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Spiritual Warfare

I have been experiencing something that is extremely hard to describe in words when talking to people. I can usually formulate my thoughts better when writing them down and maybe in this process I myself can figure a few things out about what exactly has been occurring around me lately. My story begins on Saturday night. I was sitting alone in my room at my desk watching a TV show on my computer when suddenly I felt chills go down my spine and got goosebumps. This was followed by an intense feeling of panic; like I had to leave my room as soon as possible. I just wanted to be out of there as soon as humanly possible. I stood up, grabbed my keys, and left my room with my TV show still playing on my computer. After leaving I just walked downstairs.
I was genuinely upset and didn't really know what was going on but I felt like God wanted me out of my room. I felt silly after a few minutes and started to get thoughts like "Well you're just being stupid, you're just tired and need to sleep. You're just freaking yourself out." So I went back upstairs and turned the doorknob to my room and as soon as I was one step back into my room I felt all the same feelings come back. Goosebumps, cold chills, and a feeling of utter fear and panic. This was the final straw. I was not going in my room. Keep in mind that this was all occurring at 1:30 (Yes I know this is late; welcome to a college life weekend). I went for a walk outside trying to call someone so that I could sleep elsewhere but obviously no one was up so I sat in my downstairs lobby and prayed for a bit. After a while I started to feel at peace and, once again I can't explain it, but I feel like God told me it was safe to go back to my room. I felt pretty confident that God was telling me this so I got up and went back into my room and just sat down on my bed. I read my Bible and prayed with music on in the background. One thing I have taken from the entire experience was simply this. We need to know that spiritual warfare is going on all around us every second of every day. This stuff is real and we need to be placing our trust in God. A healthy fear is necessary. This is not stuff to be messed with and we need to be keeping God as our guard against attacks from the Devil. Since this experience I've had this very ominous feeling surrounding me whenever I am alone. I am not depressed. I feel like when walking to class I notice how quiet the world is around me. It's a very hard thing to describe. I just have this very real sense of being alone, almost as if I am being watched all the time. Yeah this is never fun to experience. It's beginning to weigh me down and I'm finding that every day I am almost afraid to leave my room, but at the same time I am afraid to be alone. I just feel so mentally and emotionally weighed down by this dark feeling around me that I don't want to do anything on a day to day basis. Again, I don't consider myself depressed by any means, I just have been sensing what I think is very real spiritual warfare going on around me. This may sound dramatic but it's what's been going on in my life lately and I felt like maybe sharing it would open your mind to new thoughts and get you thinking about stuff that you possibly haven't thought about lately.

Church-How much is too much?

I recently had the opportunity to visit a church nearby to my college. At one point in the service the pastor made the announcement that they had successfully raised approximately $8 million for a church to be planted on a new campus. Everyone clapped of course and it was a joyous moment. I, however just found myself annoyed at the church. The reason for my annoyance was the fact that we are in a recession, people are jobless, homeless, there are countries dying from diseases and here we are creating an $8 million worship center for ourselves. What happened to the verses that spoke of giving up all we had to the poor. According to a few sources, there are over 300 verses in the Bible referring to giving to the poor or caring for the poor. For example Luke 12:33 says, "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys." I feel as though the church is missing the major point of this scripture.

We need to begin applying verses more practically. Supporting the poor does not mean only praying for them. It means showing them God's love in radical ways that they can relate to. We should be using the church's money to support jobless, homeless, fatherless, missionaries, vets returning home, those that can't afford college, unhealthy senior citizens, families who are in the process of having their homes foreclosed on, and organizations like Teen Challenge and CareNet. The list could go on and on. Americans have become engrossed in a cushioned, comfortable version of Christianity that causes us to become dead in our faith.

Church has become a place with awesome lights, a warm tingly feeling during worship, perhaps yell a few Amen's during the service and you have successfully convinced yourself that you are a Christian. We need to begin stepping out of our comfort zone and allowing God to show his love through us in radical ways that people can really relate to. I believe the way we utilize the money that God has given us is an extremely powerful way to do this. I don't mean to rant or bash the church. I realize that all churches are not as I described so I don't mean to insult anyone who belongs to a church that is really living out the challenge God gave us to care for the poor.

