Perspectives--What Are YOU Stressing About?

I will admit I should be sleeping now. I regret not making a to-do calendar this semester. Organization is a blessing we should take more advantage of.

I started to stress out about work and homework, until I was reminded of the young father in Uganda who is stressing about where the next meal for his family will come from. Or what about that elderly man in Toronto staying up and sitting by his frail wife's dying body, just incase tonight is the last night. I also consider that little girl being forced to hear her parents relentless hurl heart-breaking words at eachother while she is being deprived of sleep and has to go to school tomorrow and explain how she "accidently ran into the doorknob and blackened her eye."

I suppose some call the above paragraph "appealing to emotions." Appealing to emotions has been a method many people have used to persuade another into common beliefs. Do not be fooled, friend. I am appealing to your brain.

I often wonder how I can help people, whether they are better off or worse off than I. I know that simply blogging about such issues will not bring about much change. It is my prayer that I can help others.

We think we have a lot to worry about. But the words of Jesus says otherwise. I think we would be surprised how much better life is when you simply serve others and quit focussing on what we have to worry about, whether you are a Christian or not.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you
will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and
the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they
have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you
are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the
rest?

-Jesus
(see Luke 7, NIV)

Pro-Choice or Pro-Death? Be Consistent.

My pet-peeve in someone who is inconsistent. Recently a man was shot four times because he was pro-life (someone who is opposed to abortion). This makes me wonder why people are so inconsistent. Pro-choicer's proudly argue, "We are not pro-DEATH, we just promote someone's choice."

Someone's choice to...? To perhaps be pro-death? This is where the pro-choice mentality is very inconsistent. Let us leave alone the argument of when a baby is considered alive or just a cell-cluster. First let us suppose an embryo is alive and human.

So a pregnancy is considered inconvenient. Whether it be financial stress, emotional stress, pressure from the father, etc, a woman may decide to abort her pregnancy, because of these reasons above, or many others. Bottom line, she/the father did not want the pregnancy to continue. May I present some inconveniences I experience?

I am a college student. The government takes taxes out of my well-earned Chic-fil-a paycheck. What an inconvenience!

There is this guy I know who annoys me and makes my life significantly tougher. He is backstabbing, mean, effects me financially, emotionally, and has effected me physically--my father.

What if I decided just to kill off the government and my father? I did not choose to be born in a taxed society, nor did I decide my father should biologically be my father. So I should be able to kill them, right? In a pro-choicer's logic, I should be able to, without punishment by the law. Taxes are necessary for protection and police and parks and running water. My father was necessary for me to be alive. Likewise God ordained pregnancy to be necessary for life and preservation, let alone numerous other joys (yes, and sorrows) a baby/human may bring. What gives anyone the right to think he or she may choose to abort tax collectors or their father or a baby?

Now, let us consider life. Science has proven and explained how plants are alive. Let us take a California redwood for example. It grows. It has cells that are clustered. They depend on water and sunlight and earth.

Now for an embryo: It grows. It has cells that are clustered. It depends on nourishment from a mother.

If I were to cut down one of the famous California redwoods, I would be punished by the law.

"But judge! It was blocking my view! I wanted to be a happier person and just drive around without having to dodge those stupid trees! That tree was a major inconvenience!"
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If anyone sincerely wants the choice to choose between destroying an embryo, please be consistent and fight for my "right" to cut down a tree or destroy a historical monument or kill your family should they inconvenience me (because what if your mom parks in front of my house so I can't and she is on well-fare so my taxes support her, which directly impacts my finances, thus my emotional state of worrying about money).

I do not think that cutting down a California redwood is fine or that killing someone on well-fare is fine. I am all about supporting someone who needs my help in surviving. AKA, pro-life.

Catechisms

The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience (Rom. 5:1, 2, 5), joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5, 17), increase of grace (Pr. 4:18), and perseverance therein to the end (1 John 5:13; 1 Pet. 1:5).


The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness (Heb. 12:23), and do immediately pass into glory (2 Cor. 5:1, 6, 8; Phil. 1:23; Luke 23:43); and their bodies being still united to Christ (1 Thess. 4:14), do rest in their graves (Is. 57:2) till the resurrection (Job 19:26, 27).


At the resurrection believers, being raised up in glory (1 Cor. 15:43), shall be openly acknowledged, and acquitted in the day of judgment (Mt. 25:23; Mt. 10:32), and made perfectly blessed, both in soul and body, in the full enjoyment of God (1 John 3:2; 1 Cor. 13:12) to all eternity (1 Thess. 4:17, 18).


The souls of the wicked shall, at their death, be cast into the torments of hell, and their bodies lie in their graves, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day (Luke 16:23, 24; Acts 2:24; Jude 5, 7; 1 Pet. 3:19; Ps. 49:14).


At the day of judgment the bodies of the wicked, being raised out of their graves, shall be sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels for ever (John 5:28, 29; Mt. 25:41, 46; 2 Thes. 1:8, 9).

(from http://www.founders.org/library/pcat.html)
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Aren't these wonderful truths? I admit to almost putting the second one listed above ("the souls of the believers at their death made perfect...) as my Facebook status. But I stopped myself.

I wondered if it was because I was embarassed, but I knew that was not the case. I was too scared to put the one about what happens with believers without putting what happens to the wicked. Too long the "church" has gave all the good sides of things, but neglect the bad sides of things.

Some pastors will openly admit to not calling lost people even "lost people" because of its harsh tone. Let alone "sinners," "wicked," "ungodly," et cetera. I suppose this may be fine (however unchurched may not be the best way to put it), but we must proclaim what the Bible proclaims if in fact is TRULY IS our final auhority of all things. I am pushed to as whether or not it is for many churches.

I figure that preachers are afraid to be accuses of "brow beating." What preacher would want to be labeled as a harsh jerk only looking for results? Well, I doubt the harsh part, but we should all be looking for results. In fact, it seems to me that results are inevitable so long as we are not straying from God's pure will, unless God is teaching us a lesson, which is beside the point.

Should we not tell our children if they do run off in the mall or cross the street without dad's hand that they will get slapped on the hand or spanked or put in a few minutes of time out? WHY? Because we, being common sensed adults, know what could happen! Kidnapped, hit by a car. WHY? We love them and care about them.

Pastors, we say we are a loving church and seek to bring people into God's love and care. So, should not we be warning them what will happen if they live life without God?

Of course, let all believers explain and actively express what happens when we are believers! As the first and second catechisms I posted above. How happy it is to say what wonders God has personally done for us in our lives. But the Bible is very clear about what will happen to the unbeliever. It is sad, but true. All will earn their part in the lake of fire, lest they have trusted the Lord and actively given their life to trusting Him.

Is this scaring people into the church? I suppose I am not quite sure, although God's grace seems irrestible to me. But I do know this: If I was about to go jogging into a warzone with bullets blazing, but I did not even know I was gonna jog through a battlefield while I not knowing what the explosion sounds were or what a bullet or gun was, and no one explained to me the dangers while knowing I was about to jog through that warzone, I would be inclined to believe they did not love me.

Feed me, clothe me, invite me to lunch, pick me up for the Bible study with free coffee... but please, warn me if I am about to be cast into the unspeakable torments of hell.

Obviously there are correct and incorrect ways to speak with people about this touchy issue, but that does not mean we should stray from the Word of God.

God's grace is pretty astounding. And hellfire and brimstone were not the only things that thrusted me into trusting Him, but that all is another rant at another time.