The Worst Hobby in Existence

Model trains, trombones, computers... We all have are hobbies, don't we?  Some play instruments, a few can draw, others can knit.  These are things that identify us and make us unique.  Hobbies can be just about anything!  But here's one thing that should never, ever be a hobby: our faith.

Wait, what?!  That's right, our faith.  You see, sometimes we can see Christians who are really passionate about their faith and dismiss it as something they're just "really into."  Sometimes I think my friends see me like that.  Jim's into cars, Kate's into fashion designs, and Nathan... well, Nathan's into the Bible.

Not that we shouldn't be "into" God and His Word.  We should!  But our faith is so much more than just something we turn to in our spare time.  We can't decide when or when not to act Christ-like or live according to scripture, as if Christianity were something that could be put down or picked up at our leisure.  Our faith is something we live out every second of every day.

How does that happen, though?  How does our faith in Christ impact our every moment?  It starts in our hearts.  The Lord says that we must each guard our heart, for from it flows the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).  What we pour into our hearts will determine what comes out of them (Proverbs 15:28, Luke 6:45).

One of the most effective lies the Devil has permeated into the core of humanity is "Oh, that doesn't affect me."  Foul language doesn't affect me.  Inappropriate dress doesn't affect me.  Those are flat-out lies.  The heart is like a sponge, and every single thing that it is allowed to soak in will eventually find its way out.  In order for Christ to be shown in every venue of our lives, our hearts must be close to that of our Creator.  And it begins with what we choose to pour into it.  

As we grow closer to Him through His word, prayer, and fellowship, we will find that our choices change.  We won't listen to the same music anymore.  We won't watch the same movies anymore.  Everything - I mean everything - is seen in a new light.  Our choice of music, movies, media, etc. is not what brings us closer to God, but those things are sure to change as our hearts become knit with His.

Your faith is not a hobby.  Don't act like it is.  Every aspect of your life displays your faith in Christ.  Pour into your heart only what is good (Philippians 4:8).  Strive for a heart of beauty and you will unravel a life of beauty.

Not Just a Teen Goes Social!

For those of you who didn't already know, Not Just a Teen is now on Facebook!  Check out the Not Just a Teen page at https://www.facebook.com/notjustateen.  There you'll find not only each post, but also other quotes, verses, and pictures to encourage and uplift you in your walk with Christ!

Also check out the Not Just a Teen page on Instagram for inspiring, faith-based pictures: @notjustateen.

A Lesson from Freddie the Bird

This morning, as I was preparing to go to work, I happened to look out the window and into our backyard.  On the side of our deck, I saw a number of young birds perched.  The birds had obviously just recently learned to fly, and they still had some of their early, soft feathers.  Some of the young birds were fluttering to and fro, down to the ground, and then back up onto the deck.

However, there was one bird who didn't seem to want to move all that much.  Freddie, as I called him, just sat as low as he possibly could on the edge of the siding, occasionally getting a bit frightened if one of his fellow fledglings flew too close.  Come on, Freddie! I thought. Why don't you fly like all the rest of your little bird buddies?

As I watched the fledglings, I realized that we, too, can be a lot like Freddie.  God has so much planned for us, but we too often don't experience the amazing things that God has in store.  So how do we tap into God's incredible life plot?  Just like Freddie, there are a few things we have to do.

1. We need to get our adult feathers.  In order to fly, birds can't keep the same soft feathers they used to have.  They need feathers fit for flying, and so do we.  Our "feathers" are our understanding of the deep truths of the Word of God.  Paul explains this as moving from the "milk" to the "meat" of the Word (1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Hebrews 5:12-14).  We can't expect the fruit of a godly life without first basking in the light of the Word of God.

2.  We need to drop our baby feathers.  While this may seem to be equivalent to the first point, there's another aspect to losing our old feathers.  As Christians, we tend to carry around lingering attitudes and beliefs, which we had before we were saved.  It's critical that we leave these behind!  Any behavior that does not match that of Christ must be removed from our lives, for it will destroy us (see Romans 6).  This requires that we allow God to examine our hearts and show us what we need to change (Psalm 139:23-24).

