Not Of This World

Have you ever just felt compelled to lie on your back at night and gaze at the starry spectacle above us? For me, it's one of my favorite things to do. I could spend hours upon hours just admiring the wonder of God's creation and the universe He spoke into motion. As it so happens, I felt a deep longing in my heart to go to one of my favorite places tonight and to just look up. To watch. To worship. Without fail, God revealed a tiny bit more of the glory of His work to me...

Looking into the stars, it is obvious that each is placed intentionally and delicately by Him. However, we can only see the far off balls of light when we shut out all other illumination and focus directly on them. When we let our own man-made light sources pollute our gaze, we lose focus of the beauty and glory of our Creator in His work. He wants us to experience Him through what He has made for us, but it seems that so often we let our own worldly "lights" get in the way. We don't see the beauty of His plan because we are so caught up in our own. Even more so, it's impossible to see the wondrous refinement and elegance of far off galaxies when we have our very own LED Maglite shining directly in our pupils. The same can be said for God's wants and desires for our lives becoming eclipsed by our own selfishness, iniquity, and pride.

I think what compels me so much to place myself prostrate upon the ground in admiration of what the Lord has made is the fact that I know that's what I have a stake in: the eternal glory of God that He makes manifest in His creation. As much as I enjoy the earthly things that I get to do and the fun I get to have, there's still a longing in my heart for something more, something better. I was not made simply for this world. No, I was made for something far beyond the toils, trials, and tribulations I find myself in. When I look into the sky, I see a glimpse of the glory of God that is to come, the future hope that I have in Christ as His co-heir. He has not only made us His children, but kings! "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father…" (Rev. 1:5-6). "Thou…hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:9-10). Just as the stars don't even give us the tiniest peek into the beauty of God, we cannot even begin to understand or fathom the depth of what God has done for us through His Son. We can only fall down in amazement and praise His mighty craftsmenship as we watch His plan come together. So it is that our sonship relies very little on our own understanding, but infinitely on our faith in Him and His plan.

It is a mighty thing to watch! When I look into the star-filled night, it's almost like I'm looking at the front-side of God's tapestry. For us, a tapestry is simply a piece of designed fabric that is embroidered onto a canvas. The textiles are woven together to make a beautiful, nonreversible image. One side has immense beauty, while the other side is frayed and is seemingly without form. Much is the same with our current condition. We view our lives and see frayed edges, misplaced threads, and uncareful stitching. But, friend, we are only looking at the back of His tapestry. What He sees is a universe that He takes great joy in, something upon which He called "good", His ultimate word of approval. God has the perfect perspective of His perfectly woven creation, where ours is distorted by our sins. It just seems that every now and then, when I set my eyes on the stars above, I see the other side of His tapestry and the world I am truly meant for.

With love.

Alright Men, Let's Talk Relationships

Before we get started: I'm 21 years old. There's still a lifetime left for me to learn about relationships and love, to say the least. But hey, I feel like God is leading me to talk about this subject, so let's see what we can uncover. Sound fun?! I thought so!

Oftentimes, the closer we try and get to love, the farther away we end up sliding. It's a slippery slope when your only basis is what the world teaches. The world gives us this confound image of what relationships and love should look like, whether romanticized or downright dramatic. It advertises parties, orgies, and everything in between and we get sucked into its short-term promises of fulfillment, when all we're left with the next morning is an even stronger sense of longing and need for something better. The sad thing is that we keep on settling, night after night. We put on the blinders and begin to believe that this is the best we can do in the category of love. More specifically, we confuse "love" with "lust". I did and it was alarmingly easy to do at the time.

Really, love has nothing to do with lust. Lust treats women as objects. Love treats women as Christ treated the Church: with compassion, sacrifice, and grace. To be honest, we've perverted and beaten the idea of love beyond recognition. It's so mutilated that the only forensics we have left to identify it are its dental records. That's how badly we've misconstrued what we call love. But God demonstrates what real love is. He holds the dental records that we so desperately need.

Check it: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." (Ephesians 5:25-30).

Beautiful. Christ saw the world, afflicted and stained by sin, but His love for it wasn't diminished. His passionate pursuit to love the world (that used the very breath He gave them to curse Him) led Him to the cross. His heart bled with glorious, forgiving, sacrificial love. Make no mistake, there has never been any greater love than this. What we call love in our relationships, even in the most spiritual sense, cannot compare to the love that was displayed by the holes in His hands. It's indescribably perfect. Christ's one flesh relationship to the Church perfectly depicts the blueprint for our marriages as humans. It is to be an exclusive, special, covenanted relationship.

