Christmas and Politics

"For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace

There will be no end,

Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,

To order it and establish it with judgment and justice

From that time forward, even forever.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

Isaiah 9:6 NKJV

It's Christmas time; time for happiness, cheer, joy, family. At least that is what our society tells us, but our society has turned Christmas into a materialistic holiday full of fluff. We like to throw around phrases such as "holiday spirit" and "the happiest time of the year" but less and less do we hear what we are actually celebrating.

I do hope that you all are happy and joyful and with family during this holiday season but I also want us to remember what Christmas is truly about. Even the nativity scene does not fully cover what we are celebrating because it is more than just a baby being born in a manger. Something begin on that first Christmas that was even deeper than a plan for our salvation.

Christmas is about a new Kingdom being established.

I wrote about this last year in my post The True Meaning of Christmas, but I feel this is a point that is so important and so often missed that it is important to reiterate it. In a recent series of posts Dr. Andrew Decort asked the question Was Jesus Political? and he started with the song that Mary sang after hearing the announcement that she would be pregnant with the Messiah:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;

For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For He who is mighty has done great things for me,

And holy is His name.

And His mercy is on those who fear Him

From generation to generation.

He has shown strength with His arm;

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones,

And exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

And the rich He has sent away empty.

He has helped His servant Israel,

In remembrance of His mercy,

As He spoke to our fathers,

To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

Luke 1:46-55

Already, before Christ was even born, there is a political aspect in preparation for him. Mary's song shows the establishment of a Kingdom that is backwards from the normal, earthly kingdom, a kingdom in which the mighty are pulled down and the weak and hungry are exalted. 

This same idea is repeated by Jesus when the mother of James and John asks Him to grant her sons the seats on Jesus' right and left in heaven:

But Jesus called them to Himself and said, 

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, 

and those who are great exercise authority over them. 

Yet it shall not be so among you; 

but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 

And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, 

and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Matthew 20:25-28

Jesus came to this earth to establish a new type of Kingdom. No longer are we to be looking to be great, to be mighty, or to be strong but we should be looking to serve. This is what Christmas is about, the start of this new Kingdom. 

As we celebrate Christmas it is a time to remember to be a servant, to remember our new Kingdom!

This is also a perfect entry into the new year. As we begin to think of our plans for the new year, what we want to change, how we want to have a fresh start, we can look at how we can better be servants to those around us. 

Psalm 100: A Song of Thanksgiving

"Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness 

Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations."

Psalm 100

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the United States. We commonly refer to the first Thanksgiving in reference to the Pilgrims coming together to celebrate their first successful harvest alongside several members of a local Native American tribe in New England. Despite this being referenced as the first Thanksgiving it was actually not made a federal holiday until Abraham Lincoln made it one in 1863. 

Regardless of the history of the holiday we as Christians should be excited about an opportunity to remind ourselves of all the things we are thankful for. 

Thanksgiving is the first step into the presence of God!

It is easy to get caught up in complaining, it is easy to send our requests to God and impatiently wait for the answer. But this is not how we experience God's presence. God's presence is found in our thanksgiving, in our recognition of the blessings that God has bestowed on us. 

We all have been blessed by God in some way. Regardless of how hopeless your situation may seem I guarantee there is something for you to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Look hard if you have to but find what it is that is good in your life and be thankful for it! 

Seeking God Himself

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?"

Psalm 42:2

When was the last time you prayed asking God simply for Him? 

When did you last ask God simply for His presence? 

It's easy to forget prayer time altogether. It's easy to get busy with life and distracted by worries and cares around us, and forget entirely to pray. Because of this we often hear sermons pushing us to pray, to bring our worries before God. This is of course an important thing to do and a very Biblical thing to do:

"Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

1 Peter 5:6-7

However, often this is where we stop. Recently I have been pushing myself to increase my own personal prayer time. With a family, job, and school it is sometimes easy to forget to focus time in prayer but I have been setting aside time in the mornings lately to do just that. 

Even so, I realized this morning that it had been a long time since I sought God Himself. 

I have asked daily for His advice and His direction. I have thanked Him for His blessings in my life and brought my frustrations and cares before Him, but I never simply asked Him for His presence. In pursuing the gifts I had forgotten the Giver. 

I challenge you this morning, or whenever you happen to be reading this, to set aside all your other cares and desires and simply ask Him to meet you, ask Him for His presence, to reveal Himself. 

