spiritual stuff

Power Team

August 19, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

Our youth group scheduled a last minute visit to a nearby high school to see John Jac0bs’ Next Generation Power Team tonight. Their main focus is to perform/speak at schools. In fact, I saw a previous Power Team at my high school years ago.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical. I have seen them twice before and although it’s amazing every time, it seemed a little bit corny to go see a third time. But let me tell you, they were amazing. And let me also tell you, it wasn’t simply the water bottle busting, the phone book tearing or the breaking of a baseball bat over one’s leg by shear power but their testimony was simply moving. There were close to 100 people that went forward to accept Christ at the end. I was moved simply by the movement of the Holy Spirit in the others. Their presentation was so clear and direct yet said in a way that an 8 year old could understand. In fact, I would say a good 10-20 of the people were under 12.

There are two stories, one true and one not, that they told that were excellent pictures of what Christ does for us that I hope I remember for a long time.

One is a (imaginary) story of a man that gets a speeding ticket. He knows he’s guilty and admits so to the police officer. The police officer says ok, you pay $2 million or you go to jail for life. The guilty man knows even if he called everyone and every bank he knows, he could not come up with $2 million. So he has resigned himself to spending life in jail. A man pulls up, walks up to the car and says he will pay for the ticket, every ticket he’s every had and also any ticket that he may get in the future. So the guilty man just has to decide whether the guy is crazy or to accept his gift and let the officer put it toward his account.

Now this story is false but in a sense it is quite a realistic picture of us and Christ. We are all sinners, unfit to enter into Heaven and unable to repay any debt of sin we have. Christ died on the cross for us and became our payment for our debt of sin. All we have to do is decide to let him be our payment. It is a choice we make.

Isn’t that a story that makes it so easy for even a child to understand? They learn the idea of doing “bad stuff” and going to jail so early and then to be able to apply it to what Christ did for us is amazing.

The next story is a true story. It is of a man that goes to a barn sale and buys a Harley for $800. It doesn’t run but he wants it for a keepsake. One day he decides to get it running and takes it to a local Harley shop to get an estimate. That afternoon the shop calls the guy and offers $50,000 for the bike. The guy is confused, but realizes something is important about the bike and declines the offer. They call him back that night and offer $75,000, no questions asked. He again, realizing there is something up, declines. The next morning he gets a call from Jay Leno, yes, THE Jay Leno and he offers $200,000 for the bike. He declines again. Leno then offers $250,000. The guy confused says, the bike is not for sale but please tell me what is going on with the bike. Leno explains and says Well, apparently, Harleys have a serial number under the seat and when the Harley shop had pulled the seat up, it said something to the effect of Sold Property of EP. They looked up the serial number and it was previously owned by Elvis Presley. So John Jac0bs at this point asks us what makes the difference between a bike yesterday being worth $800 and then the next the same bike being worth $250 million. Simply, knowing the owner. We find our worth when we decide to accept the payment Christ offers and live our life knowing who owns us. Knowing the God of the universe has our best interest at heart and leads us to the life He has planned for us. We can stand tall and know we are worth something.

That message, as simple as it is, the simple gospel was more powerful than any sermon I’ve heard recently.

Check out their web site, invite them into your schools. They do it all for free on donations given by churches. It could change your schools, your city, maybe even your life.

wow

August 13, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

So sweet.

Peacekeepers, Peacemakers and Lovers of Contention

August 9, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

We are going through Beth Moore’s Living Beyond Yourself study during bible study this time around. And I get so much out of the videos. The ones the past few weeks seem to have been perfect timing. This week was about peace and an opponent of that being discord. The bible says blessed are the peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Matthew 5:9

Peacekeepers and lovers of contention are both opposite than those.

Peacekeepers try to keep a false peace. They are the ones that hate confrontation and will do ANYthing to keep the peace. And specifically when there is a “false peace”, or where there is no peace to begin with. Imagine an abusive father and a protective mother and a wild child. The wild child does something insanely stupid and instead of confronting it as a family, the mother hides it from the father so Dad won’t get mad. She is using deceit to keep a peace that is not even there. Her motivation for “keeping the peace” is based out of fear. And yet, this attempt not only is keeping a false peace, it breeds even more of a lack of peace.

They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace. Jeremiah 8:11

Lovers of contention love NOT having peace. They wake up wanting to pick a fight with someone. They soak in tension and thrive when people are bickering. Ever met someone like that? Yeah, I know someone like that and it’s not. fun. This person’s motivation for acting this way can be several reasons. First, they could just be miserable. They could just be so miserable inside that what’s on the inside comes out and they simply quarrel with anyone and anything that looks their way.

