To Get A Step Closer

There's an ancient phrase that goes, "know thyself". I think it originated from some Greek philosophers. This saying is still prevalent today. Some people even consider "knowing themselves" the philosophy to life. Coming from a Christian point of view this saying may be borderline blasphemy, but I think it has some value to it.

The phrase's original purpose was to, an attempt, reach the "ultimate truth". The phrase is somewhat related to humanism dare I say? People are trying find the answer to life by looking into themselves, looking at their human nature. In the Christian world this would be...not correct, because God's Word is the ultimate truth.

But what if I say that, by knowing oneself better and better, he or she would be drawing closer to God? Think of it this way: by nature, us humans are sinful and corrupted. That's why we need Christ. We can easily say we understand that fact, but do we truly, profoundly, understand that? I don't think so. At least I know I don't. I go around saying I'm a sinner, but my words doesn't always have a lot of weight to it. That's because I don't always remember what it truly means to be a sinner, and neither do non-Christians...most of the time. So, let's say that "know thyself" is accurate in the sense that: the ultimate truth is found when we understand more and more about our corrupted human nature. The more corrupted we are, the more we need God's hand, His healing. Christ. God pours His love unto the lowest of the lows. God pours His love unto us. How low are we?

Something Sweet I Found

I was listening to Mark Driscoll the other day, and he made a mention of this:

http://worldwide-classroom.com/

It's a website from Covenant Seminary. It has over twenty courses directly from the Seminary. You can listen to the lecture online, read the lecture notes(posted on the website as well), or even do some studying by going through the study guides they provided for you. If you've been thinking about going to a seminary but are not sure, this is definitely a good place to check out. The lectures are DIRECTLY from the school! It's like going to a seminary for free and there's no pressure of failing. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get anymore wonderful than that.

Valentine's Day Reflection

I was talking to a friend about Valentine's Day yesterday. She told me, and I quote, "Valentine's Day is STUPID!" At first, what she wrote seemed like something rather immature, you know, it's like an answer that a middle-schooler would give. It's almost a non-answer because there's almost no good reasoning behind it. This made me question her as to why she thought Valentine's Day was stupid. My conversation with her brought me to two conclusions.

I.
Valentine's Day's true meaning has nothing to do with mushy love or whatever the world has brought it to be. Being a Catholic, she told me how there are, like, I think six St. Valentines, and none of them has anything to do with love. She also argued that corporations use whatever saint they want to make money. For example, using Valentine's Day to increase sales of chocolate and St. Patrick's Day to increase sales of beer. I liked her argument. It made sense to me, but in my mind it begs to question: have I been skewing things that God has shown to me? A first thing I thought of was Christmas. It's suppose to be the day of Christmas. Often times I become the sinner that puts worldly presents that I'll get on Christmas Day before the Godly gift of Christ. I also thought of going to church. Every Sunday it's suppose to be an obligation to go worship our glorious Creator. It's cliche to say, but church can definitely become a social club instead of the house of God.

What are some things that God has shown to you through His grace?

Are you taking some of them in the wrong way?

II.
When I first started talking to my friend I made a bad assumption. I asked her, "think of it this way. You're saying Valentine's Day is stupid now, but what if in a year you're going out with someone and you're really looking forward to spend that special day with him? Would you still think it's stupid then?" Something very humbling came from this question.

I was figuratively slapped in the face because she, in fact, does have a boyfriend as of yesterday. Fortunately she was really cool about it. Which made me feel even worse. Assumptions are not about looking at a person as who they are. We are blessed to have God see us and know us as individuals. Who are we to look at His other creations and have terrible thoughts? I'm ashamed of myself.

Time: Some Random And Scattered Thoughts

Lately I've been thinking about giving things up for Christ. I'm going to use C.S. Lewis as a lift-off point. In Mere Christianity he writes:

I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.

In the context of the quote he is speaking of charity. Such as tithing and giving to charities and things of that sort. I believe the quote can be taken a step further though. Let's think of time as money. We acquire money through hard work (hopefully not stealing), and in turn money is a resource we can use to acquire other things. Isn't time similar to money in that sense? I think the only difference is that, time is a God-given gift. We don't have to work hard to earn it. It is given to us out of grace. Much like a resource, time is also expendable. There's a set amount of time for us on Earth. There's a set amount of time for us to find Christ and accept Him. Once we run out of time, we're done. Heaven or hell. With or without Him.

Going back to the quote, I think time is a resource that we can give to God. And the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. I know for me, I like to waste a lot of time. I rather sit around and be bored than to say, read the Bible or do homework. I only do things for God when it's God time. Like every morning and Sunday mornings. Sure, there isn't anything wrong with that, but I get the feeling I'm still owing God something.

Hmm...

Well, He gave His only Son for me, but I'm only giving him a few hours of my life every week. There's the problem. I'm being pretty selfish, aren't I? I need to give more of my time to Him. Whether that be playing on a worship team, doing bible studies more often, or taking some extra time to pray more often. Malachi 3:10 says, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." I want to think of tithe as resource. It is as much time as money. We don't have much time in our lives, so let's give more of it to our Creator. More than we can spare.