Preserving Faith

Hey guys.  Been a while since my last post, I know, and I apologize (again).  I actually just got back from AWOL so another post should be coming soon about that, as soon as some pictures get on Facebook that I can put here too.

Recently, I got a comment on my Tongues post that I want to respond to.  It went like this:

I don't understand how to ask you to write about something anonymously on this blog so I'm just going to comment and hope you see this. Bradley, will you give advice on how to keep your faith strong? My sibling is agnostic and is continually telling me my faith is wrong. My sibling is very convincing and I fear I will lose my faith. I know the usual "read your Bible", "have Christian friends", "pray", "do devos", and "attend church". I feel like that isn't working and I am just drifting farther away from Christ. So, can you make a post about how to keep your faith in an enviornment that isn't 100% on fire for God? I would forever be thankful and I know that is a hard question.

Anonymous,

Although I know that some people will pounce on me for saying this, I am going to tell you.  I know how you feel.

Yeah, I know what it is like to doubt God.  I know what it is like to doubt his existence, his love, and the fact that he somehow has a plan through all the bad things that happen.  I know what it is like to feel that every single Christian has a more fervent faith than myself. But don't give up, ok?

My personal belief is that if you don't have the fire for God, none of the things you listed will help.  Even when you do have God inside you, sometimes it seems like He is far away.  Almost my entire Dad's side of my family is not Christian. Many of my friends from school are non Christian and in fact ridicule me for my faith.  Others call themselves Christian and do not believe or follow basic teachings of Christianity.

And, even more than I fear for myself, I fear so desperately for them. 

I have had several times when my faith seemed weak.  I have experienced the deaths of loved ones, the seeming pragmatic logic of evolution in the classroom, the ridicule of family and friends.  And, I have no doubt that both you and I will experience even greater trials in the future.

But as I sit here and listen to the rain, I don't feel afraid right now.  I feel confident. I know that there is a God because I have seen what He does.  I have seen inevitable rainclouds part around from the picnic ground at community gatherings when we prayed together.  I have seen people turn from their lives of drugs and sex in the belief of him.  I have seen or heard of him healing those desperately ill.  I hear of those in other countries that die in his name every day. And I see him in everyday life, too - The kids that I just spent a week with at AWOL, for example.  The middle schoolers I led that matured under His teachings.  I see it at school when Satan tries to convince me that we, beautiful and loving human beings, came from the same place that the bacteria on my desk came from.  That we, intelligent and thinking, are somehow related to the animals of the earth (none of which think, like we do).

I guess, anonymous, that when all is said and done, I cannot convince you.  That is something that you have to do for yourself.  I have a gift - I trust.  I trust God.  I have the ability to say that "Even if evolution is true, even if God lets this happen, even if that is the way that it ends - then it is for God's plan."  I can believe that.  I know that many of my friends, including my best friend, cannot do that.

My faith really took off in the last couple years.  Something I would recommend? Go on a Mission trip.  It helps sometimes to see how God is using people to help other people.  Try talking to God and believing that he hears you.  It's like talking to yourself - even if nobody audibly replies, you know that somebody hears.

I hope that I helped.  I also hope that you don't let your sibling drag you down with him/her. 

What would any of my posts be without a Bible verse? This verse is one that a few friends told me as a joke - ironically, it was already one of my favorite verses. I'll bold my favorite parts.

Psalm 23 (A psalm of David) -

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³ he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Prayer Requests

Hey guys! This week Bradley, a bunch of kids from our youth group and Wooddale Church, and I are going to be on a trip called AWOL (A Work Of Love). We're putting on a Vacation Bible School and hanging out with all the kids. There's a heat index warning, and we're staying in campers that don't have AC. If you could pray for our safety, and most importantly that God would be working in us and the campers at VBS, it would be really appreciated! God bless you all this week!

Much Love,
Mya Grace

Humility

I think that God deserves some praise. He’s done a wonderful, amazing, crazy, fantastic work in our lives and half the time I think we forget how blessed we truly are. Specifically, I want to talk about Jesus.

I’ve been looking at Jesus’ life more closely lately, and I’m constantly blown away by him. Man, is Jesus cool! He seems like the kind of guy you want to be like- the perfect role model. After all, as Christians one of our goals is to be Christ-like. Jesus lived the perfect life, and he wasn’t afraid of what he believed in.