Another motivator is the need for power. Have you ever met a child that has realized the power of being a lover of contention? That child that can misbehave so much that the entire house of adults and children are controlled by whatever that child does? Yeah, I know someone like that too. Everyone’s attitude even is controlled by the child’s attitude. Power is a God-given thing. We are meant to influence those around us. But the less God-centered we are being and the more self-centered we are being determines whether we are negatively or positively affecting our environment.

The final motivator is simply a lack of discipline. All children realize the power mentioned above and use it to an extent. They test the boundaries and see how much power they do have with those around them. And when a child is not disciplined and taught how to behave and use power appropriately, the grow up to be lovers of contention. These people are so draining to be around are they not?

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:11

Now peacemakers. They are do-ers. They make peace. They don’t fix people, but they do confront people. The first step is to ask God to not take sides in the situation but to take over. They look to God to build walls where walls need built and take down walls where they need taken. Peace only comes with God’s authority.

I find that I can be quite a peacekeeper at times. I hate confrontation and I’d rather just ignore the situation than deal with it. And when I’m being a peacekeeper, that is when I find I have the biggest lack of peace. It tears me up inside when something is not right between me and another person and yet I still place peacekeeper and try to keep that false peace. I really need to learn to trust God and do things His way instead of trying to handle things on my own.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

All of that is what Beth taught, not me so I’m just passing info on. I highly suggest signing up for the online study here. It includes all the listening guides, homework, videos and even extra studies.

–And this is not a paid advertisement but a personal recommendation of a bible study.

Prayer

July 2, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

Lately I’ve been having some sort of inner crisis about prayer. Why do you do it? Does it really change anything? Is it worth my time? All reasonable questions but I’ve been a Christian for over 20 years now so it seems I would have these answers nailed down. But recently I’ve been questioning. I mean, how can God know the future and yet my prayers mean anything? It all really comes down to how you view predestination and immutability of God I think.

And then, isn’t it funny how God works…the lesson for my Sunday School class today (which we ended up not having) was on prayer. And I just felt SO incompetent to teach. The lesson had this illustration in it:

Illustration: Many Christians can attest to the fact that, when they pray, God changes circumstances in their lives or in the lives of their families or friends. But, for skeptics, some independent studies on prayer have had interesting results. One study of heart patients conducted at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, concluded that intercessory prayer made a difference. The conclusion was that prayer was effective in supporting standard medical care, according to cardiac researcher Dr. William Harris, who
headed this study.

Dr. Harris studied the health of almost 1,000 new heart patients at St. Luke’s Hospital. The patients, all of whom had serious heart problems, were unknowingly randomly assigned to one of two groups. Half the patients received a month of daily prayer from five volunteers. The other half received no prayer from volunteers. The cardiac patients did not know they were in a study, and the pray-ers only knew the first names of the patients and never went to the hospital. Their only instructions were to pray daily “for a speedy recovery with no complications” for the patients.

Checking a long list of outcomes that could have befallen the patients—including chest pains, pneumonia, infection, and even death—Dr. Harris concluded that the group receiving prayers fared 11 percent better than the group that did not. Scientists consider this number statistically significant given the situation.

If prayer can change the heart of a sick person, just think what prayer can do to change the heart of a sinful person.
(Rauch, Catherine. “Probing the Power of Prayer.” CNN. January 18, 2000. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/alternative/
01/18/prayer.power.wmd/. Accessed February 28, 2007.)

And I was stumped…do I really believe that? Do I believe that their prayer made a difference? I had been thinking about this exact question for weeks.

After reading this article last night, I was heartbroken. Like, literally heartbroken. If that was true, that means that when prayers were “answered”, that simply meant I happened to pray what God had planned in any case meaning if I had not even prayed, it still would have happened. Their explanation of when Hannah prayed for a son, God had already planned to give her Samuel whether she had prayed or not. But in my thoughts even through the past weeks, I remember Sodom and Gomorrah and God changing his mind about how many righteous people there would have to be in order to save the city. Was God just teasing Abraham, treating him as an infantile or was God really changing His mind? I just cried out to God literally, I don’t understand! And in an ironic twist of sorts, I prayed to God to help me understand. I had already searched Scriptures the past few weeks. And it’s very clear we are to pray. And as I mentioned, I remember reading about Sodom and Gomorrah. I went back online for another explanation, hoping something would point me to scriptures that seemed to lined up to what happened with Abraham. And I came across this site, and although I was reading about Moses and not Abraham, he does cover Abraham with Sodom in another article on there and to me, his explanation is what I’ve been looking for. I love the mental image of a rocket needing to get to the moon as its destination and there’s more than one path to get there. I’m not talking about more than one way to get saved, I’m talking more about things like praying for healing of someone or even the death of someone like mentioned here or maybe even a blessing of some sort. We can pray for things according to his character, best interests, reputation and I truly believe God can change His mind and do things out of the requests of His children. The Scripture I cling to when I doubt this is:

