My Little Devotional #170: “Shed My Skin”

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Bible, change, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, God, inspirational, Jesus, Molt Down, molting, motivational, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, new life, New Testament, Old Testament, resurrection, sacrifice, salvation, sanctification

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Molt Down”

In this episode, Spike undergoes a bit of a transformation in which, after an assortment of uncomfortable and awkward physical problems, he molted to become a winged dragon. Getting there wasn’t an easy time. Not only did he suffer a large amount of physical stress through the process, he had to suffer from emotional and mental stress as well when he realized the scent he was giving off would attract all manner of violent beasts–making him a threat to others around him. In other words, the old adege of “change is painful” definitely held true here. The only way he could get the benefit of his new winged self was through a tremendous ordeal that left him discarding his outer skin in a gray pile on the ground.

While this change was physical and the situation was rather outlandish compared to real life, it does have some real implications for the idea of “change” and even Christianity.

It’s not unusual for people to use the term “shed my skin” when talking about going through a major change to their demeanor, outlook, or even personality. That ties into the same topic covered in this episode and in the world of biology: “molting”. In nature, many creatures that don’t periodically lose skin or hair (like we do) but instead shed it all at once go through the process of molting. Normally it’s associated with reaching a new life cycle or a time of growth, such as once a year when food is plentiful or scarce to allow it. There are a variety of kinds of actions that could be considered “molting”. The most extreme example could take place in butterflies. In their case, once the larva is large enough its skin will split and the “insides” will wriggle out as a new pupa. Yet those, in turn, will solidify and harden only to be split and discarded by its insides, which is a new adult butterfly. However, there’s much lesser examples, such as birds shedding their bright “breeding plumage” during the winter to look duller and harder for predators to find, deer shedding a thicker winter coat during the spring, or snakes, when big enough, going through the long process of rubbing against rocks to peel off their old skin.

Humans, in fact, do “molt” all the time, but it’s gradual and not dramatic. (We only shed hair and skin cells periodically rather that all in one go.) But whether it’s humans, birds, or caterpillars, the very idea of molting is an interesting concept. Essentially, animals must let their old bodies die, sometimes their old ways of life as well (such as how a caterpillar is concerned with eating and growing while a butterfly is concerned with breeding), in order to enter the next phase of life. When that happens, their old selves are literally cast off like so much rubbish.

That gets into today’s message. This central idea behind the process of molting is likewise true for Christianity and the idea of being “born again”.

Jesus emphasized the idea of being “born again from above” early in His ministry, and then (as it does now in some cases) it led to a great deal of confusion. As evidenced in his talk with Nicodemus, some people took it in the literal sense of the current physical body.

“Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ ‘How can someone be born when they are old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!'” (John 3:3-4)

Jesus was, in fact, talking about the spiritual body. Sin is corrupting. It’s evil, it’s wicked, it brings pain, sadness, and sickness, and ultimately is brings death both physically and spiritually (Romans 6:23a). This nature of it caused some of the Apostles to term it “corruptibility” or perishability–an innate corruption in the body that is passed on and inherited from one generation to the next through all of humanity. The reason we die is because we sin, and sin is a part of mortal existence and inescapable as DNA. Part of the “broken” human condition and part of life.

When Jesus Christ came to the world, he came in a purely human body that was subject to all physical stresses, strains, toils, tears, and cares all people face; only in His case He endured it all but committed no sin. In doing so, He became the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. When He was unjustly put to death on Calvary, He paid the price for your sins, my sins, and everyone else’s past, present, and future. But to accomplish that, His own physical body was destroyed–taking on our nature that leads to inevitable death and destruction and suffering in full for all of the evils of the world simultaneously placed upon Him. However, because of His sinlessness, He was resurrected and came back to a new and glorious eternal life completely opposed to the rules and conditions of the previous body. All that was weak, mortal, and subjected to the pain, sadness, sickness, and death of this world was now liberated from it forever.

In the same way, Jesus has promised the same for all who accept His offer to take away their sins and become their personal Lord and Savior. Just as Jesus had a mortal body but His Spirit was from God and eternal, in the same way those that accept His Gift will cast off their own corrupted, perishable selves when their own physical suffering and death is at an end and will gain the same eternal life. And just as Jesus’ own mortal body passed away only to be resurrected in an incorruptible eternal life, the same will happen to all who put their faith in Him.

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

“For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’

^‘Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?'” (1 Corinthians 15:53-55)

There was a wonderful picture I had in college that sadly I ended up ruining illustrating this. It was a sculpture of an iron statute “shedding” off its iron coating to reveal one made of crystal beneath it. It’s a great metaphor. Iron tarnishes, rusts, erodes, and wears away, and in order to be cast aside it has to be rent and peeled off. Yet when it’s gone, all that’s left behind is beautiful and perfect. The old state crumbles away and the new life endures.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you would like to experience this “shedding of skin”, there is an excellent resource for how you can do it right now right here: https://www.thoughtco.com/a-prayer-of-salvation-701284

If you are already a Christian, here is today’s suggested prayer:

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, I can never thank you enough for the wonderful gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, by whose blood and sacrifice I am now a new creation set free from sin. Now that I have the blessed assurance that I have been born again, please help me to use my life always to seek your will and live for you today and every day. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

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My Little Devotional #168: “I’m Not Touching You!”

Tags

aggression, Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, God, honesty, hostility, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, New Testament, Old Testament, passive-aggressiveness, sabotage, social media, truth, undermining

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Non-Compete Clause”

To say that Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s behavior in this episode is frustrating is a bit of an understatement. Their normal competitiveness, this time taking the form of wanting to be the School of Friendship’s teacher-of-the-month, caused them to ruin both of their respective activities through their arguing and fighting. However, what was even worse and more unbearable was that after Twilight called them out on their selfish desires to get the award they began to compete for it in a different way…namely by trying to make themselves look the most gracious, friendly, and deferential so that they, in turn, would appear more selfless and therefore more deserving of the award.

Dealing with people who let competition and personal pride cause them to constantly butt heads with each other is fairly frustrating, but it can get downright unbearable when they attempt to mask it, as in this episode, under a guise of faux beneficence. That’s especially true when that sort of behavior is targeting us and, I imagine, when we find ourselves doing it to others. And even more so when this sort of behavior is somewhat or entirely subconscious. At that point, it turns into something called passive-aggressiveness.

Passive-aggression was originally classified as a mental disorder, but actually encompasses a wide variety of behaviors that anyone can produce. In layman’s terms, it’s a way of acting out in hostility and anger toward someone or something without actually acting that way. Examples include purposely procrastinating, intentionally making mistakes, disguising criticism with compliments, harboring a sullen, stubborn attitude, mentally keeping score in histories of arguments, slipping in that one “last word” as an insult, and, perhaps most prevalent in the modern age, sabotage.

