This I Believe

In an age in which seemingly vast numbers of people are confused about their beliefs or experience an ongoing evolution in their belief system based upon public whims and political correctness, I see a need to make clear statements and acknowledge the beliefs that form the foundation of my character.  Therefore, I will take this opportunity to publicly state where I stand on the most important issues in history.

I believe God created the heavens and the earth.  In His unfathomable brilliance, He fashioned the stars and the planets, the moons and the space within which they move.

I believe since God created space and time, He is bound by neither.  This is the concept of omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence.  He is the beginning and the end, and sees all from where He stands.  Therefore, no circumstance or event is beyond His ability to control.  He is never surprised or caught off-guard.

I believe God is sovereign.  Though in many cases He has revealed His reasoning to us in His word, He is not obligated to do so.  He has chosen to order the universe the way He sees fit.  That is His right and His prerogative.  He does not need to condescend to explain Himself to me.  Likewise, mere mortal mankind is foolish in its attempts to refashion God in its own image, for He cannot be contained in human understanding or will.

I believe mankind chose selfishness and disobedience rather than honor and holiness.  Through this choice, sin entered the human race.  Because of that sin, mankind now struggles under the self-chosen curse of sinfulness.

I believe God poured out His righteous wrath on the earth in the form of a flood, nearly wiping out life on the earth.  This was a holy cleansing in which God not only showed His anger but also His mercy.

I believe God made a covenant with Israel when He chose to send His Son to dwell among them.  This covenant has often been broken by Israel, but has been upheld by the great Creator as He has protected, prospered and defended His chosen people throughout the ages.

I believe God sent His Son to dwell among men.  He was miraculously fully God and fully Man.  He was the perfect example of love in action, mercy exercised, and grace personified.  He was the only person to live a sinless life.  Because of the conflict between His sinlessness and the scourge of sin that clings to mankind like a plague, He was rejected by men, arrested, and murdered.

I believe Jesus, God's Son, arose from the grave victorious over death.  In this act, He demonstrated His transcendence of the laws of nature.  He is, once again, not bound by space or time.  He is all-powerful and undefeatable.

I believe Jesus ascended to heaven, where He now abides with the Father.

I believe God sent the Holy Spirit as a Comforter, to guide and direct those who have committed themselves to Him.  The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity, the three facets of the Personhood of God.

I believe mankind can have a personal relationship with Almighty God, through Jesus Christ.  That relationship is the ultimate reason for man's creation.  For, God desires that His creation should seek Him in love and worship.

I believe that maintaining a relationship with God requires devotion and commitment, that faith without works is dead and useless, and that our loving Father is willing to embrace imperfect humans who seek to honor Him in all they do.  He has given us the pathway to His embrace in His revealed Word.  Our task is to follow hard after Him by seeking to live by the precepts He has given us.

I believe that, just as selfishness and disobedience introduced sin into mankind, so selfishness and disobedience are the foundation upon which all sin is built.  This is why God revealed His commands to His people, starting with "You will have no other gods before Me."

I believe that a time is coming when Jesus will return to earth to catch away those who have embraced Him in this life, and that others who have ignored the message of Christ will be left behind.  Not everyone who calls himself a follower of Christ will be counted among the true believers.

I believe that God has given man the choice of his eternal destination, a literal heaven or a literal hell.  Heaven, a place where those who know and love God will spend eternity with Him, and hell, a place where those who have rejected God in favor of selfish pursuits and disobedience will spend eternity in the torment of separation from God.

I believe these things to be true.  Therefore, I believe it is my duty to share this knowledge and reach as many as possible, not because I am important or special, but because I'm indebted to my Creator for His many blessings and am filled with love for my fellow man.  I wish that all mankind would embrace the Truth of the Savior and reap the reward of eternal life with Him.

This is what I believe.  This is the message I deliver.  This is the passion of my heart.

Freezing the Tidal Wave...

