After My Storm

A Random Burst Of Remembrance

2009-03-31T23:28:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite verses in the bible is Luke 12:48. It goes something like: "But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much more will be required, and from him to whom they entrust much, they will demand the more."

This verse very much reflects the saying of "ignorance is bliss." It's so true, isn't it? The terribleness of this world is directly proportional to the amount of knowledge we receive from Christ. Terribleness is a subjective term, so some people would see more of it than others. Regardless though, if we weren't knowledgable, the world probably wouldn't appear as bad. Think about the "good old days" when we were children. Life was so nice back then. Why? Because we knew nothing. Everything was handed down to us by our parents. All we had to do was eat and have fun. Paying the bills and working? Well, the adults worried about that.

I think this idea corresponds to the story of Adam and Eve. The world probably would have stayed pretty awesome if they did not eat from the tree of knowledge. The what? Knowledge? Yeah. Once they ate the fruit, everything started to suck. They felt embarrassed because they were naked and ran away from God.

Once a person gains knowledge, I feel there is a great dilemma. The feeling of knowing something is awesome, and sharing that knowledge is awesome as well. I had always thought it was great being able to share what I learn every day, but the thing is, that is making the world worse for others. Remember, knowledge and terribleness of the world. So what do I do? I could share something and make people become more knowledgable, or withhold knowledge from them, but that seems wrong. As of today, I will continue to share all that I learn, but nonetheless the dilemma lives on.

Been Thinking About Some Stuff, So I Wrote A Poem

2009-03-19T12:32:00.006-04:00

Oblivion Eclipses A Man Celebrating Eureka

Tomorrow will rain
A thunderstorm of confetti.
I will drown in vain jubilation
Because I sank long ago.

Once, the world was a cliff.
I stood on the edge.
Gravity wanted me dead,
But Someone held my hand.

Today I live on a mountain.
I greased its slopes with sin.
Sisyphus gave me his stone.
Now I know how he feels
And more.

The Sweating Summer Sun Is The Depth Of Wrongdoing

2009-03-17T19:14:00.005-04:00

One can easily tell from this graph that summer does not help Christian men in terms of temptation. As the weather gets nicer, let's try to remember what's important. Girls are good and having a nice beach body is good as well. But God tops all of it. He's the best and everything else that's nice is second. All second. If this post makes you feel uncomfortable or makes you think that I'm too "old-fashioned" then......good. Not everything about the Christian life is supposed to be comfortable. As siblings in Christ we are supposed to call each other out. Even when things are uncomfortable to talk about.

P.S.--My apologies to the girls that come across this post. As a guy, I do guy-things once in awhile.

The Bursted Bubble Leaves A Trail Of Hope

2009-03-15T22:52:00.002-04:00

Couple of weeks ago I came to a realization of the situation I'm in. I go to college. I'm not living at home. I am completely immersed in the college-life/dorming-experience/whatever-you-call-it. At first thought, it really isn't a big deal, but it really is. College life is not life in the real world. In the real world people work at jobs, feed families, and deal with real world problems. In college students studies. That's really about it. At least it is what me, as a student, is SUPPOSED to do. Can't say I exactly perform to the best of my abilities when it comes to studying...

Anyways, that was just something I realized. I chewed on the principle for awhile, but was unable to digest it. I had one of those moments which I made a claim, but was unable to prove it. Not until this past weekend. I had the fortunate chance to hang out with my one friend who is a prospective auto mechanic. In order to graduate, he needs a certain amount of intern hours at a mechanic's shop. Unfortunately the economic state the country is in is not allowing that. He had gone from looking for a car shop to looking any job he can get. Going solo thru college is hard.

After hearing his story that night, my bubble popped. I was in a very good college, getting an education with all my tuition paid for. I was pretty much economy-proof. After hearing my friend's story though, I cannot help but to feel extremely broken. How can I be foolish enough to think the world is utopic when it's full of sin and sorrow? How long have I been taking this ignorant view on life? I felt so narrow-minded. A soldier from a defeated faction scolded for incompetence. At this point something funny happened. I recalled a phrase that I repeat to myself often:

God is good.

