I can get distracted. And by that, I mean I am very very easily distracted. I literally have the attention span of a squirrel. The dog from Up, Dug, was probably based on me. That's how easily distracted I am. This is especially true in my spiritual life. I go to a conference, I read a verse, I hear a song, something impacts me and inspires me. I start promising myself and God that I will do better, I will work harder, I will be a Child of God who spreads His name to every part of the world. I am determined and I cannot be deterred from my mission. I'm excited; my life is revolutionized! I'm going to make a difference. And then, the real world blindsides me. I have school, boys, friends, drama, demands, responsibilities. They all drown out God's voice and I turn my attention elsewhere. Months go by without a quiet time, weeks go by without opening my Bible. My passion is forgotten and my promises are broken. I wander down my own path and forget the fire I had in that moment, in that one moment so many months ago. Then I happen upon that verse, book, picture and it reminds me of all the promises I made to God. Reality has again pulled me off the right path and I have let myself become distracted by things which seem so incredibly important but they have no eternal purpose or goal. Despite what I may think, my social life does not determine the fate of the world.
Then, I remember. I remember everything God has done for me. I remember every promise, every blessing, every answered prayer. I am completely humbled by the might of our God and yet he cares about ME. Stupid, annoying, selfish, lazy, incapable and wholly unworthy me. He cares and loves about me and I did NOTHING to deserve. Absolutely completely nothing. I spit in God's face, I nailed His son to the cross and yet He still loves me. STILL. I can't even imagine or fathom that kind of grace and mercy and love. And I have the gall to break my measly promises to be a better disciple. Who do I think I am and what is this sense of importance that I have given myself? I don't deserve God's blessing. I don't even deserve His attention! How dare I even pretend that I am important? What I should do, instead of demanding God do things my way, is fall to my face in awe and wonder of all that He has done. But I don't.
How do I not get distracted every time something shiny comes along? How can I keep myself focused on the prize that is actually WORTH something and not just the trivial aspects of a teenager in college's life? How can I keep myself from wandering away from that which I know is so important? Why is this so hard for me? I want God to be the center of my life and yet, I have such a difficult time focusing myself on His plan for my life. I can never truly live until I learn how to steady myself on the path He has laid out in front of me. Then the question remains: When will I learn to truly live?
"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him." ~ James 1:12
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Purgatory?
In my personal opinion, Purgatory does not exist. I've been taught this since I was little and my dad would teach me about the tribulation. (yes, my family has discussions on these things regularly.) Up until just recently, all of my friends believed same as I: Purgatory doesn't exist. However, in discussing with a friend these things, I discovered that he believed in Purgatory and we proceeded to get into a long conversation about it. I did a great deal of research on it and then wrote him with my response to his entire premise. I thought I would post it here. If anyone sees something theologically incorrect, I would love to know about it. :)
I've done quite a bit of research about our Purgatory conversation. If you don't mind, I'm going to send you some of my responses. Okay now I'm going to split these thoughts into two different parts: atonement and sanctification.
First, atonement. Now, we talked a lot about "getting rid" of our sins and you basically say that humans can get rid of their sinful nature on their own. Here's my question: if we can get rid of the very thing that causes us to sin...why did Jesus have to die? If he wasn't the bridge between us and God, if we could rid ourselves of sin without him, then why did God subject Jesus to such an awful death? We already had the "law". We knew what we had to do in order to be perfect. And the Israelites did indeed try to be perfect sometimes. They strove to follow the rules but their sinful nature always got in the way. Another thing: humans cannot be perfect. The only perfect person is Jesus. By saying you can be perfect on your own, you're essentially saying that you can become God. We can only be perfect through God's help.
John 15:5- "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
Our sins have been TAKEN away. Yes, they are simply "magicked" away by the grace of God.
Isaiah 4:7- "And he touched my mouth and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lip; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'"
Hebrews 10:22- "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
Hebrews 9:11-28 (quoted here is specifically v. 26, however, the entire passage does support my point and v. 14 especially.)- "for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to PUT AWAY SIN by the SACRIFICE of HIMSELF." (emphasis mine)
Romans 3:20- "For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."
Romans 4:5- "And to the one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
Romans 10:13- "For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved."
All of the above passages support my point: God has taken away our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our sinful NATURE cannot be taken away. Our SIN is gone. And that's my second point underneath atonement; our sinful nature will stay until God removes it in Heaven. Yes, it is, as you say, "magicked" away. It cannot be taken away simply by doing good. Yes, I know you say that then "What is the point of sanctification?", but I will be addressing that later.
