{Live Light}

At church this morning, pastor Adam Camp's messgae really spoke to me. I've been home from school for a week now. In a way, I really enjoy it. No school, no studying, no classes. But in another way it's strange. I had forgotten what it was like to be outside the "Belhaven bubble" of Christianity surrounding you at all times. In the classroom, in the studio, in the hallways, and in nearly every person you see. I've found myself getting very easily frustrated with people and society that doesn't point to Christ.

In America we have so much. We have houses that shelter us, and we have money to educate us. Most people in America are literate and have shoes to cover their feet as they walk. We have umbrellas to cover us when it's raining and we have the privilege of knowing the name of Christ. Most people outside of America around the world don't have any of these things. About half of the world has never even HEARD the name Jesus before, and yet if I went to every neighborhood in town and asked if people had at least heard the name Jesus probably everyone would have heard of Him before, even if they didn't believe.

"How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent?"
[Romans 10:14-15a, ESV]

Here are all of these people in the world who have never heard the name of Christ, and here we are in America calling ourselves Christians, yet all we want to do is send a check or pray for those who do go. Why don't we go ourselves? I'm not saying that every Christian has to move to a foreign country and become a missionary for a living. If that happened there would be no Christians left to be light for those in America. However, I feel that it is our part as Christians to make an effort at least once to help our brothers and sisters in other countries and/or to be the light to those in the darkness in other countries. I've never had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to another country. I really hope to soon though, today I'm starting to pray that God provide an opportunity and funds for one maybe next summer.

But we are also called to be witness to those around us all the time here in our own country. Though most people here have at least heard the name of Christ, a majority still don't BELIEVE. It's our job as we have been called by God to live and preach the gospel to these people as well. Many people here have gotten a false impression of Christianity by televangelists and holier-than-thou hypocrites within the church. Let's go out and be a true interpretation of what God says a Christian should live like in His word to the world around us.

"...As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"
[Romans 10:15b, ESV]

{Bumfuzzlement}

There are some moments (well, a lot of moments) that I become completely bumfuzzled about something that God shows me. Today was one of those days. I was reading in 1 Peter and I came across verse 8 in chapter 1.

"Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory."

At first, that verse did not really make me think twice. There are similar phrases to that in other passages throughout scripture:

"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us." [1 John 4:12, ESV]

"...For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." [1 John 4:20, ESV]

However, I thought about it for a few minutes and my thoughts began to jumble. The majority of the world, myself included, thinks of the physical stuff when they think of love. Yes, they might think of good conversation, plenty of laughter, or someone who thinks similarly, but ultimately the physical crosses the mind. A long hug, holding hands, kissing, and sex. It's natural, and it's part of what earthly love and the relationship of marriage means, but God never mentions the physical in regards to His loving us. In fact there are several verses, as I've pointed out, that remind us that we cannot even see God, much less touch Him. The only physical act of love that Christ did for us what His death on the cross. Yet in regards to the physical between human beings there is a ton in the Bible. Hosea, Song of Solomon, Paul's talk about marriage in 1 Corinthians 7, and there are a number more. Sexual immorality is discussed as a major sin throughout the New Testament, and it is surely a major sin today as well. Why then, if God knew that it was going to be such a temptation and means of sinfulness did He create the physical aspect of love for us as humans? God is perfect love and we do not have that means of physical contact with Him. Why then do we have it in our earthly love relationships? I do not have the answer. That is why my thoughts are so jumbled. It hit me as one of those things I will never truly understand until I see God face to face.