The Truth About the Temptation to Sin

All of us have been tempted to sin, including Jesus himself (Matthew 4). And while temptation itself isn't a sin, it is sinful to give into the temptation. So how can we keep ourselves from giving in? And what is temptation really anyway?

Andy Stanley put it this way: Temptation is the desire to meet a legitimate need or want, in an illegitimate, improper, or irresponsible way. And I think that's a pretty good definition!

The problem is that when you give into temptation, it's always a bigger deal than just that one act. It may mean that you'll now need to lie in order to keep concealed what you did. And of course, it's not really a secret anyway since God sees everything! Which brings me to the main point...

When you give into temptation, you are essentially saying that you do not trust that God is able to supply all of your needs, so you're going to take it into your own hands to get what you need or want.

Now what would you say to someone who told you that they know better than God what they need, and that since they have the power to get what they need themselves, since God isn't providing it for them, that they don't even really need God anyway? You'd probably think that they've decided to become an atheist. And yet, that's exactly what we're saying indirectly when we give into the temptation to sin.

God is the maker of the Heavens and the Earth, the Alpha and Omega, the omnipresent, omnipotent, source of everything in existence who is the definition of power and love and all that is good. He said he will supply for all of our needs (Phil 4:19), and whatever He says is true. So why on Earth (or anywhere else) would you think that he can't or won't? Let alone the fact that it's completely ridiculous to think that you know better than God what you need.

And while it's true that God doesn't always give us what we want, it's a good thing He doesn't. Because we often want things that we don't need, and that will result in something negative happening to us or others as a result. We're just not far enough away from the canvas of our lives and the even larger masterpiece in process to see the "big picture." All we can see and are so concerned about often times are the few brushstrokes in front of us. And when we decide to start painting ourselves instead of letting the master do the work, we cause more harm than good - and He has to fix it later.

Now I know we are all human. And as such, we are not perfect. We are prone to poor judgement and weakness when it comes to issues of sin. But when you have the Holy Spirit within you, He gives you the extra strength you need to overcome those factors.You just have to be willing to let him, which means you have to be completely and utterly dependent on God. And that's a very hard thing for anyone to do. This is why it's so important to renew your faith in God and your reliance on Him every day!

But here's a tip to help you in the times when you are being tempted. As soon as you realize you're being tempted to sin, pause. Think about this concept. Remember that God is willing and able, even eager, to meet all of your needs. And if you give into the temptation, you will be hurting your relationship with God because you're telling him that you don't trust him. Also remember that giving in to the temptation may also impact your family, your friends, and who knows how many other people in a negative way. It's always bigger than just the temptation before you!

Then decide what is more important to you. Is it more important to you to have what you want right then and give into the temptation? Or is it more important to keep your relationship with God strong, to protect your family and friends, and to grow your faith and become a stronger and more capable man or woman of God? Then act on that decision with the knowledge that you consciously chose it, and all that comes with it.

Quit Being Lazy & Selfish!

That title got your attention didn't it? They're pretty harsh words, I admit. But sometimes that's what people need to hear in order to get them to pay attention.

So what am I talking about? How are you being lazy and selfish?

By not doing something on purpose, on a regular basis, to spread the Good News. That's how.

This doesn't apply to everyone of course. Non-believers would have no reason to spread the Good News. And most pastors do it regularly, thank goodness. But how about the rest of us who are Christians, but who aren't in full-time ministry jobs?

When was the last time you talked to someone about Jesus, who he is, what he did, why he did it, and how they could benefit from it? More specifically, when was the last time you talked about the Good News with a non-believer?

If the answer is "never" or "it has been a while" then I'm talking to you! That's right, I'm calling you lazy and selfish.

What other reason could you give for not sharing the greatest gift with other people who haven't received it yet? The only other explanation is that you're scared. And if that's the case,... fine. I can understand that. I am too! But so what?

First of all, we shouldn't be afraid as Christians to share the the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. What's the worst that could happen if we did? The other person may reject us and tell us they aren't interested. They may be totally against the idea and tell us not to even bring it up with them ever again. They may even make fun of us for believing that there's some magical invisible guy in the sky who grants wishes to some people but lets horrible things happen to other people. (I've heard God described like that by atheists before...)

