Hi again. It's been a while because I've been in the busiest period of my life since my final semester of college. Of course that was only a year and a half ago, but it seems longer. At any rate, I think there's just a bunch of random thoughts that I'd like to share with you today.
I have noticed over time that when grief pops back up, it almost seems foreign because I've somewhat just ignored it over time. Don't get me wrong, I've certainly moved forward in a lot if ways, but there is an awe, if you will, over this kind of loss that doesn't seem to change. And at times, I almost feel that I need to stop and mourn for a few minutes on my own. This has certainly been the testimony of many people I know that have been through it. The impact of the event is just too deep. It changes you at the core. And while it has solidified my idea of me, it also makes me question who I really am. Am I the sum total of my experiences? Or was I already me? Am I now just reacting to life's circumstances? Even more, I ask God why I've been asked to live through this.
I recently got my first teaching job at a Christian school and it is the most wonderful blessing I've received in a long time. I have been so convicted over my own life purpose in the last year, I have no doubt that God has a hand in placing me here, but even with that deep conviction about life, I struggle to share the most genuine reasons I have for living and being with my students.
First of all, just working in a place where it's okay to talk about God and to pray and honor scripture is an incredible thing, but making that personal for so many other "little people" is quite a daunting task. I have to admit I really have no idea where to start, but I have been given a couple of ideas. I love music with a passion and I'm so glad I made the journey to get the degree I needed to teach it. That's the obvious first point of contact. Teach the subject. Secondly, I have prayer. I have been praying almost every day for some aspect of our school, and I continue to trust God to honor those prayers. There are so many families and lives that are being touched through this school, I don't think I realized how much teaching was about giving.
So maybe I'm closer to reality than I thought. Real relationships, real needs, real truth. I'm so humbled there aren't words for it! At least not that I can find right now.
Well, time for my head to hit the pillow.
Till next time.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sour Signage
So I drove by a church the other day with a sign which read: "Jesus is also planning a separation of church and state" or something similar. I have no comment on the political implications of the sign, but I had to ask myself, AGAIN - WHY do churches insist on attempting to spread some message (supposedly evangelistic in nature?) through ridiculous billboard sayings? (I feel similar about "Christian" bumper-stickers.) You can scour the internet for a multitude of actual signage (although some is faked), but here's a few anyway:
"Try Jesus - If you don't like him, the devil will take you back"
"Life – your only chance. Eternity – payback time"
"What if we're right?"
"God is not bound to the facts"
Those are examples of some of the bad ones. Now maybe I'm just narrow-minded, but the idea that someone might actually be evangelized and find relationship with Christ through the silly, and sometimes utterly evil, ideas that churches put on signs is ridiculous to me. (I reserve the right to be wrong. If you got saved because God spoke to you through a church sign, I would love to know about it and I wouldn't judge you.) And don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with every sign out there. There are actually a few I've seen that made me laugh, like "God so loved the world, that he did not send a committee." But that's church humor, not an attempt to evangelize the world through your sign. It's the signs that are attempting to move a person to act based on a few theologically unsound, out-of-context, and sometimes judgmental words.
Is the goal of these signs to be clever? Are they trying to convince us of Christ's message through wit? Does somebody really think that this attracts people to churches?
Before I wrote this post, I did some searching around to see what's on the internet regarding church signs. I couldn't believe it (well, I could actually) when I found a site that has the following on the home page:
"[SITE] is a 100% FREE resource that provides an endless abundance of thought-provoking and inspiring Christian messages and is the perfect tool for anyone looking to promote God’s kingdom beyond the walls of the congregation. (My comment: what happened to "GO and make disciples?")
Every church sign saying that you see listed has been submitted by Christians just like you and me, from all corners of the globe, making this resource truly a central area to help spread the word of Jesus Christ."