The primary reason behind using passive-aggressiveness is to avoid an overt confrontation over feelings or a disagreement. Sometimes this is because the person is being devious and malicious; purposely seeking to undermine or take jabs at their opponent. In other cases, it’s not ill-intended but is rather a way to try and avoid having to face up to someone or something. In either case, however, the reasoning in the same: to avoid getting into an overt conflict and/or appearing to be an instigator, hostile, or unsociable to others. It allows a person to “be the bad guy without looking like the bad guy”. And in my opinion, at least in some cases, I believe some individuals have fooled themselves into thinking that by not being openly aggressive or hostile that somehow they aren’t being that way at all, and therefore are absolved of all wrongdoing.

This is especially true in the modern day with our access to social networking and the like. Say, for example, two friends went out to a meal and one was supposed to pay but ended up forgetting about it and only had enough to pay for themselves. Rather than confront the person about it, the other friend gets onto social media and says something like: “I learned a life lesson about how thoughtless some people can be today. It really helped me see who my real friends are and who is just taking advantage of me.” They basically just attacked their friend indirectly and exposed it for the world to see, but they can claim that they didn’t do anything and that they could have been talking about anyone because they didn’t “name names”. Or if two people are angry at one another and one gets, say, a promotion at work and announces it, they might reply: “Congratulations on the new title! I guess all the smarter people at work quit by now, huh?” When it comes to online arguing, it’s positively vitriolic. The posts are endless as everyone tries to get in the last word with that one last jibe and, in the case of Christians, they make it worse by appending a “God bless!” to the end of it as if that somehow magically makes it not an insult. (Which is why I find if you get yourself caught in one of those, the best thing to do is simply “ignore the last post”…let them get the final word without feeling the temptation to respond.)

Colossians 3:8 reads: “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” In numerous lines of the Bible I myself tend to focus on the overt actions and sins, but passages like this take it a step further and say to get rid of even the “inner” ones such as rage and malice. It’s not enough to try and just be externally “good” while you still have desires for evil and sin inside you, as this episode illustrated when Applejack and Rainbow Dash tried to work together and defer to one another yet still harbored their desire for the award inside of them. In the end, it became not only obvious but totally unbearable.

We all have a responsibility to be honest and truthful with our own feelings so that we in turn don’t act passive-aggressive ourselves as a way of hurting other people and saying we did nothing wrong. And we might not be able to control when other people are being passive-aggressive as a way of getting to us, but we all can control how we respond to it and, more importantly, keep ourselves from doing it.

As our Lord says: “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37)

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for all the opportunities for me to resolve difficult situations in my life; for they teach me discipline and help me grow in maturity and responsibility. When I am angry with my situation, grant that I may always be honest about it to myself, especially if it involves someone else, and thereby deal with my anger in a constructive way. And please help me always to respond appropriately when, either directly or subtly, a person is seeking to get the better of my own emotions. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #164: “Why, Back in My Day…”

Tags

advice, Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, contentment, despair, devotional, experience, fear, fulfillment, God, Grannies Gone Wild, hopelessness, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, Rainbow Dash, unhappiness, Word of God

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Grannies Gone Wild”

Rainbow Dash learns one of life’s basic lessons in this episode about older folks: they know a thing or two. After trying to simultaneously ditch Granny Smith and her friends in Las Pegasus on “safe” activities while unsuccessfully trying to sneak a ride onto the Wild Blue Yonder for the bulk of the episode, she learns only late in the trip that the Gold Horseshoe Gals are Las Pegasus VIP members which allow them priority seating on any ride–meaning she spent a great deal of time worried for nothing because she never asked them for any help. Granted, it was likely Rainbow thought they wouldn’t be interested in the ride in the first place, but seeing as they had a lot more experience being around Las Pegasus than she did she might have bothered chancing some advice.

When all of us are growing up, we all go through that phase in our lives where we start growing more knowledgeable and self-sufficient, and at that time we look back on parents, older family members, or simply older individuals around us and figure “they just don’t get it”. We start thinking of them as outdated, obsolete, or applying a mindset of a different era to modern problems. We tend to often conclude, as is the egocentric view of most young adults, that we somehow got it right and they never did because they’re idiots from an idiot era. It not until we get a little older that we start to realize some of these older folks actually do know a thing or two, and we find ourselves going back to them for advice or, at minimum, their own experiences on things we do that are new. That’s not to say that the older generation didn’t make mistakes of their own or that they always know best, but often when it comes to things like doing home repair, buying a car, looking for a life partner, or especially raising your first child, they tend to have quite a bit of experience and know-how that we could learn something from.

The tendency to consider sources of advice obsolete and outdated isn’t limited to adult figures and older people, however. It also applies to certain traditions, beliefs, or philosophies. And among those things, for both Christians and non-Christians alike as they get older, is the Bible. And it’s a fair point to make. There are quite a lot of things in the Bible that really don’t apply anymore. One can point to the obvious being most of the Law in the Old Testament. I’m not about to ritualistically kill a bull or a goat the next time I go to Church or lose sleep over wearing clothing that’s made of two different kinds of thread.

However, there is a lot more in the context of the Bible than just that which now seems to make the bulk of the content antiquated. We aren’t living in a society that’s mostly poor with just a few rich people in power. We aren’t in an era where the only medical care we can get is prayer and animal sacrifice. At least in the Western World, we aren’t in a society where women suffer dishonor for not being able to get pregnant and are dependent on males. We aren’t surrounded by temples devoted to idols from every nation for a thousand miles. We aren’t an agrarian economy where marriage is mostly a land and business deal and children are raised up for extra farm hands or insurance on the family legacy either. Hence, critics of Christianity often raise the point that what is said in the Bible doesn’t really apply to modern society any longer, and that many of its precepts and concepts are archaic and obsolete.

I will agree that traditions and customs shouldn’t always be upheld, especially if they are only being upheld for just that–tradition and custom. That includes religious ones. There are a lot of older practices and beliefs that we would honestly all be better off without. And it is indeed true that a lot of things have changed throughout history. Technology has changed. Countries have changed. Society has changed.

But the reason so many Christians still defend the Bible and look to it for answers about people is that we believe human nature doesn’t change, whether it be now or thousands of years ago.

Everyone wants food, water, and shelter and those needs tend to take priority, but people aren’t satisfied with just having those needs met. We’re all social creatures. We all feel the need to be understood by someone else. Maybe some of us like large social gatherings and maybe we don’t, but all of us want at least one person to fully understand us and accept us for who we are. Nobody wants to be completely alone. Everyone wants to feel loved.  Everyone will eventually have to come to terms with their own mortality. Everyone will have regrets in their life and wish they had done or hadn’t done something. Everyone will go through a dark period when they feel alone or helpless without any control. And everyone will sit down one day and call into question their own worth as a human being and the value of their own lives.

Society has indeed changed, and science and technology has enabled us all to live easier, more comfortable, and more connected lives than earlier generations ever dreamed possible. But you need only look to those around you to see that none of this guarantees happiness. None of it guarantees peace of mind. None of it guarantees a feeling of self-worth. Those of us in the USA live in a land of abundance, comfort, and plenty. And yet we still deal with depression, drug addiction, alcoholism, and abuse because we still have needs that this alone doesn’t satisfy. Celebrities who make more money that I could ever dream of somehow still go bankrupt because nothing they can buy gives them happiness. Politicians who have power and respect the likes of which most of us will never come close to possessing throw it away on illicit sexual relations and affairs because it still doesn’t bring them satisfaction out of life. In spite of the fact many of us in the Western World live in reasonably safe societies where we don’t have to worry about starvation, homelessness, or joblessness, we still commit suicide because we still feel hopeless and worthless.