Or... they may actually listen and want to know more.

Now I'm not suggesting that you go set up a soap box on the corner with a sign around your neck and bible in your hand, shouting verses from the bible. Please don't do anything like that! It does more harm than good.

What I am suggesting is that you almost definitely know people who are not Christians. If there are any of them that you haven't shared the Good News with, then you should - soon. If they aren't receptive to hearing it, that's okay. You're still doing your part and God will bless you for it. And if they make fun of you or treat you differently afterwards, then at least you know that's probably not the best person for you to spend a lot of time with in the future. And you obviously shouldn't put any stock in their opinion of you either.

It doesn't have to be awkward either. You shouldn't just go up to someone you know and be like "hey John, do you know Jesus?" That kind of approach will just put them on the defense or something. Just pay attention to what's happening in the lives of the people you know, and how they're feeling. And pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He will give you a little nudge when you're in a situation where God wants you to do something for someone, which could just be as simple as sharing the Good News with them.

It'll probably happen when you're already talking about something. Maybe you're talking about what happened over the weekend, and you bring up that you went to church and heard a great message and they seem interested in hearing more. Or maybe you'll be listening to your friend talk about an issue in their lives they aren't happy with or a problem they're experiencing, and you could give them some biblical advice. If they receive it well, then it would make sense to steer the conversation toward whether or not they know much about the bible or Jesus and what he did and why.

And you don't have to be a bible scholar either. Keep it simple. I have a feeling that very few people come to Christ after being lectured about the bloodline of Jesus proving that he's the Messiah, or after debating the book of Revelations. Save the deep stuff for later, and stick to the basics - the bottom line that:

• Jesus is the son of God, and He is perfect in every way.
• People messed up God's perfect plan for us by doing something against what God wanted (we call this sin), which damaged the relationship between God and man.
• But because he loves us so much, he wanted to make a way for us to get in right relationship with Him again.
• So he came down from Heaven and lived a sinless life as a man. While he was here, he helped thousands of people by healing them and teaching them about the word of God. And he ultimately was killed in a brutal and humiliating way by people who didn't believe him.
• He could have stopped them, but he willingly let it happen so that he could take the punishment that we all deserve, so that we wouldn't have to.
• He sacrificed himself to save all of us, and provide a way for us to restore our relationship with God once again. And God raised him from the dead to prove that he had conquered both sin and death, and was brought back up to Heaven to rule as the Lord over everyone and everything.
• All we have to do to be saved along with him, and restore our relationship with God is believe that He is the Son of God, that he came to earth and lived a sinless life, he died for us and was raised back to life and brought to Heaven to be ruler over everything and everyone. And if we accept him as our Lord, the ruler of our lives, then he will wipe away all of our sins forever, restore our relationship with God and save us from the punishment we deserve so that we will spend eternity in Heaven with him when our lives here on Earth are over.

That's a simple, but adequate way of sharing the Good News with someone. Simply saying something like "Jesus came to save us all from sin and death, so you should believe in him so you can be saved" isn't enough. It's true yes, but it isn't adequate. It doesn't explain who he is or why he did what he did, which are very important to understand if anyone is really going to come to Christ in a genuine way.

It's simple. You have nothing to lose except for a little bit of time (which would still be well-spent since you'd at least be planting a seed), and possibly a little blow to the ego (which most of us could use anyway and we shouldn't be afraid of). And you could be the one to help literally change someone's life for the better. And we've been told by our Lord to do it (Mark 16:15)! Plus you'll feel good about it, and you'll be pleasing God no matter how the person responds.

So the bottom line is, if you have relationships with people who aren't Christians, and you haven't talked to them about who he is, what he did, why he did it, and how they can benefit from it - then you're being lazy and selfish.

Quit being lazy and selfish!

You're Choosing Sides Multiple Times A Day

You know, something has occurred to me that I already knew, but it resonated with me in a more profound way than before. And it's the realization that we all choose sides, good or evil, multiple times every day.

