult members).  That belief is a lie.  Why it has become such a prevailing dilemma in modern times, I do not know.  It's on the Devil's agenda for whatever reason, and I cannot say what that reason is other than to bring more and more persecution against innocent Christians who live to exemplify and teach the love and grace of Jesus Christ.  (Christians who spread such animosity and hatred towards homosexuals and other people are incognisant of their support of Satan's agenda.)  Instead of focusing on grace, people now prefer to focus on the Law.  The Law is only applicable now in which it points out your sin in order for you to recognise it, and because you recognise it you can then repent of the sin immediately because of the grace of Jesus Christ.  We no longer have to offer various kinds of sacrifices that was required under the Law in the Old Testament because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice — the ultimate peace offering. We are no longer under Law, but under grace, no longer under the dominion of sin (Romans 6:14).  People have forgotten this.

People justify that because homosexuals "love" each other and because God is love, homosexuality must therefore be legitimate.  The hilarity of this fallacy amuses me.  Following this line of logic, we all love animals and because we love them and God is love that would legitimise bestiality as well, but we don't utilise this line of logic here because of how repulsive the act is; and homosexuality is equally repulsive.  They are equally repulsive because God says that they're both an abomination and both must not be practised in the same sentence (Leviticus 18:23).  Yes, God is love, but He is not only love.  He is also righteous, and holy, and just, and merciful, and when necessary He is wrathful, and many other characteristics.  All of His characteristics work together as one; He does not just utilise one feature one at a time.  That is how our characters function as finite beings within time.  But God is infinite, who exists outside of time, ergo all of His holy characteristics function as one.  Yet in spite of His manifold characteristics, they all act according to His love.  Just as a parent's tough love and discipline are driven by their unconditional love for their child, which is pure, so it is the exact same thing with God, our Father.

God has clearly stated multiple times in the Scriptures that homosexuality is a sin, as well as many other sins.  There is absolutely no scriptural evidence to believe the contrary.  Only through foolish deniability and the rejection of God's Word can the contrary be believed.  It's acceptable to love somebody of the same sex, but just because you love them does not mean it has to be sexual.  Love does not need to be sexual in order for it to be love.  Homosexuality is simply a product of our sinful condition.  If it were completely and utterly natural, and some people seem to believe, then God would have created Adam and Joe along with Eve and Mary, not just plainly Adam and Eve.  It is truly that simple, and because it is that simple, for some dastardly strange reason people choose not to accept its simplicity and instead attempt to formulate something more complex to justify a worldly belief of theirs that God's authoritative Word contradicts, forcing the dilemma to drag on and on when it shouldn't even be a debate at all.  When God created Adam and Eve, they complemented each other perfectly, and I mean perfection in its full essence.  The relationship between man and woman was utterly perfect, and so their love was pure — completely undefiled.  And it was also man and woman so that they could birth more of God's children onto the earth; we cannot fulfil that God-given purpose through homosexuality.  As a result of Eve's deception to her husband and Adam choosing to obey his wife over God, their relationship went from being perfectly complementary to being defiled, creating an almost eternal trouble in all future marriages between husband and wife (as well as other man to female interrelationships).  This is what God means when He says to Eve, " 'Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you' " (Genesis 3:16).  I say "almost eternal" because when we are with our Lord Jesus Christ, this will not longer matter, for there will be no marriage in Heaven (Mark 12:25).

However, do not fret, and do not fear.  Many Christians choose to condemn homosexuality and those suffering under its dominion, and they refuse to preach grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness.  They point out the problem but don't offer a solution.  Many will quote I Corinthians 6:9-10 that lists homosexuals (and many other types of sinners!) who will not inherit the kingdom of God.  However, they always foolishly leave out verse 11, which Paul subsequently writes:  Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.  Paul is talking about baptism.  Some people of the Corinthian church at this time were guilty of the sins listed in verses 9 & 10, but Paul points out that all of those sins are unnatural because of the condition of their faith, including homosexuality!  But Paul also mentions that some of them were like this because they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of our God.  That is exactly what baptism does.  Through baptism your past, present, and future sins are all justified, for you are sanctified through the receiving of the Holy Spirit through baptism, ergo the sins they were guilty of were (and still are) unnatural.  However, after confession, forsaking the sin is the last and most vital step.  If you repent of a sin yet still commit the sin, you are still guilty of it.  Proverbs 28:13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.  It is not just confessing the sin, but no longer practising the sin that enables the mercy of God upon you.  A criminal who serves his or her sentence and yet still commits the same crime after being exonerated at the completion of their sentence is still guilty of the crime.  Or say you're a reformed drug addict.  If you start indulging the drug again, are you still purified from it?  Of course not!  It is the same exact thing with sin — repent of the sin, resulting in God's immediate forgiveness, yet continue to commit the sin and you are still guilty of that sin.  Forgiveness, even with the effects of baptism, does not grant you permission to freely commit sin and/or dwell in a particular sin; forgiveness is the recognition of the poison of your sin as God willingly cleanses you from its poison.  However, for forgiveness to do its complete work, you have to put in a disciplined effort by forsaking the sin, otherwise you will never be free from its bondage.  I am not saying that it's your work that saves you; God's forgiveness through Christ saves you, but you still have to put in some actual effort to fully conquer the sin.  Another thing that Christian condemners leave out is I John 1:9:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  I cannot stress that verse and the aforementioned proverb enough in my life.  Those two verses are key.

With all of that I now say:  It is very possible and permissible for a Christian to love a homosexual.  Because we love all people, including homosexuals, we wish to point out the sin in order for them to recognise it so that they may repent of it and no longer live under its dominion, and it is our responsibility as Christians to do so.  The solution to not live in homosexuality is simple:  practising celibacy.  Many people think of our free will as a curse or God's weakness or mistake.  But they are terribly mistaken.  A God who forces us to love Him or instills fear for our life into us in order to revere Him is not a loving God at all.  When love is forced, it is not genuine and true, and that's what God wants from us — to genuinely and truly love Him with all our heart.  Our parents do not force us to love them or respect them; we love them simply because we choose to and we choose to respect them as we mature into adults.  And so it is with our Heavenly Father.  Sure, our parents give us reasons to love them (or hate them, for such unfortunate souls of abuse or neglect).  God has given us a multitude of reasons to love Him, the largest being the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, dying for our sins when we don't deserve that in any way.  Any person who has a reason to hate God desperately searches for those reasons and misunderstands His nature.  Because God wants our love for Him to be genuine and true, He has blessed us with the free will to love or hate Him, which the latter has eternal consequences, whether one chooses to believe that or not; and the remarkable and unfathomable thing with the latter is that if you choose to hate God, He still loves you!  For if you change your mind at a later time, He'll still embrace you with open arms.  And we become spiritually mature in revering God and His ultimate authority as a response to our growing faith and trust in Him.  We can either choose to defeat our sin or to submit to it, and in order to defeat whatever sin may enslave us, it may require some necessary and arduous sacrifices.  The sacrifice for homosexuality is celibacy for one's entire earthly life — in this way, one can see how free will is a gift as one chooses to conquer sin and its dominion over him or her.  But consider how infinitesimal that sacrifice is to make for Jesus Christ when He gave His life for every single one of us.  No sacrifice is greater than that.  In order to live for Christ, we have to make many sacrifices — we have Jesus Christ to enable us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23).

Principles for Living in Harmony, Part II: Rejoice & Sympathise

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15).  The next principle we'll be exploring is to rejoice and sympathise with others.  It's much easier to celebrate and have a good time with someone who's already having a good time than it is to sympathise with someone and have a heartfelt moment with them, especially to the point of tears.

Proverbs 24:17, Don't gloat when your enemy falls, and don't let your heart rejoice when he stumbles.  The first thing I did when I first learnt of Osama bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011 was rejoice.  I remember that day very vividly — where I was and what I was doing.  I was stationed at the 2nd Infantry Division Band at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea, and I was eating lunch in the food court on camp; I was eating Popeye's chicken and I just happened to hear it on the news.  I experienced an immense feeling of joy and relief with a huge smile on my face, and I made it known to the world.  In spite of what he has done, rejoicing is the wrong reaction.  I regretted my response to his death a little later on when I became wiser.  The proverb continues in the following verse, "or the LORD will see, be displeased, and turn His wrath away from him."  We definitely do not want the iniquity of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to continue, but when they're killed it's wrong to rejoice in their deaths.  Psalm 33:1, Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones; praise from the upright is beautiful.  The only thing we're supposed to rejoice in and praise is the living God, not death, and this psalm goes on to say that we are RIGHTEOUS ONES.  As righteous ones, does it make sense to rejoice in the deaths of our enemies?  As Christians and therefore followers of Christ, do you think this is how Christ would want us to react?  Absolutely not!  Righteousness is not rejoicing in the death of our enemies.  God intended each person to be children of God, and the death of the lost is not to be celebrated, but rather mourned since they never had a chance to know Jesus Christ.  That, to me, is the saddest thing I can think of:  never knowing Christ.  For those of you who do know Christ, could you imagine yourself dying before you ever knew Him?  It's sad, isn't it?  I think it's quite depressing.  We are to rejoice in Christ at all times (Philippians 4:4 and I Thessalonians 5:16).