Raising the Standard for our Political Leaders

"We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better."

Thurgood Marshall

We are at an interesting place in our political climate in the United States of America. We have had a shift from a mostly liberal leaning governement to a mostly conservative leading government. American evangelicals are excited because, for the first time in years, even the Supreme Court has a conservative majority now with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh. People are excited about the possibility of reversing the Roe vs. Wade decision in regards to abortion and base this on an idea of morality. 

I do believe that the amount of babies being aborted in our nation, especially as a form of birth control, is a moral outrage. 

I do believe that, if given the chance, we should outlaw abortion. 

I also believe that people striving soley for an opportunity to outlaw abortion are missing the point.

Back in high school I ended up in a debate about abortion with some friends and I was surprised when one girl, who I knew to be a passionate Christian, was not supportive of banning abortion. She felt it was wrong but did not feel that we should make a law against it. She argued that, even with a law against it, women would still abort their babies but they would do it in less safe environments putting their own lives at a greater risk. They would end up in places that were not following the same regulations that our hospitals and doctor's offices had to follow for health and safety in the procedure. 

I immediately rejected this argument with the thought, "Should we legalize murder since people murder others even when it is illegal?" When it comes to whether or not I would vote for a law to make abortion illegal my stance is the same. However, I think there is also an underlying point here that I initially missed. 

There is a deeper issue when it comes to abortion than whether it is legal or not. 

There are women who are hurting, confused, and scared. These women don't look at abortion in the same way that we do because they have been taught differently. They see the fetus as still an extension of their own bodies rather than a baby. They see abortion as a way out of a mistake that may or may not be partially their own fault. Even if it was their decision it was generally one moment of passion that is now threatening to ruin their entire life. 

This is the first reason why I think we are missing the point when our focus is entirely on outlawing abortion. 

As Christians we are called to reach out to the hurting, the scared, the lost and to help them find a way. 

Making abortion illegal does nothing to help these young women who are hurting and scared to find a way. There are organizations out there who are trying to help women in these situations and I feel that this should be a greater focus of ours and of those we elect into office.

The second reason I feel why we are missing the point is that we are basing our entire voting process on policy issues like outlawing abortion. 

While we were waiting to hear what happened with Kavanaugh, there was an article going around that stated 48% of Evangelical Christians in America felt that Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if it was proven that the allegations were true. In other words, 48% of Evangelical Christians in America felt having a conservative slant in the supreme court was so important that they didn't care if someone was appointed who had sexually assaulted mutliple people and had shown no regret for doing so.

This goes in line with how many Evangelical Christians are still supportive of Trump despite his multiple insults thrown at anyone who disagreed with him, his proven history of female degradation, and his refusal to admit or apologize for any previous mistakes. 

In other words, both cases show a willingness to ignore blatant immorality based on policy. 

The Bible has a lot to say about requirements for leadership. For example, Paul explains to Timothy what the requirements of leaders in the church should be:

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate,self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.

1 Timothy 3:1-4

This of course is specific to leaders in the church but since we, as Americans, have some say in the election of leaders in the political sphere I think we should make our decisions similarly. When you look at that list notice what is not there, there is no talk about doctrine or policy. Even when we look for leaders in the church realm we seem to always look at doctrine first, does there doctrine match up with that of our church, ministry, etc. 

Paul is telling us very clearly that character in leadership is more important than doctrine!

The natural follow-up question to recognizing this truth is, "How can we demand good moral character when so many of our politicians are so corrupt?" 

My response to that is, "Finally we are asking the right question!"

I don't have the perfect answer to how to do this, but I do know that we, as Evangelical Christians in America, need to step up and demand more from our leadership. Agreeing with someone on policy should no longer be enough, we need to demand good character. 

We need to stop making excuses for the behavior of politicians who we happen to agree with!

We need to start holding all politicians, regardless of their political stance, to a higher standard! 

We need to allow morality to guide our vote, not just in policy issues but in character issues!

For anyone who feels alone...

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. 

Psalms 34:18 NKJV

I recently wrote a post about our need for each other, about how our value of independence in our society may be the cause of the seeming increase in depression and suicide. One of the points that I make in that post is that the idea that, all I need is Jesus is not actually Biblical.