Now I know that all Christians, including myself, believe that they are on the side of good. I mean, we're children of God who is the ultimate good, made in his image, and have accepted him as our lord and savior of our lives. So of course we're good, right?

Well I don't think the answer is a simple yes or no...

I think that whether we are good or not depends on what we think, what we believe, and what we do - in that order from least important to most important. So we are constantly changing between good and evil. Well, evil may be too strong a word, but often times it's right on the mark too.

We all know that we're imperfect beings, who have sinned, and will almost definitely sin again. A sin is essentially doing anything that is opposed to what God's will. So since we are sinful beings, we are not good. It may seem too extreme to call us evil though if we do something that's opposed to God's will. After all, committing murder is an evil act for sure, but is it on the same level as say not taking a day of rest (the Sabbath) one week? Both are contrary to God's will since both are commandments, but are they both evil acts? I don't know... but I'd like to think not. Maybe there's some other term we can use for Christians who have been saved by grace and follow Jesus as their lord, but who still knowingly sin because of their own weaknesses. I'm going to call that irresponsible, rather than evil.

Now let me get to my main point...

We all make many, many decisions each day. Now most of them are superfluous and wouldn't be considered as being things that are necessarily in line with God's will nor opposed to it. Examples would be things like which pair of socks you put on in the morning or whether you brush your teeth or take a shower first. And some decisions can be argued as being in line with God's will or not. Examples could be whether what you choose to eat for breakfast is healthy or not, whether you obey the speed limit while driving to work or go a couple miles per hour over the limit, or watching a movie with nudity, swearing and violence in it. Those are things that you could correlate with either being aligned with God's will or not, but they aren't necessarily good or evil as much as they are responsible or irresponsible.

But many decisions you make can be considered as being things that are either aligned with God's will or opposed to it. And these decisions are then also choices you're making about which side you're on, good or evil, God's side or Satan's side. Examples of these types of decision are whether you participate in gossiping about someone behind their back with your friends, or put a stop to it or leave the group when they start the gossiping; whether you get angry with your spouse and let your emotions take over and fight with them about something, or talk to them in a calm, loving, and respectful way and forgive them and do your best to reconcile with them afterwards; or whether you lie to someone because you don't want them to be mad at you or you don't want to face the consequences of something you did, or telling the truth and facing the consequences head on. 

When you make those types of decisions, you know whether you're choosing to do good or evil. You know whether it is what God would have you do, or against what God would have you do. But rarely do we actually think about the spiritual implications of even those clearly good or evil decisions, let alone the ones that are arguable. We normally only think about what we want - not what God wants. And unfortunately, many times what we want is more aligned with what Satan wants than what God wants. So many times when we made decisions that will make us happy (which seems to be most people's main goal in life), we end up choosing the side of evil rather than the side of good.

And I'll be the first to admit that I'm guilty of this far too often. So I'm asking God to strengthen me and keep his ways in my heart and on my mind so that when I make decisions, And I'm also making sure I read the bible or do devotions and pray every day. That way, God's word will always be on my mind and in my heart and I'll remember to consider the spiritual implications of my decision rather than just my own wants and desires. I love God and I want to do his will always. I want to choose good over evil every time! 

What about you?

Hey, I'm Back!

So back in August 2012 I decided to make this a blog about my thoughts regarding the sermons preached by the senior pastor at my church. And I did a few, but then I stopped.

I stopped because I saw concentrating my efforts on writing a different blog and learning about real estate investing.

But I'm back now! And I'm going to continue where I left off... Only a couple years later, ha ha!

Please feel free to follow and comment on anything you feel like commenting on. I like interaction and debate. And I like encouragement too!  =)

Life's Short... Stop Wasting It!

Recently my pastor has been preaching about the end times. With 12/21/12 coming up soon and all of the hype about that date being predicted to be the day that a huge catastrophe or even the end of the world will happen, he thinks it's important that we be reminded about what God says about the end times.

Now I'm not going to say that there definitely won't be any big event happening on that date. But I can say with quite a bit of certainty that it will not be the end of the world.

