Almost asleep ...

I can't write what I'm planning to without getting a little personal with you all - well, a lot personal.  The past few weeks I've been caught up with the whole debt crisis thing in Europe while watching the value of my not-so-bountiful Retirement Savings Plan dwindle more and more.  Even as a Christian I've found it hard not to get caught up in the whole idea of worrying about the financial future.  I seriously wonder what I will be able to draw upon to pay the bills once I'm into my early sixties.

My struggle as a Christian goes beyond the financial aspect, however.  My bigger struggle is the spiritual aspect, namely that Jesus basically commanded his followers not to worry about anything, ANYTHING - that if God takes care of birds and flowers he will surely take care of us.  Sometimes it's very difficult to believe this in your heart as well as your mind.  But I'm convinced that people living in even the most dire of straits - famine, genocide, etc. - experience the hand of God when they cry out for his help and provision.  I've read about too many stories to this effect to begin to doubt it.

But this is about my life 20 or so years down the road, not the present.  Sure, I'm convinced about his current provision, but what about when I'm not as strong and healthy to show up at a job every day?  That's where the worry has crept in.

So with these "heavies" upon my heart, I did what any sincere believer should:  I brought these things before God.  But most of the answers I've received this week are absolutely what I did not expect.  First of all, I've received many ideas about how I could structure my RSP in terms of how much to keep as cash, how much to put into mutual funds vs. stocks, etc.  I've even asked him to reveal other investment "vehicles" that might be far less risky than the stock market.  Now I just need the faith - and the discipline - to put these ideas into action and get over the temptation to be greedy, to be content with gains of a few percent a year instead of the much riskier yet higher potential gains (or losses) that I could experience by keeping things the way they are.  Right now, the losses have unfortunately been the norm.

But what has been much more heavy upon my heart - what I did not expect - is what the book of Ecclesiastes refers to as "vanity", or "absolute futility" in another translation of the Bible.  I have looked at how people everywhere around me - Christian and non - are passionately in pursuit of ... themselves.  It seems as though their main goal at the end of the work day, whether working in or out of the home, is to have a time of peace and comfort.  To get the kids out of their hair so they can relax.  To get the yard looking up to snuff for another season of barbeques and lazy summer evenings with friends and family.  To spend time on Facebook catching up with people, or simply to surf the net aimlessly looking at 'stuff'.

It's one thing to have been noticing these things in everyone else's lives at every single turn, but it's been much more humbling to have been noticing them in my own.  Some may think that someone like me writing a blog like this is somehow super-spiritual, "in" with God in a way that others aren't, with my life all sorted out and idyllic.  The only reason I have anything to write month after month, however, is simply because my life is NOT like this!  This week, I've seen with eyes more clear than ever about how much I want the same things as most other people.  But the "big heavy" I've felt is how in doing so, in spending so much time and energy trying to get financial and personal ducks in a row, I'm NOT spending time involved in the lives of others.

Now God is so gracious.  He hasn't revealed these things to me with some huge guilt burden that makes me feel rotten or like an idiot.  Instead, it's almost as though God has been wanting to show me what's more important in life so that I don't get any more caught  up in worrying and planning than I already am.  It's like he's been trying to tell me to pursue "his kingdom and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33) and not to worry about my life and the true desires of my heart being taken care of, because he'll do that in good order on his terms and according to his timing.

So what have I realized or noticed specifically?  I've thought about how I sometimes worry about paying the bills when some people can't even pay a single one of theirs.  Or about my house when so many on this planet don't even have one, or one that offers little shelter or security.  Or some of my sore joints when I could instead be a cripple or have a debilitating disease.

Basically, I've noticed how needy so many people are but how so few of us with affluence and abundance and good health are willing to help them.  In response to this, I've been struggling with what I could do to help them.

