God is NOT your dad!!

Okay, before any believers get unglued about the title of this post, let me explain!

It's been said that people will form a perception of God - their heavenly Father, or "Dad" with a capital 'D' - based upon the relationship they had (or didn't have) with their earthly dad, lower-case 'd'. People who grew up with a dad who was very critical or judgmental, for example, will find it very hard to believe that God accepts them with an unconditional love. And those who grew up with an absentee dad will have a hard time believing that God wants to have a deep, loving relationship with them.

To this very day, I have a hard time fully trusting men - including God - because of the relationship I had with my dad as a kid. He was the kind of dad who would be home every night, but he would usually retreat after supper to the front of the TV or to his den, where he would read or even do some work.

Now I was the type of kid who was perhaps more needy than others, craving the attention of people in general, but especially and most naturally my parents. My mom was very good at keeping me company and so her and I had a relatively close bond. My dad, however, always seemed grouchy while I was growing up; I can relate as a dad now myself, with the pressures of life overwhelming at times (whenever I'm not trusting God to work them out, that is). So when I would ask him with childish enthusiasm if he would like to play toys with me or to go out and throw a ball or frisbee, he would almost always grumble that he was too busy, or give me the "Not now, maybe later" response. Often, the "maybe later" never happened.

It wasn't too long before I began to think that perhaps I wasn't too important in his life, but I would continue to ask although less often and more sheepishly as I assumed that he would shoot down my request yet again. And sure enough, far more often than not, he did.

So as a teenager I basically tried to stay out of his way, and I no longer made the effort to bond with my dad. I was too hurt by that time and felt he truly didn't care about me. I had subconsciously begun to push him out of my life and the reaction on my part was to become more bitter about him and to be not trusting of men in general. I realize only now, years later, that I also began to distance myself from some uncles of mine that I had been very close to up until my teenage years even though they never rejected me like my dad did. I found it much easier to talk to girls, mostly because of hormones working overtime, but also probably because it was easy to talk with my mom.

By the time I started university, I remember imitating my dad on several occasions with a best friend of mine, and he would laugh hysterically as I made fun of his voice and gestures and annoying habits. I had reached the point of my greatest resentment toward my dad, which coincided with my greatest degree of rebellion against the notion of there being a God.

After God got a hold of me in my early twenties, I came to some realizations about my dad. I realized from one book I had read that "your parents raised you the best way they knew how". Such a realization was a huge bombshell of revelation in my life, and God used it as I began to grow in my Christian walk to become less resentful of my dad. I realized that perhaps my dad treated me the same way his dad treated him, and perhaps didn't feel as though there was anything wrong with that.

I moved out a couple of years after I graduated from university and saved up some money. And it was then that I finally realized just how much my dad had regretted the missed opportunities with me while I was growing up. For example, not long after I had moved out, I believe it was he who asked if I wanted to meet at a restaurant for either his or my birthday (they're only five days apart) to have supper.

By this point, God had worked to a degree where I was ready to forgive my dad for not being there for me while I was growing up. Now, I didn't ask forgiveness to his face, because quite frankly I'm sure he was already feeling bad, but I forgave my dad one day while alone praying with God. If you've never felt the release and peace of finally forgiving someone after years of resentment, then you have no idea what I'm talking about nor what you're missing!

Anyhow, I gave my dad a card for his birthday as well that basically said that even though we had missed out on opportunities in the past, we still had the present and the future. God had brought our relationship full circle, and ever since I've been able to carry on a real conversation with my dad and to enjoy his company. Even though some regrets come to mind from time to time - such as while typing this post, for example - I don't recall feeling any bitterness toward my dad since I forgave him that day with God.

But unfortunately, even though I've gotten right with my earthly dad, the mistrust I still feel toward men in general has carried over into my relationship with my heavenly Dad. Other posts have alluded to how God has been challenging me the past several months to trust Him to a degree that I never have before, to finally just let go of my fear of 'what if I get burned?' or 'what if God doesn't really care about me?' But giving the full degree of my trust to Him has been extremely difficult, although progress has been made over the past few years not only in my relationship with Him but with other men.

So I guess I wrote all this to not only encourage you that it is possible for God to heal the wounds that an abusive or absentee dad might have created, but also to hopefully make you realize that it's not a good idea to assume that God is like your earthly dad. Yes, He's your Father, but he's nothing like the imperfect earthly dad that you did - or didn't - have.

I wish we men could realize just how immensely and passionately the God of the Bible loves us, and that it's okay to love and be loved by Him. It's not un-macho or uncool to give in and accept His love. In fact, His love has been a model to me of how to love my wife and children, and to hopefully not repeat the pattern of resentment in my children that was built in me when I was growing up. Imagine how giving in to His love can help improve and heal all other areas of one's life?

I realize only now that I'm writing this post-Father's Day, but my prayer for me and for anyone reading this post is that we would get over our fears and stereotypes about our heavenly Dad and just accept His love and not be afraid to love, adore, and worship Him in return.

The Great Facade

I was watching a video a couple of nights ago where some non-believing youth were being asked their opinions about various things related to God. One was, "What do you think about church?" The answers were not surprising to me, because I was also once a non-believing youth who felt precisely the same as they do. They referred to some stereotypes that are common in only a few churches, like the mention of "smelly old people", but other answers were sadly all too common, like "boring", "outdated", "irrelevant", and so on.

