"How can God punish ME for the way HE created me?"

A friend asked me this week why God punishes us for our sins when he created us imperfect, meaning we will always sin even if we choose to follow Him and repent of our sins. The answer to this question can't be summarised too briefly and I will explain further, but to try and summarise: the reason is that in order to make us perfect and able to stop sinning against Him, God would had to have created us without free will. Since we have free will, we aren't perfect and will always sin, but we still have the choice (because of free will) to acknowledge that sin is wrong, turn from it and repent.

If that short version is a sufficient enough explanation, hopefully once I've explained it further it will make more sense. So stay with me!

God's desire for a genuine relationship with us is paramount to His creating of the world. He desires a deep, meaningful relationship with us. Think of it like a relationship you yourself have. You would not want a person (whether it be a parent/child/sibling) to love you and have a relationship with you for the sake of it - because you're there or because you're being forced to by someone. It is exactly the same for God. He doesn't want robots that are forced to love Him or follow Him, he wants a real relationship with children who love Him and follow Him because they choose to. That is why God gave us free will.

The reason He can punish us therefore, is because with this free will we all have the choice to try not to sin, to turn away as much as we can and to say we're sorry when we fail. If we do this, it is perfectly acceptable in God's eyes, we are doing what He has asked of us in the best way we can considering how He made us. To know this and to continue sinning with no remorse and no attempt at changing our ways, is to deny the plan God has created to avoid sin and punishment. That does warrant punishment.

He is not punishing us for the way we have been created, for our imperfection or for the fact we have once sinned, as he knows this to be the case before we are even born. God punishes us for turning away and refusing to adopt His plan of salvation - to wipe us of our sin and imperfection and to in future make us perfect. This way we can enjoy a true relationship with our Father and He with His children.

I leave you with this verse:
"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them" - 2 Corinthians 5:15

Thought of the Day: Everyday Miracles

Someone asked me recently if God performs miracles today. I believe he does, but not in the same way as he used to. We don't have Jesus on Earth today, so we see less of people being healed on the spot and with medical advances we don't have as many people in need of healing in everyday life, e.g. leprosy. We don't need God to part the Red Sea. However, God is still perfectly capable of healing and he still does, but that is just one type of miracle He performs. I have heard many stories of miracles performed today, including healings.

But consider this: before we complain about God not doing what we want, not saving people, not healing people, not protecting people, think about just how many times in a day God does do these things. For example, a driver loses control of his car momentarily and mounts the curb. Maybe God intervened by stopping pedestrians who would have been walking on that path at that time from going outside. That would be God protecting people, but who would ever know this was the case?

I think situations like this are examples of small miracles from God that could be happening all the time, but unless someone realises it, they go unnoticed, leaving people to assume that God is no longer looking out for us and performing miracles. And that's before we even start to think about bigger miracles God performs ;)

Thought of the Day: Keeping Your Focus on God

This is a little bit of a 2-in-1 post. I'm going to write about keeping your focus on God in your day to day life, but also about choosing hobbies and activities that please God. So here goes.

My university's Athletic Union (AU) announced today details on the annual Sports Fair. It reminded me of how much I want to dance regularly. Last year, I wanted to join the dance team in the AU, but one of my lecturers chose not to follow the 'Free Wednesday Afternoons from Classes' policy and I had class during and after dance meets. I saw cheerleading being promoted and thought, 'that seems cool, they add dance with some cheer, I'll do that instead. I can make the training sessions'. So I paid my membership and joined the cheerleading squad.

This is the part where choosing hobbies that please God comes into it. Everyone knows the stereotype of the cheerleader: hot, popular, slutty, fun-loving, you know how it is. I ignored that when I joined. Well, turns out that stereotype was half right in my squad. I spoke to many girls who'd been in the squad for over a year, who loved to tell me about all the nights they got smashed (with the squad), the number of times they woke up naked next to a guy whose name they couldn't remember and warned me that ANYTHING that happened between me and one of the footballers we cheered for, would spread like wild fire between the football team and the squad. That wasn't a great start to the social side.