Romans 3:10- "As it is written, 'None is righteous, no not one.'"
Psalm 14:3- "They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one."
Psalm 53:3 says basically the same thing.
Now let's move onto sanctification. Basically, your question is, "If the purpose of sanctification is not to remove your sin/sinful nature, then what IS the purpose?" My answer? The purpose of sanctification is to learn who God is and to make Him known. THAT is the purpose of sanctification. We do good works, not to better ourselves for we all have "fallen short" as John 3:16 says. We do good works to glorify God and to learn more about who He is. It's a learning period, not a purging period.
1 Corinthians 10:31- "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (now, in this passage, he was referring to the specific example of eating food that has been offered to you, but the point still stands that your actions and your purpose should be to glorify God.)
Galatians 5:13 and 17- "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another...For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do." (point of this passage is two-fold: One, your freedom refers to your release from bondage from sin. Basically, Paul says use your salvation to serve one another NOT to rid yourself of your sinful nature. In fact (and this is the second point), he goes on to say that the "flesh" (referring to your sinful nature) is STILL THERE and it will always be there, battling with your conscience: the Holy Spirit.)
John 15:8- "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (And again, we see Jesus saying that God is glorified through us BEARING FRUIT. And we all know that bearing fruit is referring to the fruits of the Spirit or doing good.)
I know that you don't have any actual Biblical evidence for Purgatory and I understand that and accept your arguments as valid anyway. However, I did feel that I needed evidence to provide as I am not quite as learned as you in these matters. (so now you know I'm not just making it up basically lol.) Also, I did try to make sure my points made logical sense so that you could also understand the point and see how it countered yours. Anyway, those are my thoughts! Let me know if something doesn't make sense and I'll try to clarify it...
I've done quite a bit of research about our Purgatory conversation. If you don't mind, I'm going to send you some of my responses. Okay now I'm going to split these thoughts into two different parts: atonement and sanctification.
First, atonement. Now, we talked a lot about "getting rid" of our sins and you basically say that humans can get rid of their sinful nature on their own. Here's my question: if we can get rid of the very thing that causes us to sin...why did Jesus have to die? If he wasn't the bridge between us and God, if we could rid ourselves of sin without him, then why did God subject Jesus to such an awful death? We already had the "law". We knew what we had to do in order to be perfect. And the Israelites did indeed try to be perfect sometimes. They strove to follow the rules but their sinful nature always got in the way. Another thing: humans cannot be perfect. The only perfect person is Jesus. By saying you can be perfect on your own, you're essentially saying that you can become God. We can only be perfect through God's help.
John 15:5- "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
Our sins have been TAKEN away. Yes, they are simply "magicked" away by the grace of God.
Isaiah 4:7- "And he touched my mouth and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lip; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'"
Hebrews 10:22- "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
Hebrews 9:11-28 (quoted here is specifically v. 26, however, the entire passage does support my point and v. 14 especially.)- "for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to PUT AWAY SIN by the SACRIFICE of HIMSELF." (emphasis mine)
Romans 3:20- "For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."
Romans 4:5- "And to the one who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
Romans 10:13- "For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved."
All of the above passages support my point: God has taken away our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. Our sinful NATURE cannot be taken away. Our SIN is gone. And that's my second point underneath atonement; our sinful nature will stay until God removes it in Heaven. Yes, it is, as you say, "magicked" away. It cannot be taken away simply by doing good. Yes, I know you say that then "What is the point of sanctification?", but I will be addressing that later.
Romans 3:10- "As it is written, 'None is righteous, no not one.'"
Psalm 14:3- "They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one."
Psalm 53:3 says basically the same thing.
Now let's move onto sanctification. Basically, your question is, "If the purpose of sanctification is not to remove your sin/sinful nature, then what IS the purpose?" My answer? The purpose of sanctification is to learn who God is and to make Him known. THAT is the purpose of sanctification. We do good works, not to better ourselves for we all have "fallen short" as John 3:16 says. We do good works to glorify God and to learn more about who He is. It's a learning period, not a purging period.
1 Corinthians 10:31- "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (now, in this passage, he was referring to the specific example of eating food that has been offered to you, but the point still stands that your actions and your purpose should be to glorify God.)
