This group is most definitely not Christian in any way, shape or form. I don't personally listen to them (to be honest, I detest thier lyrics and what they stand for), but I've heard them referenced plenty and knew they had some opinions about Christianity and religion as a whole in their songs, so I looked some up for the purpose of writing this. I cannot in any way, shape or form recommend this band to anyone, and even just reading their lyrics can be very, very trying. If you want to read this full song, it does happen to be one of their very few that contains no profanity. It's called "Praise The Lord (Opium Of The Masses)" by Dying Fetus. I'll have various quotes from the lyrics throughout this to show my points and suchnot.
"Organization means dilution, and results in persecution. Through it all I keep a vision, understand what I believe in." -- To me, this speaks of how we who are in chuch all the time (and even more so those of us who grew up there as well) often grow numb to the things of God. We allow ourselves to fall into a cycle of going to church and doing certain "good, Christian" with no real motivation. We allow our former desire and right motives completely fade away to be replaced by fireless obligation. Our fervor for the faith disappears, in some cases almost entirely and faith becomes just something we throw on with the suit on Sunday mornings as we go through our normal once a week "God routine".
This quickly turns into focusing on personal biases about subjects that don't matter much (or at all) in the overall, spiritual scheme of things. We then take these biases to extremes and condemn people left and right for not aligning with the way WE believe things should be. For issues that are not fundamental to Christianity at its core, this is entirely wrong. True, condemnation/loathing of sinful actions is necessary, but when it lies in a spiritual "gray area" it doesn't need to be given so much focus. We must extend the love of Christ to non-believers while balancing that with showing them how they are wrong and sinful from the Bible's perspective. It's a delicate balance--one that, when tipped to far in either direction, can change a person's eternal destiny.
When our focus for the insignificant things becomes such that it leads to us shunning or despising people over our personal biases, we drive people away from Christianity and they think that to become a better, righteous person they would do good to avoid us and Christianity all together and stick to their own personal belief system.
"God cannot be mass-projected, or beaten out through forced confessions.
It’s for all of us to ponder, not for dogma’s chains to hold us down." -- Christianity cannot be forced on someone. If that happens then it is not real Christianity or true faith. Too often we try to shove our beliefs and systems down people's throats and this drives them away from Christianity. Yes, in some instances it is the person being told that makes themselves feel this way, but in alot of cases it is truly the fault of the believer. We have to learn to be blunt when needed, but ever-tactful. If the person does not want to accept Christ, you cannot force them into it.
"Just beat them back till they are gone, ‘cause their doctrines lead to misery" -- Our doctrines lead to misery. This stems from the numerous Christians who gripe and complain about the difficulty of the Christian life. They allow the sin of the world ruin them emotionally, or complain about how their faith costs them friendships or any number of things. They let their worry for the unsaved run so rampant that it borders on depression (This isn't to say that we should not be concerned for the salvation of the unsaved, but we aren't supposed to worry. We need to take it to God. Let it break us into praying more fervently for them, yes, but don't let it break us so that others can't see the joy of Christ in us). When we allow faith-related issues to seem to cause so much pain to us that the pain overshadows the joy were are supposed to have, those on the outside of Christianity look at it and see only the source of pain and stress and depressiong, and no one would want to willingly subject themselves to that. We are to be concerned with these problems, yes, but the joy we get from Christ should outshine these concerns by far.
"The church is the reason why they’ve lost their way, Crusades and Inquisitions, holy wars, Jihad,they are the willing victims of a grand facade." -- In part, this references the perversions of Christianity, like the Inquisitions, that became something very far from what Christianity is supposed to be, but that's not what I want to cover here. Look at the first and last parts of the quote: "The church is the reason why they’ve lost their way...they are the willing victims of a grand facade." This one goes back to the "organization means dilution" point. We allow our faith to become a check the block exercise, become overconcerned with personal biases, and convince ourselves that our faith is the source of our problems--in doing this we show to the world that Christianity ruins us, which is not true! However, too often we allow this to happen, almost as if we're unconcerned about the effect it is having on people's souls, because we know that to correct our errors would mean true faith and devotion to Christ on our part, and we have too many things we want to hold onto that we allow to prevent us from going anywhere real and useful with our supposed belief and faith in Jesus Christ.
---
5.06.2009
10.23.2008
Back? Perhaps.
It just recently occurred to me that I still have this thing and don't do a ton with it. I'm thinking about trying to get back into posting more often, I'm aiming for once a week, at least, and most of those will probably be about a song or a portion of a song's lyrics and what I think of them, or other such stuff as that, I suppose. Who knows? I'm not really gonna nail down specifically what I'm giong to talk about cause I'd prefer not to limit myself in that respect, but I do intend on using this again.
8.06.2008
Spit on God and Stomp on the Bible
Gotta love how oh so many of us do this day in and day out and think we're ok. Isn't it beautiful? We're so high and mighty, because we know, we just know that we're a good Christ-like person, living a holy and near-perfect life as we hold that one little pet sin back. We say "God, you can have all of me, except this; I still want my temper, I still want my porn, I still want my hate, I still want to be judgmental, I still want my lying, I still want my stealing, I still want my envy, I still want to lead a double life, I still want ____ ((fill it in with whatever you keep holding back, cause you know danged well what it is)). I just don't get why God couldn't be blessed and honored by all of this? I mean, we're giving Him OUR absolute best, aren't we? Indeed we are, to bad if we're giving Him OUR best that WE scrounged up OURSELVES then we might as well use His feet as our toilet, since OUR "best" is about as repulsive. Way to go, you're crapping on God for all your worth.
