Are You Just Saying You Believe in God?

"I believe in God," says the Christian, the Agnostic, the Muslim, the Mormon, and practically every other religion on the face of the planet.

What are we to do with this statement? We, as Christians often want to stand on this foundational statement without realizing that a huge portion of the world would agree with us, but perhaps not in the respect that we would like.

When we say "I believe in God," we desire to not only proclaim our awareness of God as creator and ruler of the earth, but also the salvation from our sins offered through Jesus Christ.

But is even this ambitious enough for the Christian's intended meaning of "I believe"?

We know that James 2:19 tell us "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and shudder!"

No, it is not enough to believe in God. For even the demons are very aware of God and Jesus. And not only are they aware, but they tremble in fear!

The demons have such an awareness of his power that they shudder at the thought of it.

And here the American Christian sits, in luxury at home without a second thought of God's supreme ability to bless and to remove blessings, to give life and to end life, to accept offerings and to reject offerings. The hours go by without a moment of introspection, without a moment of desire for God's people, without a moment of pity for the weak and dying, without a moment of fearing God when sin has clouded our judgement.

But tomorrow, you will say, "I believe in God."

You do not flinch before God's hatred of sin, you do not do as he commands in his Word, you do not give to the poor, love the hurting, and accept persecution freely.

But tomorrow, you will say, "I believe in God."

I hope for the sake of these people that our God is of the utmost ignorance.

Do you think you can fool God? Do you think he doesn't know the intentions of your heart? Do you really think God is that blind?

What then, is belief? Or better yet, what then, is faith?

Faith is feeding the hungry because you are existentially aware of God's commands and his power to punish those who don't follow his will. Faith is accepting persecution freely because you are so aware of God's love that you know other's approval isn't necessary. Faith is saying, "yes, I believe in God" when the consequences are real, and your life, your dignity, or your paycheck is on the line.

So...

Do you believe in God?

Why do I do the things that I don't Desire to do?

"For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." - Romans 7:15

Why do people have to fight obesity? Why do people have to fight laziness?

Because their desires and their actions conflict. 

They desire to be thin and they desire to be disciplined, but they aren't, and often, they aren't successfully pursuing these goals.

What could an explanation be for this phenomenon?

It could be that it is naive generosity to assume that an obese person actually wants to be thin. Perhaps their greater desire is for the pleasure food brings, not so much for the health or wellbeing that thinness brings.  Though I think that anyone in this position, if asked, would strongly agree that they desire to be thin, but they seem to lack the capacity to make it happen.

Here it is critical to distinguish between our cognitive desires (that which we desire cognitively) and our sensational desires (that which we desire because it brings pleasure to our senses). The desires that are often at conflict is between that which we are sensationally addicted to and that which we cognitively desire. 

For example, I sensationally desire food because it feels good, but I desire to exercise because I am cognitively aware that it will make me feel even better than the food in the end. 

When God created us, he must have created these two facets of human desire (Cognitive and Sensational). If we look at Genesis 3, we find the first struggle between these two facets of desire:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

Genesis 3:1-6

The text above says that when Eve "saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes." Right here, we have sensational desire. It continues and says, "the woman saw...the tree was to be desired to make one wise." Right here, we seem to have cognitive desire. 

Now, in a perfect world, these facets of desire would necessarily be perfectly aligned with each-other -- there would be no struggle between what we cognitively desire and what we sensationally desire. In other words, the sensational desire to be in God's presence would overwhelm all other desires and we would cognitively be aware that this is the healthiest option for our lives as well. 

Adam and even failed to keep both of these desires for God, but Jesus does not. Jesus is tempted by the devil in the wilderness, after forty days of not eating. The devil says, 

“If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”  - Luke 4:3-4

Jesus essentially says, "yes, I desire bread, but there is more to life than bread." 

Here's what's fascinating, I would argue that Jesus' sensational desire was for bread, yes, but his greater sensational desire was for the presence of his heavenly Father. 

So the question isn't: is your only sensational desire for God?

No.

The question is: does your sensational desire for God overwhelm all other sensational desires?

Do we enjoy the presence of God above everything else?

Many people will say that they cognitively desire the presence of God -- that is, they believe that a relationship with God is healthy for them. But only those who really love God will desire God, not for what they can get from the relationship, but for what the relationship creates:

The constant presence of God in your life. 

So...

Does God satisfy you more than anything else?