Men, here's my message to you. Don't go out and try to "fall in love" with the girl you think you're perfect for. Believe me, no matter what grandiose plan you have for your life, God has a better one. Instead of trying to play God in your relationships, let God be God. He loves you so much that He gave His blameless, perfect Son to die for you, so I'm sure that He will take care of your dating scene as well. In all actuality, our duty is nothing less than to conform ourselves to the image of Christ, the ultimate husband (as shown by His love for the Church, His bride). In doing so, we are becoming the godly husbands that He has called us to be. He's equipping us for marriage as we transform our hearts and lives to mirror that of Christ's. Whoever God ultimately leads you to, "...sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word." Shower her with the encouragement of Scripture, the perfect Word of God. Grow together as one flesh in your relationship with Him. Read the Song of Solomon in the Bible. You'll thank me later. Nourish and cherish her as you do yourself. Lose the lust.

With love.

Shouting Ceramics

Have you ever been to one of those neat little pottery places where they have the live artisans? If you have, I'm sure you've left with the undeniable want to either A) join a pottery class or B) buy a pottery wheel. It's just so stinkin' cool! My favorite part was always watching the artisan spin some glob of clay, something almost negligible in value, into a vase or finely fashioned pot, something that ultimately brings the maker glory. Although it was a time-consuming process, the final product was always worth the effort. With this being said, God is very much the potter in our lives: "But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

First and foremost, any good potter knows that they need one major thing before ever beginning to craft any pottery: water. Without water, the clay in question would be much too hard to mold, let alone form into an artistic masterpiece. The water seaps into the pore's of the clay making it soft and pliable to the potter's hand, allowing his touch to create into life whatever vision he has in his head as the final product. As the clay, we are oftentimes hardened by our own sins, not willing to change our course no matter the circumstances. We're a lump and by-golly we're gonna stay a lump! seems to be the mindset of most people, even when we're in so desperate of a need for water. Our water, the softener of our hearts and minds, is Scripture, as seen in Ephesians 5:26, "...that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word..." The Word of God allows the reader to possess knowledge of our Redeemer, which in turn gives the Holy Spirit something to work with in our sanctification process. By the way, "sanctification" is just a big, churchy word for becoming more like Jesus, who was the perfect representative of mankind (i.e. the perfect person). We must allow the Word into our pores, just as the clay would to the water.

Once a sufficient amount of water has initially been added, the potter is sure to position the clay directly in the middle of the wheel. If this was not done, the clay would be sure to splatter across every conceivable area of the room at an incredibly fast rate once the wheel began to turn. I'm pretty sure some of those pottery wheels are run by at least a V6 engine, maybe even a V8... They go so fast! Anyway, the clay will be unworkable and will soon find itself on the floor if it is not centered on the wheel. This is to say, without a person's heart being fully "centered" or focused on Christ, the Maker's hand effectively won't guide their life. A person who holds any part of themselves back from God has not fully surrendered themselves to Christ and will soon find themselves on the floor as the clay that was off-center. God wants ALL of us, not just the parts that we're willing to give up. The clay is infinitely hopeless if it is not perfectly centered, and its short life will have been completely in vain. So it is with those who trust in themselves.

If the clay finds itself with both enough water and proper placement, then the process of making a beautiful vessel can begin. However, the process is destined to be slow. Never once have I seen an artisan create a majestic piece of ceramic craftsmenship in the blink of an eye. It always, always, always takes time. The pace of the wheel must stay slow and steady or else the clay might tear before the artist is finished. This can be likened to our own modern-day lifestyle, which is full of instantaneousness (yes, that is a word). We always want instant gratification or immediate updates. God isn't very big on that. Instead, He likes it when we wait on Him. Waiting on Him tests our faith, forcing us to rely upon His timing rather than ours. We can see the effects of relying on our own want of immediacy in things like relationships. If we give our girlfriend/boyfriend everything in physical intimacy that we have, then what is left that is special for our wife/husband? Nothing. We've tasted of the fruits that were meant for marriage because we let our appetite get the best of us, and now those fruits will have an essence of rotteness for the one we really love, much like an apple that is bit and left sitting on a counter for hours on end. Yeah, it's still an apple and it still tastes like an apple after being left there, but it's just not the same as that fresh apple from the tree. God wants us to wait on Him because He knows better.

