Summer Hiatus

We are in full swing at camp now and I have been super busy...can't wait to share all that I've learned and seen at the end of summer.

After Four Months..."I do???"

My wife and I have now been married for about 4 months.  Now that I have this marriage thing all figured out and the lengthy experience to go with it, I thought I would share with the world my vast knowledge.  I feel that since everything has gone perfectly since we got married that you should hear the truth from me.  Everything has gone perfect.  Nothing has surprised us.  Nothing has been hard.  Everything is bliss. You should be picking up on the sarcasm by now.

Alright, maybe things have not been entirely peachy the past 4 months but I would not trade one single day, one single fight, one single skiing lesson for anything in the world!  We are joined together as one in covenant relationship with God.  While its not always pretty, it is a beautiful thing.  It is amazing to look and see how much closer we've grown in 4 months and how much more we love each other.  I want to share a little about what I've learned and what I wish I would have known prior to marriage.

The Very Words of God

We study Scripture, commit it to memory, live it out, and put all of our hope and faith in it.  Scripture is the foundation on which the Christian religion is based.  It is the story of Jesus Christ.  From Genesis to Revelation, it all points to Christ.  His life, death, resurrection, and return.

But how do we know it is true?  How do we know that the Bible is composed of the actual words of God?  How do we know that that the Bible is God breathed?  How can we be certain?

How would you answer these questions?  Let's look at some possible responses and then I will share with you how I KNOW that the Word(s) of God are the words of God.

Can the Bible be taken literally?

Can the Bible be taken literally?  This is a question offered up by a lot of skeptics, who, if given the facts, would most likely find that it can be taken literally.

First, let's begin with the resurrection.  It is the central theme of the Christian faith and of utmost importance when determining the validity of scripture.  After all, if Christ was not raised from the dead, then who cares what He had to say?  But, if He was raised from the dead, then everything he prophesied becomes true and He is God.

Logically speaking, the canonized Gospels of the Bible seem to validate themselves with the facts.  The Gospels that we read in scripture were written between 40 and 60 years after the death of Jesus.  Paul's letters were written just 15-25 years after the death of Jesus.  The fact that these books and letters themselves were not immediately shut down gives us a lot of information.  The timing of these books tells us that they were too early to be legends.  In Luke 1:1-4, the author says that the following is a narrative from eyewitnesses.  In Mark 15:21, Simon of Cyrene was compelled to physically carry the cross of Christ.  After his resurrection Christ appeared to 500 people.  These eyewitnesses and people just didn't disappear.  People would have questioned them about these events and if they were untrue the story of Jesus' resurrection would have died out immediately.

The belief that the Bible is fictional writing can be debunked by comparing it to fictional writing of its time.  The details in scripture were unheard of for fictional writing of that time period.  Writing of that time consisted only of things necessary to develop the plot or the characters.  Things such as the cushion Jesus was sleeping on in Mark 4, the 153 fish caught in John 21, and Jesus doodling in the dust in John 8 would have not been included in fictional writing at that time.

One of my favorite arguments against the Gospels being fictional or figurative is the fact that if this is all made up to "rally" people into Christianity, the writers did not hit their mark at all.  Why would the risen Christ appear first to women instead of male pillars in the community?  The prayers of Jesus in Gethsemane and feeling abandoned on the cross would lead readers to believe that Jesus was weak and failing His God.  The story of the crucifixion would immediately lead readers to believe the crucified man to be a criminal.  If the story of Christ is a fictional work, these writers had not learned the art of persuasive writing.

The fact that the history of this man named Jesus has made it to us today seems to prove itself worthy of its message.  The tomb was empty and people saw it.  No one has been able to prove these people wrong.  When all is said and done, faith is based on faith. While Christianity does take faith, we can definitely use  evidence that leads us to a rational faith.

This is a hot topic for skeptics and there will be another post to come soon about how we know the Bible are the actual words of God.

Honey, can we put the top down?

A few days ago I saw the perfect image of what it looks like to have a selfish relationship.  I laughed to myself at the time and then decided it would be a great post.  Specifically, I am going to write this about marriage, but it will apply in most areas to other relationships as well.

I was driving home from working a weekend at camp and as I am coming around a turn there is an old Mercedes-Benz convertible sports car approaching me.  As the car gets closer, I can't help but notice the sheer enjoyment on the driver's face.  He is a middle-aged man who is obviously in love with his car.  But when you paired the car up with a nice day, top down, hand out the window, this guy was wearing a smile like the Kool-Aid Man.

In the passenger seat, however, sat another story.  In the passenger seat sat a girlfriend or wife who was not enjoying the scene quite so much.  She was hunched over close to the dash with one hand deflecting the wind from her eyes and the other on top of her head holding her hair in place.  I could tell as we passed at 40 mph that there was a lot of tension in that car.  By the unhappy face the woman was making, it was easy to tell that she was bothered while the man seemed to be on top of the world.

As I continued home, I began to think about some of the selfish things that I do that puts distance between me and my wife.  I can make excuses about it being my human nature to look out for myself first.  I have become really good at explaining myself away to the point of seeming correct (so my wife tells me).  After all is said and done, what we are really telling someone when we are selfish is that we are more important than they are.

A relationship is oftentimes like a game of tug of war.  Husband and wife pick up opposing sides and begin pulling in their own direction.  They pull and pull hoping to topple the opposition.  While some of the pulling is done intentionally some is done subconsciously.  The goal seems to be to get the middle of the rope outside of the playing boundaries in favor of your side.

Tug of war is a great illustration for relationships.  The goal of the game however, needs to be slightly adjusted.  Instead of trying to pull the other team over and "win" the game (believe me, this is not winning in marriage) our goal should be to keep enough tension in the rope to keep the other team from falling over while you both work together to keep the middle of the rope within the playing boundaries.

Selfishness is an ugly thing and the deeper a relationship gets the uglier and more evident selfishness becomes.  What about selfishness in your relationship with Christ?  Are you trying to play tug of war with an Almighty God?  Thoughts to think on...