Strong Weakness

I feel misunderstood;
significantly insignificant.
As if only I notice
me and my magnificence.

I pray for contentment,
for joy in who I am,
and the answer I get
is seemingly grim.

"Why do you feel
as though you are lacking?
Why do think
that you are worth nothing?

"I tell you the truth
when I speak of contentment,
your significance is found
in your insignificance.

"Your importance is not based
on your amount of skills,
your importance is based on your chosen
gear for climbing life's hills.

"I do not care
for what others see,
only I care for the
way you trust me.

"When climbing a hill,
bring your best,
do not settle,
it is a test.

"But when it is over,
you will be renewed,
to a life of joy
and solitude.

"I grant you hope
and abundant strength,
but don't expect
lessened pain.

"For when you are weak
then you are strong."

REDEMPTION

A broken spirt,

an uplifted soul,

seem contradictory,

but the two make one.

How is there such grief,

and yet such desire,

contained inside,

one empire?

Pain inhabits grief,

while passion occupies desire.

Passion, pain; desire, grief:

An image of transcendence. 

Could man at his best

forge an image,

as that of such a 

magnificent pilgrimage?

Nay, for too great

is such a picture,

and too significant

are the limits of humanity. 

Most of the posts on this blog are intellectual, full of difficult concepts, full of thought-wrenching ideas that make the mind reach beyond its average capacity. But where, one might ask, is the emotion; not the thought-wrenching, but the heart-wrenching? Where is the emotion that the gospel carries with it?

A broken heart.
Ehh, what's new?
A fallen world,
I'm used to that too.

Some have become
insensitive to pain.
They look the other way
as if heartbreak is gain.

Yes, everyone suffers.
Yes, everyone Cries.
So why should one care
for the tears in your eyes?

The tears are not a curse,
but rather a blessing.
A way to end
all of the suffering.

Though I have no tears,
I still feel pain.
Though my crying has ceased,
I endure my shame.

Much of life hurts,
but put your pain on a scale.
Measure it compared
to the pain of His tale.

In comparison,
one finds difficult to do.
It's not what i've done,
but what he went through.

So, where is the emotion?
Where is the feeling?
Where is the love,
that reaches to the ceiling?

It's all around you,
just search high and low.
You are sure to find it,
even if it is below.

The love of a savior
can be hard to find.
Do not search in the
depths of your mind.

Look east,
Look west,
and you will see,
although subtly,
a love as big,
as the sea.

I Don't Know...God Does.

God knows the all-encompased past, present, and future. No devout Christian would try to refute this statement, but many do so without trying. When a belief is accepted as true, one must accept the implications of said belief as true also, lest the logic for the belief become inconsistent, and thus lack a foundation. This is the problem that is present in many Christian's understand of omniscience (complete knowledge). They accept omniscience as true, but deny an attribute called sovereignty. Sovereignty is a word meaning basically "complete control". To put all of this more succinctly, many Christians assert that God knows all (The base belief), but deny that God has planned all (The implication of the base belief). This is a large problem in today's liberal theology that makes God seem weak and impotent. It needs to be addressed.
Let's begin to adress this problem on a base that all Christian's would agree with: humans are individuals with distinct personality's. We all have unique desires and passions that make us who we are. Can we all agree with this? Most unbeliever's would even agree with this truth, it is indispensable. From this basic truth, the Christian must concede that God created us differently; with our personal desires. Seeing as God does not create without a purpose (For his glory), it must be admitted that our personal ambitions, our unique outlooks on life, our different passions, have been put there for a purpose; and if everyone has specific passions, everyone has a purpose; since everyone has a purpose, the world has a purpose. Following? Furthermore, granted omniscience, if the world has a purpose, God knows the purpose for the world; if God knows the purpose for the world, than he has known it from before time began. What follows is this: If God has known the purpose for the world before time began, than he had the ability to fit said purpose to his goal. And in adjusting the purpose for the world, he must adjust personal passions, lifestyles, and desires. In doing so, he has inevitably planned for a world that follows his outline and will meet his goal. We have fallen into sin because it is in God's plan; we have crucified our Lord because it was God's way of showing us his amazing grace; we have suffered because God wants us to understand what Christ went through for us. Everything happens because God has ordained it to.
In denying that God has planned out personal lives, one can see now that they are denying complete omniscience; and accepting "partial-omniscience", that is, they believe God knows, but deny he has known from eternity. It is wrong for us to simply accept what is being taught in many churches and to not investigate it ourselves, if we do so, we fall into a inconsistent belief, such as this, that makes God appear as a being who puts us humans above himself; with all due respect, that is not the God I follow.

