Why isn't Jesus Enough?

This is something I've been thinking about for a long time, but wasn't sure how to write about it in a way that didn't come across as me complaining about being lonely, because I feel like I do that all the time.  (Though probably not as often as it feels like to me because looking over all the blog posts I've written, most of them never get published, which is why there is usually such a long time between posts!)

In the duration of church hunting, I've realized just how easy it is to lose touch with community and the body of Christ, as well as just how much they are needed.  Starting in Genesis we find that man is not meant to be alone, and never, in scripture (save a few examples) do we find people who are habitually by themselves.  People lived in communities for survival, both physically, and especially in the New Testament, spiritually.

Sexual Frustrations - Note, this post is rated PG-13

But not the kind of sexual frustration that first popped into your head!

What did Jesus save me from?

I have grown up in the church and therefore, don't have a dramatic conversion story of Jesus saving me from drugs, alcoholism, a life of miserable promiscuity, abusive relationships, and so on.  This past week, a radio station, I'm sure many are familiar with, K-LOVE, posed the question to its readers, "What did Jesus save you from?" with a challenge to take a photograph of yourself with a sign saying "Jesus saved me from [fill in the blank]!"  Usually contests like this make me roll my eyes and move on without much consideration, but this one really made me think about what Jesus had saved me from.

All the time I hear stories about how Jesus saved individuals from the things mentioned above, but what did He really save us from?  Jesus didn't promise a life of peace and prosperity here and now - in fact, He promised the opposite.  He said that he came to turn brother against brother, father against son, and mother against daughter.  He promised suffering, and pain.  He promised hardships.

Why do Calvinists and Arminians hate each other?

Okay, so maybe hate is a strong word, but you can't deny there is a tension between these two groups of believers.

When you put a bunch of Christians in a room together, a lot of disagreements can occur, but few will be as heated as the argument of predestination (Calvinism) or free-will (Arminianism).  The doctrines themselves are a big deal, granted, but I wonder if they are a big enough to get as worked up about them as people do.

I have a few ideas as to why this may be so.  The biggest is how people who believe these different doctrines view and think of God.  Calvinists tend to see God as sovereign and majestic, sometimes at the expense of loving and gracious, and Armenians vice versa.  Another thing that tends to differentiate between the two camps is how church is run.  The former camp is usually much more structured and traditional, and the latter is more commonly more flexible and changing.  Calvinists also are more known for sticking to older and more traditional beliefs  while Armenians can keep the same beliefs, but are often coming up with different ways to explaining them.

Romans 8:1-5

There is therefore now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the Law of the spirit of life has set us free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  For God did what the law, weakened by flesh could not do.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For those who walk according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who walk according to the Spirit set their minds on things of the Spirit.

What does it mean to be Reformed?

Over the past several month's, I've been doing a lot of studying, reading, and praying and all that has led to, what I believe, is the truth of Reformed theology.  While I do not by any means claim to be an authority on Reformed theology, I have noticed a few things that seem to distinguish it from other sects of Christianity and religious groups.

I think the first thing to mention when explaining Reformed theology is it's extremely high view of scripture.  Chris Rosebrough of Pirate Christian Radio does a show called Fighting for the Faith.  During a podcast on October 16, 2008, Rosebrough talked about the Material Principle which is defined as the central doctrine a religion adheres to.  He also explained the Formal Principle, which is similar, but is the authority which shapes said doctrine and usually explains where that doctrine comes from. Rosebrough explains that the Formal Principle is usually a text or the teachings of an individual that contains and explains the Material Principle.  I thought I remembered him saying that the material principle of Reformed faith is Sovereignty of God and the formal principle is Sola Scriptura, but the PowerPoint slides say something different - however, Rosebrough is Lutheran, which is slightly different than Reformed, so that may explain it.

Last day at Lane Bryant

Yesterday was my last day working at Lane Bryant.  It was a sad day... a lot went on there that I didn't like dealing with, such as on-call shifts, pushing credit, slacking sales leaders, low pay and scattered minimal hours but despite all that, it really has been my favorite job so far.

One good thing that happened on my last day was I worked with someone, who, I think was my favorite customer to work with at the store.  She came in kinda unsure what she was looking for, but she had a good-bye party her friends and colleagues were throwing her because she was moving to San Diego.  She was looking for an outfit that wasn't too casual, but wasn't extremely formal either.