"I once was blind, but now I just look away." - That's a line from As Cities Burn's song 'Thus From My Lips, By Yours, My Sin Is Purged'. Think about it for a minute. You used to be blind, lost in your sin, unsaved and hopeless, but God saw fit to call you to Him and save you and give you eternal life. So now you're no longer blind to God and spiritual things, instead, you just turn your head and stare away from where He wants you to go and what He has for you. You're "caught by the drift and pitch of whatever it is that keeps me coming back" ((another line from that ACB song)); You're living Demon Hunter's song "Coffin Builder" ((lyrics here: http://www.metrolyrics.com/coffin-builder-lyrics-demon-hunter.html)) You may want the victory over that one sin that beats you down and tears you apart day after day after day, no matter how much you love it; you might honestly want to be past it more than everything, so you try your hardest to get past it, you say "God, this time I'm going to get past it, this time I'll have the victory."
Woah woah, hold up there. That's the problem. This time "I'm" going to get past it, this time "I'll" have the victory. Phil 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me," but the inverse is also true, "I can do nothing through myself." If you think for even a moment that YOU can overcome this sin, you will fail. If you don't come crying to God and believe that only He can give you the strength you must have to get past the sin that weighs you down so that you can truly serve Him, then there's no point in trying to get past it. God is the ONLY way you'll get victory.
Why do we say we're holy and that we serve God when we're turning our heads from his direction every other minute? Why do we insist that we believe when virtually nothing we do serves to indicate that? If we're not going to listen to God and seek strength from Him to overcome these things, then we have no reason at all to even say that we're a Christian and might as well go become atheists. Got your 'Get Out Of Hell Free' card? Good for you, but you might wanna check and make sure you didn't just scribble some meaningless words on a piece of paper ((i.e., there's no prayer that saves you, it's faith and trust in the One True God that will grant you salvation, and even that faith and trust is only through Him [that's in a verse somewhere, "for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves...", sorry I don't know the reference right now.)).
I apologize for the crudeness to follow in this analogy, but I believe it's a fitting representation of how alot of us ((including myself, through this whole thing I've been screaming these things at myself as well; I don't even try to pretend that I'm anything better than anyone else, I know I'm just as horrible)) live our lives.
You have the most amazing spouse in the world. They are perfect--not a thing in them that is anything less. Having sex with them is both right and glorious to God in your marriage with them, and he/she wants that intimacy with you all the time. But, instead of that, you decide to walk down to the street corner and buy yourself a mud-caked, filthy, rotten prostitute to gain pleasure instead. And, notice this, you paid for that filth. Your spouse was free and would give you nothing but pleasure, but the pleasure you chose instead always has a price, and could very well have planted problems that will plague you for the rest of your days. Sounds like you've really messed up right? Well, get this, you do this day in and day out over and over.
That's what we do to God. We have the promise of amazing blessings beyond anything we could comprehend in Heaven one day; He's given us everything and will always be everything we ever need, yet we turn to our ugly, filthy sin and get ourselves involved with it again and again and again. And that sin ALWAYS comes with a price; sometimes it might take that price a little longer to surface, but it's still always there.
Honestly. We're pathetic; there's few, if any of us ((us being those who claim to be Christians)) that live how we should. There's no point or reason to holding on to these pet sins we like to keep for our pleasure. We're supposed to be new creatures; let God burn down all you were and walk away from it; stay close to God and you'll be too infatuated with His Awesomeness to think to turn back. You were once blind, but He healed your eyes, so look to Him instead of looking the other way.
"I once was blind, but now I just look away." - That's a line from As Cities Burn's song 'Thus From My Lips, By Yours, My Sin Is Purged'. Think about it for a minute. You used to be blind, lost in your sin, unsaved and hopeless, but God saw fit to call you to Him and save you and give you eternal life. So now you're no longer blind to God and spiritual things, instead, you just turn your head and stare away from where He wants you to go and what He has for you. You're "caught by the drift and pitch of whatever it is that keeps me coming back" ((another line from that ACB song)); You're living Demon Hunter's song "Coffin Builder" ((lyrics here: http://www.metrolyrics.com/coffin-builder-lyrics-demon-hunter.html)) You may want the victory over that one sin that beats you down and tears you apart day after day after day, no matter how much you love it; you might honestly want to be past it more than everything, so you try your hardest to get past it, you say "God, this time I'm going to get past it, this time I'll have the victory."
Woah woah, hold up there. That's the problem. This time "I'm" going to get past it, this time "I'll" have the victory. Phil 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me," but the inverse is also true, "I can do nothing through myself." If you think for even a moment that YOU can overcome this sin, you will fail. If you don't come crying to God and believe that only He can give you the strength you must have to get past the sin that weighs you down so that you can truly serve Him, then there's no point in trying to get past it. God is the ONLY way you'll get victory.
Why do we say we're holy and that we serve God when we're turning our heads from his direction every other minute? Why do we insist that we believe when virtually nothing we do serves to indicate that? If we're not going to listen to God and seek strength from Him to overcome these things, then we have no reason at all to even say that we're a Christian and might as well go become atheists. Got your 'Get Out Of Hell Free' card? Good for you, but you might wanna check and make sure you didn't just scribble some meaningless words on a piece of paper ((i.e., there's no prayer that saves you, it's faith and trust in the One True God that will grant you salvation, and even that faith and trust is only through Him [that's in a verse somewhere, "for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves...", sorry I don't know the reference right now.)).
I apologize for the crudeness to follow in this analogy, but I believe it's a fitting representation of how alot of us ((including myself, through this whole thing I've been screaming these things at myself as well; I don't even try to pretend that I'm anything better than anyone else, I know I'm just as horrible)) live our lives.
You have the most amazing spouse in the world. They are perfect--not a thing in them that is anything less. Having sex with them is both right and glorious to God in your marriage with them, and he/she wants that intimacy with you all the time. But, instead of that, you decide to walk down to the street corner and buy yourself a mud-caked, filthy, rotten prostitute to gain pleasure instead. And, notice this, you paid for that filth. Your spouse was free and would give you nothing but pleasure, but the pleasure you chose instead always has a price, and could very well have planted problems that will plague you for the rest of your days. Sounds like you've really messed up right? Well, get this, you do this day in and day out over and over.
