What are you looking for?

Hey long time no see. Sorry I have been away, life happens and we get busy, but I am back this week to hopefully give you some good old fashioned mental stimulation.

Today I want to challenge you to step back and take an honest look at yourself and how you view things on a regular basis.

We may not realize it but it is very easy to get pulled into a negative mindset. We are bombarded by lies, falseness, sin, and corruption every single day. We live in a world cursed by sin and sometimes it is all too obvious, it can be suffocating.

It is hard to find a movie without questionable content, just about every other TV show out there now has glowing portrayals of homosexual relationships, pop songs on the radio are rarely about anything other than sex,  and even simple funny cat websites seem to go out of their way to mock anything that is pure they happen to find.

I think that this often leaves us a little jaded, walking around defensively looking for things to be upset about or take offense from.

This is a shame but not completely unexpected. We can do better. Check out these verses:

Matt 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Philip 4:8

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

James 1:17

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Colos 3:2

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things

We can’t make all the negative things go away but we can change what we are looking for. Sometimes what you are looking for drastically changes what you find.

Is Harry Potter gateway entertainment that inevitably leads to witchcraft and eternal damnation or is it a story about a group of kids who stand up to the forces of evil no matter the personal cost?

It the song lyric says “Pursue the Truth no matter where it lies..” does it matter if it is in a heavy metal song?

Does the book explaining why the universe can exist with God actually spell out how the “big bang” would have required a miracle?

It is easy to feel like we should attack these things, but I say that when we do that we are missing the point. There will always be falseness and lies, sin and corruption (until Jesus returns). In the meantime if we look for the nuggets of truth that are present all around us we will see that every good thing does come from God and you can find atheists and heathens inadvertently proclaiming His truth every day. These are opportunities for us to show people how all true things point back to God.

But only if we are looking for them.

Don't get me wrong, you should continue to avoid sin and live righteously. Just remember that we will get a lot farther pointing out the light than we will cursing the darkness.

-Chief

How to have an Answer

1Peter 3:15

If you are not familiar with this passage, please take a moment to look it over. If you are familiar with it, take a moment anyway and just renew your mind on this thought. God expects us to be able to give a competent, reasoned answer for what we believe if we are questioned by unbelievers.

I don’t know if you have ever noticed, but it sure seems to me that our society likes to paint us Christians as big pushers of “blind” faith. I will admit that sometimes our own team members (so to speak) don’t help our cause any. But the truth of the matter is that the Bible is very much against any such notion of blind or illogical faith. The Bible states that merely observing thecreation logically leads to the conclusion that there must be a creator(and here). We are told not even to blindly trust special revelation to ourselves by spiritual beings, but to test the spirits against God’s word. In fact, the Biblical worldview is provably the only framework known that can logically explain the universe as it is seen today. (This is a much deeper topic but I highly recommend this book for those who are interested, in fact I will buy you a copy if you promise to read it)

So if God expects us ,as His children to be able to provide logical answers to the questions people may raise, it makes sense that we should put in some effort to make sure we are able to do so. Just keep in mind that not all effort is equal and some methods of preparation are more effective than others. It is for this reason that I want to share with you today one of the methods I have found to be very effective in my life, not only in the sense of being able to provide answers but also in my quest to increase my understanding in a more general sense.

My advise? Get a notebook. Make sure it is a special, single purpose notebook, not something you use for other things as well. Then open it up and on the first page write “What I believe and Why.” Take some time to jot down a few doctrinal statements that you believe to be true. I recommend only 2-4 individual statements per page, making sure to leave plenty of room in between them.

Now comes the hard part. Put that notebook by your Bible and take it with you everywhere you take your Bible, to church, to Bible Study, to Sunday School, etc. Then every time you come across a Biblical passage that supports one of the statements you wrote, fill it in underneath. In this way, over time, you can get a very nice listing of all of the supporting scriptures that back up the doctrinal propositions to believe to be true. An example from my note book-

Christians should always be seeking to better themselves.

-Philippians 3:12-14

-2Peter 1:5-8

-Romans 8:28-30

-Hebrews 5:12-14

I have taken something I believe to be true and now I have accumulated the supporting passages that help prove it is true. This makes it much easier to give an answer if someone questions why I believe it.

I have been very pleased with how this method of study has helped me retain information of the long term. It can also draw attention to things you believe that may not actually be very sound. If you right it down and a year goes by but you haven’t found a single Biblical reference to support the idea, perhaps you need to dig deeper into why you think that proposition is true.

This may also work in digital format as a word doc with embedded links if you like that better, but I like the idea of a notebook or tablet that can be mobile. The main thing is to keep it with you so that when you come across things you may not have been intentionally looking for, you can write them down.

There are many other ways to aid our growth and development as a Christians. This is just one option, but one I highly recommend. The standard has been set, He expects us to be able to give an answer, so let’s get prepared (or stay prepared ;-) and do Him proud.

-Chief