Discipline or Abuse?

I was asked the question today whether it’s okay for a parent to "beat" their kid. I had to somewhat filter the question into a more reasonably worded one, but I am still stumped for the answer to the question. Is it okay for a parent to use physical methods to discipline their child? At what point does "disciplining" become physical abuse? I believe the very simple answer to this question is: When the parent can no longer maintain control over their own temper it crosses over from disciplining to being abuse. At this point the action of either spanking or hitting the child as a means of punishment stops being discipline, but merely a way to lose ones temper at the child. This will ruin the point of disciplining a child. The point of punishment should be to show that you are concerned with an unhealthy or sinful behavior that the child must change. Most importantly the child needs to know that you care about them. The fact that you care about them is lost if you are simply losing your temper at them. It is foolishness to say you are “disciplining” a child if you are simply acting out of rage. For example if a parent loses their temper and begins to hit, push, or punch their child, and then says “You need to be disciplined!” this parent has crossed over from being a parent to being viewed as a fool by the child. It shows the child that the parent has no control over themselves let alone the situation involving the child. It works against the parent. The more the parent loses their temper, the less the child cares about what the parent has to say and at this point the parent has lost all control of the situation.

If the parent cannot control their temper why should the child? After all who is the leader and who is the follower in the house? If the parent is continually losing their temper should they really expect anything less than the child? If a parent is having trouble with an especially angry child they should first realistically examine their own temper and the way that they have been handling their own anger. An important key in this step is to surround ourselves with truthful friends. What I mean by "truthful friends" are friends that are not afraid to lovingly challenge unhealthy or sinful behavior in order that our relationship with God might mature. If you find yourself surrounded by friends who never challenge you, chances are they aren’t your friends. They are more like colleagues who enjoy flattering you or boosting your own self esteem. Having honest friends around you will also involve having the ability to openly talk about your own problems with other people. Yes this is uncomfortable. Growth is usually uncomfortable. Sorry. The presence or absence of real friends can be extremely detrimental or beneficial to keeping parents accountable.

If parents are accountable only to themselves this can lead to a world of problems. When has it ever been healthy for people to be left accountable only to themselves? Children are accountable to their parents, employees to employers, countries to leaders, the church to God. We see accountability everywhere. If left alone people will naturally allow themselves to sin more often than they would if they had to answer to someone. The bottom line is this: Parents must be kept accountable to someone outside of their marriage. If they are only accountable to each other this could lead to problems. It leads to a bubble effect. You have no outside, objective perspective on your home. It’s always beneficial to see things from a new perspective; it brings things to light that you may have never seen or noticed. Yes it’s fun to live in a world where you are always right, but where is that realistic? Pandora? Narnia? I don’t know…..some kind of dream world most likely.




Sometimes parents don’t realize their means of disciplining isn’t normal
because they only live in the bubble of their daily life. They need to be able to step outside of this environment and view it from another's seat. It's like that TV show that shows alcoholics how they act when they are drunk. When the alcoholics see how they act when they are drunk it is a huge shock and they are embarrassed at their actions. I wish I could do this with some families to wake them up, but I realize I cannot. Being outside of a family allows you to take step back now and make the statement "No those aren't healthy or normal interactions" , but how do you burst their bubble of normality? Do you rain on their parade? Break the news that what they are doing is not right or normal? I think it’s the duty of true friends to make the statement sometimes that what other parents doing is wrong.