“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11)

and also from the story of Moses

“Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” (Exodus 32:14)

and from Sodom and Gomorrah

“Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (Genesis 19:21-22)

The point of these I take from it is that there has to be the request and then, the obvious fact that God “will give” or “relented” or “granted the request” after it was asked of Him. The article can probably explain it much better than I but what I take from this is how important prayer is. That I can have an affect on my life and other people’s life. So all that being said, I hope that my prayer life improves from here on out.

Update: I just checked that first article I read, and it is from the Reformed Christianity belief (they seem to hold different beliefs toward free will so it makes sense now) whereas the second I would say is more akin to Baptist beliefs. Interesting that I go to a Baptist church and leaned toward believing that even before I knew what either were.

VTech

April 18, 2007 by Amy Leave a Comment

There are a lot of things I’ve been thinking about this tragedy. I’ve been somewhat glued to the news stories about it. I think it is really quite interesting that he actually took the time to do all that in between the two shootings and actually had the guts to return to do more damage. I’m not giving him props, I’m just saying I really want to hear whatever he had to say that he took that much effort to say it and understand what would lead a person to do such a thing. It is horrid what happened. I read some of the stories about the victims and their families and there was so much hope and future there. It is so sad. More of what I’ve been thinking is on the spiritual level. Only because a friend of mine has asked me questions about it.

Number one, does a person that commits suicide automatically get sent to hell? In my theology, no. At one time in my life, I would have answered that differently. I believe if a person is lost, meaning not saved, not a Christian, does not believe that we are sinners, Christ, the perfect Son of God died for us, rose three days later and is coming to get us one day kind of lost then that’s automatic don’t go to heaven ticket. It grieves me, but I believe it to my core. As for Christians, I simply believe once you have put your faith in Christ, nothing can take that away. And even if you don’t confess even your last sin, it was all forgiven when you accepted Christ. My heartfelt hope is that if someone is truly a Christian that they couldn’t feel that low and do that, that somehow the Holy Spirit inside them would stop them, but I am sure it has happened and I just plainly believe that nothing can take us out of His grip once we’re in it.

Number two, is it God’s will that these students were killed? This one is not as easily answered. You have to have the big picture of your (my) theology answered to understand it. But I’ll do my best. The simple answer is no, it was not God’s will for these students to die. God never wills evil or desires bad things to happen to people. In fact I believe God is incredibly sad right now, his tears are just as fresh as the mothers and fathers of those students. He made all 32 of those students and is grief-stricken their life was taken. But the truth of the matter is a really long time ago, God created man and gave him free will. And in so doing, man CHOSE evil. One evil, no matter what it is (white lie or murder or any disobedience of God) was enough to mar the perfection of God’s creation and God cursed man and He cursed the woman and He cursed the land. And in the same way a lemon seed only produces lemon, man could only produce sinful, cursed man. And hence we have 6 billion sinful men with free will. And this 23 year old one CHOSE to kill 32 people on April 16, 2007. Did God will that? No! God detests evil. Can God use that in His plan? Yes, that is why He is God and not I. I choose to believe that in all things, God works all things together for those who love Him and He can and will bring something good out of this for someone. People will draw closer to Him for comfort. People will realize their paths could be short and change it. Is that WHY it happened? No! But God is gracious and merciful enough to love us through this and comfort those families and bring something good out of it. He is just as sad and is mourning those people like we and their families are. And even for the killer. You know, it’s easy for me to have this viewpoint but God created him too. And He really wanted a relationship with him. He didn’t want all this evil and anger for him. He had a perfect plan for him but he chose not to accept that. I don’t know if it had ever been presented to him but the fact that he talks about Jesus in his writings makes me think he had and had rejected him. And that makes God sad too and certainly wasn’t His will. Which as a Christian, gives me a burning desire to spread God’s love and let people as lonely and angry and depressed as him know that there’s more out there. That there’s a God that loves them no matter who they are or how much money they have or what they look like. And God has a perfect plan for them filled with blessings and love and joy. I can’t imagine my life without that. God has kept me close to His side [as much as I would let Him] for almost 22 years now and I’m just so thankful.