Galatians 5:13 and 17- "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another...For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do." (point of this passage is two-fold: One, your freedom refers to your release from bondage from sin. Basically, Paul says use your salvation to serve one another NOT to rid yourself of your sinful nature. In fact (and this is the second point), he goes on to say that the "flesh" (referring to your sinful nature) is STILL THERE and it will always be there, battling with your conscience: the Holy Spirit.)
John 15:8- "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." (And again, we see Jesus saying that God is glorified through us BEARING FRUIT. And we all know that bearing fruit is referring to the fruits of the Spirit or doing good.)
I know that you don't have any actual Biblical evidence for Purgatory and I understand that and accept your arguments as valid anyway. However, I did feel that I needed evidence to provide as I am not quite as learned as you in these matters. (so now you know I'm not just making it up basically lol.) Also, I did try to make sure my points made logical sense so that you could also understand the point and see how it countered yours. Anyway, those are my thoughts! Let me know if something doesn't make sense and I'll try to clarify it...
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Farewells
I hate goodbyes. They're so final. They close the door on something and force you to move on. Goodbye means forever, eternal, no more. I have had so many goodbyes this year; so many "last" times. It depresses me greatly. Everytime I go through something else, I can't help but think this is the "last" time. All of my classmates see graduation as an exciting experience. They look to the future with hopeful grins. All I can do is look at what I'm leaving behind. All the people, the experiences, the memories, yes, even the work. I know that nothing will ever be the same ever again. It saddens me to no end. I hate it. Sometimes it depresses me so much, I feel like crying. I just have to ignore it and move on. The funny thing is, no one else seems to feel the same way. At graduation, everyone would come up and smile and hug and cry excitedly. I spent the entire time in a daze, trying to figure out why everyone was so excited. I hated every moment of graduation. I hated every time someone would send me a card telling me "congratulations!". Why are they congratulating me? I'M LEAVING. And I hate it. I look around my room and see trophies that weren't won, books that weren't read, A's that weren't achieved. I see faces in pictures that I will never see again. I see accomplishments that will never be achieved. I see opportunities never mastered. To me, graduation symbolizes death. Death of a life that will never be lived again.
All of this makes me feel empty. Completely empty. I force myself to smile and laugh and carry on but it's fake. false. delusional. almost maniacal sometimes. I feel crazy. I feel like screaming and collapsing. I feel like falling down and crying out until someone hears me. My disguise is so well placed that I don't even recognize my pain. I don't even understand how badly I hurt inside. And yet...why do I hurt? Why do I have pain? What trauma caused this utter despair that I feel?
Life hurts. It's part of being human. We're so fragile. So frail. So easily broken. Our minds are blindsided by strong emotions like rage and hurt. Everytime you turn on the tv, you see stories of people dying, killing one another in brutal ways and going insane. I hurt for my world. I hurt for the people I see on the street. I hurt for my friends. I hurt for my family. I just want it to stop. I want everyone to stop hurting, stop having trouble, stop crying. When will it ever stop?
"Maranatha!" my soul cries out in anguish. Oh, Lord. Maranatha is my cry.
All of this makes me feel empty. Completely empty. I force myself to smile and laugh and carry on but it's fake. false. delusional. almost maniacal sometimes. I feel crazy. I feel like screaming and collapsing. I feel like falling down and crying out until someone hears me. My disguise is so well placed that I don't even recognize my pain. I don't even understand how badly I hurt inside. And yet...why do I hurt? Why do I have pain? What trauma caused this utter despair that I feel?
Life hurts. It's part of being human. We're so fragile. So frail. So easily broken. Our minds are blindsided by strong emotions like rage and hurt. Everytime you turn on the tv, you see stories of people dying, killing one another in brutal ways and going insane. I hurt for my world. I hurt for the people I see on the street. I hurt for my friends. I hurt for my family. I just want it to stop. I want everyone to stop hurting, stop having trouble, stop crying. When will it ever stop?
"Maranatha!" my soul cries out in anguish. Oh, Lord. Maranatha is my cry.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Radical
I'm reading this amazing new book called "Radical" by David Platt. It's really amazing and I'm learning a lot from it. He talks about how our Christianity has been put into a nice little box for our nice little culture. We can't make Christianity seem unappealing, we can't make it sound hard, we can't be straightforward with people about it. According to our culture, it's all about the advertisement. He goes back into Scripture and shows us how Jesus was quite blunt. "Take up his cross and follow me" doesn't exactly sound fun. In those days, a cross was a torture device. So basically, Jesus was telling people "take up this torture device and follow me"..............oh yay. That sounds like SO much fun. The Bible even tells us that Jesus had very few followers. 120 was the max by the end of his time on the Earth. Christianity is hard, it's dangerous, it can even be scary at times. But, the point is, it's worth it.
