God Versus Sleep

My girlfriend is a nurse. She often works the night shift which means she gets to work at 7:00 PM and finishes at 7:00 AM the next day. Sometimes, when we haven’t seen each other in a while, we plan that she will come by my place and wake me up on her way back from work. I’m not generally a morning person. I always try to sneak in a few extra zees. But every time she’s done this, the anticipation and excitement wakes me up even before she gets here. In fact, I sometimes have to fight myself to get back to sleep. My desire for sleep is overshadowed by my desire to spend time with her.

Why isn’t it the same with God? When I wake up in the mornings to spend time with Him, I’m rarely excited at all. I have to wrestle myself to get out of bed. A few more minutes in bed seem incredibly precious. Sleep appears to be much more attractive.

I long for the day when my desire to spend time with God would be so strong as to wake me up in the morning with excitement and anticipation. Clearly, it is possible for me to be so excited about something that I find sleep boring. I don’t expect this to happen all the time, but surely it needs to happen sometimes. Lord may you do this work in my life.

My Last Words

If, for whatever reason, I had only one last opportunity to tell you something, this would be it.

You have failed morally and are headed for hell. But Jesus died for your moral crimes and rose from the dead - that you might end up in heaven. By accepting that statement as true and giving your life over to Him, you receive His gift and make Jesus' sacrifice in your life effective. You are then guaranteed a home in heaven and an eternal life. I urge you: accept this message and follow Jesus.

I know this might sound like arrogant religious mumbo jumbo. That is not my intention. Please bear with me another minute or so and allow me to break that message down.

The first phrase in that statement claims that you have failed morally. The Bible puts it this way in the book of Romans: "All have failed morally and have fallen short of God's standard". Let's evaluate the truth of that statement. Have you ever told a lie? I think most people would agree that they have, and you probably would as well. Have you ever slandered someone, or gossiped, or hurt someone with your words? Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours? Have you ever acted selfishly towards someone? If you answered yes to any of those questions then, let's be honest, even by your own standard, you have failed morally.

You have failed morally and are headed to hell. The Bible says "the wages of (sin) moral failures is death". The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what hell is like. But what we do know is that hell is where you are justly condemned for your moral crimes. In hell you are removed completely from all that is good and you are left with regret and remorse. Many people can't accept this and ask “How could a good God throw people in hell”. But I would ask them “How could a good God not put people in hell”. Would God be good if he left crimes unpunished? Is a judge considered good for acquitting the guilty? Likewise, God is good for punishing moral crimes. God is just and He will punish those who break the moral law in a place called hell.

It’s been bad news so far but here comes the good news. Jesus, who committed no crimes of his own, died for your moral crimes. The Bible says that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. God loved you so much that he sent Jesus to take on the just penalty for your moral failures and put them on himself. He paid the fine that you owed but could not pay. He forgave your debt. He did all these things for you, at a great cost to himself, so that you might end up in heaven. “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Though God’s gift is offered to everyone, it is not accepted by everyone. To accept it you need to believe this message with all your heart and choose to follow Jesus as your God. If you do so today, then today God promises you a home in heaven. I urge you, take this step today.

If you have any questions on how to do this or need some more information please do not hesitate to contact me.

The Glory of the Unmarried Christian

My pastor recently preached a sermon titled Jailhouse Praise. Taking us through the book of acts, he retold the story of when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison. After being flogged, beaten, tied up and put in jail, they began to praise God with song. They offered God a jailhouse praise.

Being an unmarried Christian has a flogging of its own. I must admit this is one struggle I didn’t expect to be this difficult. From the need to love and be loved all the way to the sexual temptation and everything in between, celibacy offers up quite a challenge to the Christian. However, also to my surprise, I have discovered that being an unmarried Christian offers up a unique opportunity and privilege. Please bear with me as I explain what I mean. If you are an unmarried Christian, I trust that this message will not disappoint. I hope that it will be as empowering in your life as it has been in mine.

