Summer

Just so everyone knows: During the Summer months I won't be writing near as frequently as I have been. Don't be surprised if there aren't too many new posts over the next few months!

Comfortable

Yesterday some friends/students and I were talking briefly about Christianity. One of the students said that they didn't want to have to do anything with God because He bosses people around. He felt like it was stupid to be a Christian because you do whatever God tells you to. His equation was like this:

Accept God + Do whatever God wants you to = Go to Heaven after you die.

I suppose you could word it like this, but God doesn't want you to love Him so that He can boss you around. He loves you because He loves you, because He created you! Besides, God's ideas for your life are immeasureably better than your own plans, so why not follow His ways? For example: Turn the other cheek. Yes, turning the other cheek is probably best instead of retaliating beacuse retaliation can have long-lasting negative effects. Just one example.

Someone else said that they didn't like that we talked about Christianity because it made them feel uncomfortable. Oh, I'm so sorry, it's my job to not rock the boat, I forgot (sarcasm). Besides, don't you think your sinful and sexually suggestive remarks make me feel uncomfortable, considering I'm trying to avoid those things? Not to mention that nearly everyone made fun of the fact that some older men were handing out free pocket testaments on campus the other day. But I think that's great. Those people who got a free pocket Testament (which is a compact version of the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs) have no reason to say that they didn't know the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes I forget that as a Christian I am a minority. I guess this was a wake-up call.

A bit of what I've been learning...

Hey everyone! I told you that we've been studying Heaven and Hell at Gen-x recently and I just wanted to share a few tidbits about that. A classmate of mine said that he was pretty sure Hell would be basically separation from God, and according to scripture, he's right. It sounded to me like this was his gut-feeling, so I don't know if he knew about this verse or not (did you?) I didn't know the verse for sure until last week either. Anyway, here's the verse:

"He will come with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from His glorious power. When He comes on that day, He will receive glory from His holy people-praise from all who believe."
2 Thessalonians 1:8-10

Just like Darkness is the absence of Light, Hell is the absence of God.
Did you know that Hell and the After Life is talked about over 600 times in the Bible??
Did you know you don't get there by just being a good person?? Hell is not just for murderers, rapists, dishonest business people, and mean dictators-it's for anyone rejecting God. Thankfully, when you're being judged, Jesus says that you're clean-if you're a believer. Let me know if you have questions about this. More on this later. In the meantime, think about it. Hell is serious stuff.

Arguing with Muslims part 2

Here's the second point that I wanted to highlight from the article by Willimon that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. Willimon mentions that Muslims are not impressed with our so-called-faith here in America due to our materialistic and sex-saturated society. I agree. He says:

"I think Muslims have got it right when they say that Christians in the West appear to have produced, or at least acquiesced to, a pagan, sex-saturated, violent, materialistic society. Muslims seem to despise us not because we're so free (wrong, G.W. Bush) or because we're so very Christian (wrong, Jerry Falwell) but because we're so awefully pagan."
Do you think this is an accurate description of American society?

"It's no wonder that most Muslims are unimpressed with our God. We invoke God's name as we bomb, occupy and dominate Islamic cultures. We may say on our money "in God we trust," but Muslims suspect that oil, power, and wealth are our true hearts' desire. I wonder if Muslims look at us and think, "You're going to have to look a lot more redeemed before I'll believe in your redeemer."

What ideas/things do you think are our society's true desires?

Arguing With Muslims

Recently in my Religion in America class, we read an article by William H. Willimon titled "Arguing with Muslims." The article is taken from Christian Century Magazine from November 16,2004. Anyway, Willimon argues in this article that the way the Bible portrays God and the way that the Qu'ran portray God are so drastically different that it is clear that Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God, contrary to some popular belief. He adds, "We should not sugarcoat differences with Islam. The God Muslims worship is different fom the one Jesus called "Father." I agree.
Here are some other quotes I found interesting from his article:
"I defy anyone to attempt to read through a translation of the Qu'ran, the holy book of Muslims, and come away saying, 'Well, Jesus and Muhammad are headed in the same direction.' Muhammad routinely says things thta just would not fit into the mouth of Jesus."

"Muhammad was a sort of knight, an astute military man, a government official and a wise teacher who ended his life in serene beatification. Jesus was a teacher who brutally died at the hands of the military, the government, and the religious establishment, refusing to lift a hand in self-defense, and then was raised from the dead."

Willimon has some things to say about American culture that I found insightful as well, but I'll save those things for tomorrow. :)

Eschatology

Last night at Gen-X we started a series of new studies on eschatology, aka studying the end times. It should be good stuff-I look forward to learning tons of new stuff. Honestly, I don't know too much about Heaven, Hell, and all that "good stuff." I'll share some things with you as I learn them. Last night was a bit of an introduction, so I don't have too much on it yet for you. I'll post something else later today-something interesting about Muslims and Christians.

Another stupid attempt

By the way, yesterday's professor reference was not to Bob. (Just for your personal comfort and relief).

Once again I find myself irritated by those people who claim to be "spreading the Good News" by doing so in a protest-like manner. For example, singing songs about being anti-gays and strongly pro-life does nothing but make people angry, if not angier toward those people who claim to be Christians. I did not see this brief occurence on campus today, but I heard about it. How stupid. Yes, I'm against homosexuality, and yes, I'm, pro-life, but Jesus wants me to demonstrate LOVE to others-and that includes gays and people who support abortion. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus was truly a radical. Isn't that awesome!? I think he'd be very disappointed with how people are handling social issues of the day. I try to extend love to the people, but hate the sins. Their sins aren't any worse than mine in God's eyes anyway. However, if they don't accept Christ, their sins will not be pardoned on Judgement day.