The One Question to Answer that Will Reveal if you're a Christian

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." - 1 John 4:7-8

The first question to be answered is, what is love? For if love is the foundational way that we can know whether we are actually a believer or not, it is incredibly important to know what love is, and even more important to know the burning question:

Do you love?


To answer this question, I find it appropriate to again see what John has to say just a chapter earlier.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?" - 1 John 3:16-18

John says, as I posted at the top, "anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." In other words, with the previous definition of love that John gives us, this seems to be saying, anyone who is not willing to lay down every aspect of their life for people in need does not know God. 

Why?

Because God is love. In Jesus, we see just the sort of selfless love that God actually possesses.

If God is love, it follows that those that God manifests himself in by way of the holy spirit must physically, emotionally, mentally, and existentially experience this sort of love for those in need. 

Notice the difference.

The actions here are not the key. 

The key is the experience. It's not whether you actually give to those in need, it's whether you experience a reality that pity's those who are in need. 

I'm not saying that doing isn't part of it. In fact, it's an important part of it. Those who experience a reality of pity for those in need will do. There are those, however, who do apart from experiencing a legitimate desire to help. 

Why, someone will ask, would someone help who doesn't have the desire to help?

This question assumes that every person always does the very thing that they really want to do. But human experience tells a different story. Why are people constantly fighting their struggle with obesity? Why are people constantly fighting a lifestyle of discipline? 

People fight these things because the thing they really want in life is in direct opposition to what they are doing. Thus it is completely possible that someone would donate to charity, feed a homeless man, or volunteer at a homeless shelter for reasons other than, they simply want to. 

Some of these reasons often include a desire to be seen or a desire to be fulfilled through helping. 

Here is the beauty of Christianity and of God living in us:

It's simple.

We don't love because we want to be seen, we don't love because we want to be fulfilled in our souls. 

No.

We love because we want to.

It's really that simple. That is the single thing that sets the Christian against the rest of the world. The single thing that makes us different. We don't love out of obligation, we love out of a simple, nonsensical, and profound desire to love.

So, the questions isn't, do you love?

The question is:

Why do you love?

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

Why Would a Loving God Create Self-Destructive People?

So here we are.

You have your struggles and I have my struggles.

But why?

Why would a God who loves us create us with tendencies, desires, and sometimes even passions for things that hurt us? For example, depression or anxiety. Both of these symptoms in many cases are, to an extant at least, proven to be neurologically wired in a person's brain. If God "knit me together in my mother's womb" (psalm 139:13), why did he tweak some of the stitching and intentionally leave holes in the cloth?

For surely, God could have created perfect beings without any self-destructive tendencies.

Now, at this point, many people will bring up the point that God gave us free will and he valued our free will above making us perfect against our will. I think however that this point has a faulty premise. For it could be argued back that God could have simply created people with desires and passions that were not self-destructive. But then, of course, someone will argue that a persons passions and desires are not created by God, but created by man's own experiences and devices. This argument runs into the problem that if I continue to ask you the question "where did that desire come from?" for any individual and so on for the next individual and the next back to the beginning of everything, you must eventually say "God created." And in creating, God knew, thus he must have planned. For there is no blind creating with God, only purposeful creating.

For the above mentioned reasons, I'm going to dismiss the theory that self-destructive tendencies exist because God desired to give man free will. For there is something more to this. God, for some very specific and intentional reason gave man desires that have the potential to destroy him if submitted to.

The two possible reasons seem to be that

1. God gains from our self-destructive tendencies.

and/or

2. Man gains from his self-destructive tendencies.

These seem to me the only plausible reasons for creating humans with self-destructive tendencies. Either because God is going to be more glorified in some way, or because man is going to benefit in some way.

I'd like to note a somewhat interesting phenomenon at this point. What is absolutely fascinating about self-destructive tendencies including people who struggle with depression and anxiousness, is that these people nonetheless often come to believe in Christ. Rarely does a person logically and fully renounce God because of a difficult experiences in their own life, but more often because of difficult experiences in others' lives.

We don't renounce God because our mom died, we renounce him because of all the suffering in Iraq. It is at least peculiar that our anger towards God regarding suffering is more often enflamed outside the realm of suffering than it is within. Basically, we don't disbelieve in God because our mom died, we disbelieve in God because our friends mom died. We disbelieve in God because of general suffering in the world, not specific suffering that effects us personally.

Nonetheless, I think that the two possible reasons listed above hold truth about our scenario.

God gains from our self-destructive tendencies

At first glance, no one likes the looks of that title. How would God possibly gain from the suffering in the world? Here, we have to step outside our comfort zones to examine the mind of the creator.

