godliness

based on a comment from a friend: 'I hate being so spiritual one day and then being such a pagan the next.' I thought about that for a bit, and decided that it's the difference between godliness and ungodliness. between Godly living and unGodly living. and I know exactly what he means. unfortunately, the problem with falling into sin is that i don't hate my ungodly moments when i'm in the midst of them. in fact, i pursue them. and the more i pursue them, the harder it is to get back into a Godly lifestyle. i still haven't picked my Bible up in a long time, despite my yearnings for 'unconditional Christianity'. and it's not that i'm enjoying an unGodly life right now -- i mean, i have my unGodly moments, which seem to be more frequent these past few weeks (i've kind of noticed a trend in my blogging...i don't blog often when i sludge through this Godly living stuff). but, despite all of it, i'm growing. It was maybe five or six years ago that i had completely given up on God. He didn't seem to care about me, so why should i care about Him? that was my reasoning five or six years ago. i've come to realize the truth since then. the actual problem was that we both just cared about me. make sense? anyway, so last summer i was going through a time of doubt where i made a conscious decision to trust God, even though i wasn't sure where He was. i remember standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean during our hike with Lifeteams, and telling God that i would continue to serve Him despite the fact i doubted he was there. Now, i know He's there. sure there are doubts. but i know He's there. despite ungodliness, He's there. and He wants me back as much as i want to be back. so i guess it's up to me.

a new leaf

well, i have turned over a new leaf this summer. it might very well be one of the best leaves on my tree of life, too. i've taken to wearing shorts! for anyone who knows me well enough, i have never really been a shorts-wearer, except for when camping, swimming and the rare sporting occassion. generally, however, my legs don't often see the sun in summer. man, what freedom is found in shorts...i tell ya! my legs feel like they're breathing, and the feeling of a fresh breeze blowing the leg hairs around is so refreshing! and as an added bonus, my legs even look tanned! in fact, they're even covered in scratches from a day of removing bushes and trees (in shorts)...making for a great looking pair of a working-man's legs. ha, how surprised you would be to find out i work in an office for the majority of my week. ha! that's a bit of random leg-talk for ya.

unconditional christianity

Just a thought. What if Christians lived their life of service to God unconditionally? It's something that crossed my mind today, and already I know that it's not something that I write in an accusatory manner to other Christians. If I think about it, this thought first crossed my mind yesterday as I realized that my devotional life is in the pits right now. The funny thing is, I know that there are areas of my personal life that go down the pits right along with a lack in my devotional life. And so, the thought came to me yesterday that if I pick up my devotional life again that God would bring other areas of my life back up as well. And so this is where this idea of unconditional Christianity comes from. What if I just did my devotions with no expectations from God? [is this theologically correct?] What if I did my devotions unconditionally?

Every time I hear a pastor (non-Reformed -- and I've actually only experienced this twice to be honest) preach a message on giving financially to the church, I hear them talk about God blessing you in return. That God will bless you 10 times over if you give financially. I have issues with that. And I don't know whether its because I always feel guilty after a sermon like that or if I genuinely feel that these pastors are using God as a way of getting people to give money. I'm not against giving to the church, don't get me wrong, it's just the way that pastors approach this topic. Anyway, the unfortunate thing for me is that I find myself trapped into this mindset that if I give money to the church, God will bless me...and so I give not for the sake of giving, but for the sake of the blessing that is promised in return. What if I gave unconditionally? Would I continue to give if there wasn't a blessing in return? I mean, there's so much crap out there coming from evangelists who claim that God will give people material health, material wealth and material prosperity in return for their commitment of service to Him (or in return for their money). What is that? If that were true, and it was proven that being a Christian brought such things, wouldn't everybody be a Christian? Give me a break.

We speak often about God loving us unconditionally. That is a fact. No matter what we do, no matter where we've been, no matter who we are, God loves us. And God doesn't just love those who follow Him....'for God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.' (John 3:16,17). Is it possible to give even a bit of that unconditional love back? Can we try?