My Blog

Why?

Tue, 7 Sep 2010 00:39:22 -0500

Wow. I’ve been at college for a whole 2 weeks. I’ve learned a lot, seen a lot, and experienced a lot. But, as always, I’m always left with more questions than answers. College (like life) has answered a lot of my questions. But, in my quest for the answers, I’ve stumbled upon questions that I don’t know the answers to. Here’s what I mean.

Ever since college started, it’s been a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. I guess my biggest question is this: why am I here? What is my job for the next 10 minutes along with my thoughts for the next 10 minutes? Being a philosophy major hasn’t helped; like everything else, it’s left more questions than answers.

Sometimes, I feel like God has given me an inquisitive mind to teach others; at other times, it frustrates the crap out of me. I often feel like I’m walking through life, with no meaning and passion, questioning the very existence of reality itself. I have faith that God will show me the answers, because, quite honestly, I’ve learned to rely on God more through the experience of life and philosophy than any Bible study has ever taught me. At the same time, I go through these valleys of the unknown. I know that some people have their hearts in other countries, with a clear direction. I don’t. I struggle with the unknown. I might not have enough “faith” (don’t pull that BS out. I’m tired of all that pseudo-religion crap.), but I honestly think that God withholds the answers from those who seek Him. If we seek Him, we’ll rely on Him, right?

I guess I’m just trying to say this: God has me here, at OBU, in Arkadelphia, for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is; I do know that I am here for a reason. I can’t wait to see that reason come to reality of action. I don’t know what my major should be. I don’t know what ministries to get involved in. I don’t know what events to go. I do know that I want to glorify the name of Christ in everything I do. It might be dirty. It might mean reaching down into the crap and ugliness of Hell (quite honestly, I would do it with all my heart, with a smile on my face :)). But I will glorify Him. I’m literally in tears as I weep for how beautiful His unknown plans are. I yearn to see the face of God on this campus. I want to do everything that I can to see it. With a barbaric yawp, I glorify the Lord...and nothing excites me more. :)

Questions, comments, or suggestions, hit me up.

As always, keep it real, and change the world. :)

Signed,

ht

Permission to Speak Freely

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:17:00 -0500

Why does it seem like I have to be Republican?

I’m a pastor with a struggling marriage.

I struggle with this sin; what do I do?

I have these feelings and questions, but I’m afraid to ask them.

In today’s contemporary church culture, there is an unwritten code by which all Christians must follow. Included in this code is certain questions that we are not allowed to ask.

In her book “Permission to Speak Freely,” author Anne Jackson challenges these ideas and calls for a greater amount of openness in the church. But, unlike your typical book of today, she blames herself, saying that she herself allows this to happen, showing a complete understanding of the Gospel by recognizing the problem and believing that it is her fault. She calls for people to be open and honest about themselves, but only if they are willing to be open themselves.

I give this book a 4 out of 5, just because I wish it has used a little bit more Scripture. But overall, a fantastic book that hits right on with the Gospel.

Go buy it. Happy Reading!

*This book was provided free by Thomas Nelson in order for me to review. No lie! I love free books!

Love

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:25:33 -0500

So, it’s 3:30 in the morning, and I am wide awake! I figured I would write a new blog post. I got nothing better to do. Anyways...

A song that always gets to me is Mat Kearney’s “Everyone I Know” off of his album entitled City of Black and White. Now, the song, while very mellow, has one of the most beautiful choruses that I know of. It goes:

“Everyone that I know,
And every place that I go;
Every story that I’m told.
It’s love, love, love
That we’re looking for.”

I think he has it right. I did a senior thesis on what the heart of man most longed for. I said it was Eden (which it is), but I also think that one of the fundamental aspects of that is love. Everyone knows that I Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Here we see what remains for the Christian within his sanctification: faith, hope, and love. They are what we cling to. But why is love the greatest?

I believe it is because it is the only thing that will last over into our Eden (the New Heaven and Earth). Faith and hope are needed as a result of the fall and won’t be needed after the restoration. Love will be there.

All throughout the Bible, love is the most referred attribute in the discussion of what is righteousness. It must be pretty important. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, you see him loving on people. He forgave the sin of adulteresses and healed lepers. He brought them out of a state of despair, caring for the desolate and the broken.

The Law (I’m talking about the Judaic commands given to Moses) was given to the Israelites in order to show the world how to live and have harmony with God. He often speaks of loving the poor, widows, and orphans. It’s how we are supposed to live: loving God, loving others, and loving ourselves (in a non-sinful way).

I know that there is not much depth to this essay, and it is slightly random at times, but it is 3 AM in the morning haha.

I guess I just want you to know this: love others. Mother Theresa once said, “If you can’t feed [or bless] 100 people, feed [or bless] 1.” Put a smile on and give a little joy and hope to someone today.

Any questions or anything really, leave me a comment or FB me.

I love you all.

Change the world.

Signed,

ht

Spiritual Gifts

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:52:06 -0500

These past few months, the idea of spiritual gifts has come into my life a lot. One week, it was in the 8th grade class I help teach. Later that week, a friend texts me about it. The next week, I discuss it at someone’s house. The next week, it’s the sermon. I think God’s been trying to tell me something. So here’s what I think about spiritual gifts:

1.) They are given to point to Christ. Notice that they are not only given by the Holy Spirit (showing evidence of salvation), but they also are used to create community. This community is used to reflect the nature of the Church and man. While man must rely on each other in order to use gifts most efficiently, we also must rely on God for our gifts and for them to actually do something (since it’s all the work of Jesus). This community reiterates the need of relying on each other to show that we must rely on Christ.