She ended up buying a dress that looked terrific on her especially after fitting her for a bra, and putting her in a pair of Spanx!  With this one customer, I had the privilege of doing everything that I loved about working at Lane Bryant!  I got to put her in an awesome looking outfit, fit her for a bra, and add the finishing touches of Spanx and other accessories, all while seeing her looks of surprise, and her confidence and excitement grow as we added each piece!

Grandma Visit

So, my Grandma who lives in southern California is visiting the house for a few weeks.  She comes and visits every summer, and it's great to see her, but at the same time, as much as I love her, she does somewhat add to the stress level in the house.

It's nothing that she intentionally does I don't think, she just has a very different lifestyle than we do.  Not that I'm calling her uptight or anything, but she is very much more set in her ways than we are, and we are much more laid back and easy-going, I find, than she is.

One thing that is very important to me and my family is our faith and our involvement in church.  My grandma is of the opinion that if you live a decent life and you do your best to be a good person, (coupled with belief in God) that God will let you into Heaven regardless of other beliefs or lifestyles.  She has concluded that all Christianity is is a list of rules and laws and regulations in order for you to be a better person, and that she doesn't need God to be a good, and upstanding.

One Year Anniversary of Graduation

But you wouldn't be able to tell a thing.

On July 25, 2009 I graduated from Ball State with a BS in Apparel Design.  Even before graduation, I had decided that my degree was just that... b.s.  Not only is the job market ABYSMAL for fashion designers, but about half-way through my senior year, I decided that I hated my degree.  I didn't like designing, I wasn't crazy about sewing and the whole fashion industry was not something I wanted to get seriously involved in... even if I wanted to, it would be really difficult for a fat girl to make it very far in an industry so obsessed with skin-deep beauty.

I really thought that, given a year, I would have made more progress in life than I have.  I thought that I would be living somewhere other than my parents house, working full-time, have more healthy relationships with people, and be healthier overall.  Even if not all of those things were going to happen, I would at least think I would be working more and be at least somewhat healthy physically.

Assurance

How do you know if you're saved? Christ saved the elect (assuming only the elect are saved by the work of Christ) by dying on the cross in payment for sins - but how do you know if you're elect?

We are saved by faith in Christ given to us as a gift through grace. I've heard that phrase and thought the gift was Christ, not faith, now, with further reading and study, I do still believe that Christ was a gift but the "gift" referred to in this particular statement is the faith - God grants people faith as a free gift.  Faith in the work He's already done, through Christ.  (In essence, our faith is a gift, and that faith is in Christ Jesus.)

Faith is the gift, Jesus Christ was the means by which it is given because it allowed God to grant grace. So, if Christ died for the elect and the elect are granted faith because of God's grace, is having faith our assurance for salvation?

In Regard to the Twitter Discussion:

So, the other day I asked kind of a big question and then had to leave and I wasn't able to see/participate in the conversation until much later.  (I still haven't actually said anything about it because things have been kinda crazy around my house!) 

[As transcribed from my journal on 6/19/10 with a few revisions...]

Deuteronomy 9:5 - Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going to possess their land, but because  of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that He may confirm the word that the Lord swore to yoru fathers to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Many times I hear people object to the character of God, saying He is wrathful, vengeful, hateful etc.  They wonder how Christians can follow a God like this saying he is hardly compassionate, loving and just.  Many times they point to the Torah/Pentateuch  and the conquering of Canaan to justify this claim.  Until now, I've simply not had an answer to response for such claims other than "I don't know".  Now I think I actually have a partial reply to them.

The answer is because the nations being conquered were wicked in the eyes of the Lord.  And when wickedness is present, one of two thinks much take place.  1.) There must be forgiveness, which the price of the evil and disobedience is borne by the accuser (in this case God), or 2.) the evil must be paid for/punished.

We see later in the NT, in Romans specifically, that the wages of sin is death.  Sin is defined as disobedience/going again God's commandments.  Sin can be equated to evil, or in this case, wickedness.  The wickedness had to be paid for by someone.  The Isrealites had the Law to know how to pay for their transgressions - the Canaanites did not, and the Messiah (ie Christ) had not yet come to pay for them Himself.  (He hadn't even been prophesied yet).  So the Canaanites had to pay for their own wickedness with their lives as the wages of sin - ie wickedness, is death.

Born Again

I've grown up with the term "born again".  "You must be born again in order to get into Heaven."  I can't tell you how many times I've heard that said, and how many times I've said that to other people.  I've taken the whole concept for granted.

