Peace and God's Soverignty

This past week I have had a peace about my future that I haven't had since the semester started. I think this is because I have realized that despite what has happened in the past, God is still in control. And regardless of what happens in the future, God will be in control. This is something that is difficult to comprehend because we don't know where we are going, but God does. This is why it is so important to trust God. If we cannot trust God with our future then we will never have peace. This seems to be an antithesis to the American way of life, where you pick yourself up by the bootstraps and work your way to success. God's way to success is to trust Him. So, this is the current spiritual discipline that I am working on - to trust in God and His plans for my life.

Old Skool Music

As I was working out last night I was thinking of some songs that I used to listen to by a band called NIN - actually recorded in the studio by one man, Trent Renzor, but hires a band when he plays live. Some of the lyrics I was thinking of are from a song called "Head Like a Hole":

God money I'll do anything for you
God money just tell me what you want me to do
God-money goes dancing on the backs of the bruised,
God-money's not one to choose

Another song was "Wish":

Wish there was something real wish there was something true

The last one is probably the most offensive "Slavery":

Don't open your eyes you won't like what you see,
the devils of truth steal the souls of the free
Don't open your eyes, take it from me,
I have found you can find happiness in slavery

It just made me realize how many Christians in the church actually do what NIN is singing about. How many megachurches worship big buildings and programs? How many churches are only concerned about how much they can build?

It seems like the song "Wish" is what the gospel is an answer to. The gospel points us to the work that Christ did on the cross. It is REALITY with all caps. If we don't aknowledge the life, death, and resurrection of Christ as the Reality of this world that has altered reality, we will never reach or change our culture. Too many people in the church think that a big building is what makes a good church. However, the church is no different from big businesses when all they are concerned about is buildings.

We need to preach what is real and true!

What do you Believe????

For so long I have claimed that God is soverign, that is, God is in control. Nothing happens that God doesn't cause to happen or that God doesn't allow to happen. So everything that happens is due to God acting, or refraining from action. I believe this and I tell this to other people with extreme frequency, problem is, I forget to tell myself. When I struggle the most I forget that God is soverign, God is in control, God is not suprised. I know it's true, but I don't let my attitude and emotions reflect this knowledge. That is, I don't practice that God is soverign. It seems to me that if you really believe something your actions will reflect your beliefs.

I believe that emotions are similar to perceptions. So, when I am depressed or stressed, it is because I am blinding myself to the greater reality of God. The Bible declares that children of God possess eternal life - I am a child of God. What more could I ask for? Sometimes it is so easy to get caught up in everyday deadlines or past events where I could have done better, I miss the big picture. The big picture is eternity, how important is this week compared to eternity? It's insignificant.

I have a tendency to only care about the paper that is due next week or the reading assignment that I have. When I do this I neglect the significance of this live. Life is too short to be spent worrying about paper assignments or whether one will get an 'A'. Instead, every moment of life should be spend rejoicing at the opportunities that we have and embrace these opportunities. If you stop to reflect on failure, you allow the failure to effect your future. Learn from your failures and move on. Remember that God's Grace is more powerful than any failure that you may ever have.

Grace

One of the things my old roommate used to give me a hard time about was being so hard on myself. He once told me that I beat myself up too much and need to stop it. One thing that is difficult for me to comprehend is grace, not just any ol' grace but the Grace of God. It is difficult to realize that you ARE forgiven. God is big enough, and powerful enough to offer forgiveness to His children. Instead of worrying about the past or the future, I need to remember that regardless of what happens, God will continue to dispense His grace upon me. I get easily stressed out and most of that stress is the result of past mistakes and concerns that I will make the same mistakes in the future. Tonight I have a peace that God's Grace is the important thing right now. If I fail school (which I won't) if I let myself down, God's Grace will still be given to me - it's alright. As a movie once claimed - God understands.