Something that strikes me the most was Christ’s humility. Every time someone insults me and makes me really frustrated, all I want to do is let them have a piece of my mind and tear them apart. But then I remember Jesus. Can you imagine how frustrated he was when people denied Him as the Messiah? Jesus knew that he was the chosen Messiah and he performed countless miracles- from turning water into wine to healing someone 3 towns away from him- so that people might believe. But people still denied him even when he did miracles right in front of their eyes. If I was Jesus, I would have cried from frustration; how could they be so ignorant and blind? But instead, he reacted with kindness and gentleness. He prayed.

But that’s not even the best part. After the people demanded that a murderer from prison be released and sent Jesus in instead, he was forced to carry his cross along with two other prisoners who were going to die with him. Jesus was spat on, whipped, and screamed at. The men who were doing this to him said “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” and “He saved others but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Even one of the prisoners being crucified with him was heaping insults on him, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

All the while, Jesus said nothing. He said nothing to defend himself when he was being accused. He remained quiet and trusted in God.

And that’s what gets me. I’m so not like Jesus in that way. I admire that so much in him. I mean, how could Jesus, the son of GOD and God himself (two in one), be so humble? He is King, yet he was the servant of everyone. The two are so opposite that it just doesn’t add up to me. Jesus sure is amazing.

I just think we all need to take some time to glorify and praise God. Thank God that Jesus is King. Thank God that he calls us his children. Thank God for Christ’s humility. Thank God that he knows the depths of our heart- that he knit us together in our mother’s wombs. I pray that we would all find the same humility that Christ had and apply it to our lives.

Mya Grace

Tongues

Something that people have asked me in the past is "How come, in the Bible, there were so many miracles and there aren't anymore? What happened?"

Well, obviously Jesus doesn't walk around anymore because he's in heaven.  But that doesn't mean there aren't miracles.  And I don't mean the smaller, everyday miracles - I mean the miracles that you can't deny or make up and the ones that people find hard to believe without a strong faith.

One of my good friends, Hannah, has had a few experiences with speaking in tongues.  She has a tremendous faith and is one of the people that I really admire. That's something that is relatively rare nowadays and I asked her to talk about it a little bit for my blog.  This is her email.

"The first thing that I want to say about tongues is that it is a gift-- similar to other spiritual gifts like prophesy, healing, hospitality, discernment (1 Corinthians 12:7-11) in that practicing and developing tongues is crucial if you want to experience the gift the way god designed it.   I would encourage anyone who wants to learn more about the gift of tongues to read 1 Corinthians 12-14.  Scripture is the best ways to find out about the things of God.  He WANTS you to know the truth (John 16:15), and WANTS to give you wisdom (James 1:5).

The gift of tongues in the bible is almost always mentioned with the Holy Spirit.  These two things relate closely.  For example in acts, 10:44-46,

“the circumcised believers who had come with peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the gentiles.  For they had heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” 

To Peter, the fact that the people were speaking in tongues (other than their own language) was a sign that God was there.  This agrees strongly with 1 Corinthians 14:22 saying that “tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers […]”.  What is the gift of tongues then?  Romans 8 says

“In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with god’s will.” 

Tongues are communicating with God through your spirit.  

After attending a church where I experienced the gift of tongues for the first time, I was skeptical and had to find answers for myself.  After absolutely exhausting the bible looking for information on the gift of tongues, my question changed from “Are tongues real?” to “How could god use the gift on tongues in my life?”.  If you believe that the bible is true, there is no way that you can say that tongues don’t exist.  The bible talks extensively about this gift. 

Because of 1 Corinthians 14:5 which says, “I would like everyone of you to speak in tongues,” I prayed with a pastor about receiving the gift of tongues and God blessed me with this gift.  I’ve been asked many times what this was like.  The best way to describe it is like when you were a little kid in school and you knew the answer to a question in class.  But, you had to raise your hand and wait till the teacher called on you.   Every thing in your being called for you to shout out the answer, but instead you had to sit and raise your hand.  You are reaching as high as you can and practically jumping out of your seat.  This is how it feels when god gives me something to speak in my spiritual tongue.  Yes, you must open your mouth and speak.   No, it is not uncontrollable—there’s fair warning and instruction, however,  when Paul says, “[…] do not forbid speaking in tongues.  But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” and in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 saying, “do not put out the Spirit’s fire”(NIV) or “do not stifle the Holy Spirit”(NLT).  

