Trip to Heaven

June 4, 2010 at 12:10 am (religion)
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I just wanted to tell you all about a trip to Heaven that I took tonight!  I’ve been a few times before, but I have never been to this part, and it’s always exciting when you get to go.  Well, I was soaking, and I kept seeing me playing with Jesus.  I’m talking about, summer time riding bikes, running through fields, etc.  So then, I felt pressure on my armpits, like someone was picking me up.  And I saw angels carrying me to the River of Life like a group of people would throw someone into a pool, and I got to swim around with Jesus in the river.  And then, I was at the Tree of Life, and Jesus was handing me the different kinds of fruit for me to taste.  It was so awesome!!  (p.s. you can read about the River of Life and the Tree of Life in Rev 22).

Recently, I’ve been trying to figure out what my next step needs to be in terms of jobs and probably moving to a different city.  In this experience, at one point Jesus asked me where I wanted to go.  So, I told Him that I wanted to go where He was.  And, He responded with, “I know.  So where do you want to go?”  It was just so comforting to know a) that He trusts me enough to make a good decision and b) that whatever decision I make will be OK.  I feel so much more at rest about the entire situation.

Oh, and at another point, I was with Jesus at the gates of Heaven.  He handed me a diamond (a very large one at that), and He said to me, “Now go find it.”  So, I have a diamond in the spiritual that I get to look for!

So, I must say that it was a very good night.

If you have ever taken a trip to heaven, please tell me about it!! I love hearing this kind of stuff.  I don’t really know how to tell anyone how to go to heaven because it just happens.  However, at the next home group, which will be either in two weeks or in July, we are going to take a guided trip.  So, after that, I will be able to impart some knowledge and insight to anyone who is interested in taking a trip themselves.

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Sin is for Shhhh!

June 3, 2010 at 2:35 pm (religion)
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Over the last ten or so years, there has been a growing movement to leave sin out of the evangelism picture.  From what I’ve seen, there are two schools of thought for this idea.  The most common is that, if you tell someone that they are a sinner, you will essentially scare them off.  The other reason, though, is starkly different.  It says that, if you introduce people to the love of God and help them have a real experience with God’s love, then you won’t have to tell them that they are a sinner because it is God’s kindness that leads people to repentance (Rom 2:4).

I once heard Shampa Rice, who is a missionary in India, say that she never has to tell people that they are a sinner or that they need to choose Jesus over their hundreds of other gods (most of the people she ministers to are Hindu).  One real encounter with God’s love does all of that for her.

It’s interesting to me that two vastly different approaches to the same thing have risen simultaneously.  It seems like the churches who don’t talk about sin because they are afraid that they might offend someone seem to be theologically watered down.  Compare that to Shampa, who takes care of hundreds of orphans, and people come to the village that she works in because so many people get healed just by stepping into the village.  The results are vastly different.  Nonbelievers recognize the power of God in the land.

Obviously, there are times when sin must be addressed.  However, I tend to agree that convincing people there is something wrong with them is not the way to go.  However, I don’t think that you can be afraid of offending someone, either.  If you do all things through love, then, if/when you do bring up sin, you approach is so different that things tend to go a little better.  I tend to think that bringing up specific sins is more for people who claim to be believers buy aren’t living that way.

What do you think?

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Testimonies!!

June 2, 2010 at 9:35 pm (life)
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So, if you read my post yesterday, you know that I went on vacation over Memorial day weekend.  I went to visit a friend who, even though I had known her for a few years, I didn’t really become close to until after she had moved to another city.  Very frustrating, but also very awesome.  It’s funny how God works like that.

Well, one night that I was up visiting her, we went to a church that was about 2 hours away from where she lived.  The church that she attends travels to other churches around the state to minister to them.  Even though my friend’s pastor knew nothing about me and was just meeting me for the first time that night, I still got to be on the ministry team, which was really cool.  It was a small church, and I think that there were as many people from my friends church as there were from the church we were visiting!

They had a short service, and then we broke up into small groups to pray for people.  My group prayed for two people, who both got healed of joint pain.  Jesus!!  One of the people was an older woman who leads a Bible study in the retirement home that she lives in.  The other was an older man.  While we were praying for him, he fell back.  His face was pretty serious when he came up to us, but by the time he hit the ground, he had this huge grin on his face.  It was so cool!

The other really awesome thing is that kids (from my friend’s church) are allowed to minister with adults.  So, I got to watch these two girls who were maybe 7 and 10 pray and prophesy over people!  You could really see their heart for the Lord, and they were getting great words, too!  It just goes to show that you don’t have to be an adult to hear from the Lord.  So cool.  To be honest, it made me a little jealous that I didn’t have any of those opportunities when I was that age.  On the other hand, though, it makes me really excited about what my kids (when I have them) will get to experience that I didn’t have.

I was really encouraged to be a part of all that–to see Jesus moving in our lives now.  It makes me really excited for things that are to come!