That's what we do to God. We have the promise of amazing blessings beyond anything we could comprehend in Heaven one day; He's given us everything and will always be everything we ever need, yet we turn to our ugly, filthy sin and get ourselves involved with it again and again and again. And that sin ALWAYS comes with a price; sometimes it might take that price a little longer to surface, but it's still always there.
Honestly. We're pathetic; there's few, if any of us ((us being those who claim to be Christians)) that live how we should. There's no point or reason to holding on to these pet sins we like to keep for our pleasure. We're supposed to be new creatures; let God burn down all you were and walk away from it; stay close to God and you'll be too infatuated with His Awesomeness to think to turn back. You were once blind, but He healed your eyes, so look to Him instead of looking the other way.
5.28.2008
Patience and Composure
At what point does the philosophy of remaining polite towards people who consistently try your nerves need to be thrown out so that you can replace your focus where it should be?
They pester you on a consistent basis, so you do your best to remain polite towards them, even though you don't particularly like them. Then, it comes church time, and they continue to try and talk to you throughout the entire service. You're presented with a few options.
1.) Remain patient and polite with them, perhaps smile and nod and absentmindedly respond, but in reality paying them as little heed as possible and trying to focus on the message.
2.) Meet whatever they say/do with a stoic and impassive demeanor, giving no reaction to anything. Keep a hard focus on the speaker, and hope they pick up on the hint that you really don't want to listen to whatever they're trying to tell you.
3.) Break your focus, and possible that of those around you, by telling them to be quiet so you can hear; should the problem persist, do you get harsher until they get the point?
True, you might say that if the same person does this consistently, you should find a different place to sit the next time. However, in a room that's not nearly full and with a person that will follow you wherever you go even if you ignore them entirely, that doesn't work. If you never want to be around them in the first place, and they're not even the right type of person to be hanging out with anyways, but you can't seem to stay away from them due to their following you and insisting on hanging out with you, then what, pray tell, can one do?
I say, deal or die. And dying, while it would solve the problem, isn't really the best of choices.
They pester you on a consistent basis, so you do your best to remain polite towards them, even though you don't particularly like them. Then, it comes church time, and they continue to try and talk to you throughout the entire service. You're presented with a few options.
1.) Remain patient and polite with them, perhaps smile and nod and absentmindedly respond, but in reality paying them as little heed as possible and trying to focus on the message.
2.) Meet whatever they say/do with a stoic and impassive demeanor, giving no reaction to anything. Keep a hard focus on the speaker, and hope they pick up on the hint that you really don't want to listen to whatever they're trying to tell you.
3.) Break your focus, and possible that of those around you, by telling them to be quiet so you can hear; should the problem persist, do you get harsher until they get the point?
True, you might say that if the same person does this consistently, you should find a different place to sit the next time. However, in a room that's not nearly full and with a person that will follow you wherever you go even if you ignore them entirely, that doesn't work. If you never want to be around them in the first place, and they're not even the right type of person to be hanging out with anyways, but you can't seem to stay away from them due to their following you and insisting on hanging out with you, then what, pray tell, can one do?
I say, deal or die. And dying, while it would solve the problem, isn't really the best of choices.
1.27.2008
Friendship
My best friend, who now lives out of state, was visiting for the weekend recently, and since then, due to both his presence, some conversations of that weekend, and other prior conversations w/ various people that I've had recently, this is something I've been working through a bit in my head as of late.
Throughout this post, please keep in mind that, high school being my main place of experience with this, a lot of what I refer to is with that in mind, I'm not sure how much that will actually noticeably affect this, but just in case, that's where I'd expect my views to be placed.
Friendship is something that the vast majority of us depend on to get us through the day, at least to some extent, but I'm sure there are plenty of us who take various friendships we have for granted, which can lead to some painful situations if you're not careful.
We're all probably quite familiar with having acquaintances, those people whose names we know that we may see frequently, but we never take the time to get to know them. The majority of people probably have a large amount of acquaintances, but there are very few within that number whom they will ever take the time to get to know well enough to consider them a true friend. If our acquaintances come and go, we normally aren't affected very much. We may feel a slight disappointment at not having taken the time to get to know them better, but all in all, we can move on very quickly as that classmate or coworker we never spent much time with moves on to another place in their life. Occasionally, we'll call upon an acquaintance for a small favor, help with a little problem, a ride home due to car trouble, etc., but the majority of the time no words are exchanged aside from the occasional greeting or brief small talk when your paths coincide.
A step above this is the casual friendship, which may not be very much more than an acquaintance was, to be honest. You may know a bit more about the person and converse with them more due to being nearer to them more often, but in the end, if something were to happen and this friendship had to be ended, it wouldn't be unbearable and you could easily ((depending on what kind of person you are, I suppose)) move on. Again though, this type of friendship isn't really going to have much strength to it in most cases, but it does have much more potential to become a stronger friendship than does a mere acquaintance.
From here we move on to those people whom you would most likely be referring to if you used the phrase "my friends". They're the people you hang out with, share more common interests with, and all in all you take a larger interest in what's going on in their personal life, whereas with the previous two examples you may know very little about their personal or home life at all. Losing one of these people is almost always a pain, but depending on the circumstances it can be easy to deal with, especially with modern day's simple and quick communication via email and cell phones and whatnot.
Among your group of friends, there will almost always be those special few people with whom you have the strongest bonds, your "best friends". In my personal experience, I've divided this group into two parts, but we'll get to that momentarily. It is with your best friends that you share more of your personal struggles and pains with, and expect them to be genuinely sympathetic to them. You're more likely to be "attached at the hip" with these people, and losing contact with them for only a few days can make you feel as if you've gone through a significant loss. To lose one of them entirely is detrimental in a lot of cases.
