knowledgeofgoodandevil

Christianity is practical. It really is. Some people think God is some kind of big killjoy in the sky who doesn’t want us to have any fun. But that’s not Christianity at all.

First of all, God’s commandments for our lives, are for our good. He says not to do certain things, because in the long run, they’ll hurt us. It’s not because he doesn’t want us to have any fun. He wants us to enjoy life in the best way possible.

Take sex, for instance. For those of you half awake while reading this, I got your attention now, didn’t I? God says not to have sex with multiple people. He says to only have sex within in the bounds of marriage with one person and only that one person you are married to. Why? Well, because, the world certainly won’t tell you this, but sex within the bounds of marriage is completely satisfying. I just read in article that said sex is like spiritual superglue. Once you have sex for the first time, it’s like you are glued (spiritually speaking) to that one person. So if you are having sex with many people, you are, in a sense, gluing yourself to all these different people. Ever try and separate two pieces of paper that have been glued together? Once it’s dried, you can’t take them apart without ripping the two pieces to shreds. It’s impossible to keep them whole and separate them. God doesn’t want us to experience the pain of multiple sex partners. He wants us to enjoy sex. And the only way to do that, is to follow the guidelines God gives us.

Sex before marriage runs the risk of creating children. That’s one of the reasons for having sex. It’s not the only reason, but one of the reasons. If a couple have sex within the boundaries of a marriage, the children that are born, come as a welcome blessing. Outside of marriage, pregnancies invoke sheer panic and dread. What will the mother do? Can she raise a child by herself? How will she support the child? What will people think? What can she do? Single mothers are at far greater risk to be poor, and have juvenile delinquents. Just look at the elephants. Within the bounds of marriage, the baby comes, and there are two parents in place to raise the child.

Homosexuality is forbidden by God. Why? Because God is prudish and narrow minded? Absolutely not! God is the designer of us. He knows what works. He designed us, so we can propagate and have more little humans. More little humans, create a family. Families create a society. Societies create countries. Despite what the liberal, cultural loons say, men and men cannot bear children, nor can women and women. God told the first humans to “be fruitful and multiply.” That’s how you grow a population. I just read that if Japan continues as it is, it won’t be much of a country in two generations. Right now, Japanese men are not getting married, and not having children. They’re not even doing it backwards. A majority of them are not having sex, period. So if it continues like this, the population of Japan will be so slight, within two generations. But I digress, homosexuality doesn’t work. I’m not saying the Japanese men are homosexual. I’m just saying, homosexuality cannot produce children. It’s like not having sex.

I could go on and on. There are reasons for God’s rules. They are for our benefit. They are for the good of all. God loves us. God created us. When you want to know how something works, you go to the designer and get the exact details on how it works. So if we want to know how to live this life, go to the creator. He knows exactly how it’s all supposed to work because He created us and this world. So it’s not because He’s a killjoy. God’s rules are practical because He wants us to enjoy life in the best way possible.

You may have read my story about working in a group home. I worked there for four months. It was the worst job I ever had. Within the short four months I worked there, I had built up resentment of the kids and of the system. These kids were in a bad, bad place. I knew it and some of them knew it.

I was a recent graduate from college, and this was my first job. Yay! It made me feel so happy I bothered getting a degree from college. This was what I was educated to do, supervise emotionally and physically abused teenagers who had been taken from their homes.

My nickname from the kids was the f**king b*t*h! Yep that’s what they called me because I enforced the rules on the kids. That was the only thing I could do.

My resentment towards the job, grew and grew, day by day. I remember one incident when one of the girls kicked in a door. It was a double paneled door, so when she kicked it in, her foot got caught on the hole she just created, and fell, splat, on her bottom. She lay there on the floor, with her leg up in the door screaming for someone to come help her. My supervisor, myself and another counselor stood at the end of the hall watching her bellow. We weren’t allowed to touch the kids, so in our deep resentment towards the job, we just watched the girl bellow louder and louder. “Can’t touch her,” we said to each other. “Nope, can’t touch her.” She began hollering obscenities, until my supervisor asked her if she was going to calm down. If she would calm down, we would assist her in pulling her foot out of the hole she just created, in the door.

I think we all experienced a sense of revenge, watching the girl scream all the horrible words she could think of with her foot hanging up in the door.