This subject in general did get me thinking though. And a combination of things that my pastor said about the rapture occurring (1 Cor 15:50-58, 1 Thess 4:13-18), standing before the Judgement Seat of Christ (1 Cor 3:10-15; 2 Cor 5:10) where all of the things we've done during our lives will be judged, and that we're all here to fulfill God's plan for our lives before we die got me thinking. And when he said that he believes the only reason why Jesus hasn't come back yet is because he is being patient with humanity and trying to allow us enough time for people to hear the truth and decide whether to follow Him or not.

After thinking about it for a little while, it reminds me of a concept called the tipping point that is really an economic or social economics concept that was popularized by Malcom Gladwell in his book of the same name. It can basically be described by saying that regarding a certain technology, belief, concept, invention, etc. there won't initially be very many people who subscribe to it. But as some do, more will. And then before those people did, even more will. This continues at a slowly increasing pace until at a certain point, the rate explodes so that it becomes the norm/new standard/etc. That point is the called the tipping point.

I wonder if Jesus is waiting to return until the population of the earth reaches a tipping point in the balance of good and evil in the world. It seems as if there is more and more evil in the world as the years go by, but there is still plenty of good to counteract that evil too (at least in my opinion) - even though it's not reported nearly as much in the news. But that balance still seems like it's shifting more and more toward evil.

So then if the balance is shifting towards evil more and more, and Jesus really is waiting until the world reaches a tipping point before He returns, then it really could happen fairly soon - within my lifetime. So maybe I really don't have much time because even if I think I'll live to be 90 (I'm 29 now), maybe Jesus will return before that so my life will be shorter than I think it will. Now I know there are plenty of other ways my life could be cut shorter than that too, but that's not important here...

So it all finally clicked. If I am going to do what God has planned for me to do, then I really should be doing my best to get going on it and work on it as quickly and as well as I can, as soon as I can. And every day that passes by, brings me one day closer to either the day Jesus comes back or the day I die and meet Him that way. So every day I waste not doing what God's plan for me is, is a day I've wasted in. That's a day where almost everything I did will probably be burned up when I'm in front of the Judgement Seat of Christ.

I don't want to waste my time, effort, money, and emotions on things that are just going to be burned up! How stupid would that be?!?! So I have a renewed sense of purpose and sense of urgency about how I live my life now.

I don't know where you are in your life or the path God has laid out for you to follow. But I encourage you to think about these things a little bit and maybe you'll develop a bigger and better sense of purpose and urgency like I have. The more of us who do, and then act on it, the better!!!

Mega Blessings!

How to Make Better Decisions

This article is about how to make better choices by asking yourself 3 or 4 questions before deciding which option you want to choose. The choices are based on a video series and workbook by Andy Stanley, a Pastor at North Point Community Church.

We all have to make choices in life. And sometimes we’re put into situations where knowing which choice to make is very difficult. But if you ask yourself these three questions (4 if you’re a Christian), then you will undoubtedly make better choices in those situations.

The first question you need to ask yourself is: “What is the real reason why I would want to choose each option?” We are all experts at deceiving ourselves and rationalizing our decisions to choose options that we know deep down aren’t the best ones to choose. Do you really want to eat everything on your plate even though you’re full because there are starving children in Africa so it’s not right for you to waste food? Or is it really because you like the taste of it? Do you want to tell your friend that you can’t help them move because you really have something else more important to do? Or is it because you just don’t want to do the work?

When you are faced with a decision to make, ask yourself what the real reason for your choice would be. I’m not saying that this will guarantee that you’ll definitely choose the best option if you ask yourself this question – but at least you won’t be lying to yourself about it anymore which is a good start.

The next questions to ask is: “What is the story I want to be able to tell?” When you have a decision to make – especially a big one – think about what the probable result will be months and years down the road. How do you want to be able to tell that story?