As I've read, studied, and talked with numerous people smarter than me, I've started to lean more and more towards God predestining people to salvation, instead of us choosing to go to Him.  Does this mean that humans have absolutely no choice in the matter of salvation?  I'm not 100% sure.  Both predestination and free will seem to be supported in scripture, so that makes me think that both, in some way must be true, but I do tend to lean more towards predestination.  I should say though, that I am still learning.

Loneliness

Today was kind of a weird day.  Earlier I tweeted that I was bitten by the lonely bug, and I really feel like I was.

Usually when I'm in a mood like this, I either want to be with people, or I want to be completely alone.  Today, I wanted neither.  When I was around my family and people at church, I was annoyed and irritable and just wanted to be left alone, and when I was alone, I felt extremely lonely and depressed.

The other day I wrote a blog (that I later later took down) about how there's nothing I get really excited about anymore.  While at BSU, the events I got most excited about centered around the relationships I had with the people I was going to interact with.  I don't really have many friendships now.  Sure there are lots people I interact with, family members, co-workers, other people at church and so on.

Extending Grace in the Workplace

If you know me personally or talk to me much at all you know that there have been problems with a certain co-worker for several month's now.  I don't want to go into a lot of detail about the whole ordeal for the sake of professionalism (I can be professional at times believe it or not!) but I am torn about how to deal with the situation at times.

I know Christ says to forgive someone not 7 times, but 70 times 7.  Now, I don't think that Jesus literally means we should forgive someone 490 times, but I think he means we should forgive someone continually.  That being said, I wonder how many times I should forgive my co-worker at work, and how I should handle/react to the situation going on.

In Defense of Pharisees - WHAT?!

I'm one of those people that has the urge to read 5 or 6 books at a time, and until recently, it's never been a problem to read the books quickly, and to keep the content in each of them straight.  Over the past few month's, my reading speed has slowed drastically.  I think it's largely because instead of reading books just to read them, I study them, and try to absorb as much of the content as I possibly can.

Right now, I'm reading a book called The Reason for God by Timothy Keller.  I just finished reading chapter 11 - Religion and the Gospel, probably my favorite chapter thus far.  It was a great chapter but there was one thing that does irritate me, and is something I see quite often:  the painting of Pharisees as the religious bad-guys of their day.

Better than a Hallelujah

Last week I was hanging out with a very dear friend of mine before he moved to Virginia for the summer with a group of people from my old church.  We were talking about several things and at one point we started talking about music and lyrics and such.  Most of it was music we listened to as kids and were embarrassed to admit that we may or may not still like these artists a bit!

For the most part we were talking about 90's CCM.  Artists like Micheal W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Amy Grant.  I mentioned that Amy Grant has recently come out with another album and single.  The single, I've heard on the radio quite frequently, called "Better than a Hallelujah".  I was talking about how, if you would have asked me a few months ago what I thought of the song, I probably would have said that I whole-heartedly agreed with it.  Now, however, I'm not so sure.

Questions...

I've always been afraid to ask questions unless I was very confident in the subject I was asking about, and knew that the question would not be a "stupid question".  I'm not really sure why that is, but even in Sunday School when I was in early elementary school, the Sunday School teacher would use words like "salvation" and I had no idea what it meant, but felt like I should know, so I didn't ask.  As time went on, especially in matters of the church and theology, if I come across something I don't know what it is, I'm afraid to ask because there's a little voice in my head (Guess who it may be! ;)) that tells me "you've grown up in the church, you should know exactly what that is..."  So, out of fear of seeming stupid or uninformed, if I don't know what something is, it often stays that way.

I am hoping that this will change however. 

Nothing is not Spiritual: A response

Recently, via Twitter, a question was raised: What is spiritual?

One response was "everything is spiritual". I've heard of this concept before, but never in Christian circles, who, I thought the speaker was a part of, so I asked him to clarify for me, and he did so in a blog post shortly after.

I do understand better now what this person meant when he said that everything is spiritual, but I do not agree with him.

First off, when someone says the statement "Everything is Spiritual", in my head, I associate the statement with "Everything is God", or "God is in everything", which can lead to, among other things, nature-worship, mysticism and so on. I now know that is not what was meant.

Prayer-Yes, I'm still wrestling with it.

So, I've blogged on this topic before, and I've really nothing new to say guess, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

I wrote this at church this morning during the alter-call.

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I see and read about the importance and power of prayer all the time, I've experienced the power of prayer, but I still continue to doubt it. What I keep coming back to is this: God is sovereign; nothing I say or do will change what He's going to do, so what's the point of prayer other than conversing? (How ever that may happen...) I can understand the point of telling God of your troubles for the sake of giving it over to Him and be at peace, but as far as intercession, or personal intervention, does it really make a difference?