I still stand behind that statement. We are made to be social beings and to be dependent on each other. Though this is true there are times that, for whatever reason, we are not able to reach out to and depend on another human being.

It is in these times that we need to remember that God is always there!

I had the opportunity to learn this very early in life. When we were young my brothers and I lived with an abusive stepfather. There are a lot of stories I could tell about that time but there is one that has always stuck out to me. I wrote more about this story in an early blog post of mine called A Light in the Darkness.

There was a period of time, I am not sure how long, in which he locked us up in our rooms and put black tarp o er the windows and around the doors in order to block out all light. In our society it is very rare for us to experience true darkness but my brothers and I did in that room. There was literally nothing for us to do except sit and wait.

It was in that room that God met me for the first time.

The skeptic would say that I was a kid in trauma reaching out for what little hope I could find. But all I can say is I know what I experienced. God met me in that room. God kept me sane in a time where I could have easily lost all hope.

I don't know where you are at as you read this post. Maybe you are in a place where you feel like no one can understand you, or there's no one to reach out to. Let me tell you, from the experience of a young boy in a pitch black room with no idea of when he would see light again, God is always there to reach out to. Jesus is always there.

God promised that he will never leave and I know that promise to be true.

If you need to cry out to God but don't feel like you have the strength to then please message me or someone else who can do it for you.

Even if you don't reach out I am praying for each person that reads this that God would meet you in a real way, a way that you can not explain away, the exact way that you need Him to right now.

Rooted and Grounded in Love

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Ephesians 3:14-19

The passage above is known as one of the "Ephesian prayers". Many preachers, have written books and taught about the benefit of praying these prayers, along with one in Colossians, over ourselves daily. This is definitely a good way to increase some revelation about who God is and our relationship with Him. There is one particular revelation in this prayer that God has been bringing me back to lately and I wanted to highlight for anyone who needs the reminder today. 

It is easy to read this quickly and to think that Paul is praying that the Ephesians would become "rooted and grounded in love", but if you read more closely this is not the case. Paul is actually praying that, since they already are "rooted and grounded in love" they would be able to "comprehend" that love. 

Whether you realize it or not you are rooted and grounded in love!

It is very possible that you are not feeling loved today. Depression, anxiety and stress seem to be at an all time high in today's society and it is easy to feel like we are left alone in our attempts to survive the daily grind, if that is the case then you need this reminder. You are loved! Not only are you loved but you are rooted and grounded in that love. You just need to realize and learn to comprehend that fact. 

What Paul is praying over the Ephesians in this passage are important reminders for us in our day to day walk and I pray the same thing over all who read this post. I pray that:

That the Father would strengthen you through His Spirit in your inner man

That Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith

That you would be able to comprehend and know the full breadth of His love for you

and that you may be filled with the fullness of God

May this be true in your life today and throughout this week!

My Book Now Published: The Authority of the Church

My book is finally published! I have been working on editing this book off and on for years and I kept delaying publishing thinking it would be difficult to complete. However, I found that Kindle makes it very easy.

My book is basically a description of the life that Jesus called us to. It explores the reasons as to why the power of the Holy Spirit seemed so prevalent in the early church and seems less prevalent today. It is the teaching behind my life vision to bring the church today back to the passion, purity and power of the early church as shown in the book of Acts.

I start with a story from my trip to the Philippines in which God used me to heal a little boy. I then proceed to ask the question why these types of miracles seem to be less prevalent today then they were in the Bible. A lot of preachers have addressed this question and simplify it to one issue like lack of faith, lack of holiness, etc. Others tend to explain miracles away with theories of different eras or ideas that only certain people are given the gift of miracles. I address all of these ideas in this book.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that our power comes from a transferred authority from Jesus, and with that authority comes a responsibility. A responsibility to live the life that Jesus mandated us to live. We are not walking in the power that comes from the authority of Christ simply because we are not picking up the responsibility that comes with that power.

This is an important message for today's church and I encourage you to order the book. It will inform you and empower to live the life that Jesus has called us to live. If you order and agree that it is a timely message then please spread the word. Share the book, share the link for others to buy, and feel free to reach out to me at martureo77@gmail.com if you would like to invite me to come speak at your church, event, or meeting.

The book is available in two formats:

Kindle e-book for $2.99

Paperback book for $8.50

Also if you liked the book please write a review of it on Amazon so that others can see.