As time passes in our lives, all events no matter how big and important they seemed while they were happening, get boiled down to a few sentences in the story of our lives. If you’ve made poor choices in the past, if you were to tell your story to someone you’d probably gloss over those pretty quickly, leave out the details about the poor choices you made, or be somewhat ashamed, embarrassed or regretful about them. Those aren’t fun stories to tell…

When we tell our stories, we want to be able to tell good stories. We want to tell stories that make us look like good people, where we had adversities but overcame them because of the good choices we made. So think about what your story will be like depending on the option you choose before you make your decisions and choose the one that will result in a story you will want to tell.

The third question you need to ask yourself when faced with a decision to make is: “Is there a tension that needs my attention?” Many times when we are about to make a decision to choose one option rather than the other(s), we’ll feel a little uncomfortable about it for some reason. Maybe your conscience is nagging you about it for some reason, or you don’t feel quite right about one little aspect of that option, or it just doesn’t feel quite right.  Pay attention to that tension you’re experiencing – it may be because that’s not the best option for you to choose.

When you feel a tension about a particular option, pay attention to it! Don’t just dismiss it and move on. Stop and dwell on it for a second and let it get as big as it can get. If after you dwell on it for a little while, you don’t feel right about it then that should give you an idea of whether or not that’s the right option for you to choose. Or maybe after you dwell on it for a bit, you realize it’s really no big deal or you just need a little more information to ease that tension. Either way, in order to make the best choice you can, you must pay attention to any tension you feel before you make your choice.

Lastly, if you are a Christian, there is another question you should ask yourself. This one can be a little dangerous though because it may cause you to do things that you would otherwise not have done, and that may seem strange to non-Christians. This question is: “What would be most honoring to God?”

When you ask this question, you are really getting to the heart of being able to make the best decision possible. Our lives as Christians are dedicated to being as much like Christ as possible, more and more each day. We are to be obedient to God in all our thoughts and actions. Obviously, we fail at that pretty often since we’re not perfect. But our goal is to strive for perfection nonetheless. So when you ask this question, you may find that it would be most honoring to God to do something that you would not have done otherwise. Maybe if your decision is about where to go on vacation, when you ask this question, the thought about the single mother you met in church the other day. The one who just lost her job because her car broke down and she didn’t have the money to get it fixed so she couldn’t get to work and you overheard praying for help from God to help her with her finances so she could get food and clothes for her kids, get a new job, and fix her car. Maybe you’d realize that it would be most honoring to God to give her an anonymous gift of the money you were going to go on vacation with and skip your fancy getaway vacation this year and just spend some more time with your family and friends during your vacation instead.

Most non-Christians would think that was crazy – nice, but crazy! Even many Christians would likely be surprised. But God would be proud and would undoubtedly bless you in ways you couldn’t imagine. You’d have a good story to tell, and the single mother would have an even better one, and both stories would bring glory to God as they should. You would feel good about yourself and have no tension in the decision you made, and you would have no problem admitting to yourself what the real reason you made that choice was.

So the next time you have a decision to make – especially a big one – stop and ask yourself these questions first. They will help guide you towards making more good decisions, and your life and the lives of others will be better because of them. 

Free Will

I just wrote a post on another blog I write in regarding free will, and my justification for why I believe we have free will includes references to God. So if you're interested, check it out!  =)

http://vance-iwonder.blogspot.com/2012/08/free-will.html

Redirection in Blog Purpose

Dear Reader,

I have decided to redirect the purpose of this blog. Since I haven't written much here recently that I've thought of on my own (since I honestly just have been focused on other things), I'm going to change the focus on this blog so that I will have more inspiration to write and hopefully provide some useful insights to others at the same time.

So this blog is now going to be a journal of sorts. I go to church every Sunday and listen to great sermons that make me think deeply about things for a while afterwards. So I am going to start writing my thoughts about those things in this blog. Therefore, there will probably be a new post each week related to something I've recently heard in a sermon at my church (which is Grand Rapids First with Senior Pastor Sam Rijfkogel by the way).

Please check back every week or so for a new post and let me know what you think! I'd love to get some good dialog going on the things I write here.  =)

Thanks, and God Bless!
Vance

"God Particle" - The Perfect Name for The Higgs Boson

"God Particle" - The Perfect Name for The Higgs Boson

The Tightrope of Confidence: A Balance Between Pride & Humility

Okay, I'll finally admit it - I have a confidence problem. But probably not in the way you think. Let me explain...