Musings

I don't really have any deep thoughts at the moment. Just a lot of random thoughts right now. I have a paper due in about 10 days that I need to re-read some articles for, but other than that, it looks like smooth sailing for a while. I'm actually trying to find an Oasis song, but I can't remember what it was called. ...ah, just found it Live Forever.

--take care

Who is Real?

You know that there are a lot of fake people out there. I was watching VH1 while I was working out (I was also watching ESPN) and the VH1 show was about super models. They mentioned on the show how some of the supermodels pay their hairdressers $80k a year. They also mentioned how supermodels had to have the most expensive jewelery and clothing. In fact, part of the criteria for clothing was that it looked expensive. Supermodels definitely seemed fake and superficial - they aren't real people.

Something else occurred to me while I was watching this show - politicians aren't real. Who knows who politicians really are, or the people that help out the politicians. The problem with the political process is that you have to sell your soul by making so many promises to get anywhere. Even people that help out with campaigns end up selling out. I'm sure that people get involved in politics for good reasons to begin with, but after a while they have to compromise in order to help people out. After a while, they forgot why they got into politics to begin with and now are willing to do anything to maintain their position. It's really depressing, so many people put their hope and faith into a political party or a political leader - all that will happen in the end is that the person will be let down. As much as politicians try to be real, they are just as fake as supermodels. They talk about the common man, when they are members of country clubs and have houses in Martha's Vineyard.

All I know is that God is real, and God won't let His children down. God does understand the common man (woman).

One thing about people...

That I can't stand is unreasonable people. This is something that has bugged me more than anything else my entire life. There were always certain people that rubbed me the wrong way and I never knew what it was about them that drove me nuts. Now I know - I want absolutely, nothing to do with people that are unreasonable, can't compromise, and don't listen. I understand that some people hold to a specific worldview and believe that their worldview is correct. I'm not asking them to compromise on their worldview, I'm just asking them to concede that there more be some more gray areas than they previously conceded.

For the most part in the philosophy program at OU I hang out with the other Christian philosophers with two exceptions. My first year in the program one of the people that I spent the most time with was an atheist - not an outspoken atheist but an atheist nonetheless. My other friend in the OU department that isn't a Christian is a very vocal atheist. He definitely isn't afraid to voice his opinion about his atheism to other people. The sad thing is that I get along better with these two atheists than I do with some other Christians that I know of. To me this is a very sad thing. Christians ought to have the grace of the Holy Spirit operating in their lives.

I think that it is a very hard-headed person that I can't get along with or who doesn't enjoy talking with me. I'm easy going and well-read, there are a variety of subjects that I can discuss, which include: pro-wrestling, literature, philosophy, theology, all sports, pop culture, etc. Perhaps this shows that I don't focus on grad school as much as I ought to. This is probably an astute observation on my part. However, if you ever meet anyone who can't get along with me and I find unreasonable, when you encounter this person RUN AWAY and don't look back.

Livin' the Life

Francis Schaeffer asked his readers to imagine the impact that 20% of the so-called Christians in the U.S. could have on our culture if they only lived what they supposedly believed. In other words, we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and in particular love other Christians. Christians ought to exemplify love towards each other at the minimum. Furthermore, we are to love God more than we love ourselves. One of things that I am doing right now is going through pre-marital counseling with my fiance. From this I have thought a lot about the command for husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church. Christ died for the church and put the interests of the church above His own interests. So, husbands ought to put the interests of their wives above their own. What kind of impact would Christianity have on the U.S. if non-believers could witness this type of behavior? I think the self-sacrificial love that Christ demonstrated towards the Church is an incredible illustration for marriage, and a difficult example for me to live up to. How amazing would that be to see the love of Christians? Sadly, some of the most arrogant, and rude people I have met have claimed to be Christians. Although I must confess, many of the rude and arrogant Christians have left the church and no longer profess themselves to be Christians. Nonetheless, while they profess to be Christians they profane the name of Christ and all that He stood for. It's a shame that more people can't put into practice what they actually believe or claim to believe. However, if you don't act upon your beliefs, then maybe you never actually had those beliefs to begin with.