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Oh, Yeah

June 1, 2010 at 10:15 pm (life, religion)
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Hello All!  I apologize for my absence.  I went on vacation for a few days.  I had planned to write ahead so that I wouldn’t a huge hole in my blog, but it didn’t work out that way.  I want to write about a few things that happened on my vacation, but I’ll get to that tomorrow.  Right now, I want to tell you about an experience I had waiting for the train after work today.

I’m currently reading Jesus Loves You…This I Know by Craig Gross (of XXXChurch) and Jason Harper.  So, I’m sitting, reading while I wait for the train, and just minding my own business.  There was a guy a few benches down, and he spoke up and asked, “You’re reading a book called ‘Jesus Loves You.’  So, does Jesus love me?”    I didn’t get to talk to this guy for very long, but I just got to share Jesus’ love with him for a few minutes.

There wasn’t a conversion or anything like that, but it was still a cool moment for me.  I’ve never really talked about Jesus to random strangers like that, and I’ve certainly never been randomly approached.  Granted, this guy could very well have been hitting on me because he’s new to the city in which I live, but still.  Sure, there are things that I could have said differently or whatever, but all in all, it was relatively painless.

He even said to me at one point, “Wow, you seem really excited about all of this.”  And I just got to tell him about how when you experience unconditional love, you life is just a whole lot brighter.

To be honest, it was a little thrilling.  And it was a boost to my faith/boldness.  I probably did everything wrong, but I carried on a conversation with a stranger.  About God.  Outside of church, outreach, or anything planned.

But, I did have one moment that really grabbed my attention about my preconceived notions about what people do or don’t know about Jesus.  I have always lived in the South, practically in the buckle of the Bible Belt.  I just assumed that everybody had heard about Jesus and knew something about the basic tenets of Christianity (whether good or bad).  But, today I realized that that just isn’t true.  This guy literally didn’t know anything about Christianity.  He wasn’t from the South, and probably no one in his family had ever been Christian.  So, it was a good reminder to me that not everyone has the same grid .

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Dating…

May 26, 2010 at 10:24 am (life, religion)
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What is Christian dating supposed to look like?  I haven’t got a clue, and, from what it looks like, neither does anyone else.  We get ourselves into the same mess as everyone else, we get just as hurt, and we hurt just as much.  I don’t know what we need to do, but what we are doing sure isn’t working in most cases.

To be honest, I’m actually quite fed up with dating.  I’m tired of having to ask, “Wait, so how many guys are you dating??” And I’m tired of having to explain things like, “You know, when a guy asks you to come over to watch a movie, he doesn’t actually want to watch a movie.  He wants to have sex.”  Granted, that last statement isn’t true of all men.  So please don’t get mad at me.  If I gave you all the details of the whens and wheres of that particular situation, you would agree that that was the intention from the beginning.

All the seemingly stupid rules and regulations that churches try to put on teens about dating are starting to make sense.  The ideas that are discussed in youth groups are sound, for the most part, but we aren’t doing a very good of communicating. I don’t think a better skit, movie, powerpoint, story, whatever is what we are missing.  I think we are missing two things, though–the real explanation of the whys and good examples to follow.  For a lot of teens, “because it’s in the Bible” isn’t a good enough explanation of why they shouldn’t have sex.  Why is it in the Bible?  Why is sex outside of marriage a sin?  These are the answers that we need to be giving.  I’ve seen sex wreak terrible damage on unsuspecting lives because they didn’t know about the emotional damage.  Sure, pregnancy and diseases of all sorts are also risks, but no one talks about the real damage that can happen.  I’ve seen it happen time and time again.

Through watching a close friend of mine, I understand why dating non-Christians is a bad idea.  I won’t say it should never ever be done, but the hardships that go with that kind of relationships are extremely difficult.  It’s hard to be in a deep, meaningful relationship with someone and not be able to share what is most important to you.  I’ve also seen lots of kids who were the products of interfaith marriages.  Almost every single one has been confused out of their mind as to what is right or wrong.  They often feel that if they choose one religion, then they are choosing one parent over the other.  So they don’t choose anything.

Unfortunately, when Christians date each other, it often isn’t any better.  We don’t act any differently in our relationships than anyone else.  So, we end up just as wounded and messed up as everyone else.  Can’t we do it differently?  Or change something?

I think a lot of Christian circles think that courtship solves these problems.  While I must admit that I am a bigger fan of courtship than I used to be, it has its own set of issues because many people don’t know how to court, and they really don’t have any good examples of what that is supposed to look like.  We barely have any examples of good marriages in church, much less good dating/courting examples.

Where did we go wrong?  How do we fix it?  I honestly have no idea.  I just know that something has got to change.

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Just in case you were wondering…

May 25, 2010 at 10:25 pm (life)
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Ok.  I just have something quick to post really quickly before I go to bed.  And, I’m going to get really real about my personal life.

I want a baby.

There, I said it.