Seeking the Kingdom of God

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 

and all these things shall be added unto you."

Matthew 6:33

This is a favorite promise for many Christians to quote. Taken by itself, out of context, the verse has two main questions:

What does it mean to seek "the Kingdom of God" first?

and

What are "all these things"?

The second question is easiest to answer because we can simply look earlier in the chapter. This comes at the end of Matthew chapter 6 right after Jesus is telling us not to worry about what to eat or what to wear because God feeds the sparrows and God clothes the lilies, how much more will he clothe and feed us? In other words, "all these things" is referring to our basic needs in life. Jesus is saying here that if we focus first on the Kingdom of God then our basic needs will naturally be provided.

So what does it mean to seek "the Kingdom of God" first? 

This is a bit more challenging to answer, not because it is difficult to find the answer but because there are several different ways to approach the answer. I approached it in one way in my post from 2015 titled Four Ways We Should Seek Him First!. In this post I discuss four general methods of how to seek His Kingdom first, through prayer, finances, service, and evangelism. Lately God has been bringing me back to this verse with some more thoughts on what the focus of our seeking should be. What is the Kingdom of God in practical terms? He actually brought a connection in my heart between this passage and another one that we don't always connect.

"Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to you?' 

And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did to the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'"

Matthew 25:34-40

Notice there is some similar language here in his passage. Right at the beginning the "King" says, "Come... inherit the kingdom". Which shows that we are continuing to talk about how to get a kingdom. Jesus then later calls this group of people, "righteous" which correlates with seeking after righteousness in the first verse.

When noticing that the two passages are talking about similar things we can read on and see what it actually means to seek after the Kingdom. Jesus tells them that what they do to the "least of these" they do to Him. This is how you seek after the Kingdom. If you search this verse on Google several articles come up discussing, "Who are the Least of These?" It seems silly to me that you would need an entire article on that question though because Jesus lists them out right in the verse. They are:

Those who are hungry
Those who are thirsty
Strangers - also could be translated foreigners
The naked
The sick
Those in prison

The interesting thing is that it does not specify any type of moral standing for any of these individuals. When he talks about visiting people in prison he doesn't say that they have to be wrongfully accused. When he talks about people who are hungry or thirsty he doesn't say they have to be working as hard as they possibly can and still be hungry or thirsty. He basically lists anyone with a need and says, if you fill this need for this person then you are doing it for me.

If you are familiar with this passage then you also know that this is one of the most defining splits between people in the Bible. The "King" calls those who are doing these things to "inherit the kingdom" and he tells those who are not to, "Depart from Me". This shows that our actions in this regard are paramount to our Christian life.

What are you doing to help the "least of these" today?

Is Our Independence Killing Us?

"And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; 

I will make him a helper comparable to him."

Genesis 2:18

Lately, there have been a lot of high profile suicides. The most recent were Anthony Bourdaine and Kate Spade, back in 2014 it was Robin Williams and there are many others. It seems that suicide is on the increase but these high profile suicides are simply bringing attention to an epidemic that goes deeper in our society than we care to realize. 

The natural question in the midst of unexplained tragedy is, "Why?"

So we as a society are left to question "Why?" One myth that has immediately been debunked b these high profile suicides is that depression only happens when someone fails. Just looking at these three that I named you can see that they are some of the most successful people in their fields. They were people that others in their field looked up to and attempted to emulate so clearly it was not failure that caused them to give up on life. 

Our goal-oriented, capitalistic, independent society has fed us with the lie that success is the most important thing in life.

We are all taught to strive for success. Even when we are taught that failure isn't so bad it is because we can learn from failure and better succeed but what happens when we finally do succeed? Where do we go from there? 

A one-track mind after success may make us successful but it ultimately leaves us alone.

When God created the heavens and the earth he then created Adam and gave it all to Adam. It's an interesting story when you think about it because Adam never had to strive for success, he had it from the beginning. He never had to strive for a relationship with God and was closer than any other human (other than Jesus) has ever been to God. Yet there was still something missing. God, Himself, declared that it was not good for Adam to be alone. 

The idea that, "All I need is Jesus" is not Biblical.

It sounds very holy to say, "All I need is Jesus!" but it's not Biblical. Think about it. Adam had more of God than any of us could possibly have, sin had not yet entered the world and created a barrier between him and God, and yet God said he was alone and that it wasn't good. We were made to be social creatures. We were made to be dependent on each other. 

