I read a book this year called Socrates Meets Jesus. Basically what happens is Socrates gets time jockeyed to the year 1987 and is enrolled at a college in Massachusetts. After many days of conversation filled with logical content and classes Socrates reads both the New Testament and Old Testaments of the Bible to learn about this thing called Christianity. Since Socrates lived before Christ he never knew about Jesus and what He did. Near the end of the book Socrates is in a Christology class debating with the professor and classmates about the validity of Christianity. By that time Socrates had met Jesus and come to know Him as His savior and wanted the others in the class to know that Jesus was real and what He did was really true.
Socrates was fervently debating with the professor about the resurrection of Jesus. The professor thought that the disciples stole Jesus' body to make it seem like He was raised for the dead. However, Socrates asked:
"What did these disciples get out of their lie? When someone deceives another, the deceiver is always motivated by some thought of advantage. What advantage did the disciples gain by their conspiracy?"
One of the classmates names, Ahmen, responded with:
"I will answer that question for you, Socrates. I'll tell you what they got out of it. They got mocked, hated, sneered at, jeered at, exiled, deprived of their property, their reputation and their civil rights; they got imprisoned, whipped, tortured, clubbed to a pulp, stoned, beheaded, sawed in pieces, boiled in oil, crucified, fed to lions and cut to ribbons by gladiators. That's what they got out of it."
I really liked this statement because its so true. People don't die for a lie. People don't go through torture for what they know is myth. God is real, what He did happened, and it has a lasting affect on our lives. We wouldn't follow God and become martyrs if He didn't do anything for us.
We don't live for a lie. God is real and He is profoundly moving in this world. Would you die for what you believe in?
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
I Have No Idea What to Call This
The whole experience of driving is interesting for me because its not like I really enjoy driving, but the time I have in the car alone just patiently looking around waiting to get to my destination can be very enjoyable. Many times when I am troubled I can just start talking to God to try and sort out what to do while driving somewhere. Sometimes I have an inspirational moment where my mind grabs something and comes up with something really cool.
When driving home one night I just started to pretty much preach a sermon in verse. What I said sounded so good that I don't think it really came from me. Later I wrote down what I said as best as I could remember with a little more added to it and this is what I got.
A life full of sin never has a good fin
I had a life full of sin, but then I gave it all to Him
Him who hung there on that cross for me
You know often times we see the symbol of the cross many places
On churches, on hills, and around people's necks
Because we seem to think that the cross has power
The cross is just two boards nailed together that represent the painful death it offers
The cross has no Power!
The power lies inside the man who hung on it!
My sin was put upon Jesus, The Son of God, so that I may be cleansed
A symbol around your neck isn't going to save you from damnation in a lake of fire and sulfur
That right there is what I deserve
I deserve to eternally die for my sins
But, because of the indescribable love of God
He was willing to take not only pain, but sin, death, and rejection from the very ones He loved
I don't look to the cross, but to the Jesus
Because it is by His grace and power that I am set free from death
I have no idea how to wrap this post up except to say that we should not elevate things to a higher level than they really are. That is pretty much the profound essence of idols.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying the cross is a bad symbol to put at different places, I personally think its a great one, but we shouldn't make it into something it is not.
When driving home one night I just started to pretty much preach a sermon in verse. What I said sounded so good that I don't think it really came from me. Later I wrote down what I said as best as I could remember with a little more added to it and this is what I got.
A life full of sin never has a good fin
I had a life full of sin, but then I gave it all to Him
Him who hung there on that cross for me
You know often times we see the symbol of the cross many places
On churches, on hills, and around people's necks
Because we seem to think that the cross has power
The cross is just two boards nailed together that represent the painful death it offers
The cross has no Power!
The power lies inside the man who hung on it!
My sin was put upon Jesus, The Son of God, so that I may be cleansed
A symbol around your neck isn't going to save you from damnation in a lake of fire and sulfur
That right there is what I deserve
I deserve to eternally die for my sins
But, because of the indescribable love of God
He was willing to take not only pain, but sin, death, and rejection from the very ones He loved
I don't look to the cross, but to the Jesus
Because it is by His grace and power that I am set free from death
I have no idea how to wrap this post up except to say that we should not elevate things to a higher level than they really are. That is pretty much the profound essence of idols.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying the cross is a bad symbol to put at different places, I personally think its a great one, but we shouldn't make it into something it is not.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
60m=1h, 24h=1d and 360d=1y
Over the years we get older eventually when we have the time we will look over our life and wonder what happened to the time. The reason we have not seen the time passing is because of ignorance. We have ignorance because of the fall and our busy everyday lives. Yes our culture is quite rigid and in a way revolves around time. However, its that rigidness of time that allows us to obtain that ignorance.
Time is interesting, we can't change it, turn it back, slow it down, or speed it up. However, what we can change and affect is what we do with that time.
Time is often a restraint, but how would we make time freeing? From my point of view I see the end of my time here on earth as a line of freedom. When I'm raised from this planet I will no-longer be under the restraint of earth's laws. Time will not effect me because time will not exist where I will be. However, that point doesn't really offer anything that can be applied right here where I am to make time a freedom not a restraint.