How can this be so? My friend is going thru such hard time and I've been living like a fool. God is always good, but it's been hard to figure out how he fits into this situation. Maybe He's breaking us down so we can take the next step towards Him. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel. Just because I don't see it now doesn't mean it's not there, right?

To Get A Step Closer

2009-02-28T23:03:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-17T17:51:00.002-05:00

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

2009-02-15T10:57:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-13T13:58:00.002-05:00

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.

I Interpreted My Dream

2009-01-28T18:14:00.000-05:00

I had a two-part dream last week. You know, where you dream about something one night and the next night your dream is like a sequel to the dream you had the night before? Yeah. I had one of those. Furthermore, I think an allusion to Christianity could be made with my dream. All things point to Him, right? Let me tell you my dream first.

Part I
The dream first started off with my mom and I cruising down some country road in our car. She was driving. When we came to a "T" intersection, for some reason she didn't stop. We drove right past the stop sign. We were heading for death. At this moment, a big truck came through the intersecting road and hit us.

So you're thinking now, they're dead either way! No. This was where the noteworthy part of the dream started.

When the truck t-boned us, instead of killing us anyways, it saved us from death. For some reason, when the truck made contact, our car didn't get destroyed. Instead our car bounces off the truck and started floating sideways. Friction was totally unaccounted for in this moment. Our car just floated sideways down the road. This went on for who knows how long, and then finally we stopped. In a town somewhere. Although we didn't die from the accident, I had a terrible headache. I told my mom something (which I forgot) and then I left the car. I then randomly entered a building. There was a big black dog in this building. Vicious. It took me a second to realize that I was in grave danger, but by then it was too late. Before I even had time to react, the dog came at me. It clamped down on my left arm with its powerful teeth. I tried shaking it off, punching it in the head, nothing worked. I was done. At this point I woke up with my heart pounding.

Part II
This night, my dream brought me to the same building again. Upon entering, I saw the same black dog. But this time, it was turned around facing the other way. For some reason I walked further in. The dog continued to ignore me. Since the dog was ignoring me, I contemplated about how to kill it. There was a door to the side of the dog. I thought I'd kill the animal by luring through the door and then crush its head by closing the door. Proceeding with my plan, I stepped into the adjacent room. With the door halfway open and the door knob in my hand, I whistled. The dog perked up and turned around. It began to run towards me. Before I realize it, it was past the door and to the side of me! I thought I was gonna "die" for the second night in a row. To my surprise though, instead of killing me, the dog began to lick my hand and wagging its tail. I woke up confused.

Analysis
I believe my two-part dream was symbolic for my fear of death. In the Part I, I thought I was going to die. I mean, that usually happens when you get t-boned by a semi going at full speed, right? Yeah, but death probably doesn't turn out the way we think it does. Instead of being painful or something scary, "death" result in me floating away in my car...? It doesn't make much sense, but neither do a lot of things in life if you think about it. Therefore, I think, whenever we die, whatever happens is probably not going to make a lot of sense.

So, the part with the dog. I think the black dog symbolized death, seeing how it killed me... It further symbolizes death because I feared it. I fear death. The first night it got the best of me. Second night around though, death surprised me. Again. Instead of completely demolishing me, death licked my hand and wagged its tail. What?

I think the point of my dream was that, death should not be feared. Well, I guess one would fear it if they know they're going to hell. But for me, as a personally lesson, I should really let go of this irrational fear. All that dying means is that I'll be with God. Quite awesome when you think about it.

I Wanna Do Things Right for Once

2009-01-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

I read an interesting quote couple days ago. Here's two variations of it:

"Practice makes permanent." --Bobby Robson

"Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent, only perfect practice makes perfect." --Norton Juster

Unfortunately the Internet isn't always 100% accurate, so my apologies if the proper person/persons is not given credit for this quote.

Anyways,

There's a cliche view of practice. The word practice generally has a positive connotation. Without too much thinking, I would say practice is good because practice equals getting better at something. If you think about it though, practice can be bad. There is such a thing.