How many religions in the world depict God actually coming down to the humans to make life possible for them? None. How many of them show such love and sacrifice as Jesus did for us? None. Christianity is completely unique in the fact that GOD showed us such love and mercy. Our religion is one of mercy and grace. Most other religions require fear or works. Our religion requires commitment and love. Jesus actually allowed himself to be fully exposed to ALL of God's wrath towards sin. Let's put it like David Platt does. Imagine yourself looking at a huge dam from the bottom of it. Suddenly, the dam breaks and all the water starts pouring out at you, like a huge hurricane ready to suck you to your doom. But then the ground opens up and swallows the entirety of the water. All of that raging death has been taken by something else. Jesus swallowed all of God's wrath for us. He took that punishment because he loved us so much. Agonizing torture was the least of his worries that night. That really hit me. I could've been the one to endure that. Living in the darkness, never feeling God's love and guidance. But Jesus took that for me. He was willing even though he knew how much it would hurt. It makes me wonder if I would do the same. Until the answer is, "yes", I need to keep becoming more like Jesus. I will never be perfect but I must be willing to lay down my life for his cause. Only then can I truly become a radical Christian.
"And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."" ~Luke 9:23
How many religions in the world depict God actually coming down to the humans to make life possible for them? None. How many of them show such love and sacrifice as Jesus did for us? None. Christianity is completely unique in the fact that GOD showed us such love and mercy. Our religion is one of mercy and grace. Most other religions require fear or works. Our religion requires commitment and love. Jesus actually allowed himself to be fully exposed to ALL of God's wrath towards sin. Let's put it like David Platt does. Imagine yourself looking at a huge dam from the bottom of it. Suddenly, the dam breaks and all the water starts pouring out at you, like a huge hurricane ready to suck you to your doom. But then the ground opens up and swallows the entirety of the water. All of that raging death has been taken by something else. Jesus swallowed all of God's wrath for us. He took that punishment because he loved us so much. Agonizing torture was the least of his worries that night. That really hit me. I could've been the one to endure that. Living in the darkness, never feeling God's love and guidance. But Jesus took that for me. He was willing even though he knew how much it would hurt. It makes me wonder if I would do the same. Until the answer is, "yes", I need to keep becoming more like Jesus. I will never be perfect but I must be willing to lay down my life for his cause. Only then can I truly become a radical Christian.
"And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."" ~Luke 9:23
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Complications
"Make it complicated. I like complications." - Jamie from The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Whenever I think of my life, I always think of that quote. No matter what, it always seems like my life just gets so complicated! Nothing is simple and straightforward...no, that would be too easy. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's how to make things complicated. For example, I can't take a normal essay and just write it. Nope, I have to create a thesis, think about the implications of the thesis, write down all the points that support that thesis (with subpoints of course) and then extrapolate all of those points and subpoints to ensure I'm not saying something wrong. And that's just to write my outline! Fortunately, this only takes maybe 10-20 minutes but still. How many steps does writing an outline really need?
I make my relationships complicated too. I can't simply enjoy a day with my family. I have to create conflict somewhere at sometime. Don't ask me why! I have no idea why I need conflict. I seem to feed off of it or something. o.O yes, I know that's weird. But I do! I think because it puts me in control of the situation or something. Oh yeah, that's another thing that's complicated. I always need control. I'm also very nosy and when you put those two together....well let's just say I'm often right in the center of drama. I don't often start it and it's almost never my fault. I'm just always mixed up in it somehow! I have no idea how/why. It just happens. Everywhere I go, things seem to get more complicated. I don't know if that's normal but it's how my life has always worked. It would be fine if I knew HOW TO DEAL WITH IT. But I don't. I'm a simple person. I like lists and I like instructions. I like knowing what to do and how to do it and when to do it. Unfortunately, when things get complicated, instructions get complicated. The way things work gets complicated. I don't like it and I'm not quite sure how to deal with it.
