Gossip

Gossip is a topic often talked about among the Christian community. I'm sure everyone has heard a few sermons or lectures here and there about it so why does it still continue so much among Christians? I think a big reason is because gossip is so easy to do. No doubt gossip is a sin and can really hurt people so I'm ashamed to say that often I don't even know I'm gossiping until later after the conversation is already over. The main issue here goes back to our tongues. It is so routine to just say what comes to our mind that we often don't think before we speak. God calls us to be slow to speak and to honor Christ in everything we say. For me this means slowing down and making a conscious decision in every conversation to think about what I'm saying. Another part of this is to take responsibility to call out other brothers and sisters in Christ when they are gossiping. It can be a hard thing to do but God calls us to be accountable to others and speak truth to them in love. If everyone just thought a little before speaking out we could be way less gossipy and more uplifting in our conversations.

Christians vs. Non-Christians

I think we can all agree that there is a very negative connotation linked with Christianity for the general non-believing public. But why is that? I think that the church can be one of the most critical and hypocritical groups in society. Many Christians are so quick to judge others and most of the time place themselves higher than others due to the mere fact that they are Christians and blessed by God. I think having that mindset as Christians is so backwards though. God calls us to love ALL people not just those who are a part of our believing community.

Many Christians wonder why non-believers won't come to church or even listen to what they have to say. The main reason is because not enough Christians shows love to non-Christians. Therefore the only way to change that is to start living like God lived. Reaching out and serving ALL people. Loving ALL people. I believe a great difference can be made if churches become more accepting of non-believers. And not just accepting but begin reaching out to non-believers. This is where we will begin to see a big change in the view of Christians by non-Christians.

The Forbidden Fruit

What would life by like if Adam and Eve had not sinned? Well, would life be a whole lot different? I don't think so. God did not design man to be sinless and perfect therefore at some point after Adam and Eve someone would've had to eventually sin. So in that case we would just read about a different story in the Bible relating to the original sin.

But lets just say that man could go without sin in this world and our world was a perfect and holy world. That is a scary thought...our world is so filled with evil and sin now that it's almost impossible for me to think of a world without it. I mean everyone would get along, everyone would respect one another, there would be no stealing, murder or hate. What a world that would be huh!

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.

Heaven and Hell

Before I came to Taylor I had grown up in the same church my whole life and been taught the same theology and beliefs my whole life. I'd never really experienced developing my own faith and wrestling with topics on my own. I guess I kind of believed whatever my parents believed, and I thought every other Christian believed the same thing. Once at Taylor I realized how wrong I was in that thinking. Christianity and the Bible is all about believing core values that the Bible preaches, then taking everything else and developing your own faith and what you believe in.

Growing up my church and my parents taught me all about heaven and hell. They taught me that when you die if you are Christian you go to this place called heaven, where there are streets of gold and pearly gates. Where everyone is made perfect in God's eyes and we can live with him in paradise for eternity. They taught me that if you die without God's saving grace you go to a place called hell, where there is eternal suffering with satan and his demons.

Although I think that you can have different interpretations about what heaven and hell will look like, I do believe that when God talks about the two places in the Bible that he is speaking of literal places that our souls will live in for eternity. I could be naive in saying that most Christians believe in this idea of literal heaven and hell, but I do believe that to be a true Christian is to interpret the Bible as heaven and hell being very real places. The struggle with this idea comes for me in the form of my idea of heaven and hell. I ask myself questions all the time about heaven like "will I know my parents in heaven?" That is where I believe Christians struggle with the idea of heaven and hell. Although we will never gain a full understanding of eternity, our job as believers is to wrestle with these things and pray over them.

Sanctification cont.

Although I have many reasons why I believe sanctification is God's responsibility, I also believe it could go either way. When I think about topics such as sanctification, it can be so confusing that I really go back and forth on what I believe. I'm sure you get that way sometimes. After my last blog post I thought I had it all understood and I had figured out what I thought about sanctification. Then Mike asked us the question, "If sanctification is God's responsibility, then why don't we see more "sanctified" people around us"? Now I'm wondering if my stance was really correct.

No doubt God blesses us and makes us holy but to a certain degree sanctification must be our responsibility too. That becomes very clear to me when thinking about how many Christians I interact with every day who are so far from holiness that it's obvious they have not received God's sanctification. I'm learning more and more from interactions with elders in my church and also here at Taylor how much Christianity is a constant growing process. We receive the gift of God's grace and holiness when we accept Christ but it is our choice to take that gift and use it. I think it is very common in the believing community to accept Christ as your Savior and then think God will do everything for them. Our responsibility as Christians is to love God and follow hard after him every day. If we are effectively doing that I think then will we receive sanctification through Christ.

Sanctification from Christ

The word sanctification comes from the Latin word sanctus which means "holy" and facere which means "to make". Therefore sanctification directly translates as, "to make holy".

Thinking about sanctification, at least for me, can be kind of overwhelming. As Christians we believe that God gives us the gift of salvation which we freely receive. When we accept Christ our old life is washed away. If we are practicing Christianity our actions will reflect that. Our holiness comes from belief and salvation from Christ. Although our human desires are for the world and the things of the world, we are set apart from in by Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:4 helped explain to me sanctification from Christ. It states, "through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires". I believe our sanctification comes from Christ. Christ sets us apart for a special purpose.