The main thing I can get from the fact that time is limited here on earth is motivation. We can be motivated by the fact that we may not be here tomorrow. If we are to get everything out of this life possible in the time we have we must make our moves quickly.
Switchfoot - Gone
We are not infinite
We are not permanent
Nothing is immediate
We're so confident
In our accomplishments
Look at our decadence
Over the past few days I really felt down because I felt like what I was doing wasn't really doing anything. What I was doing didn't seem like it had any purpose, but then Sunday came and I again felt like my life had purpose because what I did that day was something lasting.
Are you using the time you have or just letting it slip by? Don't live life with regrets. Be profound and take action doing something for God, something that lasts. Time always moves on and we can't stop it, but that shouldn't hold us back from taking action.
Time is interesting, we can't change it, turn it back, slow it down, or speed it up. However, what we can change and affect is what we do with that time.
Time is often a restraint, but how would we make time freeing? From my point of view I see the end of my time here on earth as a line of freedom. When I'm raised from this planet I will no-longer be under the restraint of earth's laws. Time will not effect me because time will not exist where I will be. However, that point doesn't really offer anything that can be applied right here where I am to make time a freedom not a restraint.
The main thing I can get from the fact that time is limited here on earth is motivation. We can be motivated by the fact that we may not be here tomorrow. If we are to get everything out of this life possible in the time we have we must make our moves quickly.
Switchfoot - Gone
We are not infinite
We are not permanent
Nothing is immediate
We're so confident
In our accomplishments
Look at our decadence
Over the past few days I really felt down because I felt like what I was doing wasn't really doing anything. What I was doing didn't seem like it had any purpose, but then Sunday came and I again felt like my life had purpose because what I did that day was something lasting.
Are you using the time you have or just letting it slip by? Don't live life with regrets. Be profound and take action doing something for God, something that lasts. Time always moves on and we can't stop it, but that shouldn't hold us back from taking action.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Speakology
At City Challenge and Creation Festival last summer I was thinking about how as a society it seems that we are using our brains less. What spurs this to happen is laziness and technology. Now I'm not downing technology, but what it can do to you if you let it. The brain is insane! Its power and capacity is huge! If we stop using our brain more and more and become ruled by our technology and laziness we will soon be unable to learn. Learning and coming upon new knowledge by what you already know is one of the great things we can do. I'm saying this to give you the reasoning behind my decision to start talking in such a way that surprises people and pretty much forces them to think. This method isn't dependent upon correct English, actually sometimes I use wrong wordage to try and get people to think. That is ultimately why I use weird words and wording in my blog posts. I don't know if my way of talking does what I want it to do or even if I use it, but in a way it defines me. Language does that, its one reason why we think about southerners and northerners differently. Their language defines them on the surface.
One who had the most impressive way of talking was Jesus. Jesus asked a lot of questions when he was on earth. Jason Ostrander wrote a book about 99 questions he picked out of the Bible that Jesus asked. The thing I found that was so cool about the way Jesus asked questions was how they were perfect. Obviously they would be perfect, but its just so cool how much you can get out of His questions. No one could have asked the questions like He did. One quite interesting and great question is in Matthew.
Matthew 19:17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?"
In this verse Jesus was having a conversation with a rich man who had obeyed all the commandments, but knew he was still missing something. Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. However, the man couldn't do that because he loved his possessions to much. You see there was one thing getting in the way of the man focusing on God. That one thing was his possessions. We can't let the things of this world get in the way of our relationship with God. However, the point Jesus was probably trying to make in verse 17 was that we need to focus on God more than doing good because He is most important. Knowing and loving God is more important than obeying all the commandments.
From that question asked by Jesus in Matthew you can find a couple of points you can take from it. The question is quite different, thought provoking, and what Jesus has said stays true forever. The words that Jesus spoke while on earth offer so much for us to learn from. God's way of speaking is and was very profound. I can't explain how perfect God's words are because they are not on the human scale of perfect. Why don't we use His words more often if the are so perfect?
One who had the most impressive way of talking was Jesus. Jesus asked a lot of questions when he was on earth. Jason Ostrander wrote a book about 99 questions he picked out of the Bible that Jesus asked. The thing I found that was so cool about the way Jesus asked questions was how they were perfect. Obviously they would be perfect, but its just so cool how much you can get out of His questions. No one could have asked the questions like He did. One quite interesting and great question is in Matthew.
Matthew 19:17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?"
In this verse Jesus was having a conversation with a rich man who had obeyed all the commandments, but knew he was still missing something. Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. However, the man couldn't do that because he loved his possessions to much. You see there was one thing getting in the way of the man focusing on God. That one thing was his possessions. We can't let the things of this world get in the way of our relationship with God. However, the point Jesus was probably trying to make in verse 17 was that we need to focus on God more than doing good because He is most important. Knowing and loving God is more important than obeying all the commandments.
From that question asked by Jesus in Matthew you can find a couple of points you can take from it. The question is quite different, thought provoking, and what Jesus has said stays true forever. The words that Jesus spoke while on earth offer so much for us to learn from. God's way of speaking is and was very profound. I can't explain how perfect God's words are because they are not on the human scale of perfect. Why don't we use His words more often if the are so perfect?
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