So anyway. On a more enjoyable note, I have officially become obsessed with Doctor Who. I always liked it but I never really watched it in earnest until now. I have completed Seasons 1, 4-6. :D (I haven't watched Seasons 2 and 3 because I don't like Rose and I don't like Martha.) I would just like to take a moment and say that David Tennant happens to be one of the most amazing people on this planet and he was the best Doctor. Ever. No question. I love Amy and I love Rory but I'm not so sure about the Matt Smith version of the Doctor. He's growing on me though. Anyway, that's my little geeky moment. :)
Whenever I think of my life, I always think of that quote. No matter what, it always seems like my life just gets so complicated! Nothing is simple and straightforward...no, that would be too easy. If there's one thing I know how to do, it's how to make things complicated. For example, I can't take a normal essay and just write it. Nope, I have to create a thesis, think about the implications of the thesis, write down all the points that support that thesis (with subpoints of course) and then extrapolate all of those points and subpoints to ensure I'm not saying something wrong. And that's just to write my outline! Fortunately, this only takes maybe 10-20 minutes but still. How many steps does writing an outline really need?
I make my relationships complicated too. I can't simply enjoy a day with my family. I have to create conflict somewhere at sometime. Don't ask me why! I have no idea why I need conflict. I seem to feed off of it or something. o.O yes, I know that's weird. But I do! I think because it puts me in control of the situation or something. Oh yeah, that's another thing that's complicated. I always need control. I'm also very nosy and when you put those two together....well let's just say I'm often right in the center of drama. I don't often start it and it's almost never my fault. I'm just always mixed up in it somehow! I have no idea how/why. It just happens. Everywhere I go, things seem to get more complicated. I don't know if that's normal but it's how my life has always worked. It would be fine if I knew HOW TO DEAL WITH IT. But I don't. I'm a simple person. I like lists and I like instructions. I like knowing what to do and how to do it and when to do it. Unfortunately, when things get complicated, instructions get complicated. The way things work gets complicated. I don't like it and I'm not quite sure how to deal with it.
So anyway. On a more enjoyable note, I have officially become obsessed with Doctor Who. I always liked it but I never really watched it in earnest until now. I have completed Seasons 1, 4-6. :D (I haven't watched Seasons 2 and 3 because I don't like Rose and I don't like Martha.) I would just like to take a moment and say that David Tennant happens to be one of the most amazing people on this planet and he was the best Doctor. Ever. No question. I love Amy and I love Rory but I'm not so sure about the Matt Smith version of the Doctor. He's growing on me though. Anyway, that's my little geeky moment. :)
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Secrets
Well today I thought I would just post 20 things about myself that not very many people know. :) They'll just be kinda random things about me. I didn't feel like trying to sort through graduation and all that stuff right now. Maybe next week....
1. I can only draw swords. I can't draw faces or trees or anything else.
2. Words of affirmation and touch are my love languages.
3. I am INCREDIBLY controlling.
4. I'm self conscious.
5. Well okay there are parts of me that I adore but then again there are parts that I'm not so sure about. :/
6. I do actually like the occasional chick flick (SHHH!! DONT TELL ANYONE!!!). I hate most of them because they have little plotline and no common sense but there are a few that I appreciate.
7. I'm a fraidy cat. :P
8. I love reading. But not just reading lame modern books, I love reading stuff like the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Count of Monte Cristo.
9. I'm actually kinda violent.
10. I'm scared to death that I'm not as brilliant as all the professionals tell me.
11. I've always wanted to either learn Irish or Native American dancing.
12. I adore public speaking. So.much.
13. I would love to learn some form of martial arts.
14. My lifelong dream has been to be an actress but that's not going to happen.
15. I'm really self conscious about my voice.
16. I love playing the piano and singing throughout my house.
17. I'm really trusting.
18. I've been hurt a lot because of number 18.
19. I often feel very lonely.
20. I don't submit to any kind of authority well at all....
So that's just a couple of things about me! :) After this weekend maybe I can go a little deeper and check out some of the things God's been teaching me lately. (NOTE: these are not fun lessons :/)
1. I can only draw swords. I can't draw faces or trees or anything else.
2. Words of affirmation and touch are my love languages.
3. I am INCREDIBLY controlling.
4. I'm self conscious.
5. Well okay there are parts of me that I adore but then again there are parts that I'm not so sure about. :/
6. I do actually like the occasional chick flick (SHHH!! DONT TELL ANYONE!!!). I hate most of them because they have little plotline and no common sense but there are a few that I appreciate.
7. I'm a fraidy cat. :P
8. I love reading. But not just reading lame modern books, I love reading stuff like the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Count of Monte Cristo.
