Just Keep Knocking!

Recently I heard of a girl who pressed paused in her walk with Jesus. She didn't deny him, but neither did she follow him, she just chose not to think about him for awhile. Her one reason for doing so was that she felt that Jesus wasn't doing enough in her life. She had waited for the holy spirit which she knew was promised to her, but after the initial "spiritual high" it felt that there was nothing there anymore. She thought Jesus had left her, so she chose to let go of him.

I always feel sad when I hear of people falling away or pressing pause on Christianity. Even though I have had a fair share of times when I thought "Why don't I just drop it all?", when I compare the world's values with Jesus' values, I see where real love comes from. What most makes my heart die a little is how the world can smother someone's senses, how it can entice so much their mind is clouded with a blinding haze, while God is trying to break through, blow the mist away to reveal the open sky of his unending love.

Coming back to my first paragraph, I initially heard of this girl's story in a talk at church, and my first thought was to ignore it and let all the "half-Christians" accept the challenge that he was giving. But God nudged me to look at her in terms of myself. It occurred to me that in the next five years, I could easily become like her. You could too. Slowly trying to take parts of my life away from God, until he has nothing. How can he mould his perfect creation if the clay runs away? Blaming God that he isn't changing me, when it is just because I won't let him.

What can we do? How can we continue to make sure God is present in our lives? Well, stealing from the man's sermon again, Jesus tells us exactly what we need to do.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will opened to you." Matthew 7:7 NIV

We need to ask God into our lives. But this isn't a one off thing. As irregular humans we are, our heart often throws fits and kicks God out. So we ask God again to come back in. Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking!

Strive forward in asking and seeking God, maybe even everyday, because pausing on Jesus is not worth it. Giving up real love for some small thrills? Let God shine through, let him in, so he can let you out of the cage that sin has created.

Freedom to fall but really?

Have any of you read or seen the play "The crucible" before? I just recently saw it for the first time. It made me really sad, angry, and emotional, which means it was a good play!

For those who haven't seen it, "The Crucible" is about a Puritan village in the fourteenth century. Where everything is very strict, and even the slightest hint of ungodliness, like not remembering your 10 commandments, can be seen as a sin. It shows a totally legalistic side of Christianity, with everyone saying they are "good Christians". The protagonist, John Procter, tries to convince everyone that Christianity is more than just accusing people if they do something wrong, but tragically ends up dying for his belief.

What first struck me was how wrong the village's theology was. Everyone believed that if they did not go to church on Sunday they were not a Christian, if they did not know their commandments they were likely to go to hell, and if the God appointed judge said something, it must be true, as the man is God appointed. As I pondered what it would be like living in those "dark ages" where being a Christian was just all about following rules, I was glad that I was born now instead of then. Now, we know that church is not what saves us, it is Jesus' blood. It is not the commandments that clean us, it is Jesus' sacrifice. Our world is so sinful we acknowledge that even God appointed people can fail and go into ruin.

But thinking that, I was challenged. Because now, we seem to go further. We make out that sin isn't as bad as we thought it was. That God's laws are just meant to be "tried to be followed" but that it actually doesn't really matter because we will fail anyway. That when temptation creeps up on us, God has forgiven us anyway, so we can indulge ourselves for a bit and then ask for forgiveness.

The freedom that Christ has given us is amazing but we have taken it too far. If we use an analogy of a cliff. We are like small children who have just been saved from a deep ditch by Gods hands. but instead of rushing to his safety away from the edge, we tiptoe back near the edge, asking God if we are still ok. We try and get as close to the edge of sin as possible. Then we slip, or the cliff edge breaks, and we fall into the ditch of sin again, where God has to extend his hand and take us out once more.

This just repeats on and on, and God keeps extending his hand. People will say "Yeah, God extends his hand, so it is all ok!". But what if once we fall in the ditch, and we get so caught up, we never look up into the hand that is trying to reach us and get us out. We forget our lifeline out of sin, we reject our saviour for other things?

The crucible is a very tragic story of a community that has taken God's law too far, but we are near the edge of the opposite, taking our freedom too far.

In 500 years or so, our period in time might be the setting for a different play, I just hope they have managed to find the middle ground by then, so they can gasp and squirm when they see our way of life, like we do when we see the totally legalistic society of the crucible.

My first post!

Thanks for reading my blog.

I started a blog before once, but it didn't feel like I was saying what I wanted to say, it was more just to please any readers i had, but this blog is different. I hope I can write my ideas or thoughts without hesitation. 

I was looking at my student bible, and there was an article about how much Peter changed to actually fit the nickname Jesus gave him. The rock. At the end of it said to think about what nickname you might have. I started wondering what I am am good at, and how it would be fit for God's service. It felt like other people were better in any skill that I thought I could do. I play guitar, but my friend can "really" play guitar. He is so good! I speak Japanese and English. I know someone who speaks Japanese, English, and German! All fluently! I felt so down hearted to think I wasn't actually good at anything...

It was interesting because after awhile I thought about my own name. My parents named me after a tree, from Psalm 1. A tree that has firm roots in the living water of God's word. It felt like that was a perfect nickname for me, even though it was my real name. I hope I do stay strong in God's word, and depend on him entirely through my life. In the end however bad I think I am, God loves me, and that is what is the best thing.

This blog was meant for me to express what was on my mind, so that others could think about them too. Thanks again for reading!