Now that the clay has begun spinning, the potter begins to form what he has envisioned. First, the potter digs deeply at the very middle of the lump of clay, forcing the outer edges to build up around it. His hands begin to grasp both the inside and outside of the newly-forming wall, shaping and molding it with each turn of the wheel. His fingers apply pressure to the parts needing it so that it might be transformed to what he wishes. In all actuality, the lump, without any notion of what the artist has envisioned, probably would much rather stay a lump because that's easiest for it. However, the artist's plans are much more extravagant than the clay's plans. All of this can be said of our growing relationship with God. He begins by nudging at the deepest part of us: our heart. He indwells us with the Holy Spirit, allowing our sanctification to start from the inside out. As our heart changes to His desire, the transformations become noticeable on the outside. With each passing turn, His fingers mold our very character to that fitting of Christ, applying pressure when needed. Sometimes the pressure is quite severe, but it is absolutely necessary. Because we are so used to our sinful ways, we oftentimes find ourselves pressing back against His fingers that are molding us or even questioning His plan altogether. We want so badly to stay a lump. We shout at Him, questioning His every movement or motive. Surely You're not going to do that! That's proposterous! Why don't You do it another way? When we try and remain the lump that we're so accustomed to being, we are just inviting Him to press against us that much harder so that His plan and vision will be reached. My advice: don't press back and don't question.

Another thing to notice: the potter never ceases to have all of his concentration on his piece. If he were to take his eyes off of it for even a split-second, the clay would likely lose its shape. The artist cares way too much about his creation to let this happen, so his attention is never lost. God, with His infinite love for us, definitely does not want us to lose our shape. What this means is that we can fully trust in God to complete the work He has started. There will be no blemish or untended moment. We can be sure that His love, grace, and mercy will continually wash down upon us, changing us into who He wants us to become. The same can be said for the pressure of His touch when needed.

As the final touches are added and the pottery wheel begins to come to a stop, it is important to realize that the potter's vision has been met. What he first saw is what he now sees. When God places the finishing touches on your life, understand that you are what He made you to be. Others might question why you were not this or that, but the answer is clear: God, through your willingness to accept the water that is the Word, your Christ-centered approach to life, and your receptance to His guiding hand, made you into who you are. Nothing more, nothing less. Afterall, it is the potter who molds, not the clay. For some, He calls them to be vases, others pots, and some ash trays. You will be exactly what He wants you to be as long as you stay the clay and He stays the potter. Don't get caught up in what you are. Rather, accept what you are as having been guided delicately and intimately by His hand and do your absolute best to glorify the Maker in whatever He has desired you to be.

With love.

Die Religion

Our modern-day Christianity has a problem, a devastating disease that is overwhelming churches across America (and the world) today: religion. More specifically, it's become a legalistic religion. This is to say that the prevailing perception of what Christianity is has become completely marred and misconstrued to a point beyond recognition. Its outward appearance to the future-believing public is that of moral codes that emphasizes the importance of "just being a good person" and "doing more good things than bad things". I have seen firsthand, and lived for that matter, this cruddy, judgemental, work-based religion; it's neither fun nor fulfilling.

Here's the issue: in some ways the church has become just as worldly as the world itself, in some ways even more so. The mindset for this generation is one of timeframes, goals, deadlines, outward perceptions, inward discensions, and looking out for one's self. Why is it that so much of this is evident within the church's walls? We have let the prevailing political propaganda seep through the cracks in the walls and put us to sleep in the midst of impending danger, like carbon monoxide to an unsuspecting family. Sadly, some churches are suffocating quickly and are close to death.

Let me make myself clear before continuing; the problem is not Christ, the problem is man's effort to be in control. We as people want to take life by the horns, to make the best of what we have, to take all the credit for our successes, and to be admired because we're obviously so insanely awesome. The church is not immune.  Pastors have become idols and figureheads, up-to-date salvation headcounts are being tallied competetively, weekly fashion contests are unofficially held each Sunday, the music has become just words to a melody, and going to church has become a political statement of outward righteousness. It is all just a show. We emphasize ourselves, when in truth we are nothing. Still, we trudge forward in working for our own righteousness and our own salvation, failing in every attempt.

This is so far from what God has called us to be. Firstly, as Christians we are the body of Christ. "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ." (1 Corinthians 12:12). Jesus was legit, so why are we (as His present earthly body) so fake and shallow? I believe it all comes down to something that we fail to realize in our success-oriented, appearance-minded society: Jesus didn't conquer death on His own, and He certainly didn't place Himself on any pedastals on the way there. In fact, He humbled Himself to the lowliest of servants throughout His life and death because He understood His relationship with His Father, the source of all His power in overcoming the grave. He was humble and obedient to His Father even unto death, just as we are called to be as His present body. He didn't live by any religion, instead He relied on His relationship with God. That certainly puts a whole new perspective on things.

