Bullet Soul

A fifty caliber bullet is fired from a rifle, heading towards its intended target at a speed of 2,800-3,000 feet per second. Waves of sound reverberate from the chamber reaching levels of 140-170 decibels, but dissipate within moments. Life begins when a child is born, nobody is aware that the moment his small heart starts beating, his time is running out. Years come and go, and everyone lives like life never ends. A bullet leaves the chamber of a gun, misses its intended target, and the stray bullet ends the life of a young man. One bullet impacts not just the victim, but its ripples effect everyone in his life.

Unfortunately, this is how life happens. Not all of us will get to live to be seventy five or older. For those of us that do, the amount of time we spend on this planet (in the timeline of eternity), lasts about as long as a gunshot. Our time is running out. Every New Year's Day that comes, reminds us just how quickly life passes us by, and this experience will just get worse as we age. Every year, on this day, we look back at previous years, and wonder where our time went. It's no surprise that our time is running out, but the sad truth is that, most of us live like we have all the time in the world.

The Bible tells us that when we die we will stand before the God of the universe, who died for us, and give an account of what we did with the short amount of time we had on this planet. Did we live for ourselves, our own selfish ambitions, or did we live our life to glorify God? There are no mulligans, no do overs. We get one bullet in our gunshot lives, and we're responsible to aim it wisely. But just like a gunshot,
one short moment can leave ripples which impact everyone in your life, in your community, and have eternal impact.

So, what are you aiming for? We are told that our adolescent years is the time to discover who WE are, not discover who God wants us to be. It's the time for us make brash decisions, because we have the rest of our lives to learn from our mistakes. Our middle and high school years are the time for us to live our lives for us, right? I think the unfortunate truth is that, for a lot of us, we're going to have to give an account of the time we spent in high school, and explain why we chose to aim for ourselves instead of God. I think most adults would tell you that some of the things they regret the most, doing or not doing, occurred sometime in their adolescent years. I know that for me personally, I regret the way I spent my high school career, and have deep remorse for the way I lived it out.

You could make a decision this holiday to live your life for Christ, instead of yourself. You could choose to make every moment count, and focus on God's will, instead of forcing what you want out of every situation. No one wants to stand before the One who sacrificed His life for theirs, and explain how their desires were more important than His. Do you want to explain how it was more important to spend time hanging out with friends or partying the night before so that you're so tired you can't go to church the next day? Do you really think that you can make God understand that it was a better idea for you to impress the people you thought were so important, and ignore the people that had no one? What if you made your New Year's resolution to live each moment for Christ? Maybe it wouldn't be cool or interesting to tell at parties, but maybe it would have a lasting impact, that you could trace back to New Year's Day 2010. So, what are you aiming for?

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In order to be entered into the contest to win a fabulous prize, click on the title ("Bullet Soul") of this blog post, then when the new page loads, scroll down to the bottom of the screen, and post an answer to the following question in the white dialog box: What New Year's Resolution will you make that will have an eternal impact for you?

Pray
That God will grant you the bravery and self-control to live your life in obedience to His will.

Control

I don't believe that it comes as a surprise to anyone, that the human race is obsessed with control. Nations are torn apart over control. Entire families destroyed because of it. Everyone wants to think that they can force an outcome out of any situation they find themselves in; however, there are certain areas of life that we cannot control. We can work to prevent disease, we can track hurricanes, we can manage our money to the best of our ability, but in the end when tragedy strikes, we are not in charge of the outcomes. This fact causes a lot of anxiety, frustration, and maybe even, anger. The thought most of us are faced with is: If I can't control my life, then who is in control?

As we learned on Sunday, no matter how much authority we have on Earth, it is given to us by God. Therefore, God can only give us authority, if He holds ALL authority (Matthew 28:18). Parents, Principals, Managers, Police officers, and even the President (whether they're aware or not), submit to a higher authority. We try to seize control from God's grip, but do not be fooled; you cannot steal from God. Whether we like it or not, God is in control, and no matter how much we try to manipulate the outcomes, we simply can't.

So, what then shall we do, when we realize that we do not control the outcomes of our life? Well, we don't become lazy, and assume that God is going to work our job for us or pay our bills for us or let us be healthy when we take no care of ourselves. We must be good stewards of what God has given us, whether it be our planet, our bodies, or even the authority he's granted us. However, we must be painfully aware of the fact that no matter how much we prepare, we are not responsible for the outcomes of life. Sometimes when it feels like life is most out of control, God proves that He has always been in control. The good news is, there is a peace that comes when you trust that the God who created the universe, is still in control of it. So, stop trying to steal God's control from Him, let go of your control, and let Him lead your life.