What if you practice sinning?

You would get better at it wouldn't you?

Wouldn't it become permanent?

I know I'm a master of sinning. Whether I like it or not, I practice it way too much. In fact, I'm so good at it it has become a habit. Second nature. Sometimes I sin without even realizing what I'm doing.

I cannot break this permanence. This permanence of sin.

God can.

I'm back!

2009-01-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

My apologies to anyone out there that have been reading my blog. I had been on a hiatus last month due to winter break. I really have no excuse for my non-posting. I was just being lazy. It was wrong on my part to be lazy....yes, yes it was.

Anyways, I wanna start off my postingness by introducing to y'all a C.S. Lewis quote which has lots of meaning for me. It is from the book Mere Christianity. In the chapter on Social Morality, he writes:

"You will find this again and again about anything that is really Christian: every one is attracted by bits of it and wants to pick out those bits and leave the rest. That is why we do not get much further: and that is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say they are fighting for Christianity."

This quote has a lot of "stuff" to it, so to speak. First of I really like how he states that every one is attracted to bits and pieces of Christianity. "Every one" would include non-Christians in this context I believe. This is true, don't you think? If you happened to bust out a verse such as Exodus 20:15 (Ten Commandments) or something, wouldn't it be likely that you'll find people of various religions and even atheists agreeing with you? I mean, i'm sure the motive to not steal would be different for each person, but in the general sense people would find this verse agreeable.

Of course though, that verse would only be agreeable if it is not in the context of the bible, which brings us to my second point. The "every one" in the quote includes Christians, as well. When I read this line, a redlight popped up in my head. Stop. Is this something that I'm doing? Yea, it is. I could really be quoting the "nice" verses all day; not so much the harsh ones. An example would be John 3:16 versus 1 John 2:15. The former is the good news that God cares about us and allows us to achieve salvation through Jesus (cool!), but the latter tells us that if we love anything worldly, we cannot love God (ouch!). So.......it would be optimal for you to think about this point in regards to you own life before you read on, although it is really optional.

Thinking yet?

Okay, third point! the words "that is why we do not get much further" pretty much tells us that, you know, if you only stay with the stuff you like, you'll be forever be a lukewarm Christian. I've read and heard many things that talks about being "totally on fire for Christ" or "I'm a fervent Christian!" But really, what are you fired up about? It really does feel good to be totally on fire about Christ's love for us, but there's more. Until you're excited about being a Christian that lives in a sinful world, being persecuted for your faith, and totally happy about giving up your love for wordly things, you won't get much further. Nothing wrong with liking the bits and pieces of Christianity, but there is something wrong with not growing in Christ.

The last line in this quote talks about fighting for opposite things but all the while fighting for Christianity. Example: whether we're fighting to accept the fact that God loves us or fighting to accept the fact that God has infinite wrath, in both cases we're fighting to become a better Christian, right? God is multi-dimensional to say the least, and resultantly some of the dimensions are gonna be different ends of a spectrum.

Today, let the journey be renewed. Let's pick up more of the bits and pieces of Christianity, but this time, let's pick up the nice and the harsh. Especially the stuff that doesn't appeal to us. Sin did not appeal to God, but He still picked us up as sinners.

Superheroes

2008-11-23T18:26:00.000-05:00

I believe superheroes are a very good allegory for the relationship between man and God. Let’s start with Spiderman, but only because I probably know his story the best. Think of the radioactive spider has the hand of God and Peter Parker being us—humans. Think about it for a second.

Do you have an idea? Okay, let’s work backwards.

Peter Parker is a big time nerd in the Spiderman series. He studies hard, does his thing in school, and lives a relatively humble life with his aunt and uncle. He gets picked on in school often but he doesn’t retaliate. It can be argued whether or not IF he would have fought back, but that’s not the important point. So one day, Parker is doing his usual nerdy stuff—attending a science convention of sorts involving spiders (boring!). I’m sure he didn’t expect much from the shin-dig, but unbeknownst to him, he would proceed to get bitten by a radioactive spider and gains some sweet powers. Peter Parker didn’t expect to gain super powers, nor either did he want to. He was in no way a power-thirsting teenager. Parker was just doing his thing, and bam! Out of nowhere the god of the marvel universe decides to make Peter Parker a superhero better known as Spiderman.