American society is built on independence, on doing it ourselves. Even our national day is called Independence Day. We shame people who live with their parents too long and we have given a negative connotation to the word 'dependent'. But here's the thing, we are all dependent on others whether we like it or not. We need each other. We need relationship. 

So what can we do to help prevent depression and suicide?

I'm not saying it is the end all solution but we can start by building relationship with those around us. Make sure that you don't distract yourself so much on your pursuit towards success that you alienate yourself, and if you see someone doing that, make it a point to reach out to them. Ultimately, don't go at it alone and don't let those around you be alone either.

Defense of the Biblical View of Self

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Most of you, if you read my blog, either already know or have figured out that I have been going back to school. This is why my posts have been a lot more sporadic the last few years because my time has been spent on my assignments. There have been a couple of posts that I have done based off of assignments in school such as this discussion post and this post presenting some general thoughts about the intersection of science, religion, and belief. Even my last post was inspired by a video I had to watch for school last term.

This term I have been taking a course on Consciousness. I didn't really know what to expect and honestly signed up for the course simply to satisfy my last psychology requirement for my major but it has been interesting. One of the main topics has been the concept of self. Many philosophers and scientists have argued against the existence of a unified self beyond our physical brain. They have stated that consciousness in itself is an illusion. Of course, as a Christian who believes the Bible I can not agree with that. Right at the beginning in Genesis we see that we were made in the image of God and throughout the Bible God shows us that he made each of us special and unique. In fact the Bible describes us as three part beings in the spirit, soul, and body. Of course one of the challenges of having these discussions in a secular university is that you can't really use the Bible as a reputable source. 

If someone doesn't believe the Bible then how do you defend a Biblical idea?

Well, my professor challenged me to do just that and I took the challenge. Below I thought I would share with all of you my midterm essay which was an attempt to present an academic defense of the Biblical view of self. I would love to hear from you what you think. Do you have any ideas of how I could have improved it? 

An Academic Defense of the Biblical Self

One idea addressed, that is important to me, is the idea of self. Who am I? Do I even exist or am I just an illusion created by the bundle of working neurons in my brain? I addressed this question a bit already in my last assignment but you challenged me to think about how I would defend my position and I felt like this is as good a place to attempt that as any. Admittedly this will be challenging because I can say right off the bat that my belief in self is rooted deeply in my belief in God and in the Bible. This means that some of the same challenges that come with attempting to defend God's existence will be present in my attempt to defend my position on the existence of self.

As a Christian, my theory already is lumped together in the category of ego theories because, as the book states, Christianity believes in the soul as central to the self (Blackmore, 2012). Ego theory in it's core addresses the feeling that we are a continuous entity as truth. Why do we feel like we are a unified self? Because we are! (Blackmore, 2012) Ultimately this echoes my own belief. I believe that our feeling of self, of uniqueness, is because we truly are unique and our self truly does exist. This has been the prevailing belief for most of the existence of humanity and my feeling is that until we have proof that it is not true we have no need to go against what seems like common sense.

One thing that I have noticed about science is that scientists have a tendency to attempt to explain away anything that does not have scientific proof, any mystery. For example, I feel that the "Big Bang Theory" is an attempt to explain away the mystery of the start of our universe without recognizing that there is no way to truly understand how the universe started unless we traveled back in time and observed it directly ourselves. When I took my astronomy course over and over again it was shown how science would attempt to explain the mystery of a faraway planet or moon before we were able to observe it. Then we would observe it and it would be entirely different then we thought. Then, of course, through observation, science was able to explain why it was how it was. To me the bundle theory of self is one of these attempts to explain away a mystery. Because no one can see the self, and there is no scientific proof of an unified self, then some philosophers and scientists have taken it on themselves to explain away this self. Bundle theory, in it's simplest form, says that the unified self is an illusion and that we are simply a bundle of neurons that create this illusion and causes us to feel like we are a unified self (Blackmore, 2012).

So in other words, my premise in the idea of self is similar to William James. James said that our feeling of a unified self is central to the concept of who we are and who we identify as (Blackmore, 2012). Though I understand that our feelings can betray us as humans, my starting question is, Why deny that the self exists if every human being in the history of the world seems to agree that it feels as though it does? In fact it is so ingrained in our beliefs that it is built into our languages and how we describe things. The book even points out that scientists who are attempting to describe a theory in which the self is an illusion will often fall into pitfalls in which they describe things as if the self does exist (Blackmore, 2012). To me, this in itself is evidence of the existence of a unified self.