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Pray
That God provides you the strength to relinquish control over to Him, because He already has it all.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

From childhood to our adult lives we are conditioned to work primarily towards what we want. Even at an early age we learn how to manipulate others into giving us what we want. When we're infants, we whine and cry until our parents give into our demands and give us what we want. In our teenage years we whine, cry, pout, and/or butter up our parents until they give us what we want. We get married and we whine and cry, and our wives tell us to "shut up" and hit us on the forehead. Okay so maybe that last one is a stretch (I only say that because she'll hit me again), but it is true that our belief is that we abandon this mindset as we get older. It's hard to believe that we could ever apply this theory to our relationship with God, because it would be incredibly offensive to assume that we can manipulate or even trick God into doing anything. Yet, time after time we are exposed as people trying to bend God to our will. We promise God that if He'll provide results, than we'll give Him something in exchange. As if God is interested in bargaining with us. Some of us believe that if we spend time in church or volunteering at church, then God will deliver us from the consequences of our actions.

God is not interested in bargaining with us, so stop insulting Him. Why is it that when we make a mess of our lives, we immediately assume that we can trick God into relieving us of consequences, if we will just do what He had already asked us to do? God is pleased when we go to church or read the Bible or spend time in prayer or treat others with love and respect, but these things don't force His hand into giving us what we want. But if we believe in and serve a God who created the universe, conquered death, and made a donkey talk (check last week's post), than it is an insult to believe that we can trick Him into giving us what we want. So, what then do we do, when we mess up our lives or when our lives are in chaos?

The most important thing is to stop treating God like some kind of "cosmic vending machine", where if you push the right buttons you get exactly what you want. God is not worried about your money or how often you come to church or how many times you volunteer, all of those things reflect what is in your heart; however, what God is concerned about, is you. He wants a relationship with you, and He wants all of those things to happen because you want to become more like Him. But you can't have a relationship if you still want to be the king (or the respective queen) of your life. You have to turn control over to the God who made you, and crown Him king. Once you crown someone king, you no longer get to decide what goes on in your life. You must obey and bend to their will. You might have to accept your consequences or your situation might not be rectified immediately, but you just might find that God will meet your needs. You might be able to break the habits that brought you to the place you were at or you might learn to look past your current situation and take comfort knowing that God is always in control. In the end, you have a decision to make: You can either keep playing games with God, attempting to manipulate the God of the universe, or you can decide to hand control over to Him, where you just might get what you need.

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In order to be entered into the contest to win a fantabulous prize, comment on this week's post. Post your first and last name, what campus you attend, and an answer to the following question: In the past, what strategies or lies have you believed would help you force God to give you what you want?

Pray
That God will grant you the peace and security to turn control over to Him, and crown Him King.

When in Doubt

I tend to believe that I'm a smarter man than I actually am. Most of the time I think that given enough information I can use my basic reasoning skills to understand a situation, and most of the time this proves to be right. However, there are concepts which I cannot seem to wrap my mind around or rationalize, and my first instinct is to disregard them as false. I believe that if I cannot fully understand or explain away an idea, I would never be able to put my faith in it. Yet as we learned on Sunday, there are several ideas in which most of us don't understand, but in which we still put our faith in such as: airplanes, cell phone technology, radio waves, etc... So, if we can trust that an airplane is not going to fall out of the sky, even though we don't know how it works, why is it that we can't trust God's Word?

Although, it is important to note that there is nothing wrong with doubting your beliefs, in fact it's necessary for faith to be doubted (otherwise it's knowledge, not faith), why is it that we refuse to believe some of the stories from the Bible? We accept the things we can understand, and at the same time discount the rest of the book we base our lives on. I fall prey to this same mindset often. I've believed since I was young that God created the universe and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but for some reason I want to try and rationalize certain parts of the Bible (like "Balaam’s Donkey"-Numbers 22, "Daniel and the Lion's Den"-Daniel 6, etc...). I want God to reveal all of his secrets to me, so that I'll understand everything. But is faith truly faith when I know all the answers? Although, Christianity isn't blind faith, God does reveal Himself to us through many mediums, there are areas where logic must take a backseat to faith. Sometimes we have to just take God at His word.

So, what do we do when we doubt? Well, we don't have to completely throw reason out the window in order to believe in the Bible. There have been many times throughout history that scholars question the validity of stories in the Bible, and time after time scientists and historians verify God's Word. Therefore, is it not "logical" or "reasonable" to trust that if many of the things we once believed to be false have been proven true, that maybe more or even all of what the Bible claims could be true? Examine the evidence. We know for a fact that Jesus Christ was a man, and that He died. We also know that hundreds of people claimed to see Him walking around forty days after he was killed. Through persecution and even many of them being murdered, His followers continued preaching of His resurrection. There are countless other facts that support Christianity, so, first, lean on what you know. Finally, you have to begin to trust that God is who He says He is, and that if that's true, nothing is impossible for Him. Although, we cannot understand it sometimes, that does not make it impossible. If we choose to always deny the things we can't comprehend, we might miss out on Moments of Truth that God wants us to experience.

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In order to be entered into the contest to win a fantasmagorical prize: Click Here.

Pray
That God will help you to trust in Him, instead of leaning on your own understanding.