3.  We need to jump.  We've all heard the cliche: "Take a leap of faith!"  To some, this phrase means practically nothing, but it's imperative to learn to jump out of our own comfort zones and into God's will, for the two are seldom the same.  The Bible says that we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  We may not understand what our Father is doing or why He wants us to do this or that, but He has called us to follow Him regardless.

Sometimes, even birds are afraid to fly.  But how sad would it be, though, if they never tried, and completely missed out on God's wonderful gift of soaring through the skies!  Our Savior has an impeccable plan for each of our lives (so much better than the ability to fly!), but we are too complacent in our own lives to experience it.

I find comfort in the fact that the Maker of the universe knows when a single bird falls from the sky (Matthew 10:29-31).  We are so much more loved that birds.  How much more will our Abba Father guide and protect us as move past our Freddie-like fear and leap into His glorious will!

The Only Way

Beaten with rods.  Whipped relentlessly.  Pierced by thorns around His head.  The Holy One of God - the King, the Son of the Most High, the Almighty - was tortured beyond comprehension.  The All-powerful Messiah's body was unable to bear the weight of the cross on which He was to die.  Eventually He was hung on it, amidst ridicule and mockery.  He died one of the most shameful, painful deaths that anyone could ever die.  But it was the only way to save humanity from their sins.

Or was it?

Sin came into the world so easily; through one man (see Romans 5).  Was all hope lost after the first sin, though?  Was God powerless against the sin that entered the earth through Adam?  Of course not!  He made a promise, even then, that He would send a Savior to the world (Genesis 3:15).

But He didn't have to make that promise.  He could have just obliterated Satan the moment Satan turned against Him, and purged the earth of sin on the spot.  He could have purified the earth with a gush of Heavenly fury.  But why didn't He?

He did it for us.  But most of all, He did it for His own glory.

God could have put everything back to the way it was.  But He's so much greater than that.  His plan of salvation is one of tragedy, but of hope; of defeat, but of victory; of agony, but of joy.  It's difficult for us, on earth, to understand God's beauty, holiness, and magnificence without first knowing the ugliness, imperfection, and woefulness of sin.  That's why Jesus died: so we could know Him, and know His incomparable, incredible beauty.

But more than this, Jesus died so that He could be glorified.  "Father, the hour has come," He prayed.  "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you" (John 17:1b).  God is glorified in our lives when we choose Him over everything else and worship Him for who He is.  Knowing that we would better savor Him and His majesty after first knowing the worthlessness of sin, He chose to write the best, most heroic story imaginable, so that we could experience His joy to the utmost (See John 15:11, 16:20-22).

Jesus didn't have to die.  But He did.  He could have wiped out sin completely.  But He didn't.  Instead, He chose to lay His own life down (John 10:18).  He chose to endure the cross, to endure the beatings, to endure the whippings, to endure the mockery, to endure the blood, to endure the aching, and to endure the shame.  And He did it all for His glory.  He did it all for us.

Arguing with the Manual Writer

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Many think that the Bible is just a book of encouragement, merely a collection of stories, or simply a bunch of rules.  However, these are all false conceptions of the Word of God.  Yes, the Bible can be encouraging.  Yes, it contains stories of men and women of history and even has rules.  But as Christians, we know that it's infinitely, unfathomably more.

Think about just how amazing it is that we have the Bible.  It's God's very Word!  By His words, the universe came into being.  With His words, He calmed storms and healed a myriad of sick people - both physically and spiritually.  And on top of that, He has given that Word to us!  The question is, though: do we act like it?

I've heard some say that the Bible is a Christian manual.  While the metaphor misses some essential elements of scripture, there is some truth in it.  Life, you could say, is sort of like building a bicycle.  Why would you attempt to build one without consulting the manual for guidance?  I've never heard statements such as these:

"Yeah, but this manual doesn't apply to my bike."
"I know it says that, but with this bike, I'm sure it would work better this way."
"But if the manual writer were in my situation, he would see that it doesn't work."
"Well he didn't really mean that when he wrote it, what he really meant was this."