2.) Spiritual gifts are all different, but, in a sense, they are all equal. My personal spiritual gift is prophecy, which is defined in Scripture as “speaking to men for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3). However, one of my best friend’s gift is administration, which is basically doing the nitty-gritty work or a secretary, if you will. (This is demonstrated in Luke 14:28-30, as the man who figures out costs and things like that for his building.) Now, while this person might not be nearly as outgoing, I couldn’t survive without people like this person. This person has actually helped me a lot, by helping me keep my sanity, pointing out some flaws in my thinking, and showing me the love of Jesus through service. They, in a sense, keep me on track, making sure I don’t either forget something important or try to use the estimation skills that I definitely do not have. While they do keep the big picture in mind, they are much better with the particulars, while I’m much more suited for the big picture idea and often forget some particulars. Like a machine, each part is dependent on every other part, and no part is able to do its job most efficiently on its own.

3.) Not everyone has the “most desirable” gifts. In today’s culture, we are often called to conformity. You must wear the right clothes, play sports (can’t deny that athletes rule the school), and do everything the “cool” way. This mode of thinking has penetrated the church, in a sense of having the “most desirable” spiritual gifts. We often look up to evangelists, preachers, and big name people and desire to emulate those people. However, it doesn’t work that way. I know for a fact that I can’t preach worth a flip. I can’t put together coherent sentences together in front of my friends, and speaking is not exactly something that I’m good at. I hear a lot people say that they tried preaching once or teaching a couple of times and just froze up and messed up. That is OK! We weren’t all called to be preachers and teachers. I find myself enjoying building relationships and counseling others (which is someone who is a prophet is good at). Therefore, I try to utilize my strengths and stay away from my weaknesses. While it’s not the “big name” job, it’s still productive and needed to have the most efficient body of Christ.

4.) We must remember and thank God for all the gifts. I often forget this part, but it’s SUCH an important idea to understand. Each person is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and, therefore, every person is valuable and worthy of being loved. We must learn to encourage each other and bring praise upon others for the way they help the body of Christ. For example, I work recreation at VBS. Some people can not do that. They choose to serve cookies and lemonade to the kids. After the go to recreation, everyone goes and gets a snack. I always tell the kids to make sure that they thank the cookie ladies for their hard work, because encouragement and recognizing someone’s value, in my opinion, is the best way to both bring someone’s spirits up and to give them a sense of worth. We all desire to be worth something, and encouraging one another in love is one way we can do it.

Anyways, I hope that this both strives you to appreciate how God is gifted you and to desire to learn what yours is. I hope you find it soon, for, if you are born again, you will have at least one. Some Scriptures to look at which tell of the spiritual gifts are:

-I Corinthians 12:28-39
-Romans 12:6-8
-Ephesians 4:11
-I Peter 4:9-11

I encourage you to find your gift and let me know what it is! I want to know!

I love you all, and leave your comments, thoughts, and stories about this subject in the comment area, shoot me a FB message, or throw me an email.

Change the world.

Love,

ht

Faith: The Basis of Everything

Mon, 24 May 2010 21:33:47 -0500

It’s been a month. Time for something new.

I’m a philosopher. That’s not new to anyone. I read philosophy books for fun, I love discussing epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics (big words) with everyone, and I enjoy discussing the meaning of life. However, as all philosophers do, I struggle with the idea of the relation between the ideal world and the world as it really is. As many know, there is a difference between the ideal and what really is (that’s because of sin).

Therefore, we need faith. This concept has always been a struggle for me: both intellectually and practically. This is due to the fact that I tend to have humanistic ideologies (sadly and often being shown to me so that I can think Christianly again) and try to make infinite decisions from within a finite state of being.

I was invited to go hear Mike Curry speak a couple of days ago at Germantown Baptist Church with a friend of mine. I decided to go and see what he had to say. He preached on Galatians 2:20, which says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” He concentrated on the second half of the verse, in which it says that the life we live in the body, we live by FAITH in the Son of God.

Often times, I’ve made my faith into a list of do’s and don’ts. While I do believe that every Christian is free from the law, I would say that we are called to be holy. However, do to growing up in a Southern Baptist Church in Tennessee (which I am SO thankful for), I have the tendency to become legalistic in my thinking. If someone doesn’t do this or someone doesn’t do that, I have the tendency to go ahead and categorize them in the list of “non-Christians.” However, as the verse says, I live by faith, not by creeds, doctrines, or rules.

Mike also said that we have a tendency to make the Gospel out like this: we come to Christ for justification, but in sanctification (which is the life we live after justification until we go to heaven), we have the tendency to stress the do’s and don’ts and not what we were saved by. That’s not who we are! We’re justified by faith, and we live by faith. This life is full of joy and peace from walking on faith. It’s not a blind faith; it’s a rational faith that we want to live for Him. We live by faith.

It’s been a while. Hopefully this helps someone.

Questions, comments, and suggestions, let me know!

Change the world.

Love,

ht