Secondly, just living the so-called "Christian lifestyle" won't save you, no matter what your religion tells you. It's all about grace because, frankly, we suck even on our best days. Ephesians 2:4-10 says it best, "But because of His great love for us, God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." This can be summed up to say that our actions, even our super sweet personalities, will never save us. Salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ, which will bear the fruits you're trying to vainly produce on your own.

In short, lose your legalism and especially your religion. We are no longer bound by the law; we live under grace. Grace provides so much more than our selfishly motivated actions ever could. It provides salvation from sins, forgiveness from trespasses, and relief from ourselves. Your religion needs to die so that you might fully live in Christ through a relationship with Him.

With love.

You've Got the Q's, I've Got the A's

The following are some questions that many people wonder about God, but can't ever seem to get a straight answer for. Through hours of prayer, contemplation, reading the Bible, and writing, here are some of the straightest answers I can give. (If you have any more or you don't feel like I appropriately answered a question, let me know and I'll do my best to be a better light for you!) All of these answers are strictly based on scripture, and I would be more than happy to provide you with any of the citations that you need. Enjoy :)

Why does God allow people to sin?

When God created Adam and Eve, they were perfect in every single way; sin did not exist to them. He made them so that He could love them passionately, and He desired their love back. But see, God had to give them the choice to also not love Him, otherwise He would have just created some sort of robotic humans. This is to say, forcing someone to love you is not real love. I think this to be pretty obvious and self-explanatory. Ultimately, when Adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they chose to go against God's only rule that He had set for them. They loved their own interests over His interests for them. This was the "original sin". He allowed it because that was the only way real love could be established.

Why does Adam and Eve's sin have to affect me? I wouldn't have eaten the fruit like those idiots...

You know how you kind of look like your parents? You might have inherited the same nose, mouth, or eye color. Well, God sees that we look like our great-great-great-etc. grandparents, Adam and Eve. Although we might not have been in the Garden of Eden when they commited the original sin, we did inherit the stain placed on their heart. They were no longer perfect and pure. When God looks at our heart, He sees that same stain. It has been passed down from generation to generation, separating each and every person from God, exiling us from the perfect Eden we could have experienced. That's why our world is so screwed up. They did it, but we must reap the repercussions. In short, we are sinful by our own nature.

Why would God go through all the trouble of creating everything if it was just going to get corrupted by sin?

Trouble? What trouble? God spoke the universe into creation. By His words alone He created everything that has come into existence. That doesn't seem like a whole lot of trouble to me. I've had to put far more effort into writing this blog than He had to in creating the entire universe. Still though, there is the issue of our corrupting His creation with sin. In my opinion, I believe that God created us and gave us free will knowing that it was a chance worth taking, that we would rebel. To find those who would actually love Him by their own will, He must have deemed it a necessary course to allow those who rebel against Him without recognizing their need for Him to fall into judgement, and ultimately damnation. Furthermore, we were not meant for this world. We were made for a perfect world and this present world is far from it. Knowing this, God promises that those who believe in Him will soon be given perfect bodies and a perfect place in which to eternally live, always within His presence being able to praise and worship Him forever. Do I know what this looks like or how God plans on doing this? No. But I do know that in all of time God has never lied, so there is no reason for me to start believing that He will now!

How did God exist before time?

C.S. Lewis answered this question for me in his book Mere Christianity. This is my paraphrase: We live in the realm of time. It constantly moves forward as each passing second fades away into oblivion. I can no more re-do yesterday than a chimp can write Shakespeare's Hamlet; it just can't happen. With that being said, imagine my life were a part of a book (we'll call it the Doddyssey, hehe). I do things in chronological order because, of course, that's how life works. So, one day in the Doddyssey I study excrutiatingly hard for an exam, then the next day I ace the exam. To me, studying came first, then acing the exam came second. However, the amazing author who wrote the Doddyssey is not subject to this same A, then B, then C order. He could go to the first page or the last page in any order that he sees fit, all he has to do is turn the pages. The book is in front of him, and he already knows the storyline. He knows how it begins and how it ends. He created the world with his own mind. He loves his book and every character in it because he made it; it is his creation. All of this can be said of God and how He is not confined to our own little world. Although the analogy isn't perfect, it does allow for some insight into how God is so legitimately awesome.

What in the crap is the Holy Trinity (and how does it work)?