Now this is an overwhelming thing to think about.  Hey, I was looking for investment ideas, not to be burdened with thoughts of all the human-induced suffering of this world, resulting from the greed, selfishness, and other sins imposed by people on other people!  I was looking for answers to help me, not to be made aware of the problems of others!

I must admit that I'm in a very selfish phase right now where it's been very hard to look away from my situation and to even take time for others.  I'm almost done working toward a particular certification for the industry I'm working in, there are upcoming birthdays in my family, we're excited about plans for a summer holiday, and so forth.  To see if my neighbor needs help cleaning his yard or to take the time to talk to a stranger just so they don't feel alone is more of a burden to me lately than staying in my comfort zone and dealing with me, me, me.

So maybe this is why this week I got the answers I did regarding my plea to rescue my retirement finances.  Maybe God is trying to tell me that I'm wasting my time worrying about whether I'll actually be alive twenty-some years down the road, and instead that I should be more focused on living, loving, and serving in the here-and-now since there is absolutely no guarantee of being alive even five minutes from now!

So why did I title this post "almost asleep"?  Because I realize that the church - the body of believers in Jesus Christ - in our prosperous Western world is made up of far too many believers just like me.  Oh yes, we go through phases like this where God opens our eyes to the plight of others all around us.  But then we - and I - get lulled back into ourselves once again.  We get lulled by all the eye-candy this world has to offer, thinking that we need more of it, so that we'll be distracted from being a positive impact in changing this world for the better.

And who does the Bible say is behind this world system?  None other than God's enemy, the devil.  One of his most effective tactics throughout history has been distraction, getting Christians away from serving the needs of others in order to serve the supposed "needs" of self.  The Western church is almost asleep and no signs of a wake-up call for it are on the horizon as far as I've been able to tell.  In fact, the past year or so I've been really discouraged about its state and its lessening impact with time.  It gets lulled evermore into being an ineffective social club of indifferent members.  But I can only point at it so much without also pointing at me.

But despite this, I realize that the transformation of a body is the eventual result of the transformation of some of its individual members.  I know that God routinely stirs the pot of my life and that of my wife so that we don't become stagnant.  God has always spoken to the hearts of individuals like he's been doing with me lately, but what will I do with these realizations?  And how about you, fellow believer?

I don't know what I'll do, exactly.  I've been hoping that God will stir me enough to get off the couch and at the very least perform random acts of kindness toward others.  (This is far easier for my wife, by the way, so she's often an inspiration in this regard.)  Maybe I'll actually work toward starting that men's group that's been on my mind for months now instead of assuming it won't be well received (another of Satan's favorite tactics:  doubt).

In any case, I too have been lulled almost asleep more times than I'd like to admit.  But it's at times of realization like this that I and those of you who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ need to do something about it - something simple - and then be open and selfless enough to allow God to take us to the next step.  Jesus was all about living for everybody else's needs, and voila - his Father always took care of his.  Go figure!  We just don't want the life of simplicity that Jesus lived.  We still think we need the bigger house and the new car and the latest gadgets, that we'll somehow get "bored" if we live for others and no longer just our desires.  Or worse yet, we assume that by doing so we'll be taken advantage of.

Do you think perhaps that Jesus' life might be an example of how we ought to be living our lives?  I think so, and I pray that not only I but any believer reading this will be convinced and motivated to live the same.

Answers for atheists

A post that I wrote a little while back caught the attention of an atheist, and you can read the entire post and comments by clicking here.  But the main comment concerned some tough questions that have been asked in similar form by many a non-believer, which I will quote here:

If [God] is all good, why do 20,000 children die every day in this world? Surely someone all good, would not let that many children die? So he is either not all good, or he is unable to help them so he is not all powerful..

Do you believe in a devil? If so why would a god "allow" him to exist? If he does, then again he is either not all good or not all powerful and cannot stop him or stop him from existing..

See how quickly cracks appear in even your most basic belief system?