On arguably one of the greatest Christian music albums ever recorded, wonderfully named "Jesus Freak", the group dc Talk wrote a song called "What If I Stumble?" They open the song with a spoken audio clip of some guy who says

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

What God has been showing me the past few months to a greater degree than at any point in my Christian walk is examples of people who call themselves Christians but who put on what I like to call The Great Facade. I have been anguished at times how their claim to be followers of Christ could not be more opposite in the reality of how they live their lives.

It is the existence of these people who are responsible for the opinions given by the non-believing youth in the video I mentioned. These people also give total validity to the above quote in that dc Talk song.

Now referring to them as "these people" doesn't imply that I'm looking down my nose at them or having hatred towards them. Sometimes I say and do little things that put me in the same category for a moment and leave me crying out to God and asking about why I was so stupid! But my anguish is for "these people" whose facade is continual, whose outward actions and appearance are put on to hide their actual lack of true understanding and relationship with God/Jesus. A facade that creates a Jeckyl-and-Hyde sort of approach to being a Christian that causes great damage to the reputation of God/Jesus as outsiders scratch their heads and wonder if their hypocrisy and inconsistency in life is what it means to be a "Christian".

Here's just one example of sadly many people I've personally known who've put on The Great Facade. An acquaintance of mine and his wife - both Christian by title - are almost at the point of separation. He wants to make things right again but she refuses, adamantly stating among other things that it won't work between them any more. She has seen her lawyer and is on the verge of leaving. At stake are their three young children who dearly love their mom and dad. She in particular is very proactive at school to make sure her children are doing well and being kept safe from bullies. However, among many measures she is taking, she no longer wants their dad to attend the same church as her and the kids once she leaves.

I cringe at how this woman claims to be a Christian but doesn't realize how leaving her husband will do infinitely more damage to their children than poor grades or a bully's actions could ever possibly do. And I almost gasped with disbelief when he told me that she doesn't want him to attend the same church any longer. Basically, she wants to put on The Great Facade at church to appear as though she's right with God, yet she won't humble herself before her husband to whom she once pledged her life - and Jesus who she claims to believe in and therefore follow - in order to make things work again.

Unfortunately, any non-believer who might learn of these things will only see the hypocrisy of a Christian couple divorcing despite the Christian belief in the sanctity of marriage. And they'll wonder why someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus would take so many actions that reflect the total opposite.

The host of the video followed up the answers of the non-believing youth by re-affirming much of what they said, but he then took things in a brilliant direction by commenting that perhaps the church has given God a bad rap. That for a non-believer to form an opinion of God based upon the mess that humans have made of the church that was created and is headed by Jesus is a crucial mistake to make.

When I was "unsaved", my opinion of God - as you will read about in other posts - was initially totally formulated by the particular "spiritual morgue" that I attended as a kid. It was reinforced by people who didn't have a real relationship with God - like people in the media and in academic circles - but still thought they had God and Christians and the Bible all figured out and discredited.

In other words, I was basing my opinion of God on bad sources of information. It was akin to asking an artist how to diagnose and fix a problem with my car, or asking a medical doctor to help me draft a plan to get out of financial trouble. I was using the mistakes and hypocrisy of believers and the lies and subjective opinions of non-believers to form my false understanding of God.

Now I have no idea how or why God began to unravel my totally false understanding of who He is, but He began to do so by exposing me to the Bible. He did this through books and preachers and teachers - including those on Christian radio broadcasts - who began to show me the truth of God and what a relationship with Him is really all about. In other words, I began to see God from His side, and I was so impressed by the non-religious reality of who God is that I was intrigued and eventually gave my life to Him through His only appointed Mediator, Jesus.

I began to realize how religion is not from God, but rather a means created by people to try to relate to God outside of what the Bible teaches. They have a beef with this-or-that, like the claim by Jesus that He is the only way to come to God and to know God, so they make up their own rules and think that God will somehow honor these man-made substitutes by forgiving them and letting them into heaven anyhow. Such religions include Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

In the case of some sects that call themselves "Christian", they claim to relate to God according to what the Bible teaches, but they twist the Bible just enough to deceive people into thinking that their beliefs are still Bible-based when they actually are not. Such sects include Mormonism (or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and the Jehovah's Witnesses, and such sects are typically and more appropriately called "cults".

Why have I shared this last bit about my realizations and about religion and cults? Because I want you, if you're a non-believer, to be careful about the sources of information you use to form your understanding of God. Quite simply, if these sources discredit or mock the Bible, or if their information doesn't line up with the Bible, then you should ignore them entirely until you have a better biblical understanding.

So how come so many Christians put on The Great Facade? I believe the #1 reason is because they don't make the effort to know and understand who God is. Because they don't know and understand Him, they don't trust Him and therefore don't allow Him to control their lives. So the root causes of a divorce or financial ruin never get dealt with because the Christian tries to fix these things himself/herself. And these disasters occur in the first place because these people never formed a daily relationship of dependence upon this God whom they've claimed to put their trust in. Doing so would have prevented many of these disasters from ever occurring. So these people claim to believe but they don't actually trust, and this makes their belief very shallow and superficial.