See how silly that is?  Yet we, whether intentionally or unintentionally, constantly use these excuses in our lives.  The great "Manual Writer" of life knows and has revealed to us, among other things, the best way to live life.  He created life itself, so how could my plan or idea possibly top His?  I can't see the end, but He can see the end, the beginning, and everything in between.

It is crucial that we line up our lifestyles with the Will of God, according to His Word.  If an aspect of your life is contrary to His word, change it!  Who are we to argue with the Author of life?  It's as foolish as arguing with the manual writer.

Deaf to the Spirit

In the last post, I talked about the necessity of being wholly God's, and used 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 to explain its extreme importance and greatness:

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

In this post, we're going to look at the same verse, but in a slightly different light.  Again, contextually speaking, Paul is writing primarily about the sexual immorality of the church of Corinth, but there is another universal truth that we must understand: we are each the temple of the Holy Spirit.

In Old Testament times, the dwelling place of Emmanuel (meaning "God with us") was between the cherubim on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.  He literally had a tent (the tabernacle), just like the rest of the Israelites.  He dwelt with them.

When Christ laid down His life, however, something changed.  The veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn from top to bottom, symbolizing that we can enter into God's presence without an intermediary.  He no longer dwells in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48), and is not longer simply with us.  He is in us.  How amazing it is to know that the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the Alpha and Omega, and the Savior of mankind would choose to dwell in us!

Too often, though, we take for granted the fact that we have the Spirit of Almighty God in our hearts.  Our perception of Him becomes that of a deity who allows us to live our own lives without interference unless we ask him to help us out, rather than that of a personal God who is constantly seeking to speak to us and mold us into who He wants us to be.  In reality, too many of us are deaf to the Spirit.

How do you live your life?  In the choices you make, entertainment you enjoy, things that fill your conversation, and in your day-to-day behavior with your family and friends, do you live like Christ is watching, guiding, and shaping your life? or do you do your own thing, as if He's distant and just "there for you?"

The more we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, the more our lives will resemble Christ and His love.  The more we allow ourselves to become distracted with our own plans, lives, and desires, the more we deafen ourselves to the Spirit.  Let us live every moment remembering that the One Who holds the universe chooses to live and work in our hearts.

To Be Wholly His

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

It is undoubted that our generation of Christians has become the epitome of lukewarmness. We have become so much like the world, either in a compromising state of spiritual laziness or in a vain attempt to make Christianity look easy-going and free-spirited, that we have made it nearly impossible for unbelievers to see us as any different. What's even worse is that we often praise this as being an accomplishment! 

We have become comfortably content with our lifestyles and have bought into the lie that if we go to church multiple times a week, read some scripture each day, save our first kiss until our wedding day, and maybe pray a tearful prayer every so often, we are spiritual giants. While it is true that, in comparison to most youth today, this is fairly impressive (in fact, those are all very good things), there's something wrong. If this is all that separates us from the world, we have missed the whole point. And the point is simple: we are not our own.

Now, although 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is contextually speaking about sexual immorality in the church of Corinth, Paul is using an ever-present Christian truth: that we do not belong to ourselves (see also Romans 6). Our bodies, souls, and spirits are no longer ours; they are wholly, utterly, and uncompromisingly Christ's.

Are you fully surrendering yourself to Christ? That's not rhetorical. It is absolutely vital that you answer that question for yourself with the utmost honesty. If you want to know if you are fully giving yourself to Him, answer these questions for yourself:

What do I think about the most?

What do my friends and I talk about most frequently?

Do I yearn to read God's Word and to talk to Him?

Do I obey and delight in His commandments?

If someone were to see my every action and hear my every word and thought, would they see a Christian living solely for Christ, or would my life be muddied with worldly behaviors and influences?

Let me be the first to say that I am far from passing that test. Even so, I choose to give my life completely to Him, and to surrender my paths to Him and allow Him to change my ways and make me into the image of His Son. And the more I do that, the more my thoughts become centered on Him, the more I desire to spend time in His Word, and the more I can be His servant and vessel.

Watching my generation and some of my closest friends, many of whom were once close to Christ, become swept away into a compromising state of lukewarmness hurts me deeply. Christ didn't die to save a part of us. He died to save all of us. I don't want to be my own. I want my every thought, my every word, my every action - my everything - to be wholly His.