Here was my initial reaction to this comment, so bear with me: I must admit that I was a little put off at first. Was I supposed to abandon my faith simply on the basis of two issues that this person assumed I hadn't found answers to? Perhaps this person didn't really care to find answers to these questions but was simply trying to discredit believers in general and this blog in particular, upset merely by the fact that my belief system runs contrary to his/hers?

Also, as the comments progressed, I had the feeling that s/he was calling my character and level of intelligence into question solely as a result of me believing in God, as though only some half-wit would do something so audacious. You can see in subsequent comments how s/he and I attempted to iron some things out, and how in the end I realized that attempting to answer these questions isn't a bad thing.  However, doing so just wasn't the intention of this blog.  Let me explain.

I started this blog for reasons explained in the introductory post, and I hoped that people would read it so that any comments would not resort to making me feel as though I was being regarded as a second-rate human being for believing in God, for example by inferring that I am "brain washed by a cult" or that by believing in God I "may as well be believing in Santa Claus, except you are an adult". I wasn't expecting to be subjected to ad hominem attacks - to attacks on my character - and to attacks on my intelligence, but rather I had hoped to be asked to reasonably and intelligently discuss matters related to God.

But then I realized that perhaps this atheist has only ever encountered "religious" people, as s/he refers to them (perhaps not yet realizing that true Christianity is actually the anti-thesis and the greatest enemy of religion), who seem as though they are robotically brainwashed by how they act and live.  Or maybe Christians (or those who claim to be) have looked down their noses at him/her and attacked his/her character as well.  Maybe I was simply bearing the brunt of his/her discontent.

Although this person should not have assumed the same about me or done the same to me, I guess I can't blame him/her.  What I realized is that s/he's probably never become acquainted with, let alone met, someone who believes in God like me yet with the integrity, character, and intelligence that those around me know I possess.  It's easy to assume things about someone whose stuff you're only reading about online instead of getting to know them face-to-face. I'm also very well regarded by Christians and non-believers in my sphere of influence because I don't walk around with a 'holier than thou' attitude. I'm very real, and I don't walk around with my head in the clouds. In short, I'm very personable and don't speak with people as though I look like I was weaned on a pickle.

I also realized that to not answer those questions would lead this person to rightly assume that I lack integrity, character, and intelligence. Therefore, I am attempting to answer these questions for these reasons, but also since this person has never met "one single person who can logically answer those questions. Not a priest, not a born again Christian, not Mormons nor Jehovah Witnesses at the front door." However, I do not make this attempt with the illusion that an atheist will suddenly "see the light" regarding Jesus.  This person him/herself has stated that s/he is "not someone looking for God".

So why should I bother answering these questions?  Because I as a follower of Jesus need to be as open, caring, and transparent to non-believers as he was to all around him when he walked this earth. He is the example that sadly most Christians have failed to follow, and I've never wanted to be a part of that majority. If most Christians truly reflected the character of their Savior, their Messiah, then the atheist ranks on this planet would be almost non-existent because the love of God would be hugely apparent, since it is meant to be reflected through Christian believers.  Sure, this person has implied that s/he really doesn't care to know the answers, which means that perhaps instead I'll either be mocked again as I was at first (but hopefully not) or s/he'll simply try to poke more holes into my faith that s/he cannot truly understand apart from that faith.

But maybe none of this will happen; maybe I'm assuming that this person will act exactly how I did as a hater of God for the first 22 years of my life, when I responded to any spiritual inquiries with venom and hatred (and all without objectively considering their viewpoint, by the way) that few non-believers have had the guts to express with a believer face-to-face.  Anyhow, this is a chance I'm willing to take; my faith has and never will be shaken, so really I've got nothing to lose, and maybe it will actually be somewhat informative to this and other atheists/agnostics who stumble across this blog. At the very least, these are good questions that deserve attempts at answers - hey, I wondered about them as well at one time - and hopefully the responses are respectful and reasonable even if someone still disagrees with them.