A few possibilities.

1. It reminds humans that God is God and they are not. 

When we have things we personally struggle with in life, it is a great reminder that God is all-powerful and we are not. Perhaps the very problem with Satan when he fell from heaven was that he believed he had no bad tendencies and that made it that much easier to consider himself without need of God. This benefits God because God desires that his creatures glorify him, and creating creatures who have certain self-destructive tendencies reminds them often that they need God to sustain them.

2. It makes for a more glorifying big picture.

It would be easy to read to the middle of any great novel, act as though that is where the story ends, and become enraged by the horrible ending (actually the middle). That is what we humans do with the story of the earth and humanity. We read the part we play and the parts that have come before and are dissatisfied with the story. Have we forgotten that the hero usually saves the day at the end of the story? Have we forgotten that the best stories include great suffering? Let me suggest for a moment that perhaps the end of the story is going to magnify God's glory that much more because of the difficulties found in the middle of the story.


Man gains from his self-destructive tendencies

This seems like a bit of an oxymoron, but again, we must examine the big-picture.

1. It reminds humans that God is God and they are not.

Yes, the same as the first one for God. It's basically the same idea. Anything apart from it's creator, when it is made for the purpose of being in relationship with its creator will be miserable. So perhaps we benefit because it reminds us to pray to God, to depend on God, which then leads to our greater satisfaction in the end.

2. Humans get to be the hero now and again.

When you have experienced something self-destructive in your own life, you are more equipped to help someone, experiencing a similar thing, overcome it in their life. It can be argued that God should have just created us to not have self-destructive tendencies in the first place, thus this is more of a secondary benefit that makes humans feel purpose in their life as they get to be the hero and help others.


The important thing is not to have all the answers, but to recognize you don't have all the answers. Simply recognize that there are other possible reasons that God created man to have self-destructive habits. The fool's choice is to say either God is evil or he doesn't exist, but this is faulty reasoning.

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord."- Isaiah 55:8

Our Relationship with Jesus and the Consequences of the Covenants

In Matthew 7:21-23, we read this teaching of Jesus.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

I want to focus on the "I never knew you" statement. 

I think this statement begs the question, how could Jesus not "know" a person? Jesus is God, giving him, at least in the end times, the same knowledge and abilities as any other part or portion of the rest of the God-head.

The first distinction that must be made is about what sort of "knowledge" Jesus is speaking. We know that Jesus is aware of everyone, so thus the sort of cognitive awareness to which is often referred to as knowledge must be excused. Jesus, being omniscient just as the rest of the God-head, is aware of every being's desires, ambitions, and motives. So how is it that Jesus could not "know" someone?

The word for "know" in the greek used here in this passage is Ginosko and it means knowledge gained through experience. This knowledge Jesus refers to is a knowledge that is limited by the extent to which both parties experience each-other in a relationship. Perhaps the simplest illustration is the deep intimacy or Ginosko an old married couple experience over years and years of commitment to each-other. 

Since it is that we are talking about relationship, it is at least helpful, if not critical to note that all relationship is guided, domineered, and made possible by boundaries either generally accepted or uniquely implemented. For example, at the beginning of my covenant with my wife, I vowed to her that I would never be unfaithful to her and my commitment would be to her alone until death swallows either of us up. If I were to go and find satisfaction in another woman, my wife would no longer be obligated by her portion of the covenant, just as any reasonable agreement. Both parties are obligated to hold up their end of the agreement until the other has failed to do so. 

Let's apply these rules of relationship to us and God. We read in Genesis 17, when the Lord makes a covenant with Abraham...

“I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”

And a relationship was born. What was man's part of the covenant to hold up? To be blameless before God. But we have not held up our part of the covenant.

Romans says...

“None is righteous, no, not one."

What then are we to do? In every relationship, a covenant can be redone. If I were to be sexually unfaithful to my wife and she said to me, "Let's try to make things work nonetheless," the covenant would be a completely new covenant, not a renewed covenant. For the previous covenant is now an impossibility for me to continue in relationship under because it allows for no unfaithfulness, and yet that is what I have committed. In the new covenant, my wife (the victimized party) allows my sins to effect her and hurt her without allowing them to completely ruin our relationship.

This is what God has done with us. No man is righteous, but yet God has said, "Allow me to make a new covenant where you are able to have an affair, and I will simply bare the pain and suffering myself." In Jesus, a new covenant has been created, because under the old covenant we have all failed to hold up our end of the bargain.