Let's quickly examine David.  We all know this event pretty well.  After David slew Goliath in I Samuel 17 and rose in military authority at the hand of King Saul, Saul began to grow paranoid that David would try to usurp the throne (starting with his jealousy of David when the people began saying, "Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands" [I Samuel 18:7]).  As Saul's paranoia increased exponentially, he eventually drove David to flee (and men who knew David to be the next anointed king remained faithful to him and came with him).  Since David had fled, Saul began to search for him with a portion of his army.  However, a time came when the Philistines became a threat again and Saul had to repel their attack, but he died in battle along with his son, Jonathan.  When the news reached David, instead of rejoicing he wept, mourned, and fasted (II Samuel 1:12) because the Lord's anointed had died.  An enemy of David who had sworn to kill David was wept and mourned over when he was justly killed.  The natural inclination is to rejoice and celebrate, but David saw the sorrow of it and wept and mourned.  That is true compassion.

Another form of wrongful rejoicing is to rejoice in yourself.  James 4:16-17, But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.  So, for the person who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it is a sin.  When we are blessed with successes in our lives we often grow prideful and boast about ourselves in our conceit and our own actions rather than giving the glory to God.  Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James says that this is evil, and that it's a sin.  Ecclesiastes 11:9, Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.  And walk in the ways of your heart and in the sights of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgement.  It is very important to start rejoicing in God in our youth and for our hearts to be glad in His name.  It's very easy to notice that those who do not start rejoicing in Him at an early age usually end up not rejoicing in Him in a later age, and those who do rejoice in Him in their youth typically continue to rejoice in Him throughout their adulthood.  That's not always the case, but it is the average.  The author of Ecclesiastes advises the youth to walk in the way of his or her heart but to be aware that for all the things they do in their life, they will be judged and held accountable for them.  In other words, you have the choice to do whatever you want, but be conscious of the fact that when the proper time comes, God will judge you according to your actions.  It is because of this that most of us are responsible enough to keep God's commands as opposed to doing whatever we want.  This is exactly why it's important to start rejoicing in God in our youth so that His love and good will be in our hearts at an early age so we can continue to walk in His ways into adulthood.

Psalm 2:11, Serve the LORD with reverential awe, and rejoice with trembling.  This is exactly how we are to serve and praise God.  To serve Him with reverential awe is to revere Him, which is to fear Him out of respect, not fear and anxiety.  In the same way we are to rejoice and worship Him in reverence.  Ecclesiastes 3:12, I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.  There is nothing better for us than to rejoice in our God in this reverential way and live the good, blessed life He gives us in return.

Jesus advises in Luke 10:20, "However, don't rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."  This is a perfect reason to rejoice in God — because our names are written in the Book of Life if you have His Son and Holy Spirit.  We are not to rejoice because the Holy Spirit can submit to us, but that because of the Holy Spirit we are promised the eternal life in Heaven, for our names are inscribed therein.  We will see Jesus once again, and for all eternity, which is another reason to rejoice together:  "So you also have sorrow now.  But I will see you again.  Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy" (John 16:22).  Jesus promises us that we will see Him again, and our hearts will be filled with utter joy and we will rejoice as we sing a new song:  You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals; because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).  NO ONE can take this joy away from us.

Another reason to rejoice with others is when they come to Christ:  Now I am rejoicing, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance.  For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us (II Corinthians 7:9).  We don't rejoice in the grief of the lost, but we rejoice in that their grief leads them to Christ by their repentance, for God had permitted their necessary grieving so that they wouldn't "experience any loss from us."  I Peter 1:6-7, You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to be distressed by various trials so that the genuineness of your faith — more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  We are to rejoice in passing our trials (and being tried in the first place) so that through this faith, we may praise and give honour and glory to Jesus Christ when He returns.  This faith is extremely powerful because:  You love Him, though you have not seen Him.  And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy… (I Peter 1:8).  We love the only, loving Deity whom we have not seen and in spite of that we rejoice in His name with inexplicable joy because of our faith and the salvation we receive for our souls through Him.  And we are also to rejoice because we share the same sufferings of Christ in order to rejoice at His revelation (I Peter 4:13).

Psalm 119:50, This is my comfort in my affliction:  Your promise has given me life.  When we are afflicted, God's Word and the life He has given us should be enough to comfort us in troublesome times.  Scripture was written to encourage and instruct us so that we may endure with the Word:  For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope (Romans 15:4).  When I'm stressed out, I often remember certain passages in Scripture and what God has done in my life.  When I recall those passages and moments that God has gotten me through, the Holy Spirit comforts me.  God has given me an enriched life in the Spirit and a comparatively wealthy life — that is, compared to the least fortunate people on certain areas of the globe.  I am materialistically better off than a large number of people in Africa and Guatemala, as an example, and for that I am grateful and comforted when I am afflicted.  Don't get me wrong, the fact that there are people living in terrible conditions and poverty breaks my heart and I want to do so much for them, but I'm grateful that I'm not in their situation because I can use my resources to preach to them and lead them to Christ.  This is why it is my desire to work in missions as often as I can.  If you're having difficulty finding comfort in God's Word, then ask Him for it:  May Your faithful love comfort me, as You promised Your servant (Psalm 119:76).  God made a promise to comfort us whenever needed; all we need to do is ask.  The Holy Spirit isn't readily available to us for no reason; He's there to give us comfort and guidance because God is the God of all comfort (II Corinthians 1:3).

Second Corinthians 1:4, He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  People like to test the believers' faith by asking us why bad things always happen to good people.  They forget that bad things happen to bad people just as often; they just prefer to focus on the anomaly as a poor excuse to justify God's "falsity."  We are tested and afflicted so we can learn of God's comfort and ultimately be comforted by Him, which gives us the willingness and the capacity to sympathise with and comfort others who've experienced the same thing, or lesser or even greater things.  I've had to get out of my comfort zone with this rather recently.  I'm not a very emotional person, and I don't show raw emotions very easily; that's just who I am.  That being the case, I don't cry very easily either and it's not because of the silly pride that men have that they don't cry often and neither is it because I think or thought that crying is a sign of weakness; rather, it is just the opposite.  I just simply don't cry very easily.  However, recently on a men's retreat organisation called Edge Venture, I've sat down with men and cried with them.  In many cases I cried like a baby because I sympathised with them.  Sometimes we just have to sit down with a fellow believer whom we love and just cry with them and let them know we love them and understand their predicament.  In a perfect world, good things will happen to everybody all the time, but this is not a perfect world; everyone will inevitably face bad and terrible tribulations no matter how "good" or "bad" you are.  It doesn't matter what kind of person someone is; it is our duty as Christians to weep and sympathise with every person, even our enemies.  …So now you should forgive and comfort him instead; otherwise, this one may be overwhelmed by excessive grief (II Corinthians 2:7).  Not only are we supposed to forgive our enemies of their trespasses against us (Matthew 6:14-15), but we are also supposed to comfort them through their tribulations so their grief won't consume them.  And this goes with fellow believers as well, and I argue that it should be more so with them.  Being overwhelmed by excessive grief is dangerous, for it can cause a person to stray from Christ.  This is not only grief of, say, losing a loved one.  It can be the grief of sin, and I've experienced such immense grief from sin that I believed I was incapable of being loved by God for a long time.  Knowledgeably, I knew that I was wrong, but I had consistent trouble believing it.  And it wasn't until I experienced the extreme love and comfort from fellow believers that I realised the falsity of this cognitive bias and finally accepted that God loves me for who I am no matter what I've done and no matter what I do (this was actually at an Edge Venture retreat as a participant).

It's not just my personal opinion that we must sit down and comfort others no matter who they are; it's a duty that Christ sets upon us.  If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal (Philippians 2:1-2).  If we have been encouraged by Christ, received His comforting love, participated in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and other believers, then it is our absolute responsibility to think the same exact way as Christ did and feel the same love for people that He has for us towards people, believers and unbelievers alike.  Not only that, but this Scripture also says that we must share those feelings with others, not keep it all to ourselves.  First Thessalonians 5:11, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.  By this we must "warn those who are lazy, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, [and] be patient with everyone" (I Thessalonians 5:14; brackets added).

Second Corinthians 13:11, Finally, brothers, rejoice.  Be restored, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.  Through comforting others we will then be able to rejoice with them as well.  It's not one or the other; they both work together.  They will be restored just as we were restored, encouraged through the faith, possess the same righteous mind as we do, and will finally be at peace, for the peace and love of God will finally be with them.

