So I just realized how much awesome stuff is going on this summer! Ok so here it goes:
1. Dallas City Outreach w/ Gateway Church
2. Shawn's graduation
3. WWE on June 1st
4. My graduation on June 4th
5. Jesus Culture Conference on June 9th
6. Start of Human Video practices on June 12th
7. Church Camp June 14th-18th
8. YEC convention June 25th-26th
9. Mission trip July 10-17th
10. Skillet concert at Six Flags on July 31st
11. Skillet concert in Dallas on Sept. 3rd.
And that's without all the work and stuff I will be having too. It's gonna be a crowded but rockin summer!
And speaking of the mission trip, I still need around $400, so if you happen to read this and you want to donate, that'd be awesome. Thanks!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Christians and War
I've recently made some of my best friends upset because I don't take the same stance that they do regarding Christians and war. Honestly, I'm not totally sure yet what I believe, but I have been seeking it out. Right now, I just can't support war. As Christians we are called to be the peacemakers. Jesus calls us to turn the other cheek. Now, I'm no pacifist, but rather a MLKJ type person. I believe in countering evil with relentless love, after all, that's what Jesus did.
My friends tell me that I am very naive and that that type of thinking won't work in the real world. Well if that's true then none of us should be Christians cuz that's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't pick up a gun to stop injustice, He picked up the cross and died for us. Martydom is very important in Christianity. Now I'm not saying we all need to deliberately seek to get killed, but what I'm saying is that if you look back in history, the Christian faith has grown not from people warring with guns and swords but from Christians dying for what they believe.
It started with Jesus. He gained many followers because of what He did. Then came the disciples. They too were all martyred, and we saw that the church and the Christian faith grew tremendously. People saw what they lived out and stood up for, and they knew that it was real. These men and women wouldn't die for something they truly didn't believe in. I would rather suffer torture and death from a terrorist and continue to tell him that Jesus loves him until I die rather than have a squad of men shoot him down. The name of Jesus is freedom. The Bible gives words of Life. Are we giving these words regularly? Are we saying them enough? Obviously not.
War is made so attractive because it is natural human tendency to resort to violence, because we are sinful. Before I started to truly discover God's love, I actually wanted to go into the military. I had no problem with fighting someone or killing someone. It seems just all too easy. But as soon as I started to feel and discover God's love and how He truly loves everyone, He really started messing with my heart and showing me that His grace was meant for everyone. Everyone deserves a chance to be saved. And even if they don't accept Christ, you have impacted their life with words of truth and life that they can't ever forget. And Paul instructs us to dust off our feet and move on, not to turn around and kill them.
Remember, we are all made in the image of God, so even if someone acts like the Word of God doesn't affect them, it does, because we were all made to receive it as bread of life. I could never kill someone, unless it happened truly on accident. If someone was beating up my brother or sisters, yeah I would go stop them, I would fight them off, but I would try to do it in a way that causes the least amount of harm. I wouldn't stab them or take a gun and shoot them. If I accidentally killed them I would feel horrible, but it was accidental. I could never kill someone on purpose because I truly love EVERYBODY. Even those creepo sexual offenders and terrorists, I love them. Not for what they are doing, but because they are people like us, and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God doesn't look at sin in amounts, He sees that we ALL have sinned and need God's grace. None of us are good enough to get to heaven, that's why Jesus came to begin with.
