Actions that Match Thoughts

...Who knowing the righteous judgement of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those practice those things. 

                                                                                                            -Romans 1:32

The book of Romans, and the whole Bible for that matter, are very clear on God's judgement of sin and how a Christian should [and should not] live their life. In fact, the verses preceding the above verse from Romans 1 mentions a few of the things that we shouldn't be: unrighteous, wicked, covetous, malicious, envious, murderous, deceitful, gossipers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, unloving, unforgiving, and unmerciful. [from verses 29-30]  No one can claim to be perfect in all of these areas. God hasn't even called us to do that, but we should recognize that acting like that is wrong.
I found it interesting that God would put a verse like Romans 1:32 after that long list. To me it was a reminder of what God is all about: our heart and attitudes. When Jesus came to earth, it was a person's heart that mattered to him. He saw the Pharisees were acting righteous and followed the law, but in his eyes, they still had missed the point because he could see that their hearts weren't in it. In the same way, it is easy for us to get caught up in making sure the we are doing good and acting like 'perfect' Christians. But how many times do we approve of the things that we don't do? How many times do we decide that we won't participate, but we'll stand by and watch?
By standing by and doing nothing are we just as guilty?
Many of you may have watched the Vice Presidential debate between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden. I thought the question about religion [that eventually led to a discussion about abortion] was very interesting. Both candidates are Catholic and both had the same view on abortion. However, Joe Biden's stance was different in that he said something like he wouldn't 'force his beliefs on others' and therefore wouldn't support anti-abortion legislation. When he said that, I sat back and thought about it. It's a very real dilemma for some religious politicians and voters. Eventually my thoughts reached the question, "But if we don't stand up for what we believe in, then why do we believe in it?" Because if we think it's a big enough issue to hold weight in our convictions then we definitely need to act on it. To do anything else sounds too much like hypocrisy to me. And [I have to be careful here], but what's wrong with 'imposing' beliefs on someone if it's true? [if it's even imposing on them]
God has not commanded us to just obey what he has called us to do, but to do it with our whole heart. God will not only judge by the things that we have done but by what we truly and actually felt about those things.
It really comes down to the question of whether or not we're truly obeying him from our hearts or out of a desire to appear perfect.
Bonhoeffer wrote: "The war of Jesus Christ against the gods of this world... is a war that demands the commitment of one's whole life. Is not God, our Lord worthy of this struggle?" God doesn't just want our actions, he actually wants our heart. If we're approving of evil while abstaining from it, we're not serving him with our hearts.
Just a last thought: I think that we have to be very careful in the way that we interpret this verse because people could take it to imply something that is against God's character, namely being judgmental of others. I believe God simply meant is as warning to people, like the Pharisees, who are doing good but aren't totally surrendered to God. God alone is to judge people, that is not our place. We cannot see what God can: people's hearts.

Thanks for reading!
Meaghan

Never Alone

"If I were to say, "Certainly the darkness will cover me, and the light will turn to night all around me," even the darkness is not too dark for You to see, and the night is as bright as day; darkness and light are the same to You." -Psalm 139:11-12 [NET] 

Psalm 139 really spoke to me this morning. Through it God assured me that I will never be abandoned by Him and that I am precious to Him. This one psalm is also so chalked full with encouraging verses regarding purpose, which is something that has been on my mind frequently this summer.
Verse 7 starts out asking, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your Spirit?" Verses 8-9 describe the far ends of the earth that we could go, but verse 10 brings the assurance that, "Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me."
Often I've thought that verses 7-9 meant that I could never get away from God in the sense that I couldn't escape His conviction or 'punishment' of sin. While it's true that I cannot hide from God, I now think that these verses are illustrating a very different truth: I cannot go anywhere where God is not. The 10th verse makes that abundantly clear; He will be with us wherever we go in life.
The next verses are verses 11-12 [quoted above]. According to Strong's concordance, the word 'darkness' that is used here symbolizes misery, destruction, and death. As I read these verses it was like God was telling me that I will go to some dark places in my life, but that I will be a light in those places and I will never be alone. God isn't intimidated by darkness; He will never send us somewhere that He won't be.
I don't know what my future holds; I'm not sure where those dark places will be, but I do know that God will never stop holding me in His hand and that He will never stop guiding me.
The last verse that really stood out to me was verses 16-17:

Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious are Your thoughts* to me, O God! How great is the sum of them. 