As a Christian, I knew, there was only one thing these kids needed. We didn’t need to tell them to feel good about themselves. We didn’t need to listen to their problems for hours on end, hoping to relieve them of their horrible pasts. They didn’t need to be placated or allowed to do whatever they felt they wanted to do, because their home lives had been so bad. That was one theory held by some of the counselors I worked with-let the kids do whatever they pleased, because their home lives had been so bad. That’s how I earned my nick name, because I believed that wouldn’t do them a bit of good. I believed the very least we could do for them, was to enforce the rules, for their own safety and for the safety of the other kids. So I stood as a stark contrast to the counselors who believed anything should go, these kids have had a tough life.

Last night I got to hear the exact viewpoint I have believed about kids with these backgrounds. A friend, invited my husband and I to a Camp Alandale charity event. Camp Alandale, takes the kids, like I used to work with, to camp, for a week. And as they said, “They pour truth into these kids.” They give the kids the gospel, they give these kids Jesus, the ONLY solution to their problems.

I heard several testimonies from people who had gone to the camps. They came from horrible pasts. Many of them had been sexually abused, physically abused or both. They were emotionally damaged. But the beauty of this camp wasn’t to give the kids a good time, make them feel good about themselves, and then pat them on the head and send the on their way. No, this camp gave them Jesus. The only answer to these kids desperate lives. The only solution to the unimaginable heartache and pain they have suffered. I cried through these stories. That’s what those kids in the group home I worked at, needed. But because it was a state funded operation, God could not be mentioned.

But Camp Alandale offers the solution to these kids. I heard a story of a sexually abused boy who was catatonic. He never said a word the whole week at camp, until the last day. On the last day, he stood up and said the men who abused him said they loved him, but he knew that wasn’t love. He said he knew what real love was now and that was his Savior, Jesus Christ.

I am thankful to my friend who invited me to see that there is hope for physically and sexually abused kids. It’s the only hope. And Camp Alandale is doing a fine job in creating for kids a camp experience, and “pouring truth” truth into these kids. It was really good for me to see and hear about Camp Alandale.

A week ago, a madman broke out his hotel window and began shooting down at 22,000 people attending a country music concert. The news has announced that 58 people are dead, and 489 people have been wounded.

I was like most people, I didn’t find out about the shooting until the next morning.  I saw on tv, the aftermath and the carnage.

The enormity of the situation, fills me with fear. Where is anyone safe? I kept looking at the hotel and the distance between it and the venue, where the concert was held. It seemed so far away. And the shooter was up on the 32 floor of the hotel. How could he cause so much damage being so far away? How could he kill and wound that many people from so far away?

I’ve seen clips of the people on the left, now demanding gun control. I’ve seen the late night talk show hosts, crying and basically, condemning anyone who doesn’t believe gun control would have stopped this from happening.

There are the questions. Why did this happen? How can men be so evil? There are the questions families are asking, who lost loved ones. They are suffering unimaginable pain.

I don’t presume to have answers. The man who did this, was evil. He was pure evil. People need to acknowledge this: there is evil in this world. Evil exists. And if evil exists, doesn’t there have to be an answer to evil? Shouldn’t there be an opposite force, power, God, that counters evil?

I watched a clip of a young guy who was being interviewed about the massacre. He related what he had seen and experienced. Towards the end of the clip, he said he was agnostic going into the concert. And now, he believes in God. He said he was spared for a reason. Someone had saved his life, and he believed it was God.

The existence of evil demands for the existence of God. Evil cannot exist in a vacuum. There has to be an answer to evil. And there is.

Christianity is often blamed for being too religious, too wimpy or too judgey for most people’s tastes. But that’s not who we are. True believers are not too religious, wimpy or judgey. True believers have accepted the fact of evil. We know it exists. Then true believers accept the antidote for evil. We look within ourselves and realize, we got nothing. We have no righteousness to offer. So we have looked outside of ourselves and accepted the true antidote for evil, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was God in human flesh, come to save the world from evil. Jesus Christ was sinless. He died and rose again. And anyone, who accepts Him as their Savior, is saved. They become a Christian.

True believers are far from perfect. We fail. We sin. But through it all, we have made peace with our Creator. We’ve acknowledged the evil in this world and our own sin.

I have to give credit where credit is due. My brilliant husband said, “We don’t need gun control, we need God in control.” And that’s exactly right. Evil exists in this world and it’s not going to go away. Unfortunately, more evil acts will take place in the future. And no gun control laws can prevent them from happening or fix the evil. There is only one solution to evil and that is Jesus Christ – God in control of our lives.