So here's my approach.  In this post, I've decided I'm not going to re-invent the wheel.  These questions have been addressed somewhat directly or indirectly in this blog.  So first, do a search by blog title or keyword for the items of concern, such as "brainwashing" or "atheists" or "Satan" or "devil".

Second, search online for other sources that will answer these questions, because they've been asked and answered ad nauseum throughout the ages.  I simply feel I don't need to try to answer them myself at this point if others have done so already.

But beware: not all people who claim to represent God truly represent the God of the Bible, the one true God.  So please avoid anyone who has violated the warning of Revelation chapter 22, verses 18-19 like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have:  they have tweaked and even re-written the Bible to make God fit their mold, to suit their twisted agendas.  They are cults in the truest sense of the word, and therefore their answers to these questions will be misinformed and intended to mislead.  In fact, any religious movement or self-proclaimed "faith" that has rejected Jesus and therefore the Bible is also not a good source for information (ex. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.). I've never found their explanations on such issues to be reputable or even helpful because they lack a true understanding of such issues by, for example, their removal of Jesus from the equation.

Instead, start with organizations like the Christian Research Institute (the best cult-busting organization in existence!), and search for messages from the likes of Charles Stanley and Chuck Swindoll.  I'm sorry, but answers to these questions are only best addressed from a Biblical perspective (since these questions are about God and the devil), so you need to be open-minded about this no matter how uncomfortable this may be!

Now I won't leave you totally hanging.  Here are a few links to answers to the above (or similar) questions to get you started.  Where you go from here is up to you:

If [God] is all good, why do 20,000 children die every day in this world?

• Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Do you believe in a devil? If so why would a god "allow" him to exist?

• Link 1, Link 2, Link 3

Some of these responses are written from Christians to Christians, but bear with them as you read them. Don't get upset, don't get insulted - just take them for what they are.  In some cases, some answers to the specific questions are sprinkled throughout various parts of the articles.

Third, these questions do not have cut-and-dried, simple answers.  In fact, for me these answers only came after several years of gaining a deep understanding of God through reading my Bible, listening to reputable (not just any) Bible teachers in person and on the radio (this involved me sorting the reputable from the pseudo-biblical and cultic teachings), and through asking God to reveal his truths to me.  Even if I can refer you to cut-and-dried attempts at answers, they'll probably seem non-sensical without a solid background of walking with God.

So there you go!  Now, if you're assuming that this is a cop-out on my part, I hope you will do your due diligence and first research these things more for yourself.  Then, if you really would like me to answer them from my perspective, in my own words that I believe God is revealing to me, please leave me a comment to that effect and I will create a new post.

BUT PLEASE, if your desire is not to really seek to understand God more but rather to try to mock me, my faith, or to just keep asking questions for the sake of mockery and/or to waste my time and energy, then I will no longer be answering such questions.

Again, I intended this blog to share what I believe God has laid upon my heart over the years for the benefit of believers and non-believers seeking to understand God more.  And I will return strictly to this agenda if I sense that my character is being subjected to attack or if my faith is being mocked in a disrespectful fashion.  I am asking you to hold to the same level of integrity that I have hopefully also held to, and I believe this is an absolutely fair and reasonable request.

The gullible ones

(This post is not intended to make fun of or insult non-believers; it has not been written in a sarcastic tone.  Rather, some observations will be made about how they view believers in God in order to set the stage for my main points later on.  So if you're a non-believer, please note this and maintain an open mind as you read this post.)

Non-believers make some pretty interesting assumptions about believers in God, one of them being that only gullible people would put their faith in some unseen entity and give it a title like "God".  It's as though a non-believer making such an assumption thinks that some Bible-thumping preacher did some 'ooga booga' sort of brain-washing speech that caused people to believe in and follow God like blind, mindless robots.  They assume the believer left their brain at the door and are now under the control not of an infinite Creator, but rather a figment of their imagination that allows those preaching the message of this God to exploit believers for the sake of mind control and financial gain.  (Lest non-believers think that they are not under such exploitation themselves from non-spiritual interests, I'll tactfully discuss the blindness of non-believers later on.)