Before discussing the blessings of being an unmarried Christian let me quickly discuss the difficulties. I think there are three things that make Christian celibacy such a struggle. If you are an unmarried Christian, I am sure you will be able to relate to most if not all of these points. The first difficulty is the simple fact that there are so many counterfeit ways to step out from underneath the pressures of being 'alone' – the emotional, sexual and social pressures - and make them go away. From dating-just-for-fun to pornography, society providers us with plenty of means to escape the flogging; to escape the unwelcomed feelings and temptations that come with being celibate. Yet God asks us to stay put! He commands us not to indulge in those counterfeits but instead to take the hit. In Romans 12:1, Christians are asked to be “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God”. One of the differences between a living sacrifice and a dead sacrifice is that a living sacrifice can step off the altar, but as ridiculous as it sounds, it must not. A Christian, therefore, must freely choose to remain on the altar and accept the suffering that God has brought his or her way. This is a very difficult thing to do under any circumstance and these next two points don’t make it any easier.

The second facet that makes Christian celibacy so difficult is that it appears to have no glory or purpose. Frankly to me it seems like a stupid problem to have. Why can’t we just get over it and focus on something else? Or why doesn’t God just provide someone to meet our needs? In the end, what is gained by all the struggle? These are questions that, if we are honest with ourselves, are difficult to answer. Let me give a contrasting example. Being flogged for Christ, for instance, is full of glory. It definitely seems worth the pain. Through it, the whole world would know and understand what Christ means to you and his name would be glorified- clearly, visibly and undeniably. It would seem good to suffer for that. But what good is there in lying by your bedside, feeling crummy or lonely and wondering when it will be over?

Finally, Christian celibacy is a difficult struggle because it is a secret struggle. It is a struggle inside your head and around your emotions. Nobody can see the struggle or the extent to which you are struggling. People don’t tap you on the back and say “way to go handling all that loneliness”. It is a struggle that seems to belong to you alone. And just as an aside, because it is a secret struggle, people cannot always see when you give in to the temptation. Because of that lack of accountability, the potential of giving in is increased.

I think by now that the breadth of this struggle is pretty clear. As an unmarried Christian you must chose to secretly struggle for a cause that seems to have no purpose. You have no where to go. You find yourself between a rock and a hard place. To find relief you must step off the altar and step away from your God. To find your God you must step up onto the altar and also find your struggle. So what do you do?

Offer God jailhouse praise. That would be the Bible's answer. Actually, it would be more like bedside praise. When you are alone in you room sitting by your bed, when no one else is looking but God and you feel the struggle pouring on, praise him. Praise Him. As counter-intuitive as it might feel at the time, as unnatural as it might be, as completely illogical as it might seem to you, praise him anyways. It is your privilege and opportunity to do so at that time.

I think this can best be explained by looking at the situation through God’s perspective. God is looking at you and asking “Despite the fact that there are so many counterfeit ways to make the struggle go away, does she trust me enough to obey me anyways – and even more than that, praise me?” “Despite the fact she does not understand why this is happening or what’s the point of it all, does she trust me enough to obey me anyways – and even more than that, praise me?” “Despite the fact that she is all alone in her room and nobody one else is looking, does she trust me enough to obey me anyways – and even more than that, praise me”. This is your chance to say “Yes Lord yes”.

I think i have shown that this challenge is a little bit different than other struggles. In most cases the counterfeit option isn’t a viable choice. It’s not that easy to give up. Generally when we struggle for something we know why and we know were we are headed. We see a purpose to the struggle. Rarely is so much of a struggle waged in secret with no one looking. Christian celibacy puts all these things together. But God knows that; and He is watching and He is helping and He is loving. Will you praise him in those times? Now is your chance. One day it will be over. Will you offer God a bedside praise?

Let me conclude with this biblical precedence. After Pentecost, Peter and the apostles start lighting it up in Jerusalem. If you read acts 5 you will find that it is quite a remarkable story. The Bible tells us that "...people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed" This of course does not please the religious leaders and after a quick stint in prison, Peter and the apostles get flogged and released. The very next verse, Acts 5:41 says "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name". They left rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering for Christ. Will you not do the same? Will I not do the same? Praise Him and rejoice, because God has counted you worthy of suffering for the Name.

Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?

I have encountered numerous intellectuals, authors, scientists and philosophers who have rejected the Christian faith because they could not find an answer to the question “Why does God allow pain and suffering?” It seems to me from their writings that throughout their lives they tried to answer that question but when they could not, they concluded that a good God could not exist.

What is very unfortunate is that the Bible answers this question quite well. But if the Bible is so clear with its answer, how could so many intelligent people miss it. Frankly, I’m not exactly sure, but I do have a conjecture. And it all starts by asking the right question.