I realize this post has jumped around a lot in the ideas I’ve presented. Welcome to my mind. It’s a jumbled world of thoughts that are only organized when I write them down in an orderly fashion so that others may read, comment, disagree or agree with, or simply enjoy reading for the purpose of personal entertainment. Going back to the main question of this post, I think it is okay for a parent to use physical methods of punishment- to a limit. The purpose of the punishment must not be to inflict pain or be an outlet of a parent’s lost temper. The purpose of it should be to cause the child to see that the parent is concerned with the child’s behavior because they love them and care if they are behaving in an unhealthy manner. If physical punishment doesn’t cause the child to see their wrong behavior it should be stopped immediately. I also think it should be used only when the child is really young. If it is continued for many years the child will begin to grow bitter or used to a spanking as a means of punishment. The mindset will become “Well if I’m only going to get spanked……” and they will do whatever they know is wrong knowing that all they are getting as a consequence for their actions is a spanking. Physical punishment should also only be used as a last resort. If no other form of punishment works it can be used to discipline the child. I realize I’m not a parent so I don’t pretend to state that all I’ve said is correct, or the only way to parent a child it’s just my personal views on the issue. I’m sure others disagree with me and vice versa, disagreement is healthy though. It’s what makes every human unique from another human. There are a few ideas that are not debatable though, such as the idea that physical punishment should never be used when the parent is losing their temper. That’s simply a given. Also the idea that parents should be kept accountable to people outside of their family. There’s no way around the idea that people need to be kept accountable to each other. As always, I hope this post has caused you to think, formulate your own ideas about things, and maybe just cause you to be entertained for about fifteen minutes of your daily life.

Godly Conflicts

I have often heard the example of the "Marriage Triangle" used when referring to the relationship that a husband and a wife are to have with each other. They are to be focused on getting each other closer to God and as they bring each other closer to God they will be brought closer together. I think this same rule applies to the relationship that parents are to have with their children especially when dealing with differences or conflicts. If the focus of the conflict is to bring each other closer to God it will result in a Child-Parent relationship that is closer as well.

If the focus of the parent or child is simply to win the conflict and not resolve the issue, nothing has been achieved except a personal victory for the "champion" of the argument. It's a very selfish way to view a conflict if your first thoughts are "I must win this argument!!". It doesn't result in forgiveness or a resolution to the problem. There is also a difference between forgiving a person and simply forgetting what the person who hurt you did. Resolving a conflict is crucial to the growth of relationships. It establishes trust and relationships are based on trust. Therefore, conflicts can either build or break down a relationship. If you never seek forgiveness this will result in the break down of trust and finally a weaker relationship with that person. Attempting to gain forgiveness for the wrong you committed shows that you genuinely care about the person you hurt and thus results in a stronger relationship with a stronger level of trust present.

If you think you can simply move on and act as though the fight never happened you are living in a dream world. Ignoring the issue shows that you don't care about the other person involved. It shows that you don't care why the other person was upset. You were only concerned with winning the argument so you could undergo a self esteem boost. I have heard the phrase, "If I am just really nice to the other person they will forget about the fight", or maybe you have heard this one used "Being really nice to the person is the same as being forgiven." False. Being really nice to the person without seeking forgiveness is a slap in the face. The message that is received is that you don't care about the argument that took place, my hurt feelings, or (going back to what I said originally) our mutual relationship with God maturing. Therefore, it hurts more when a person simply acts like nothing has happened as opposed to them seeking forgiveness.


It was a shock to me when I had a healthy conflict with someone because I am not used to having issues resolved. I actually didn't know what to say when it was occurring because 1. I wasn't being yelled at 2. It was obvious that although the conflict had occurred the person obviously cared about me and 3. They were focused on resolving the issue so that our relationship might continue and trust could continue to be built. I can't even begin to explain how much this encounter changed my view of conflicts. It was like an epiphany that I could have a conflict with someone and it could be healthy for both of us. I had more respect for the person I had gotten into a conflict with than I did before it had happened. I didn't even know that was possible. I was actually at a loss for words when I found the person genuinely apologizing and attempting to make amends for what it was they had said that had hurt my feelings. I probably looked like an idiot sitting with my mouth open not even responding to what they were saying. I honestly didn't know what to say in response because I had come to the person prepared to defend myself against all attacks. I was expecting raised voices, unreasonable comments, and no resolution to the problem. I might advise against this now that I have experienced a healthy conflict. Life Lesson: Don't go into arguments with prepared attacks. To summarize this conflict I experienced; I have such a new respect for this person after this conflict that whenever they say something to me now or offer their opinion on something, I know that they are genuinely concerned about me.

Lack of Male Leadership?