As I prayed, I immediately began to speak in my own tongue.  Out loud.  God works in mysterious ways, and this I believe is one of them.  Paul explains how the gift of tongues “edifies himself” as opposed to prophecy which “edifies the church”.  He says that he would “rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue”.  This helps to let us know where the gift of tongues fits in our lives.  In no way do I believe that it is a matter of salvation, but I am completely convinced that it is from God and is real. 

There is much more I could say about the gift of tongues and this is by no means exhaustive, but I hope that this maybe sparked your curiosity about this wonderful gift from God."

 - Hannah

 Just a little thing for us to think about.  Remember what our God is capable of, because I know that sometimes I forget.  Until next blog...

 - Bradley

A Desperate Need for Change

As Christians living in America, we don't have a whole lot to worry about. We have the freedom to believe in what we choose, and not live in constant worry of being hunted down and tortured for calling Jesus our savior. We have very little to fear as well. No fear of death for the sake of God. We don't even have to think about where our next meal is going to come from (except for whether we're going to have steak or chicken for dinner). According to the Voice of the Martyrs, the Bible is illegal in 52 countries (not including hostile nations). The persecution rate since Jesus' time has drastically increased; more people die for their faith in Jesus today than they did during apostolic times. In some Islamic countries, parents kill their children if they become Christians. Daily, Christians refuse to deny Jesus, and because of it they are brutally tortured and killed. I am proud to call those people my brothers and sisters in Christ.

However, I've been a bit concerned about the American church recently. When I look at the Christian population of America, I mostly see a lukewarm church. A church that doesn't really get what being a Christian is all about. I wonder how many people would continue to call Christ their savior if their lives were on the line. Sadly, my guess is not many would. Christianity has become watered down from what it used to be. More and more people just think that Christians are idiots because we don't know how to defend our faith (and we don't let God defend it for us), and since they don't see anything incredible happening (miracles), they conclude that the Christian faith isn't real because it isn't powerful.

     This doesn't make sense. As Christians, we serve the most powerful Being of all time. He has the greatest love, mercy, patience, kindness, grace, wisdom, peace…the list goes on for eternity. The Holy Spirit (the God I just described only in spirit form) lives in US, and as a result His power should be shown through US. We should have a growing passion- a burning inside our hearts to follow and serve God. We should be prepared to die for His sake, and not have an ounce of fear about it in us. We should be the craziest, most on fire people in the world. When people see us, they should be blown away by our boldness and our hearts for God. We should be seen as different, set apart from the rest of the world.

Instead, the passion that we found at the beginning of our relationship has withered into apathy. Instead, we are a people full of fear for what will come tomorrow, how to pay for college and where to get a job rather than trusting God with everything. Instead, we are driven by worry and success (ie earning as much money as we can as quickly as possible). Instead, we are an indifferent, lukewarm church. Instead, non-Christians just see normal people living for the same things that everyone else is living for. Drinking, alcohol, premarital sex (a whopping 3% wait until marriage), gambling, addictions- they're just as common within the church as they are outside it. In fact, we indulge in the exact same things that the people of the world do- there's almost no difference from them to us except the fact that we paste a title on our Facebook pages that claims we believe in Christ. No wonder people don't buy our faith and opinions.

    Essentially, something has gone wrong. Maybe we're not reading the Bible and interpreting it in a literal sense, because it says that the Lord will spit the lukewarm out of His mouth. Or perhaps we've lost faith and stopped trusting in God to give us the power not to fear, to love unconditionally, to be utterly devoted to Him, to trust and rely on Him. It's most likely something different for each one of us, but whatever it is, I hope we find it and let God fix it.

    When people see Christians, I want them to know and experience the God of power. I want us to rely and trust in God alone. I want us to welcome judgment and persecution for Christ's sake. I want to see God's power bring us into one body so that we can be the hands and feet of Christ. My desire is to see change; a revival in our hearts that will change our lives and especially the lives around us. But nothing is going to happen if we don't make some drastic changes in the way we live our lives.

I'll be praying for you all this week!

Mya Grace

Check out the websites below. Try putting yourself in their shoes; they couldn't survive without trusting wholly in God for strength.

http://www.persecution.com/

http://www.persecution.org/

Substance Abuse and Religion

Hi guys. Sorry that I haven't posted in a while; no excuses besides that of AP tests keeping me busy.  For lack of a better topic, I'm going to do this post on what my youth group discussed Sunday.  Remember, feel free to suggest or email me topic ideas or requests.

Does smoking weed/cigarettes make you less of a Christian?

First of all, I'm going to break this down into a two categories - cigarettes, and all other substances.  This is pretty much because cigarettes are legal.