Simply put, the Holy Trinity is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. All three are necessary for our salvation. God is necessary because He is our creator. Without His love, we cease to exist. Jesus is necessary because He is our intercessor. Without His perfect blood and resurrection, hope of eternal life ceases to exist. The Holy Spirit is necessary because He is our indweller. Without His presence in our life, salvation ceases to exist. That's why we must have all three. This is known as having a "triune" God. The Bible also explains that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all three the exact same thing, but are all completely different. Is that even possible? Here's the way I've found best to explain this conundrum: I am Brandon. To my mom, I am her son. To my brother, I am his brother. To my classmate, I am their friend. In all of these relationships, I never stop being Brandon though. I am the same person just seen in three different lights because of the types of relationships that are present within each. Much is the same with the Trinity. God is God, but when He came to the earth as Jesus, He never stopped being God. Jesus was simply God in the flesh. The same can be said with the Holy Spirit and His role in our lives as believers or future-believers. When the Holy Spirit, the supernatural conscience inside our hearts, minds, and souls, allows us to recognize sin and discern between God's will and our will, He never stops being God. Isn't that spectacular? Our God is so great.

Why did Jesus have to die?

The Bible makes it clear that the wage of sin is death. Obviously, a wage is something that is earned, so our sins have earned us death. This death goes far beyond the physical passing away that we will all go through. This death is a spiritual death, an eternal separation from God, resulting in all of the fire and brimstone that you've surely heard about before. With this being said, our lives are tainted with sin. God, being absolutely perfect, hates sin; it goes against His very character and perfect nature. So why would we expect that God would allow sinful beings into His presence in the perfect Heaven? As it turns out, He won't and never will. Well, wouldn't that mean that we are all destined for an eternity in hell if God hates our sins so much? If Jesus hadn't died, then yes. But God demonstrates His love for us in that Jesus, the Christ, died for us, taking our place, paying our wages. Before Jesus died on the cross, He had never once in His life sinned - never thought a bad thought, never was jealous of anyone, and had never lied. He had lived a perfect life, just as God had intended for us to do. This is to say, He had never felt what it was like for God to punish Him. However, when Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice on the wooden cross to take the place that we all deserve, He became sin. Galations 3:13 says, "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." God went from seeing His perfect Son to the cursed sins and lives of every human being who had ever lived. God's judgement was full and nothing was held back when He punished Jesus for OUR sins. That is precisely why Jesus had to die. Only He was perfect enough to pay our wages in full.

Do I have to be baptized in water to be saved?

This is a common misconception. The whole point of immersion baptism is that it is a public outward profession of faith. It symbolizes the old body dying away, and the birth of a new paid-for life arising, overcoming death. To be saved, one must truly believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and paid for their sins because they couldn't do it on their own, and they must confess that same truth with their mouth. Never does the Bible require baptism for salvation, except by the Holy Spirit. When one is baptized, they are saying to the world that Christ has changed them and given them a new, better life, which is a direct result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us.

What's the point of prayer if God knows my thoughts?

God is omniscient. He knows everything and nothing is hidden from Him. Fact. But God still wants us to pray even though He already knows what I'm going to say or think; why is that? When we pray to God, our minds our centered directly on Him. We are giving Him the fullness of our attention, much like you would when speaking directly to anyone else. What prayer allows us to do is keep our minds and hearts faced towards God, much like the sunflower in one of my previous blogs, "A Quick Botanical Lesson". The second we stop thinking about God and what He has ultimately done for us, we usually fall into sin. This leads me to believe that praying is more for the believer than it is for God. However, this is not to say that God does not infinitely love and appreciate our prayers and supplication or that He doesn't take into account our wants and desires when we pray about things. On the contrary, God wants us to pray. Look to Jesus as an example! Throughout Jesus' ministry, He was found praying...all the time! Furthermore, the Bible points out that God's mind cannot be changed, but that does not mean His course of direction can't be changed. A simpler way of looking at it is this: say I'm wanting to go to Chicago from here in good ol' Benton, Kentucky. Well, I can either walk, take a car, a motorcycle, a bus, a train, or an airplane, among a whole host of other ways. I can also take a ton of different routes or layovers, but my final destination never changes. I can get there in an infinite amount of ways, but my mind won't be changed about where I'm going. This is how I view God's plan, especially in relation to our prayers. Don't ever underestimate the power of prayer because you could be the person who changes God's direction from using a "car" to a "train"!

What is grace?