Christians feel these things the same as everyone else, and that is why the Word of God is as valuable to us today as it was over 2,000 years ago. We believe it holds the key for a human being to become complete and fulfilled because we believe that it was written by the Creator of human beings–that because the Bible is the Word of God itself that it holds the key to having not only a fulfilling life in this world but in the next one to come.

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” (Matthew 4:4)

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

I can’t speak for every Christian, but for me personally the various things of this world often do leave me temporarily enthused, happy, or entertained, but they don’t grant me fulfillment and they don’t satisfy my desires beyond temporary boredom, recreation, or relaxation. And they don’t support me when I feel I am crushed beyond measure, facing horrible odds, in fear for my own life and safety by powers beyond my control, or I’m at my most depressed and hopeless. It’s this book, this book that many non-Christians scoff at as being an antiquated set of millennia-old fairy tales, that sustains me. And it’s this same book that’s changed my life, many of my family member’s lives, and countless other lives for the better.

For those of you looking for more in life but think that the Bible is nothing more than worn-out words by doddering old folks, I invite you to “taste and see” (Psalm 34:8).

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for your Sacred Word, which brings life to all who look to it. Please give me a deeper love for it so that, by examining and studying it, I might better understand you and make choices that lead to greater life for myself as well as greater building of the Kingdom of God. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #163:”It’s a Fake!”

Tags

authenticity, Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, God, honesty, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, self-deception, truth

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”

Fluttershy finds herself in another situation where she’s jarred out of her comfort zone in this episode; namely being asked to run Rarity’s own bustling and highbrow boutique in Manehattan. Being naturally shy and with no retail experience, Fluttershy elects to handle running the store by “faking it”–pretending to be a series of alternate personas that appear to be more confident and knowledgeable in the field.

Disaster soon resulted when Fluttershy took her fake personas too far and ended up embodying all of their negative characteristics while simultaneously not knowing when it was time to “drop the act”.

A rather crazy example, but still drawing attention to the fallacy of trying to be a fake person.

All of us probably have met at least one person in our lives who we saw was “fake”. On the outside they may have appeared to be any number of things: nice, empathetic, generous, fair-minded, or even a devout Christian. In phone conversations, in public, and on the Internet they might have painted themselves as a model citizen, a certified genius, or a fantastic friend. Yet all we needed to do is be with them at home or in private for fifteen minutes and we started seeing what kind of person they really were. Less patient, more argumentative, possessing greater self-centeredness, or showing off any of a host of biases and prejudices. These individuals can often be frustrating because, similar to Fluttershy in this episode, they have put up this fake front of being this different person for so long that they’ve ended up fooling themselves. They’ll insist on their own virtues or qualities, and as a result never confront reality about their own character flaws and need to change.

That is not, however, to say that these individuals are necessarily narcissistic egomaniacs or suffer from delusions of grandeur. If you’re at all socially awkward (like me), chances are at some point in your life you tried to get through a conversation by “faking it ’til you made it”. Perhaps you pretended to be a sports’ enthusiast when you knew nothing of a sport but were surrounded by fans, that you were knowledgeable about this or that TV show when you had only heard a few reviews and didn’t want to be left out of a conversation, or even tried to pretend to be more cheerful and talkative than you really were to fit in with an odd crowd.

For me personally, however, the biggest time I ever “faked it” was early in my college years–namely when trying to be “more Christian”.

At the time, I constantly heard stories of great men and women for Christ as well as tales of martyrs and miracles all over the world that took place due to the power of their faith. I was also reading the “heavier” parts of the Bible that mentioned the demands of keeping the Law and of being holy before God. I eventually got to the point where I was feeling seriously inadequate compared to “real” Christians…and more than a little envious. I concluded that I would have to be like a saint or foreign missionary in my level of action and commitment if I wanted to call myself a real Christian, but hearing of their great acts, self-sacrifice, as well as everything they gave up for their respective ministries left me feeling nervous and ashamed because I knew I could never match those things. So, instead, for a time, I tried getting into whatever I could in terms of service and ministry and then decided I would “fake it” by saying all the right things a good Christian would say and espousing the Gospel while acting good-natured and like I was everyone’s friend until it came more naturally to me.

It was a disaster. As I mentioned in earlier devotionals, my true nature came through and what attempts I did make to “be Christian” were either incredibly weak or obviously fake, especially when authentic Christians came in and showed me up big time. I came off more as a crazy person with nowhere to go. It became very clear very quickly to everyone that I didn’t want to be in those situations, that doing so was making me overwhelmingly uncomfortable, and that I wasn’t being very Christ-like to anyone. I eventually learned a good lesson from all that: when it comes to being Christian, there’s no way to fake it ’til you make it. Sooner or later your true nature will come out, and at best you’ll just embarrass yourself while at worst you’ll embarrass the Body of Christ as well.

The Bible warns against trying to “fake your way” through being a Christian. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (Romans 12:9-10) “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). For years, however, I didn’t pay attention to these, because I thought the alternative was doing nothing and loving no one. I figured it would be better to be a fake yet upstanding Christian than a real yet uncaring one.

But my problem was I was focusing on the wrong issue. Christians don’t love God because they do good things. They do good things because they love God. I needed to focus on strengthening my relationship with God and loving him more and wanting to understand him more, and, by doing so, learn to love other people as he does. If you love God and other people, you no longer have to compel yourself to be good, kind, generous, or compassionate toward them, because you already do those things out of that love. “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45). You may still need to push yourself out of your comfort zone from time to time, but it’s important that you do so for the right reasons and with the purer motive.

A bit cliche but still true…God created you to be you, not anyone else. He designed you to do what you can do…again, not what anyone else can do. When tempted to be “fake” for the sake of pleasing God, my suggestion is this. Don’t try to be as good or a better Christian than “him” or “her”. Focus on being a better Christian than the you from yesterday.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for making me the way I am; unique in my own way and not quite the same as anyone else in history. Grant that I will appreciate how you made me and help me to better develop my talents and “good parts” for serving you and others. When I’m feeling inadequate or envious of others and desire to be more like them to make up for my own faults, help me to remember that I am your unique creation, to focus more on improving my deficiencies rather than trying to mask them, and to consider how I, [your name], am best suited for and can best further the Kingdom of God. Please confront me if I am guilty of lying to myself and others about who I am, and, if so, forgive me and help me to be more authentic to all people and especially to you. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #161: “Everyone Outta the Melting Pot”

Tags

Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, culture, devotional, discrimination, equality, God, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, multiculturalism, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, prejudice, racism

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “School Daze”

This episode (and Season Eight as a whole for MLP:FIM) introduced an important series of topics that had either been sparsely touched on or stepped around on the show until now: multiculturalism. By introducing the School of Friendship and opening it intentionally to both pony races and non-pony races, Twilight Sparkle introduced the opportunity to create a common ground for a variety of races to not only interact but to share their ways of life with one another. In doing so, both this episode and much of the season focused on how an individual’s culture shapes their identity and what happens when that same identity is exposed to a culture (or variety of cultures, in this case). And I think it did a pretty good job of it.