Now, on the matter of using love to conquer instead of violence, like I said my friends think I am very naive in this, but has anyone actually TRIED it yet? I mean seriously. You see the little movements. You see the movement that Jesus made. You see the change that MLKJ brought with his campaign of relentless love. It works. The problem is that people are just incredibly impatient and it's quicker to take a gun and kill someone rather than hold out and use love to break down the walls. We want what we want when we want it, and that's a major problem. I mean take Hitler for instance. Yeah, he did some HORRIBLE stuff. And many Christians say it was right for us to to stop him. I have no problem with stopping someone who is doing evil, but it's HOW you stop them that matters. Did anyone go over there to visit Hitler? Did anyone speak to him about Jesus? Did anyone discuss with him that his views were warped and that Jesus was of Jewish heritage? Did anyone show Hitler love? No. We didn't. As a result, not only did he carry out his plan, but he committed suicide when they lost the war. His life could've been saved, as well as millions of Jew's lives. Think what could've become of Hitler if he had accepted Christ as his Savior. He was a very persuasive man. He could've been a great speaker and leader in the church. He could've helped us spread the Word of God everywhere. But did we ever reach out to him and tell him about Jesus? No. We were too busy filled with fear that we resorted to war first. Where was the love? Where was that movement that says, "I am going to stop you and correct you because I love you and I want you to know that Jesus loves you and He wants to change your life."
Have you ever noticed that violence always begets violence? Yeah it may bring temporary peace, but someone is always pissed off that you went to war against them and that you killed their guys etc. etc. War births hate in everyone. That's how racial and social divisions occur. That's how gangs are formed. Everyone lumps eachother into groups and hates eachother and we always use violence to try to redeem us of our losses and problems. We think, "Well, if we just kill this guy, then evil will be gone!" Have you ever seen that work??? Is that even historical? NO. I mean look what's happening in Iraq. We thought, "If we just kill Saddam Hussein, then the regime will collapse." Well several years later here we are, still in the war. And that's because there's always gonna be some other evil power to take the place of the one you just destroyed. And the terrorists hate us even MORE now because we killed their hallowed leader. What if we had gone over there, sat Saddam in prison, and said, "Look man. You've done awful things. But we're here because we believe in grace and love. Jesus loves you and he wants to give you a second chance. We know you believe in the Qu'ran, but we believe in the Bible. And we are willing right now to sit with you and discuss our differences and show you the true love of Christ." That's all it takes! Even if he doesn't accept Christ, keep him in jail then and keep visiting him. Paul says I believe in Galatians that it is lawful to throw people in jail who are doing harm to society, but don't take their life. Keep coming to visit them and share the love of Jesus with them, because those simple words of life change their hearts, whether they admit it or not. Jesus said, "I was in prison, and you visited me." (talking to the sheep) Are we visiting Jesus? Or are we killing him? Jesus is in many distressing disguises, even those of people we think we should eliminate or hate or whatever. God's image is in all of us, we just have to take the time to dig deep to find it. And I for one am willing to do that.
On a side note, lastly, I might write more on this later, my friends think that if I have different opinions than them that when people ask us questions about this stuff and we tell them different things, that they will think we are hypocrites and our ministry will collapse. First of all, I had to assure them that that is crazy, because look at all the different denominations there are! Lots of Christians believe lots of different things, and Christianity itself hasn't collapsed. There's some things we just won't know for sure til we get to heaven, so we need to stop debating so much all this theological stuff and just show God's love. If we dig into His Word and diligently seek Him, He will give us the answers we need to know. Even if they are different from others, God is much bigger than us. We can't fully see how He thinks or what His reasoning is. There is obviously some type of balance of war and love that none of us can see right now. I just want to do my best to honor and serve Him until I get to heaven and can see the full truth. We won't be able to answer every question, and Christians are naturally the biggest hypocrites of all because we say we believe something but then we don't live it out. I mean come on, you see that all the time! So I wouldn't care if someone called me a hypocrite, because I already know that I have been one. But thank goodness for God's grace! And that's the truth of the whole message. If someone came up to me after a show and said, "I was just talking with other members of your group and they don't believe the same thing you do about war." I would say, "You're right. I don't." And if they said, "Well how can that be? Are there two truths? That's very hypocritical." I would say, "Honestly, I'm not sure what the full truth of the matter of war is, that's one of God's mysteries. But I do know that Jesus taught us to show love and mercy and His forgiveness to everyone. And even if you do consider me to be a hypocrite, I don't have to worry because I know God has forgiven me with the grace of Jesus Christ. That's what it all comes down to. I don't have all the answers, I've probably gotten many of them wrong, but I DO have the grace of Christ, which covers all offenses. So I don't have to worry. I am at peace with my beliefs."