They don't read the Bible themselves and ask for God to help them understand it because they don't make the time and the effort to do so, and then come up with excuses. So they instead listen to a teacher's or preacher's opinion and claim that to be truth instead of consulting the source of truth itself. And when one is not familiar with the truth presented in the Bible, it's easy to fall for teachings that sound biblical but actually aren't. Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses live on today simply because Christians don't know their Bible (and don't understand what the cultic versions of the Bible are and how they differ from the real one) nor apply what the Bible teaches them.

They also don't really commune with God, which means spending time getting to know Him. They resort to prayer during an emergency or to present their wish list; they don't pray to ask God to show them what to do in life then ask for the patience to wait for His answer. They sing at church so they don't look unholy, but they don't mean what they sing nor give their reverence and praise to God because they fear being vulnerable plus looking wierd to their friends.

So on and on The Great Facade goes. The Christian puts on their "Sunday best" but then lives not much differently from the non-believer during the rest of the week. It doesn't help that they watch the same TV shows and movies and listen to the same music, either. And all the while the mighty power of Jesus that is available to work in peoples' lives gets overshadowed by the hypocrisy and mistakes of multitude Christians who've put on this facade and don't allow this power into their lives.

These are the main reasons why so many churches become "boring", "outdated", and "irrelevant". The people are there pretending to know God when they actually don't, so they tolerate and never question all the irrelevant (i.e. non-biblical) religious ritual. The religion becomes a safe alternative to actually becoming vulnerable to a relationship with God that will bring about change and growth. They want change and growth on their own terms even if they realize that God's plan is a much better one.

And the net result of all these factors is Christians that are far too often ineffective and hypocritical to the outside world.

Do you need "church"? Part II

I guess I decided to tease you by waiting until this post before giving my thoughts about whether or not you need "church". Actually, I didn't want the first part to be longer than it already is! So here goes.

If you're a willing, open-minded non-believer, going to a four-walled church might be a good way to learn about God as I mentioned in Part I, but provided only that you're in a good environment. It would be better for you at this point to ask God to make Himself known and real to you, then to ask Him if this is the time for you to look for a "good" church (i.e. biblically grounded) - and of course to ask Him to lead you to such a church! God will lead your heart to the right place for you if you open yourself up to Him and trust Him. I'm confident that He wouldn't lead you to a spiritual morgue like the one I was forced to attend as a kid!

If you're a believer, I firmly believe that no matter what kind of perceived or actual experiences or hang-ups you've had at a particular church, you need to first attempt to find and become a part of another one. And I don't mean make that building the center of your faith, but rather the center of your fellowship.

When Christians decide to shy away from other believers, iron can't sharpen iron. Disagreement and debate and even conflict are the root causes of growth, and sitting at home in your bell jar on a Sunday morning makes you a weaker Christian if you aren't at least spending that time in prayer and Bible reading. If you're spending that time shining your car or reading the financial headlines instead, then your relationship with God throughout the week is probably not a priority at any point, either. And the resulting dryness of your spiritual life and therefore life overall - hand-in-hand with your increasing selfishness and desire for worldly things - can come as no surprise.

Also, by shying away, Satan has you right where he wants you. His favorite tactic is to divide and conquer the body of Christ, and he has succeeded marvelously by making countless Christians think they don't need regular fellowship with a body of believers at or through a local church. What often follows is what I alluded to above, and that is substituting fellowship with pursuing worldly things that have left far too many Christians wondering why their lives aren't anywhere near as satisfying as they could be.

Far more often than not, Christians who avoid attending a local church often end up being a Christian by title only, and not by their impact for Christ on the world around them.

However, some Christians who have had truly frustrating if not severely damaging experiences in a four-walled church still need to attempt to seek fellowship. Seeking this in what I call the "true" church, or with other believers in the body of Christ outside of a four-walled church, is better than nothing at all. These believers could start a home Bible study, or they could attend one hosted by someone else. It is often in a small, close-knit environment with other wounded Christians that they can feel open to share what might have gotten them ostracized from a four-walled, or congregational church.

So really, I firmly believe that everyone needs "church", but frankly for a small few believers this may be best achieved outside the large, four-walled congregational kind that has a label attached to it like "Lutheran" or "Anglican" or "Pentecostal" or "Catholic".

What all people ultimately need, however, is to be part of the body of Christ, that church that extends world-wide across all cultures and boundaries. And again, a person becomes a part of this body once they've gotten right with God, which results from asking Jesus to forgive and cleanse them of their sins, which then re-establishes their relationship with God. Such a "saved" person is then known as a Christian.

And whether a person decides to meet with other members of that body in a congregational church with some fancy label or title or simply in someone's living room should result from earnest prayer and waiting for God's answer on the part of a believer. This should not result from peer pressure, but strictly from what one is firmly convinced that God is speaking to them.

My concern is again with those who say they are Christian but who never make the effort to fellowship anywhere with any other Christians, or at least to extend their fellowship beyond, say, their family. Christians MUST make the effort to be willing to trust God by stepping out and fellowshipping in a broader context. Perhaps you need to attend that home Bible study group that your friend or neighbor told you about, or that you read about on a poster or on the internet.

Whatever means you choose to fellowship, you become like a lake that has a stream flowing into it and another flowing out of it. The new experiences you have with different believers is like fresh water flowing in, used by God to bring about cleansing and change in your life, and this forces the selfishness and worldliness away like the stream flowing out.

