| So, I have now finished 2 chapters in my book. I have no idea if this thing will ever be done of not, but at least I can say I wrote 2 chapters! Here is Chapter 2 "A REALationship With God: Sin is Attracitve" Being in a relationship with a person has taught me a lot about a relationship with God. When I started dating Wendy I thought we’d always be in this new couple cloud of bliss. We get along great, we can talk about anything, and it feels like she is my tag-team partner in this crazy wrestling match called life. We couldn’t possibly argue, right? Wrong. Before her, I didn’t think the arguments set in until after marriage. Not saying we argue all the time, or even a lot, but the arguments are there. But despite the fact that we sometimes argue, I still love her. I argue with my parents sometimes, but the love is still there. I have my personal ups and downs with God, but the love is still there. No matter how many times you walk away from God or sin against Him, the love He has for you is still there. I don’t believe real love can just end over one small thing. The way Wendy looks at me and smiles lets me know that she is still in love with me even if we do have arguments. God’s love is the same, He has an unfailing, everlasting love for everyone. When Wendy and I first started dating, I would feel bad for thinking other girls were attractive. I wouldn’t stare at them, hit on them, think impure thoughts about them, or anything like that, just me thinking to myself “hey, that girl’s cute” would make me feel like the scum of the Earth. Now I realize that it is human nature to see things like that. As humans, we notice the right and the wrong, the light and the dark, the beautiful and the ugly and I can’t change that about myself. What I can control however is how I choose to react to those thoughts. If I see a pretty young lady and I approach her and get her phone number while I’m in a relationship, I have reacted the wrong way. If I see a pretty young lady and I leave her alone because I know I already have a girlfriend whom I love too much to treat like that, then I have reacted the right way. Sin is very much the same as an attractive young lady. We as Christians see these things and get tempted by them. But, the crime is not being tempted by sin, the crime is giving in to the temptation. I may be tempted to go talk to a girl, but I know better because, not only is it the wrong thing to do, but it would hurt Wendy and get in the way of our relationship. In my Christian life, that attractive young lady could take the shape of a bottle of alcohol, premarital sex, lying, cheating, arrogance, other religions, losing my temper, or any of the other things Christian struggle with. I may be tempted by sin, but if I give in, my trespass would hurt God and get in the way of our relationship until I repent for it. Let’s say I do pursue another girl while Wendy and I are dating, then I realize that what I’m doing is wrong and I go to Wendy and apologize. As much as Wendy loves me, and as much as our relationship matters to her, I honestly don’t know if she could forgive me for something like that. The thought of me cheating on her, the thought that she couldn’t satisfy me, and the thought that I had to go find someone else to find satisfaction would break her heart and shatter her trust in me. One of the amazing things about God is, His love and grace are never ending. Human love can be broken, human trust can be broken, but God’s love and God’s trust are constant in our lives. I sometimes wonder if He goes through the same pain when His people sin that a human goes through when he or she gets cheated on. It must break His heart to think that He can’t be all we need. It must break His heart to think that we use something besides Him to satisfy us. When we go after these temporary, worldly things for our little stab at happiness, I imagine God feeling hurt, betrayed, or rejected, like a person who’s been cheated on by a companion. Am I saying that we as humans are supposed to be perfect? No, however we are supposed to be Christ-like. Christ was perfect, but we are not. So, how can an imperfect humanity be like a perfect deity? My simplest answer: Try our best. I think that’s the easiest way to put what God really wants from us, He wants our best. He gave us His best when He sent His only son to die on a cross for us to take away our sins, so we owe Him our best. Our best attempt at this life, our best attempt at living for Him, our best attempt at being Christ-like. With that being said, another cool thing about God is He knows we’re not perfect, and knowing that He offers us unlimited grace. We are to do our best to live a Christ-like lifestyle, but if/when we fall short and stumble on our narrow path, God is there to forgive us every time we ask Him for that forgiveness. When I was in third grade I played baseball for the elementary school team. I never watched baseball on TV, so I don’t really remember what attracted me to the sport. I do remember quitting football and basketball though, so I guess I was just going through the list. Anyway, my coach was a dark-skinned, dark-haired, Italian man named Joe Crespo. Joe taught us about the fun of the game, and about how it wasn’t whether you won or lost as long as you gave it your best shot. He probably had one of the worst teams in the league, but some of my fondest elementary school memories come from playing on that team. I remember every time I walked back to the dugout after I stepped up to bat, whether I hit a home run, got on a base, or just totally struck out, Joe would hug me and say “good job”. He didn’t care whether I even made it on a base or not, as long as I went out there and gave an honest effort, he was happy with my performance. I’d like to think of Joe‘s coaching as the way God looks at His Christians. After our time on Earth is over, after we’ve ran all the bases here in this life, whether we hit a grand slam for Jesus or whether we struck out more times than we can count, I think God will honor the fact that we gave it our best effort. The Bible says “Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart”. (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV) Other people looked at the fact that Joe’s team wasn’t that good, other people looked at the fact that he wasn‘t all that tough on us, other people looked at the fact that we were losing, but Joe saw that we were having fun, and more importantly, that we were trying. Man will judge you every way they can. Man looks at the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the money you make, the people you hang out with, the parents who raised you, the church you go to, the music you listen to, and anything else man can find fault in. The other day, Wendy and I went to a sort of expensive Mexican restaurant, but I didn’t have much money so we both ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, we drank water, and we pigged out on the free chips. I was