Divorce

I do not believe that Christians should divorce their spouses, nor should any couple for that matter. When you say your vows you commit to that person through thick and thin, no matter what. God designed marriage to be forever. There are specific examples in the bible where God talks about divorce.
In Matthew 19 Christ addresses divorce. In verse 9 Jesus speaks these words, "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery." This verse speaks to a question many have regarding unfaithfulness and divorce. I think this is a fairly grey area. Some Christians believe that Jesus specifically states that marriage should not end under any circumstance while others say that this verse means divorce is okay in the case of unfaithfulness.
My personal belief is that divorce is never okay and that God never likes it, but that if there is unfaithfulness and no willingness to change, divorce is acceptable. On one hand I think that divorce can be avoided at all costs based on the person you choose to marry, but I don't want to be naiive and think that people can't change and wrong their spouse in such a way that it can be hard to forgive them. I just hope that I'm never faced with the choice of divorce with my spouse someday.

Can you earn your way into heaven?

Christianity can often be a tricky thing. There are so many questions that arise from the Bible and God's teaching that can leave a person so confused. Sometimes the Bible lays it straight out before us. The 10 commandments are a perfect example of this. God clearly states honor your father and mother, do not commit adultery, etc. Then there are those things like tithing, worship, sanctification, etc. that create yet more questions in the mind of Christians.

Most Christians believe that when you accept Christ as you're savior you are accepted into heaven. But do we have to maintain a certain standards and live a certain way to keep our "acceptance into heaven"? I strongly believe that the only way into heaven is through Jesus Christ. Accepting him as your Savior and choosing to follow Him above all else is your golden ticket into heaven. For those who do not accept Christian beliefs and do not honor Jesus as their Savior cannot make it into heaven. This is not meant to be brutal to those who don't believe, but rather re-iterate the amazing promise and saving grace that God gives to believers.

I had a close friend in high school who did not claim she was a Christian yet believed she would someday be in heaven. She would talk about heaven as this wonderful place and she even knew what the Bible preached about it. She made comments to me about how she could wait to see me in heaven someday. It almost broke my heart because she was so optimistic about her afterlife yet she was missing one thing, acceptance of Christ. She had this idea that as long as she maintained normal moral standards such as loving people, respecting others, not stealing, lying, or cheating that she would still be able to live for eternity in heaven. It almost didn't make sense to me. It is people like my friend Beth who need Christians to pour their lives into them. They are almost there and they just need that little push of encouragement to open their eyes to God's saving grace.

Tithing

From the time I was born to the time I entered high school, my church was a baptist church that followed baptist beliefs. My pastor was an aging old man who liked to preach about things such as tithing so I heard a lot. I forget the exact words he always said but basically he strongly preached that tithing was to be 10%...no more, no less.

After the church moved on into a huge transition of pastor and denomination change, the preaching became different. The new pastor introduced the idea that we are to give not by a number, but by how we feel the Lord blesses us to give. For some families this may be 10%, for others it may be 8%, and for some it may be 25%. He suggested we stop getting caught up in the percent that we give and that we get caught up in the idea that everything we have comes from God. We are just temporarily in charge of holding it for him. For us to hold what rightfully belongs to God is not only selfish, but sinful. During one of the new pastors sermons, he encouraged engaged and married couples to get together with their spouse and re-evaluate how much they were giving. To really sit together and meditate and pray over their money and come up with a plan on how they as a couple were going to give.

I think my idea of tithing now is very simple: give as you feel led, always present your gift to God with joy and happiness, and never get caught up in a number.

hard question

My family and I grew up in a predominately white neighborhood. My schools was majority white. My experience coming to Taylor was one of the first times I've ever dealt with a larger population of different ethnicity groups and races.
My parents are Christians and they have always taught me to have an open mind about everything and also to be open to change. Although we've never talked about it, I believe my parents would be open to my decision to marry someone of a different race. They would probably express their concerns and make sure that I'm confident in my decision. There would be a lot of prayer involved in the process. I believe in the end if they thought I was making a sound decision that I was sure of, they would give me their blessing.
Like I said we have never really talked about this question before but I think it is one of those questions that is to hard to tell exactly how someone would react.