What I also find interesting is how non-believers will never sincerely ask just how such people came to believe in God for fear that the message they hear might cause them to get "sucked in" themselves.  To avoid this possibility, they instead stand at arm's length and make assumptions about this God and those who are his followers.  Unfortunately, their assumptions are made with an air - even an arrogance - of authority, as though they could possibly know more about God than those who actually follow and claim to have an intimate personal relationship with him.  This is no more outlandish than someone assuming that a complete stranger to you and your friend knows more about your friend than you do.  And what's worse is how the masses of non-believers will buy into these assumptions rather than, as mentioned above, objectively asking the believer about what brought them to faith.

In other words, non-believers accuse believers of gullibility, but aren't they ultimately the more gullible?  They are basing their beliefs about God upon false information borne out of a lack of experience and relationship with him.  They haven't walked both sides of the "spiritual fence", so to speak, like a believer has, yet they talk as though they know what being a believer is all about, as though they've 'been there and done that', spiritually speaking.

I have also noticed how nearly everything a non-believer mentions about a believer is negative.  Countless believers throughout history have given testimony of the power of God to heal broken lives, bodies, and relationships - in many cases baffling the intellectual powers of their day (read the book of Romans, chapter 1, in particular verse 22) - and yet the non-believers have constantly tried to find human or tangible explanations for these miracles.  The idea of an unseen entity, mysterious and more powerful than them, is scary because they cannot explain or control it, so they do their best to try to discredit it.  Because God can't fit into their "box" of understanding, in their minds he therefore must and should not be for real.  They want control because they think being under the control of the one who created them is somehow a bad thing.

They also only see man's religious attempts to please God, the "he loves me, he loves me not" sort who think they're believers, and blind themselves (or are blinded?) to those who enjoy the non-religious relationship of grace through Jesus Christ that God originally intended for everyone, the one which only becomes real to those who want and accept this relationship (these are the true, "saved" believers who have put their faith in Jesus Christ).  Therefore, in the eyes of non-believers, nothing good can come out of believing in God despite testimonies of true believers that indicate otherwise because all they see (rather, want to see) is the pious, holier-than-thou, religious attempts at living up to a system of man-made do's-and-don'ts and the hypocrisy of failure when they don't live up to it.

(If you're a non-believer and anything I've written so far is offensive or questionable to you because you've assumed I've just pulled these thoughts out of mid-air, don't take it personally.  I haven't invented these notions of how non-believers view believers in God; I've simply tried to state the mindset I had while I was a non-believer for the first 22 years of my life.  Your mindset may differ from my old one on a few specific points, but overall your view of God and his followers is probably not much different, but I digress ...)

If I've seemed surprised at how non-believers make assumptions and accusations about believers and seem to be blinded to the truth of who God really is, I'm actually not.  It doesn't surprise me in the least because I was once a blinded assumer and accuser myself.  I was deceived into thinking that I was under nobody's control - man's or otherwise - when in reality I was under the total and absolute control of the enemy of God who wants nothing more than for all humans to believe that he and God do not exist.

This enemy, who goes by the name of Satan or the title of "Devil", does everything possible to keep full control over us without us even knowing it.  Why would he want such control?  Because he wants to drag us along with him into the eternal punishment and torment that he knows he has earned through his rebellion toward God.  Why does he not want non-believers to know that he exists and controls them?  Because he wants them to live under the illusion that they are in control.  Then they won't resist when he leads them around like puppets on a string, distracting them and leading them ever further from the message of Jesus.  For if they hear this message and put their faith in Jesus, they will have found the one and only means by which they can forever escape Satan's control and find eternal life rather than endure eternal punishment and torment.  (Read about Satan's ultimate demise in the book of Revelation, chapter 20.)

