Confliction

Confliction

I will start off by saying that this will be a different post than previous posts on this blog. This blog is not meant to inspired false faith, or to weaken the faith that is currently possessed by readers. Today we will be looking at two quotes and comparing them to see if they have validity alongside each other or to see if they have no relevance at all.

The first quote I heard at a disciple now conference at my home church. The quote is this:

"Your view of God determines everything about you."-A.W. Tozer

Now this is an interesting statement when we begin to place it into our Christian faith. As Christians we generally hold a high view of God using words such as omnipotent, omnipresent, perfect love, and redeemer. We sing songs in worship services such as "All I need is you Lord." Yet we can walk away from a church service and at times feel no different than when we left an intriguing class. So what does Tozer have to say about this? 

Now please hear me. I'm not calling you out for being a bad Christian if you have ever sang these songs or used these words to describe God. I'm right there with you, I have admittedly sang these songs in a service before and not felt behind what I was singing. The question that I feel this quote is really trying to get at though is this: How does your view of God present itself in your everyday life? 

Doubt is something that we do not embrace well in the church. We should be 100% confident in our beliefs with no questions asked, and if you do have questions...don't even think about asking those to people. Yet while sitting in class I came across a quote from a philosopher named Paul Tillich. When asked about faith pertaining to God he had this to say:

"If there is no doubt in faith then it is not faith, it is knowledge." -Paul Tillich 

Thus the conflict began in my mind. These two quotes seemed to oppose each other in a manner that I could not deal with. If my view of God is supposed to determine everything about me, then how can I have any doubts about Him? How can I question things about His character? In reality though, I don't know everything about God. When it comes to problems in the world, I don't always have a clear solution that comes from my bible.

Once again, please hear me out. I'm not saying that I am renouncing my faith. I'm not saying that it's complete certainty with a knowledge of God, or a life living in a void with no answers. What I would say is that there are key things one must be solid on. We are sinful people as man and God is perfection. This perfection required something or someone to close the gap between the broken man and perfect God. Cue...Jesus. He died for our sins and asks for a relationship so that we continue pursuing a Christ-like life. A man who lived a perfect life in a not-so-perfect world.

There are certain things that YOU can be certain on in your faith, and that is ok. There are MANY things that you may not be certain on, and that is ok too. If we knew everything about God...then we would be God, and I don't know about you but I definitely don't feel comfortable with that role. So how should our view translate into our daily lives? Thankfully God lays it out for us in James.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

Always remember that God didn't call us to have all the answers...that's His job. He called us to show His love.

Thanks for reading and God bless.
-rcrawford

Signs

Sign

Being a senior in college is a strange feeling. There is the usual thought of it only feels like yesterday when I was a freshman, and yet it feels like college has been such a long portion of my life as well. Although.. I might attribute that to all of those philosophy lectures... but anyways! There are many thoughts that have been crossing through my mind, as I am almost halfway done with my final semester, which takes us to the topic of the day: Signs.

Our passage is found in Judges 6:36-40

36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said— 37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.

Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the book of Judges, I'll give you a basic rundown. God's chosen people, the Israelites, go through a cycle where they fall away from God, get captured, God sends in a rescuer (called a judge), God's people repent, salvation occurs, and back to falling away. Judges 6 is no different, but our judge is named Gideon. Now Gideon is not very confident in his ability to lead and when told that he will be used for the rescue of Israel he begins to test God. This is where our passage takes place and our first point. He begins with doubt. 

How many times do we feel called to do something, speak with someone, stand up for something, choose a different major, and yet we start out hesitant attitude. We immediately flood our mind with doubts and reasons that God must have gotten confused when He told us to do that. I'm not confident enough to go talk to them, why would God have me do that? I know nothing about that country, why would God call me to a mission trip there? Many of us do it, me included, and so we begin to ask God for signs.

Gideon's first request is a little weird, but God fulfills the sign to prove that He has chosen Gideon. Due to the already overwhelming doubt though, Gideon requests a second sign. Do we not do the same? How many signs does it take to get our attention? As I mentioned, I am a senior in college and with that comes a very real issue for lots of people, engagement. Is she the one? Is he the one? Are they interested in me? There is no way that someone like THAT could be interested in me. If there is an area of life that I myself and those around me have asked for signs in recently, this would be one of the largest ones. We ask God to guide us to that person, and sometimes when they are right in our laps we ask for even more signs just to make sure.

This doesn't pertain to you? Have you ever asked for multiple signs in the following areas:

• College Choice
• Career
• Major
• Friends
• Extracurricular Involvement

Gideon knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what God was calling him to do. He knew God was going to use him as the tool to save His people. Yet due to the doubts that Gideon began with it took two direct signs from God to convince him. Gideon's faith will even squander later on in chapter 7 as he prepares for battle.