How does that relate to God’s teachings? How about Psalm 147:6 “The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.” Peter Parker was pretty meek I’d say. And the bible teaches us to be meek, and be humble in life as well. Look at 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” When Peter Parker became Spiderman didn’t he in a sense became “subject” to New York City? Didn’t he make himself unto the form of a servant? He battles the wicked and evil and all the while he has to hide his identity and still take crap from everybody around him (him and Spiderman, actually). I guess you can think of his superpowers as the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, in a sense.

Parker was given his superpowers, but he still had free will. He didn’t have to do anything with his powers. Or worse, he could have done evil with it. But he didn’t. We’re given the choice to become Christians, and some people chose to. Some people instead choose with their free will to do bad things. Speaking for those people who did choose to become Christians, it’s a big responsibility, isn’t it? We aren’t just defending New York City against evil. That would be too easy. Instead we’re called to proclaim the kingdom of God and live a life that would be glorifying to our Creator. That’s a lot harder than Spiderman’s job.

P.S.-Just because a good allegory can be drawn from the story of Spiderman, by no means does that mean Marvel Comics is justified in biblical terms. Sure, I do WISH Stan Lee was purposely and secretly trying to draw Christian analogies with his comics, but deep down…nah. I deem it unlikely.

Don't Disappoint Your Father

2008-11-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: I’m sorry if anyone reads this that happens to not have a father. May you allow God to your one and only father if that’s the case. He’s the ultimate Dad, and He’ll be a better dad than anyone on this earth.

I often neglect the fact that God is the Father of all fathers. He treats us as how all fathers should treat their children. We may not always agree with our fathers or listen to them, and I must say I do the same with God.

Even though we go through trials and punishments, it’s because God wants the best for us, just like our dads. I never knew my dad well because I didn’t live with him much when I was growing up. Whenever I did see him though (which was about once or twice a year), he would lecture the crap out of me. Whenever he’s around I hide in my room. When he tries to lecture me I would zone out and not pay attention to him. I moan and complain when he makes me do something. Earlier in my life I refused to acknowledge the fact that he did all the things he did out of love. I did not like him at all. As I grew older though, I begin to understand and accept where my dad was coming from. He truly cares about me, or else he wouldn’t bother lecturing me.

Can you see the parallel of my life compared to the relationship we have with God? At least that’s how it’s like for me. God speaks to people, and I’m sure He’d speak to me. But this cannot happen if I’m not paying attention, when I don’t care about what He says. This is what praying for God to “open our eyes” and “soften our hearts” mean! Ah, it’s all because He cares about us. He loves us in a way that no other being can. That’s why He does the things that He does to us. We may not be able to comprehend it at the moment, but some point later we’ll realize that what God did was not bad. It is actually for our ultimate good.

Anyways, the point of this post is to tell you that you shouldn’t sin. Duh, you knew that right? Yeah we all know that. But! Think about it this way—

Would you share with your biological father all the dirty and shameful things that you did? All the sins you committed in your life, ever? Probably not. And if it were our decision, we’d probably prefer our heavenly Father to not know these things, either. But He does. He knows all that we did. Yeah He forgives us, but imagine the pain that He feels when we sin. Imagine how shocked and disappointed your dad would be when he finds out about a certain bad deed that you did. Just one. Multiply that by ALL that sins you’ve ever committed in your life. God knows about all of them. Just try and imagine what grief and disappointment we are to Him. Yet He forgives us. Not only does He forgive us, He forgives us in a way by sending His OWN son to pay for our iniquities. Wow. That is how much He loves us.

Ch-Check It Out

2008-11-10T23:25:00.000-05:00

Rap is awesome.
It is hard to find good Christian rap.
Lecrae is a good Christian rappper.
Listen to his song and begin to like rap.