Of course, this episode also introduced the more “negative” response to multiculturalism that also appears frequently in modern society. Namely, by showing even in a “friendship-loving” country such as Equestria there are still individuals who treat other kinds of creatures with racism and prejudice, and who view opportunities to exchange culture as simply exposing vulnerabilities or a chance to tout their own culture (and even species) as above others. It also showed the most extreme example of this: enforcement of prejudice by legal policy. By refusing to give the School of Friendship EEA approval, Chancellor Neighsay essentially was saying the school had to be Equestrians-only or it wouldn’t be legally considered a “real” school.

Multiculturalism is (to me) a surprisingly touchy subject in the modern world. I mostly blame political rhetoric for why it’s so controversial, although there is some justification behind why it’s not more readily promoted. As part of my own verdict, I think human society is at the point where there is no way we can’t advance some form of multiculturalism and expect to still coexist or functional peacefully. The world is only getting “smaller”. People are more connected every day and working with more diverse groups every day. To make the best living for everyone, we have to acknowledge one another and respect one another. The only way you’re going to escape multiculturalism is if you invoke some sort of draconian measures like some countries are desperately doing and cutting off Internet and media access and/or sentencing anyone who tries to report the news to torture and imprisonment–as if you were trying to make-believe you were somehow the only country/culture/people on Earth.

Yet that doesn’t change one simple fact: everyone tends to think their own culture is best. When two different cultures come into a conflict on an issue, it’s likely whoever is the proponent for their own culture will say the way things should be is with their own way of thinking. Moreover, if one tries to change things to be more in line with something that is against their culture (even if it’s something so “obvious” to one culture versus another, like giving a woman an equal inheritance as a man or saying signs should be printed in Spanish as well as English), it can lead to anger and outrage at trying to impose a different culture’s views on their own; leading to the same draconian measures I stated earlier in an attempt to “protect” one’s culture by essentially banning a different one or forcing them to assimilate.

And, sadly, considering the fact that there is a great deal of conflict in the world still driven by clashes of ethnicity, some of this discriminatory persecution has a reason behind it that’s not simply hate and distrust. (It’s not a good thing, but it would be sticking one’s head in the sand to pretend it isn’t there.) The truth of the matter is even in a society that embraces multiculturalism, eventually the society will say some cultures have to either restrict themselves or won’t be allowed in. (At the bare minimum, a multicultural society isn’t going to tolerate a culture that says there shouldn’t be multicultural societies.)

That brings us to Christianity and, for the most part, all religions and faiths in the world. One of the main criticisms, and more justifiable ones, about Christianity and religion in general is that it is, inherently, anti-multicultural.

Even from its inception, the ultimate goal and destiny of Christianity was not to be confined to one people but to incorporate all peoples, nations, and races. All Christians are committed to the idea that the future Kingdom of God will put an end to international and intranational conflict and war. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'” (Revelation 7: 9-10). “he says: ‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6). “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” (Matthew 28: 18-20).

However, that doesn’t change the fact that the ultimate desire in this case would be for everyone to become Christians. What does that mean for countries and peoples who have part of their cultural identity be their own faiths, whether they be Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or even old ethnic religions? Would converting to Christianity in that case mean abandoning part of their identity? Historically, for many Christian missionaries, mission work didn’t mean simply sharing faith in Jesus Christ with other people but in using it as a means to control, conform, or even ethnically cleanse other groups. One needs to only look at the history of Europe displacing the natives in the New World for that. Yet even if there is no malicious or ulterior motive behind it, promoting any religion means, implicitly, that you believe that one religion is superior to all others and worth following more than any other, and there aren’t many religions in the world that allow you to follow more than one at the same time.

To single-out Christianity, does that ultimately mean that Christians, by definition, should be against multiculturalism?

Well, from a personal standpoint, here’s the way I see it. I’m for eating a good diet and exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle. That doesn’t mean I’m going to push for legislation to make it a crime to be at an unhealthy weight or try and ban sugar.

While there are some important details that need to be taken into consideration for a multicultural society, as a Christian I feel both I and other Christians, even if our ultimate goal is to bring as many souls to Christ as possible, need to endorse one as part of that. Whenever legal coercion or societal pressure becomes part of an attempt to influence someone to join Christianity, Christianity is no longer something “genuine”.  It’s a response to a worldly threat.  What more, I see it as an act of cowardice. When looking over the situations in various countries in the world where Christianity is oppressed, I see a normal checklist of common themes: proselytizing is made illegal, “apostasy” is made illegal, people of this one religion get more legal benefits than others, religious literature that is not for one religion in particular gets banned, non-mainstream religion has to be done behind closed doors, etc.

Exactly how great, profound, and true is your religion if you have to take extreme measures to keep anyone from even knowing another religion exists for fear they will immediately abandon yours for that one? How secure is your faith if you’re terrified it will get cast aside if someone breathes a word of alternative? Frankly, how much of a coward does that make you or how flimsy does that make your faith?

All forms of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, both legal and societal, are ultimately nothing more than expressions of fear. To me, to subscribe to them means to live in an attitude of fear. And how can we claim to live in Christ’s love if we’re letting our fears rule our society? Or how can we claim to be changed and emboldened by faith in God if we look on this, that, or the other group as individuals to be controlled or constrained by laws and government?

At the bare minimum, all Christians would like the opportunity to be able to witness and proclaim the Gospel without the threat of legal reprisal, so my own feelings are that we should, to be fair, advocate for a society where all religions including our own are free to do so. Only then can we claim that we have the Truth and not merely whatever is popular in our corner of the world. Doing so, of course, means that Christians will have to show a bit more clearly how our faith changes our lives and inspires us to be better people so that people will know that Jesus does change lives and does give us life “more abundantly”, but, in all honesty, that should have been clear all along…and if it isn’t then perhaps the issue isn’t a matter of multiculturalism at all.