Veggie Tales, "David and the Giant Pickle," DEBUNKED

There were only a few things that were at least historically accurate in the Veggie Tales film, "David and the Giant Pickle."  They were accurate with David being a shepherd.  In the film, it said that David only had three brothers, but the film did not give their names (they were Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah).  David actually had seven brothers (Jesse had eight sons including David), and the three aforementioned brothers were the oldest (I Samuel 17:12b-14a).  They also remained accurate with David's father's name being Jesse.  Another way in which the film was not accurate was that in it, Jesse had informed his sons that the Philistines were attacking.  However, all we know is that Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul into battle (I Samuel 17:14b), so we are left to assume that they were either already enlisted in Saul's army or that they followed Saul to battle on their own accord.

In the film, while the Israelite and Philistine armies were in their battle formations, a Philistine soldier had proposed the idea that one of Israel's champions should battle their champion, and whoever loses becomes the winner's slaves.  In the text, it was Goliath himself who proposed the idea (I Samuel 17:3-4, 8-9), not a random Philistine soldier.  However, I was surprised that the film was accurate with Goliath doing this routine for 40 days (I Samuel 17:16).  They were also accurate with David arriving just in time of Goliath enacting his usual routine when David arrived to give the field commander and his brothers food, setting him up to hearing Goliath's outbursts (I Samuel 17:17-19, 20b).  In the film David reminds the Israelites that they're children of God, but in the text he simply says, " 'What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?  Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God' " (I Samuel 17:26)?  While it would be nice to read in the text that David reminded the Israelites that they're children of God, it is not scripturally accurate, and we must remain faithful to the text.

Continuing on with the plot of the film, David tells King Saul that he'll fight Goliath.  Although the wording in the film differs widely from the text, the confidence portrayed from David in both sources, I believe, are equal.  King Saul then says that David can't fight Goliath because he's too small.  However, in the text, Saul simply comments on David's youth and that Goliath has been a warrior since he was young (I Samuel 17:33).  So we can conclude from this statement in the text that Saul doubted David simply because of his inexperience as a soldier, not because of his size.  We must also remember that an unnamed individual described David to Saul as "a warrior" (I Samuel 16:18).  David obviously had inner characteristics of a warrior, even though Saul (and everybody else) couldn't see it.  Then again, an evil spirit was sent upon Saul (I Samuel 16:14), so Saul's judgement and spiritual vision was probably extremely minimal at this point.  Next, in the film, Saul had David put his own armour on so that people would think it was King Saul out there and David took the armour off because it was too big, but we don't read that in the text.  In the text we simply read that Saul put his own military clothes on David and that David couldn't walk in them because he wasn't used to them (I Samuel 17:38-39), and the text never says Saul did this so David would be mistaken for him.  We are left to assume from this that David was actually in similar size to King Saul.  However, because of his inexperience as a soldier, he was not used to wearing heavy armour, so he preferred to go out in his shepherds clothing.

A few more things in the film are accurate with the text where David goes down to the ravine and picks five smooth stones, comes against Goliath in the name of the God of Israel, and takes out Goliath with one smooth stone, but the accuracy ends there, and with good reason.  I'll explain:  In the film the rock hits Goliath's head and he gets knocked out.  In the text, the rock sinks into Goliath's forehead; David kills Goliath with his own sword, and then cuts off his head (I Samuel 17:50-51).  This detail of Goliath's death is inaccurate with good reason because Veggie Tales is a children's film; kids don't need to know the gory details of Goliath's death and see the violence on film.  At this point in a child's life, it is simply important for them to know that David defeated Goliath because God was with him.

The film concludes with their message, Matthew 19:26, " '…with God all things are possible.' "  The character, Bob the Tomato, said that this means that anything God wants us to do, we can do it through Him.  This is true to an extent, but that's not the message of David and Goliath.  The message is not, "little people can do big things too" (that was the message the creators of Veggie Tales wanted to portray, verbatim from their synopsis of the film).  I understand how they got that message, but that was not the point of David's existence and it was certainly not the reason why God was with David.  The film is not very faithful to the text, and it is definitely not faithful to the message in any regard.  When you examine the text, you can see a Christology (esp. I Samuel 17:34-37).  This Christology is explained in the prior blog entry, "David Points Toward Christ," but I will conclude by saying that this event of David's life points to Christ and the film never mentioned Christ once, which is odd since they quoted from Jesus in the book of Matthew.  Now that I think about it, I don't think any Veggie Tales film ever mentions Christ.

David Points Toward Christ

As we all know, the famous event of David vs. Goliath starts off with the Philistines preparing for war at Socoh in Judah and Saul preparing to retaliate, setting camp in the Valley of Elah.  Both armies were standing on opposite hills with a ravine in between them when the famous giant standing at 9'9", Goliath from Gath, offers the proposal that if one of Saul's men wins a fight against him, the Philistines will be their slaves, and vice versa should the opposing Israelite lose.  As Saul had his trust and reliance in military strength rather than God, he and all Israel "lost their courage and were terrified" (I Samuel 17:11).

Subsequently, the famous shepherd David is introduced, the son of Jesse from Bethlehem.  Jesse's three oldest sons were already at war with Saul's army in the Valley of Elah, but David, as the youngest, was carrying out the responsibility of tending to his father's flock in Bethlehem.  Goliath continued his boisterous routine every morning and evening for forty days.  During one of those days Jesse orders David to take a half-bushel of roasted grain and 10 loaves of bread to his brothers and 10 portions of cheese to the field commander, and to also check on the welfare of his brothers.  Being obedient to his father, David gets up the next morning and sets out to the Valley of Elah where Saul's army was camped.

Next in the text we read that David arrived at the perimeter of the camp just as the army was marching out to its battle formation, Israel and the Philistines both lined up in their battle formation facing each other.  So David arrived just in time during one of Goliath's standoffs.  Instead of taking the supplies to the field commander and to his brothers, he leaves them with the quartermaster, who is in charge of supplies and their distribution.  David then rushed to his brothers to check on their welfare, as Jesse had required, and while he was speaking with them Goliath came out of the Philistine battle formation and shouted his usual threats, and the text makes it clear that David heard them.  As was the usual routine, the Israelite men retreated, for they were terrified.  The text says that before this, an Israelite man declared that this Philistine has come to defy Israel, and that "the king will make the man who kills him very rich and will give him his daughter" and that "the king will also make the household of that man's father exempt from paying taxes in Israel" (I Samuel 17:25).  David had not heard this announcement, so he asks what will be done for the man who kills Goliath and also asks, "Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God" (I Samuel 17:26)?  It is then told to him what will be done for the man who slays Goliath.  David's older brother, Eliab, grows angry with David and accuses him of having an arrogant and evil heart — that David only wanted to see the battle.  David, as he was innocent of this accusation, asks, "What have I done now?  It was just a question."  And right he was; it was only a question.

What David was saying eventually reached the ears of Saul and he ordered David to be brought to him, where David famously and non-hesitantly offers to go and fight the Philistine.  Of course, Saul rejects the offer saying that David is just a boy and Goliath has been a warrior since his youth.  David makes it clear to Saul that as a shepherd, whenever a lion or bear carried a lamb off from the flock David would run after it, kill the predator, and rescue the lamb; and David then compares Goliath, the uncircumcised Philistine predator, to this lion or bear.  In verse 37 we see David's complete trust in the Lord to rescue him form the Philistine.  At this, Saul then grants David permission to fight Goliath, and by invoking the blessing "may the LORD be with you" upon David, Saul may have found some courage through David's own courage and his unwavering trust in the Lord.

Saul gave orders for David to be fitted with his own military clothes, but they were too heavy so David wasn't used to them, and so he took them off.  Thus, David instead took his staff, five smooth stones from the ravine, and put them in his pouch in his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in hand approached the giant Philistine, Goliath.  When Goliath saw how youthful and small David was compared to him, he naturally threw curses and insults at him.  Again displaying his trust in the Lord, David replies to Goliath that he comes "against [Goliath] in the name of Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel's armies…" (I Samuel 17:45).  David also displays his confidence towards Goliath that God will hand the Philistine over to him, strike him down, cut off his head, and "give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and creatures of the earth" (I Samuel 17:46), turning Goliath's insults against David back against him.  David says this will be done so "the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD'S" (I Samuel 17:46-47).

Next, while the Philistines started to attack him, David quickly ran to the battle line to meet the Philistines, took out a stone, slung it, and hit Goliath on the forehead.  The stone sank into his forehead and Goliath immediately fell to his face on the ground.  As David had promised, he kills Goliath with his own sword and cuts off his head.  At the sight of this, the Philistine army retreats, the men of Israel chasing after the Philistines all the way to the gates of Ekron and succeeding in defeating the Philistines.