Grace is going above-and-beyond mercy. In a nutshell, mercy is to take away something that you deserve. Going back to the Doddyssey, if I hadn't studied super hard for my exam, had decided to just cheat because video games looked a whole lot more appealing at the time I could have studied, and was subsequently caught by my professor, then I should have gotten suspended or even expelled. Mercy would be present if my professor just gave me a zero as opposed to kicking me out of college. Grace, on the other hand, is taking away something that I do deserve and giving me something else, something better, that I don't deserve. Instead of just giving me a zero, my professor might extend grace by allowing me to take the exam again and not penalize me for my lack of effort and superior stupidity that I previously displayed. God's grace is somewhat analagous to this. Although the Bible clearly states that our sins deserve death (like eternal, spiritual death beyond the physical death we will all succumb to), God gave us a way out. He gave us Jesus, who died the death that we surely deserve. If we accept that we cannot pay for our own sins, and that Jesus is the only one who can (and did!), then we have experienced God's grace. God effectively gives us the chance to retake the exam. We're still not going to get all the questions right, but God is amazing enough to just give effort grades in our now grace-filled lives! I think that's a superb deal.

Can I get to Heaven by being a really really super awesome person?

No. Nope. Nu-uh. Not gonna happen. I don't mean to sound cynical, but that's just the way it is. To restate our current condition, we are ravaged and depraved by sin. Any offering or sacrifice that we try and give to God will get rejected worse than Dwight Howard blocking Ty Lawson's lay up attempt into the fifth row of fans. Reeeeejected! God cannot accept sin, so He will never accept us in our sinful condition. How we overcome this is through Jesus. He paid our wages so that we can be seen as perfect, sinless, and righteous. That is what makes our offerings acceptable to God. Take a look at one of my previous blogs, "I've Learned To Spell The Word Faith: J-O-Y." It really speaks on what kind of appropriate sacrifices God is looking for in us.

Why doesn't God just let everyone into Heaven?

Although God loves us more than we will ever deserve, He still expects us to love Him back. If we don't choose to love Him and accept Jesus as Lord, then our sins are infinitely worse than the most nasty ketchup stain you've ever had on a white cotton shirt, except this stain is on your heart. God cannot accept imperfections, not even one. This is precisely why God can't allow everyone into Heaven. But now, I'm about to blow your mind. Did you know that God gets glory from sending people to hell? (Brandon, what in the world are you saying?! Have you gone mad?!) It is true. Again, God is perfect, so His judgement is perfect. When God condems people to hell for their unrepented sins, He is perfectly fulfilling what they deserve. In this perfect judgement God receives glory because, in fact, it is perfect, just as He receives glory in the perfect salvation of a once depraved sinner. That's intense, isn't it? This is also another reason why God cannot allow everyone into Heaven.

The moral of the story is: God is indescribably wonderful. No amount of words can even begin to describe a single iota of His epicness. His love never fails, even when every person who has ever lived, besides His own Son, has turned their back on Him. Wow. God loves you. I don't see why you wouldn't want so badly to love Him back with every fiber of your being. Consider your heart. Is that stain of sin still present, or has it been washed clean? I pray that it has been cleansed beyond measure with the perfect blood of Jesus.

With love.

An Intertwined Love

Ever feel like you aren't good enough? Maybe you've done some things thinking they would fill you up, but they've just left you even more empty. You've got a want in your heart, a longing to be loved, but no matter what you do people just seem to take you for granted. The people you want to love you start to ask more and more of you, until you've given away everything for them. The one thing you were so committed to saving for the future has now become a dirty stain of the present, a tiny thread holding the "love" together, a stitch of what has become the scarlet letter sewn across your life. The only point that is special about your past, or maybe even your present, is that it is especially painful. Your innocence is gone and so are they. So here you are - wadded up like a piece of trash, discarded like you never existed or ever were important. What hope do you have in finding that real, unquestionable, sacrificial love you've been searching for, but always seem to fall so desperately short of?

Believe me, there's more hope than you know! My life hasn't been spared of these poor choices, but I am more than the sum of my past mistakes. As it turns out, I was just looking for love in all the wrong places. I wanted so badly to manufacture this romanticized concept of love that is strewn across any form of media today, the propaganda that glorifies instant gratification, that I forgot about God. However, He gave me a second chance with every passing breath. Take a deep breath. Go ahead, I can wait... Feel the light air parade into your growing lungs as your chest begins to press back with every fleeting moment. That, friend, was a gift from God. You don't deserve it just as I don't deserve to be sitting here writing this, but God's love abounds for us. He passionately loves me more than any other love I will ever know. He gives people like me and you a chance at hope and abundant life.