So what do we take away from Gideon here? Well it appears to be simple. God has given you a call to something in your life, and I can't tell you what that is. IF you are confused on where to look, look no further than what you doubt. Often times the biggest tool that the devil can use to interrupt God's plan for you is self-doubt. YOU are a child of God who is loved and cherished and rest in the palm of His hand. God wouldn't call you to something that you weren't prepared for.

He doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. 

Thanks for reading and God bless.

-rcrawford

*If you'd like to follow to see when posts come out regularly, the right side of the page has my contact info as well as a space to fill in an email address for email updates!

Modern Parables-Say Something

Say Something

Hello again! So glad to have you all back here, it's been an amazing week, and I can't be more excited to share this with you guys. It is the final installment of the series, so next week we'll be back to normal. I heard our song for this week come on the radio though and instantly knew God had an awesome intention for this post.

So, as I post a link to the song, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVgixOjGhVU) I want you to ask yourself this question while you listen: Why do you have a reason to doubt?

There are many things in life that we come across that can shake our decision making processes. Whether it is an awkward moment, a fear of failure, or even disappointment to meet a desire we have all doubted something could/would happen before. The Bible shows us an example of someone who had a few doubts of their own...let's turn to John 11. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2011%20&version=NKJV) The passage we are looking at is 44 verses long, so please follow the link if you are currently unable to reach a bible.

There are two characters we want to look at in this passage to truly understand the meaning:

• Martha
• Mary

Martha, a sister to the man Lazarus who has died in this passage. A personal friend of Jesus, a mourning sister, a worker, and most importantly a believer in Christ. When we look at this passage we see Jesus arriving at the grave site of Lazarus, and Martha greets Him. She tells Him that had Jesus been there, her brother would not have died. When Jesus answers her saying her brother will rise again, she responds with even more knowledge of Jesus's teaching. He tells her a truth about Himself and she SAYS that she believes. 

Is this you? You believe in Jesus, you have seen Him perform miracles and yet you don't see why He hasn't solved this problem? Martha knew but did not truly believe. Our song opens with "Say something, I'm giving up on you. I'll be the one if you want me to, anywhere I would have followed you." Martha knew that Jesus could have done something, and so she feels the need to question Him here on WHY He didn't come in time to save Lazarus. She is giving up on His ability to save...

BUT WHAT ABOUT MARY?? She brings hope to us right? She too comes running and throws herself at the feet of Jesus, telling Him how she wishes He had come sooner for she knows that Jesus could have saved her brother. How does Jesus respond to this act of desperation? He sees her compassion, her pain, her belief, and He weeps. He asks Mary to take Him to the body. She had no expectations. You see when Martha shows up, she says that, "But even I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." Mary is not concerned with this, in her pain all she wants is the comfort that Jesus brings. 

"And I will swallow my pride. You're the one that I love, and I'm saying goodbye." The song clues us into this image of someone who is walking away. Someone who has lost all hope, THE WRITER HAS GIVEN UP ON LOVE. And yet we have to ask....have we given up on love? Are we giving up on a Savior who loved us to the point of death?

Sometimes we look to God to make Himself real to us. We just need Him to say something....anything. In the silence though we wonder if He is there. We decide like Martha in the story to give him one last chance, we roll away the stone and look into the darkness of the tomb, into the darkness of our pain, into the darkness of our doubt.....and we wait. Then Jesus, calls into the darkness with a voice of compassion, because it literally pains Him to see His loved ones, YOU, hurt.

So why are you doubting Jesus right now? What are you expecting? Are you wondering why Jesus didn't show up, why He let this pain go on? Are you thinking that Lazarus will come walking out of the tomb? I think there is one thing that this passage and this song teach us, so if you hear nothing else hear this:

• Sadly we all live in a broken and sinful world, in broken and sinful bodies, with broken and sinful expectations at times. When God shows up, and how God shows up, will ALWAYS shatter all expectations. Say something, so what could happen if we stop restricting what that something could be?

Thank you for reading and God bless.

-rcrawford

*If you'd like to follow to see when posts come out regularly, the right side of the page has my contact info as well as a space to fill in an email address for email updates!

Modern Parables-I'm in a Hurry

I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know Why)

Good Afternoon! I hope all of you have had a marvelous week. I know it's not been a full week since the last post, but I'm trying to get back onto a consistent schedule so that these posts don't seem so randomly placed. This week I felt that it was necessary to step away from the pop feel that the songs seemed to lean towards, so a little country twang is what we'll be listening to this week. 

Our song is titled I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know Why) originally by Alabama. In 2013 a band called Florida Georgia Line released a cover and it can be found here for those unfamiliar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htr2-u64aMs

How many of you have had a busy weekend? A weekend of running from one place to another? I once met a business man who was absolutely opposed to vacation. I chuckled and asked him why, and he gave this response: Vacation is just ridiculous. Why would I want to take a week off so that I can work twice as hard the week before or after? 

In Mark 10:13-16 we find Jesus giving an interesting teaching. 