As stated before, my personal theory of self is based on my understanding of the Bible. First and foremost I believe the Bible when it states that we were created by God in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). God is presented in the Bible as a triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) If we were made in His image then it would only make sense that we were also made as triune beings. The Bible presents our three parts as body, soul, and spirit (Hebrews 4:12; Galatians 5:16). Our spirit is our consciousness, the little voice inside telling us what we should do, what is right, what is moral. Our body, also referred to as our flesh, is our natural desires, our desires that are not bad in themselves but if allowed to rule us lead us down a path we shouldn't go, and our soul is our mind, our rationality. All three make up ourselves but ultimately the body is the least important part because our body is not eternal.

This theory explains the problem of the feeling of a central, unified self in the same way all ego theories do, by saying it exists. There is an explanation in regards to the idea of multiple selves as I believe that the body is ultimately a "house" for the central self of the spirit and soul. In the same way it can be used as a house for other spirits if we allow it to be. This is the concept of demonic possession and oppression. I also believe that it solves the problem presented by one of my classmates of "voices in our head" or the "devil and angel" phenomenon, because the spirit is our central morality, our "angel", and the flesh is our natural, carnal desires, often our "devil". Our soul is then caught in between listening to both sides and rationalizing between the two sides.

I know that I still have not presented any hard evidence of the existence of a soul or a spirit other than the evidence we have already discussed, that we feel that they exist. But I guess my question is, Is that truly a problem? Right at the beginning of the textbook it was presented that there were three ideas in regard to the mind-body problem; that it exists and we need to understand it, that it exists but we will never understand it, and that it doesn't exist at all (Blackmore, 2012). I guess when it comes to the problem of the existence of self I am of the second mindset. I believe the self exists but that we will never be able to prove it. At least not until we are in the after life and our central self has gone on to another place.

Blackmore; Susan. (2012). Consciousness, Second Edition An Introduction. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis

Be a part of the change!

"There are opportunities to change and we are part of that change."

Dr Lori Cramer - OSU Professor and Sociologist

This quote was taken from a video interview presented to my Social Problems class last term. The week was on environmental problems and Dr. Lori Cramer is an environmental and natural resource sociologist who also teaches at Oregon State University. Here is the interview if you are interested in watching it.

Despite this quote being taken from an interview addressing environmental problems, it can be applied to many different areas of life and society. Ghandi actually had a similar quote that has almost become cliche in our society:

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."

Both of these things are basically saying the same thing, take responsibility for change. It is up to each one of us to do something to make a difference in the world. It is up to each one of us to take a step towards improvement in our society. 

There are a lot of things that are going wrong in today's society from gun violence to poverty to racism and inequality. If you're on social media you have surely heard people complaining about each one of these things. In the midst of that complaining you have people complaining about one group's way of responding, then that group is complaining about the other side. There is a lot of complaining but how much action is there?

In Mark 6 we find the story of the feeding of the 5000. Jesus is teaching the multitudes out in the wilderness and his disciples come to him to let him know that it's getting late and the crowd is getting hungry. They tell Jesus that he needed to send them away to get some food. Jesus's response I believe was not only a challenge to them but also to us:

"You give them something to eat."

Mark 6:37

The disciples were bringing attention to a problem but were dictating the answer of the problem on someone else. Jesus is basically saying, "since you see the problem, do something to fix it." Of course, their eyes were limited and were not able to see how to bring a solution to the problem but the principle is an important one. 

What problems are sticking out to you in society? 

What are you passionate about? 

It is probably the Holy Spirit pointing those things out to you and saying, "You give them something to eat!", "You do something about it!"

Anxiety or Prayer?

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

God has been dealing with me on my response to difficult situations. I have a tendency to stress myself out trying to figure out a solution to a situation then, after everything fails, I finally remember to pray and bring it to God. By this time I've already been dealing with anxiety over that situation for several days, weeks, even months. 

Why does it take so long for us to remember to pray?

We have a tendency to approach situations with an attitude of, once I've exhausted all my resources and ideas I'm left with my last resort of praying. But praying should be our first resort, our first response. 