It's pretty clear that if you are a Christian with a strong faith in God, there is no way you should have low self-confidence or self-esteem. After all, here are some of the things the Bible has to say about this subject:

• Hebrews 13:6 (ESV) - So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
• Philipians 4:13 (NKJV) - I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
• Joshua 1:9 (ESV) - Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
• Hebrews 4:16 (NLT) - So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

As Christians, we have the power of God available to us at all times as long as we are doing acting according to His word. There is nothing for us to fear. And we can do anything. If that knowledge and belief doesn't give you confidence, nothing will.

But we shouldn't be prideful or arrogant either. When we come out of a time of need, we usually have no problem giving thanks to God for His help. But when things have been going well for us for a while, we tend to stop giving the glory to God, and instead start attributing our success to our own abilities, intelligence, and authority or power. And while it may be true that those things are what allowed us to achieve those successes, we forget that it was God who gave them to us in the first place! This is what I have the hardest time remembering - that is until God gives me some "constructive criticism" and reminds me how weak I really am without Him. 

• Proverbs 11:2 (NLT) - Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
• Proverbs 16:16 (NIV) - Pride does before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
• Proverbs 26:12 (NKJV) - Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

The right balance of pride and humility is confidence. Romans 12:3 (NKJV) says "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." 

The way we think about humility nowadays is closer to weakness or spineless. That is why I'm using the word "confident" in describing what I believe we should be in our daily lives.

We should be confident in our skills, abilities, intelligence, and especially in our faith in God. Now it is also true that we each have a different level of faith, and our expectations of what we can do should be appropriate to the amount of faith we have. Any more and we're being too confident - leading to arrogance. Any less and we're not being confident enough - leading to spinelessness or laziness. It's a tightrope we all walk every day. Once you understand this though, you can start working on your balance. 

Unanswered Prayers

Chances are that if you've prayed more than once in the past, you probably feel like you've had some unanswered prayers - I know I used to think that! But I've recently realized that there is no such thing as an unanswered prayer (when you are a Christian anyway).

I would like to challenge you to think a little more deeply about prayers that you feel are still unanswered. God always answers your prayers - all of them. And it's great when you get to see the answer first hand! When you receive unexpected money to pay your bills, or something else happens to solve a problem you have after you've prayed about it, it makes you happy and further solidifies the belief that God is good. But when we don't see the answer to our prayers that we can become disheartened.

This is when it's important to remember that it's not because God didn't answer your prayer, He simply didn't answer it the way you expected. There are more possible answers to prayers than you could possibly think of, but some of the possibilities you should think about are:

• The answer is to be patient because it's not the right time yet for things to change.
• The answer is something you perceive as negative in the moment, but will later realize that it was the best thing that could have happened to you.
• And definitely more often than we'd like: the answer is "no."

These are just as much answers to prayers as are miracles. Part of the reason we don't always get our prayers answered like we want them to be is because we're asking for the wrong things. Who are we to say what the answer to our prayers should be? Do we really know what's best for us? Most of us would like to think we do, but I bet that if we got everything we wanted, we would end up a miserable mess. Who better than God to decide what the best possible answer to our prayers should be? So why do we keep asking Him for what we think we want, instead of asking Him for the ability to discern His will and accept it as being the best possible thing that could happen, even if we don't yet understand why that is so?

And unfortunately for us, there are probably even prayers that will go seemingly unanswered for our whole lives. It may just be that some of our prayers won't be answered until after we've already passed away. But I'm willing to bet that when things like that happen, we will still be able to see our prayers get answered while we're up in Heaven. And I think we'll be rewarded for remaining faithful even when we don't like God's answer, or don't understand it.

All prayers are answered. And they are answered with the best answer possible - whether it's immediate or lifetimes away, whether we understand it or not, and even when the answer is "no."

Give - But Not Too Much

Giving is important and believe it or not, it helps you become more and more successful. But you must be careful not to give too much, because it'll have the opposite effect. Check out my article below to see why.

