World Lenses

I've often wondered about how unsaved people view the world. And by that I mean what sort of lens do they see? A moral one? A "Do what you want" type of lens? I'm beginning to realize there are only two ways to view the world: Christian, or non-Christian.
I know that seems really simple, so let me put it this way.
When it is completely dark around you, you don't know what sort of dangers are near you, or what your surroundings are. You have the basic knowledge of what is up, down, left or right, but you have no clue what direction is north, south, east or west. You can have all of your opinions about which way is north, but there is no certainty, or any way you can prove that the way you are looking is in fact north. To me, this is why the world believes in relative truth. In the mind of the world, if we are all in the dark, truth (Or to continue the example, direction) can be anything you want. Eventually some of the those relative truths will get close, but it will never be the absolute truth.
When you accept Jesus into your life, the bible tells us we are then filled with the Holy Spirit. And our mind becomes free and we began to see the world in the light rather than in the darkness. Now that we can see everything in the light, we begin to see all of the dangers, traps, cliffs and other things harmful to us. Because we see, we avoid these things, but those in the dark blindly stumble into those traps because they don't know any better.
Now, to continue the use of directions as an example. Since we as Christians are in the light, we can see our compass clearly and thus we understand north is north because our compass says so and not just because we feel a certain way or we say so. In a Christian's life, their compass should be the bible, has to be the bible. Now that we can see that murder is a sin and bad, not just because we feel that way and think it's bad, but because the Bible says so.
As a Christian myself, I have noticed when someone is going to attack Christianity or a certain thing Christians believe, they most often go after the Bible first. This is because if a man in the dark, and a man in the light are debating about which way is north, the man in the dark will obviously try to say that the man's compass is off kilter, that it is pointing in the wrong direction. Once the man in the light is without his compass, he loses any sort of advantage he has and is then trying to use logic and reasoning to find out which way is north, which is infinitely harder than using a compass.
There are those as well, who try to pick and choose from the Bible. To them I say, do you pick and choose from a compass? If you agree north is north, and south south, all is fine and well, but if you think that east is west and west east, you will be all twisted up and not able to go the direction you intend and you will end up lost.
It is either all of the Bible, or none of it. There is no in between. And hopefully now you see it is good to study the Bible, because a Christian without their Bible is like a hiker without a compass. You can stay on the path for so long, but when a fork in the road comes, how will you know which way to choose?

A Poem. Although I Couldn't Think of a Title.

You wear your scars on your wrist.
I hide mine in my heart.
You've embraced your mistakes,
While I only deny, deny, deny...
I've been told the scars which show,
Are worse than those that don't.
But at the end of the day,
Scars are still scars,
No matter where they are.
And people are still people,
no matter what they've done.
So don your scars,
Wear them with pride.
They're apart of you now,
And they will be til you die.

Do we need a preview?

Often times when there is a movie coming out in your favorite series, or an album from your favorite band, you don't need a preview of it to go see it, or buy it. For example, if they came out with another set of movies based in Middle Earth, but apart from the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, I would go see it. I'd probably try to even make the midnight premier. If you have seen similar things before, more often than not you trust the new one will be good, or at least worthy of your time and money. So then if we trust God enough to follow him, why do we ask God for a preview when He asks us to go someplace, or to do something?

To be honest this is something I have struggled with before and still do. I want to do things beneficial to me, from my standpoint, and when God comes to me and tells me to do something. I tend to ask for a preview of it, for a trailer so I can see what is going to happen, if it's going to look worthy for my time. In a way, we already have a preview of what God will do because he has most likely worked in your life before and it most likely turned out to be what was best for you. I find this all ironic in a way because my favorite chapter in the Bible is Hebrews 11, which is the hall of faith. It's message is faith, and how those who are written about walked by faith, and didn't ask God for a preview, but rather did before they what they were actually doing.

The one example I immediately thought about was Abraham. He was living in a completely different country, in a far away land, and he didn't ask question, he just got up and left. I wish I could do that. I feel like instead of following faithfully, I would make excuses like the man who wanted to go bury his father first. Jesus saw right through his excuse and called him out on how he was trying to delay his following of Christ until it better suited him. But as I'm starting to realize, the time is now to start following God. Not after college, not when you're "better prepared", but now. God will use your weaknesses for his glory. And in that thought I find comfort. 

A Role Model

Recently I started reading a book called "7 Men" by Eric Metaxas and by recently I mean like 10 minutes ago. I haven't even read past the introduction when he wrote a few paragraphs that really made me think. 

This book is about 7 men throughout history who are good role models and heroes and what made them such. In the introduction he talks about why he wrote this book and he offers up the idea that the American culture fears strength, and in order to protect the weak, they must make the strong weak. But in doing so they have stripped men of the thing God gave them in order to protect the weak. God made men stronger than women so that men can protect women. And women in a way expect that because you notice that on the hearts of most young girls is the thought of a knight in shining armor coming to save them. So now our society is stuck in a place where everyone is weak and no one is there to stand up and be the good guy. 

Enter Jesus. He comes and shows that the way to be strong is to be a servant. That's why he washed his disciples feet, that's why he died for us. Jesus shows how men should use their strength, for the service of others.

This is where it really started to sink in for me. And in a way this may make for a late father's day post. 

As I was growing up I was blessed to have a dad who I thought to be super strong and super manly. But in that masculinity he never came off as overbearing or abusive. Sure, he had his moments where his temper would get the best of him, but he was a loving, caring father as well as a strong man. He wasn't afraid to help those in need, almost to a fault at times. I remember when we were on vacation in Pennsylvania and we were driving on the interstate when my dad sees this lady on the other side of the highway with a blown tire. He proceeded to get off at the next exit and go back to where the lady was. It turns out someone had stopped to help her in the time it took us to get back. But that is the type of role model I had, and I hope that I can be even just half the man my father was. 

He taught my brother and I to hold the door open for people, to help those in need, to give even when it hurts, to pick up heavy things for people that aren't as strong, and this never happened to me but help an old lady cross the road. Why? Because it's the nice thing to do, the right thing to do. He didn't just tell my brother and I, he more importantly showed it to us. And when you have a good fatherly role model show his sons how to do something, they will listen because they want to grow up to be like their dad. 

I wish he was still here. So often I try to be strong and have faith and I know that this was God's will and He has a plan. But I still miss him. Even time will never fully heal that wound, for it runs deep. I'm a man now, I'm 18 and my father never got to see me become who I am today. Oh how I wish I could ask him if he's proud of me, and so I could say to him, "Look dad, look at the man I've become." But I can't. I'm not bitter at God by any means, in some ways this has been good because it matured me and help me become who I am today, but that being said, I miss him and I will always miss him and I can't wait to get to heaven to embrace him again and tell him I missed him and that I love him. 

Over time the memories become less vivid, and become more of "This one time" than a history, my history. But through that I've tried in a way to become like my dad was. Obviously I'm different and also he wasn't perfect so I am becoming my own man rather than a copy of someone else. That being said, I still try to take the things I remember he told me, or the things I saw him doing, and put them into practice. Sometimes my mom will tell me say to me, "The way you were standing out there reminded me of your dad" or, "That's something your dad would have said." And I may not really respond outwardly, but inside, the kid me has the biggest grin on his face because I still want to be like my dad. And I can think of no greater challenge for me than to become a father one day and be such a good role model that when their 18, or in the middle of their rebellious teenage years, that inside themselves they will say "I want to be like dad when I'm older."