Even though Satan tries to keep people from knowing about and believing in Jesus, people unfamiliar with the Bible might be surprised to realize that even Satan and his demonic agents know about and believe in the existence, power, and true identity of Jesus.  Here is one such account:

"In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice, "Leave us alone!  What do You have to do with us, Jesus - Nazarene?   Have You come to destroy us?  I know who You are - the Holy One of God!"" (Luke 4:34)

Jesus also had a lot to say about Satan's control over unbelievers while he was here on earth.  Here is just one passage:

"Why don't you understand what I [Jesus] say?  Because you cannot listen to my word.   You are of your father the Devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires.  He ... has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of liars.  Yet because I [Jesus] tell the truth, you do not believe me ... If I tell the truth, why don't you believe me?  [Because] The one who is from God listens to God's words.  This is why you [non-believers] don't listen, because you are not from God." (John 8:43-47)

In other words, the Father of the believer in Jesus Christ is none other than God himself, whereas the father of all non-believers - and non-Christians - is none other than the Devil himself.  So again, non-believers don't understand believers nor do they really want to understand because they are under the controlling lies of Satan - according to this and other Bible passages - who wants them to remain blind to the truth of God, a truth that if accepted means forgiveness and eternal life from God that Satan once had but no longer has.  Satan is like Adolf Hitler at the end of the Second World War, who wanted to drag everyone else down with him instead of signing a peace treaty because he knew his end was near.  He wants as many gullible non-believers as possible to share in the eternal suffering that he knows is awaiting him.

If a non-believer ever gets the nerve to question me about my level of intelligence and/or degree of integrity, and/or accuses me of gullibility because I believe in God - in particular Jesus - I hope I will have the ability to calmly and rationally ask them if they've ever been fully a non-believer AND a believer like I have.  I have the right and the authority to state what I claim to know about God/Jesus because unlike the vast majority of humanity, I've lived fully immersed for several years on both sides of the "spiritual fence".  Any non-believer simply does NOT have any such authority because they cannot speak objectively about what it means to be a believer - they simply haven't walked a mile in my shoes or those of any other believer, so their arguments frankly lack any and all credibility.

Non-believers can make all the assumptions they want about me, but they can never change or take away the account of how I lived when I hated and rejected the notion of God, how this God chose to make himself known to me and begin to change my heart, how I eventually accepted this loving God and his free, no-strings-attached offer of forgiveness and eternal life, and how my life has been all the better ever since.  In other words, non-believers are unfortunately the gullible ones - not believers - and I say unfortunately because their non-belief has them headed straight to a horrific eternity unless they choose, only while still on this side of eternity, to accept the free gift of salvation and the resulting eternal life offered only through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Blame Game

I've always found it interesting since I've become a Christian to notice how some people who want nothing to do with God in their everyday lives suddenly decide to blame Him when something goes wrong.

A few years ago, I was watching the news one night during the annual wildfire season that always strikes southern California.  I was surprised to hear the reaction of one homeowner who had just lost his home as he mentioned God along the lines of, 'If God was real he wouldn't have let this happen!'  The expression on his face and his tone of voice was one of defiance and anger.  It was pretty clear to me that he was one of those kinds of people I described above.

When I get angry about something (and yes, Christians DO get angry, although they try to restrict it to the "righteous anger" that Jesus talks about, i.e. those things that displease God as well), I usually say, "Ah, man!" or "Aw, crap!" instead of blaming God or Jesus for my misfortune.  We humans are the ones who destroyed the perfectly good relationship that God originated with us in the Garden of Eden, so I'd rather be mad at them than at God.  I also don't say "Geez" or "Gosh" because these are derivatives of "Jesus" and "God" that I find too many Christians use without realizing that they are really affronts to God.

More interesting to me is how people claiming to be agnostics or atheists will use "God" or "Jesus Christ" as derogatory terms or in a derogatory statement when they are angry about something.  Why are they even mentioning the names of beings they claim not to believe in?  By doing so, they are contradicting what they claim to believe, and it would make more sense for them to use four-letter derogatory terms instead.