However, refusing to fellowship at all, or to not extend your fellowship beyond family makes you like a lake with no inlet or outlet stream. There is no freshness in your spiritual life, so after a while the algae and weeds begin to kill your spirit, and the waters of your spiritual life and therefore your life overall eventually stagnate and die.

So the most important question is really not whether or not you need church, but rather whether or not you need fellowship with other people who believe in Jesus. Although I believe the latter is best achieved in a four-walled building, it is obvious throughout the entire body of New Testament scripture - especially in the book of Acts - that regular fellowship in some kind of group setting is crucial.

Otherwise, you are at the mercy of the devil and your spiritual life will stagnate to the point of no longer being effective for Christ. And not being of effect for Christ means that your existence on this planet is essentially a waste.

Do you need "church"? Part I

I have a religious uncle, who, a few years back was lamenting about the moral condition of a non-believing cousin of mine. Knowing that I was a Christian (though not in favor of religion, which is trying to please God through man-made rules and institutions), he felt he could share the frustration on his heart to my cousin while in my presence by lamenting to him, "You really need church!"

When I was a non-believer, the last thing I would have liked to hear from anyone is being told that I needed church! Growing up, I was exposed to a very religious environment where people showed up to this particular church building on Sundays looking as though it was the absolute last place they wanted to be. Then at one point during the service, they would drop a money envelope into a tray that was passed around.

The people, including my parents, seemed to have the idea that if they showed up just often enough and gave just enough money, this would somehow make things right between them and God. No document or teaching - biblical or non - was ever brought up to affirm that these acts would produce this result. In other words, there was no specific percentage of attendance or amount of money revealed that would guarantee that God would love and forgive them. Nevertheless, these spiritually lifeless corpses robotically showed up, sat through each service, and gave their money with about as much passion and excitement as, well, a kid like me being forced to attend a dry, boring, spiritually dead church!

Now, how do you think my cousin would have responded if my uncle had succeeded in convincing him that he needed "church"? Especially if he showed up in a spiritual morgue just like the one I had to attend as a kid? He would have rejected and mocked God for the rest of his life, assuming that believing and following God would drain the life out of him like it did to the people attending that church.

Do non-believers really need "church"? For that matter, do Christians really need "church"?

First of all, to clarify, what exactly is "church"? Well, to the religious person trying to please God based upon his/her own efforts, it's a four-walled building, usually adorned with some impressive steeple and ornate furnishings to try to prove to outsiders just how spiritual they think they are. To the Christian, however, Jesus explains how the church is His "bride", that it is the world-wide body of believers in Jesus of which He and He alone is the Head. So the church, according to what Jesus says in the Bible, is the bride of Christ. He is so committed to His bride that He was willing to lay down His life for her.

So if this is the case, then church in the truest sense is not restricted to a building. Whenever Christians meet to talk about God, or pray to Him, or to worship Him through songs, it can be said that church is 'in session'. It also doesn't matter what time of day it is and what day of the week it is. Where two or more are gathered in Jesus' name, according to the Bible, Jesus says He is (spiritually) there in the midst of them.

With this understanding in mind of what church actually is, unless someone has put their faith in Jesus (asked Him to forgive them of their sins - "save" them - and to become the Lord of their lives), being told that they need "church" isn't the answer to their problems. Jesus is the answer. By accepting Jesus (putting their faith in Him), a person becomes part of the world-wide church or "body" (not building) of believers in Christ, and Jesus alone is their Head - the only One they need to come to with their problems, and not some priest, pastor, or other self-appointed "mediator" between that person and God.

So what's the point of going to church, then? Well, for a willing non-believer who has been invited (not coerced, forced, or dragged) to a non-religious church building who is presented with what the Bible has to say - and not some set of man-made rules and instructions and rituals and doctrines - that person may come to the knowledge that Jesus is the only way that they can get right with God, or "saved" from having to pay the penalty for their sins (their offences against God). Not by following a set of religious practices.

For the believer, the practice of going to church is surprisingly a very strong bone of contention within the body of Christ. I have some relatives whose relationship with their Lord is deeper and more meaningful than most Christians who regularly attend a four-walled church. I have yet other relatives who call themselves Christians - and I believe they are - but make the excuse of not going to church because of some hurt (perceived or actual) in the past in the form of a church experience where people claiming to be Christians acted in ways that indicated otherwise. Or they get too busy trying (in vain) to find happiness by living their lives like non-believers - following their ways and advice - that they no longer have the desire (even though they have the time) to attend the excellent, well-grounded churches in their area.

Why do I go to church? I realize that since I've placed my faith in Jesus, He has cleansed me of all my sins - past, present and future. This means a realization that I don't have to "perform" to earn His love and forgiveness by doing things like showing up at a church. If I miss a church service, I know that God's love for me hasn't changed a single bit and I haven't lost my salvation (i.e. I'm still forgiven) and my faith doesn't hang in the balance. So I don't go because I have to, but because I get to.

Mainly, I go to church because of the other Christians. I go for fellowship with people more than fellowship with God, because a Christian should be spending the rest of their week in fellowship with God - at work, school, and play. Sunday should be merely the "icing on the cake" of their relationship with God, but too many believers make church the "cake" itself. And the cake doesn't taste too good - doesn't satisfy as much - if they've relied on the songs, and/or sermon, and/or time with other believers to be their sole time with God during the entire week. Dessert doesn't nourish the spirit like a full-course meal!

