Yeshua

Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

-Isaiah 46:4

I was talking to a very, very dear friend of mine on the phone this evening. The call was very encouraging, and very much so edifying. But one part of the conversation stood out to me in particular.

At one point she gave me a disclaimer. She said that the following words that she will speak she will one day regret, and that these thoughts and ideas aren't very "Christian."

Aren't very Christian? What is the Church teaching us? That Christians aren't HUMAN?

When she was done discussing how she currently felt about a life situation, she continued on to another conversation. I stopped her from progressing further, and asked her if we could take a step back. I let her know that how she was feeling was most definitely Christian--for she is 100% Christian, and 100% human. We then talked about the fall briefly, and we reminded each other that God will show us the good and bad within our hearts. God will allow us to see where we are wrong, and because He is so good and allows us to have a relationship with Him, we are encouraged by Him to become more like Him with everything that we do.

Isn't that the point of salvation? We realize that we are not equal to God, and we have fallen and thus need Him to correct and fulfill our relationship with the Creator of our souls?

Unfortunately, oftentimes the Church tells us that what we're feeling isn't "Christian" if it doesn't align with the specific verses and phrases that the Americanized Christian Church has selected and/or come up with. Though we may posses a thought or feeling that may not be that which Christ would respond with, that does not mean that He is not in the situation! We must approach Jesus in a humble manor--with full humility.

It is OKAY to be Christian and HUMAN (in fact, it is required if you are Christian). God is still [always] with you--He desires for you to see where you are weak so that He may give you strength.

When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,

I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

-Psalm 73:21-26

Everyone Did What Was Right In Their Eyes

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

-James 1:27

It is absolutely fascinating to see how different people are raised. One most definitely gets to see that in college.

Whether you were brought up in a Christian home or not, ethics, either the teaching of or the learning of, becomes a huge aspect of our childhood to early adulthood. It seems as if every family, Christian or not, seem to focus on a select group of ethics. The children, thus, become focused on those ethics for at least part of their lives if not all of their lives. It is important for us, as Christians, to realize that non-Christians or other groups of Christians may be living a more godly life than we are. Sometimes we get caught up in our society, and the Christian society that has formed in the US, and we stop getting caught up in how Christ tells us to live.

It's great to support Christian artists by buying a band's new CD, or a clothing company's new Christian t-shirt--there is no doubt about that. However, does Christ tell us to live a life keeping up with pop-Christian culture, or does He tell us to give all that we have to the poor? Why are we so quick to judge the non-Christian's motives for working a day in a soup kitchen, when we spend the whole day in our room bumming about and rocking out to the new Above the Golden State CD? Why do we speculate as to why the atheist student volunteers to wake up at seven on a Saturday morning to bring inner-city children to breakfast at the cafeteria, when we're sitting there eating waffles and watching ESPN? Let's face it, we may know the Truth, we may even speak the Truth, but do we live the Truth? To the fullest? At all?

Reading Christ's Word and understanding Christ's word is just part of it. Your faith truly develops when you love Christ with your whole heart by listening and doing whatever He leads you to do. It's time to readjust our mindsets, to be truly focused on Him.

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

-Luke 14:33