Another and Another

2008-11-10T23:07:00.000-05:00

I felt down in the dumps tonight. The spiritual dumps. On top of that I'm sick. I had a quick, but good talk with my friend Mike online, and he pretty much told me what's up. It wasn't exactly about the stuff he told me, but it was more about what I came to realize as he talked.

I told him that I've been praying a lot more, and reading a lot more often than I had before, but I felt more of a spiritual deprivation than ever. As Mike and I talked I realized that I've been reading and praying for all the wrong reasons. I prayed daily for God to help me get through the day. Now that's not a bad prayer, but it definitely wasn't setting me up for anything. So I get through the day. Now what? I pray for another day. We should live day by day because God could take us at any moment. The problem was I wasn't setting any goals in life. I had no hope in my life. This is coming from a neutral point of view (neither religious or secular I suppose). Living without hope is living in despair. That is going to get you nowhere. No wonder I felt like crap!

So I guess I gotta pray less about the daily stuff, and more about the grand scheme of things, and pray more for God to work in my life to glorify Him than to just help me to "get thru the day". It's selfish stuff. We need to constantly set up goals. But not "personal" goals. A good way is to think constantly about more ways to help His kindgom to grow. If that involves fixing yourself, do it. So you can become a better servant of Christ. This "personal" goal is for the His greater glory and not for our worldly desires. It is personal yet very impersonal at the same time.

Finished with one goal? Go on to another. Never stop, never stop. Keep working hard in this life until God wants you to stop. At that point He'll take us and we'll be happy.

Enjoying Free Stuff

2008-11-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

The other day I went to the bank. Upon the counter I requested to deposit a couple of checks. As I handed my signed paychecks over, the banker on the other side of the counter said to me: "Here! Have a free t-shirt!" Wow. Just like that, totally unexpected. I received a free gift without clear reasoning or former knowledge. That totally made my day.

On my way back from the bank I pondered. The best things in life are the things we get for free, isn't it? Waking up one day and a hundred-dollar bill just falls on your head is definitely better than, say cleaning bathrooms all day to earn that one hundred dollars. But of course, earning something definitely gives us a better sense of personal accomplishment than say, just getting for no reason. But say there are two choices. You can either a) get it for free or b) work for it, and the condition states there are no negative consequences either way. It is unlikely in this situation anyone would pick "b".

Keep in mind though, the best things in life aren't always the most appreciated things. The most appreciated things are the things people themselves "earned". Probably not many people thank God everyday for giving them the breath of life and their mother for labor. But likely many people show off their knowledge every day or brag about their affluence. Think about it. Birth was free to us, but it's seldom thought of. Having a good job that makes a lot of money probably costs years of education and precious hours every day, but we won't forget to talk about it any time soon.

So, "earned" stuff are good, but "free" stuff are the best. What else is free in life? How about God's grace and salvation? How about Jesus's death on the cross to free us from sin? All the things we've earned ourselves is crap in God's eyes (Isiah 64:6). Let's enjoy and rejoice in what's free, shall we?

Down with the Sickness

2008-11-08T19:54:00.000-05:00

No...I'm not talking about the song by Disturbed, even though that is a pretty sweet song. I am titling this post as such because I am literally sick. Some kind of viral infection and strep throat. I've been sick for three days now, and usually when people are sick they get pretty down, but to my surprise, the last few days I had were actually pretty awesome.

I speculate the reason as to why the sickness didn't bother me was because I began to pray more often. I kept myself in God and the negatives of this world didn't bother me.

I came to the conclusion that sickness is part of the physical body, and if you think about it, so is hunger, thirst, and health in general. If you fully give yourself up to Jesus Christ, the aforementioned worldly things shouldn't bother you anymore. Don't get me wrong though, after your leap of faith you're technically still living in this world, so if you stop eating you're gonna die! My point is--stop worrying about hunger, wealth, sickness, and other worldly stuff like that because God WILL provide, as long as we are living and believing in Him and glorifying Him.