Prior to this event, we read of the prophet Samuel anointing David as king of Israel.  Israel was in need of a new king because Saul had fallen away from the Lord, so God sent Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint the new king of Israel, for God had selected the new king.  In obedience to the Lord, Samuel sets out to Jesse's household and asks him to bring out all of his sons.  Seeing the oldest Eliab who was tall, handsome, and a mighty warrior just like Saul, Samuel at first believed him to be the new anointed king.  But we read what God famously said to Samuel, " 'Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him.  Man does not see what the LORD sees, for man sees what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart' " (I Samuel 16:7).  Samuel goes through the rest of Jesse's oldest sons and concludes that God has selected none of them.  When Samuel asks Jesse if these are all of his sons, Jesse says that there is still David, the youngest, who is tending the sheep.  Samuel tells Jesse to send for him.  David is described as having "beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance" (I Samuel 16:12).  God then tells Samuel that this is the one whom He has selected.  Thus, Samuel anoints David as the next king of Israel and shall become king when the current king, Saul, dies.  Since the Spirit of God left Saul and an evil spirit had come upon him, Saul became very ill.  Saul learns of David's gifted musicianship and David is also described here as "a valiant man, a warrior, eloquent, handsome, and the LORD is with him" (I Samuel 16:18).  As we know from the text, David's musicianship would temporarily heal Saul whenever he played for him.

In chapter 17 we see how these characteristics of David from chapter 16 are portrayed in his actions.  David's youth may not have been the only reason why Saul and Goliath doubted his ability, but also because he had "beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance" (I Samuel 16:12).  So not only was he young, but David was a very attractive man, arguably more attractive than Saul the king of Israel, so he certainly could not have any characteristics of a warrior.  However, as we read in verse eighteen of chapter sixteen, David was valiant and eloquent, meaning that he had great courage and determination and that he was persuasive in speech.  We see his valiance when he offers to Saul that he will take the giant down, and we see his eloquence when he succeeds in persuading the king that he will fight the giant Philistine and succeed in doing so.  David's valiance and eloquence were so great that he even transferred his courage to Saul, causing Saul to invoke a blessing upon him (I Samuel 17:37).  This isn't the only correlation we see, however.  In 16:18 David is also described as a warrior, and that the Lord is with him.  Although David was indeed beautiful and handsome in appearance, somebody saw warrior qualities in David, and we definitely see this as he ruthlessly defeats Goliath by sinking a stone into his forehead and killing him with Goliath's own sword and cutting off his head!  The last correlation we see is that the Lord is indeed with David.  We see it when David admits it by mouth (I Samuel 17:37, 46-47) and even more so when David succeeds in killing Goliath (I Samuel 17:48-52).  The Lord was indeed with David.

This episode of David points toward Christ in many ways.  First of all, I want to briefly mention that Goliath enacting his boisterous routine for 40 days and 40 nights (I Samuel 17:16) may be significant for the pattern of 40 throughout the Old Testament all the way to Jesus wandering in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.  Noah endured rain for 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:4), Moses' spies were spying out the land of Canaan for 40 days and nights (Numbers 13:25) and Israel wandered a year for each of those days (Numbers 14:33-34), David reigned for 40 years (II Samuel 5:4; I Kings 2:11), and eventually Jesus wandering in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights while being tempted by the Devil (Matthew 4).  There are many other examples, but these are just some significant ones.

I see a great Christology in I Samuel 17:34-37.  As David delineates his activities as a shepherd, it made me think of the parable of the lost sheep.  As a shepherd, David is responsible for every single sheep in the flock.  When a lion or bear takes one sheep, David doesn't just say "oh well" and gives up; he fights for the sheep and slaughters the predator that took it.  In Luke 15:4-7 we read of the parable of the lost sheep.  As Jesus spoke to the tax collectors and sinners, He asked which one among them who has 100 sheep and loses one of them would not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the one that is lost.  He describes that " 'when he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders' " and that when he returns home they all rejoice because he had found his lost sheep.  Jesus concludes in verse 7, ' "I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance.' "  I absolutely love the beauty of this parable.  It might be considered reckless to leave a flock of 99 sheep to just search for one lost sheep in the world's eyes, but Jesus emphasises how much God cares for and loves every lost sinner and how joyfully He and all of Heaven, our future home, responds with joy when each one is found — when each one goes astray in the jaws of the evil one.  Just as David sent out and slaughtered the lion or bear, God sent His Son and sacrificed Him as a fragrant offering (Ephesians 5:2) for all of us lost sheep, therefore slaughtering (defeating) the predator Satan (I John 3:8), the lion/bear (or snake/dragon, as he is often portrayed; drakon in Greek [δράκων] is translated as snake or huge serpent in English).  Furthermore, when we stray from God we are able to recognise this through the Law, and because of the Gospel we can repent and be welcomed back into God's holy family, which can only be fulfilled through Jesus Christ the Messiah.  Lastly, when David strikes the head of Goliath, it points toward the prophecy given in Genesis 3:15 that one of Eve's descendants (Jesus) would bruise Satan's head, and Satan bruising His heel.  (You can find this genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17.)  We see this fulfilled in Jesus' crucifixion when Satan orchestrated Jesus' crucifixion, but unbeknownst to him he was dealing his own deathblow, the crucifixion bruising Jesus' heel but Jesus Christ crushing his head and therefore destroying him, freeing us from sin (Hebrews 2:14).

Principles for Living in Harmony, Part I: Persecution

A very interesting concept about people today is that we constantly talk about world peace and harmony.  If we fight for peace, it makes more war.  If we love for peace, it makes more peace.  There is always some sort of war that America is fighting.  People do not enact anything peaceful in their own lives when they want to see world peace.  Do you know what this is called?  It's called hypocrisy.  Gandhi once said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."  Peace has to happen domestically before we can even begin to implement it on a global scale.  Everybody supposedly wants peace, but we all refuse to exemplify just that in other peoples' lives.  If we can learn how to love for peace, maybe people will stop dying for it because if you have to fight for peace, world peace is impossible.  So the question is:  How can we live in harmony with one another?  Fortunately for us, the tools are given in Scripture:  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.  Be in agreement with one another.  Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble.  Do not be wise in your own estimation.  Do not repay evil for evil.  Try to do what is honourable in everyone's eyes (Romans 12:14-17).

There it is:  how we are to live in peace and harmony amongst each other.  When I first looked at this passage I thought to myself, "Wow, no wonder it's so hard."  When somebody persecutes us, our primitive instinct is to attack back, not to say something nice in return, let alone bless him or her.  That's just human nature, but the thing with the Holy Spirit is that with Him you can act against the natural occurrences of the flesh.  It's easy to celebrate with others who are celebrating, but it's much more difficult to cry with those who cry.  We'd rather speak our mind instead of avoiding conflict — the "agree to disagree" principle.  We easily allow our pride to consume us and become conceited.  So few of us are humble; we love the praises that we receive from others, which are fine, but only to a certain extent.  We think that because something may have worked out well for us in the past that it's the only way, no other alternatives, so we assume that our supposed wisdom is plausible and will con others into doing what we want them to do instead of what's actually best for them according to what God wants them to do.  The common trend is to fight evil with evil — to fight fire with fire.  This is incredibly stupid.  Rather, we must fight evil with good — fight fire with water.  With water we can extinguish fire, and so with good we can extinguish evil.  Do all these things against the natural occurrences of the flesh and you will be considered honourable before man and blameless before God.


I've listed seven principles taken from the aforementioned passage in the book of Romans, but let's take each of these tools one at a time.  (It's interesting how I broke down this passage to seven basic principles, for in the Bible the number 7 symbolises perfection and completion.  I did not plan to break it down to specifically seven at all.)  The first principle is:  "Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse."  As I said before, our instinct is to curse someone who curses us first because that's the immediate, natural response as part of the human psyche.  We don't put the childhood principle, "think before you act" into play.  I could apply Jesus' "turn the other cheek" principle here, but that's not what I'm going to talk about.  I'm going to identify who the persecutors are and the actions we're supposed to take when they attack us.

Psalm 10:2, In arrogance the wicked relentlessly pursue the afflicted; let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.  In many situations we have seen gatherings of unwavering evil.  One example would be Hitler against the Jews, and anyone who wasn't a "perfect" German, for that matter.  Also, the countless wars in Africa of tribes murdering inferior tribes, as well as rape and mutilating women's bodies.  I can go on, but let's continue.  In this prayer and psalm of David, we will see a little later that this prayer is fulfilled.