Give - But Not Too Much

The Platinum Rule

I wanted to write about what I call the Platinum Rule. Everyone has heard of the Golden Rule which basically says "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or in normal language "treat others the way you would want to be treated." Well that is great advice and the world would be a much better place if all Christians actually followed this rule. Unfortunately many don't follow it. But that doesn't take anything away from the fact that it is still very good advice. But I think there is an even better rule that we could and should go by as Christians. That is what I call the Platinum Rule which is:

Treat others the way God would want you to treat them

I believe this is even better advice because we as humans make mistakes sometimes and during those times, the Golden Rule would fail to be the right thing to follow. For instance when a person is depressed, they usually want others to leave them alone. So if they are following the Golden Rule, they would leave other people alone (not talk to anyone and keep to themselves) and they would expect others not to talk to them because that's what they think they want. But as everyone knows, this is bad advice. When a person is depressed is when they need to be in the company of friends and loved ones even more, and I suspect that this is what God would want us to do. If we were the depressed person, God would want us to go talk to other people and spend time with people we care about and who care about us, or to go and help others who are less fortunate than we are so we can see that we really shouldn't be depressed. But even though we may know that's what we should do when we're depressed, that's not what we want to do. And if we're the one who knows of someone we care about who is depressed, most people would not want to bother them because they know how it is to be depressed and they know they didn't want to be disturbed by others when they were depressed. So if they were following the Golden Rule, they would leave that person alone. But if they were following the Platinum Rule, they would go spend time with that person, which is what God would want us to do.

I call this the Platinum Rule because platinum is more valuable than gold, and I believe this rule is more valuable than the Golden Rule. This is something I try to follow every day. It's difficult, more difficult than following the Golden Rule in fact. But it's also given me much more satisfaction in my life and confidence that I am living my life and behaving the way God wants me to. I encourage you to try to live by this rule yourself as well - that is if you agree of course.

So how about it - do you agree? What do you think of the Platinum Rule compared to the Golden Rule? I'd like to hear whether you agree with me and I'd like to hear from you even more if you don't agree with me and why. Post a comment and let me know! =)

Bread and Life

This idea was inspired by a sermon I heard last September and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. The idea is that our lives can be thought of as the bread talked about so often in the bible. I haven't quite worked out all of the references to bread in the bible that I could make use of for this idea, but keep reading and you'll get the idea.

There are many times where men come together for a meal, and bread is almost always one of the main foods they eat at that meal. In addition, during the last supper Jesus took bread blessed it, broke it, and shared it with his disciples. I believe this is what he does with us in our lives as well, over and over again. In fact, I think that we can relate our lives to one of these three phases of bread (either being blessed, being broken, or being distributed and shared with others). The greatest example I can think of that displays this idea is the life of Jesus himself. He was first blessed because he was the son of God, chosen to do God's work on earth and redeem mankind. Then he was broken by being crucified on the cross, which allowed Him to be shared with all of mankind. His perfection and salvation was/is shared with all who are willing to ask for and receive it. There are other examples too (the life of Joseph for example).

So when times are good is when you are in the blessing phase. When times are tough, you are in the breaking phase. And after the breaking phase always comes the sharing phase. To illustrate this, I will tell you about a recent example from my own life. In June of last year I was working as a manufacturing engineer at an automotive testing machinery manufacturing company and enjoying my job very much. I was engaged and abot to be married to a wonderful woman. I was making more money than I had been before, had developed some great new friendships, and was just generally enjoying life. I was in the blessing phase. In July, I was laid off from my job unexpectedly, my family was going through some hard times, and I was supposed to get married in a couple of weeks but didn't have all of the money saved up for it yet and wouldn't be able to get it since I had lost my job. I wasn't happy with the church I was at and was searching for another one that I did like and where I could feel like I belonged, and my life was generally quickly becoming a mess. This was the breaking phase. I soon got married, had a great honeymoon and continued my job search. During my job search, I met a lot of great people and have made some good contacts with recruiters, business people from many companies, and had a lot of time to spend with family and friends. This was the sharing phase. I then received a couple of good job offers (both of which offered a higher salary than I had ever had), and picked the one I thought was best. I found a church that I loved, still attend, and don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I also decided to continue my education by pursuing an MBA. This was another blessing phase. Then I got hit with a huge financial burden, received a less than favorable job review, and my grandfather passed away. Another breaking phase. And most recently I've begun my MBA program and met lots of new and interesting people, made a new good friend through my wife's sister, gotten to spend some time visiting with one of my best friends from high school, and have gained some popularity and esteem in my job. So now I'm in the sharing phase again, moving towards the blessing phase.