Being at college has exposed me to a number of new experiences, people, etc. To sum up; my life is different than it was and my manner of viewing the world has begun to change as I am forming new opinions on things independent of my parents' influences. After I settled into college I started attending a small group Bible study in order to stay connected with people that can be real with me in my faith. I have begun to notice there are very few male Bible study leaders. I also began to notice though that there is a lack of male leadership in other areas of the college. For instance the leader of our church service is a female college student, the praise band is all females with the exception of one male, and the chaplain of the college is a female. I am not really sexist, but there is something different about being taught by a female compared to being taught by a male. It's impossible for a female to relate to some of the struggles that a male experiences and vice versa. I will admit that I as a male can't fully relate to all that women struggle with. For instance wouldn't it strike you as odd if a woman went to a guy asking for encouragement in her pregnancy? There's just kind of a sex barrier there that doesn't allow men to connect with women on some subjects and vice versa. For instance I, being a male, would never go to a woman to speak to her about temptations with my girlfriend I would go to a male because they can most realistically relate to this problem.

I think the healthiest solution to their being too many female leaders would be to have both a male and a female leader so the entire population of church goers would feel as though they have a leader they can go to with their own personal struggles.
I just feel as though men in America need to step up and begin leading the church. Women are beginning to take on more roles in the church and this is a great thing to celebrate, but that doesn't mean men can simply back out now and allow women to run everything. It should be an equal, mutual leadership so that all Christians feel as though they have someone they can relate to and be encouraged in their faith with. So I salute the rising of female leaders in the church, but at the same time am ashamed of my own gender for failing to step up and take leadership roles in the church.

On drinking again

I came across this quote in an essay I just read for a class so I thought I would share it. It's talking about how there are some churches that condemn drinking so much that their members end up believing that drinking anything must be a sin. The quote is as follows, "Bible and sermons and hymns combined to give us the impression that Moses should have brought down from the mountain another stone tablet, bearing the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not drink." The essay is "Under the Influence" by Scott Russell Sanders. I highly suggest you check it out if you're interested in alcoholics and the effect is has on their children.

Different Point of View

A few months ago, in actuality it could have been a year ago, I was watching the movie "Taken" with a friend of mine and he shared an interesting thought with me that changed the way I look at movies and songs. He said "Think of the Dad in the movie as being God". I realize this post may be confusing for those of you that have not seen the movie, but don't fret I'm about to relate it back to the larger public. After that comment, I found myself listening to songs and thinking of the singer of the song as being God. It puts an interesting twist on some stuff. The song that stood out the most to me though was a song from Phantom of the Opera. News Flash: I don't want to see any comments questioning my masculinity. Real men can appreciate some aspects of feminine films. The lyrics are as follows:
"No more talk
of darkness,
Forget these
wide-eyed fears.
I'm here,
nothing can harm you -
my words will
warm and calm you.

Let me be
your freedom,
let daylight
dry your tears.
I'm here,
with you, beside you,
to guard you
and to guide you...

and later on in the song

Say you need me
with you,
now and always...
promise me that all
you say is true -
that's all I ask
of you..."

There's not a lot else I can add only that I encourage you to listen to songs with a different mindset and a whole new world of meaning to lyrics will open up to you. I listen to the song and picture it as being told to me by Jesus. I'm not sure if this is just a weird habit of mine, but I wanted to share it with you and hopefully you can get some more enjoyment out of songs the way I do now.

Jesus Drank?

Obviously Jesus drank water seeing as how he was completely human and completely God, the human side of him would have needed water to sustain life. I am referring to the idea that Jesus in fact drank and was at settings that included wine, which would infer that Jesus is in fact not at all against responsible (key word: Responsible) drinking. I should offer some background as to why I'm talking about this issue, however.
I attend an EC denomination church. For those of you not familiar with the EC church, basically the majority of EC churches have made a statement somewhat along the lines of "The most responsible choice concerning alcohol is total abstinence". I did not know this was the common opinion though and when I recently went on a vacation to Canada, I fell into the the Devil's clutches and tried beer. I also sampled some wine. I felt no guilt for this and don't really believe I should. I see very little Biblical evidence for the idea that alcohol is sinful. If Jesus was opposed to drinking why would he turn water into wine? Why would he create a substance he knew was completely sinful. He would have sinned by creating a so-called "evil" substance and we know that Jesus was sinless. What we do see in the Bible, however,are plenty of warnings against drunkenness. Drunkenness and drinking are not the same thing. It's like calling eating and gluttony the same thing. We are not gluttons every time we eat breakfast. There is a way to responsibly enjoy alcohol. If we are to be like Christ I believe this also means that if we choose to enjoy alcohol, we are to follow his example of how to enjoy it responsibly.