Now, moving onto more of what I actually intended to discuss in this post: the two separate groups of "best friends"--those you are tight with and those you are close to.
The first group are the ones that everyone will know are your friends. You're seen with them almost all the time, and they are the people that really know you and don't just know the you that most people see. They see the talker behind the taciturn, the wounded behind the smiles, and so on. You enjoy hanging out with them often, and they've probably seen you at your best and worst. You're all willing to go out of your way for each other, but are still good enough friends that you can just say 'no' to each other and have it not hurt anything. In my experience, these are the people I can be a complete idiot around; I'm probably more rude to them than anyone else, because they know I'm rarely serious with my insults towards them. Whereas most people would believe me to be a quiet, reserved person, which I often am, these people have seen me at my craziest points and know them well. At the lunch table, we're always together, and pretty much anywhere else. Most of us know out way around each others homes as if they were out own. We share myriads of memories and inside jokes that mean absolutely nothing to anyone else. Without these people, life would be so much more difficult to bear.
Your bonds with the people in the second group, however, may not be so salient. Oftentimes, the people you are closest too will be within your group of tight friends, but they can just as easily be someone else entirely. It is these people that you can say anything, no matter how deep or dark the secret, it's something you can tell them. They're the ones who know how you really feel about things, sometimes even before you do. While you will still have the more meaningless and mundane conversations, with these people the topics can shift to more serious things much more quickly, and will stay there long into the night. These conversations don't always have to be worded, however, and it's likely you can hear more from each other in the silences of what's left unsaid than in anything else. You're complete trust can lie with these people, not only in reference to secrets and the like, but with everything else as well. You trust them with not only your life, but with the lives of those you care most about as well, and, heaven forbid, you can trust them with the taking of your life as well. As much as it is possible, it would be fight together, die together, but should the worst arise, you can be confident that they will be able to do what's necessary. That may sound unusual to some of you, but I trust my closest friends like that, so that if I were to be about to do something horrible, or to harm someone that either or both of us cared deeply about, or anything else along these lines, I can be certain that they would have the strength and love to stop me, no matter the cost. Their devotion is to the friend, not to the friendship.
On the subject of that last sentence: this is an often unseen but important piece of a friendship, for when it comes down to the worst, this is what can drastically change the outcome of things. For example: let's say there are two friends, and one is about to make a decision in their life that will negatively affect them in a big way. The person who is dedicated to the friendship may express some disapproval of the decision, but ultimately will accept whatever their friend decides for the sake of maintaining their friendship. On the other hand, a person who is devoted to their friend will stop at no end to convince the one making the wrong decision to change their mind, even to the point on causing intense strife between the two of them. In the end, the friendship may be severely damaged, and perhaps will never fully recover, but the love between the friends, especially from the one not making the wrong decision, will likely remain.
In the latter of the types of friendships I've discussed, the friendship has become more of a relationship than anything. Where I draw the very blurry line is in the breaking down of the word relationship. Relationship is obviously close to the word relative, which indicates a connection through family or blood, which one would assume would make for a much tighter bond. It is when a friendship grows into a bond of this magnitude that I would then begin to call it a relationship instead. When a close relationship is formed with someone of the opposite gender, that is when you are likely to become more romantically attached to the person, although it does not mean that that has to happen.
All this being said, how necessary is friendship in the end? Most would say it is undeniably necessary, but I beg to differ. Despite the many benefits of it, as with anything else, there are downsides to friendships, especially close relationships, that may cause some to want to steer away from them.
Having good friendships and relationships makes getting through the rough times of life easier, since you then have others to lean on for support when you feel you can't go on, but in turn, you must be ready to support them through times just as bad if not far worse than what you have experienced yourself. For some people, the trials of supporting another may result in the supporter being brought down, sometimes dragging the one in need of support even farther down as well. This can be detrimental to the emotional, spiritual, and physical health of all that are involved. However, when close friendships are avoided, there is no call to support another in this manner, and thus, as long as you can withstand your trials without the aid of another person, you can be fine, but there are a select few who can do this without harsh penalty. When all is said and done, friendships of some sort probably are a necessity to life, but if that is incorrect, then they are at the very least a wondrous luxury.
Throughout this post, please keep in mind that, high school being my main place of experience with this, a lot of what I refer to is with that in mind, I'm not sure how much that will actually noticeably affect this, but just in case, that's where I'd expect my views to be placed.
Friendship is something that the vast majority of us depend on to get us through the day, at least to some extent, but I'm sure there are plenty of us who take various friendships we have for granted, which can lead to some painful situations if you're not careful.
We're all probably quite familiar with having acquaintances, those people whose names we know that we may see frequently, but we never take the time to get to know them. The majority of people probably have a large amount of acquaintances, but there are very few within that number whom they will ever take the time to get to know well enough to consider them a true friend. If our acquaintances come and go, we normally aren't affected very much. We may feel a slight disappointment at not having taken the time to get to know them better, but all in all, we can move on very quickly as that classmate or coworker we never spent much time with moves on to another place in their life. Occasionally, we'll call upon an acquaintance for a small favor, help with a little problem, a ride home due to car trouble, etc., but the majority of the time no words are exchanged aside from the occasional greeting or brief small talk when your paths coincide.
A step above this is the casual friendship, which may not be very much more than an acquaintance was, to be honest. You may know a bit more about the person and converse with them more due to being nearer to them more often, but in the end, if something were to happen and this friendship had to be ended, it wouldn't be unbearable and you could easily ((depending on what kind of person you are, I suppose)) move on. Again though, this type of friendship isn't really going to have much strength to it in most cases, but it does have much more potential to become a stronger friendship than does a mere acquaintance.
