Month: October 2019

Due to the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu’s, unsuccessful attempt at forming a government, Benny Gantz, who won the recent election, will have his own opportunity. It is believed unlikely he will succeed and a joint government is advised. Netanyahu says he has extensively worked on a joint government plan with Gantz. Netanyahu’s legal issues, however, are the grounds on which Gantz disagrees with being co-prime ministers. Discussions of Netanyahu suspending himself and which would serve first as Prime Minister are major topics of discussion. Gantz, however, has not yet failed to form a government.

This post is a summary of the New York Times article “Netanyahu Fails to Form a Government. Israel Turns to Gantz.” 

I have begun this to explain some parts of Christian evangelism that seem to be against what is right and true in Christianity. So, I must first cover what the core of Christianity is.

The Core of Christianity

The Bible states that God, who is perfect and all-knowing, made the world and everything in it. He made humans for His glory through a relationship with Him (For more on this subject, read “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper). Humans sinned, which means they did wrong things and because God is perfect, He can’t be around sin, or around us. The main consequences of sin are death and separation from God. That is why there are bad things in the world.

To fix the world, God sent Jesus, who is fully God, to live a sinless life and then die on the cross and pay the price of sin; death. Because Jesus died on the cross, we can live in heaven with Him someday, are allowed to have a relationship with God, and the Holy Spirit, which is also called God’s Spirit, comes to live in us and empower us.

That is a very imperfect summary, but it covers the main points, although I would suggest reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and/or John for yourself.

Now, on to our point. Christians, people who follow Christ, are supposed to try to be like Christ, who never sinned. To love their enemies, not murder, not steal, not lie, and be honest in their dealings. They are held to a high standard, but also recieve grace for their failings because humans are imperfect.

Evangelistic Confusion

This all seems good and right; to love people and try to do right. But when you go to church or youth group they seem to be preaching something against one of the things they’re supposed to be, aren’t they?

Christians are supposed to be “above reproach” and honest in their dealings. So why do they talk about giving people clothes and food and shelter so that they’ll be more likely to listen to Christianity? Isn’t that underhanded and kind of like a bribe? They talk more about giving them these things so that the people will become Christians than because they care about them.

I am a Christian and have grappled with this question myself. Thankfully, I believe I have been given a better answer than the one I came up with at the beginning. At first, I thought simply that we cared about giving them the things too. Which is true. But it isn’t really a satisfactory answer, is it?

The next section will (hopefully) explain how that is and isn’t a satisfactory answer.

The Christian’s Priorities

The best way to explain the answer I found is to tell how I stumbled on it.

I was beginning to see how I wanted to be when I was older and thought I should come up with some guidelines for how to be that person. I decided to choose my main three priorities so I could focus on what was important to me as a person and in my life. The three I decided on were; Authenticity, joy, and intentionality.

I also had heard about the fact that slavery is used to produce chocolate and I was considering whether I should stop eating chocolate produced by non-Fairtrade companies. I realized that I couldn’t support all the causes in the world. I had to pick and choose. So I split the causes of the world into three categories and put them in the order I believed a Christian should support them in.

Here is the order I got: People’s souls, people’s lives, and other causes of the world (such as pollution and animals). Biblically, I believe this order is correct. The state of people’s souls will affect them for eternity (literally), while their lives on Earth are just for a short while and animals are worth less than humans (see Luke 12:24 for one example of this in the Bible).

Conclusion

If the ordering in the last section is correct, then the way they talk about evangelism is perfectly correct as well. If the state of human souls is more permanent and important than the state of their lives, then doesn’t it stand to reason that when they talk about it they care more about people coming to Christ than getting their physical needs? If both are for their good, but one is for their long-term good and the other for momentary good then isn’t it more important for them to give the long-term good that Jesus has to offer?

I must address one more thing before closing, however. Many times “saving a soul” may be used as motivation for people in the church to help meet people’s physical needs. I do not agree with this method or motivation. God is the one who really saves souls and not us. We don’t “make” converts; it’s all God. This is one example of the fact that Christians aren’t perfect. We’re still humans and we still need God to forgive our sins.

I hope and pray that what I have written may help you and make clear what God wanted you to learn.

What is the value of a second? Which merits another question; what of fifteen seconds? A minute? Five, ten, fifteen minutes? A half-hour? An hour?

A day? A week? A month? A year? A lifetime?

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God has given us these things. We only get one life but God has given us years, months, weeks, days, hours, half-hours, minutes, and seconds. A second is a gift from God. Seconds are gifts from God. Every second is a gift from God.

What should we do with these gifts? These seconds? What can we do with a mere second?

We can do what we were made to do. What were we made to do? I will share a quote from John Piper.

“[We were made to live with] a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying His supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.”

Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper

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Every second, we should enjoy God. Every second, we should glorify God. Not ourselves.

I have struggled with wanting glory for myself. A recent sermon pointed out my flaw. I want people to like my writing, to praise that I’m writing a book, and to like me.

“Live in the moment.” It’s a common saying. Here is what I want us to do. “Live in the enjoyment of God every moment.”

What does it take to change the world? In the “Do Hard Things” conference by the Harris brothers (which I highly recommend), they end with demonstrating various movements; snapping, rubbing, clapping, etc, and ask the audience to do them together. What was a snap, rub, clap, was, becomes “raining inside.”

Our small contributions might not seem like much, but when we put them all together, we can do something great. Like changing the world.

In light of that, I would like to share how teens and young adults are changing the world in a mass force.

I am part of the “Young Writers Workshop” under the “Rebelution” and “Do Hard Things.” One of the instructors, still a young adult herself, has just signed a book deal and we are going to do something about it. Dust, by Kara Swanson, is a retelling of the famous tale Peter Pan.

What are we setting out to do? We are going to change the world. But right now, at this moment, we have two goals; rally around Kara and make this one of the best-selling books in her market.

Kara has only published a few books and a young, unestablished, Christian author’s first couple books don’t often make a splash despite the fact that Kara specializes in marketing. If Dust became a big-seller, other young authors might have a better chance at getting published. Expectations for teens and young adults would also be changed and that would change the world.

Expectations often define people. For example, the Rosenthal–Jacobson study. In the study, certain students in a school were pronounced “bloomers.” The bloomers were expected to grow and have better performance throughout the year. Teachers were told to expect much from the “special” children, and sure enough, they delivered. However, the “bloomers” were in fact chosen randomly and the expectations were the cause of the growth!

As I firmly believe, we ARE the future and being the future, expectations that affect us, affect the future. Expectations change us and therefore, will change the world.

How will we make Dust a best-seller? We’re only teens. A group of young writers is promoting Dust on blogs (hint: you’re reading one). We plan to pre-order Dust, read it, and then review it. Do you see where we’re going? And you can be a part. You and I can change the world.