Are you serious? Spread the word of Jesus Christ? Inspiring Christian messages? I don't know about you, but I have yet to be "inspired" by a single church billboard. In fact, most of what I've seen makes me wary to step foot in the door. This is not bible-believing Christianity, it is not evangelism, and it is not a "Christian message." We have got to stop believing in these silly religious ideas and recognize our own laziness. This is not the gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not clever and witty as if to persuade men to believe on account of any such thing. Truth needs not be hidden behind anything. Paul says, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3)." He also says that the gospel is the power of God to us who are being saved (1 Corinthians 1:18), but it is foolishness to them that perish. Dare we, the church, make the actual Gospel of Christ to sound foolish to men by our attempt at cleverness?
"If you think Jesus isn't real, try dying without Him and see what happens." - Church Sign
Frankly, it's absurd to me to think that these sayings have any positive effect on the passers-by who might actually need the salvation of Christ. It makes light of the gospel and makes the church look ignorant concerning the true needs of the world around them. Do not be taken in by the religious fads of our day, thinking that just because a church, or many churches, take part in them, that they're "gospel." We as the church often fail to open up our bibles and do something because God said so. We measure our evangelistic actions by the world's standards rather than measuring them by the Word of our God. We need to wake up and get real.
"Try Jesus - If you don't like him, the devil will take you back"
"Life – your only chance. Eternity – payback time"
"What if we're right?"
"God is not bound to the facts"
Those are examples of some of the bad ones. Now maybe I'm just narrow-minded, but the idea that someone might actually be evangelized and find relationship with Christ through the silly, and sometimes utterly evil, ideas that churches put on signs is ridiculous to me. (I reserve the right to be wrong. If you got saved because God spoke to you through a church sign, I would love to know about it and I wouldn't judge you.) And don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with every sign out there. There are actually a few I've seen that made me laugh, like "God so loved the world, that he did not send a committee." But that's church humor, not an attempt to evangelize the world through your sign. It's the signs that are attempting to move a person to act based on a few theologically unsound, out-of-context, and sometimes judgmental words.
Is the goal of these signs to be clever? Are they trying to convince us of Christ's message through wit? Does somebody really think that this attracts people to churches?
Before I wrote this post, I did some searching around to see what's on the internet regarding church signs. I couldn't believe it (well, I could actually) when I found a site that has the following on the home page:
"[SITE] is a 100% FREE resource that provides an endless abundance of thought-provoking and inspiring Christian messages and is the perfect tool for anyone looking to promote God’s kingdom beyond the walls of the congregation. (My comment: what happened to "GO and make disciples?")
Every church sign saying that you see listed has been submitted by Christians just like you and me, from all corners of the globe, making this resource truly a central area to help spread the word of Jesus Christ."
Are you serious? Spread the word of Jesus Christ? Inspiring Christian messages? I don't know about you, but I have yet to be "inspired" by a single church billboard. In fact, most of what I've seen makes me wary to step foot in the door. This is not bible-believing Christianity, it is not evangelism, and it is not a "Christian message." We have got to stop believing in these silly religious ideas and recognize our own laziness. This is not the gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not clever and witty as if to persuade men to believe on account of any such thing. Truth needs not be hidden behind anything. Paul says, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3)." He also says that the gospel is the power of God to us who are being saved (1 Corinthians 1:18), but it is foolishness to them that perish. Dare we, the church, make the actual Gospel of Christ to sound foolish to men by our attempt at cleverness?
"If you think Jesus isn't real, try dying without Him and see what happens." - Church Sign
Frankly, it's absurd to me to think that these sayings have any positive effect on the passers-by who might actually need the salvation of Christ. It makes light of the gospel and makes the church look ignorant concerning the true needs of the world around them. Do not be taken in by the religious fads of our day, thinking that just because a church, or many churches, take part in them, that they're "gospel." We as the church often fail to open up our bibles and do something because God said so. We measure our evangelistic actions by the world's standards rather than measuring them by the Word of our God. We need to wake up and get real.
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