Sheep or Goat?
I was listening to a sermon this week and something he said really jumped out at me. He said, “The problem with Christians today is that we love the sheep and goat story too much and ignore the stories of coming together.” Like the Pharisees, I think we can too often be so smug in our Salvation that we kind of imagine ourselves separating the sheep and goats. You know, just helping out the Lord, in case He had missed the sins of this person or that person. I was pretty smugly thinking of all the Christians I know who are always talking about every one else who is going to hell and then I realized what I was doing. Sitting in judgment of anyone, even my fellow Christians, is not exactly the action of a “sheep.” Now, I am all...
Satan's LAST victory over the believer
My grandmother died last night and again, I’m faced with tragedy. I am not generally good at sorrow / grief, and I typically respond in somewhat cold, logical manner. Though my grandmother was a Christian and I fully rejoice that she is in the presence of our Savior (Come quickly Jesus!), part of identifying with grief is really seeing death for what it is. Very similar to what I said in my last post, death really is a stark reminder of the consequences of sin. It is a victory for the devil in a lot of ways. I am reminded of the scene in the Passion of the Christ where the Devil figure is walking through the crowd as Jesus is being killed. There is a certain level of triumph in his face, yet he is apprehensive. The death of Christ was the...
Look it or Be it
I have come to an interesting point in my life in the last 5-10 years. Growing up I was under weight and I could eat whatever I wanted and I never put on a pound. When I was 18 I was 6 foot 6 and I weighed 150 pounds. Now I’m still 6 foot 6 but lets just say I weight a good bit more. I haven’t changed my eating habits as my life and my metabolism have slowed down. The problem I have run into is I really like certain foods that are really not good for me, but luckily when your over weight and 6 foot 6 there is a lot more room to spread the weight over. So I don’t look as unhealthy as I actually am and that causes me to think that hey maybe I don’t need to give up those bad things. I realized that this is the same way I live my Christian life...
A Just God?
One of the most common arguments I’ve heard from atheists is that the Christian God is an unjust god. Often they rely on Old Testament scripture to defend this argument. One popular reference is Joshua’s conquest of Jericho, when God demands that the Isrealites wipe out every living thing in the city, including women, children, and animals. This is basically genocide. God is demanding the killing of children. That’s tough to argue about. Sometimes this leads to the assertion that God is only just to certain people. Sometimes it leads people to feel that even if this God is real, they would do rather go their own way than serve Him. How do you deal with arguments like this? I feel like they certainly bring up a point that deserves to be addressed,...
Always Room for Repentance
I normally don’t like repenting because of two reasons: 1). I hate admitting when I’m wrong, and 2). I have this fear that God will eventually lose His patience. Even after nearly 10 years of being a Christian, I still don’t have my crap straight. I’ve made progress, of course, but there are still moments when I screw up. And I mean really screw up! One thing I struggle with is anger. I’m incredibly defensive, so when some one is giving me constructive criticism, that’s when Passive Aggressive Travis comes out. “Well,” I say, “excuse me for not being perfect.” Sometimes I say worse things. Then I realize, “Wait, did I just act like a jerk?” Not too long ago I was talking with a friend,...