Anyhow, by hearing of the triumphs and tragedies of other believers, I can celebrate and mourn with them and thereby form strong bonds with them. I realize that if I think I'm going through something unique, there's at least one person there who's gone down the same path and I can learn a great deal from his experience, and more importantly that person can pray for me in my situation. My strongest friendships have resulted from people I have met at church.

Far too many Christians go to church because they think they have to. Often, they're the type who are concerned with image, who worry more about what other people think instead of what God thinks. I've found many people with this mindset to be the "Sunday Christian", putting on a facade on Sundays then spending the rest of the week living no differently than the typical non-Christian - chasing money and career, buying the toys, and living selfishly and for today. They simply show up on Sundays to spiritually 'fuel up' (on cake) and give everyone else the impression that they've got everything all together, spiritually and otherwise. Sadly, it is this type of Christian that some of my friends and relatives use as an excuse to not attend a church any more.

So, do you need "church"? That is, should you go to church? I've done enough writing for now. Check Part II of this post for my thoughts on this crucial question.

Belief versus trust, Part II

Here are some specific examples of how trusting God in different situations instead of my own ideas and so-called "wisdom" worked out for the better. But first, consider the following passage from Proverbs 3: 5-6:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths."

EXAMPLE 1: I had been living on my own for about eight months when I realized that I should be putting my rent money towards paying down a mortgage instead of the mortgage of the person I was living with. After viewing nearly three dozen condo properties with a realtor over a one-week period, I viewed one that I had a very good feeling about. The location, although perfect, was in a so-so part of downtown, but everything else - especially the price - was excellent.

Being entirely new to the whole real-estate-purchase thing, I was told that I now needed to put an offer on the property and some money down. So I decided that I wanted possession as soon as possible, but to give the current owners time to move I asked for two weeks. But not realizing that I should have been more aggressive with the money down, I only put $1,000 down.

The meeting with their realtor and mine, including the current owners and I, was set for a Wednesday night. But within only a couple of hours before the meeting, my realtor phoned me with a concerned voice to inform me that another offer had been made, accompanied by $5,000 down. However, these people were looking for possession two-and-a-half months down the road as opposed to my two weeks. Nevertheless, based upon her experience, my realtor was pretty sure that the owners would go for the bigger money down than anything else.

So there I was, if I recall correctly, at a Bible study during a break when I got this news. Perhaps the recollection of what happened next is sketchy not only because 11 years have elapsed, but also because my mind was likely obsessed with whose offer would be better. So I'm not sure if I told the others there about what had transpired so they could pray for me, but in any case after the study ended, I hopped into my car and headed for the meeting downtown.

At the time, I had been "saved", i.e. a Christian, for maybe four years to that point, but I had only gotten serious about pursuing the Christian walk only a couple of years before. I was stuck in old habits like self-reliance that had me wondering how I could manipulate the situation and use smooth and persuasive words to make my offer the better one. But I was also at a point of incredible personal growth due to diving into the Bible, praying, and becoming friends with other believers. So I was also not wanting to resort to old habits, but I didn't know how to let God work this situation out.

So upon entering the car, the old habits of thinking how to manipulate and persuade were causing me to almost panic at the thought of losing out on this piece of property. But then all of a sudden, in an instant, I suddenly realized that if God wanted me to have this property, it would be a done deal and He would give me the words to speak so that my offer was accepted. Conversely, if He knew something bad about this deal that I didn't, I reasoned that He would let the other peoples' offer be accepted.

I was alarmed by this sudden change of perspective; looking back, I wonder if it wasn't the prayers of others in this situation that might have brought it about. But it wasn't a bad kind of alarm, because the rest of my drive can only be described by that verse in Philippians 4:7 that talks about the peace from God that surpasses all understanding. In fact, I was so at peace that God would take care of things that I was no longer the least bit upset at the possibility of my offer being rejected.

As I walked through the doors and entered the meeting, I was surprised to not see anyone representing the people who had made the other offer; I only saw the current owners and their realtor. When I asked when they might arrive, my realtor gladly announced that my offer was the better one because I wanted such quick possession. I almost couldn't contain my excitement! This was perhaps the biggest lesson to that point of my young Christian walk of how just leaving everything up to God was better than any scheme I could come up with. I didn't even have to perform one act or say one word of manipulation or persuasion! God took care of everything for me.

Not even six years later, my wife and I sold that condo after making a 40% return, and this provided a sizeable down payment for the property that we now own.

EXAMPLE 2: After getting serious about my commitment to Jesus in 1997, I naturally wanted to meet and marry a woman who was also a Christian at least as passionate as I about her walk with God. After pretty much exhausting the limited possibilities at the smaller church I was attending by early 1999, I kind of mused to myself (and perhaps others, if I recall) that if I was going to meet anyone, it probably wouldn't be at the church I was attending, or at least not for a number of years!

Not long after this, I was at a Wednesday night Bible study for college and career aged people when in walked a fine-looking young lady who had never been there before. That and her very attractive personality drew me to her right away. I was even more intrigued (and surprised) by how she laughed at all my attempts at humor.

Anyhow, my approach to Christian dating had been much the same as how I had approached dating when I was a non-Christian (minus the sexual sin). I was concerned about getting to the altar, and never mind this "friend" stuff. So as a result, my impatience was leading me to consider some young ladies who weren't exactly my type or who were at a totally different place in their walk with God, some calling themselves "Christian" who lived a lifestyle that was anything but! Fortunately, God gave me the strength to not give in to their seduction and I thereby avoided more things to regret.