When we pray we have no need for anxiety because we have given the problem to God.

When we pray we relinquish control and put it in His hands. 

I think this is sometimes why it is so hard for us to pray. We want control. We feel that we are supposed to have control. As Americans we are constantly bombarded with this value of independence. We are told that true freedom is being independent and taking control of our own lives. But this is not a Biblical idea.

Christ shows a way of relinquishing control in order to receive freedom from Him. 

"Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, and you will find rest for your souls. 

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:28-30

By coming to Him with our labors and are burdens we relinquish control of these and take on His burden which is easy and light. We yoke ourselves with Him and allow Him to help us through the process. As long as we hold onto the value of independence ingrained in us by our culture, this is difficult to do, however, once we do it we find peace and rest like never before. 

Don't wait for the last resort to pray. Next time you are facing a problem bring it to God immediately and let His Spirit direct you on what to do. Even if His direction is to "wait and see" rest in the knowledge that God's got this!

Discussion Post Regarding Sexism and Homosexuality

Sexism and Homosexuality have been hot topics in today's society and in today's church. Often the church is accused of promoting sexist beliefs, and it often has, and the church is at the forefront of the fight against homosexual marriage. In fact, many non-believers find that they can not even consider Christianity because they feel that they could never agree with the church on these issues. This last week in my Social Problems class we went over these issues and I had to post a response to a video in which our professor interviewed another professor on some of these issues. The professor interviewed, Dr. Susan Shaw at Oregon State University, has actually focused her research on feminist theology and feminist biblical criticism which I found to be an interesting direction on the topic. If you want to watch the interview you can find it here. Whether you watch it or not I felt that my response was worth posting here. Feel free to read and comment if you disagree with anything I say. The book that I am referencing in the post is Introduction to Social Problems by Thomas J. Sullivan. The following was my response to the interview.

Sullivan defines sexism as "an ideology based on the belief that one sex is superior to and should dominate the other sex" (Sullivan, 208). Dr. Shaw states that her research is based on feminist theology and feminist biblical criticism (1:05) and how gender works in religion (1:20). She then later mentions behaviors and actions promoted by the Southern Baptist church specifically that she would label as sexist (2:40). As a Christian, and a life-long studier of the Bible, I would be interested to hear more about her thoughts on this issue specifically. I would be interested to get a hold of her book Reflective Faith in order to read more about her views on the subject (2:00). It is already clear to me that there is a great misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the scriptures when it comes to a female's role. Many people read the Bible as if it was written directly to them, in their culture and time, and forget that we have to read it through a lens of thousands of years ago in multiple cultures and settings. For example, when Paul makes the statement to "let your women keep silent in the churches" (1 Corinthians 14:34) it was to a specific church in a specific culture and was never meant to be a rule applied to all churches. When the culture of Corinth is studied there were specific reasons why that was said. The Bible as a whole shows many examples of women in leadership and in teaching positions all the way back to Deborah who led all of Israel in the book of Judges. So I entirely agree with Dr. Shaw when she states that it is bad theology to say that due to Eve being first in the fall, women should not be pastors (4:05). There isn't much in the book about sexism in religion so it is difficult to find a direct connection. However, with the prevalence of Christianity in the foundation of our society I do think that these misinterpretations of Biblical passages have been a huge part of the sexism in our society. For example, the Biblical idea that women should submit to men is a foundational concept in why men tend to be preferred for managerial tasks in the workplace (Sullivan, 218) or why there are so few women in political positions (Sullivan, 225)