Twilight and her friends in this episode introduced their values of friendship to their students by sharing, teaching, and demonstrating it in their own lives rather than coercion or forcing conformity. Maybe Christians should do the same when sharing the Gospel.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you that, with you, “here is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Grant that I may see all in the world the same way you see them: creations so loved by God that he gave his Only Son to die for them on Calvary. And if there is any hate or fear in my heart keeping me from even seeing another person or people that way, much less from reaching out to them and loving them, please confront me with it and please forgive me as I repent of it. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #160: “Filter Feeding”

Tags

bias, Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, filters, God, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, optimism, pessimism, prejudice, Shadow Play, Starlight Glimmer, Starswirl the Bearded, stereotyping, Stygian, the Pony of Shadows, Twilight Sparkle

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Shadow Play”

While meant to be a drama, this episode ended up serving well as one of the “friendship lesson” episodes–illustrating the dangers of perceiving the world the way we are instead of how it really is. The epic battle that lasted over a thousand years between Starswirl the Bearded and Stygian, the Pony of Shadows, all boiled down to neither individual seeing the truth. Starswirl interpreted Stygian’s attempt to copy the powers of the Old Pillars of Equestria in order to earn appreciation as an attempt to steal their powers for himself, making him a villain in his eyes. Stygian, on the other hand, interpreted being cast out as an act of ingratitude and hate, making the Old Pillars, and his old friends, his enemies in his own eyes. In the end, their banishment and their fight was the result of misunderstanding reality rather than truth, but that didn’t mean both of them didn’t defend such misunderstandings vigorously. Starswirl saw Stygian as a monster to be banished, and Stygian wanted to destroy all of Equestria if it meant getting his revenge on him.

When thinking about this episode for this devotional this past week, a thought occurred to me that tied in with it. Many of you are probably aware of the abuses of social media. How they seem to be used as an excuse to vilify, insult, shame, and breed every kind of discord and intolerance imaginable to get everyone at each other’s throats, whether consciously or subconsciously. Enough to where a backlash has begun where people are beginning to swear it off. However, I myself don’t have much of a problem with it and I use Facebook regularly. How, you ask? I discovered a couple years ago I wonderful option to block posts from certain groups. Before then, anyone and everyone I friended would repost things that were political, aggressive, argumentative, and occasionally obscene. I used to always find the urge to respond to them, often resulting in arguments breaking out and the desire to feel justified overriding the desire to be Christian, but I eventually decided to go with the “if you can’t say anything nice…” maxim and simply blocked sites that had nothing but political and inflaming rhetoric. Since then, Facebook has become far more manageable for me (especially in election season…). Now that I filter out the stuff that ticks me off and leave only the stuff I’m interested in, things are much better.

How does this tie in to today’s episode? As I’m emphasized in other posts, we never see the world the way it is but the way we are. Everything from our view of international affairs to our outlook on our job to our attitude toward strangers to how we wake up in the morning and look around our rooms…whether it’s good or bad, hopeful or depressing, an opportunity or a lost cause: it all comes down to our outlook. And what many of us don’t realize consciously is just how many “filters” we put on everything subconsciously.

Such was definitely the case in this episode. Both characters had put up their own “filters” so that they could see nothing in each other except what they had already decided on seeing. In particular with Starswirl. To him, Stygian was nothing but evil to be stopped. He wouldn’t bother listening to anything Starlight tried to say about it, dismissing even considering an alternate viewpoint as irrelevant, and adamantly refusing to see anything but his version of history. In other words, anything that challenged his mental schema was blocked out entirely. Only things that confirmed it were let in.

Getting back to the topic of politics. I try to stay out of them, but my family listens to them and I get feeds from news sources both liberal and conservative. I’m amazed at how it seems as if they’re reporting on two different realities most days. Essentially, each source casts everything one way or the other. If it’s something that the party they’re in favor of did, no more how horrible, disgusting, illicit, or harmful, it’s always cast to make it look like it was either not a big deal or even a virtue. By comparison, if it’s something that the party they’re against did, no matter how good, noble, wholesome, helpful, or even innocuous, it’s always cast to make it look as if it’s the worst thing ever conceived by mankind. Or oftentimes they simply ignore whatever news story makes the other side look good as if it never even happened. Again, it’s all a “filter”.

Politics is an easy target, but it extends to everything. How you view this race or that gender. How you think of this religious group or that country. Even how you view the homeless and the needy, or what personal choices you make for recreation or fun. People don’t realize how often they have made a subconscious yet firm decision to love something or hate something. When that happens, they put on “filters”. And as a result, they often won’t give anything a chance or think up reasons to not do something or try something. Sometimes it’s used as an excuse for hate or intolerance. And sometimes it becomes just plain crazy. (I myself know one person who refused for ages to try a restaurant named “Cheddar’s”. Why? Because he hated cheese…in spite of the fact the restaurant doesn’t specialize in cheese and that’s just the name.)

Whether you pick the Old Testament or the New Testament, the Bible warns against the sin of showing partiality and seeing the world according to human eyes rather than God’s eyes. “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'” (1 Samuel 16:7). “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:2-4). “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). In short, we are to strive to see things the way God sees them rather than according to our own internal “filters” and all of their associated biases and prejudgments.

However, to me, the good news is that the right kind of “filtering” can also work to our advantage.

Just as internal filters can keep us biased toward seeing the world in a negative light, it can help us see the world in a positive one. We can train ourselves to stop looking for reasons to hate or dislike things but instead to look for the living spirit of God in everything. When looking at a group or individual we dislike, we can choose to see how they are a precious child of God and loved by him as much as we are. When disaster strikes, we can choose to see in what ways we are still blessed and what opportunity we might now have. When feeling attacked unjustly or persecuted, we can choose to look for how God is guiding us and how he wishes for us to grow in that situation. It’s possible, even in the worst of circumstances, to still see the presence of God, his spirit, and goodness and love in everything, while at the same time filtering out anything negative, externally terrible, hostile, or that in any other way tries to get us to react with a hostile, angry, or hard-hearted attitude. But even if you’re not in the worst of circumstances, you can do the same in everyday occurrences, no matter how mundane or simple.

And over time, we can train ourselves to see the world that way by default, and to keep growing to see the world the way God sees it. And when that happens, like it did on my Facebook page, the world becomes a much more pleasant, hopeful, lovely, and opportunity-filled place.

My suggestion for this devotional is to focus a bit more on trying to identify filters that we have set up that are keeping our world view rather grim and pessimistic, and instead to focus on seeing things more the way our Lord wants us to. It might make all the difference in the world.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you that the world is filled with your Spirit and blessings, and that they are all around us no matter the situation if we will look for them. If there is something in my life that is keeping me from seeing the world the way you want me to see it, or is warping my view toward others and keeping me hard-hearted, please help me to identify it, and I now renounce it and repent of it. Instead, please give me eyes to see the world the way you see it, so that I can better grow to love this world you have made and especially the people you have created to fill it. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #159: “No Son of Mine”

Tags

Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, faith, God, inadequacy, inspirational, Jesus, justification, merit, motivational, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, salvation, shame, Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, Uncommon Bond, works

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Uncommon Bond”

In this episode, Starlight Glimmer invites her old friend Sunburst over for a friendly visit to Ponyville and some quality time. Unfortunately, the visit doesn’t go very well. Most of the time Starlight spent with Sunburst was during their childhood, but now that he’s an adult he seems to have more interests and things in common with Starlight’s other friends. Before long, he’s more eager for chances to spend time with them during the visit than her. It eventually gets so bad that Starlight herself starts to feel like a “fifth wheel”, and begins to fear that Sunburst would rather abandon her in favor of her other friends; leading her to take extreme measures to try and reconnect with him.

This was another episode I had to think about for a long time, but eventually what stood out the most to me was Starlight’s feelings and, as a result, behavior. I eventually realized it wasn’t all that different from my own feelings as a Christian and, I imagine, the feelings of other Christians.