Psalm 31:15, The course of my life is in Your power; deliver me from the power of my enemies and from my persecutors.  David is very right in this psalm for the fact that the course of our lives are in God's hands.  He has the ability to deliver us from our enemies, or hand us over to them.  The question is:  What have you done to earn deliverance from your enemies with God's help?  Of course, there are the significant few whom God delivers from their enemies without them asking for it.  An example would be in my own life.  If you read my blog entry, "How I Came to My Faith," this will be reiterate for you.  But if you have not, I'll try to keep this brief.  I was 5-years-old in Detroit and facing immense brutality from much older Caucasian kids because of the colour of my skin.  Of course, at this age, I wasn't very aware of God's existence, so because of the plans He has for me He delivered me from my enemies.  My dad found a new job and we moved to Pennsylvania.  However, it wasn't all hunky dory after that.  I suffered from depression for the next twelve years of my life, which jeopardised my faith in God.  I claimed to be atheist at the time, but I was technically agnostic and put blame on God at the same time.  So, after twelve years, I got saved at the age of seventeen.  I was fortunate enough to have a stubborn father to take me to church every Wednesday and Sunday, and the father I was given was part of God's plan long before I was born.  I began to pray, and I was eventually saved and my life became wealthy in Christ and needless to say, I lead a good life.  So you see, God really does have the power to set the course of our lives, even when we don't deserve it.  I have no doubt that if I decided to hate and reject God instead of embracing and loving Him, I would be in a much worse place right now.  Sine I was too young to know of God's existence and vitality of faith at the age of five (as well as my oblivious nature and personality), God took the course of my life into His own hands.  However, after that, He left the decision completely up to me.  I chose Jesus, and now He's setting the course of my life towards His kingdom — the deliverance from my enemies and from my persecutors, even though as a sinner, I don't deserve it.

Psalm 119:86, All Your commands are true; people persecute me with lies — help me!  This is very common today.  There are an over abundance of people who criticise, demean, and persecute Christians based on our beliefs and faith alone.  Most of us do our best to follow God's true commands, and so the unbelievers tell us otherwise of our beliefs with lies.  I find hilarity in that atheists get upset when we try to convert them to Christianity and demand respect when they themselves try to convert us to atheism.  Respect goes two ways.  When this happens, we Christians naturally get upset and defend ourselves, but that's the wrong reaction.  In our minds we plead for God's help, and that's the right thing to do, but not to magically make our enemies disappear, or to make them fall off a cliff or get hit by a car.  I once prayed for God's wisdom and boldness and knowledge so I could know how to respond to the persecutions of unbelievers, and He answered me.  That's the action I recommend each of us to take.  Due to a lack of knowledge of Scripture, many Christians have no idea how to respond to an unbeliever's "rationality."  If you don't know how to respond, ask for God's help to give you more wisdom and boldness and Scriptural knowledge, but you have to actually do that by reading His Word.  And with these three assets, you can then bless our persecutors and not curse them, which will hopefully bring them to Christ eventually.  Or you could just say nothing and walk away; this is a better alternative than going into dissension and arguing.  You may be accused of cowardice, but it takes wisdom to know that sometimes, no words are better than a lot.

Matthew 5:11-12, 44:  "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me.  Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven.  For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you...  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..."  Verses 11 and 12 are the passage I mentioned earlier that I paraphrase to unbelievers who persecute me.  Because of Jesus' promise here, never allow peoples' persecutions to bring you down or damage or even question your faith.  Despite all belief, it's a good thing that these people are demeaning you.  If they're persecuting you because of your faith, you've obviously done something to shed God's light on them and for some reason they're upset to have witnessed it because it's against everything they believe in — it's what you call a paradigm.  So what's their defence mechanism?  To attack the believers.  The apostles and other billions of Christians before us were persecuted in the same exact ways and even worse ways.  And by worse I mean absolute carnage and bloodshed (the many, many Roman emperors who've murdered millions upon millions of Christians).  So we have it easy.  However, this is no excuse to persecute them in return.  As Jesus has said in verse 44, we must love them and pray for them.  And do so with love and compassion, not obligation.

Matthew 10:23, "When they persecute you in one town, escape to another.  For I assure you:  You will not have covered the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes."  We can never escape from persecution.  No matter where you go, there will always be someone to persecute and hate you because of your faith.  You can try and run all you want, but you'll keep running into persecutors until the day Jesus comes.  Jesus did tell us that people would hate us because of His name in the prior verse, after all, and He also told us that people would persecute us and even kill us because of His name (Matthew 24:9).  God Himself said that this would happen:  "Because of this, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,' so that this generation may be held responsible for the blood of the prophets shed since the foundations of the world..." (Luke 11:49-50).  But what does this mean?  Some of you may be wondering, "Why would God do this?  Why would He send His prophets and servants out just to be killed?"  Well, why would God send His only begotten Son to be killed?  For the benefit and salvation of mankind.  In this verse Jesus was quoting Himself from Matthew 23:33-34 with a more black and white answer:  "Snakes!  Brood of vipers!  How can you escape being condemned to Hell?  This is why I am sending you prophets, sages, and scribes.  Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and hound from town to town."  Jesus is referring to the wicked that persecute and kill Christians, and He provided the answer as to why this is to happen:  to expose the wicked who will not escape their condemnation to Hell (unless they accept Christ, of course).

John 15:20, "Remember the word I spoke to you:  'A slave is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept My Word, they will also keep yours."  As Jesus Christ's servants, we are no greater than Him, so we receive the same punishment from our enemies that He received, nothing greater nor less.  (This even includes imprisonment and death.  See Luke 21:12 and read Matthew 23:34 once more.)  There is quite a distinction here:  Those who don't keep His Word will persecute us and those who do keep His Word, they will also keep ours.  The question is:  Will you be able to keep your faith and stand during persecution and tribulation (see Revelation 6:16-17)?

The Armour of God

There is a pattern of unbelief that I am most curious of and is rather fascinating.  Most unbelievers I come across have such a strong desire to persuade me away from my faith whether they decide to exercise the theory of evolution or other typical atheistic "logic" (i.e. if God is an all loving God and does not save people from massacres and famine and such, then He must not exist).  The fallacy of their childish logic is understandable to an extent because each of us are faced with these doubts at some point in our lives, and there is a psychological term for such fallacy:  rationalisation.  What separates the Christian from the  unbeliever is that we defeat the fallacies and starve the doubts fed by the Devil and evidently overcome the doubts by feeding our faith.  How do we do that?  I'm afraid that cannot be explained but rather experienced.  What I find increasingly interesting is that most unbelievers I come across feel that it is a necessity to express such hatred, persecution, and angry "logic" towards me and fellow brethren.  There are guilty Christians who bring about the persecution and judgement in the attempt to persuade them into the faith first and therefore having the unbeliever become defensive and attack back as a result.  It is a simple defence mechanism to attack when the very basis of your beliefs are threatened or challenged, Christian or not.  These very wrongful Christians may be the very reason why most unbelievers attack innocent Christians — they feel judged and persecuted by a Christian in their past and therefore assume all Christians do this and so decide to attack us, whether we instigated the argument or not.  I am certainly guilty of this in my past when I first became a Christian, but once I realised the foolishness of my behaviour I stopped it.  Keep in mind that as Christians we are not to instigate arguments and debates.  It is unbiblical.  When such things happen, be become defensive and attack offensively; but we are to defend our faith that is threatened by people with defensive measures, not offensive.

The Word tells us that we are to "reject foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they breed quarrels" (II Timothy 2:23).  And Titus 3:9 says to "avoid foolish debates, genealogies, quarrels, and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."  What it means by "genealogies" are speculative interpretations of the Old Testament.  The Word of God says that arguments and debates are unprofitable and worthless!  Indubitably, we can all agree on this, because in arguments and debates, especially with unbelievers going back and forth listing opinion after opinion for hours, what are you accomplishing?  Above all, what are you accomplishing for God's glory?  How is this argument or debate bringing any glory to God?  This is a rhetorical question because it's obvious that such quarrels dishonour God's image.  Being made in the image of God, we are dishonouring what He created us to become — His children in His image.  "Ah," someone may say, "is it not right to resolve a dispute?"  Proverbs 20:3, It is honourable for a man to resolve a dispute, but any fool can get himself into a quarrel.  If you can peacefully resolve a dispute without including yourself in a quarrel, it is honourable.

I often say that we are soldiers of Christ, and some may argue that as soldiers it is our duty to defeat hostile arguments with our own logic and Word of God.  If that were true, then such heated arguments would end each and every argument with the unbeliever as a believer without failure, but such does not happen.  I have two points to make here.  First, and shortly, as a veteran of the U.S. Army, a soldier knows that honour, respect, and mercy are more essential than taking out the enemy.  As Christian soldiers, our values are the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  And secondly, as soldiers of Christ, we wear the armour of God whereas those of the world are exposed with their weak flesh.  They're missing the armour of God, and so their flesh is exposed and they are weak.  They are not our enemies; Satan is the enemy.  In the military, anyone not clearly wearing any hostile gear are considered non-combatants and it is considered both illegal and unethical to fire upon them.  And with the Geneva Convention in effect (initiated by the United Nations), anyone who fires upon us and subsequently drops their weapon is also considered a non-combatant.  We don't like that rule, but it's an international law and we are obligated to obey it.  When we debate and argue with unbelievers, we are firing upon non-combatants, even if they attacked first.  Always going on the offensive is the world view of a soldier, but as a Christian we are to remain in the line of defence against people.