For some reason, I had resolved not long before I met my bride-to-be that next time I was going to let God direct things. I was going to just get to know ladies I was interested in strictly as friends and be totally casual about everything. I just didn't realize that the first lady I would try this with would end up being my wife!

So when she entered the picture around February 1999, I was so afraid to screw things up this time around that I limited my conversations with her after studies to only a few minutes. Then we would break the conversation off and rather nonchalantly say, "Well, see you next week."

But whenever she didn't show up, I would wonder if I'd ever see her again. And when she did and we'd talk afterwards, I'd find it harder with each passing time to end the conversation. But I was so afraid of screwing things up and being outside of God's will that I wouldn't even consider asking her to, say, go for a coffee.

So near the end of June 1999, about four months after our first conversation, we had a church service at the zoo in the city where we lived. An open-air tent was booked, but when I saw her walk in, I'll be the first to admit that things were a more than a little distracting! After the service, I made it a mission to not let her too far out of my sight because I couldn't wait to talk to her again. However, I lost track of her because my parents were there, and she began wandering the zoo with another group.

My mind was constantly on her that whole time until after an hour or so when her group and mine finally met up. We even have a group picture from that day that we still have framed. Now I was still afraid of making the wrong decision and screwing up God's plan for me, so no way was I going to ask her to break away from the crowd and do something alone with me. Besides that, such a move would have aroused too much curiosity!

So what did God do instead? Over the course of the next hour, the dozen or so people in our group decided to do other things. With dark rain clouds looming, many decided to head indoors or to leave altogether. Others got hungry while yet others got tired. Before we knew it - and I'll admit that I wasn't going to leave unless she did - this lady and I were the only ones left! So we hung around the zoo for a while, but then realized that now was the perfect time to ask if she wanted to leave the zoo and go get something to eat. She willingly obliged.

After we arrived back at the zoo parking lot at 10:30 that evening so she could get her car, I realized on the drive home that by refusing to force the issue and to leave this relationship in God's hands, things worked out in strange ways that I could have never imagined or concocted myself!

My wife and I have been married for over 9 years now, and I give God all the credit for setting us up and for bringing our marriage to where it is now.

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I could tell a few other great stories of how God has worked in my life and that of my family, but I hope these two are a great inspiration to give the control of your life into God's hands and no longer your own.

Belief versus trust, Part I

God has been really challenging me the past few months. In particular, He is continually speaking to my heart about the need to trust Him. (As an aside, He only ever spoke audibly to those He entrusted with the writing of the Scriptures that make up the Bible. Since that time, He has "spoken" to believers through other means, like a person or a situation. Christians often refer to getting a revelation from God as Him having "spoken to my heart".)

One thing He has made me notice a lot more in order for me to realize this need is reminders of all those times that I haven't trusted Him, all those times where I've become worried and even scared about how certain things in my life will work out. I've learned that whenever I become this way, it is a sure sign that I actually don't trust God to work my situation out.

He has also made me realize that this lack of trust is a plague amongst Christians in the western world and not just a problem unique to me. I've realized just how much I get caught up in the mindset that I'm supposed to be the provider of my family, how I'm supposed to work out problems at home and on the job. But whenever we're facing a difficult financial or home or work situation, the Bible emphasizes over and over and over and over again how we need to just stop, take a breather, and ask God for His wisdom and insight in that situation. We need to trust Him to be our ultimate provider and for Him to provide us with the answers to our problems.

Far too often, Christians don't stop or back away long enough - or even at all - to find out if the idea they have to handle a situation is even the right one, "right" meaning what God would have them do. For a while a few years back, it was a Christian fad to wear the "WWJD" bracelet, which acted as a reminder for a Christian in a difficult situation to stop, take a breather, and ask what Jesus would do in that situation. (The wiser instruction would have been to ask Jesus what to do, not try to imagine what He would do, which implies figuring it out ourselves instead of relying upon Him.)

Anyhow, my point is that like this fad, it seems that the body of Christ - i.e. those who claim to believe in Jesus, or Christians - particularly in the western world, has gotten back into the same habit that has served to make us as indistinguishable from non-believers as we've been all too often throughout history: we've gotten back to the mindset where we believe in Jesus for our salvation, that He has saved us from having to pay the penalty of our sins so that we can spend eternity with Him in heaven, but yet don't trust Him (i.e. God) with our lives while here on earth.

Some Christians might argue with me on this point, that if you have belief then trust is just a natural outgrowth. But both are an act of the will. We must choose to believe that God exists and that His claims in the Bible are for real, and then we must choose to trust God with the situations in our lives. This trust doesn't 'just happen' no more than belief 'just happens'.

To put this another way, whenever a non-believer reaches the point of realizing that unless they "get right" with God by being forgiven of all they've thought, said, and done to offend Him (our "sins"), then they will be punished for our sins for an eternity, often they're encouraged by a Christian to "pray a prayer" of forgiveness in order to be "saved", or to attain "salvation". Often, in that prayer, the person is asked by the Christian who is helping them to pray if they're willing to make Jesus their "Lord and Savior".

My point is that Christians seem to have no problem with making Jesus their Savior (trusting Him for their salvation), but they struggle immensely throughout the rest of their earthly lives with trusting Him to be their Lord - to put Him in charge of their lives so that He can show them how to get through the day-to-day, moment-to-moment situations that they face.

