Praise You In This Storm

I find the best way to cope with everyday life is to worship. It is what I was made to do, even though God blessed me with me this terrible voice (I think He thinks it is funny).

So anyway, I am at "the Park" getting slammed by the gayest checks imaginable. I mean I was getting omelets, "American Burgers" and t-bones all at once, it was relentless. Starting to get frustrated I start to sing "Praise You In This Storm" by Casting Crowns.

As we started to slow down I started to think about the storms in my life and how they affected me. The first one to come to my mind was, of course, my Mother dying.

I know the reason why my Mother died was so I could find Jesus. In my desperation to find stability in life I found my rock to base my life in Jesus. Although, that day at "the Park" I found out how far I have came.

The day my Mother died, I cannot explain to you my pain. Mind you I was 14 and I truly believed she was not going to die but she did. My world crashed that day, I did not think I was going to make it. Everyday, for a good four years was a struggle.

As I thought about her death I realized that it had been six years earlier that month. I had completely forgot about her on the day that she had died and that killed me. It still kills me, I do not know who I have become. How could I forget about her, especially on that day?

That is where I am today but...

I'll praise You in this storm
And i will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

You wear your cross like a DAGGER!!!

So I am really getting into Norma Jeans new album, the Anti Mother and it is pretty angsty. I like angst, especially when it has to do with Christianity. I consider their words to be constructive criticism for our faith, which we desperately need. On the song "Vipers, Snakes and Actors" there is a line that says "You wear your cross like a CROWN, You wear your cross like a DAGGER," and it has stuck with me. What gives us the right to act like we do?

My last blog was about wearing your cross like a crown but this on is about wearing your cross like a dagger.

A lot of people have done wicked things in the name of God. It is really, really sad to see these things occur. I mean just think about the Crusades, the Salem Witch Trials and even the War in Iraq. No wonder the cross offends some people like the swastika offends most, but these things where done in name of God not with God in mind. Anybody can say God approves of their activity but only those who actually consult God knows if he does.

The cross is not about oppression, it is about freedom. Some Christians do not understand God gave us the choice to follow him or not to follow him. Some Christians do not understand if another person does not want to be a Christian it is their choice and their choice alone.

I am not telling you not to be an evangelist but I am telling you to watch how you spread the good news. Jesus never told anybody follow me or else, it was their choice. Christ used love and compassion for those in need, should we not do the same?

I do not want to be like other Christians...

I WANT TO BE LIKE CHRIST!!!

You wear your cross like a CROWN!!!

I would just like to start this blog off by saying I hope this does not offend you. As always my blogs are created so that you, the reader, will think a little bit. It is my sincere effort in ever blog I create to not harm anybody but most of my blogs come from personal experience and what I observe in ever day life.

Have you ever noticed the crosses that we wear on necklaces? I have, they are usual made of gold, refined in fire so they are pure and smooth. Some of them have a skinny Jesus hanging on them wearing a diaper, but is this a good depiction of the real cross? NO! Although what I find more alarming is how we wear them...

Being a Christian is about the coolest thing in the world (at least to me) but some Christians take it a little too far. Maybe that is is not the greatest choice of words, maybe they live their lives in a way Jesus would not want them to, is a better way to put it. What I am getting at is they where there crosses like a crown because they are a Christian now and this some how makes them better than others.

Being a Christian is not about being better, it is about being forgiven. More importantly it is about getting into the lives of those who are not forgiven. We should not judge others because of their choice not to follow Christ, we should love them all the same.

Again I hope this blog is not made to offend anybody but to rather probe your thinking. Am I like that? That is what I want you to think because we can better the Christian body if we love more like Christ. I acted like that for years, putting down my friends because they drank and had sex. I acted as if I was better than them and most of my friends that I did that to are not saved and it could be because I acted self righteous.

As always I pray that you can find peace with God.

God Bless America?

God bless America, really?

You know sometimes the moral majority, I use that term lightly, thinks that the United States is always within God's plan. Or maybe our rulers believe that since our country was founded under the grace of God (and even back then we still were not in God's plan completely...remember slavery? Just one of many huge errors our country made in the name of God...) that what ever they decide to do is within God's will. All together more likely in my mind is that our countries leaders use God as a advertisement to sell their product.

By the grace of God and our military you will be safe from terrorist! And if you do not support the war then your a commie and an atheist!

Give me a break! Just because someone says God approves of something does not mean God actually does (that is actually a characteristic of the Antichrist rev. 13:1).

Why are we so blind? We follow the crowd going down the wrong path, proclaiming and preaching the gospel of the Suburban Jesus! Just because America supports something does not mean we, as Christians have too!

If you add, "God bless America" to your prayers I urge you to say something else. God bless the World. There are Christians all around the world who need your prayers and there are non-believers who need your prayers all the more.

Instead of following the "moral majority" down the path to the Jesus of Suburbia lets follow someone else.

Jesus.

A Phrase I do not like...

This past Wednesday I was sitting in my Speech class when the guy sitting behind me asked what the back of my shirt said. I responded by saying, "I don't know, my eyes are up here." The class started to chuckle and our instructor walked in. He was curious to what was so funny so I explained to him what happened. With a little laughter he walked over to me and began to read the back of my shirt.