I'm going to use Ephesians 6:10-17 as support for this, which is the passage that discusses the armour of God.  In verse 11 it says to "put on the full armour of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil."  This is the vital key!  It says we are to wear the full armour of God in order to stand against the tactics of the Devil — his battle strategies.  This is a defence tactic, not an offence.  One of his tactics are the persecutions and arguments we face from unbelievers in order to create doubt within us and to dissuade us from believing in God.  But we are to stand our ground in defence!  "Ah," someone may say, "is coming back with a rebuttal not a form of defence?"  It is a form of defence, yes, but this defence includes a tactic of offence in the which you attack back while defending.  You are attacking and defending simultaneously — a counterattack — but the armour of God is simply defence against people.  (The armour of God is only used offensively against Satan.  I will explain this soon.)  In your mind you may think you are simply defending your faith but you are doing so by attacking them.  Verse 12 then goes on to tell us that "our battle is not against flesh and blood," which can be unbelieving people, "but against... the world powers of this darkness, [and] against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens."  Our battle is not against these unbelievers but against the darkness and evil of the words they're speaking, which is Satan working through them.  Satan formulates the tactic and these unbelievers are just the means to an end, and so I repeat:  the enemy is Satan, not these  unbelievers.  And verse 13 tells us "this is why you take up the full armour of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day" — the day(s) these quarrels occur — "and having prepared everything, to take your stand."  This is exactly what defence is — preparing yourself to stand against the forces of evil, not marching directly into it (that's offence).  The use of the word preparation is very important here because as you'll see, all these forms of defence that Scripture gives us can only be strong enough if we prepare against the attacks of the dark forces, which comes with experience as well as making mistakes.

So now the question is, "What is the composition of the armour of God and how do we utilise it?"  Well, it's given to us in verse 14-17, which I'm going to walk you through.  It tells us to stand "with truth like a belt around your waist."  Anyone can use this to argue that truth is to speak it against unbelievers in their debate because they speak lies.  No, they are wrong.  And again, our enemy to be offensive against is Satan, not people.  It says to stand with truth "like a belt."  What does a belt do?  It supports your foundation so that you won't fall.  Like a belt, we are to utilise what we know about the truth of God's Word to support the foundation of our faith so that we don't fall.  Don't take the belt off and start beating people with it; that's not what it was designed to do.  When we are faced with these persecutions and arguments, we are to exercise our knowledge of the truth of God's Word in maintaining the foundation of our faith — our faith unwavering.

Next, it says to stand with "righteousness like armour on your chest."  Armour on the chest takes a heavy beating, but you still stand firm in your chest plate.  Likewise, our righteousness takes a heavy beating, but we are to stand firm in it.  However, we have to be careful not to be self-righteous; that is always a danger, and many Christians fall into it.  There may be some questions in your mind right now, such as:  "What is righteousness," and/or, "How are we righteous when we are guilty of sin?"  Righteousness is "God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction" (Romans 3:22).  By believing in Christ and having faith in whom He was, is, and is to come while being cognisant of your sin but not remaining shameful of your sin due to the graceful forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ, you are righteous.  If you allow these words spoken by unbelievers to penetrate the armour on your chest by making you not believe anymore or doubt and feel guilty and shame for your sin, you damage your righteousness and risk destroying it.  It's not just what these people say that puts your righteousness in danger, but mostly the doubts you create and ruminate upon as a result of their slander.  Also, another note, Christians are called to judgement, contrary to popular belief, but not the judgement we all think of when we hear or read the word.  When Jesus teaches, " 'judge not, that ye be not judged' " (Matthew 7:1), He is not talking about simply judging people by sizing them up in one glance.  He is saying that we are not to judge (condemn) people to Hell.  The word that is used here in the Greek for the word "judge" is κρίνω (krinō).  It means to "separate, select," or "choose" and hence "to determine," and therefore "to pronounce judgement."  In its use here, the use of this verb means to assume the office of a judge.  If you're a judge, what do you do?  You sentence someone to death or imprisonment.  This is what Jesus is telling us not to do.  Do not put yourself in the position of a judge and sentence someone to the death and imprisonment of  Hell.  This is why Jesus said in John 7:24, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgement."  But what in God's name (literally) is righteous judgement?  Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter seven with His "speck in the eye" parable.  Righteous judgement is to examine your own self first — your own sins and imperfections ("the log that is in your own eye," verse 3).  Look to God's Word to see what it says about your own sins and fix it ("first take the log out of your own eye," verse 5a).  Then after you have completed that self-examination you can then examine somebody else's sins and see what Scripture has to say about their sin ("and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye," verse 5b).  Jesus calls people who don't do this hypocrites (v. 5a).  The judgement you are to come up with, after self-examination, is this:  "They are a sinner just like me.  Scripture says this about their sin, and I must love them and help them to overcome it, just as I have suffered in sin."

I got a little sidetracked there, but it was a necessary digression.  Let's move on with the next piece of armour.  In verse 15 it says to stand with "your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace."  This is a lot simpler than the subject of righteousness.  It simply means to always be ready to tell others about the Gospel.  Now, anyone can say here that this contradicts everything I've said up to this point.  That's not necessarily true.  If you tell somebody about the Gospel and they just choose to argue, that's not your problem and so you are to move elsewhere to somebody else who is willing to listen and discuss it maturely, leading to their possible repentance and their acceptance of Jesus Christ.  You're not giving up on them because there is still the power of prayer.  Spreading the Gospel is not for the sake of argument and debate.  By debating with people and pointing out how sinful they are, you are simply preaching Law, not Gospel.  The Law is still applicable in some regards, but you cannot preach the Law without offering the Gospel; the Gospel is the whole point of Jesus Christ.  The Gospel is grace.  God did not give us His Word to debate with people; He spoke to us in order that we may lead people to Christ so that they may be free from the bondage of sin and that they might know Him and in turn inherit His kingdom as co-heirs and as God's children.  However, if somebody is sincerely intrigued and is asking you questions simply out of curiosity and intrigue and wishes to know what Christianity is all about, then answer them accordingly in the Spirit.  There is a huge difference between a mature, gentle discussion and a raging quarrel.  If an unbeliever is arguing with you, he or she is not interested in being saved or having their mind changed; they've already made up their mind so you would just be wasting your time and their time.  This is why you must pray for them on your own time.  Jesus commands us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).  If an unbeliever is asking you questions without argument and is looking for answers, then they're obviously looking for a change that only God can offer that they wish to understand.  So put on the sandals of the gospel of peace and always be ready to teach others of the Gospel.

In verse 16 we are told:  In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.  First, let me emphasise that it says "the evil one," which is Satan, not people.  A shield is the most used form of defence, and what is this shield?  Our faith.  I find it very interesting that the very thing we have to protect is also one of the greatest forms of defence, and it is because faith can be that strong.  It is imperative that we get to the point where our faith is so unwavering that we can deflect the flaming arrows of Satan.  So basically our faith has to be so strong that the tactics Satan decides to attack our faith with are ultimately ineffective.  This is a true challenge, and it takes a very long time to get there, but it is very achievable.  Next, in verse 17 we are told to "take the helmet of salvation."  Our salvation is our inheritance in God's kingdom with Christ Jesus, and we are to use that knowledge of our salvation to protect our minds from dark and evil thought patterns.  You have the ultimate inheritance to be with our Lord in God's kingdom!  That is a glorious thing!  Wear that knowledge and keep your chin up and keep looking forward to that moment!  Therefore, do not allow the words of unbelievers to sizzle in your mind and distract you from that promise.  They don't have that promise, but you do.  So put on the helmet of this inherited salvation and protect your mind against these vile, insidious words that unbelievers speak — do not allow yourself to lie awake at night thinking of these things that the unbeliever said.  If you find yourself in this situation, pray.  Talk to God.  Be absolutely sure of your salvation and what the Word of God says about it and who you are in Christ, as God the Father sees you.