The Election Post

2008-11-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

My apologies for doing things so out of time. I should have made this post two days ago, but WAY too many things were going through my mind and I had to do a great deal of "sorting." So, to the election.

Barack Obama is the president of the United States now. Some people are ecstatic about it and some people are probably angry/frustrated/sad/flabbergasted, maybe. I'm sure there are people out there that wouldn't have cared either way. I'm one of those people. Partially because I didn't vote. You could call me an unruly citizen who failed to fulfill his civic duty, but allow me to explain myself.

The reason I didn't vote was because I couldn't decide. I couldn't make a decision as to which candidate was "better." Know that I DO care about the welfare of this country and where Obama is going to lead us in the furture. But I also know that God will provide. Obviously Obama has won because it is part of God's plan. I could justify myself by saying: "I just let God chose the right person," but as true as it is, it still comes back as somewhat of an excuse because I really was not able to decide on who to vote for.

I'm sure there are fellow Christians out there who has done their research, and fully endorses one candidate over the other. I want to let you know that I did my research as well, but I still couldn't decide. How can that be so? Well, because during the process of which I looked each candidate up, I realized that I was simply seeing who's point of view I agreed the most with. Notice it is who "I" agree the most with. As a noobie Christian and a fresh believer, I couldn't trust myself to make a decision while fully knowing that I could go against God's will. Think about this. People pray for "their" candidate to win. Isn't "their" candidate a personal choice as to who they want to win? At times our selfish desire overcome God's.

At that time I thought of the phrase "WWJD". My reasoning was that Jesus is the king of all kings and president of all presidents. In the unlikely event of an election, Jesus would win without a shadow of a doubt. Well, so I thought, "Jesus is not on the ballot, how can I vote for him? I guess I'll just not vote and just believe in Him because I know this election doesn't matter too much in the grand scheme of things."

Looking back at my situation now, I think I failed. I failed to put my faith in God to know that He'll lead me to the right decision. Maybe the right decision WAS for me to not vote, but I guess in reality I could have voted, and it would have been okay. Because as I said, all is part of God's plan.

Sweet Song

2008-10-27T13:12:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my friend Nate's Dad and the youth group worship team at my church back home. I bring you this awesome song.

Let's Workout!

2008-10-27T13:11:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I try to use the process of sanctification to justify my reason to workout and/or participate physical activities. The verse I like to use is 1 Corinthians 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is in us, and our body is kind of like a temple that hosts it. If this is confusing I like compare it to the place called "Holy of Holies" in the Old Testament. Of course we as sinful mortals are definitely not cool enough for a direct comparison with that place, but the analogy helps somewhat.

My rationale behind said justification is that: if our body is a temple, then we should make the temple pretty awesome. I mean, it IS used to host God, and I don't think He would be very happy if we had the choice to offer Him a good temple and we are giving Him a shoddy one. With this thought in mind, let me remind you that there is no excuse for being overweight, or worse--obese. I'm not saying that it's not cool to be fat, I AM saying that the side effects that comes with being fat are not cool. If a person can be fat and not have heart problems/diabetes/sleep apnea/high cholesterol then I would definitely say being fat is pretty awesome. That is not the case though. An unhealthy body equals a shoddy temple, at least that's what I think.

I think I also need to note in this post that there's a fine line between staying in good shape for Jesus and getting ripped so you can attract the opposite gender's attention. Personally I think I'm crossing that line a bit. I am by no means "jacked" looking, I'm just saying that my mindset is a bit off. Is it so wrong to attract mates though? I mean, I do wanna get married, and I don't think my future wife would enjoy dating and marrying a fat bum. I guess there's a fine line there too. This would go back to my What We Do, Why We Do post.

Anyways, I'm done ranting about that topic. Sorry if anyone finds this post offensive. But seriously, you know what's right and wrong. If you don't do it for God (But you should!) there's still all the shallow and vain reasons in the world for you to not be overweight.

