Jesus Camp

This morning I happened to see an interview with the directors of the documentary, Jesus Camp. If you haven't heard about the movie or seen it, it basically follows the lives of three kids at an evangelical church camp in North Dakota. Although the directors didn't mean to turn the film into a political commentary, that's where the movie seemed to end up. So after watching the clip (it's just a featurette I found about the movie on YouTube), I'd like to know your thoughts about the hot button issue of the separation of church and state. Good? Bad? Of course it would be great if everyone was a Christian and we ruled society on Biblical principle. But can we or should we guide secular society by Christian standards if we have the power to do so or encourage it? The Bible seems to only speak of rules within the church.

Working Out

They tell us that we should exercise at least three times a week for an average of 30 minutes. That means for me, throwing on the sneakers, getting in my car and driving to the gym to turn on a treadmill to run in place for 30 minutes. It occurred to me today that this is how I feel:

I used to ride bikes, shoot basketballs, scurry after squirrels, and run away from the dog down the street (not a pleasant experience, but that's a story for another time). Essentially, I used to exercise not for the sake of exercising but for fun, for discovery, and for purpose. Not just for the sake of staying healthy. Whatever happened to that?

And then I was thinking, sometimes I do that even with my spiritual walk. I make the time in my life to hang out with God, but sometimes I do it just because I should do it to stay spiritually healthy, to get me through the day. Not to say that that's a negative thing, but sometimes I feel I'm just running on the same ideas and insights whenever I read my Bible, and even though I am encouraged to have enough energy for the day, I really yearn to be energized for the week, or at least, for the next few days.

There are a million and one ways to experience God from service, from being out in nature, from talking with people from different backgrounds, from tackling problems in different ways, from even walking to school by a different route, etc. so why must I stay on the spiritual treadmill where I sometimes find myself? I guess what I'm saying is that books, written commentary, group Bible studies, radio programs, and service projects are definitely beyond commendable to find insight and feed our faith; but, what other kinds of methods does God speak to you through? Basically, what are other ways does God talks to you out of the box (or outside the cage if you're a hamster)?

Hello, week! Thy name is chaos.

As we finish off the semester, just thought I would share what God reminded me of today.

"This is the day that the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"
Psalm 118:24

God made TODAY for us to REJOICE in it! Pray. Push. Carpe Diem!

Needed by God

I don't know why, but it seems to me that people like to be needed. We like to feel that we have some sort of purpose and that we're not just doing things for the sake of doing them. In that light, it occurred to me that God needs me. He needs you. He needs His family to do things on this Earth. Now I realize that God doesn't need anything and in fact, Philippians asserts that God will meet all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. But how awesome is the thought that God needs us to be bold, to be courageous, to be helpful, and to be willing to do His will whenever he calls? He leads us down a specific path, gives us a specific situation, and sends specific people to us because He needs us to hack through the brush, He needs us to learn a certain lesson, or He needs us to encourage His people and those who are not part of His family yet. I dunno, but this just changes a lot of perspective for me. I'm yet again getting worried and concerned about the usual stuff and some not usual stuff, but whether or not the "important" or desired things get done or happens, God needed me to do the things that has happened. He needed me to be there for the people I talked to. He needed me to learn lessons of humility, friendship, and faith despite the expectations I had. Anyway, this may not make sense at all to anyone, but heh, at least it makes sense to me. :)

Let's Make More Room

So I've been really encouraged to see the dialogue that has come out of this blog and would really like to widen the circle of contributors. As to keep the discussion somewhat small and personal, if you know of one or two persons who you think would like to contribute, please email me his or her email address at kirstenkwa@gmail.com so that I can send him or her an invite. Cheers!

The Nature of Sin

I was listening to a radio program by Chuck Swindoll and he was talking about how Jesus' trial was possibly the worst case in the history of jurisprudence. Jesus had 11 charges placed on him but was found guilty for none. His charge had been changed from blasphemy (which was not punishable by a Roman court) to treason. And so I wondered, how it could it possibly be that such an event could happen to a man who was innocent on all accounts despite having done nothing deserving of death or even some punishment. Yet he received many ruthless beatings, the cat of nine tails, being spit on by those who once welcomed him with "Hosanna", and a horrible crucifixion. By the time the Roman soldiers were done with him, the bible says that he barely looked like a man.