Christians and Homosexuality

I'm finding that the issue of sexuality is not quite as black and white as some people make it seem. Even as I used to think of it as. I'm not saying that the Bible unclear on the issue, or that the issue of morality or Biblical stances isn't clear, but, how the issues should be treated. Or rather, how the people should be dealt with or treated.

For the record, I believe based on scripture that any sexual acts outside of heterosexual marriage is sinful.

What is not always clear, at least to me, is how we should treat people with, for lack of a better term, deviant sexual behavior. Now, I'm no expert, but I have many many homosexual friends, some are Christian, and some are not. Those that are not Christian, know that I believe there is a difference between homosexual desires and homosexual actions, and that I believe homosexual actions are sinful, yet at the same time, I'm not going to think any less of my friends, or judge them in any way. I like to think that my Christian friends know different. My christian friends know that homosexual behavior is sinful, and that as a sister in Christ, I'm going to hold them to Biblical standards as I would hope they would do the same to me. Fortunately, my gay Christian friends are celibate or are otherwise not giving into homosexual temptations.

Why I hate some worship songs

I hate it when worship songs emphasize the value of "my praise" and "my worship"... As if it really has any value especially compared to what the object of our worship, adoration, and praise is worthy of. There are many things "worthy" of my priase, but the fact of the matter is, God is worthy of ALL my worship plus more. That's why He deserves all my praise, not because nothing else is worthy, but because He deserves everything I could possibly muster to give.

There is nothing significant or spectacular about my worship because there is nothing significant or spectacular about me.

To Choose or Be Chosen

I recently read a paper recommended to me by a friend about C.S. Lewis's views on predestination and free will and comparing them to John Calvin's. I have been a big fan of C.S. Lewis since I read the Chronicles of Narnia, but one thing I never realized (probably because I have not had a chance to read any of his non-fiction yet) was that he firmly believed in free-will. The paper described Lewis and Calvin as two of the greatest and most influential thinkers in Christianity, while I'm not sure that Lewis is quite up there with Calvin (it's a bit early to say!), I did appreciate the author of the paper's efforts to reconcile the two opposing beliefs.

The first thing that stuck out about the paper was the use of scripture to back up most, if not all of it's claims, albeit, some of the claims are out of context. Not far into the paper, the writer hit on exactly what my issues with Calvinism: "those therefore, whom God passes by he reprobates, and that for no other cause but because he is pleased to excludes them from the inheritance which he predestines to his children". If someone is not predestined for Heaven, they are by default, predestined to Hell. He also hit on the next loophole I found in the theory... that God only predestined and regenerated those He knew would choose him on their own, saying that by taking this stance, Calvin would be taking the "easy way" out.

Wrestling with things I don't really like to wrestle with...

I wrote this while at work today:

I do not like the idea of the "elect". I have found myself leaning towards the reformed theology (Calvinism) school of thought, but the brick wall I always hit is the concept of the "elect". Yet the elect is a crucial concept in... Calvinism/Predestination/Reformed Theology. Logically, it makes sense. Take into account the sovereignty of God, and his all-power and omnipresence, election makes sense. Even many scripture passages seem to support it. But think about God being merciful, loving, and just and election does not make sense. It makes God seem sadistic and cruel. Much like the God Richard Dawkin's describes in The God Delusion. I don't like that God, quite frankly.

How can I be sure of my own salvation then? Have I really been called? Regenerated? How could I know? It does not seem like I am producing much fruit as I would be if I were regenerated, called, and saved.

Scary [stuff]...

I don't really like wrestling with the tough issues regarding the character of God, makes me uncomfortable, but as a friend so wisely pointed out, it's not what makes me comfortable, it's about what's true.

(Hopefully) more to come...

Let’s preach the Gospel to any one, any where, and at any time; let’s share it as gently, lovingly, patiently, and as often as we can; because if we truly love our neighbor, then preach it we must.

-Ken Silva of Apprising Ministries

I hear from a lot of people that religion is something that is to be kept private. That you shouldn't share it with other people for fear of offending or hurting them. This is something I've never understood for this very simple reason: If you believe you know of the one and only way to Heaven, why would you not shout from the rooftops and try to help everyone understand?! Especially if the only alternative to Heaven, is Hell, a place of eternal damnation, punishment and torture.