When I went out on a social with the cheerleaders (it was kinda mandatory after our first dance performance was in a bar) I got quite a shock. Firstly, I was the only one showing no interest in getting hammered. Secondly, it was a mixed social with the football team, who seemed to think (since I was a cheerleader) it wouldn't take much for me to end up going home with them and that I also didn't mind if they tried to touch me. Well I wasn't 'game' for either. I was also one of about 3 cheerleaders who were wearing dressings that did cover out hineys. Even our coach for body conditioning was drunk, stumbling around, falling all over the place, shouting swear words. Great example! That was the first and last cheer social I attended.

People assumed that because I was a cheerleader, I was an easy, retarded, gossipy, slut who enjoyed getting drunk and sleeping around. Well I wasn't, I'm not and I won't be. People wouldn't talk to me as much because I wouldn't go on the socials (for the above reasons). At that point I thought "why am I doing this?" Cheer was very serious business, you had to attend 8 hours training a week (2 gym, 2 dance, 2 cheer and 2 stunt) plus attend games more or less every Sunday. Which involved catching a bus circa 8am, being in the freezing cold for the game for 4 hours (warm up, entertaining the crowd and cheering for the team) and not getting home again until circa 10pm every time.

More effort and more of my time was going into cheerleading than to God and for what? To be considered stupid and promiscuous? To be shunned because I wouldn't do what they did. Even some of my flatmates would ask "if you're a Christian, why are you cheerleading? Is that allowed?"

1 Peter 2:12 - Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Ephesians 5:8 - For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light.

If you can cheer without all this negativity, I guess you could do it, but for me personally I felt like it was seriously interfering with my faith. I didn't have enough time for God and I couldn't stand the reputation I was bringing upon myself, even when I knew and so did my friends that it was wrong. After 3 months in the squad, I quit.

Moving more onto keeping your focus on God, by all means have a hobby, an activity that you enjoy. But don't let it consume you. Some girls on the squad would live and breathe cheerleading. If they weren't at a game all day, in class or in their 8 hours training, they were watching football games, practicing even more in their free time, or going to games. Their lives revolved around it and they had no outside interests or any other hobbies. They're focus and happiness came entirely from cheerleading. Our worth and focus should not be completely invested in a hobby, especially one that isn't viewed as something Godly. (I thought cheer gave me a bad rep, but recently one of my 'Christian' classmates decided she would start poledancing classes. I think that's worse).

Colossians 3:1-3 - Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God

My plan this year is to do pure dance. Now I have Wednesday afternoons off, I could join the dance team in the AU. But I don't think I will. I don't want to be forced into making the team my everything. I need to find a balance. This summer I went to dance classes at home that were fun and I learnt new stuff. But there was no obligation to come every single week, no strict competitions and you could come for 1 hour a week or 4. There was no pressure. It was great because it was everything I wanted from dance, but allowed me to keep my focus where it belongs. I will try to find a place to continue this at university, otherwise I will have to surrender dance. God doesn't want you not to have interests and do activities, but He does request that He comes first and I agree.

Thought of the Day: Bad Churches

I recently spoke to a couple of friends about what initially drew me to attending Quaker meeting. The simple reason is, I had been to many different types of churches including Methodist, Evangelical and Anglican and I found many examples of very un-Christian behaviour. To give credit where credit is due, I did not find this in the Methodist church I attended and the Anglican church I attended I have heard has improved since.

Some people don't understand what I mean by this. In the Bible we are warned of those in Church authority who are not actually Godly: "And now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people’s faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them. Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words they deceive innocent people" - Romans 16:17-18 (NLT)

In my situation, I heard one pastor speak who said "all Christians need to turn away from sin. This means, they stop sinning for good". Well, that would make us perfect and no human (besides Jesus) is, was or will ever be perfect. Hence our need for salvation. Maybe he didn't realise the implications of his words, but if I can pick up on that and I'm not theologically trained, I think he needs to go back to Bible college before his whole congregation get the wrong idea. Another church told me that I had to be baptised in order to receive salvation and holy communion. Um, that isn't taught in the Bible either my friend.

In another church, I saw youth being denied access to the childrens and teens youth group and Bible study classes unless they could pay £2. The leader of these groups was stood in the doorway of the church bouncer-style, accepting the money and moving aside for those who paid and turning away those who couldn't. Since when did church become an elite group for those who can pay their way? I was shocked. Later on this youth leader left the church and his wife and 2 sons, for a younger female from the congregation, whom he confessed to having an affair with for circa 2 years. And this man leads Christian youth?