9. I'm actually kinda violent.
10. I'm scared to death that I'm not as brilliant as all the professionals tell me.
11. I've always wanted to either learn Irish or Native American dancing.
12. I adore public speaking. So.much.
13. I would love to learn some form of martial arts.
14. My lifelong dream has been to be an actress but that's not going to happen.
15. I'm really self conscious about my voice.
16. I love playing the piano and singing throughout my house.
17. I'm really trusting.
18. I've been hurt a lot because of number 18.
19. I often feel very lonely.
20. I don't submit to any kind of authority well at all....
So that's just a couple of things about me! :) After this weekend maybe I can go a little deeper and check out some of the things God's been teaching me lately. (NOTE: these are not fun lessons :/)
"Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today, even to you." ~Proverbs 22:17-19
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
News
Well for this post, I'm going to talk about something a little bit different. I'm going to address the recent death of Osama Bin Laden. But before I do that, I want to quickly say that my college trip to Liberty University when fatastically and I have felt God leading me to go there. So I will be attending Liberty University next fall. :) Now that that's been taken care of, let's talk about Osama.
First off, I am ecstatic he is dead. I've seen a lot of my friends talking about how we should never be happy someone is dead and that as Christians, we should have mercy on him. I completely disagree. How many more people should have been allowed to die through his hand? He was not an innocent man and he did deserve death. If someone attacks our country and threatens thousands of lives, we should not stand back in the name of mercy! Our country must be preserved in order to save those innocent lives. Its a hard decision, yes, and we definitely should pity him as he faces Judgment now. However, his death is welcome and necessary. It is not a death; it is a triumph of good over evil. Saying that this is not a good thing is like saying Hiroshima was not a necessary action. Now I understand that that too is controversial, but again, it was necessary to protect more lives from being taken! Sometimes you have to choose between death and more death in policy. When those choices are presented, you have to choose the one that preserves the most life. That is the choice America made in both instances and it is the right choice. We are not celebrating a death, we are celebrating the conservation of more life. Those who say we should not be proud of America are wrong and quite frankly, make my blood boil. We triumphed over the Bin Laden. We triumphed over Al Qaeda. We triumphed over evil.
Moving onto another topic that is very near and dear to my heart, General Petraeus' appointment to the CIA. Most people look at it as completely political and scoff at Obama and blah, blah, blah. I find it quite amazing. Why? Well in case you didn't know, I want to work for the CIA after grad school. And Petraeus is one of my personal heroes. He is a military genius and rather conservative. I've never met him personally, mind you, but I look up to him quite a bit. So, working under him in the CIA would be a dream.come.true. :) I honestly don't care about the political reasoning behind it (which is probably bad...but whatever!).
so anyway. That's just my personal take on two news stories right now. :) Sorry if you were expecting something deep today. ;)
First off, I am ecstatic he is dead. I've seen a lot of my friends talking about how we should never be happy someone is dead and that as Christians, we should have mercy on him. I completely disagree. How many more people should have been allowed to die through his hand? He was not an innocent man and he did deserve death. If someone attacks our country and threatens thousands of lives, we should not stand back in the name of mercy! Our country must be preserved in order to save those innocent lives. Its a hard decision, yes, and we definitely should pity him as he faces Judgment now. However, his death is welcome and necessary. It is not a death; it is a triumph of good over evil. Saying that this is not a good thing is like saying Hiroshima was not a necessary action. Now I understand that that too is controversial, but again, it was necessary to protect more lives from being taken! Sometimes you have to choose between death and more death in policy. When those choices are presented, you have to choose the one that preserves the most life. That is the choice America made in both instances and it is the right choice. We are not celebrating a death, we are celebrating the conservation of more life. Those who say we should not be proud of America are wrong and quite frankly, make my blood boil. We triumphed over the Bin Laden. We triumphed over Al Qaeda. We triumphed over evil.
Moving onto another topic that is very near and dear to my heart, General Petraeus' appointment to the CIA. Most people look at it as completely political and scoff at Obama and blah, blah, blah. I find it quite amazing. Why? Well in case you didn't know, I want to work for the CIA after grad school. And Petraeus is one of my personal heroes. He is a military genius and rather conservative. I've never met him personally, mind you, but I look up to him quite a bit. So, working under him in the CIA would be a dream.come.true. :) I honestly don't care about the political reasoning behind it (which is probably bad...but whatever!).
so anyway. That's just my personal take on two news stories right now. :) Sorry if you were expecting something deep today. ;)
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