So why is this? Why are Christians so willing to trust Jesus for their "hell insurance" yet so stubbornly defiant or oblivious about trusting Him with finances, relationships, temptation struggles, etc? Here are the top reasons:

1. Old habits die hard - Especially if one is saved at a later age, the programming that s/he has received about being self-sufficient from the time of their birth is extremely difficult to change. It doesn't happen overnight, and only results from daily asking God to show them how to rely upon God instead of upon themselves any longer.
2. We're afraid of what others might think - If a non-Christian friend gives you advice about money or relationships, it's often true that the Bible's advice will be to do the opposite. Until one is grounded in their faith (which is the direct result of one's time spent reading the Bible, praying, and hanging out with other grounded Christians), it's very difficult to go against the grain. Christians in this day in age unfortunately worry far too much about what other people think than to obey what God wants them to do.
3. We think we know better - I've heard far too many stories about Christians who are convinced that God has spoken to them about doing this or that, then they do the opposite because God's way seems too illogical, uncomfortable, inconvenient, or will supposedly take too long. So off they go, marrying the first person who comes along instead of waiting for God's best, or buying that home too soon or buying a far bigger home than what is needed, or extending themselves financially far beyond what they earn, etc. What's even worse is when the Christian then gets mad at God when the foolishness of their plan blows up in their face.
4. We don't spend time getting to know God - And with lack of knowledge comes lack of understanding about how He thinks and operates. The greatest reason for the slow death that the western Christian church is dying right now is that we are too caught up with living life the way non-Christians do that we don't have time to spend with God, which occurs through reading the Bible, praying, and spending time with other Christians. The devil has us right where he wants us - too busy chasing that bigger/newer/more cool _____, or spending our time and money on leisurely, self-centered pursuits instead of getting to know God. And because we don't know and understand Him, we're unable to explain the Gospel - the "good news" about Jesus - in a way that's attractive and compelling to the non-believer. The non-believer is told that they need to "go to church", for example, rather than how they could experience a mind-blowing personal relationship with their Creator and the Creator of the entire universe who will provide them with a life and an eternity beyond anything they could ever imagine.
   

Here's what I do now whenever I get worried about a situation or think I have a better plan. I simply stop, take a breather, and ask for God's wisdom and insight in that situation. As soon as I'm tempted to think that my family's financial situation won't work out the way I want it to, for example, I go back to all those countless times where God never let us fall short. I also force myself to keep doing what I'm doing if God hasn't made things clear to me and wait until He leads me to do differently. I also ask Him if the way I want it to go is His best for us or not, and to give me the patience to let Him work it out the way He sees fit.

As soon as I encounter a home or work situation that stumps me, I throw up a little prayer (when I remember to do so!) and ask God to show me the way through it. If it's a situation that doesn't have a deadline, I back away and wait for Him to give me the answer or to work out the situation Himself.

In part II of this topic, I'll give some specific examples of how trusting God in different situations instead of my own ideas and so-called "wisdom" worked out for the better.

Are evolutionists circling the wagons?

Recently I came across the current issue of a well-known science magazine that has a top-10 list that "pays tribute to the exceptional foresight and accomplishment of a select group whose achievements, particularly during the past year, stand out from those of their peers." It is a salute to "Ten researchers, politicians, business executives and philanthropists who have recently demonstrated outstanding commitment to assuring that the benefits of new technologies and knowledge will accrue to humanity."

One of the people praised in this list is a lady whose efforts over nearly the past three decades have had a major impact on the elimination of any sort of questioning and critiquing of the Theory of Evolution in nearly all school jurisdictions in the United States. This has gone hand-in-hand with the elimination of any discussion of creationism. The article's author seems to subtly hail her as a champion of halting attempts against "the campaign to peddle creationism" in America's classrooms, as a "loyal defender of teaching evolution in the schools". The author also seems to arouse suspicion against anyone who has "the intent to discredit Darwin".

Evolutionists who are honest with themselves admit that there is no solid fossil evidence for their claims, only fanciful scenarios. And recent findings about the astounding biochemical complexity of living organisms, particularly humans, that literally screams "Created!" and "Planned!" and "Ordered!" has left evolutionists scrambling to figure out and trying in vain to explain how such things came about through absolutely no thought, no creative hand, and totally unplanned, random, mutative forces. What about the structured and coded genetic information that forms the template of this complexity? Did this information just "appear"? Could something so complex and intricate and brilliant have just "happened"? Did complexity know how to form itself out of chaos and randomness?

These things are even harder to explain when one considers how far less complex things, like computers, have been the subject of decades of creative development and effort by the most brilliant of human minds. People would laugh - perhaps consider you insane - if you insisted that a computer was the product of thoughtless, random, mutative forces. Nevertheless, people still buy into the Theory of Evolution - despite totally contradicting proven laws like the Laws of Thermodynamics, for example - with some going so far as to ban its questioning and criticism in schools, like the person praised and hailed in this article.

My first reaction to this article was initially one of defensiveness, since I'm obviously against any attempts to stifle the questioning and criticism of Evolutionism in the science classroom. However nothing, and I mean nothing - including God, Jesus, and the Bible - should ever be stuck in a bell jar and rendered immune to scrutiny and examination. The same should go for ideas like the Theory of Evolution. As for God, He still works despite being scrutinized and examined by people, continually reaching through to the hearts of even His fiercest critics as He sees fit (of which I was once one).

