channel our emotions

a few days ago i encountered something different. i was around younger kids that i saw so much of myself in. i saw some of the immaturity that i used to be. one situation i encountered was a kid who used profanity. it was really a shock to me considering we were outside of a church.

language is an interesting thing, not profanity, but language in general. there is so much that can be conveyed by the way that we talk to the meaning behind something we say. one might think something while the intent is another.

why do we struggle with profanity?

it seems to be something that is so prevalent in our world from tv to movies, from friends to idolized stars. i have heard it argued that cussing is right or wrong subject to the atmosphere and others thoughts on it. i can only say what the bible says about it.

'do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.' ephesians 4:29

profanity is the one that made me think about this blog,
but what if we channeled all of our emotions to healthy outlets?

what i mean is when we get angry perhaps we would use some healthy outlet rather than profane words coming from us. maybe we can channel our emotions to music instead of vocalizing it. others would work as well like painting or kick boxing. when some are depressed they turn to things that unhealthy, what if that could be channeled too?

i don't know what your interest are or what you do, but maybe you can channel your emotions to things that uplift god and are nondistructive to yourself or others.

consider this.

opportunity to give

i was sitting in starbucks in athens, greece.
a man sleeps outside on a bench.
this man hasn't showered and his clothes are torn.
i contemplate his condition for hours.
is he really like this?
is he a set up to gain tourist money?
i don't know what i can do.
i drink my seven dollar cup,
isn't that ridiculous in itself,
that i spent that much
and couldn't figure out how to help this man?
is this an opportunity for me to reach out?
i wish i had a greek bible to give him.
maybe god was telling me something.
maybe my view and my perspective isn't wide enough.
maybe god gives us chances to be christ all the time,
and instead we settle for minimum generosity.
i wish i had invited him in starbucks earlier in the day,
maybe we had a language barrier,
but perhaps no one has ever wanted to sit and eat with him.
do we pass up on things that are hard?
do we mentally make giving to the poor,
and helping with our actions, harder than it really is?
do we miss opportunities to give ourselves and what we have?
do we miss the chance to be christ to others when it's right in front of us?

is our bickering satan prowling?

'hatred is frequently exhibited in relationships between most jews and samaritans, but this is not always the case. here in ephesus, for instance, a group of christians consists of a significant samaritan contingency, along with others who are jews, as well as gentiles. they eat together and they worship god together without racial animosity of the kind mentioned because they have found the common lives as followers of jesus to be more important than their ethnic difference.'

we are reading a book, "the lost letters of pergamum" by bruce w. longenecker, and the quoted part above is part of a conversation between luke and antipas. the book is fiction, but based upon studies and written in a way that could be truthful. luke has given antipas a copy of his gospel about jesus and as antipas reads it he has decided to make a digest about his readings he and his friends have.

i think it's interesting how the divisions of the church are not new. they had to overcome their differences. even though it's fiction, this struggle between the jews and gentiles could and may have been a reality. the scriptures do discuss differences in food sacrificing and more, but i'm not well educated on them all.

if they had the struggle in the times of luke and delt with it and came to term with each other, shouldn't we also find our common lives in christ and live together? shouldn't we put our year long, maybe even decade long debates and arguing behind us and reach the point of harmony in our lives. how are we supposed to effectively preach the good news to the people outside of our church when we can't even get along with the ones who sit on the same pews?

it is possible in a church of 100 or 10,000.

aren't we a bit childish in our bickering? we should strive to answer questions about our teachings, the bible, and the way we worship, but do we let these issues tear us apart instead of binding us together?

maybe satan is closer than we think. maybe he's prowling through our churches and under our pews to tear our relationships apart with these little issues. sometimes we get so concerned about the small and forget the large.

the jews and gentiles had to put their differences aside, will we?

glorify god & keep your eyes open

i'm in greece for most of the month of june. i've been debating about what to blog about, but i found something i enjoyed. one of our readings was galatians, and the 5th chapter spoke to me. read all of the chapter, but here are some verses that stuck out to me.

(5:5-6) but by faith we eagerly await through the spirit the righteousness for which we hope. for in christ jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

we're here in greece and we've had the chance to go see corinth and other places. corinth was sick, they were deep in sin but paul entered it with a high chin and help them for the lord. i get from this verse that we argue and complain about the small things. the old law was for before christ, and now, in our time, christianity is so much more than the law. it says that the only thing that counts is faith through love. so as easy as it is to type and say, all we have to do is love. in all we do if we center our lives and ourselves toward love, we are doing as we are commanded and living wholesome christian lives. of course true love, not cutting corners love.

(5:14-15) the entire law is summed up in a single command. 'love your neighbor as yourself.' if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

we've talked about the bickering and confrontations within the early church in a few places in the bible. jews and gentiles had to come together, and there was much friction between the two ways. this morning we talked about sacrificed meat. the jews wouldn't have anything to do with meat that was sacrificed to idols, and the gentiles didn't really care that much. our teacher said that a lot of the time, answers in the bible aren't so black and white, that a lot of the time the answer is maybe. rather than focusing on finding the absolute answer to our bible questions maybe we have to open our eyes to the situation and all involved. we aren't supposed to let other stumble because of our actions. in the example of the meat, we said that it depends on the situation. we have to hold respect for others rituals and rights, but at the same time we can't let ourselves wonder off the path. i guess our conclusion in class today was make sure that in all you do, yourself or you church, that it glorifies god.

(5:25-26) since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

we live by the spirit. i am different because i have the spirit within me. coming on this trip, truthfully, i wasn't too excited about the bible classes but i read this passage and something hit me. i've enjoyed talking to people about my faith, in discussion groups and other settings. i hope that this trip will allow me to see my faith in a different light and boost me further toward confidence that i lack a lot of the time. keep your eyes open to opportunities to see god in your life. he will show himself to you.

all of the kids with me went to an amphitheater in corinth with the 'best acoustics.' it held 14,000 people, when you whispered it would project throughout the entire place. half of our group sang and half listened as we sang the greatest commands, and a day that had made me tired and wanting to come back to the campus became a beautiful moment. just another way that god has shown himself to me. i'll blog again while i'm here. thanks for reading.

looking for more

the other night i was watching the news and a report about reality tv shows. they were discussing controversy in current shows and how so and so are breaking up and how the judging of another show was inaccurate. then they made a comment about how we are always looking for more. i thought about this for a while. i'm always looking for things to do and how to get more out of something, but i am constantly attacked by bordem, it might be my worst enemy.

back to reality shows. isn't it amazing where shows have gone? i love lucy in the 50s always showed the couple sleeping seperate and even when they did have a full size bed it never showed them together in it. now we have shows that physically show couples having sex, maybe it's censored some, but what's the difference? most of our television programming has gone to filth.

tv producers are constantly trying to give the audience what they are attracted to, and perhaps our moral standards are at an all time low. sometimes i have to flip channels for quite sometime to find something that is wholesome, but i will say there are good programs on, and i enjoy them when i find them. i'm guilty as charged too, i watch some of those shows that aren't about wholesome or good content, it's hard and a struggle to stray away from.

do we get bored enough that we lose our good sense of morality?

do we ever consistently long for more in our faith? i mean the good things of course, rather than the negative things of television, but why does it take so much longer for us to get bored of bad than bored of good?

what if we can have this same attitude of 'more' with faith?

i need to do this. let's try and center our lives on christian morality, i mean we pretty much say that every time that we go to church, but let's make it a reality.

as i've learned you are the only person that can make anything happen. until you make the decision for yourself, or i make the decision for myself, it probably won't happen. take the next step and look for more in your faith.