The Bible did warn us that in some cases these incidents would happen. God is perfect, his followers are not. More recently I have heard of churches lean more towards cult-like teachings. Make no mistake, the Quaker meeting I attend is very Godly, with almost all its members still staying true to the Christian faith. Talking to them, they are there for the same reasons as me. They also have had bad church experiences in places that don't teach the Gospel correctly.

On a side note: these Christian Quaker meetings are sometimes going by the name of 'Friends Church' now to show the reunion between Quakerism and Christianity. This is like Quakerism was back in the days of its foundation, as opposed to more recent times when some Quakers have missed the mark in trying to be accepting and pacifistic, forfeiting somewhat on their Christianity.

So if you have had a bad church experience also, I'm not telling you to run to the nearest Quaker meeting! If they're more post-modern and liberal then that will not help either. I'm encouraging you instead to check out this article by Focus on the Family about how to overcome your bad church experience. I certainly found it very useful. Good luck in finding your new Christian church home!

My Take on 'Gossip' Magazines

There are many people, especially girls, who enjoy reading 'gossip' magazines. To clarify before I go on, I'll define what I mean by that: magazines that feature scandalous stories about the personal lives of celebrities.

Examples of these are:

• Heat
• Now
• OK!
• Hello
• People
• Star
• Us Weekly

Many girls think it's harmless fun to read these magazines and have no issue spending upwards of £3 per issue on each one. For some reason, our society has got to a stage where we are so obsessed with celebrities that we want to know their every move. People will spend money, sometimes daily, so that they can track what's happening in the life of their favourite celebrity: what they're wearing, who they're dating, who's marrying, who's divorcing, who's cheating, how they're working out and what they're eating.

Here's why I would never spend a penny on said magazines and why I find them sinful to read even if you didn't buy one and you're feeling bored in a doctor's office:

• Gossip magazines are notoriously known for reporting speculation, rumours, lies and distorted or exaggerated facts. So tell me why you want to read something you know isn't completely, if at all, true?
• Would you want people looking at awful photos of you that have been taken without your awareness or permission? No? Then why do you want to look at such photos of other people?
• You are paying companies for the privilege of reading lies. People can actually make a living from creating fake stories about other people. Would you want someone to profit from selling lies about you? It's hurtful to hear something false said about you, before knowing someone got paid to tell it!
• Paying people to write lies also encourages their bad behaviour. Why would they stop if they know you'll pay for it? Why should they report the truth if you're satisfied with lies? They want to get your money not report what's true. The truth is, if you won't pay for it, they won't write it!
• The Golden Rule: seriously, you can't get upset if someone says something nasty about you if simultaneously you're reading potentially nasty stuff about other people e.g. look how much weight X celebrity has gained! Is Y cheating on her husband?
• The Bible also says that gossip is a sin. Leviticus 19:16 says it's sinful to slander someone (definition: the action of making a false spoken statement about a person that's damaging to their reputation). Psalm 34:13 says, 'Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies'

There you have it, why I despise gossip magazines. So please no more comments about how it's over-exaggerating to refrain from reading them. My beliefs are clear and non-negotiable :)

To Those Who Play the Blame Game

I was having a conversation in Meeting today about people that play the blame game. When things don't go right in our life, like when we don't have the things we want, the money we want, the things everyone else seems to have. Or when something goes wrong, like a child being born with a condition, a diagnosis of something terminal, etc, we look for someone to blame.

Why do people blame God? Why do we think He does this to people? That He is the cause of these things?

I follow the Evidence Bible on Twitter and the other day this wonderful article was posted: click here to read it

I encourage you to check it out, because it explains why people like to blame God for what goes wrong in their life and why it's wrong to do so. Many people won't like the answer, it's not what they want to hear. They would prefer to run and hide. But it's the truth

The Answer to My Struggles

In my last post I wrote about how I was struggling with faith. What I thought I knew solidly, my faith in Jesus and Christian belief, I realised I understood far less.

To try and summarise, my struggle was in understanding why we should be Christians and not Jews. To break that down further: why was a human sacrifice suddenly needed to atone sin? Why was a new covenant needed? What's original sin and where did it come from? Should we still keep the laws of Moses?

Well finally I have the answers that I need. If you're interested, ask me questions and I'll go into greater depth. But I will try to be brief so you can see where I started in this struggle and where I ended up, as going deeper is probably of no interest seeing as these weren't your thoughts. Or maybe you're thinking the same thing?