13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16 And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

When I go to my church at home I love to sit in the balcony. You get to observe all kinds of people, today though I got to see one of my favorite things. There was a baby who appeared to be about a year old and she was as happy as could be. The speaker was not so important to her, but soft chairs for her to sink her teeth into? It was Christmas all over again for the little girl. 

The chorus to our song this week goes like this: I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I rush and rush until life's no fun, All I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why. This sounds like such a sad life right? The songwriter is openly saying how useless he feels life is. Like a prisoner he is bound to his actions everyday with no purpose behind them. Is this so far off from us though?

I asked at the beginning of the post how many of you have had a busy past few days? Why are you busy? The disciples try to keep the children from swarming to Jesus, but He tells them to let the children come. The children had no separate agenda, they more than likely didn't know what was to come after seeing Jesus. This is unimportant though, for now they just wanted to be with Jesus.

I like to think I am learning to grasp what busy means. Living in college there is always another club or organization that wants more of your time. Why are these important though? Relationships? Resumé Builders? Can't we fall into the same habits with our Christian lives though? The second verse of the song talks about being on time, but why are you on time for church? Is it respectful or is it because you want to chat with friends before service? Maybe it's because the living God is in that place and you just can't wait to get there? Don't worry, I am not pulling a holier than thou statement here because I too fall into the habit of rushing to church for those exact same reasons. 

Challenge the process. Take a break, do something to break the day-to-day schedule up. The disciples were trying to keep the children away from Jesus. Only the wise and learned should be around Jesus. Only those who are intelligent enough to comprehend His teachings. Jesus told them that this was not true. These children just wanted to be with Jesus. It wasn't another stop on their schedule. It wasn't a service they had to attend before they started homework. It wasn't the thing keeping them from lunch. It was Jesus. 

So why WOULD I want to take a week off of work so that I can work twice as hard the next? After bouncing and biting for nearly 45 minutes of the service this morning, the little girl in front of me rested. Because sometimes we all need to stop, break the monotony of schedule, and find Jesus. I promise it makes the schedule worth living. So that way when you look at why you live and die, I pray you can see Jesus is the reason why. 

Thank you for reading and God bless!

Modern Parables-Brave

Brave

First off, Happy New Year to all! I hope you all had a fantastic evening bringing in the New Year. It's nice to see you back here. I must admit, I've been struggling with this topic for awhile now, so I promise I am not coming from a standpoint of mastery. 

The song this week is Brave by Sara Bareilles, if you have not heard this song before it can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyAfjUHlFSM

The story we will be looking at alongside the song is found in Daniel 1. Now as the passage is twenty-one verses long I will post a link (lots of links this week) to the passage for you to follow along with. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+1&version=NIV

What's going on in the passage is that King Nebuchadnezzar has requested some Israelites to be in his service who are of tip top shape. These boys appear and are given a buffet of fantastic foods to eat from while they are readied for the king. This is the kind of buffet that would make an American teenage boy's heart explode with happiness. The Israelites do something very odd though, that is they say that they want vegetables instead of the feast. This brings us to our first point: There is always a choice.

The first verse of Sara's song discusses the power of words. It opens with the line, "You can be amazing, you can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug." Whenever we come across a situation there is always a choice: right or wrong. This sounds so simple, and yet so often we miss it. Whether it be peer pressure or even attitude, we don't see a choice every time. I like to imagine Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael standing at the end of the buffet table just shocked, then we hear Azariah's stomach growl and the group just looks at him. It doesn't seem to mention a vegetarian option, but due to the Lord's commandments for these four they knew that they weren't' supposed to eat the meat and wine of the king's buffet.

The second point this passage shows us is it won't be easy. The official resists the command of the four at first because he fears that he will get in trouble. The men didn't have to choose to go against the flow, none of the Babylonians would have known otherwise, but they still chose the tougher route. Sara's second verse talks about how we don't always do the brave option. We get paralyzed by fear, but maybe one day we can stand up and be brave.

If you hear nothing else in this blog hear this, God is never going to put something in your path that He hasn't prepared you for. No matter how frightening, uncomfortable, or even painful something might seem God has prepared you to handle it. Not only has He prepared you for it, but He's going to go through it with you, so go for it.

The final thing that this passage shows is God responds. The men took the faithful route, although different, and God grants them wisdom and knowledge. This would later take them to positions of advising that were higher than any others in the kingdom. The bridge to the song goes like this, "And since your history of silence won't do you any good, did you think it would?" We are called to act, and we must do so.

I don't know what situations you are dealing with in your life right now. I can't give you the answer of what is right or wrong to do in them. In fact the right thing might not even be an action at all, it could be an attitude change. Although it can be difficult or painful, we get to rest in one thing before we do anything. That is that we are never alone. The all powerful God who made this life will be right beside you the whole way through.

Thank you for reading and God bless.