From here we move on to those people whom you would most likely be referring to if you used the phrase "my friends". They're the people you hang out with, share more common interests with, and all in all you take a larger interest in what's going on in their personal life, whereas with the previous two examples you may know very little about their personal or home life at all. Losing one of these people is almost always a pain, but depending on the circumstances it can be easy to deal with, especially with modern day's simple and quick communication via email and cell phones and whatnot.
Among your group of friends, there will almost always be those special few people with whom you have the strongest bonds, your "best friends". In my personal experience, I've divided this group into two parts, but we'll get to that momentarily. It is with your best friends that you share more of your personal struggles and pains with, and expect them to be genuinely sympathetic to them. You're more likely to be "attached at the hip" with these people, and losing contact with them for only a few days can make you feel as if you've gone through a significant loss. To lose one of them entirely is detrimental in a lot of cases.
Now, moving onto more of what I actually intended to discuss in this post: the two separate groups of "best friends"--those you are tight with and those you are close to.
The first group are the ones that everyone will know are your friends. You're seen with them almost all the time, and they are the people that really know you and don't just know the you that most people see. They see the talker behind the taciturn, the wounded behind the smiles, and so on. You enjoy hanging out with them often, and they've probably seen you at your best and worst. You're all willing to go out of your way for each other, but are still good enough friends that you can just say 'no' to each other and have it not hurt anything. In my experience, these are the people I can be a complete idiot around; I'm probably more rude to them than anyone else, because they know I'm rarely serious with my insults towards them. Whereas most people would believe me to be a quiet, reserved person, which I often am, these people have seen me at my craziest points and know them well. At the lunch table, we're always together, and pretty much anywhere else. Most of us know out way around each others homes as if they were out own. We share myriads of memories and inside jokes that mean absolutely nothing to anyone else. Without these people, life would be so much more difficult to bear.
Your bonds with the people in the second group, however, may not be so salient. Oftentimes, the people you are closest too will be within your group of tight friends, but they can just as easily be someone else entirely. It is these people that you can say anything, no matter how deep or dark the secret, it's something you can tell them. They're the ones who know how you really feel about things, sometimes even before you do. While you will still have the more meaningless and mundane conversations, with these people the topics can shift to more serious things much more quickly, and will stay there long into the night. These conversations don't always have to be worded, however, and it's likely you can hear more from each other in the silences of what's left unsaid than in anything else. You're complete trust can lie with these people, not only in reference to secrets and the like, but with everything else as well. You trust them with not only your life, but with the lives of those you care most about as well, and, heaven forbid, you can trust them with the taking of your life as well. As much as it is possible, it would be fight together, die together, but should the worst arise, you can be confident that they will be able to do what's necessary. That may sound unusual to some of you, but I trust my closest friends like that, so that if I were to be about to do something horrible, or to harm someone that either or both of us cared deeply about, or anything else along these lines, I can be certain that they would have the strength and love to stop me, no matter the cost. Their devotion is to the friend, not to the friendship.
On the subject of that last sentence: this is an often unseen but important piece of a friendship, for when it comes down to the worst, this is what can drastically change the outcome of things. For example: let's say there are two friends, and one is about to make a decision in their life that will negatively affect them in a big way. The person who is dedicated to the friendship may express some disapproval of the decision, but ultimately will accept whatever their friend decides for the sake of maintaining their friendship. On the other hand, a person who is devoted to their friend will stop at no end to convince the one making the wrong decision to change their mind, even to the point on causing intense strife between the two of them. In the end, the friendship may be severely damaged, and perhaps will never fully recover, but the love between the friends, especially from the one not making the wrong decision, will likely remain.
In the latter of the types of friendships I've discussed, the friendship has become more of a relationship than anything. Where I draw the very blurry line is in the breaking down of the word relationship. Relationship is obviously close to the word relative, which indicates a connection through family or blood, which one would assume would make for a much tighter bond. It is when a friendship grows into a bond of this magnitude that I would then begin to call it a relationship instead. When a close relationship is formed with someone of the opposite gender, that is when you are likely to become more romantically attached to the person, although it does not mean that that has to happen.
All this being said, how necessary is friendship in the end? Most would say it is undeniably necessary, but I beg to differ. Despite the many benefits of it, as with anything else, there are downsides to friendships, especially close relationships, that may cause some to want to steer away from them.
Having good friendships and relationships makes getting through the rough times of life easier, since you then have others to lean on for support when you feel you can't go on, but in turn, you must be ready to support them through times just as bad if not far worse than what you have experienced yourself. For some people, the trials of supporting another may result in the supporter being brought down, sometimes dragging the one in need of support even farther down as well. This can be detrimental to the emotional, spiritual, and physical health of all that are involved. However, when close friendships are avoided, there is no call to support another in this manner, and thus, as long as you can withstand your trials without the aid of another person, you can be fine, but there are a select few who can do this without harsh penalty. When all is said and done, friendships of some sort probably are a necessity to life, but if that is incorrect, then they are at the very least a wondrous luxury.
1.01.2008
Dating
This is a topic that tends to come to my mind with some frequency; more frequently than I enjoy, honestly. I've wavered, or more accurately, am constantly wavering, about whether dating at this point in my life is worth the time. It has its pros and cons, that's for sure; it's just that the risks seem to outweigh whatever benefits there are at times. I don't see anything wrong with it, so I condemn neither the person who does or does not date at this point in their life, I personally just don't know if it's worth the bother for me.