And when I thought a little more carefully, i realized that it was sin. Christ was not up against the devil. He was up against sin. Christ stood in the face of sin and sin could not bear the presence of one so holy and one who spoke truth like He did. And so against all logic and without any real reason for death sin took our savior beat him senseless, left no skin on his body unbroken and buried those nails into his hands. Our world has become so sin saturated that sin seems so normal and rational and its only when we look in to what Jesus and the Apostles said about us that we start to realize that there is something really wrong with the sin in our lives. Many of us cling to our sin in some secret compartment of our lives (myself included) and cling onto it tightly because sin feels better or seems better. And so there is a need to see sin for what it is and how it rationalizes the illogical. Or else it continues to creep into our lives slowly killing off every existence of truth or love in our life till we are an empty shell.

Know your enemy. When we start to realize the nature of sin with all our hearts then we move one step closer to enjoying Christ and being able to savor him for what he truly is.

"I've Got the Powah!"

It occurred to me at one point a while ago that I should explain the title of this blog. As I see it, the basic routine of life is sleep, eat, work, play (a little), sleep, eat, work, play (a little), etc. On another dimension, the basic routine of life is desire, strive, attain, desire, strive, attain, etc. And even when we're striving for the "right" reasons (i.e. working for God), we still go through this cycle. It's inevitable. But as Christians living on Earth, we've got the edge over our fellow human counterparts.

My dad emailed me a presentation that he used for his Faith and Business class which illustrated the "Sources of Power from the Human Point of View". These sources included: Positional power, Informational power, Charismatic power, Networking power, Influence power, and Capital power (i.e. PICNIC). Basically, humans love power. Nay, we crave it. But what is Biblical power?

1 Corinthians 1:23-24 says "but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" and later in 1 Corinthians 6:14, Paul says "By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also." Overall, Jesus is POWER. We shouldn't have to crave human power because in Ephesians 1:18-19 Paul writes, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know [...] his incomparably great power for us who believe."

What does this mean today? While we strive to get the grade and desire to get the job or just hope to please the Father, just know that we already have the POWER of God. Paul prays for the Thessalonians that "our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith" (2 Thessalonians 1:11). Later, Peter also writes "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3). And therefore, we have no concern about the world's goals because the POWER we already have is so much greater than the power for which the world strives.

Not to say that there's anything wrong with striving for the good grades and desiring that dream job. It's just that, unlike the World, we as Christians have faith that the future will iron itself out despite the bad grades, despite the lack of money, despite being passed over for a promotion at work, despite the difficult questions, despite the lack of answers, despite the seeming silence of the Maker's voice.... Why? Cause through Jesus, we have POWER. Through Jesus, we have The Christian Edge.

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God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Which one do you pray to?

So yesterday I was talking to a muslim friend about Easter and several questions led up to these which I have listed below. How I answered her is also below but I would really love to hear if yall would've explained it differently.

• Do you think Jesus is God?
  
• Yes. While Jesus was the SON of God, because of the trinity, He is also God.
  

• Do you think Jesus was a prophet?
• No. Well, initially I answered yes then I thought about it and switched my answer. If Jesus was the expected Messiah, He did not need to prophesy about his own coming because He had come. Therefore by definition, he can't be a prophet. He's what the prophets prophesied about.

• Do you pray to Jesus or God? (I had previously discussed with her that because of Jesus, we can talk to God - He's our connection. I said this when explaining the difference between Christianity and Catholisism as the Catholics believe they need to pray to Mary so she can talk to Jesus. The Christians know Jesus is all they need and that Jesus interceeds on our behalf to God).
• I pray to both because they are the same "individual".

The problem in all of this is, how do I explain the trinity? Especially after already having made a distinction between the Son of God and God. I eventually told her that, due to our imperfect human minds we cannot comprehend God and so we make a distinction betwee Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit - and we name it the trinity but essentially its just God. God is able to take more than one form but God is God and Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. Was this the correct answer? I am confused now.

Christ is risen!!!! Happy Easter :)
Evelyn

Good music and letter to the ladies

Hi all,

I went to Island Party (a big free christian outdoor concert) in Aggieland this weekend. Jimmy Needham, one of the artists who performed really caught my attention (lyrics and music style). It turns out he is a student at A&M, class of 07 and married! So, as I went to his myspace account to listen to his music, I saw a letter his wife wrote to other ladies. It was definately something I was in need of being reminded and thought that the ladies in this blog might appreciate reading it also. So - sorry guys, probably not of use to yal but you can go listen to the great songs!

http://myspace.com/jimmyneedham

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=21876848&blogID=165355953&MyToken=d6541f22-9e60-4778-b210-45526bb1840d

Evelyn