If we would just be fearless to tell people what we believe and not be afraid to fall, we could really change this world. The devil wants to shut us up. He wants us to get so confused that we break down and don't say anything. But as long as we speak what God has put on our hearts, even if everyone doesn't agree with it, we will be fine. Just stop worrying so much about what others think of you! If we try to be crowd pleasers our whole life, we will just be relevant. But I don't want to be relevant.
I want to be a Revolution.
My friends tell me that I am very naive and that that type of thinking won't work in the real world. Well if that's true then none of us should be Christians cuz that's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't pick up a gun to stop injustice, He picked up the cross and died for us. Martydom is very important in Christianity. Now I'm not saying we all need to deliberately seek to get killed, but what I'm saying is that if you look back in history, the Christian faith has grown not from people warring with guns and swords but from Christians dying for what they believe.
It started with Jesus. He gained many followers because of what He did. Then came the disciples. They too were all martyred, and we saw that the church and the Christian faith grew tremendously. People saw what they lived out and stood up for, and they knew that it was real. These men and women wouldn't die for something they truly didn't believe in. I would rather suffer torture and death from a terrorist and continue to tell him that Jesus loves him until I die rather than have a squad of men shoot him down. The name of Jesus is freedom. The Bible gives words of Life. Are we giving these words regularly? Are we saying them enough? Obviously not.
War is made so attractive because it is natural human tendency to resort to violence, because we are sinful. Before I started to truly discover God's love, I actually wanted to go into the military. I had no problem with fighting someone or killing someone. It seems just all too easy. But as soon as I started to feel and discover God's love and how He truly loves everyone, He really started messing with my heart and showing me that His grace was meant for everyone. Everyone deserves a chance to be saved. And even if they don't accept Christ, you have impacted their life with words of truth and life that they can't ever forget. And Paul instructs us to dust off our feet and move on, not to turn around and kill them.
Remember, we are all made in the image of God, so even if someone acts like the Word of God doesn't affect them, it does, because we were all made to receive it as bread of life. I could never kill someone, unless it happened truly on accident. If someone was beating up my brother or sisters, yeah I would go stop them, I would fight them off, but I would try to do it in a way that causes the least amount of harm. I wouldn't stab them or take a gun and shoot them. If I accidentally killed them I would feel horrible, but it was accidental. I could never kill someone on purpose because I truly love EVERYBODY. Even those creepo sexual offenders and terrorists, I love them. Not for what they are doing, but because they are people like us, and all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God doesn't look at sin in amounts, He sees that we ALL have sinned and need God's grace. None of us are good enough to get to heaven, that's why Jesus came to begin with.
Now, on the matter of using love to conquer instead of violence, like I said my friends think I am very naive in this, but has anyone actually TRIED it yet? I mean seriously. You see the little movements. You see the movement that Jesus made. You see the change that MLKJ brought with his campaign of relentless love. It works. The problem is that people are just incredibly impatient and it's quicker to take a gun and kill someone rather than hold out and use love to break down the walls. We want what we want when we want it, and that's a major problem. I mean take Hitler for instance. Yeah, he did some HORRIBLE stuff. And many Christians say it was right for us to to stop him. I have no problem with stopping someone who is doing evil, but it's HOW you stop them that matters. Did anyone go over there to visit Hitler? Did anyone speak to him about Jesus? Did anyone discuss with him that his views were warped and that Jesus was of Jewish heritage? Did anyone show Hitler love? No. We didn't. As a result, not only did he carry out his plan, but he committed suicide when they lost the war. His life could've been saved, as well as millions of Jew's lives. Think what could've become of Hitler if he had accepted Christ as his Savior. He was a very persuasive man. He could've been a great speaker and leader in the church. He could've helped us spread the Word of God everywhere. But did we ever reach out to him and tell him about Jesus? No. We were too busy filled with fear that we resorted to war first. Where was the love? Where was that movement that says, "I am going to stop you and correct you because I love you and I want you to know that Jesus loves you and He wants to change your life."