Why does God allow pain and suffering? The reason why people get stuck at this point is because that’s the wrong question to begin with. It is an unnecessary question that burdens our minds with more than it can handle. In a way it’s like asking what every ingredient in cold medication does. We don’t really need an answer to that question; we just need to know that the cold medication will get rid of your cold. When we ask why God allows suffering, we are not really after the specific reasons why God allows the suffering. We are more after the understanding that the reasons are good enough. We need to know that this suffering is worth it. Asking for the details of why suffering is allowed is just another way of justifying the permissibility of the suffering. But if we can justify the suffering without finding out the reasons why it is permitted, then we don’t have a logical problem.

Think about it. Let’s say you are going to a skilled mechanic to get your car repaired. The mechanic tells you that you need to replace the whatchamacallit and buy a new thingamajig. If you don’t trust the mechanic, even though he is skilled, you are going to ask him to specifically explain why those things need to be changed. You want to justify the repairs and make sure that he’s not trying to pull a fast one on you. But if you trust the mechanic, say he is a lifelong friend for example, you won’t need to ask the questions because you know he has good justifiable reasons. You don’t know why the change needs to be made. You just know it does.

It is the same with our suffering. We want to understand that the suffering that’s happening has a worthy purpose behind it. If it does, then we can still have a good God who allows suffering. We don’t necessarily need to know the exact reasons. It would be nice to know the reasons, but it’s not a logical requirement. All we need to know is that God has good reason to allow this suffering. The right question, then, is not “why does God allow suffering?” but “does God have good reason to allow suffering?” And the answer to the latter question, to the real question, is an undeniable and provable “Yes”.

The answer is surprisingly simple. We can know that God has good reason to allow suffering because he subjected himself to that same suffering. When Jesus left the peace of heaven to come to earth, he went through the same sufferings we go through. He went through loneliness and rejection. He went through pain and sacrifice. He saw hunger and poverty. He himself was hungry and poor. He saw friends and family die. And finally (and I am cutting the list short), he himself was tortured and killed – and killed even on the cross. God talked the talk and walked the walk. Therefore, God must have good reason to allow it. Breaking the logic down statement by statement, it could look something like this.

1) A person does not subject himself to suffering unless there is good reason
2) God subjected himself to human suffering
--> Human suffering has good reason

Going back to our skilled mechanic example, let us say that the mechanic has his own car that is very much like yours. And let us say that his car also has the same problems as yours. If he remedies his car’s problems the same way he recommends you remedy yours, then you can know that his recommendations are good. Since he put himself through the same expenses and same difficulties and since he knows best, you are safe in trusting this mechanic. Likewise, since God subjected himself to the same suffering you are safe in trusting him during your suffering.

Just a little aside here, please, do not get me wrong. I do not in any way claim that the suffering is good. Some of the sufferings that humans have experienced are of the most abhorrent kind. I cannot even imagine anything worse. I am claiming, however, that the reasons to allow it are good enough.

In a way it’s a little too simple – painfully simple at times. When a mother watches her handicapped son sit on his wheelchair while all the other kids play, when a proud father learns that his newly married daughter was killed in a car accident, when hundreds of innocent families get swept away by a tsunami, when all these things happen, we just want to scream “Why God? Why?” And the notion that there could be good reason to allow all this is so incredibly repulsive that our hearts cannot even begin to consider it much less accept it. But the undeniable fact is, and I confess am unable to admit it most times, there is good reason. God himself went through the same human suffering and when he looked at it all he said, it would seem almost with a sigh, “let it be so.”

Who created God?

One of the most famous arguments for the existence of God is the “argument from design”. The idea is simple. You are walking in the middle of a forest and on the ground you find a perfectly functioning mechanical watch. What is more rational to believe, that the watch was designed and created by an intelligent being, or that the watch formed through some random trial and error processes? The answer, made obvious by the example, is that the watch was created by an intelligent creator. Therefore, since the universe is designed and ordered (it has laws, mathematical truths, etc), it is more rational to believe that it was created by an intelligent being, which we name God.

The atheist is often quick to counter the argument with the question “Well, who created God”? The theist then, unable to answer the question, often tries to explain where God could have originated from. By doing so, the crust of the argument for God is sidelines and the discussion goes nowhere. How should we answer that question? Here is my crack at it.