"They brought Him to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull)."
(Matthew 15:22)

Not being a familiar with this verse my instructor quickly responded to my shirt by saying, "What kind of cult are you in?"

"The Jesus cult." I responded, "that is from the Bible. You should open one up."

"Oh I haven't in awhile, afraid I will get struck by lightning."

Like nails on a chalkboard.

So many times when I talk to people about going to church or reading the bible they respond in this manner. It is there fear talking. They do not honestly think they would be struck by lighting but I think they are afraid of being found out. I think that when people say this they are afraid of being judged by other Christians because they are not perfect. So they dismiss Christianity because they "cannot live like that. There are to many rules to follow and I would have to give up so much."

So I was just wondering if in the Bible God has ever struck any one dead with Lighting. It turns out that "lightning bolt" only appears six times in the bible and God never strikes anyone dead. In fact he never hits anyone with lightning, he only strikes the earth near people to scatter them. I got curious and wondered if my search was too narrow, so I hacked off bolt. This resulted in 40 more hits (46 in all) and still God had not struck some sinner for walking into his house.

I do not like that phrase at all because it does not represent the true God. If you are searching for him, you do not have to be perfect, you just have to seek his perfection. In his death and resurection he redeemed you.

God's Grace is Sufficient for ME...

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

God's grace is sufficient for me.

I have been told this several times and I have this to people even more. It is such a fundamental principal of what I believe to be true with God. The other week a friend of mine told me how he messed up big time. He does not believe in God but he some how finds comfort in talking to me about his problems. I do not know why because I usually tell him the same thing over and over again.

Jesus loves you and he forgives you. His grace is sufficient for you.

Although, until yesterday I did not realize that God's grace was sufficient for me. I did at one point but somewhere along the way I stopped believing that. Personally I felt I had been playing the game long enough, that I had been a Christian long enough that I was above God's grace. I know it sounds crazy, I mean the name of my blog is "Amazed by Grace," but I did.

I felt I could not sin, that if I sinned I was not a "good Christian." I am not talking about intentional sinning but unintentional sin. You know sin you do subconsciously. Stubbing your two and swearing. Taking a glance at some unholy places. Thinking poorly about someone. I am not condoning this behavior but saying that somewhere along the way we will screw up and this is where I am weak.

I felt if I committed those sins, which I did, people would realize that I was imperfect, which I am. What is worse I felt that I had to deal with it by myself. I had to stop sinning and stop relying on God. I felt I was above God's grace. That I did need his grace to save me that I could do that on my own.

This is a huge step for me in my walk and I just wanted share it with you.

The Miracle of Restraint

A lot of people have been asking me lately why there are no miracles anymore. Why does God just not show himself by performing a huge miracle?

“If I saw a talking ass Zaq, I would believe.” (I was pretty tempted to tell this person to look in a mirror…)

Now as much as some would like to say there are no miracles, I would like to disagree. There are countless miracles in our world. Plenty of people have been cured of illnesses with no medical treatment other than prayer. How about some of the survivors of 9-11 attacks on the world trade center? Several people lived for days under thousands of pounds of rubble. Let us not forget about every day miracles when families are brought back together, when people get through there depression and when people forgive others through Jesus!

Yes there are miracles! Now I know some of you are thinking, “Well that is some cool stuff but what about the big stuff? Why doesn’t God just perform some huge miracle and shut up his skeptics?”

I think one of the biggest reasons why we do not see big miracles today is because it is not broadcasted by the media. Nice stories that have a happy ending do not sale, they want tragedy and horror. Look at the Quecreek mine accident in 2002. There are mine accidents all over the US ever year but this one was different. It was declared a National Disaster. No offence to any of the nine who were trapped in the mine but there are bigger mine accidents every year that do not get attention like this. The reason why is because those other accidents have glimmers of hope. This accident looked hopeless but miraculously they were found. If you do not remember let me remind you.

The nine where trapped somewhere in the mine, the rescuers did not know where. They had an educated guess but knew the only way to get to them was to drill 240 feet into the earth. It was a race against the clock because the longer they were in the ground the better chance they would die, in addition the water in the mine was rising creating a watery tomb. 77-hours later, miraculously, the miners rose from the mine.

Did you forget about that?

Jesus had every opportunity to perform huge miracles. He could have gone to entire cities and snapped his fingers to heal all there sick, but he did not. He could have called fire and hail from the skies to make people believe, but he did not. He could have flown around like superman saying “hey look at me”, but he did not.

Why? Well that is the miracle of restraint. You see Jesus could have done anything huge to get followers (actually he was tempted too) but he did not. The reason why is because that is not the relationship he wants us to have with him. If he just did huge awesome things, would we follow him because we wanted to have a relationship with him or because he was cool? Yancey puts it best in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew.

"More amazing is his refusal to perform and to overwhelm. God's terrible insistence on human freedom is so absolute that he granted us the power to live as though he did not exist, to spit in his face, to crucify him. I believe God insists on such restraint because no pyrotechnic displays of omnipotence will achieve the response he desires. Although power can force obedience, only love can summon a response of love, which is the one thing God wants from us and the reason he created us."

God has given us every reason to believe in him. It is up to you to find him.