Lastly, it says to take "the sword of the Spirit, which is God's Word."  Here, someone may say, "Ah!  A sword!  You use a sword for attacking!"  That is one use of it, yes, but you can also use a sword to defend yourself by blocking out attacks — cancelling them out.  We attack Satan with God's Word, but we defend ourselves against people with God's Word.  Allow me to explain.  We are not to use the sword of God's Word to attack others because when we do that it always leads to condemnation that comes from the Law instead of the grace of the Gospel — doing so is using God's wrath against them.  Rather, we are to defend our faith against the words of the world that Satan puts into action in order to block them from puncturing our faith, cancelling them out; and we are to do this by remembering and reading God's Word.  Use Jesus as an example when He stood against the temptations of Satan when He was in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).  Yes, Jesus actually used the Word of God to physically speak against the Devil, and that's exactly the point.  He attacked the Devil with God's Word, not a human being, and the end result was that Satan fled from Him.  Sure, at times Jesus made known to the Pharisees that they were hypocrites and sinners, but He also made very known to them that He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).  They just refused to believe, and there are many reasons why, which I won't get into right now.  I'll use a personal example as well.  Usually when unbelievers start to insult me with numerous profanities, I simply tell them that they're actually doing me a favour because by their persecutions and insults, they are blessing me, according to Matthew 5:11-12.  I have that Scripture memorised, and I quote it to them.  They either have nothing to say to that or they continue with their rude and spiteful remarks, which is my cue to walk away.  That's all you have to do.  Memorise Scripture; it really helps.  When I paraphrase or quote that passage to them, it is not in argument or in condemnation; I'm just simply making it known to them that their words neither offend me, confuse me, nor change my mind.  I have made up my mind just as they have made up theirs, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Remember in verse 12 that it says our battle is not against flesh and blood, which are people.  Do not attack people with the sword of God's Word.  Their words (and our own thoughts) create doubts in our minds and that's when we attack with the sword of God's Word against Satan, and he shall flee (James 4:7).  Attack the lies that you allow Satan to form in your mind with the sword of God's Word.  When you speak the Word of God against peoples' accusations and "logic," they are so arrogant and ignorant that they just keep on attacking; they don't run away.  This is why I make the wise choice to walk away because it just simply isn't worth it.  What's the point in arguing with someone who refuses to be objective and have a mature discussion?  There is no point.  Since they keep on attacking, we then have to use God's Word as a sword to block and cancel out their blunt blows on our faith by reminding ourselves in our mind what the Word of God says against their purported and perpetual logic and accusations.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, the purpose of putting on the armour of God is not just to be capable of fighting against Satan, but also to remain defensive against His wiles through any means he uses, protecting your faith.  Since our battle is not against flesh and blood but against these dark powers and forces, doing everything I just described is our only form of offence in battling against these spiritual forces, as well as the only form of defence against flesh and blood — the wiles of Satan.  As they say in sports, "Your best offence is a good defence."  How true that is for the Christian faith!  By defending your faith against Satan's dark forces you are also fighting against it, for he runs away (remember James 4:7).  But remember, after Satan had tempted Jesus, "he left Him until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13).  So be careful; he will come back and try again.

How I Came to My Faith

So I decided to make this blog entry about me for those of you who don't know me very well.

People today look around them and formulate reasons why God does not exist — or rather why they refuse to believe in Him, on a more personal level.  When I observe my surroundings, however, I cannot help but see reasons as to why I must believe in His palpable existence.  Let us journey back into my post-toddler stage, 5-years-old in the ghetto of Detroit, Michigan.  It may be difficult to imagine, but in 1995 it was still difficult for people to grasp the diversity of being biracial, at least in the ghetto of Detroit, which was my unfortunate predicament.  It was a very dangerous place for me to grow up.  Neither white nor black people accepted me because my father is Caucasian and my mother is half Puerto Rican and half African American, making me a multiracial anomaly; so needless to say, my shortage of friends was not very substantial. From what I can remember, I can only recall having one friend of whom I seldom saw.  So I was a very lonely child, in spite of my close connections I felt with my older brother and my mother.  (My father worked a lot for the benefit of supporting the family, so I didn't quite have a connection with him, but I don't blame him for it.  In fact, I highly admire and respect him for his hard work.)  Anyway, what I recall the most is getting beat up by a Caucasian 5th grader on the walk home from school every day, as well as being called African racial slurs.  Mind you, I was a tiny kindergartner (my small physique has been a curse for most of my life) compared to this tall, much more menacing 5th grader, so I was completely incapable of defending myself.  However, God was there for me even though I was oblivious to His existence.  This was actually before I ever learnt of God's existence, and He was still there for me.  He assured that I was not harmed in any life-threatening ways, which would've been very probable had He not been there.  He was there for me because He has always had an important plan for me ever sine He created this earth.  God eventually set my father up with a better job in Pennsylvania in 1996, where we moved to for a year, then back to Michigan in a safer area in the town of Canton in 1998.  Then we moved to Canton's neighbouring community, Plymouth, in 2006.  Throughout twelve years of my life (1995-2007) I suffered through major depression, and it was an insidious demon of the mind, growing worse and worse throughout time.  However, God was still there in spite of my professed atheism during that time.  (Let me tell you:  being atheist in a Christian raised family is no easy task.  Although technically, I was agnostic because you cannot blame all your problems on a Being that you claim doesn't exist.)

At age sixteen my parents divorced, and my depression and professed atheism sank even deeper.  A year later in 2007 I somehow found the fortitude to be saved through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Son of God.  I have my father to thank for that.  Were it not for his persistence in my attending church every Sunday, I would not have associated and socialised with Christian peers and thus inspiring me to attend that year's Acquire the Fire (ATF) Battle Cry — an enormous Christian conference with concerts for adolescents held annually in large cities around the country.  This particular one was in Detroit during March of 2007, and this is where I got saved.  The bands we got to see perform were P.O.D., Unhindered, Kutless, Hilsong United, Superchick, Skillet, and other bands, including Philip Joel and Jeremy Camp the following year.  But it wasn't just concerts at this large event.  A famous pastor, Ron Luce, would preach in between worship times as well as there being very well acted drama skits to portray a biblical message, all of which contributed to my encouragement of being saved.  I find it beyond coincidental that I lost my faith in Detroit in 1995 (or more accurately the cause of never forming it) and regained it back in Detroit in 2007; it's what God had always intended it to be.  However, I could have easily decided to ignore the love from my Christian peers (ultimately God's love, which I almost did ignore), refused to go to church (which I did not want to attend on many occasions but did anyway in obedience to my father), and I could have therefore chosen to instead fill my heart with hatred and rebellion against both my dad and my heavenly Father.  Thanks be to God that I made the right choice!  I still have no idea why I went through all the depression and heartache I suffered through, but perhaps I will find the reason by the end of this entry, if not at a later time.  Since that very moment I got saved, I have been on a wild journey with God, and He has gotten me further than I ever thought possible — achievements and blessings I never foresaw.  Where therapy and Prozac medication has failed, Jesus Christ prevailed.  Therapy was completely ineffective (I don't discount therapy after my experience; it just didn't work for me, for it does not work for every patient, which is actually rare).  I wanted help in therapy; it was just ineffective.  And the medication I had to consume just made me worse, which only happens to 2% of people who take the medication.  The receiving of the Holy Spirit is such a powerful and ineffable feeling — what I like to call "that sweet emotion."  It will be the understatement of a lifetime that I should say:  God is truly amazing.

People will ask me, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"  Usually, I would rightly respond with, "No one is good," paraphrasing from Luke 18:19.  Besides, who are we to decide who's "good" and who's "bad?"  You can't really decide that unless you know every single aspect of the person — the heart is different than their outward appearance, which is what God examines (I Samuel 16:7).  We always bring God down to our level of thinking, but He is at a completely different vantage point than we are (Isaiah 55:8-9), which for us is unattainable and unfathomable.  I think we would be more right to ask why bad things happen to people in general, which we do but not because of the realisation that not one is good.  To only care about the well-being of "good" people and ignoring that of "bad" people is inconsiderate.  Each of our opinions of "good" versus "bad" varies from person to person.  Anyway, let's be more analytical about Jesus' saying, "Not one is good."  Romans 8:28, We all know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.  But do YOU know that?  God can easily transform our bad things into something good, but we have to believe and trust that He can.  How do you think people become motivational speakers after a tragic incident?  I am confident that God gives them their strength, even if they don't admit it.  Second Corinthians 1:4, He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves received from God.  God will comfort us in our troubles, which gives us the ability and willingness and humbleness to sympathise with and comfort others who've experienced the same thing, or lesser things or even greater things.  However, it doesn't matter how less or great a tragedy is; in God's eyes the suffering of His child is the same.

