Forever a Student

Going Deeper.

We are a world that is so plugged in - plugged into the news, the internet, our iPods and iPhones and Droids and TVs and tablets. We have all these resources and all this entertainment and all of these distractions. We can spread information like wildfire via Facebook, as proved through 'LOL cat' photos and the recent Kony 2012 video. One thing that has really been on my heart recently is the 'heart' of activism in this rising culture. Creative outlets like film, graphic design, music composition, etc seems to be this huge thing that keeps growing. Is it bad? I can't judge that. Can it be useful? Certainly. Can the videos and songs and paintings and posters end modern day slavery or put a violent leader in jail? Not by themselves.

I'm realizing that there's something much deeper behind all of these movements for a better world. There's something that doesn't get as much as attention as it should. Yes, bringing down a violent man is a good thing because we're freeing people from oppression. Yes, assisting authorities in catching slave owners is a good thing, but what is our goal? Is our goal to make the world a better place? Is it to do something good? Is it to be the hero? If those are our goals, then we're missing the point.

We already have a hero, his name is Jesus Christ. No one can replace him. Can we make the world a better place? Well… we can certainly help relieve other's pain, but no matter how hard we try and no matter what we do, this world is Satan's kingdom. He was given the world as his stomping ground and we are to live for a kingdom far greater than his. We can't forget in all this world-saving business that the world - humanity - can ONLY be saved through the blood of Christ and a person can only be saved through the washing away of their sins by his blood. "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him," (John 3:17).

As I sit here thinking about what is truly important in my life, the one thing I keep coming back to is God. Worshiping God, telling people about God, realizing that there is not a single significant thing I can do in and of myself that is greater or more glorious than what God can do through me if I'll humble myself and if He so chooses to use me. It's important that in a world where my generation has a shorter attention span because of our trigger-happy fingers that roam the web, that we take time to read. It seems to me as though my generation spends much less time than we should in the Word. Do you really spend the time you should studying it and understanding it? Is it a task or a pleasure? Is it a guide for your life or luxury reading? Does it help drive what you do and who you are in Christ or is it just an option? The more I spend time reading this precious Word, the more I see how far I fall from righteous. The more I read this beautiful Word, I see how amazing the kingdom of God is. In the darkest period of my life I spent time dreaming about a beautiful world where nature was beyond our concept of beautiful, where people had a keen, kind, and true sense of justice. A place where compassion, mercy, humility, and love were everywhere. People didn't judge. People didn't manipulate. People didn't seek their own glory, but they helped others that were struggling. I wanted to live in a world like that. I still want to live in a world like that, but I think a lot of those things will be mostly reserved for Heaven. Now I dream of a place where everything glorifies God for how truly good He is. I could easily get off track, so I'm going to steer back now to the point…

We don't read enough. We don't spend enough time in God's Word, because God's Word reveals his kingdom and tells us how to make an amazing world possible, and I have looked for that amazing world for quite some time. I see whispers of it. I meet a person now and then that is so obviously consumed with the love and spirit of Christ, or I see the beauty of that world in a sunset or night sky. As I grow and learn, I'm seeing more of that world in the Bible. I see commands to, "not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober… For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing… Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstance; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil," (1 Thess 5: 6, 9-11, 16-22).

If I could've been encouraged to do anything through high school and college, I wish I would've been seriously encouraged to read my Bible more. It was always an option. Well, technically it still is an option in that I have the free will to choose whether or not I'm going to read it. However, when it comes to my emotional, spiritual, or physical welfare, reading my Bible is NOT an option. When I'm feeling hopeless, no person can comfort me the way Psalm 139 does. When I'm feeling insignificant or confused about my life, few could give me advice or encouragement like reading through 1 & 2 Thessalonians does. When I'm frustrated with a friend or anyone in my life, no one can give me such excellent advice like Galatians can. A lot of times I get all sad and ridiculous because I'm such a sucker for the idea of a 'one, true love.' I think about this knight in shining armor that will love me regardless of my weight or body shape or weird likes or random ideas. Well guess what? That knight - his story is all throughout the New Testament. Rumors of Him are in the Old Testament, and stories of his compassion and his hope are all throughout the NT. A lot of times I feel imprisoned by so many things here on earth and my soul is crying out for freedom, but I find encouragement in the Book of Freedom - the Word of God.

So, if I could just take a moment to encourage you - read God's Word. If you're depressed right now and feel like you're drowning - read God's Word. If you're confused and don't know where to go next or what you're supposed to do with your life - read God's Word. If your parents or a parent or family member has scarred you somehow with some betrayal or neglect - read God's Word. If your best friend has chosen her current crush over her friendship with you - read God's Word. If a guy has used and abused you to satisfy his own pride - read God's Word. If you've spent your life trying to do everything good and it seems like nothing good ever happens to you - read God's Word. If you think you're completely alone in your suffering - read God's Word. If you don't feel like you fit in anywhere or with anyone - read God's Word. If you feel judged and hated and want love, if you're desperate for love - read God's Word.

His Word and His Spirit will teach you how to be free. It will teach you how to love. It will teach you how to forgive. It will teach you how to look at other people with no sense of judgment or conceit. It will teach you how to trust again. It will teach you how to let go and find freedom in not having control. It will teach you so many things if you will let it. Being taught requires surrender though. You have to surrender your pride and your stubbornness and your doubt and your fear and your insecurity and anything else you may be holding onto. You may already be a Christian and have the Spirit within you, but don't tune God out. A lot of people make the grave mistake of thinking Christianity is a one-time conversion process. No, no, no. I'm living proof that Christianity is a constant renewal and refinement of yourself. I'm continually converted into a being more aware and more awake as I spend more and more time seeking Christ. The more I spend time with God, the more he transforms my heart. God didn't come to save the world from something simple like being thrown in a stereotypical hell fire, complete with cartoon devils jumping around with pitchforks. God came to save us from ourselves and from our own sinful, selfish natures. He came to save us from living a life of phony love. He came to save us from a life that is less. Not because He wants to point at us and laugh and say, "Haha, you aren't good enough!" No, no, no. He came to save us because he really does love us that much and He wants to restore us to the glory He designed us for (read Genesis).

What are we doing, self-proclaimed Christians of the world? Are we trying to save the world from bad, or are we trying to expand the kingdom of God in this war zone Satan calls 'home?' Are we living to glorify God or are we living for personal gain? I probably repeat this message in different ways at different time, but it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will just allow you to get it. I pray that you can see with what clarity is see that God is SO good and SO faithful and that He is THE hero and THE knight in shining armor.

Please, don't take my word for it - take God's word for it. Read His Word, read the Bible. Study it. Seek to understand it. Humble yourself and allow yourself to be taught instead of pridefully thinking of yourself as a great scholar. The only times I really learn something is when I stop pretending that I know it all. There are some lessons that take me years to learn just because I have this big, stupid head about myself. College is my big testament of that statement. Thank God that at the end of college I finally was learning lessons from the first 3 years of mistakes. I'm still learning even now about just how many mistakes I made in college and I truly hope that my life will be full of learning more and more about how I can better love.

Right now I can better love every human I know by begging them to read God's Word. Regardless of who you are, please just give the first book ever printed a chance. If not for the sake of Christ, then how about for the sake of history? For the sake of Gutenberg, read the Bible. Believe that you can learn something from it. It's such a great story, even if you think it's fiction, it still has so much wisdom about sacrificial love and the best way to be human.

Please, please… read the Word with humility.

"They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one." Hebrews 11: 13b-16a

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible." Hebrews 11: 1-3