Even though I don't know exactly what I'm going to do in life, I'm comforted because God promises me a 'future and a hope.' I comforted because I know that God has a firm purpose for my life and that nothing can take that away from me. I know that God's plans are above my and that He can do 'exceedingly above what I could ever ask or think.' And I know that, while I don't have a clue, He does, and He has since the creation of the world.

How awesome is that?

-Meaghan

*purposes, aims [Strong's concordance]

Love.

I was walking out the door to go study at Barnes and Noble today, and as I was walking out I poked into my mom's room, said goodbye to her and told her 'I love you'. As I was walking away I thought to myself, "Do I really mean that when I say it?" I started thinking of how many times a day I say that phrase. I say it when I get off of the phone with friends, family or meaningful people, when I say goodbye to my mom and brother on my way out the door, or even to my pets [is that weird?]. The fact is that the phrase 'I love you' is meant to be much more meaningful, and I feel like I, and our culture, have lost that meaning.

I think we live in a culture that doesn't understand what love is. This has been said over and over again by theologians and Christian thinkers, but it's something that is so predominate in our world today I think it needs to be said again and again so that people start believing the truth about love. Literature, entertainment, music, and even friends have so skewed our idea of love and left us with so many fantasies of what love is supposed to look like.

David Knopp, who traveled with on tour with the APJ team this September described the movie romance phenomenon saying that in movies "people fall in love, get in an argument, make up, and the BAM! they get married." Unfortunately [wait... actually fortunately], reality is nothing like this. It's unfortunate for us if we've believed that the love entertainment portrays is what love actually is.

When you have studied what true love is, the love that media has created looks so fake.
Have you read 1 Corinthians 13 lately? It's the famous love chapter, and it's quoted by non-Christians and Christians alike in discussions of love. In this chapter though, we can find the characteristics and guidelines of real love. Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus was the ultimate expression of love and the he fulfilled every characteristic of love that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13 and in the whole Bible? He did.
And yet, we as humans desire love from each other more. It's unbelievable that we would actually choose a human's love over God's all-fulfilling and sacrificial love... But we do.

Because love is such a predominate theme in everything we hear, watch, and read it's easy to get wrapped up in asking ourselves questions about love such as: "Is it love when he asks me out on our first date? Is it love when he holds my hand? Is it love when we have our first kiss? Are married? When are you in love?" Because, after all, falling in love is our ultimate purpose, right? Culture may say so, but it's not.
Here's a thought: Are we so consumed with the fantasy of being 'in love' that we've forgotten what it is to actually 'love' someone? Because being in love with someone and showing someone love are entirely different. When we say that we want to be in love, we're basically saying that we want to be loved by someone. We are desiring companionship with someone, a desire we were created with, by the way. [that desire can be fulfilled in so many ways, some that are wrong, but that's a discussion for a different post!]
However, I think we were also created for more. Jesus combined the command for us to love God with all of our heart to include loving our neighbors as ourselves [Matthew 22: 36-40]. I think that if our mindset were more focused on loving people and encouraging them, rather than dreaming of the day that we may fall in love, we'll be much more effective. After all, 'love is not selfish' [I Cor. 13:5]. What does that look like? Stop looking at them as a potential husband or wife and start looking at them as your brother or sister in Christ. Something that encouraged and challenged me while on the APJ tour was the thought that God has created me, as a woman, to be a special encouragement to the men in my life. This is impossible for me to do  effectively if I'm focused on myself and what I want and not that guy. We must love effectively.

So when you tell someone you love them, mean it, study for yourself what true love is so that you can see when what you're being shown is fake and unrealistic, and lastly, focus on loving others and not being 'in love'.
As a last thought about that: God could calling you to be single for your whole life [or at least a good portion of it]. Wouldn't it be disappointing if 'falling in love' with a man [or woman] was all you focused on only to realize that you had been fantasizing about something that wasn't going to happen? Love others in purity and out of kindness, not selfishness.

-Meaghan