I don't believe that total abstinence is a wrong view to take on this issue, its actually pretty respectable, but I don't think total abstinence should be taught as THE MOST responsible choice to take on drinking. As if responsible drinking is "less responsible". Its just not supportable, in my opinion.
Therefore, I believe that Christians are able to responsibly enjoy alcohol without feeling guilty about it. Follow Jesus's example and enjoy it responsibly. The answer to the popular question "What Would Jesus Do?" is; He would drink, but drink responsibly. So drink up fellow Christians!

Christianity

Hello there, I got thinking the other day by a comment about Christianity and the people who have founded it. Before revealing the comment, I should offer some background on the conversation that was taking place at the time. I was discussing a religion I believe was Mormanism. The main topic of discussion was something along the lines of "How can a group of people place trust in a religious leader that claims to have had a vision alone and written a religious book about this vision? " To me I would have just assumed the man got high in his attic and came out of it with a new religious book he wrote while in a drugged-up stupor. Who can prove the man had a vision? Who can back up this "religious book" he claims is "from God"?
The comment that got me thinking, however, was "How is Mormanism any different than Christianity?" Aren't there dozens of books in the Bible that were written by men who claim to have had visions or were inspired by God? Moses claims to have gone up into a mountainside alone and seen a burning bush. John saw the vision of Revelation alone. Paul had the vision of seeing God on the Roadside that no one else could see. How do we know he didn't fake being blind? Who can back up any of Daniel's visions? How do we know the tempting of Jesus happened when only Jesus was there to experience it?
I think there is a lot more faith involved with Christianity than we are aware of. We can very rarely back up a lot of what Christianity is founded on and yet we accept it without question. I just think there are a lot more similarities between Christianity and other religions than we tend to recognize. It's also easier to relate to people from other religions when you can understand the similarities of your religion and theirs.
Another amusing thought occurred to me when listening to a Derek Webb song. The lyrics to the one song were ".....that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican" I found this amusing because most Jesus films portray Jesus as this white dude with long hair and a beard, but most likely he looked more like Osama Bin Laden.
This probably isn't a thought that most Americans would be happy to think about right now, but it's probably the truth nonetheless.

Loss of Wisdom?

It is now the fourth day since I have been under the knife.The swelling has gone down from the aftermath of Day #3 (aka the Doomsday of Wisdom Teeth Removal), and I am beginning to eat foods. I suppose I am eating more out of desperation than actual recovery from my surgery. A man can't really be expected to live on soft foods for so long a period of time. The biggest struggle for me this entire week has been having to deal with a body that is recovering when my mind is completely healthy. What I mean by that statement is this; My mind was ready to be going out, running, eating, doing things, but my body was still stuck in recovery phase. This drove me crazy. It's like being stuck in a cage; only the cage is your own body. I have never watched so much television in my entire life and I never want to again. I will say though I have come out of this entire week with an ability to relate to druggies. I have discovered the lure of Vicodin. Not that I have become addicted, I merely mean that I could see why it would be easy to fall into a trap of becoming addicted to it and becoming one of the kids in my school that are known to sell and use Vicodin on a daily basis. This week has also given new meaning to Philippians 4:12, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want". Although my face is swollen, my teeth have been replaced with stitches, and I'm stuck drinking soft foods, I am alive and I know that good will come from all of this.

Work

I've been doing a lot of thinking on the subject of working, as far as what does God expect us to do with our careers? Does he expect us to simply work hard so we can earn a ton of money? Or does he want us to follow his calling into a career he has planned for us and he will provide us with money? I feel as though the major misconception is that we are to simply spend our lives working as hard as we can even if it means we are miserable. If you think about it work makes up approximately 40% of our waking hours a week. Don't you think that God plans for us to use our work hours to bring more to him? Can we do that if we are simply working miserably to earn money? I don't think so. I think God has a career path planned out for us that allows us to use our God given gifts in a way that glorifies him and will bring more to him. I have been thinking more and more about this idea and have finally opened up my mind to the idea that maybe God has a career path for me I haven't even begun to consider. Even careers that I had previously shut my mind to I am now open to consider. As I go into College with a career for myself in mind I also am open to the idea that maybe I will have to change my major at some point in my college experience, but this excites me more than makes me nervous. I have no idea what kind of career God has planned for me, but I am looking forward to figuring out what it is he has planned.