Have you ever noticed that violence always begets violence? Yeah it may bring temporary peace, but someone is always pissed off that you went to war against them and that you killed their guys etc. etc. War births hate in everyone. That's how racial and social divisions occur. That's how gangs are formed. Everyone lumps eachother into groups and hates eachother and we always use violence to try to redeem us of our losses and problems. We think, "Well, if we just kill this guy, then evil will be gone!" Have you ever seen that work??? Is that even historical? NO. I mean look what's happening in Iraq. We thought, "If we just kill Saddam Hussein, then the regime will collapse." Well several years later here we are, still in the war. And that's because there's always gonna be some other evil power to take the place of the one you just destroyed. And the terrorists hate us even MORE now because we killed their hallowed leader. What if we had gone over there, sat Saddam in prison, and said, "Look man. You've done awful things. But we're here because we believe in grace and love. Jesus loves you and he wants to give you a second chance. We know you believe in the Qu'ran, but we believe in the Bible. And we are willing right now to sit with you and discuss our differences and show you the true love of Christ." That's all it takes! Even if he doesn't accept Christ, keep him in jail then and keep visiting him. Paul says I believe in Galatians that it is lawful to throw people in jail who are doing harm to society, but don't take their life. Keep coming to visit them and share the love of Jesus with them, because those simple words of life change their hearts, whether they admit it or not. Jesus said, "I was in prison, and you visited me." (talking to the sheep) Are we visiting Jesus? Or are we killing him? Jesus is in many distressing disguises, even those of people we think we should eliminate or hate or whatever. God's image is in all of us, we just have to take the time to dig deep to find it. And I for one am willing to do that.
On a side note, lastly, I might write more on this later, my friends think that if I have different opinions than them that when people ask us questions about this stuff and we tell them different things, that they will think we are hypocrites and our ministry will collapse. First of all, I had to assure them that that is crazy, because look at all the different denominations there are! Lots of Christians believe lots of different things, and Christianity itself hasn't collapsed. There's some things we just won't know for sure til we get to heaven, so we need to stop debating so much all this theological stuff and just show God's love. If we dig into His Word and diligently seek Him, He will give us the answers we need to know. Even if they are different from others, God is much bigger than us. We can't fully see how He thinks or what His reasoning is. There is obviously some type of balance of war and love that none of us can see right now. I just want to do my best to honor and serve Him until I get to heaven and can see the full truth. We won't be able to answer every question, and Christians are naturally the biggest hypocrites of all because we say we believe something but then we don't live it out. I mean come on, you see that all the time! So I wouldn't care if someone called me a hypocrite, because I already know that I have been one. But thank goodness for God's grace! And that's the truth of the whole message. If someone came up to me after a show and said, "I was just talking with other members of your group and they don't believe the same thing you do about war." I would say, "You're right. I don't." And if they said, "Well how can that be? Are there two truths? That's very hypocritical." I would say, "Honestly, I'm not sure what the full truth of the matter of war is, that's one of God's mysteries. But I do know that Jesus taught us to show love and mercy and His forgiveness to everyone. And even if you do consider me to be a hypocrite, I don't have to worry because I know God has forgiven me with the grace of Jesus Christ. That's what it all comes down to. I don't have all the answers, I've probably gotten many of them wrong, but I DO have the grace of Christ, which covers all offenses. So I don't have to worry. I am at peace with my beliefs."
If we would just be fearless to tell people what we believe and not be afraid to fall, we could really change this world. The devil wants to shut us up. He wants us to get so confused that we break down and don't say anything. But as long as we speak what God has put on our hearts, even if everyone doesn't agree with it, we will be fine. Just stop worrying so much about what others think of you! If we try to be crowd pleasers our whole life, we will just be relevant. But I don't want to be relevant.
I want to be a Revolution.
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