The New Testament emphasizes that we are only saved by the Grace of God and the Sacrifice of Lord Jesus. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9). He loves us because of who He is and who we are, not due to anything we have or haven’t done. Yet the Old Testament and much of the New Testament are still devoted to the pursuit of righteous living. Some passages indicate that doing so is proof of our acceptance of Lord Jesus’ Sacrifice and our devotion to live for Him, while others indicates that God shows special favor to those who lead more righteous lives as opposed to those who lead less righteous ones.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:22-27)

“Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
    he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
    who conducts his affairs with justice.
For the righteous will never be moved;
    he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
    his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
    until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.” (Psalm 112:4-8)

And we need only look around our own congregations to easily see that some people donate more, some give more of their time, some praise louder, some press on through tougher challenges, and some speak out more boldly than others. In spite of the idea that, as sinners, we are all equal in God’s sight, there’s much external evidence to give reason to believe that some Christians are “better” than others.

And when people start believing that, naturally what happens next is they start feeling ashamed. After all, most of us can look at, say, Mother Theresa and then look at our own lives, and start realizing there doesn’t seem to be much comparison. We may start wondering how we can call ourselves Christian when people like that walk around far more righteously, more boldly, and seemingly more devoted to God. In the worst cases and in our darkest moments, we may start to question how God can really love us compared to those people as we seem to be so much less and have so little of “what he’s looking for”, and we may feel we need to start doing external acts of our own to start to measure up to those standards and be someone more like the person God wants.

While regular self-evaluation is an important part of any Christian lifestyle, as is the need to challenge ourselves to be bolder and to step out and do greater things for Christ, it’s important that we don’t fall into the trap of starting to believe these works make us greater or lesser in the eyes of God. That’s, as King Solomon once said, meaningless and chasing after wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14). We can’t do anything through our own actions to elevate our status before God. Only the Sacrifice of our Savior could accomplish that. However, as a result of what He did, we are now considered sons and daughters of God (Galatians 4:5-7). Christ’s Sacrifice makes us perfect and without blemish before him. That was all the work of our Lord without any input from us.

What we do now is the result of a desire to live for Him and to become more perfect/complete as He is. It comes from a growing relationship and affection for God and his heart and a desire to be as loving and gracious as he is. It’s nurtured by developing greater trust and faith in God to surpass all trials and tribulations and to do great things in His name. Therefore, doing “greater works” is not so much from greater effort on our part but instead having more faith in God’s own sovereign power and the willingness to let it act through us.

Always strive to live in greater harmony with his Will, but do not think your salvation is key upon it, and get the mindset of God just sitting there waiting to brush you off into condemnation for not “living up to expectations”. Rather, learn to see God as someone encouraging and empowering us to succeed in all the plans he has in mind for us.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for the blessed Sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has made us blameless in your sight and your own sons and daughters. When discouragement comes upon me of not being able to “live up” to your expectations, let me always cling to the absolutely unchanging and unbreakable reality of the Cross that has already made me clean, and rather than fear your disapproval draw closer to you for strength and encouragement greater than anything I myself am capable of, and through relying on your Will and Power do more than I ever thought possible. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #158: “To Whom It May Concern: Nevermind”

Tags

Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotional, evangelism, God, Gospel, inspirational, Jesus, motivational, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, Pinkie Pie, preaching, Rainbow Dash, Secrets and Pies, sharing the Gospel, the Great Commission, witnessing

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Secrets and Pies”

Rainbow Dash doesn’t care for pie. Nothing’s necessarily wrong with that, as everyone has things they like and things they don’t like. However, what complicates this particular instance is the fact Pinkie Pie likes making Rainbow Dash pies. And rather than telling Pinkie that she doesn’t like them, Dash is so scared of offending her and hurting her feelings that she keeps graciously accepting them, complimenting her highly, and then disposing of them at the first convenience. In not telling Pinkie that she hates pies, she figured she was doing her a favor by sparing her feelings.

As it turned out, the opposite ended up being true. As someone who himself is an amateur writer, I can tell you that it would be extremely infuriating, frustrating, and even disheartening to have someone tell me for years that they loved my work only to find that they hated it the whole time and were just trying to spare my feelings. That’s because praise has the side effect of making one try harder to please the fan even more next time, even to the point of devoting extra time and effort to it, because they believe it makes them happy. Not to mention it has them take more pride in their work than they might otherwise. And so it was for Pinkie Pie. As the girls point out, Rainbow Dash set out to keep from hurting Pinkie Pie’s feelings by omitting the truth, but she ended up hurting them even worse.

There comes a time in everyone’s lives in which they believe that a “little white lie” or simply omitting the truth would be preferable to sharing it. And in some cases that might very well be true, but not most. Like I said before, I’d want someone to be honest with my work. Even if they were “brutally honest”, I might sulk or fume for a while, but I’d eventually realize what they were saying and realizing it was something I needed to change. Obviously when there’s a situation of abuse, whether physical, mental, or sexual, the last thing to do when asked about it is to omit the truth. And if we see someone indulging in self-destructive behavior, trying to ignore it or excuse it won’t do anyone any good in the long run, even if, as I have said in earlier devotionals, we run the risk of alienating a loved one or “driving them to do something worse”.

But naturally, for the Christian, the biggest truth we can’t afford to omit and also the hardest one to share is the truth of God’s Judgment of the World (Romans 3:23; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-46) and the saving hope of the Gospel message (John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9).

I’ve heard the sermon many times before about the importance of sharing the Gospel, and likening it to seeing someone about to walk off of a cliff. If you saw someone about to do that who was in mortal peril, you’d yell and tell them about it, wouldn’t you? That’s true, and it is important, but it omits a few key details. To be more applicable to real life and the Gospel, you’d first have to convince the person that there’s a cliff there at all, and that the way you’re taking is the only safe way to avoid the cliff out of all the other paths out there…each of which you claim all lead over it. Then you’d have to deal with the person shouting back at you that you’re just trying to get them to go on your path because you like exploiting people and controlling them, forcing them to go down your trail and no other one. Or perhaps they’d argue about how you have the nerve to tell them to walk away from the cliff when they’ve seen you put your feet over the edge many times before. Or how you know that your path is the safe one and all you can say is you have a sign that says it’s the right one and all the other signs out there are lying.

In my darker moments, I’ve asked myself before if the greatest thing a Christian can do really is convince people God loves them or convince them that they should be scared of him. Like it or not, all of us became Christians at least partially out of fear of the Final Judgment. There’s a good chance most of us wouldn’t be Christians otherwise. It’s not a pleasant thing to think about or dwell on, and it certainly isn’t something we want to go around blasting people in the face with (unless, perhaps, we’re one of those campus soapbox preachers). Common sense and human nature tells us we’ll make some people irritable, angry, or hostile…not just to our message but to us as individuals. In some cases, we might even end up driving away people or getting ourselves in trouble with the law, in public, at work, or even at home. After all, the Bible cautions that the Gospel will make us the enemies of most.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,

    a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—

    a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39)

However, as this episode pointed out, omitting the truth can be even worse, and no more so in the case of the Gospel. We profess that Jesus Christ is the only hope for a doomed world and the only way to salvation from sins. “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”” (John 14:6) “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) No amount of other good works or other religion can replace Him. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) We believe that and attest to that, and we have accepted and received it to become Christians ourselves. And that sort of message is too important not to share.

