scary stories

One time i was downtown with some friends and we were trying to get into what we called "spiritual conversations" with people- talking about the excellencies of God and sharing His gospel. We talked with a guy who went off on us for 15 minutes about how the Catholic Church was the only church instituted by Jesus and the rest are all cults. It was awesome, i'd never seen anyone so adamant about this. There was no reasoning with him.
Smoetimes i enjoy sharing horror stories about sharing Christ with people. The truth is, it doesn't always go that well and it isn't always our fault. We shouldn't be scared to share with others the hope that we have just because it didn't go well once before. Does anybody out there have any scary stories about evangelism? I'd love to hear them.

fun day

Well, this morning i found 5 quarts of oil spilled on the parking lot under Joanna's car. To make a long story a little shorter, we needed a new oil filter. So i figured i'd run to Wal-Mart since good ol' Fleet Farm doesn't carry the right filters. On the way there, my truck ran out of gas while the gauge told me i had about 5 gallons left. Thankfully my mentor Ben and his wife bailed me out. That was not fun. Cleaning up the oil was the worst part.
I just got back from the mailbox where i got to talk about the Lord with the mailman. He started talking about how in the end everyon will be saved. He looked it up in Strong's concordance, apparently. He had some interesting ideas, so i asked him what church he went to. He doesn't. I invited him to ours, but he responded by saying Luther and Calvin and Zwingli came out of the organized church, and that's what he is doing. A very interesting guy. I hope future talks will happen. But i've been thinking and reading, and as it turns out- he's wrong. There will be a time when God will cast unbelievers into eternal hell and usher those found in Christ into heaven eternal. Part of me wishes that guy was right, but it's just not the truth. God's plan stands forever, and that plan includes vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and also vessels of mercy.

justice and justification

Sorry it has been a while since i've written. I just got back from leading a trip to the inner city of Milwaukee, one of InterVarsity's short term mission trips. There were about 40 students on the trip, and it was a great time! I got to meet a lot of cool people, have lots of interesting discussions, and serve in many helpful ways.
A big part of our trip were bible studies looking at why the city needs Jesus, and what God says about serving the poor and doing justice. The term "justice" has been a difficult one for me. It is true that God loves justice and calls His people to carry out justice- we see that in Isaiah 58 and 59. Also perhaps in the kind of religion that God finds pure and faultless. So what is my problem with justice? Justice is scary to me because if God is a just God, which He says He is, then my sin should be punished, which it either will be or has already been. How do we distinguish between the justice God wants for His people to execute, and the justice God gives? Someone I look up to explained to us last week that justice was a horizontal action (man to man), while justification was a vertical action (God to man). My problem with this is simply i don't think we can think of justice as only a man to man thing. God is just, and does not only deal out what we know as justification. If justice is "getting what we deserve," then justification would be 100% grace. Well, i'm tired, so to prevent from dragging this on further; do we need different definitions of justce and justification? Can we see justice as a horizontal act while justification is the vertical one? What do the two have to do with the other? Does God use justice to proclaim justification, or does He desire them both equally? What't the deal? Thanks for your input on this poorly written post.

A different angle

The recent discussions on body image were amazing and i feel like we came to some good realizations, however i don't think we're quite done. I want to ask one more quick question that should come at the issue from a bit of a different angle. Should we be content with our bodies? Contentment is a "rare jewel" among Christians today. Is it right to be content with the bodies that God gave us, or should we look at them as a manifestation of the effects of sin? Should we be content when we are in good physical shape only, or discontent with phyisical bodies as a whole because we are longing for new heavenly bodies? What do you think?

the art of debate

I don't even know if we had a debate team at my high school, but sometimes i wish i would have done debate. I think philosophy and Christian ministry have made me into a person who loves God-centered discussion and argumentation. It is something that has sharpened me and challenged me to dive into God's Word and test my reasons for what i believe. I thank God for the friends and family that have challenged and encouraged my thoughts and beliefs through debate, discussion, and, dare i say, argumentation. For example, my old roommate Jeremy and i argued and debated things until we felt we came under God's Word to a conclusion. We are both stubborn, but we found that over the years our views were molded to be so similar there are few things that we do not agree on. Thankfully, there are still some edges that we are working on, like some intricacies of the doctrine of limited atonement and how far reaching Christ's sacrifice is. Anyway, some recent discussions have gotten myself and some others wondering about how to effectively debate. The question is, "where is the line of taking something too far?" Is understanding each others' points all we need to do in debtate? What should be our goal for debating someone, specifically a Christian sister or brother? Let's have a rousing discussion!

Letters

Last night i took a break from writing about how awful the current book i am reading is and picked up a book i bought recently. It is called Letters of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It is a compilation of hundreds of letters written by the pastor to all kinds of people. I read it with the same joy and voracity as i read Frost's poems. It was good for my soul, and i loved reading what Spurgeon had written to encourage his loved ones to press on and grow in the faith of their Almighty God. Writing letters was a central ministry of Spurgeon's. I'm bad at being consistent, but i want to be a letter writer too. I'll try to write a God-centered letter a day to my friends, family, students, missionaries, ect... and use that as part of my ministry. On a secondary note, if you all aren't done thinking and talking about the last post, the discussion is continued (and furthered) on the Wenzel's blog, so please check that out.

i need your thoughts!

Thanks all for the thoughts on body image, i needed it. I've been reading the Wenzel's blog (side bar link) about some of the same stuff. I have to ask an interesting question here, and hope to get some good responses.
How does sin affect God's creation of our bodies? He "knits us together in our mothers' wombs," but does He create something imperfectly then? If he creates babies with what we would call "severe defects," and they are loved by God and He has a plan for their lives, how do we avoid God's act of creation being tainted by sin? Everything He does is perfect, right? Have at it!