Common conceptions in our culture today is that Christians don't do stuff like swear, smoke, drink, etc.  And indeed those go against the teachings of the Bible (well... not drinking but since this is a blog for TEENS and drinking is illegal for teens then...).   

So why not? Well, the Bible says that we are supposed to treat our bodies as a temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19 - "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. "  And again in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 - "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."

These verses are saying (I think) that we need to treat our bodies as holy as possible.  Now, by that interpretation, we also need to avoid junk food, excercise a lot, etc. I'm not saying that we need to be fanatics - just treat our bodies with respect and care.  Substances like cigarettes, excessive drinking, pot, crack and the like isn't exactly the epitome of respecting our bodies.

Then there's that fact that all of these substances are illegal for teens (and the others - crack, weed, etc.- illegal for everyone outside of California lol).  The Bible also tells us to respect the local law in Romans 13:1-2 and in 1 Peter 2:13-17.

And then, finally, there is the fact that these substances become addictions.  The Bible tells us not to have idols before Him and an addiction is the very definition of an idol.  It's inexcusable to put something like a drug (or anything) before our Lord.

So what does this mean for Christians?  It means that yes, illegal substance abuse is a sin.  The use of cigarettes and alcohol in excess is probably a sin too but, I mean, I'm not an expert on that.  Does sinning make you not a Christian?

Of course not.

It's like any sin - heck, it's like what I said about homosexuality earlier.  A sin is a sin is a sin - that is, all sins are equal in the eyes of God.  However, if we accept God and ask for forgiveness and work against, our petty sins can never seperate us from him.

I'm going to be honest - I have friends who smoke. I have friends who smoke who call themselves Christian.  I honestly don't care and I let them do whatever they want.  I have never smoked, for a few reasons.

Go with God this week guys :) Good luck to everyone with your AP Tests! Sorry for taking so long.

Confusion.

Yesterday was Easter. I went on facebook and I saw a bunch of statuses about Jesus, and I was so happy that everyone was praising God and rejoicing in the Lord. The confusing part was when I saw my non-Christian friends putting their statuses about Easter, and when I saw people saying how happy they were about the Easter food and gifts. After thinking about it for a while, it really didn’t sit right with me.

Easter is about Jesus. It’s about believing that Jesus died on the cross and rose again two days later. We gather and celebrate that our savior redeemed us from sin and destruction. It confuses me when people who don’t believe that Jesus is their savior celebrate Easter. It would be like me taking a pilgrimage to Mecca, an Islamic tradition. That wouldn’t really make sense, would it? I’m not a Muslim.

And yeah, I get that people who don’t even consider themselves a specific religion celebrate Easter too, so it’s “not the same.” But how is it any different? Wouldn’t it still be weird if someone who isn’t Jewish started celebrating Jewish holidays? Or if an atheist went on the Hajj? Or if someone who is Hindu took part in Kwanza? I mean…excuse me if I’m wrong, but these things don’t really make sense to me. Frankly, I don’t see the point of celebrating Easter if you don’t believe that Jesus rose on that day, just like I don’t see the point of celebrating any of the other traditions if they’re not according to your beliefs.

I’m not saying that I dislike you if you celebrate Easter and you’re not a Christian, and I’m not saying that people can’t celebrate holidays that aren’t a part of their religion. I just wish people would think about the holidays that they’re celebrating. I wish that people would know what Easter is REALLY about. I can assure you, it is not about the food or gifts or games. My guess is no one will want to read all this scripture about what Easter is really about, but I really encourage you to. I can say tons of stuff on here, elaborating and making clever analogies and using fancy words, but none of my words even come close to being as powerful as the Bible is.

Here’s Mark chapter 15:

“¹ Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, made their plans. So they bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. ² “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate. “You have said so,” Jesus replied. ³ The chief priests accused him of many things. ⁴ So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” ⁵ But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed. ⁶ Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸ The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. ⁹ “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, ¹⁰ knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. ¹² “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. ¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted. ¹⁴ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. ¹⁶ The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. ¹⁷ They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. ¹⁸ And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” ¹⁹ Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. ²⁰ And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.  ²¹ A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. ²² They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). ²³ Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴ And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. ²⁵ It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶ The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁷ They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left…²⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰ come down from the cross and save yourself!” ³¹ In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! ³² Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. ³³ At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴ And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). ³⁵ When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.” ³⁶ Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.  ³⁷ With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.  ³⁸ The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. ³⁹ And when the centurion, who 

 stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Mya Kubik