I realized only a few years ago why it is so instinctive for humans to think that God's has a last name when they get angry or why shouting out to Jesus at the top of one's lungs is often their first reaction upon striking their finger with a hammer.  It's because God once gave a commandment to people saying, according to one translation,

"Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will punish anyone who misuses His name." (Exodus 20: 7, HCSB)

Once that command was given (along with several others), people were now accountable to God in this respect.  If they broke this command, or "sinned", they were now guilty before God whereas before they were not.  (The book of Romans, Chapter 7, verses 7-12 explains this concept in detail.)

Now the Bible also describes how there is an enemy of God who wants us to screw up every chance we have to be reconciled to and forgiven by God through Jesus.  Why?  So that we can face the same eternal punishment as he already knows he's going to face after the Day of Judgement.  He wants to drag us into destruction along with him, much like how Hitler dragged the German nation into destruction rather than signing a peace agreement that would have saved thousands of lives and many historical landmarks and treasures.  He is named Satan and also goes by the title of "devil".  He is also known as the "accuser", the one who accuses men before God for their sins against God:

"The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have now come, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out:  the one who accuses them before our God day and night." (Revelation 12: 10)

I've learned through observation and experience that Satan is a masterful theologian of deceit who has had thousands of years to perfect his twisting of the Bible in order to drag people into sin (sin = thoughts, words, or deeds that anger God or are contrary to His will).  It is very apparent in the book of Job that Satan has a primary role in testing humans to see whether or not they will take the low road of getting angry at God and thereby sinning against Him.

One way that Satan does this is by appealing to the sin nature that we are all born with and possess until the day that we get forgiven through the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ.  This sin nature is the one we have inherited from Adam and Eve that naturally wants to rebel against God.  This is why it is very easy for non-believers to use the terms "God" and "Jesus Christ" when they get angry.

And although believers no longer possess a nature that wants to sin, even though they have been reborn and have a new nature since the Spirit of God now dwells in them (Romans 7:13-8:11), they can still succumb to the same urge to curse God because of the sinful body and world they still live in.

In either case, the act of "[misusing] the name of the Lord your God" by cursing His name or using it in vain (i.e. saying it in casual conversation outside of actually seeking Him or calling out to Him) adds a sense of guilt to the non-believer and believer alike that deep inside - either consciously or subconsciously - makes that person feel as though now that they've degraded God in this manner, God will no longer accept them if they actually were to want to come to Him.

When God was getting through to me in my early twenties, in the back of my mind I didn't think God would accept me because of all the bad that I had done, including the horrendously obscene trucker-mouth I had used to curse God and use His name in vain for most of those twenty-odd years.  Fortunately, Satan didn't win that battle in my life because I realized that God accepts all who come to Him seeking forgiveness through Jesus, regardless of appearance or any degree of past wrongdoing.

What I have learned within the past two years is how those thoughts inciting us to sin are whispered into our minds (not our ears, or else we would know those thoughts are not our own) by none other than our accuser before God, Satan.  If you want to read a remarkable book about things like how Satan works against us, read "What God Wishes Christian Knew About Christianity" by Bill Gillham.

If you doubt this above argument about why I believe that it is so instinctive for humans to curse God or to use His name in vain, ask yourself this:  Why, when people get angry, don't they instinctively say "Oh, Buddha!" or "Oh, Mohammed!" or "Oh, Satan!" when they curse?  Why do people have to consciously develop the habit of saying "Aw, man!" or "Aw, crap!" in order to override the natural tendency to curse God?  Perhaps there's some force opposing God at work in us, say, an accuser who wants to create division between us and Him?

So now that you know a very plausible explanation of the reason behind the game of blaming God, maybe realize instead that it is a combination of our desire to sin and the helping hand of our accuser that is truly to blame for our misfortune.

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.