Reducing God

"God is not great". Have you heard this before? Perhaps from a close friend, from an enemy, or from Christopher Hitchens 2007 book god is not Great. This is not usually thought to be an empty solution to a contradiction in God's attribute without any backing, but that is what it inevitably reduces to. "Ah!" you say, "but God has shown he is not good, look at all the evil in the world! Does not a similar cause produce a similar effect?" Oh how quick we are to point fingers, to push the guilt off of ourself, to find another to blame. That is not my argument, but it's a valid point. My argument is this: if given the oppurtunity to do evil, and we do, is that evil? Of course! If given the oppurtunity to do good, and we do not, are we evil? No! In the book of Job, Satan comes up to God and tells him that the only reason Job is following God's word is because God has blessed his sock's off! And God says essentially, go ahead and take away my blessings and see what Job does! Do you get it yet? Is it not true that christianity believes that God has not so much said "yes" to evil as he has said occasionally "no" to blessings bestowed on us: Health, wealth, and family? Have we made the monumental mistake of reducing God to not only to the natural, but to an even lower unhuman standard? How crucial a mistake! For we consider ourselves justified when we say "no" to giving a homeless man money, and we see God as not being justified for saying "no" to that man's blessings. I suggest that we think of God not even merely from a natural perspective, but a supernatural one.

Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

We should not be in harmony with this world; the world that we are in the presence of until we die. This world will pass away, this life itself will pass away. We should in fact, hate certain things this depraved world has created. In Romans 7 I believe, Paul says that if "I do what I do not want, than it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me". You see, if we are sinning and we hate it, it is litteraly not our soul or spirit that commits it, it is our flesh.

So many times, people judge by the appearance of the body, but our body is not who we are, it is our container. Being imperfect, we will always be contained in a bodily and physical form which distinguishes us from God. I remember a specific example once given to me by my grandmother, she compared our physical and spiritual form to a penut. A penut has a shell and does not come into existence without one, but the inside of the peanut is never seen until you examine the peanut beyond its external appearance. Humans are the same, we are in this physical container and cannot escape the bounds of it. The Bible tells us that when we get to heaven, we will have heavenly bodies, so my question is: Seeing as us humans are always going to be confined in a "container", is this simply so that God can put limits on us and show his dominion over us? Or is there another reason God has done this?

By focusing no longer on outward appearance, the world, or sin, one can focus and be closer to God presence. But only in heavenly realms will one experience the greatest possible intensity of God's presence.

The miracle of fasting

As I sat in the kitchen, I heard my sister and mother talking about fasting for twenty four hours. Out of a natural curiosity, I asked them why they had decided to fast (they have never engaged in fasting before). My sister answered saying "My friends parents, who have been married for like sixteen years, are thinking about separating, they got in a huge fight." Immediately I responded by saying that I would also like to participate. That night at 8:30 p.m, me, my mom, and my sister, would not eat for 24 hours. And every time that we thought of our hunger, it would remind us of the unfortunate seperation and we would pray for them. I would try to get on my knees in full surrender to our Lord in hope that his wonderful grace would be shown on this marriage, and with faith that his will would be done either way. There were several times that day I felt the full spirit of God descend on me and his grace radiate throughout my body. For once, I felt the completeness of full surrender to God. How glorious this was! The next night, we ended our fast and ate somewhat of a late dinner after one more deep prayer with our family. The next day, I found out that the night we ended our fast, EVERYTHING was back to normal and my sisters friends parents were as close as ever in their marriage. God is good!

IMAGINE

Can you imagine weightlesness? Think about the problems on earth that weight bring up: Stereotype, irrational judement, uncomfort, inadequacy to perform certain skills, etc... Weight makes things heavy, makes it difficult to carry certain objects and burdens. Weight is what makes a burden a burden.

I sat in a tub of water today as I meditated on God's word, I searched for a perfect balance, and could find none. When my hand was under the water, it was pulled to the top; when it was above the water, it was pulled to the bottom, there was no perfect balance. One could put their hand half in each, but as I tried this, it made simply an uncomfortable tension, half of my hand being pulled up, but the other pulled down.

This imperfection of balance will be impresent in the heavenly realm when we have reached eternity with God. Burdens will not be held, for they will lose their weight. I challenge you this, how much more will the absence of force other than that of the perfect God, affect a life of perfection? I think it is no mistake to make the assumption that the absence of gravity other than that towards our Lord and savior may be the best thing that a believer shall ever experience.