But, alas.  I’m single, and there aren’t any prospects of getting married any time soon (that I can see).

How bad would it be to adopt as a single parent?  Maybe that’s just selfish of me…

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One Month Ago

May 25, 2010 at 3:04 pm (life)
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One month ago, I was frustrated and confused.  So, I started a blog to spill everything out so it wouldn’t build up inside of me.  Now, I’ve gotten a lot of my frustrations out.  I’m still just as confused about life, but I’m feeling good.  What will happen in the next month?  What will I write about?

It’s too soon to tell.  The summer months are the busiest at work.  I’ll be run ragged, and then some.  On the bright side, I’ll only have a 4-day work week!  However, I’m leaving my job at the end of July and I don’t know where I’m going from here.  I’m not scared in the sense of being afraid of change.  However, it’s only two months away, and I still don’t know what is going to happen.  Time is ticking away, and I’m growing nervous.

I know God has a plan for me.  So, what ever happens, it will turn out alright eventually.  I just don’t like going in blind.  Even a small clue would be really helpful.

In other news, I’m going to visit a friend this weekend!  I’m really excited to go see her, and it will be fun times all around.

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Worship

May 24, 2010 at 8:56 pm (religion)
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Recently, I’ve been going through an interesting worship phase–basically, I’ll have a song that I have to listen to constantly for a day or two, and then it’ll be another song for a day or two, and so on.  Since there have been some very specific songs that I’ve been practically obsessing over, I thought I would share them with you.  Below are links to YouTube videos with the songs in them.  So, not all of them are the exact version that I am listening to, but you will at least get the idea.  Enjoy, and let Jesus’ wine flow through you!

Let Go Now by Kelanie Gloecker

Dance sung by Kim Walker

Everything by Lighthouse

How He Loves Us sung by Kim Walker

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Two Worlds

May 24, 2010 at 11:25 am (life, religion)
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Like every Christian, I live in two worlds–the physical and the spiritual.  These two worlds sometimes seem at odds with each other in my own life.  In the physical, I’m college educated, and I am trained as a scientist.  In the spiritual, I feel like I’m just at the beginning of my training, and my experiences defy science.

A lot of times, most of the time actually, I don’t know how to reconcile one to the other.  Most people, Christians and non-Christians alike, choose one side or the other.  I don’t know if it’s entirely wise to chose one over the other, but I certainly don’t think that it’s wise to lump both worlds together as one, either.  They are certainly related.  Yet, there are still obvious distinctions.

For example, there’s really no way to scientifically explain (that I’m aware of) most miracles that happen–like limbs growing, the appearance of gold dust, gems, or manna, and especially the weird stuff like bilocation, transportation, and levitation (all of which Jesus did, so don’t get freaked out by those terms).  Things happen that are undeniable, but they are also not measurable.

On the one hand, I get really frustrated with science in general, but on the other hand, I sometimes feel like I need data to prove the spiritual stuff.  My mind is often at odds with itself.  Yet, I would not be a whole person if I completely denied one aspect of my life for the other.

Really, I don’t have much to say other than this is something that I struggle with.  I know I’m not the only one, but no one really ever talks about the balance.  So, I’m putting it out there.  What does it look like to you?

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Perceptions

May 23, 2010 at 1:38 am (life)
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I just got back from a viewing of The Room, which is considered to be one of the worst movies ever made.  It’s so bad that it is now a cult classic.  A local theater shows the movie once a month, and people come to shout at the screen and throw spoons.  Tonight, however, was different.  The writer/director/star, Tommy Wiseau, made an appearance, signed autographs, and did a Q&A.

Tommy Wiseau

What you have to understand about this guy is that he is completely convinced that he made a masterpiece.  I mean, I can’t even begin to describe how bad this movie is–huge holes in the plot, terrible acting, boom mics in shots, etc.  (I can’t really recommend anyone go see it though, because it does have a lot of sex and profanity)  But it all makes me wonder, how many things do we do in life that we think of as masterpieces or even just a good job, but it’s really quite the opposite?  How many of us think we are compassionate, and then we scoff at the homeless man?  Or how many of us think we are a really good friend, but we actually gossip all the time?

Our perceptions of ourselves are not always accurate.  The Room is so bad that you can see actors looking at the camera and practically rolling their eyes, yet Tommy Wiseau is completely oblivious.  Do we have people rolling their eyes at our lives?  Tommy thinks he is a great film maker, but he doesn’t even compare to most other semi-successful movie directors.

I think we often think we are good Christians, but our lives don’t compare to what they should be.  Sure, we are human, but it should at least be obvious that we tried.  It makes me think about how Christians are often viewed in the U.S.  We are often seen as hypocritical, and for good reason.  We preach purity, but we live like every one else.  Obviously, the most sensational stories are what is in the news, but, from the outside, we don’t look any different than any other group.  We still lie, cheat, steal, hate, etc.

We are supposed to be a peculiar people, not an obnoxious one that says one thing and then does the opposite.

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