Gluttony

It occurred to me recently that I can't remember the last time a pastor got up in front of a church and talked about gluttony and overeating. I feel as though sometimes churches get so caught up in the deep spiritual topics that they overlook the basics such as: How do we reflect our relationship with God through what we eat? The Bible is about as equally outspoken about gluttony as it is about drunkenness, so why is it that gluttony seems to get overlooked all too often? The Bible tells us that our bodies are temples. The Holy Spirit is living inside of us. How can the Holy Spirit have room to live in there if McDonalds has taken over? We are to have self control it says, but how does eating 3 deserts reflect upon that verse? Is that self control? I'm not talking about being overweight. They are two different topics that are usually connected, however. You can be a glutton without being overweight and vice versa.
Jesus was very big on caring for widows, orphans, and the poor. I think we lose sight of this very often though because we live in a country where the poorest person here would be the richest person in 75% of the world. We don't daily see children dying from hunger or parents who watch their kids die because they are not able to provide them with food. Every time we eat we should be thinking of Jesus's words to care for the widows, orphans, and poor. If all the Christians in the United States consciously made an effort to eat smaller portions and cut back on unnecessary pleasures, God could use us to have a profound effect on those that are going without food in our own country. We need to stop being worried about who we're offending and start worrying about those who are dying from hunger. If it takes the truth to offend someone and stop them from the sin of gluttony then so be it. We are to "love one another as Christ loved us", but if a brother/sister is living in sin it wouldn't be love to allow him to continue sinning. I feel very strongly about this subject, but on the other hand I am a human as well and struggle with this sin as all of us do. If more people are aware of it, however, there are more people to keep myself accountable to.

Running

It occurred to me today on a training run that the sport I participate in must seem very peculiar to those that don't do it. The entire thing makes no logical sense when you look at it at first glance. I go out, run for miles a day, have to eat the right foods, drink the right amount of water, avoid other foods, and all for what? About 3.1 miles of pain. What kind of reward is that? Why don't more people find this appealing...? To me though I have learned so much through my experience with running that my life would have a huge hole in it if God had not brought it into my life. I can't explain all that running has done for me but I can offer a few examples that hopefully make my running seem a bit less bizarre to you outsiders.
One way I think about it when I go out on a run or do a workout is the fact that God's given me a gift and it would be insulting to simply throw away a gift or not fine tune it. If someone gives you a car as a gift would you crash it or would you attempt to keep the car in prime working condition? When God gives you a gift you don't throw it out; you use it to make the giver of the gift proud that he gave it to you.
When I run it's the same as if I was in church singing praise songs. Every race is an act of worship. It may not seem like worship to those who watch, but that's how I feel when I get on the line. This also makes it worse, however when I have an off-day. It feels as though I've let God down.
Running has also taught me the power of prayer. I've only told two people this, but about a year ago when I was on a training run I started thinking about states. Keep in mind this is the summer of my Senior cross country season. I remember praying to God something along these lines "God if its in your plan please give me the strength to win states for you and not for myself. If it's not in your plan for me to win I will accept that, but I want to try to win gold for you." I kind of forgot about this prayer actually until a few months after my states race. I'm not trying to say for a second that I knew I was going to win, but I know now that if you pray for something with the intent of accomplishing it for God, God will use you.
Running is very comparable to a healthy Christian life. The constant discipline, faith that that you're doing will make you stronger, the perseverance to get through hard times, and most of all Faith in your Coach (God). I look back on my high school years and know now that God was intending to use me for that one race not for the glory or the gold medal, but to show me that God works in amazing ways and does indeed answer prayers. I hope now that you can somewhat understand why I do this sport and have learned so much from it.