Take Rahab, for instance (Joshua 2). Rahab lived in the city of Jericho roughly 1500-2000 years before Christ entered the world, her house a part of the city's outer wall. She lived her life as a harlot, selling her body as a means to get by. She was probably about as far away from pure as one could be, her scarlet letter lifestyle left behind scars and memories too deep to recount. So far, it seemed that she had no chance at ever living an upstanding lifestyle, let alone getting right with God. But God had other plans for her.

Knock, Knock, Knock. Two spies sent by Joshua (and ultimately God) from the land of Israel were at Rahab's door. They were scoping out Jericho on how to conquer it, and they needed a place to stay in order to evade possible capture. Not yet knowing their motives, she let them stay. However, it was soon gossip around town that Rahab was keeping two of Joshua's spies in her house; those nosey neighbors! The king of Jericho, not too fond of the Israelites, sent troops to dispose of the men. Rahab, apparently aware of the impending danger, hid the spies on her roof. When the troops came to question her, she lied and told them that the men had left and must be pursued quickly. The troops left, hustling to find the spies. Wow, who knew that the Bible had soap opera stuff like this?!

Rahab, the prostitute, after much talk exclaimed to the Israelite spies on the roof that it was obvious the Lord had given them the land and that the Lord had been doing great, miraculous things for the Israelites, like parting the Red Sea some 40 years earlier. Something seemed to be changing inside of Rahab. In exchange for her word that she wouldn't give away any information about the spies and their whereabouts, the spies promised Rahab safety in the destruction to come. They told her to hang a scarlet cord from her window so the troops would know which house to leave alone. If she wanted her family to be saved, they must be in the house as well.

Rahab undoubtedly hung that scarlet cord from her window. That was her and her family's only hope. The entire city, every inhabitant and every wall would fall, except for where that scarlet cord fluttered in the wind. What immense hope was resting on such a small piece of twine. A woman, a whore by no uncertain terms, placed all her faith in the promise of a second chance, a life past the death she deserved. Ultimately, when Rahab placed the scarlet cord in her window, she was acknowledging the power of the God the Israelites had been proclaiming. Finally when the dust settled, only one house remained. I bet you know which one it was.

If God can love Rahab, a harlot who had lived her life in sin and iniquity, enough to give her the opportunity to hang a scarlet twine outside her window as a second chance simply by having faith and proclaiming the truth of the God of Israel, then God can certainly love you enough. In all actuality, the scarlet cord is a precursor, representative of the blood of Jesus on the cross. Although the world will crumble and die, those who grip firmly to the power of the blood of Christ will not waiver. Not a speck of dust will come upon their salvation as the world crashes down. God has something better planned for them. He loves us so much that He gave His Son freely as a sacrifice to take the punishment that we deserve for our sins.

Have you placed the figurative scarlet cord in your window yet? Do you recognize that God is real, personal, and loves you more than you will ever deserve? He is a God of second chances. He is a God of hope. He is a God of love. His love is intertwined in your very being. The best thing you can do is love Him back while He's still blessing you with every breath you're breathing!

With love.

A Quick Botanical Lesson!

Have you ever wondered how it is that sunflowers are able to face the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day? I mean, I'm pretty sure that they don't have brains or a nervous system to coordinate that movement. What actually happens is the leaves that are in the shade produce a growth hormone called auxin, which travels down the shady side of the stem stimulating cellular division. This unequal cellular division effectively rotates the stem, leaves, and flower so that it is always directly facing the sun. Whoa. Props to God on that.

This amazing botanical concept can transcend to our lives as Christians, as well. We all have pasts; most are full of faults like selfishness, hate, greed, prejudice, and iniquity. Check me down for all of those. But the thing is, those dark parts of our lives help us to understand just how much we need the Light:  Jesus. God allows us to make these mistakes because He gave us free will to either love Him or hate Him; after all, forcing us to love Him wouldn't be real love in the first place. When we choose to satisfy ourselves by succumbing to our own carnal desires, we are doing the opposite of what God intended for us to do: to constantly be facing the Light that is our life-source. A sunflower that turns away from the sun will not receive the proper amount of nutrition it needs in order to survive, and it will surely die. However, God gave us the Holy Spirit to act as our auxin. The Holy Spirit allows us to reflect upon our dark past and understand that the Light of the World is the only thing worth facing, stimulating growth in our faith. Friends, if you were a sunflower, which way would you be facing?

With love.