One of the greatest risks I can see in dating is what it could do to a friendship. If two good friends start dating, then if things don't work out, a break-up can completely cripple not only the dating relationship but the entire friendship as well. Considering that I elect to have few friends and to keep those few friends close, any loss in that area can easily become one of great magnitude that would be nearly impossible to recover from. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I came close to having this happen to me, and while I do have some regrets, in the end I think it was best, for had that not happened, this risk would not have seemed so real to me, and thus I would be less inclined to pay attention to it. At this point, I feel that a girl that I can be close to and can trust completely would be worth so much more than a girlfriend, for there would be a much lesser desire to strive to impress them, if one at all, since I do not live my life aiming to impress my friends. My friends are my friends because I can relax and be real around them and don't have to struggle for their acceptance, but that's getting into another subject entirely. Going back to the benefits of it though, I will say this: the time when I put the most effort into obtaining a girlfriend ((which ultimately failed, but that's irrelevant)), due to some of the ambivalence I felt about what was God's leading and what was my own desires, I more often found myself crying to God for leadership, and thus drew closer to Him and pulled fartehr away from sin than I had in a long time, and since that scene of my life has ended, I unfortuantely have notices that change reversing, and my drifting back to where I was, which quite frankly was not a place I wanted to be in spiritually.
However, I firmly believe that it is a necessity, and can be very beneficial if done for the right reasons. People who date selfishly or just for the fun of it are doing it for the wrong reasons. I don't think anyone should just sit around waiting for God to just drop their soulmate into their lap. You don't necessarily have to go actively pursue a soulmate, but I think one should always have his eyes open for any particular person God might lead you towards. When you feel God leading you, first, be certain it's God and not selfish, sinful lusts that you're hearing, and when you're certain, I think that's when it's time to make an effort for the relationship. As I said, God's probably not giong to just drop a soulmate into your lap; He expects you to put effort into it--you can't get something for nothing. Should the person you dated through God's leading turn out not to be the one for you to marry, perhaps he or she was put into your life to help you in some other way or it just wasn't what God wanted. There's always the chance you could have let your lusts overshadow God's voice in your life, especially if you're not in a tight relationship with Him, so perhaps that could be the problem. No matter the reason, God will still lead you to find the right spouse in His time, or He may lead you to live a single life, who's to say but He?
I think there are alot of good opinions and posts on this subject in this topic at a message board I frequent: http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=44945 but if you don't want to take the time to read all of it, please do read the two following posts:
http://www.christiananime.net/showpost.php?p=1164615&postcount=17
http://www.christiananime.net/showpost.php?p=1165949&postcount=42
But those are just my thoughts; I'm 16, so what could I possibly know?
One of the greatest risks I can see in dating is what it could do to a friendship. If two good friends start dating, then if things don't work out, a break-up can completely cripple not only the dating relationship but the entire friendship as well. Considering that I elect to have few friends and to keep those few friends close, any loss in that area can easily become one of great magnitude that would be nearly impossible to recover from. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I came close to having this happen to me, and while I do have some regrets, in the end I think it was best, for had that not happened, this risk would not have seemed so real to me, and thus I would be less inclined to pay attention to it. At this point, I feel that a girl that I can be close to and can trust completely would be worth so much more than a girlfriend, for there would be a much lesser desire to strive to impress them, if one at all, since I do not live my life aiming to impress my friends. My friends are my friends because I can relax and be real around them and don't have to struggle for their acceptance, but that's getting into another subject entirely. Going back to the benefits of it though, I will say this: the time when I put the most effort into obtaining a girlfriend ((which ultimately failed, but that's irrelevant)), due to some of the ambivalence I felt about what was God's leading and what was my own desires, I more often found myself crying to God for leadership, and thus drew closer to Him and pulled fartehr away from sin than I had in a long time, and since that scene of my life has ended, I unfortuantely have notices that change reversing, and my drifting back to where I was, which quite frankly was not a place I wanted to be in spiritually.
However, I firmly believe that it is a necessity, and can be very beneficial if done for the right reasons. People who date selfishly or just for the fun of it are doing it for the wrong reasons. I don't think anyone should just sit around waiting for God to just drop their soulmate into their lap. You don't necessarily have to go actively pursue a soulmate, but I think one should always have his eyes open for any particular person God might lead you towards. When you feel God leading you, first, be certain it's God and not selfish, sinful lusts that you're hearing, and when you're certain, I think that's when it's time to make an effort for the relationship. As I said, God's probably not giong to just drop a soulmate into your lap; He expects you to put effort into it--you can't get something for nothing. Should the person you dated through God's leading turn out not to be the one for you to marry, perhaps he or she was put into your life to help you in some other way or it just wasn't what God wanted. There's always the chance you could have let your lusts overshadow God's voice in your life, especially if you're not in a tight relationship with Him, so perhaps that could be the problem. No matter the reason, God will still lead you to find the right spouse in His time, or He may lead you to live a single life, who's to say but He?
I think there are alot of good opinions and posts on this subject in this topic at a message board I frequent: http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=44945 but if you don't want to take the time to read all of it, please do read the two following posts:
http://www.christiananime.net/showpost.php?p=1164615&postcount=17
http://www.christiananime.net/showpost.php?p=1165949&postcount=42
But those are just my thoughts; I'm 16, so what could I possibly know?
11.16.2007
Getting Acquainted
Shortly after school starts each year, my school has what they call "Get Acquainted Days". The previous times we've had them, I didn't really care for them at all; they were no more than some kind crappy and poorly explained games none of us could figure out how to play properly, and you never got to know anyone new at all, since you'd just quit attempting to play something you didn't understand and would go hang out with your normal group of friends. This past year, they were much better, since they were all pretty much games that we'd all played before ((volleyball, kickball, etc.)) or something very easy to figure out; however, they were still lacking that thing that would encourage you to get to know more people. They got closer to it this time be separating the student body into several teams, and thus over the course of the two days you always played with the same people, but it still didn't result in much getting to know anyone new. I'm really not sure what they can do to further encourage you getting to know more people aside from breaking us up into random groups and sticking us in various rooms with each other, and not having us bother to play all these lame games that normally result in more yelling than teamwork anyways, but one thing I do know is how I recently got to know some people much better in only a few hours.