Anyhow, after I thought about this article, I started to realize several things over the next half hour that brought a grin to my face, and I was actually excited about what I had read.

The first thing I realized is that if the Theory of Evolution is so infallible and on such solid footing, then why are its proponents so scared of allowing it to any longer be the subject of debate? Could it be that the "agenda" evolutionists accuse creationists of having is exactly what evolutionists themselves have, that of controlling our educational system and society? Is it possible that the accusation of "hypocrisy" leveled by evolutionists and other non-believers against creationists and believers in God is the exact same thing that evolutionists can be accused of?

Seeing how their world-view currently dominates academic and media circles, and essentially directs the course of western culture, it's understandable how evolutionists wouldn't want anyone in these institutions to be allowed to poke yet more holes in their theory. They have a lot to lose, like research funding, job security, credibility, status, wealth, control, and so on.

Perhaps being open to public debates has damaged their cause too much. I remember attending a debate between an atheist and William Lane Craig. The topic was something like 'Does God exist?' and not a specific evolutionist vs. creationist debate, although these topics were repeatedly brought up by atheist and believer alike. Craig was being goaded by both parties to make these the actual topics in question. To Craig's credit, he respectfully brought the discussion back to the idea of God's existence at every attempt of diversion.

Anyhow, rather than the browbeating that the atheists and evolutionists in the crowd were expecting Craig to receive, there were of course still the die-hard skeptics at the end of the debate, but the mood amongst several of the more open-minded skeptics was instead one of greater openness to the idea of the existence of God. In fact, it could be concluded that the debate massively back-fired on the atheists and evolutionists as some of their own were respectfully and inquisitively asking Craig more about his ideas while the die-hard faithful were murmuring and leaving in disgust.

If this was the only story I could tell about skeptics being tipped in favor of God by the end of a debate about the existence of God or the merits of there being a Creator, then I wouldn't have mentioned it. But I've heard and read of many similar outcomes to debates such as these. My point is that perhaps evolutionists have had enough of being open to the questioning and criticism of their ideology. It not only gives creationists a fair platform to present the merits of their views, but the end result is usually the erasing of many stereotypes about creationism, God, the Bible, and so forth. Stifling debate is therefore the best solution that evolutionists have at this point if they wish to maintain their dominance over world thought and culture.

The next thing I realized is that evolutionists are employing the exact same tactics of oppression and suppression that powerful religious orders have used and been condemned for by non-believers in order to preserve their ideology and control over the masses. Unfortunately, most people confuse such religious control and tyranny as coming from God instead of realizing that these are force tactics created by greedy humans. God allows people to have free will as to whether or not they choose to believe in Him. I've never known of any person in this modern age, outside of a man-made religious order, who has ever been forced to love or believe in God. It's a love gift of choice that God has given to us.

It is only the greed of men that has ever forced God onto another person. And it is the greed of men that now forces evolutionist ideology into the classroom and forces any questioning and criticism about this ideology out of it. And it is this greed that also swarms onto opponents of their ideology in the form of ridicule and lawsuits.

Therefore, evolutionism has become the new world religion. The greatest accusers of religion and God have become religious themselves. Like the religious orders that have been created throughout history by people that have claimed to believe in God, and all too often used to stifle opposition to their ideology through intimidation and ridicule, evolutionism and its followers now stop at nothing to prevent any and all questioning and criticism of its ideology.

After considering these things, I realized that this aggressive posturing on the part of evolutionists is actually an increasingly a defensive one. At the point where the Roman Catholic Church was at its peak of control over Europe, it was a very aggressive religious system. It was a system of total intolerance to any sort of questioning and criticism about it, and those spoken to by God like Martin Luther who dared to speak out against it were unfortunately subject to far more than ridicule by those in power who didn't want to lose any of their job security, credibility, status, wealth, control, and so on.

However, as people like Luther began to gain a following through successfully exposing the rampant hypocrisies of this system, one claiming to exist in the name of God but acting out the opposite, the aggression on the part of the Church against its critics started to become an increasingly defensive one. As it began to realize that the end of its dominance was near and it could no longer hold onto its authoritarian grip, it began to "circle the wagons", so to speak; it got into self-preservation mode because remaining openly aggressive might have left it vulnerable to total extinction due to the forces acting against it.

Articles like the one I recently read lead me to wonder if evolutionists are not doing the same. By actively trying to stifle opposition to their ideology in schools and the media, they are essentially shrinking in to a defensive position. Around them, an increasing number of academics are beginning to openly question the Theory of Evolution, and the response of evolutionists hasn't been to take the high road of being open to debate. Rather, although they are still on the attack, they are also becoming increasingly defensive.

Does this article signal the beginning of the end of the dominance of evolutionist thought over our modern world? Even if this tower should crumble, another godless ideology will arise simply because there will always be people who wish to discredit God. Whether it will be under the guise of science, which evolutionism claims to be but clearly is not (it is actually a philosophy, a theory with no scientific validity or reproducibility), remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, it was exciting for me to see evidence in this article of evolutionists beginning to shake in their boots. Their theory, which has been used to justify racism, sexism, and genocide across our globe in the past 150 years, might well be coming to an end.