Finding Our Comfort Zone

2008-10-26T23:58:00.000-04:00

Home has always been the comfort zone for me. During my early years in high school, when some things happened to not go right, I retreated to my house. My house was quiet, a big ranch with just my mom and I. My friend Nate's house should be noted as well. We were and are best friends. His family generously shared their house with me, and on the weekends their house was also my comfort zone. When I came to Christ midway through my Junior year, I came to find church as my place of comfort. After school I would go there just to hang out and relax. Sometimes I did more meaningful things. And it was great.

Of course though, a person's comfort zone can be mental as well. I was comfortable with my own atheist/agnostic beliefs until I was bombarded with Christianity. After I became a follower of Christ, my comfort zone became having God as a personal figure, afraid to share Him with anyone. Even fellow brothers and sisters, sometimes.

Coming to college forced me out of my comfort zone. I knew it would be difficult, but I made myself do it. I felt that it was something I needed to do. A couple months into college life has slowly assimilated me into the sharing-the-gospel-and-fighting-for-God mode. This was a great thing and I felt I've grown so much after a mere two months. Riding on this new feeling, I returned home for fall break last weekend.

Back to the old comfort zone? No.

The break was great. I saw most of my friends, got in a good spiritual talk with my friend Mike, and also saw some of my friends fall into sin. Some of them just fell into a mud puddle, but some of them seemed as if they fell into sinking sand. It was only two months! Man did people change. Fortunately, my home didn't change much. I felt as though everything would just go smoothly. Nice home visit and then back to school again. No way though. God would never have my life go smoothly like that! And that's probably a good thing.

After the semi-rough home visit, I returned to Case very much unsettled. No more comfort zone for me. Every day I wonder what the heck I'm doing here in college. Without a place of comfort I felt I almost had no direction in life. Rabbits have their holes, horses have their stalls, and humans most definitely have their homes. Every day people go out, do their stuff, and at night there's a place for them to return to. May I draw a connection between myself and refugees in third world countries? I feel I don't have the right. But I think at least the mentality is similar here.

I guess the realization I came to tonight would revolve around Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." The Christians out in the religiously suppressed countries are crying out the Lord's Name and suffering for it. Where is their comfort zone? I have it much better than they do.

I thank God for helping me catch a glimpse of what true faith is like. Tonight I'll look to God as my place of peace and refuge.

My comfort zone is the position of my head when I bow to Him in prayer.
My comfort zone is in the air where my hands are held up high to lift Him in praise.

What about secrets?

2008-10-26T19:39:00.000-04:00

Recently in one of my classes here at Case we discussed secrets.

Are secrets good or bad? At first I believed secrets are a bad thing. As my teacher suggested, secrets can only exist if there is a community, where people are hiding things/information from one another (bad thing). He also goes to say that if you were the only person on earth, there would be no more secrets, because you then would have no one to hide anything from. I agree with him to a certain degree.

I thought that in an ideal community there would be no secrets, everyone can and would willing share their thoughts with one another. Because, I mean, if you're holding something in your heart it'll eventually bog you down, making you depressed or something. Also, in the grand scheme of things, you cannot hide anything from God. All the "secrets" you think you have He knows about.

With the idea of an ideal community in mind, I thought of the trinity. The trinity is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all in one. Being in a community of three is a characteristic of God. As we are made in the image of God, shouldn't we all at some point strive for that characteristic? Having a holy community among the believers? Well, okay then. I thought in God's perfect community there are no secrets, seeing how the three separate "Parts" are actually the same. It's like two person sharing the exact same brain. The two persons are different appearance-wise, but they have the same "container" for thoughts. So how can you NOT share what's in the container if you're both using it?

I just read a passage that may refute this train of thought I had. Matthew 24:36: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." WAIT. I believe this passage concerns the date and time of rapture, but that's not the point. This verse seemed to me as if the Father is withholding something from the Son, even though they are the same person. Could this be considered a secret? That the Father knows something that not even the Son knows? Before one goes on thinking too much about this, I want to make one thing clear, the clause "nor the Son" is omitted in some version, such as the KJV. Still though, is this a lie that certain editors put into the scripture then? Or does the Father really have something that the Son doesn't know about? I think this is a very curious case. Maybe someone would have answer out there. Please enlighten me if you know.

