What kind of sense does this make?

**So basically I was watching this youtube video (link is at the bottom bc I couldn't get it to embed :P) on Oprah and her views of religion because let's face it, even though she professes to be a Christian, anyone who's watched her show for any length of time knows that a) she claims to believe a lot of things that don't align with Christ and b) she's never clear about what exactly she does believe. She appears to be so afraid of affecting her ratings or offending someone, she always dances around her beliefs to make it okay for everyone to believe what they want instead of saying what she believes is truth. This video was made by a Christian church or organization of some sort and brought a lot of things into the light and just made me start thinking about a lot of issues, both in my life and that I've observed around me as well. Anyway, I was inspired, I truly believe God-inspired, so I just wanted to share my revelations with y'all and hopefully open some eyes the way mine have been.**

One thing Oprah said that made me laugh outloud was that God is not a belief, it's a feeling. That's basically saying God's only there when we're feeling Him and day and when we're not...then what? Say you got a big, dark room. A warehouse let's say. You put five people in various places in this huge room. You instruct each person not to move or makes a sound. They know each other is there but then you bring in someone blindfolded and ear plugged. You lead them into this room, tell them to stay right there, to make no noise, and then you leave and shut the door behind you. You come back in a minute and take the blindfolded person out of the room and then ask them if they were aware of anyone or anything else in there with them. If they say no, does that suddenly mean those five other people weren't there? No. Just because that person didn't feel there presence didn't mean they were any less there. The same is true with God. There will be times we don't feel Him. He uses these times of distance to make us persue Him harder, lean on Him more, and realize how much we do indeed need Him. As they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder, but that doesn't mean He's ever gone, not watching our lives, or not listening to our prayers.

I was taught early on that the Bible either is truth or it isn't. You either believe it or you don't because something can't be both true and untrue. You can't pick and choose what to believe or not, what's truth and what's not. Similarly, if you believe in Christ, that He is who He says He is, you either believe everything He said, did, and stood for, or you think the whole thing is a load of malarky. "Jesus answered, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." (John 4:16) He said He is THE way THE truth and THE life. If you believe in Christ and that He is who He says He is and speaks the truth, then you can't also believe that there is more than one path to God because He just said there isn't. Does that mean either you'll have to either hide in fear and appear to be weak, doubtful, or mediocre in what you believe or you'll have to stand up, step on some toes, and get messy? Yea. He's already prepared us for this in 1 John 3:13 - "Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you." Will that be easy? Probably not. As much as you don't want to hear it, and I know I didn't, God doesn't promise following Him the way He's called us to is going to be easy. In fact he promises just the opposite in 2 Timothy 3:12 "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Jesus Christ will be persecuted." (Don't everyone get all excited as once!) You can't have your cake and eat it too (though that expression never did make much sense to me, but you get the point.)

Why is it that we as a human race are so blindly accepting of the history we learn in school and yet so often, even those of us who are Christians are quick to question the Bible. Regardless of what you may believe or not believe about the Bible (and I believe that that "all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17)), you can't deny that it's just a book, just the way the history books we get our information from in school are just books. I don't care what kind of research you did or how long it took, you would never be able to bring me anything to concretely prove the history of those books to me that wasn't solely based on someone else's say-so. There is not any more or less tangible proof for American or world history than there is for the historical events that occured in the Bible. Why then, do we judge one more harshly than the other? Why are we so quick to take the word of our history teachers about something that happened in China hundreds of years ago which we could not possibly know for fact or not, but we pull out all the ifs, ands, and buts when it comes to the history spoken by ministers in the church?

Part of it is due to the soda can. Francis Chan has an awesome illustration that a dear friend shared with me that pretty much hits the nail on the head. Let's say God is the ocean and our brain is a soda can. The amount of water we can scoop up into our soda can is the amount of God we can understand in our human brains. Does that mean that's all there is to him? Of course not! Just because we can't comprehend more than that doesn't mean He isn't the whole ocean, even farther than we could ever see! Jeremiah 10:12 says, "It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding stretched out the heavens."

Why also, do we profess to love God so much and yet often don't show Him the same kind of respect, devotion, and commitment as we do to those here with us on earth who aren't perfect, righteous, or nearly as loving toward us as our God is? If someone were to say something nasty about your mom or dad (or grandparent, best friend, sibling, whoever it is that's most important to you) that you knew wasn't true, wasn't their character, or simply didn't happen, you would stand up in a heartbeat to defend them. You'd insist that your mom isn't like that, wouldn't do that, is to the contrary, or whatever, probably without even thinking. Why then, do we sit by when someone takes the Lord's name in vain, implying something about Him that we know is not His character? Why are we too scared to come to His defense against those who do not know Him the way we do? Why would we be so willing to sacrifice our comfort, our fitting in, our fear of stepping on people's toes and possibly losing friends to defend our mom but not our God? Not the One who created us into being, takes care of us every day the way no one else can, comes to our aide the way no one else can, and loves us and listens to us when no one else cares, not to mention forgives us every time and saved us from our sins so that we may spend eternity in Heaven with Him eventhough He didn't have to and we didn't earn it. God makes His position on the subject pretty clear: "But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:33, 37-39)

What kind of sense does that make? I'm talking to myself here too. If someone were to say something nasty about my sister Sam, oh, you'd better believe they'd have it coming! And while it outrages me when someone uses God's name in this way or attributes His name to something that I know is not of Him, I all too often sit by and say nothing for fear of being judged and being different.

Which begs the question: what's so bad about being different? We all have this desperate need to fit in but sometimes that just doesn't make sense. If it were a bunch of people jumping off a cliff or purposly injecting themselves with HIV, you'd be an idiot to pick your fear of being different over the consequences of following the crowd. People wouldn't look down at you for standing your ground, in fact, they'd almost certainly congratulate you for being the only one in the bunch with a brain that hadn't melted into goo and leaked out your ears someplace. Why is standing out for Christ, even if you're standing alone, any different? It shouldn't be. The Bible says, "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence" (1 Peter 3:15). We as believers know we've chosen to follow Christ because it is the right way, the ONLY way to escape the perils of the sin we're all doomed to ("For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)) and live the best life we can and be the best people we can be. We KNOW we're the ones with the brain who see the truth in the decision and the conequences of choosing the other path. As secure in this knowledge as we are, why is it such a big deal to proclaim it, defend it, and live it?

"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31)

"The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA&list=FL6pjk4HtTCuuBmfDMEFtKIw&index=1&feature=plpp_video