Not too long ago, my youth group had an activity in which we went out to a church member's land in the country and had a "Harvest Party". Pretty much, we all got to hang out for the evening and just chat and stuff. Me and two of my friends took the time to wander out down a path in the woods, and follow it all the way out to the road, and then back around to the house and eventually the field we were supposed to be in. During this walk, we got to talking, starting off with the normal topics, music, school, etc. but one of these ((I don't recall which for sure, but I believe is was discussing school and teachers)) evolved into a much deeper conversation which, even though I was left out of a lot of it for lack of input, I enjoyed very much. In addition to this, we had a few other conversations that just allowed us to get to know one another better than we had before, which I again greatly enjoyed. In this way, I got to know a friend of mine that I didn't know very well much better in a short period of time, solely because we put ourselves in a place with very little distractions where we could talk, but also, due to us being in the woods, a place that raised enough caution in us to give us more of that banded together feel, a kind of dependence on one another in case something went wrong. Either way, it was a great time and I sincerely hope the school's Get Acquainted Days can soon come to reflect this type of even more so than they do know. They maybe they will finally do what they were originally intended to do, get us better acquainted with one another and with those that we may not have known previously.
Not too long ago, my youth group had an activity in which we went out to a church member's land in the country and had a "Harvest Party". Pretty much, we all got to hang out for the evening and just chat and stuff. Me and two of my friends took the time to wander out down a path in the woods, and follow it all the way out to the road, and then back around to the house and eventually the field we were supposed to be in. During this walk, we got to talking, starting off with the normal topics, music, school, etc. but one of these ((I don't recall which for sure, but I believe is was discussing school and teachers)) evolved into a much deeper conversation which, even though I was left out of a lot of it for lack of input, I enjoyed very much. In addition to this, we had a few other conversations that just allowed us to get to know one another better than we had before, which I again greatly enjoyed. In this way, I got to know a friend of mine that I didn't know very well much better in a short period of time, solely because we put ourselves in a place with very little distractions where we could talk, but also, due to us being in the woods, a place that raised enough caution in us to give us more of that banded together feel, a kind of dependence on one another in case something went wrong. Either way, it was a great time and I sincerely hope the school's Get Acquainted Days can soon come to reflect this type of even more so than they do know. They maybe they will finally do what they were originally intended to do, get us better acquainted with one another and with those that we may not have known previously.
11.13.2007
True Berean
A couple Sundays ago, I had a man approach me while I was in the sound booth after service, since I was the only A/V person left. He was asking to see a slide that that pastor had used in the service, because he had looked up the verse in his Bible and thought they didn't match up. Thankfully, I've used the computer on the video side enough to be able to get to the slides, even though I had them kinda small, since I couldn't figure out how to fix that, but what I could do sufficed for the time being. Either way, I was impressed that this guy did it, and thought it quite fitting in a church that calls itself "Berean", for that's what the Bereans were known for--searching the scriptures. He didn't take the slide or the pastor at his word, he made sure to check it with the Bible to make sure the pastor wasn't changing anything around. Very interesting, and quite encouraging that afternoon, figured I should dedicate a post to it, especially since I haven't posted here in a while.
10.10.2007
And even more textbooked
Today at school something happened that I feel makes the way the Bible's used even more textbook like and even less like God's Word and the guide for our lives it's supposed to be. I've had enough problems with the way our Bible classes are run, which I've discussed in previous posts, but now they've taken it even farther.
I've been told that our Bible classes are "academic" rather than "devotional" which ends up resulting in more of that Bible-is-a-textbook feel, which is understandable, I just think a heavier emphasis on the devotional part integrated into the academic part would be much better than what our Bible class is accomplishing now. But now, even our devotional Bible lessons, which we have in chapel every Tuesday, are being turned into academic things. Today, we received a quiz on yesterday's chapel message. WTHeck? If they don't do this every week and it doesn't affect our grades, then I understand completely, as it would be primarily to see if kids were paying attention in chapel, but if they choose to continue it and cause it to affect our grades, they're just forcign us to try and memorize what we believe are the key points of a message or whatever we think they might put on that quiz instead of focusing on what God has for us in the message. Now, I realize that there are probably very few kids who do actually caer about what God has to say to them, but still, that's where the focus should be. No one's going to want something that's shoved down their throat for them, and I feel that where this is heading.
On a sidenote: I find it utterly pathetic that I can honestly say that I don't believe there are many kids in my highschool ((which is a Chrsitian high school)) that are even very interested in God at all. I can think of 3 people that I consider to be good Christians and someone I would want to resembe in my spiritual walk, and a few more that might be more into God and closer to Him but just not as open and salient about it, which could just be how their personality portrays them, because I feel that's where I am. I love God with everything I am ((or at least I try to)), but I wouldn't think that it shows so much that everyone would mention it as something prominent about me. I'm not trying to hide it or anything, it's just that my personality leaves me either taciturn or acting completely weird and just having a great time being unusual.
Back to my main topic. I don't think we should be quizzed on our chapel messages, and I don't like how our Bible curriculum seems to turn the Bible into more of a textbook than anything else, but it's what I'm leaving with, so I'm gonna force myself to deal with it.
--SF
I've been told that our Bible classes are "academic" rather than "devotional" which ends up resulting in more of that Bible-is-a-textbook feel, which is understandable, I just think a heavier emphasis on the devotional part integrated into the academic part would be much better than what our Bible class is accomplishing now. But now, even our devotional Bible lessons, which we have in chapel every Tuesday, are being turned into academic things. Today, we received a quiz on yesterday's chapel message. WTHeck? If they don't do this every week and it doesn't affect our grades, then I understand completely, as it would be primarily to see if kids were paying attention in chapel, but if they choose to continue it and cause it to affect our grades, they're just forcign us to try and memorize what we believe are the key points of a message or whatever we think they might put on that quiz instead of focusing on what God has for us in the message. Now, I realize that there are probably very few kids who do actually caer about what God has to say to them, but still, that's where the focus should be. No one's going to want something that's shoved down their throat for them, and I feel that where this is heading.