What We Do, Why We Do

2008-10-14T23:51:00.000-04:00

Acts 16:16-18 has made me think a lot about myself lately. Especially with myself in relation to the world. The said verses goes:

"And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour."

In this verse a fortune teller lady was possessed by some evil spirit and made her able to "tell fortunes" and what not. She went around saying Paul and the other disciples were "servants of the most high God." While this statement was true, Paul still turned around and cast the spirit away. Think about this, the spirit in the women wasn't lying, so why was it cast out?

Things may appear to be righteous in the world and be for a good cause, but we must discern which ones are for the glory of God and which ones are for self-righteousness and vain glory. The lady in Acts deceived others by telling "fortunes" while saying the disciples were the servants of God. So, one thing the damsel said was true, but the source of that truth was corrupted because the source (evil spirit) also made her deceive other people. There are similar situations like that in the world today. Some people work for and give to charity (the action performed). A few of these people do it out of the goodness of their heart, some for the glory of God, and some just wanna get famous (the source of the action).

Let's evaluate ourselves today. I know some of the things I like to do are for myself to look good and God doesn't appreciate it. Even though I know this, I lie to myself sometimes (don't do this) and say it's actually good work and for the glory of God. And think about this as you go on to do daily things as well. Are we holding the door for that person because of the Holy Spirit working in us, or is it because that person happens to be a hot girl/guy and we want to look good? Thin line, isn't it? Just one wrong turn and we're looking at hell instead of heaven.

Take it slow

2008-10-12T16:58:00.000-04:00

Today I was at a certain place with a friend who lives in the same dorm as me. He got caught up in something the last minute so I left before him. A few moments later he caught up to me and said: "Wow, I caught up to you. I dunno, I think I'm a fast walker." That may be it, but I told him instead I told him I was a slow walker instead. This is true. To strengthen my argument I said to him: "Yeah, when I go to class I usually leave half an hour before hand." This may or may not surprise you, but it should (haha). Most people from my dorm, when they leave for class, usually leaves 15 minutes before hand. That just goes to show you how slow I walk.

I never thought much about this "thing" I did (walking slow). But my friend suggested that it could be an allegory to enjoying life, taking it slow. I found his insight interesting because I did enjoy life and like to take things slow. As I thought more about it, something sunk into me. Should we all take things slow and enjoy life? Everywhere I go I see people walking fast and trying to get things done ASAP. And I suppose this principle applies to studying for tests, as well. Why struggle to try and cram information the night before? Studies show that it doesn't work well and people are probably aware of that. Might as well just go to bed instead of studying.

James 4:14 says: "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." This verse rings true for everyone. Our lives are so short in comparison to the grand scheme of things. Sure, the average human life span has increased over the years, but how much is 70, 80 years when compared to the history of the universe? Very small. And that's not even taking into consideration eternity. God is eternity, and eternity existed before time began and will continue after time stops. I think vapor is an overstatement to be honest.

So why ARE we hurrying? We should slow down, enjoy the beautiful Earth that God has created and humans have ruined. I'd say everyone should walk slower, maybe then we'll start to notice things that we haven't gotten the chance to see before because we've been walking so fast. Now as I say this, I don't imply that we should slack off. Sloth is a sin and slowing down our lifestyle doesn't necessarily make us less efficient. The span of our life has already been pre-determined by God, as wel as the works He wants us to do. We're only going to get as much done as He wants us to in this life time. If you get all the things done too early He might take you away earlier than you expect!

What is a "storm"?

2008-10-10T22:16:00.001-04:00

I thought I should explain what the name of my blog means before posting anything else.

"Storm" is a very broad term for me. I consider most events that occur in my life to be a "storm." It can be argued that most things are not significant enough to be called a "storm," but I feel that all events, if not a challenge, can still be tested and evaluated through "bible goggles." If looked at that that, I'd say a lot more things in life becomes storms. Maybe even your whole life will be a storm (I mean, as humans, we constantly fall for sin, yet we ARE constantly challenged to live in a more Godly-manner).