And just so were clear, Christianity is the real deal. It’s the real antidote to evil. But Christianity isn’t living a good life, or going to church, or not smoking or cussing. Christianity is having a real relationship with Jesus Christ. And if you don’t know how to become a true Christian, contact me, I’d love to talk to you.

I know a story that I’ve heard. I think it’s a true story. It’s a good story, so it bears repeating.

An old missionary couple were returning, on a ship, from a life spent in missionary work. They were old and tired. They had spent their whole life in the field, serving God, and now it was time to go home. While, on the ship, there was a famous passenger aboard, with them. It was Teddy Roosevelt, the President of the United States, coming home from an African Safari, trip. There was much celebration on board, for the President. No one noticed the old missionary couple. No one celebrated them and all their years of service for God. When the ship landed, a ticker tape parade was thrown in honor of the president returning home. The old missionary couple quietly left the ship and went to an old apartment building which would be their new home. The old missionary became upset when they arrived to their new home. “How come nobody celebrated us?” he asked his wife. “How come nobody celebrated us coming home?” “That’s not fair! We’ve spent years serving God and we don’t get a parade!” The missionary’s wife calmly told him he needed to take up the matter with God. Ask God those questions she told him. So he did. He went into the tiny, dusty bedroom and prayed. An hour or so, he came out, cheerful. He was a different man! His wife commented on this and asked him what the change was. The missionary responded, “I asked God why we didn’t get a parade.” His wife, eager to know the answer said, “And?” And the missionary turned to his wife and said, “We’re not home yet.”

For the believer, we often forget, we aren’t home yet. Earth is not our home or our final destination (thankfully!!!) When the world and all it’s cares bog us down, don’t forget, we’re not home yet. When your boss treats you like crap. When you see people around you getting rewards for all kinds of things, just remember, we’re not home yet. Our time will come, when we die. Like my mom always says, “Death for the Christian is just a promotion.” That’s when the good stuff happens. That’s where we get rewards. That’s where we go, where ‘neither moth or rust destroy.’

And boy does time seem to fly. I’m a middle aged woman with one teenager and another that’s about to turn twenty. I can’t be middle aged, but I am. I can’t be a mother to almost grown adults, but when I see the size 12 shoes sitting by the door, I’m reminded that I am. When my 6′ 3″ son thunders through the house, I realize this boy’s almost grown. Just yesterday, he had chubby little legs and a high squeaky voice. I couldn’t tell the difference between my son’s voice or daughter’s voice on the phone. They both sounded the same. Not anymore.

Matthew 6:20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”

So take heart, dear Christian. When you feel frustrated with this whole world, remember, you’re aren’t home yet. Just wait. It’s gonna get good. And it’s gonna go by really fast.

Psalm 103:15 “As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.”

We all want to be happy, don’t we? Isn’t that what people pursue, through whatever means possible? People drink, take drugs, get rich, have sex, do dare devil stunts, or eat too many marshmallows. They’re all looking for the thrill, the rush to be happy. Walk into any bookstore and you can find a wall full of books on how to find happiness. Pick up the one about eating a lot of marshmallows, that’s my favorite. To quote Dr. Phil, “How’s that working out for us?”

Well we have AA for the drinkers. We have scores of rehab places for the druggies. There’s gamblers anonymous for the peeps looking to get rich quick. There are hospitals and graveyards for the dare devils. And we have Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig for the ones who eat too many marshmallows. Jim Carrey, the comedian, is quoted as saying, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

So if those things are not the answer, what is. Well I think you know where I’m going with this. God is the answer. More specifically, a relationship with Jesus Christ is the answer. Most of you are saying, “I know that already.” I know you do.

The reason I’m telling you all this, is that I want you to see a movie that is coming out on Sept. 28, this Thursday. It’s a biography about a guy who had it all: fame, riches, women, yet had nothing. But then he found Jesus, and it changed everything. This guy was Steve McQueen. You may have heard of him. He was a Hollywood movie star. He was called the “King of Cool.” Greg Laurie has written a book about Steve McQueen and his conversion to Christianity. He’s now made it into a movie that’s showing only one night and it’s this Thursday at select theaters.

I want you to go see the movie. I want you to have your own faith encouraged. This is a one night event. Go see it. Here’s the link:

http://www.stevemcqueenmovie.com/