We may not all be called to be mass evangelists or preachers, but we are all Christians, and we do all have a story to tell. And while the time may come where we are called to minister or witness to a stranger we meet and we need to be ready and waiting for that, we all have our own sphere. Our family, our friends, our co-workers, and our children. The people who know us personally and we know personally. These are the folks who most likely would hear us telling them to “watch out for a cliff” and realize we wouldn’t be telling them to if there wasn’t one there.

Furthermore, don’t think that God just tells us to do something like this and then sits back and waits for us to mess it up. On the contrary.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17) “I can do all this through him(Christ) who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

Not only does he not abandon us when he asks us to do something, but he wants us to call on him for help. He wants to grant us power and ability that we don’t have ourselves so that he may be glorified through us. (2 Corinthians 2:9) Don’t lose sight of that.

Lastly, if you happen to be a non-Christian and you are interested in learning more about this “warning message”, you can learn more here: Click here.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for your saving message of the Gospel and the glorious sacrifice of your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ; by which mankind can find salvation from its sins. Thank you for allowing me the providence to have had that message shared with me. I commit myself to you today and to the great Commission Lord Jesus gave us all  (Matthew 28:16-20). Please help me to so live that I may share the Gospel with every life I touch both today and for the rest of my life. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #157: “You Couldn’t Have Picked a Worse Time”

Tags

Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, devotion, devotional, evangelism, exhaustion, fatigue, God, inspirational, Jesus, ministry, motivational, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, Once Upon a Zeppelin, sincerity, struggle, Twilight Sparkle, understanding, witnessing

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Once Upon a Zeppelin”

Twilight Sparkle had it rather rough in this episode. She set out with her family on what she thought would be a relaxing cruise to give her not only some time with her loved ones but some good old fashioned R&R and a break from her “princess duties”. Quite the opposite ended up being true. It turned out the reason her family got the cruise for free was because it was a “Princess Tour” in which she and her sister-in-law were expected to be the main events for the passengers. In order to buy her sister-in-law and family a break, she ended up having to take the role of princess more than ever as she went about hosting events and making appearances, and soon needing a vacation from her “vacation”.

While for Twilight this served as a lesson in needing to make time for herself, for me it brought to mind a different Christian dilemma. The fact that ministering the Gospel doesn’t tend to keep “normal hours” and often blindsides us unawares.

I’m sure all of us as Christians would love every time we were called to witness or be as Christ to someone to be practically gift wrapped to us. To come right after a Sunday service in which we’re feeling particularly energized and “holy”, to the tune of a golden ray of sunshine or a rainbow encircling the very specific target of what God is calling us to do, and in a situation we are perfectly suited and prepared for. Naturally, that sort of idealistic situation never occurs, but often we don’t even get anything remotely close.

Instead, opportunities to witness and minister hit us unawares. Maybe when we’re driving back from work and thinking of everything we have to do when we get home. Or when we’re waiting for the bus or a taxi while going out running errands before needing to make an appointment later. Or when we’re at the work concentrating on our jobs and what deadlines we have to meet. Or, possibly in a vein similar to this episode, when we’re out with our families at an attraction or on vacation just trying to get some relaxation in. Life doesn’t operate according to a normal schedule, and neither does God. As a result, we could often find ourselves tired, stressed, preoccupied, or even desperately trying to get a moment for ourselves when we find we’re being called. Odds are it often happens at times when the last thing we are thinking of is being Christian. And even if we are willing to make an effort, we’re probably too distraught or haggard to put our “best foot forward”.

The Bible tells us to be ready to preach the Gospel at all times (“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” 2 Timothy 4:1-2; “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” 1 Peter 3:15-16), but that, like most things in the Bible, is far easier said than done. How can we be ready to minister at all times, including the majority of times when our minds are elsewhere or when the last thing we’re thinking doing is “acting Christ-like”?

For me, I think it’s important to realize that being a good witness for Christ is not like preparing for a test or a competition, in which we will get one big event where we’ll have a chance to show our stuff and then it’ll be over. Christianity isn’t just poignant acts of ministry or evangelism; it’s a way of life and a state of mind. To me, far more important than trying to be prepared to say or do the right thing at that one big instance that could come up (or, more appropriately, that we think will come up) is to maintain a more Christian frame of mind and heart. To make our lives as a whole more in line with the heart of God and the things of the Bible. When you do that, everything else, including witnessing, ministry, and even being able to be “as Christ” at the worst of times, becomes more natural because it’s simply an extension of who we are rather than us trying to be something we’re not. Furthermore, it’s our ability to naturally turn to God and to count on him to bear us through all difficulty, both in the best and worst of times, that ultimately shows the world why our faith is so powerful.

The Bible cautions not just to pretend to love people or to care about them. (Romans 12:9; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3) To me, that goes part in parcel with ministry. If it’s simply memorization and training ourselves for specific moments or instances to give out some well-crafted and yet canned response, it’s no good in the long run. No ministry or witnessing is truly effective unless it comes from the heart and what God has placed in our hearts. And I feel the best way to have something placed in our hearts is to strive to draw closer to God in a greater relationship and have him place something there. For the closer we are to God, the more we understand him. The more we understand him, the more we understand his desires both for us and others. And the more we understand those, the more we want to work toward fulfilling them even if we’re exhausted or overwrought. After all, as Twilight illustrated, no matter how tired or stressed we feel, we’d all do something for our own loved ones that needed to be done.

A suggestion I have to aid in this is a challenge I received a couple Sundays ago. Just for five work days, Monday through Friday, make a commitment to devote time three times a day purely to God. No other tasks, no other thoughts, no other concerns during that time…just nothing but you and God. I myself was only able to find five minute periods, but I did try it out and it did make quite a difference. For anyone wishing to enhance their devotional life and draw closer to God and his desires for us, I recommend it highly.

As a final note, something that I always find encouraging (which those moments of prayer I just mentioned helped me realize) is to remember that God will never ask you to do something that, with his help, you cannot do.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for your blessed assurance, in my times of fear, exhaustion, self-doubt, and anxiety about doing your Will, that you will never forsake me or abandon me but will guide me through all difficulty so long as I commit to follow you. I seek to draw closer to you today and understand you more and your desires for both me and the rest of mankind. Please draw me nearer so, in getting to know you more, I will have a greater love and enthusiasm for the riches of Heaven and the salvation of the world. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Little Devotional #156: “Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain!”