I was also very interested, and saddened, to hear the discussion about the 'Christian' couple and their treatment of the lesbian women asking for a wedding cake (10:39). Growing up in the church I have always heard the same argument of "religious freedom" for issues like these that Dr Shaw mentions (8:46), but I never heard the details of how these people treated the woman and her mother. It's very possible that if they had simply said from the beginning that they were not comfortable making a cake for that wedding the woman would have found another bakery and we would have never heard about the incident. However, they had to go beyond that and ultimately shower hate towards the people in the name of Christianity (even though Christianity's foundation is love) and then try to make it out ot be a case of religious freedom. I've asked the same questions that Dr. Shaw has about the Christians vehement opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage. Why is this the only issue being focused on? It is true that the Bible lists homosexuality as a sin in many places but right along side it is divorce, sex outside of marriage, and even lust. As Dr. Shaw mentions, why doesn't that couple ask people about whether they were divorced and the reasons behind it (9:20)? To add to that they should be asking questions like, "are you already living together outside of marriage?", "have you slept together yet?". Of course no one would ever ask these questions because, despite our moral beliefs, they recognize that those things are none of their business. Yet they feel they can make these decisions based on someone's sexual orientation. I feel this is related to the title of the last section of the chapter this week, "Masculine, Feminine, or Human?" (Sullivan, 237). The section discusses "androgyny" which is defined as "a condition where male and female characteristics are not rigidly assigned and there is a blending of the traits, attitudes, and roles of both sexes." (Sullivan, 237), but to me the question "or Human" is what truly stuck out. I think we can change the terms and ask "Heterosexual, homosexual, or human?" As a Christian I will admit outright that I don't agree with the homosexual lifestyle but whether I agree with their lifestyle doesn't change the fact that they are human and that as a Christian I am to love them as God loves them. There are a lot of lifestyles that I don't agree with and, when it comes down to it, there are many things I do myself that I don't agree with, but I am still called to love.

2018 - Another New Year!

"Behold I will do a new thing, 

now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? 

I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

Isaiah 43:19

Why do we make such a big deal about the new year? Of course it is an arbitrary date that man has made in order to help make sense of time. Some cultures even have different dates for the start of the new year. In Ethiopia our September 11th is there start of a new year, in China they will be starting their new year on February 16th. So really there isn't much to be said about the date that we decide is the new year. I don't know about you but I don't really feel any better or worse than I did yesterday.

That being said, it is good to have a time of reflection. A time where we stop, take a look at the direction our life is going and decide whether there is something that we need to change. A time where we can thank God for what has happened in the past and look forward to the new things that God has for us in the future. The new year is as good a time as any for this. 

What happened in your life in 2017?

What are you thankful for?

What do you wish was different?

Take a moment to reflect on the past year. You might be able to say it was a good year or you might feel like it wasn't so good but I guarantee, if you look hard enough, you can find some good and some bad. You can find things to be thankful for and you can find things that you wish were different. Regardless of how your year was thank God for it all.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

This is an important place to start when reflecting on things. It is through thankfulness that we enter into the gates of God's kingdom (Psalm 100:4) and that is where we want to start 2018. 

However, it is also important to recognize what things we would have liked to go differently; what things we would like to change. This is important because, most likely, we are the ones who need to make the initiative to change those things. 

If you want to better your relationship with God then you need to make the first step,

If you want a career change then there are things you can do to ready yourself for that change, 

If you want to increase your income to give more or to pay off debt then there are things you can do to make that happen, 

If you want to improve the relationships with your family and friends then that starts with you, 

If you want to lose weight and get in shape then it is on you to make steps in that direction. 

It all starts with you!

We don't look back on the things we didn't like in order to lament on how bad it was but in order to make steps to keep that from repeating.

If all we do is talk about how bad 2017 was then 2018 will just be a repeat. What are you doing to make a difference in your life and in the life of those around you? What are you changing in yourself that makes the world, at least your world, a better place? 

This is where goals and plans come into place. We have a tradition of making New Year's resolutions but, as we all know, most people don't actually keep them. One of the major problems with how we do New Year's resolutions is that we make broad, general goals that aren't measurable, or they stretch out for too long of a time. It is hard to stick to a goal that we will only know if it is successful a year from now. If you have a goal for 2018 then break it down into smaller steps. 

Example: 

New Years Resolution: I want to spend more time in prayer.

This is a good resolution but by itself is not measurable. How will we know if we succeeded in spending more time in prayer? 

Step 1: I am going to wake up 15 minutes earlier before work in order to spend that time in prayer each morning for the month of January and February.

Step 2: I am going to increase that time to 30 minutes for the month of March and April.

Step 3: I am going to start going to my room 15 minutes earlier every day to spend time in prayer before bed at night for the month of May and June.

Step 4: I am going to start going to increase that time to 30 minutes in the evening for the months of July and August. 

All of a sudden you have an hour of dedicated prayer time added to every day and the year isn't even over. It would be hard to get this detailed with everything that we want to change but try taking one of your resolutions this year and break it down in step by step increments. Also remember that they say it takes at least 21 days to create a habit so give yourself time to do so.