Just one more bite

I have always been the one to get seconds at dinner, and possibly thirds. It was a way of life for me. I simply enjoyed eating. I would eat a little of something, get full, and then continue to eat. Eat I would, without stopping. Obviously, I was not gorging myself on salads. Burgers, steaks, fries, and anything deep fried was my typical diet. Along with my guy-friends, we would hit up Burger King and we all would get the largest meal, because we were men. I would make fun of my brother for getting wraps at McDonald's because I thought that was "so gay."

Now with a few more years of life experience under my belt, I have come to some realizations. Gluttony is not a typical sermon topic, but it is always coupled in the Bible with drunkenness. And gluttony is more than a health issue, it is a pride issue.

As men, we say, "I am man. Get me red meat. I will not eat that salad." We men have a misguided mindset that says because we are the hunter-gatherers, we must fill our fleshly desires in food. I do not think women understand how humbling and humiliating it is for a man to simply choose a salad, or have low-fat meat. We feel gay. But God wants our bodies healthy, for they are the temples of the holy spirit.

I have laid out our feelings. We feel gay when we try to eat healthy foods. But that is a humbling experience that we need to do. We need to swallow our pride, along with the vegetables.

United States of Zion

There are few things that annoy me more than the phrase, "We are living in the end times." There is no way to know that. But some people think they know by one piece of evidence: the moral state of America.

It is no secret that evangelical Christians in America fall on the far right side of politics, as do I. We do this because we believe that morality lies in sanctity of life, and marriage. We should fight for the state of our country. It is our civil duty. But there is a problem when we start mixing our religion with our politics. We should always bring our religion into our politics, but we have now dragged our politics into our religion.

As Americans, we believe that the USA is the greatest country in the world. I agree. Therefore, we think we are the best at everything: Equal rights, money, power, and... religion. Somehow, we have crafted the idea that the church in America is the apex of Christendom, and that it is God's masterpiece. We see ourselves as the base for all Christianity. When Christianity spreads away from America, we think that the theology is weakened the farther it gets away from us.

Where did we go wrong? This nation is not Zion. The Roman empire was "Christian," and it is dead. The Byzantines, the English, the list goes on. They have all fallen, or at least fallen to sin. Did Jesus come back? No! God did not plan history as a preparation towards His America. We could be destroyed tomorrow and it would not stop God's plan.

Does your faith rely on the never-changing spirit of God, or the amount of Socialism in the USA? If America falls, and Jesus does not come back, will you still believe?

It is time we realize that the church does not start in Los Angeles and ends in Boston. Let us join the global effort and join our brothers and sisters in the one true church of God. Pray for our persecuted brothers in China, because that is where the true action is happening. And I am not saying all this to propose we crown the church in China as the next Zion. We just need to remember that God is not partial, even if you and I are.

Random, yet logical.

I am going to invite you to come with me on a journey. By the end, you might remember seeing tangerine trees, and marmalade skies. It is the journey that I call my own random-pointed logic. It may seem dazed and confused, but it is how I learn things. And this time, I learned something quite exceptional. Enjoy.

I took a class last semester called 'Romans.' No, this class was not a study on the history of the Roman empire. Rather, this class was on the Epistle of Romans, written by the apostle Paul. In chapter thirteen, Paul demands that the believers obey the government...even if the government is corrupt. My proffessor then answered the question that was on everybody's mind (no, not Obama health-care). He talked about the American revolution. It is often debated if our fore-fathers had the right to stand up against their king, and rebel. He said that the answer is really quite simple: They were not Christians. Their being nonbelievers takes them away from God's standards of living. They were instruments for God's bigger plan.

After pondering on this topic for a month or so, I realized that the union rebels were much like the pharaoh--God's tool to bring about good for his children. But then I thought, 'this simply goes back to the question I have been asking for years--Why did God not simply make everyone good? He then would not have to have vessels of wrath to save His children. They would all be His children.'

I had a friend my freshman year of college who was one year older than I was. He seemed to have it all together, but that one question was still bugging him. Why would God create a being that would sin and in-turn, be damned?

I believe I now have the answer. If God created a perfect human race that never sinned, then loving them would have been expected and easy. Creating a race He knew would reject Him, and still love them, is worth the glory that He demands.

Too simple for you? Sorry. It is the best I could do. My motto is, "Let simplicity reign."

So let us give Him the glory he deserves for loving a rejecting and sinful world. All of creation owes Him that, even the girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

The kid is good.

In my previous semester of college, I took an Old Testament History course with one of my favorite professors. I enjoy taking history classes because I am almost guaranteed to learn something that I did not already know. In one particular class, my professor explained the second commandment. The second commandment essentially says do not make any kind of image of anything and worship it--or more simply-put, no idols. I have always thought that this commandment had went along with the first commandment: "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me." My professor then explained that idol worship was not actually worship of an idol. People believed that gods were spirits, not statues made from wood. Instead, they felt that had to pray to the statue in order to have something to focus on. God did not want his people to worship him in that way, for there is nothing on earth that could possibly represent his glory. He wanted their worship to be spiritual.

Well then I did some contemplating for a few days and thought, "I wonder if we idolize the cross in the Christian church..."

Last Sunday, I gave a lesson to my youth group on the second commandment. I gave them the whole history, the application that King Hezekiah displayed when he broke the bronze snake when the people were worshiping it, and then asked them to think of possible idols in their own lives. Not even a moment later, the quiet, witty, and deceptively bright fourteen-year-old spoke up.

"The cross...?"

I was taken aback. This freshman in high school grasped in one minute the concept it took me a few days of which to grab a hold. With my mouth wide open, I stared at him for a minute before choking on my words,

"Yeah, good point."

Kids are smart. Let us never forget that. Though we try to teach them things, let us never make the lessons a one-way street.