Tags

Bible, Christian Life, Christianity, CMCs, Cutie Mark Crusaders, devotional, falsehood, God, honesty, inspirational, integrity, Jesus, justification, Marks and Recreation, motivational, motive, My Little Pony, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, New Testament, Old Testament, Rumble, self-deception, sin

Inspiration for Today’s Devotional: “Marks and Recreation”

In this episode, the Cutie Mark Crusaders run into a bit of opposition with their idea to run a camp that helps other kids find their true purpose and, as a result, their “Cutie Marks”. A certain colt named Rumble who is forced to attend by his older brother seems to be utterly opposed to the idea of a Cutie Mark. He half-heartedly performs the activities but only to give up on them seconds later, lashes out at the CMCs when they try to encourage him, and eventually incites a revolt against the camp by proclaiming how having a Cutie Mark will just confine you to doing something you don’t want to do for the rest of your life. This earns the ire and anger of the CMCs and causes them to butt heads, obviously, but eventually the girls find out the real reason for his acting out. In truth, he wants a specific Cutie Mark in being as talented as his older brother, even if it’s not what his true purpose is, and fears that if he gets it in anything else he’ll never be able to do anything athletic but be stuck with a talent he doesn’t want. And rather than face up to his personal fear, he shifted to venting his anger on the idea of Cutie Marks as a whole and encouraged others to do the same, even though the whole time it was all about him and his issue.

I didn’t really care for Rumble as a character. I think I even disliked him at certain points. Part of that reason is because I realize now that I myself was “Rumble” at least at one point in my life…and probably several.

You might think it’s a bit odd for someone who writes a Christian blog, but there are a lot of messages in Church I have a hard time swallowing. Part of it is my own odd mentality, as I tend to blow up and exaggerate the wrong things out of proportion. Part of it is genuine character flaws against change that I need to face and resolve. Yet regardless of the reason, I tend to act out from my own personal feelings from time to time. As I thought about this episode, I slowly realized that I had been “the Rumble” in a situation in which I tried to join a Bible study. Like I’ve stated before in earlier blogs, I was suffering (and still suffer) from issues of needing to prove myself to God. That if I am not able to do all these things that I see “great Christians” or “great witnesses” do then I’m not even a real Christian and my own faith doesn’t even exist. Yet when I try to be like them, it clashes with everything I am personally. I feel I have to be a certain way to be acceptable to God, rather than realizing it is the Great Sacrifice of Lord Jesus that justifies me in the sight of God instead of any action on my part. The way I fixate on only certain parts of sermons and messages, I feel like they’re all telling me to specifically be one kind of person, and it leaves me feeling frustrated as well as hopeless as I realize I’m nothing like that.

So…with that sort of mindset, I went into that Bible study. I saw everyone around me who, in spite of their admitting to their own faults and failings, also gave better testimonies about how they were able to reach out to people and act through faith. In spite of their claims to be just the same as everyone there, all that sounded like to me was that they were “better Christians” than me. It wasn’t long before I was as sullen as Rumble. Not able to understand how it was so “easy” for them and so “hard” for me, I began to grow resentful. I ended up starting to nitpick every line people preached with sarcasm, bitterness, and downright anger. I would throw handouts they gave me over my shoulder, glower and grimace at people, took up using profanity, and finally I stormed out and left it all together.

The problem was never the Bible Study group. It was always me. It was always the way I saw the world and my own reluctance and refusal to change or try to adapt to what I was hearing. It was my own personal feelings of being an inadequate failure who would never meet their standards. But I misdirected that anger. I deflected it off myself and attacked them instead. So as much as I dislike Rumble in this episode…in a sense, by doing so, I also dislike myself.

I imagine there’s a lot of “Rumbles” in this world. Some, like me, might only be damaging to ourselves and disruptive when we vent. Others, like Rumble in this episode, might be worse; not only fabricating an external cause for them to displace their anger on but misguiding others by manipulating their own fears and insecurities to follow after it. In this episode, it merely led the group of foals to find themselves unable to do anything but sit around for fear that they would get a Cutie Mark in something. In reality, it could lead to something much worse.

King Saul, for example. In the first book of Samuel, after the people of Israel begin to praise David more greatly than they praised him, King Saul conceived an intense jealousy for him. Rather than face up to his jealousy, he got the idea seated in his mind that David would never rest until he had overthrown his house and taken the throne of Israel for himself (1 Samuel 18:6-9); even though David saw himself as nothing more than one of the king’s own servants (1 Samuel 18:22-23). In the end, he led all of Israel in a campaign against David that drove him from the country under this false pretext, and murdered innocent people under the “crime” of trying to usurp his reign by aiding David (1 Samuel 22:6-19)  Another was in the secession of Israel. As a result of King Solomon’s sins, the unified Israel was split into the northern kingdom and Judah, raising up Jeroboam as the king of the northern kingdom in the place of Solomon’s son Rehoboam (1 Kings 11:29-39). Yet rather than acknowledge the Lord in having given him this kingdom, Jeroboam thought only of how if his people worshiped God in Jerusalem they would eventually revolt against him. Hence, he set up a new cult of worship to a pair of golden calves and directed Israel to worship them as their “true gods” (1 Kings 12:25-33). As a result, all Israel gave itself over to idolatrous worship and never fully returned to God, instead only getting one incompetent and wicked ruler after another…eventually leading to its destruction.

There are a lot of people in the world who might cause political and religious upheaval for the sake of their own selfish desires, including Christianity. I think of how I could have taken my dislike even farther. The things that I fixated on that I expressed my anger against I could have easily used as a rallying point against the entire Church the Bible Group was based out of, as reason to say they were going against the Word of God and encouraging a lifestyle based on works rather than faith. I might have tried to lead others to break off from that Church and either go to others or abandon it entirely. Such has happened at least one time in history, where an entire new branch of Christianity was created under one individual’s selfish premise (the Anglican Church…although in all fairness I consider this case doing the right thing for the wrong reason, but that’s a whole other story).

There’s a cautionary tale to be had in two parts from this. One, as stated frequently, is to always strive for personal honesty with yourself and with God. It’s always a good thing to focus from time to time on what makes you upset or angry, or what drives you in your life, and ask yourself and God: “Why am I doing this?”

The second is to be on the lookout for individuals displacing their own feelings into false causes, for there are many in the world. Many of them have crafted very well-sounding arguments while having hidden ulterior motives the whole time, and have learned to appeal to the fears and doubts of others.  Part of responsible Christian living is to be on the watch for false teachers and guides, of which we will always be subjected. That is yet another reason to never neglect your devotional life, as the Bible gives us a concrete anchor with which to judge what we are hearing against. Just be cautious that, as the Devil once did (Matthew 4:5-7), deceivers are fond of only quoting their “favorite parts” of the Bible and ignoring all else.

In short, be watchful to never be deceived by anyone…yourself most of all.

Suggested Prayer: “Lord God, thank you for granting wisdom and guidance to me when I am willing to be open and honest with myself to receive it. If I am committing the sin of self-deception in ignoring one of my own faults or personal issues, instead redirecting those feelings toward others, please forgive me for this grievous fault. I repent of it now and ask your help in making amends toward anyone I may have impacted as a result. Please grant that I will always strive to be honest with you and others, no matter how painful it may be. Gratefully in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”