First, the question, as it is stated, seems to me quite irrelevant. In the example of the watch in the forest, when we try to identify the watch’s maker, it makes no sense to ask who created the watchmaker. It is not a relevant question. In other words, I don’t have to be sure of who created God to be sure that the universe was created by God. Maybe God was created by other God’s, maybe He wasn’t created, maybe things in His universe don’t get created. It might be an interesting question on its own and it can certainly be discussed, however as far as the question at hand is concerned, it adds very little value.

To be fair though, any atheist who knows what he is talking about probably isn’t really asking about the identity of the God’s creator. I think he may be posing a more relevant question that can be better stated as follows. If the universe is complex and if that is the reason we believe it is designed, does it not make sense to say that God was also designed, since He too is complex. And if he too is designed, does it not imply that his designer was also designed, and so on. Therefore, the atheist believes, we are stuck in an infinite regress, which is philosophically impossible. He reasons that we must stop somewhere and that somewhere should be the universe because that is all we can observe.

The problem with the atheists reasoning is that he takes the rules that are applied to the universe and applies them to God. He says if the universe is complex and if that is the reason we believe it is designed, it make sense to say that God was also designed, since He too is complex. However, it does not follow as the atheist expects. We do not believe that the universe is designed only because it is complex. We believe it is designed because it is complex AND because in this universe complex things are designed. If we were in a universe where things were complex without being designed, we would not require that the universe be designed. Theists, based on what we know from science, claim that in our universe, things that appear to be designed are most likely designed. Is God designed? Is God created? We cannot say one way or the other based on what we observe in this life. He’s not in our universe; I’m not sure what the rules are in His realm. In fact, it is more likely that the same rules do not apply and that God does not need to be designed. The creator of the laws that require complexity to be designed is himself not subject to those same laws. Why would he be? He created them.

Therefore, if the atheist is to argue against the argument from design he must show why the universe, like God, is exempt from the rules that we so constantly observe. Otherwise, he must show that in fact it is more probable to have complexity arise without intelligence. This latter option brings me to my last point, which also turns out to be the atheist’s last resort.

Evolution seems to be the atheist’s last line of defense. In evolution, the atheist has a seemingly random process creating incredibly complex designs. But I’m afraid he has come up short once again. In order to avoid an evolution debate, let me assume that evolution from cell to human is true. Even if I concede that much, there are still huge information gaps that atheists cannot even fill with their imaginations. For example, who created the first cell? Yes there are lots of maybes, like maybe there was a primordial soup with lots of this and that. But if scientists with all their intelligence and all the funding they receive can’t create a single cell in the laboratory from scratch, how much less can we expect them to explain how a random process could have generate one. And what about the laws of physics? They are designed and ordered. Who created those? Evolution does not even touch on that subject. What about evolution itself. If it does exist, it is one heck of an intelligent process. Who designed it? Who created the laws that support it – like the uniformity of nature, laws of matter and thermodynamics? Ultimately, even with evolution conceded for free we are still stuck with intelligent design as the best explanation.

So who created God? I’ll make you a deal. Let us figure out who created us first. Let us get to know him better and understand His purposes for why He made us and what He wants from us. And then, once we have reached that step, I’m sure He will entertain us with some thoughts about His universe and how things work where He is.

A Relationship with the Unseen

In my Christian walk, I have often been frustrated with trying to communicate with Jesus or spend quality time with Him. Christians talk about having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” and “walking humbly with our God”. But how is it really possible to have a relationship with someone that we cannot even see, hear, smell, touch or taste. To add to the difficulty, if Christianity is true, a mediocre, wishy washy, not sure how it works, relationship with Jesus will not do. Our relationship with Him not only has to equal the relationships we have with people in the ‘seen’ realm, but it has to surpass them and it must do so in the unseen realm. In other words, we must at least relate with Jesus that we do not see, better than with the people that we do.

If I think about it for a little bit, this task seems quite impossible. Does the bible really imply that I can communicate and relate better with someone that I cannot hear or see as opposed to someone that I can? That sounds paradoxical. Is not “seeing people” and “hearing people” what relationships are all about? Actually, I think that’s really the question here. And to answer it, I think, we need to analyze more specifically the role that the senses play in having a relationship. In that context I can phrase the question in another way. Are the senses part of the goal that is a relationship or are they part of the means to building a relationship? If they are only the means, then it is possible that there are even better means. If they are the goal in themselves, then we are in trouble.