kind of embarrassed when people would walk by our table and see the small plates we had, and even the waiter gave us a funny look when we ordered. I know it’s bad to be embarrassed over something like that, but I know how man is, and I know people probably noticed. The point I’m trying to make is: God doesn’t care about any of those things I listed above. God loves you no matter what plate you order at the Mexican restaurant. Plus, God is the only one who knows what’s going on in your heart. He knows if you’re really seeking Him and really living for Him, but He also knows if you’re just faking it to make it seem like you’re doing the right things. I mentioned His unlimited grace earlier, but the fact that He gives us unlimited grace is not an excuse for us to go out and freely sin. Imagine a Christ-like lifestyle as a tightrope and grace as our safety net meant to catch us when we loose our balance. Just because an acrobat has a safety net under them does not mean they should just fall whenever they feel like it. As I said earlier, God knows whether or not you’re seriously trying to live your life for Him. He knows if you‘re really sorry when you repent or if you‘re just doing it because that‘s what needs to be done to clear your conscience. A person cannot be forgiven if he or she is not really sorry. Every person controls his or her own personal relationship with God. God is not going to come down to Earth and put you in a headlock for screwing up. God is not going to shoot you an e-mail just to say “what’s up”. It’s up to us to make the connection with Him, through prayer, Bible reading, worship, or however you communicate with Him. Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, I believe that God communicates with people on Earth, and I’m not calling Him lazy or anything like that, I’m just saying that He doesn’t force Himself on people. If He did, everyone would be a Christian. Since everyone is not a Christian, we can say that God does not force Himself on people, and the one in control of our relationship with God is the one in the mirror. I recently watched The Dark Knight, the much hyped superhero movie featuring the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. I had been excited about the movie for months, not just because of Heath Ledger’s performance, but because I’ve always been sort of a comic book nerd. I have a rather large box in my room full of comic books I had when I was younger. Actually, I remember the first time I taught a class at my church, it was the children’s class and I taught about heroes. How Jesus is our superhero, jumping into action to save us from the attacks of the villain, Satan. It went pretty well, and I even had little bobbleheads of Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk sitting on the podium while I taught. Anyway, back to the point, in every comic book I’ve ever read there has been a hero and a villain. When I was a kid I thought, “This is just the way things are, the good guys are heroes and the bad guys are villains”, and that’s all the thought I put into it. Now that I’m older, and especially after watching The Dark Knight, I started wondering about what makes a hero and hero and a villain a villain. In the movie, The Joker is the villain, but there is never any explanation to why he does the things he does, other than he’s just crazy and wants to do them. I started thinking about the difference between heroes and villains and I only came up with one thing; and it’s not the powers or the costumes. The only difference between a hero and a villain is the decision the person makes to be a hero or to be a villain. Think about it, every villain could use his or her powers for good if he or she really wanted and vice versa with heroes; the difference is in the choice. In the movie there is a character named Harvey Dent. Harvey Dent begins the movie as a hero but becomes one of the villains after a tragedy takes place in his life. Now, Harvey could have used that tragedy to show people what happens when criminals run wild, or somehow turned it positive, but instead Harvey chose to become a villain.
Now, let’s look at Christians and non-Christians; the difference is the choice. Christians make a choice to follow God, to live their lives for Him, to have a relationship with Him, to put Him number one in their lives. Non-Christians make the opposite choices. Christians are people, just like non-Christians. Christians are not perfect, we just make a choice to follow God, build a relationship with Him, and try to reflect that choice with our lifestyle. Keep in mind, I’m just making a comparison, I’m not calling non-Christians villains, or saying that Christians are heroes because we follow God. So many Christians already do that. They put themselves on moral pedestals, as if it is they who are perfect and not the God they serve. God doesn’t want that. Jesus was completely against that. The world doesn’t even like those kind of Christians. Why do you think we hear so often that the church is full of hypocrites? Because these “I’m better than you” Christians slip up and fail just like everyone else. I don’t want to be an “I’m better than you” Christian. I am more of a “I’m just as messed up as you are, but I’m trying to figure things out” Christian. Not saying that I’m any better than other Christians, I’d just rather be known for showing the love of Christ than setting some perfect standard for myself and others that I can’t live up to. Jesus didn’t walk around displaying the fact that He was perfect. He even picked disciples who weren’t perfect. He picked people that made the church crowd scratch their heads. I often wonder what the disciples would be like today if Jesus chose another group of twelve. Would there be a homeless person? A person who didn’t smell that great? A person with tattoos all over himself? A prostitute? A lady who’s had an abortion? What about a homosexual? Maybe even a Democrat? Whoever He would choose, I’m sure the church crown and the “I’m better than you” Christians would be appalled. Again, I can’t stress this enough, I’m not condoning sin or making God’s unending love and grace seem like an excuse to live an ungodly lifestyle. What I’m really trying to get at is, real love is not looking over someone’s flaws. Real love is seeing the flaws just as clearly as you see the good things, but loving the person anyway. God loves us that way, He sees our flaws and He still loves us. And even though we can’t be exactly like Him because we will never be perfect, He expects our best. If you can honestly say that you are not giving God your best, then what are you waiting for? He’s not going to take it from you, you have to give Him your best.
Honest feedback would be amazing! |
) I walked over to the Goodwill right beside Food Lion. I opened the door and the first thing I saw on a black video rack sitting maybe three or four feet from the door was the old Batman movie. The coolest part is, it was only $1.