Think about your own life and I bet you'll notice that you go through these three phases as well over and over again. The blessing phase is great, and the sharing phase is too. The only one we don't usually enjoy is the breaking phase. But it's a necessary one because just like a muscle, we must be broken down in order to be built back up stonger and better than we were before. This is an important thing to remember. And for those really tough times, it helps to remember one more thing...no matter how hard your life is or gets, it is just a phase and it will pass in time. There was a phase of sharing and blessing waiting for you at the end. And most importantly....no matter what phase your life is in, you are always in God's hands - which is the best place you could ever hope to be.

Playing Monopoly in Life

Yesterday in church, Pastor Sam Rijfkogel talked about how man people play the game of monopoly in their real lives. I have taken his basic message and expanded on it to what I believe, and here it is:

Life is like a game of Monopoly for people who are greedy. They want to get all they can, can all they get, and are nevery satisfied because they'll always want more until they have it all (which they never will). They think they will be happy when they have more stuff (money, possessions, power, etc.), but they never are - they will always want more. The problem is that they aren't thinking about what the game of life is really all about, and what happens when the game is over. See, for greedy people, life is like Monopoly because the game takes a while to finish playing, but when you are done, even if you win, all of the property you owned, all of the houses and hotels you had, and all of the money that was yours goes back in the box - and so do you (your game piece). Whatsmore, all of the stuff you use while you play the game is fake anyway!

This relates to real life because everything on this Earth that we regard as being worth so much whether it be possession, a property, or money is all fake in a sense too. The only thing that is real, that can and will last forever are the things that really matter like relationships, feelings, and your soul. Everything else just goes back in the box when the game is over.

Now you can play the game in a different way. You can play the game and not be greedy about it. You can play in a way where you make sure you do well for yourself and have properties to generate income for yourself. But you can also help others by making trades that will be beneficial for both of you. In fact, if you play in a way in which you try to do what's best for not only yourself but everyone else playing too, then everyone does better! You can help each other by making trades which will also make each other happy (improving your relationship), increase your properties and/or the amount of money you have (improving your finances), and the game (your life) will last longer and be happier. In fact, eventually if you keep playing the game like this, you will have all of the money from that bank distributed between the people playing and everyone will have more money than they would have if they just tried to win as fast as possible by screwing the other guy, being greedy, and only looking out for themselves! So everyone does better if you play the game this way! And the best part is that in real life, there is no limit to what is in the bank. God wants all of us to have an abundant life, and there is no limit to what He can provide for us! This is great news!

So how are you playing the game? If it's not the way you should be playing, what are you going to do in order to start playing a better way? Let's play the way where everyone works together and is happier, everyone gets more, and the game lasts longer!

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to share my ideas about christianity and how to live a good christian life. I am privelaged to have found a great church with a pastor who is very good at explaining verses and scriptures from the bible in an easy to understand way and relate things that are said in the bible to our everyday lives in the current day and age. I take notes during church and discuss the things from the pastor's sermon with my wife and others sometimes, and I thought it would be interesting to find out what other people think about the things that I agree with or don't agree with concerning what I hear in my pastor's sermon. I figure this will be a good way to really cement in my mind what I believe and why, and that will help me to live the kind of christian life that I want to live. 

So I'll write a post once a week or so based mostly on what was preached in the sermon at my church, but also on things that I think of on my own whether those things were spurred from something in a sermon or from something else. I hope that you will post comments about what you think about what I write whether you agree or not, and tell me why. Together, we can expand and solidify our faith and beliefs and continually improve our lives.

=)