On a sidenote: I find it utterly pathetic that I can honestly say that I don't believe there are many kids in my highschool ((which is a Chrsitian high school)) that are even very interested in God at all. I can think of 3 people that I consider to be good Christians and someone I would want to resembe in my spiritual walk, and a few more that might be more into God and closer to Him but just not as open and salient about it, which could just be how their personality portrays them, because I feel that's where I am. I love God with everything I am ((or at least I try to)), but I wouldn't think that it shows so much that everyone would mention it as something prominent about me. I'm not trying to hide it or anything, it's just that my personality leaves me either taciturn or acting completely weird and just having a great time being unusual.
Back to my main topic. I don't think we should be quizzed on our chapel messages, and I don't like how our Bible curriculum seems to turn the Bible into more of a textbook than anything else, but it's what I'm leaving with, so I'm gonna force myself to deal with it.
--SF
10.06.2007
Textbook Beliefs
I recently got back form a Men and Boy's retreat our church had at the camp I normally go to in the summer. During one of the messages that was preached, the pastor kept bringing up the point about how saying some words you don't even remember when you were 5 or 6 doesn't mean you're saved and that being raised in a Christian home and acting Christian doesn't either. This really connected with me because for 8 years I went around saying I was saved until I finally realized that I'd just kinda been following the crowd and saying some preset words when I 'got saved', so that night no July 13th, 2005 I got things set right and was truly saved, thank God.
However, I honestly feel sorry for those of us who have had to grwo up in Christian homes, exposed pretty much exclusively to Christian views and opinions the majority of our younger lives. While it's a very blessed position to be in, it gives us the danger of living out textbook Christianity and acting like Christians--not because we're saved and truly love God for being all that He is, but because it's what's expected out of us and anything less gets us labeled as some horrible sinful person in the eyes of our Christian-raised peers or other churchmembers. There have been times when I, when in a reverie about my future and what may or may not be in store there, have thought that I wouldn't want my children to grow up like I have. I'd want them to have a great life, yes, but having Christianity ingrained into your mind for so long can make you belive that you're saved when you're not, and should the worst happen before you do get things right, then you end up in Hell, and I wouldn't be able to bear the thought of that happening to my child. Even though I'm nowhere near being a parent at this point, it's still hard to even consider. But, on the other hand, I know it's be wrong to keep my children isolated from Christianity and God, and so I'd want to keep them exposed to it so that they would come to see God and love Him and accept him as their Savior. There was a point brought up in a discussion at the retreat by someone who was saved later in their life; they said that those of us who were saved at an earlier age or rasied in Christian homesare often guilty of being less thankful to God for what He's done for us because we haven't seen how bad things can get, and so we don't realize just what we were spared from. I find this to be very true, and it's been evident in my life since when life's all good and normal I feel like I don't need God, but during times when things are going bad I get closer to Him and am so much more thankful for Him being there.
It seems to me like being raised in a Christian home and school, while it does do good in teaching a child about God from an early age, promotes a textbook type of Christianity, where Bible reading and devotions and Christlike behavior are done out of obligation or requirement, and not for the right reasons. This has been most evident to me in my Bible class, where it seems that, due to the way the class works, the Bible is being turned into little more than just anohter one of our textbooks, and thus we're missing the benefits of being able to learn from God's Word in Christian school to trying to make sure we can fill in the correct answer on our tests. Because, no matter how much we've learned spiritually, in the end our grades are what our parents look at to see what we've learned, and the grades are qhat can get us in more trouble in the short run.
However, I honestly feel sorry for those of us who have had to grwo up in Christian homes, exposed pretty much exclusively to Christian views and opinions the majority of our younger lives. While it's a very blessed position to be in, it gives us the danger of living out textbook Christianity and acting like Christians--not because we're saved and truly love God for being all that He is, but because it's what's expected out of us and anything less gets us labeled as some horrible sinful person in the eyes of our Christian-raised peers or other churchmembers. There have been times when I, when in a reverie about my future and what may or may not be in store there, have thought that I wouldn't want my children to grow up like I have. I'd want them to have a great life, yes, but having Christianity ingrained into your mind for so long can make you belive that you're saved when you're not, and should the worst happen before you do get things right, then you end up in Hell, and I wouldn't be able to bear the thought of that happening to my child. Even though I'm nowhere near being a parent at this point, it's still hard to even consider. But, on the other hand, I know it's be wrong to keep my children isolated from Christianity and God, and so I'd want to keep them exposed to it so that they would come to see God and love Him and accept him as their Savior. There was a point brought up in a discussion at the retreat by someone who was saved later in their life; they said that those of us who were saved at an earlier age or rasied in Christian homesare often guilty of being less thankful to God for what He's done for us because we haven't seen how bad things can get, and so we don't realize just what we were spared from. I find this to be very true, and it's been evident in my life since when life's all good and normal I feel like I don't need God, but during times when things are going bad I get closer to Him and am so much more thankful for Him being there.
It seems to me like being raised in a Christian home and school, while it does do good in teaching a child about God from an early age, promotes a textbook type of Christianity, where Bible reading and devotions and Christlike behavior are done out of obligation or requirement, and not for the right reasons. This has been most evident to me in my Bible class, where it seems that, due to the way the class works, the Bible is being turned into little more than just anohter one of our textbooks, and thus we're missing the benefits of being able to learn from God's Word in Christian school to trying to make sure we can fill in the correct answer on our tests. Because, no matter how much we've learned spiritually, in the end our grades are what our parents look at to see what we've learned, and the grades are qhat can get us in more trouble in the short run.
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