For someone who does not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, relationship is still impossible because they have not entered into the new covenant but remain under their own failures of the old covenant. 

When Jesus says, "I never knew you," it quite simply declares, "our relationship was never possible because you rejected the covenant that made it possible and remained under the covenant that made it impossible." 

It is a declaration, not of a lack of awareness of you, but of a lack of relationship with you. 


For more thoughts and encouragements, check out Refresh Ministries on Youtube. They put out some great content: https://www.youtube.com/user/RefreshHawaii

For 

Why did Jesus Weep Over a Man He Was on His Way to Resurrect?

"Jesus wept" - John 11:35

The shortest verse in the Bible.

Let me tell you the story that leads up to Jesus' tears.

John chapter 11 tells the story, but here is a quick version if you don't know the story.

John 10:39 tells us that Jesus escaped getting arrested by the Jews because they got pissed off at him, as was their custom. Well, chapter 11 of John starts off by telling us that a certain man named Lazarus became ill and was dying. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus' so he ended getting relayed the message.

Jesus responds by saying, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”


Jesus stays where he is at two days, Lazarus dies, and Jesus says to the disciples with him, “Let us go to Judea again.”


Now this is where it gets interesting. 


The disciples respond, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus explains that they can go at night so as to not be spotted. He then tells them that Lazarus has died and he needs to go to him. 


Also note that Jesus says,“Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 


Thomas, one of the disciples, responds perhaps a bit sarcastically, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”


So keep in mind at this point that Jesus is going back to a place where previously, the Jews were trying to arrest and kill him. This is risky for Jesus to do and it could lead to some worse consequences. So Jesus stays outside the city and lets the sisters of Lazarus come to him to talk. Messages are relayed between them for a bit and then one of the sisters comes to Jesus with tons of her Jew friends and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”


Then...


"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.' Jesus wept."


Jesus then decides to go into the town, to Lazarus' tomb and raise him from the dead.


What's interesting is immediately after Jesus raises him from the dead, we read the end of John 11, under the title of "The Plot to Kill Jesus." 


We read...


"Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death."


Okay, what does all this mean?


I always found it odd that Jesus would weep over a man that he was literally on his way to resurrect, so let me suggest a theory. 


I believe that part of Jesus' sadness was brought on by the simple desperation he saw in Mary. However, I believe there may have been something much greater going on here. Perhaps Jesus wept because he knew, that in saying the words "show me where you laid him," he was committing himself to the cross. Perhaps the reason Jesus wept was because his love for Lazarus truly outranked his love for himself. 


He decided essentially, 


"I'm going to raise Lazarus. But to do so, I must die myself."


And these overwhelming thoughts brought him to tears.


Isn't that what Jesus does with us?

"Yes, I love you and I want to see you live abundantly, I'm going to die so you don't have to."

Perhaps this is a story about God's crazy, scandalous, and beautiful love that brings us dead human beings back to life through the sacrifice of Christ.

Think about it.


Also, looking for some daily words of wisdom or encouragement?

Check Matt Arnett and his videos he makes on facebook. He has some great stuff to say.

https://www.facebook.com/matt.arnett.75?fref=ts

How to Live out your full potential

Hello everyone!

For about six years now, I've been posting on this blog my nuggets of wisdom. Some nuggets extraordinary, if I may say so, and some nuggets well...not so much. You have your favorites and so do I. But that's besides the point.

The point is that I haven't posted for a while because I am working on writing a book.

Here's what it's about.

How to live out your full potential (practically, that is. None of that vague crap.)

Have you ever wondered how to live out your Christian Faith in the work place? Maybe you've wondered what it looks like to disciple someone. Have you ever wondered where the heck to even start with your relationship with God?

My hope is to answer these crazy common and crazy important questions. If these topics interest you, join me in writing a book that will help you, me, and everyone who reads it live out their full potential.

I need some people I trust who would be willing to read excerpts of my book as I write and give me honest and brutal feedback. If you are going to tell me everything is good and there is nothing to be fixed, than don't worry about reading it, except for perhaps your own enjoyment. 

But if you like to tear things apart, and be incredibly critical of people, than I want you in my editing army. 

Here's the deal, I will be posting what I have written on the blog and expecting feedback in the comments. I will tweet and face-book the links. However, if you are not connected to me on my face-book or my twitter, then here is my email!

Mchlblankenship10@gmail.com

Email me so I have your email and I will add you to my emailing list for what I write!


Let's enjoy the journey,

Michael