If you're at all like me you're really plugged in.  You have a smartphone, a computer, maybe a tablet.  You listen to the news, you read.  There is a virtual tidal wave of information crashing against your cerebellum at any particular moment.  

A few minutes ago I was scrolling down my Facebook news feed, mindlessly scooping up tidbits of intellectual flotsam as I went.  Sheriff Joe's deputies responded to a call of an intruder shot by a homeowner. A high school friend wants to become a cat lady.  A former coworker has a bad rash.  You know, the typical Saturday morning Facebook feed (By the way, you might want to get a cream for that at the pharmacy.).  Then I picked up my phone and glanced at my Twitter account.  The Tweeps are active this morning.  The judge in the Zimmerman trial ruled out voice analysis of a 911 call. Django Unchained used the N word over 100 times and got an award while Paula Deen used it once over twenty years ago and got fired.  I checked my work email to find an update on the inventory process and a rousing encouragement to meet our store goals for the month.  I return a text message from my wife about the bank being closed on Saturday, and that Tuesday we should look into switching banks.

It's a tidal wave.  We live in an age in which we are flooded with a constant stream of facts and soundbites, gossip and memes, images and sounds that are supposed to make us feel more connected to one another than ever before.  However, Americans report being lonelier and more isolated than ever.  Why is that?

It's simple.  It's desensitization.  Just as I mindlessly rolled the wheel of my mouse and perused the treasure of Facebook entries on my news feed, we constantly absorb random bits of information about our surroundings and the people in our lives.  But the stuff that we absorb is just the cast-off, whimsical, non-threatening miscellany that does nothing but continue to deteriorate our attention spans. Squirrel!

Every technology that comes about to purportedly connect us to our world ends up creating more distance between us and the people and events that actually carry some importance in our lives.  We don't take the time to hand-write letters anymore.  Ain't nobody got time for that!  We can't carry on a face to face conversation because we keep getting interrupted by the incessant text messages that continually stir our ever present handsets to life.  We can't read a book, because it's usually done on a screen and there are so many tabs and distractions on the screen as well that we find it impossible to focus.  We think we know what's happening in the lives of those around us because of the pithy comments and status updates we see on our screens, but we fail to realize that behind those memes and pictures are people who are really struggling.

We've become a nation of momma's basement dwelling gamers who have no concept of reality, and it's simply because we're flooding our minds with miscellany and jumbled bits of randomness that our minds simply begin to go numb.  We shut down.  We lose focus.  We glaze over.  Focusing on something important  in our cluttered minds is often like searching a page from a Where's Waldo book.  The trivial crowds out the substantive facts.

We're more stressed than ever.  We're more tired than ever.  We're more distracted than ever.  We're more disconnected than ever.  And we do it to ourselves.  Our "down time" is spent surfing the web, watching television while checking our phones, tweeting and texting, and other forms of distraction.  A person can't even go to a movie theater without being distracted by the many cellphones that randomly light up when sending and receiving text messages.

So, what do we do about it?  We need to freeze the tidal wave.  We need to find solitude.  We need to study silence.  We sometimes simply need to unplug.  Jesus demonstrated this when, though the crowds were demanding His time and his disciples were always around, He "would withdraw to desolate places and pray [Luke 5:15-16]." (See also Mt. 14:23)

Sometimes we just need quiet.  We need to sit in the woods by ourselves.  We need to go for a long walk or a long drive.  We need to shut out the voices and simply listen.  Listen to the silence.  Experience the sounds of the birds in the trees as if it's the first time.  Hear the insects hopping among the blades of grass, the rustling of the leaves, the sound of your own heartbeat. Freeze the tidal wave of life's noise and ponder.  Get away from it all.  It'll completely change your outlook and mood.  It'll help you to refocus and rejuvenate.  

Try it.  You'll be better for it.  Your relationships will benefit.  Your emotions will benefit.  Your connection to God will benefit.

Freeze the tidal wave.