With just a little bit of insight, it will quickly become evident that the senses themselves are only the means to a relationship. Let’s take hearing for example. When a husband hears his wife talking to him, he is not really after the sound that is entering his ears, he is much more interested in what she is trying to say, in what she wants, in what she is thinking. To prove that, let us say that his wife is actually a very well designed android that has no feelings or thoughts but looks and sounds very much like a human with feelings and thoughts. That android can say whatever it is programmed to say and it can sound very good, but ultimately, no relationship can exists. Its just sound. The husband does not care at all what the “wife” is saying because he knows there is no essence to her words. In reality then physically hearing what his wife has to say isn’t that important after all. It is knowing what is behind the sounds that matter. It is intimately knowing his wife, her thoughts, her wants and her feelings that is important, not the physical means by which that knowledge is made known.

Let’s move on to another sense, the sense of seeing or sight. When we love someone we say we want to ‘see’ them. What exactly does that mean? Is it that we want to see how well they are looking or is it more that we want them to be in our presence? To answer that, let me give another example. Would a mother be satisfied seeing her son on a high definition live video screen all her life? Would she not trade the world to also see him face to face and be with him? Why would that be so? I mean ultimately, in the both situations, the light beams entering her eyes are very much the same. I think it’s because really, she hardly cares how he looks; she just wants him to be where she is. She wants to share in his circumstances and just wants to be with him and be near him. She wants him to be in her presence. ‘Seeing’ someone is much more about being (sharing circumstances, etc.) with them with them than it actually is about seeing them.

Now don’t get me wrong. The seeing and the hearing are beautiful things as well. The means are beautiful, but they are still the means. Giving flowers to the girl of your dreams is a beautiful thing, but the end goal is winning her heart and expressing your love. Walking down the aisle is the beautiful thing, but the end goal is the man at the end it.

Now we come back to Christianity. Jesus asks us to have a relationship with him; one that is even better than the relationship we have with the people around us. We have shown so far that “seeing and hearing” are not really the essence of relationship. Instead, in the case of seeing and hearing at least, it seems that knowing the other person and being in their presence are much more valuable.

For the experienced Christian, I believe I have made my point already. Being with Jesus and knowing him are well established biblical principles. Jesus promised us that He “will be with us until the very end of the age.” He is with us now. He is sharing in our circumstances. He is near us. We don’t have to see him. He is here. There is not much sense asking “let me see you”, since the main point of seeing as we have shown is being with the person and to share something, anything, with them. Also, knowing Jesus is paramount to the faith; knowing what he wants from us, what pleases Him and what displeases Him. There is no sense is saying “speak to me Oh lord” and to expect some sort of audible response. Everything we need to know about God, about his wants and desires has already been made known to us and is available through His Word.

Therefore, it is very possible to have a relationship with the unseen. One just can’t use the same means. In the seen realm, we use light and sound. In the unseen realm, we use faith in Jesus and His promises and the study and reading of His Word. And ultimately, His promises and His Word express Him infinitely better than light and sound could ever express another person.

My Girlfriend

Oh how I love my girlfriend.

She is always there for me. Yet she understands when I can’t be there for her.

We go out on a date every Friday night - almost without fail. She has yet to cancel on me. But if I can’t make it, she won’t complain. From time to time, she will just sweetly remind me of the joy that I have missed.

Unlike other girls, I don’t have to put effort to look good for her. She will never express that kind of dissatisfaction. She wants me and loves me just the way I am.

Even though others might protest that I spend “too much” time with her, she is never upset when I spend time with others.

We can do almost anything together. We can kick a ball around for hours or just go for a stroll in the park. We can compete or just play for fun, she is happy either way - as long as I am with her.

Though most girls push for “alone” time, my girl loves to hang out with my friends. And when I want some time alone with her, she will never say no.

She never interrupts me in a conversation or when I’m working. She is never asking too much or expecting more than I can give. She knows that I love her and that I will seek her whenever I can.

Let me silence some critics before they think they have all this figured out. My girl is as pure as gold, as precious as silver and as spotless as snow. She has hard and fast boundaries, rules and guidelines that she would never allow anyone to cross. I respect her dearly for that. Everything must be done in its proper time. She is so beautiful.

Oh but alas, the summer has ended and winter is approaching. My girlfriend will soon need to leave me. Though we will be apart only for but a short while, I know it will feel like forever. She will return, but till then I will miss her and she will miss me.

This letter, then, is my token of gratitude to her.

To my girlfriend whom I love with all my heart - the beautiful game of soccer

With Love,

Mark