The Fine Line

This will, hopefully, be a rather short post.
It's a very fine line between entertainment and sin. In America, we live for entertainment. Some of it is needed, like time with friends after a long week. Some or rather most of it isn't necessary. I'm finding this out. God is teaching me to be more discerning in my choices of entertainment. I recently learned that what might be okay for other Christians is not okay for me. Like wise, what is okay for me is not okay for other Christians.
My tastes for example, I tend to go more toward the darker-side of entertainment. I enjoy movies that can be dark because I tend to see more light in them than in the other entertainment. I enjoy looking for symbolism and meaning. What can I learn from this movie? What might the director/writer/producer/etc be trying to convey? What kinds of symbols can I find? It's all rather fun. However in my fun, sometimes I find myself watching things that I don't think that my Father would be pleased or proud with me watching. This is hard. Very hard.
So my solution to my dilemma? I'll do my best to be discerning and realize that, at least for me, I walk an extremely fine line.
God has called me to pull a Jesus-that is-being very much out in the world. My ministry isn't necessarily for the church-not to say that I won't minister to those inside. At times, this will look as though I'm sinning, but I'm not. As God uses the Holy Spirit to guide me along this path, I'll learn what I can and cannot partake of. The hard part, as usual, is turning my back on those things that I cannot partake of. I have a few examples at the moment like most of my video games, a few Cd's I own, and a couple of movies.
Christ never said that following Him would be easy. I'd rather do it His way. As a character in a good book once said-sometimes we have to choose what is right and what is easy. It would be easy for me to give into my every whim and I have recently. With God's grace, I'll stop doing that.
So much for a short post. :P

Thoughts on the Apostle Paul

So, I've been joking a lot lately about how it irritates me when preachers go all...
"And Saul became Paul!" Think in terms of a raving Southern preacher so it might sound something like this...
"And-a Saul-a became-a Paul!" You know what I'm talking about, like when spit flies at the first few pews and theres no warning sign about a "splash zone"? Yeah, it's like that.
So here's what I've learned. By the way, I learned this at bible college. Get ready, it's a shocker...
Paul and Saul are the same name. One is Greek and the other is Hebrew. It just irritates me when people preach on things that aren't necessarily true even if it has been accepted as such for a long time.
Well, last Saturday, I was sitting at cell group and someone read the scripture about the road to Damascus. Why is it that Paul's name changed suddenly from Saul to Paul? Why is that? Doesn't anyone find it strange?
Here's what I think and why this is so very, very important...
Paul was sent to preach to the Gentiles. He reminds them more than once that Jesus came for the Jew first and, then, the Gentile. Even Jesus stated this fact more than once during His ministry.
It all makes sense then if you add these facts together. When Paul's name changed from Saul to Paul, it was God giving Paul a new purpose. With the Greek Paul instead of the Jewish Saul as a name, others would be more inclined to listen. That's what I think.
Here's another brilliant thought that I had several years ago after my grandmother died. This is also about the apostle Paul's journey to Damascus. When my grandmother died I wanted desperately to know what they would do with her body. For some reason it was just that important to me. I read that when the body decays it develops a scaly appearance...among other things. End of that story and moving on to Paul.
Now when Paul is received by the guy in Damascus(?)-sorry, I can't remember his name, the Bible mentions that something like scales fell from his eyes. Now, I thought, huh, that's interesting. We know from the story that Paul was struck blind. So let us think about this for a moment...
Dead people devlop a scaly appearance...something like scales fell from Paul's eyes when he received Christ as his savior. Hmmm... Our souls are considered dead when we do not belong to God. Anyone catching on? I think that Paul's outer appearance reflected his inner appearance. Now that is both scary and cool. Even more so when the scales fall off signifying that his outer appearance now relfected his inner appearance. God stopped the decaying mess that was Paul's soul and gave it new life and new sight.
Now that's just cool.

Pain

Pain. It hurts. I'm feeling a lot of it right now. My life changed drastically about a year ago. God told my family to move and we did. We listened to God. Unfortunately, the place we moved from was not so happy about it. At least that's what it looks like from this side of the mirror. I loved my friends dearly. It's been a year and I've missed some important things in their life. What could I do? When God tells me to go, I GO.
God has been so gracious in getting me through this year. He's lead me through some dark times and helped me to create new friendships. I'll not forget my other friends though. God will heal this pain.
Yeah, it hurts. Bad. Very bad.

Coming out...of the box!

First post! Woot! This blog is not about me coming out. I'm about as straight as it gets, however, it is about challenging Christians to think about what they believe. My goal is to get myself and others to let God out of the box that we have put Him in.
It's a small box really. It's made out of preconceived notions of who God is. So God. He's real, you should believe in Him. He sent His Son to be born of a virgin of all things, to live a pure, holy life for us, and to die for us. Yup, Jesus, God's Son, paid the ultimate sacrifice. Now that's not too hard to believe is it? Well, actually it is.
For me most days, it's easier to believe that Darth Vader will randomly appear than it is for me to believe what exactly happened on the cross. I'm not just talking about the act in itself. I'm talking about what it means for me. And really, I don't know.
I know that since I believe in what Jesus did that I am going to heaven. I know that He made it so that what I've done in the past and future wouldn't count against me. I know these things. What comes after salvation? What next? Isn't there a seriously long list of rules that exist today thanks to our culture?
The above paragraph is what this blog is about. It will ramble for seemingly pointless topics where I repeat myself over and over again. It will seem sacriligious and rude. It may even seem rebellious like I don't believe.
Have not doubt about this, at the end of the day, I am back where I began...at His feet.