God says in Leviticus (Vyikra) that blood sacrifices are needed in chapter 17. In Judaism, this was done by animal sacrifice. When the temple was destroyed, animal sacrifices could no longer be made at the alter. It is argued that at this point, the sacrifices stopped and thus blood isn't really needed for forgiveness. But historically, this was the time at which Jesus came, giving an alternative for ever more to animal blood sacrifices by providing a new blood sacrifice to atone sin.

So if God hates human sacrifice and forbids it in Deuteronomy (Devarim) 12:31, why did he send Jesus as a sacrifice? The answer is because he wasn't a human, reason number 1. He was a God in human form, allowing him to die temporarily because a God can't die. Therefore, it wasn't a human sacrifice and could simultaneously save all of humanity. Secondly, God chose to sacrifice himself in the form of Jesus to save others. It wasn't the kind of forced sacrifice for a non-existant god or other trivial cause that God says he detests.

Finally, a new covenant is mentioned throughout the Bible (e.g. Jeremiah 31:31) and from reading again Isaiah 53 I struggled to see how that could be about anyone other than Jesus. Lastly, I discovered that there is a whole book in the Bible on this topic (see God thinks of everything!) the book of Hebrews. It's all about how Jews were doubting their switch to Christianity, wondering if they should still keep the Jewish laws or return to Judaism entirely.

You can also check out http://www.gotquestions.org/ if you're still confused or have questions. There's over 20,000 I think so there's a good chance you'll find your answer to many theological issues.

A Moment of Struggle

As I've already explained, this is mostly a question/answer blog. Friends, classmates, co-workers, family, ask me various questions (sometimes repeatitively) and I write my answers up on here for them to read. Recently, people have continued to ask me questions but for some reason I haven't had the motivation to write my answers.

So instead, here is a slightly different type of post. I'll share with you what's going on in my head right now. I'm going through a moment of struggle. For the last 2 weeks I haven't wanted to attend Meeting. I felt tired and really like I couldn't face it, so I didn't go. Can you believe it? I spend a whole year at university wishing I could go to Meeting, I finally get the opportunity and I don't want to. On top of that, I've had difficulty feeling secure in my faith recently. I spent some time with some Muslim friends of friends who asked me about what I believe. I am interested in understanding Islam, but let me say now that I have no intention or desire to convert. My point is, that through speaking to them and hearing about what they believe, they know what that is and where they're going.

To explain that more clearly, they know what they believe about God, about angels, about the prophets, about salvation, about prayer. They asked me about Jesus, why he came to 'pay the price for our sins'. That made me realise that I have no idea why. It sounds fantastic that Jesus paid the price for our sins, died so we don't have to. But we still die. So what did that achieve? Why is the shedding of blood and death required for salvation and forgiveness? That wasn't the case in the Old Testament. If we still die, how come we aren't paying for our own sins at that point? It made me realise I don't understand this enough.

The Muslims I spent time with also knew what it was to be a Muslim. It wasn't just about believing, which they did, but also about praying, giving to charity, reading the Qur'an. I have no idea what a Christian should do in everyday life. That might sound stupid, but what I mean is in comparison to Jews and Muslims, what should a Christian do day to day? Read the Bible, ok. Pray... pray how? For what? When? How often? What else? Say you're sorry, ok. Then what? Be compassionate, give to charity, ok and what else? Christianity looks like a bit of a cop-out in comparison to other religions. Try to help out others, give to charity, volunteer, pray for your sins, forgive others and you are a Christian going to Heaven. Seems like you don't really do anything and you've got an easy way out compared to other religions. Christianity teaches that it isn't about works whether or not you are saved. But after you're saved, then what?

So right now, I'm a little confused. Unintentionally, these kind, friendly people have shaken my world. What I thought I understood and had complete faith in, isn't currently making enough sense to me. I need to know why there is a Trinity, why a human/blood sacrifice is needed to atone for sin, why we need a saviour when "the wages for sin is death" and we still die. Where 'original sin' came from and why these New Testament teachings don't seem to comply with Old Testament teachings. Until I do, I feel like a hypocrite. Trying to explain why Christianity is true when all of a sudden I don't understand it myself. And I hope the path I find to be true isn't influenced by the embarrassment of having to hold my hands up and say I was wrong.