I've Learned To Spell The Word "Faith": J-O-Y.

So many people today regard born-again Christians as being unemotional, flat, fun-suckers who don't know how to have a good time and will be uber judgemental about you trying to do so. In my opinion, this perception is not far from reality, partially because I took up that role for many years of my life until recently. I falsely understood that the Christian faith was about doing the do's and not doing the don'ts. I served God with some sort of stoicness because I felt like I was just fulfilling my obligations as a Christian to be holier-than-thou (Afterall, that's what Christians do, right?). I couldn't have been further from the Truth.

 I'm gonna let Paul take the wheel on this one: "Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you should also be glad and rejoice with me." (Philippians 2:17-18). What in the world did he just say? First of all, he is alluding to the fact that his life had been full of sacrifices. The latter part of his life was spent being rejected, persecuted, arrested, and imprisoned, all on multiple occasions because he started to tell people about the whole Jesus-being-Lord-and-Savior-of-the-universe thing. Many of his friends were even killed. It's obvious that their message regarding Christ was not well-received by some of those they spoke to, much like the world today. We can see this in his mention of being "poured out as a drink offering". Taking a step back in history, a drink offering was in-effect the finishing touches during an animal or grain sacrifice to God. The sacrifice would be burned, then wine would be poured onto the offering to symbolize their giving "every last drop" to God, the "pouring out" of their life and possessions. So far it seems like Paul would have lived a better life had he not devoted it to God and just lived for himself, but he has the audacity to go on and say that he sacrificed it all with joy (and that we should be joyful in our sacrifices to God, as well)!! At first glance, it looks like Paul needs to lay off the wine a little, but there is more to this story...

What would possess Paul to sacrifice so much so joyfully? Simple: the Holy Spirit. Paul writes again in Romans 14:17, "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." You see, the Holy Spirit is God's way of conveying His joy to the believer. The indwelled presence of the Holy Spirit in the life, body, and soul of the believer results in true, unblemished joy because God Himself resides in them. God rejoices in His creation, in the salvation of sinners, and in the righteous actions of His children. Because believers are the children of God (Romans 8:14), we are to be in tune with the heart and character of God and should be characterized as joyful, too. What father enjoys having a child who has no personality and doesn't ever have a smile on his face, even after sacrificing everything he had for the child? God is not any different. God expects us to take joy in our salvation, even under the most dire of situations (Psalm 51:12). After all, He gave us Christ!

Oh man, you probably think I'm preaching to you now after that last part. No, what I just did was drop the most underappreciated truth in all of history. Christ, the Messiah of the human race, the most super of super heroes, sacrificed what we never could: spotless blood (Hebrews 9:22). He joyfully lived a perfect life, sacrificing possessions, dignity, and ultimately Himself, all so that we might have a chance at the same joy as Him.

 [Sidenote: One thing that is really cool about Christ is that He only died once. (Duh, Brandon, that's pretty obvious...) Well, back in the Old Testament temple, priests would constantly give sacrifices to God because of their ever constant sins (Romans 3:23). Because of this constant need for sacrificial blood to have remission of sins, the temple did not have a chair. This signified that their work was never done. With that being said, check out Hebrews 10:11-14: "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."  Christ sat down after a single sacrifice, a single death, because His blood was so much more than that of animals. Pretty freaking awesome.]

Lastly, Romans 8:29 mentions how Christians are supposed to be conformed to the image of Christ, sacrifices, joy, and all. Don't just settle for a faith that sacrifices some of the worldly pleasures that your sinful nature wants so bad to do. Be joyful. Know that you serve a God who takes immense joy in you. Serve the Lord with gladness. Remember, you have the opportunity to serve a Lord who sat down! :)

With love.

The Birth of a Blog :)

Why, hello there! I'm sure that I don't have very much to say that you haven't already heard in some way, shape, or form. I just hope that I can be of some encouragement to you as I live my life and share my thoughts periodically. Alot of my posts are probably going to pertain to my faith in Christ, which I hope moves your heart in ways that might have been hardened beforehand. I've really been searching for ways to share just how awesome God is and how He has passionately shown His love for me throughout my few years here. Recently, I've tried to use Facebook as a tool to give little quips about Christ ("Christ Quips", perhaps?) and I've really been encouraged by many brothers and sisters to continue to be a light, to present my faith and my God for the whole world to see. holesinHishands is an avenue that I now feel led to take to give my message. Stay tuned for some insightful (hopefully :)) observations as to what I think the heart of Christ looks like, and how we are supposed to reciprocate His epicness.

With love.