In a perfect world, good things will happen to all people all the time, but we don't live in a perfect world; everyone will inevitably face bad and terrible tribulations from time to time, even excessively because of the sin in the world as a result of the Fall of Man.  We need to face and recognise this reality as opposed to dwelling in a wishful thinking world that good things need to happen to everybody on this planet all the time, especially "good" people.  For claiming to be in the "Age of Reason," we sure do illustrate an over abundance of fallacies.  For the longest time I blamed God for everything that had happened to me, and I blamed Him for my depression.  I blamed Him for twelve years!  That's an awfully long time to blame our almighty God for something that He wasn't even responsible for, yet He still forgave me and protected me.  This is when I realised that for atheists claiming to not believe in God, they sure do blame Him for a lot of things and put many accusations upon Him.  Everybody needs a scapegoat, and for some dastardly strange reason we like to use our invisible, powerful, perfect, wise Creator as the scapegoat for all the faults in the world when it was Satan and man who brought it upon mankind.  That's just one of Satan's fanciful tricks that we often fail or even refuse to recognise.

Two years after accepting Christ, at age nineteen, upon graduating high school I enlisted into the United States Army Bands as a professional saxophone specialist.  I auditioned and passed in May of 2009 and signed my contract on June 16th; left for basic training on February 11, 2010 and graduated early on April 23rd.  On that same day I left for AIT (Advanced Individual Training) to the Armed Forces School of Music located on the Littlecreek Joint Expeditionary Navy Base in Virginia Beach, Virginia and graduated AIT on June 4th.  I deployed to the 2nd Infantry Division Band at Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, South Korea of the Gyeonggi-do province on July 13th; and served my next and final duty station at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma on August 2, 2011 (and what a dump it was).  And now here I am today, honourably discharged from the army (I got home January 5, 2013) and am now attending Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan doing my pre-seminary studies with a minor in theological languages while pursuing a secondary degree in theology.  All of this happened in a span of just four years, and already I've accomplished so much.  I'm 23-years-old now, and I already had a full-fledged career and about to pursue another.  I hope you see what I see here:  that from the beginning of my life until now, God has been with me in seemingly impossible ways (and a lot more left unmentioned that may later be unveiled in this blog), and it is absolutely breathtaking.  It leaves me in awe every time I ruminate upon it.

I began this entry with seeing reasons as to why I must believe in and love God when I observe my surroundings.  Everything mentioned above is that first reason why.  I examine my life from the beginning to where I'm at now and I cannot deny that there is a God who is with me.  Not everyone can examine their life and draw the same conclusions I have; that isn't the point of this blog entry.  This is simply my own personal beliefs due to my very specific life experiences.  If God hasn't been there for you, little faith may be the reason and if this is you, you need to earnestly pray and accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and recommit your life to God, which is achievable through baptism and/or self-discipline.  I'm not saying this is definite, but it is very probable.  The other possibility is that He actually is there; you're just failing to recognise Him.

Keeping all that in mind, my second reason is my family, more specifically my immediate family.  When I look at them or even think of them — my mother, my father, my stepmother Deanna, my older brother Daniel, and my younger sister Julia — I cannot help but be filled with so much love and joy for them, even though my brother and sister are having a crisis of faith at the moment.  I still love them very much and would sacrifice my life for them if I had to.  Both my parents have sacrificed a lot for this family, including their own happiness.  (The specifics of their sacrifices shall not be unveiled due to family privacy and respect.)  When I remember what my parents have done for my siblings and me (even what they did before I was born), I cannot help but feel immensely blessed to have such loving, caring, and sacrificial parents.  And seeing the sincere efforts my stepmother puts into being there for us and loving us, treating us as if we were her own but not trying to take the place of our mother (for she is still around and active in our lives) while taking the time to understand and know each of us, I feel immensely blessed to have her.  I'm not sure if she knows this, but at some point in my life I will let it be known to her when I'm comfortable enough to do so.  I'm not the type of person who readily expresses their deep emotions like that.  If I am to have my own children, I don't know if I can be half as good a father as my own father has been.  Because of how fortunate and blessed I am to have the family I have, I cannot deny that there is a God.  As I'm sure you can already tell, I do not hold the divorce against my parents either.  Most would hold it against their own, but my parents are truly happy now, which makes me happy.  It is simply for the better.  I was devastated, of course, when I first received the news, but it didn't take me long to realise that they were becoming happier than they've ever been.  This pretty much hit me when my father almost broke down in tears (which is extremely rare of him) because he thought I hated him, which was completely untrue, so I got over it; and due to the portrayal of my actions at the time I can't blame him for thinking that.  Because of the divorce I have grown closer to my father and continue to grow closer to him.  And because of the divorce I can sympathise with and comfort others whose parents get divorced, especially since the divorce rate in America continues to increase exponentially (remember II Corinthians 1:4).

My third and probably last reason why I cannot deny that there is a God is the nature of this beautiful planet that we live on.  That may sound odd, but that's fitting because I'm an odd person.  When I go out and do photography (a great and expensive hobby of mine), I observe the wild animals, the trees, the flowers, the sky, the mountains, the hills, the waters, the stars, and the rest of the mysterious space.  I see all of this and I just cannot accept that everything — known and unknown — were created by sheer, dumb luck.  Scientists call life a "lucky" coincidence.  Luck is the most quintessential human delusion.  I ignorantly don't believe in luck for the very same reason people ignorantly don't believe in God:  I can't see it.  "Luck" is gambling and black jack, which is all just mathematical probability and exactly why mathematical geniuses can cheat and learn to count cards.  Anybody with sense will know this if they've seen the production film, "Rain Man."  Slot machines, as an example of gambling, also function mathematically, for a skilled mathematician can calculate the likelihood of the machine selecting certain symbol combinations.  And "luck" is also something very fortunate happening at a very abrupt moment in our lives without any warning (or "bad luck" for the reverse effect), which is also mathematical probability when considering the time of all the little things you did (and/or opposing parties did) to get to that "lucky" or "unlucky" moment.  This is not luck or bad luck; it is purely mathematical whether it was affected by divine intervention or not.  People utilise "luck" to replace the absence of God in their lives.

I just refuse to believe that everything I see and the rest of the universe that we can only speculate upon were caused by some cosmic coincidence, but rather that there is an infinitely intelligent and loving Creator who desires to know each and every one of us intimately.  To me, if God didn't exist and everything in existence were created by sheer, dumb luck, then what's the purpose in living?  I have heard this rationalisation by unbelievers and agnostics alike:  "Well, life is what you make of it — doing what makes you happy, cherishing those you love, and being a good person to the best of your ability" (in a nutshell, that's what they all similarly say).  Okay, sure, that's justifiable to an extent, but once you die all of that will be forgotten throughout history and will no longer matter — you will no longer matter.  You can only be remembered in peoples' memories for so long before your memory just fades into the obscurity of history.  Nowadays, only if you're famous or a celebrity will your memory last longer, but even they will be forgotten.  I can tell you right now that the human race will not live forever, whether it's because of Christ rapturing His Church and those left behind still not choosing God after the end and being dragged to Hell, or if the earth just decides that she can't support life anymore.  This may sound depressing but that's because it is!  Life without our loving God is just far too depressing to even imagine.  Because of how depressing that is I just cannot accept that there is no loving Creator who deeply desires to adopt us all as His children.  Humans becoming a fading memory just seems an impossible and purposeless fate; our fate is to become God's children through Christ and to dwell with Him in His kingdom for all eternity.  With God, you always matter for all of your earthly life and all of eternity after this life.  Life as a believer is not an easy one, but did God ever tell us it would be easy?  No!  He never said that.  Anyone who expects the Christian life to be an easy, soothe sailing life has believed a lie, and should they choose to believe in and love Christ and come into the faith with these false and unrealistic expectations, they will live a miserable Christian life when we are called to joy, praise, faith, and hope.  God, Jesus Christ, and the apostles have taught time and time again that we must expect tribulations, and plenty of them.  Necessary tribulations, too.  If we think times today are hard, just wait till after the Christians today (and those already dead) disappear to Heaven, and those left behind (including the new believers after the Rapture of Christ's Church) will have to face tribulations that will be a hundred times more sufferable, and that is no hyperbole.  They'll realise that they will desperately need us to teach them and guide them after already having us, but we'll be gone.  I'm not trying to scare anybody; I'm just giving an urgent warning about something stringently realistic.  If your'e scared, you probably should be.  Use that fear to desire Christ and live for Him in servitude and that fear will quickly, if not instantly, turn into peace and comfort.  However, fear God reverently, not penitently.  Living a life in commitment to Christ is not supposed to be a comfortable lifestyle; it's supposed to be challenging and difficult.

I want to conclude this entry with Hosea 4:1-3.  It delineates perfectly how we are today:  Hear the word of the LORD, people of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!  Cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.  For this reason, the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes, along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky; even the fish of the sea disappear.  Sounds a lot like us, doesn't it?  This is not a prophecy of modern times; it was one of God's case against Israel.  This is an ancient time, yet in modern times we are identical to what Israel was like for a time, and we like to think we're predominant because of the technology we now possess.  This hilarity amuses me.  So those who complain about how the world is today, it is nothing new!  The world has been like this for millennia.  Human behaviour that sets itself apart from God is unchangeable and primitive.