Content? Then there is a problem…

I have been reading a very good book recently, and I am not much of a reader. I have mentioned it in a previous post and its called “Do Hard Things.”

I have gotten to the meat of the book now and although its an easy read, its challenging. The stuff that Alex and Brett Harris go over is challenging, difficult, and tough. It causes you to dig inside yourself for answers you haven’t thought about before and reasons for actions that you may have never noticed before. I really liked a particular message in their book, its something like youth are given strength, adults are given wisdom. Adults have information, knowledge, and experience that when combined with the youth’s drive or strength, can leap impossible distances. Some of the kids mentioned in their book blow the socks off of any of the teenagers I know. They mentioned something like the “I can do it better than you” thought. This isn’t meant in a snotty way by no means, its meant in a challenging way. It means “I know its going to be hard, but I think I can challenge myself to do better than you.” Their entire book is about doing hard things. They have four levels of “hard things.” The first is stepping outside your comfort zone, the second is doing “Big hard things” basically doing hard things with other people or collaboration, the third is to do small hard things that don’t have a quick effect or result but over time have a big effect you may not see at first, and the fourth is the hardest which is going against the crowd of culture and being different from other people. An example here they mentioned was about not going to see rated R-movies, etc. They even use some common examples of thoughts that are showing weakness such as “I am not built this way” or “I just can’t think this way” they challenge you to not think like this anymore and push yourself to try it and try whole-heartedly. Basically they say “if you are only contempt with your life, then there is a problem, you need to try harder.” Something I have learned to love in my life is challenges, its because they are challenging! They aren’t easy and that is what makes the reward when you do conqueror your challenge, so much better.

These guys are really cool Christians and are doing something really big. Someday I hope I can meet them and talk about doing “hard things.” You can visit their website at www.therebelution.com.

Money and things doesn’t equal happiness

I was researching online for a history paper I am writing and fell upon a website with the worlds happiest countries. I was like “Oh cool I bet the United States is on there somewhere.” To my disgust The United States of America wasn’t in the top 15. I researched it a little more and researched how wealthy America is in comparison to the happiest countries in the world. America is the 6th wealthiest country according to http://www.aneki.com/richest.html. America is also the 150th happiest country in the world according to the Happy Planet Index. The second richest country in the world is Equatorial Guinea and is in 170th place out of 178 in the Happy Planet Index. This shows that money or material goods doesn’t buy happiness. You can view the happiest countries in the world at this website: http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/23/happiest-places-world-oped-cx_ewe_0423happiest_slide.html. I just thought this was interesting and proof that money doesn’t buy happiness, especially once you look at a couple of Bible verses that also talk about money:

Ecclesiastes 5:10 says:

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.

Acts 8:20 says:

‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!’

1 Timothy 6:10 says:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

We need to stick together

Christians need to stick together. We all need to support and strengthen each other, in this dark sinful world. There is sin everywhere. It is in the form of people trying to corrupt your faith, people tempting you to stray away from your faith, and Satan. If we don’t stick together then some of us will fall away, and as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can’t let this happen. If we are supposed to show others the way to Christ, and we let our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ fall away, what kind of Christians are we? We need to stick together.

Journey

I was talking with some friends one time, and one of them said a very profound quote, when it was taken out of context. The quote was “it is not about where you are from, its about where you are.” This quote is profound in many different ways but the one I found most profound was the journey of religion. To me this means, the road was tough, and you probably drove into the ditch a couple times, but you pushed yourself out of the muck and mud, and kept on driving. The trip isn’t as important as where you are with God now. That is what matters most to me.

Wrath of God comes to “fake” Christians

I was reading the Bible the other day and talking to a friend who blows my mind when I talk to her about God. She has some really awesome stories and Bible verses memorized. She pointed me to this one, which blew my mind away, it is Jeremiah 5:11-14. It says

The house of Israel and the house of Judah
       have been utterly unfaithful to me,"
       declares the LORD.

They have lied about the LORD;
       they said, "He will do nothing!
       No harm will come to us;
       we will never see sword or famine.

The prophets are but wind
       and the word is not in them;
       so let what they say be done to them."

Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says:
       "Because the people have spoken these words,
       I will make my words in your mouth a fire
       and these people the wood it consumes.

I thought this verse was especially powerful. To me this says that people didn’t really believe in God, and God will judge them like unbelievers. The house of Israel and the house of Judah I believe were supposed to be followers of God, but they turned out to be “utterly unfaithful” to God. This challenges me to examine how close I am with God and to make sure I follow him and are frightened by what he can do, being the best Christian I can be, following the path he wants me to follow. Every time I even think about Him now, I feel like I am on a God-high. Nothing in this world will keep me from Him. I think it is extremely important for you to be this close to him, because once you are, you know anything and everything is possible with God.

Haven’t you ever wondered?

Through a series of more recent sermons, personal reflection and just thought, I have determined there HAS to be a God. I always knew that God existed but I also wondered how other people can live life without following Him. One popular theory is the Big Bang. The problem with this theory is if it was supposed to explain the creation of the world, how was life created? There is a huge difference between different elements that together create Earth, and life. Humans have never been able to create life, and they will never, at least nothing as complex as humans. So then how do these people still live their life without thinking something else is bigger out there? But I wrote this more to provoke different thoughts, to give me and hopefully others a bigger understanding on what others think about this subject. So if you believe in something else, please comment what and why, and if you do believe in God and have witnessed a miracle, please share that too. Thanks :D

God’s Plan might be a goal.

I think God has a plan for all of us. He has essentially a high goal he wants us to attain, it is so high that we don’t need to attain it, to enter the gates of Heaven. I think its kind of a thing where he wants us to meet or break the goal, but if we don’t we aren’t going to hell. I don’t know if this is true, but until we talk to God, we can’t really tell for sure if its wrong either. If God does set this Goal, and wants us to break it, I don't know about you, but if I see God someday, I want him to say, “well done, my faithful servant.”