God Didn't Want A Crispy Isaac

Have you ever felt that nudge in your heart?  The nudge God gives you when He wants you to do something,  in the New Testament  that nudge is described as the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God inside you, telling you what to do.  When Jesus left, he gave us the Holy Spirit so we can have him inside us as a comforter. In the Old Testament though, no one had the Holy Spirit because God told people what to do directly or via angel.  Jesus wasn't in the picture yet so no Holy Spirit was needed.

We always need faith to do what God tells us to do, faith that God will help us through it.  If you look at Abraham's life in Genesis you will find that he had A LOT of faith.  God promised He would give Abraham and Sarah (who is Abraham's wife) a child.  Sarah was old and barren and no child had come.  He still had faith and eventually God gave Abraham and Sarah had a son named Isaac.

It doesn't stop there.  Years later, God told Abraham to sacrifice his own son.  I like the way God put it:

"Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2, NIV)

God didn't just say " Sacrifice your son on mountain Moriah", He told Abraham to sacrifice his only son whom he loves very much.  God puts as much pressure behind the command as possible.  Abraham had waited to have his son Isaac for a long time, his only son, and God just told him to go up to a mountain and burn his kid.  I should also point out that God didn't even tell him exactly where on the mountain Moriah to make the sacrifice at, God just tells Abraham to sacrifice his son on a mountain He will tell him about.

So Abraham is about to burn his only kid somewhere on a mountain.  God doesn't play around.  Most of us (especially me) would make up some excuse like "Can't someone else be the sacrifice?" or, "You don't want my kid, he's annoying!"  Abraham didn't make excuses though, instead he set out early the next morning with his family.  He didn't wait a couple days to think it over and I'm sure he didn't sleep much that night, he went out the next morning because he had faith.

After a couple days of travel Abraham looked up and saw the place God wanted him to go, so he told his family to stay put while  he and Isaac climb the mountain to make the sacrifice.  While climbing the mountain Abraham carried the fire and and a knife so he let Isaac carry the firewood.  This is a conversation they had on their way to make the sacrifice.

Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"

"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.

"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said,"but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." (Genesis 22:7,8, NIV)

So we can see that Isaac doesn't know yet that he is the sacrifice, and Abraham doesn't tell him.  Instead, Abraham tells Isaac that God will provide the burnt offering.  Abraham has no idea why God is asking him to reduce his kid to a crisp, or why, he just knows that God wants him to do it.  He has faith in God, he knows how infinitely big God is. Abraham knew that whatever reason God asked him to sacrifice Isaac was a good reason.  He knew that God gave him Isaac and that He can take Isaac back if He wants to.  Abraham didn't ask God's motives, instead, Abraham did what God told him to do without question.  He knew that God would provide enough information to perform the sacrifice.  If why the sacrifice had to be made wasn't need to know, then Abraham didn't need to know.

When they finally get to their destination, Abraham builds an alter.  He puts the wood on the alter, ties up his son, and lays him on top of the wood.  Isaac must have trusted his dad a lot because the Bible doesn't say anything about him struggling or fighting back.  Even Isaac must have known God had a plan, it takes a lot of faith to let someone tie you up and put you onto an alter.  Abraham was just about to bring his knife down on Isaac when an angel from Heaven yelled:

"Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am," Abraham replied.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said.  "Do not do anything to him.  Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son." (Genesis 22:11, 12, NIV)

In the next verse it says that Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by his horns in a tree.  So he got the ram out of the tree and sacrificed it.  I imagine that by now Isaac has a mess to clean up in his biblical pants, after all, this was his first near-sacrifice experience.

Abraham's faith payed off, he didn't have to burn his kid to a crisp after all.  God just did that to see if Abraham would actually make the effort to sacrifice his son, God just wanted to see if Abraham trusted Him.  I have been talking a lot about faith but I would also like to point out how humble Abraham was.  Abraham had almost no pride, if he was prideful he wouldn't have even made the trip to sacrifice his son, he would have probably mouthed off at God like Cain did.  The more pride we have the less room in our lives there is for God, but if we are humble like Abraham then we will do what God tells us to do without hesitation and we will trust in Him.  Humble doesn't mean always putting yourself down and saying you are nothing, it means not thinking about yourself at all. A humble person doesn't even think about being humble.  C.S. Lewis said that a truly humble person would be a "cheerful, intelligent chap", and that we would probably be "envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily".

In the beginning of this post I told you that now God doesn't speak to us directly anymore, He doesn't send angels down to tell me "Hey Caleb, witness to that dude over there!", He uses the Holy Spirit.  I will tie that in with the story of Abraham and Isaac by saying that, no matter how God speaks to you or tells you what to do, you should have faith and follow God's command through.  We can never take lightly what God says in our hearts, our God is a loving God, but that doesn't mean He doesn't have wrath.  If we disobey our Heavenly Father there will be consequences just as I showed you with the story of Cain and Abel.  The more humble we become, the more we will listen to God to make sure we follow His every word, and the more faith we will have because of it.

Stephen Hawking Thinks God Is A Wall!

I watched the first episode of the new show Curiosity called "Did God Create The Universe?"  I was disappointed when I found out that the entire episode was all about what the atheist Stephen Hawking thought.  If someone is going to ask if God created the universe why would they just ask an atheist like Stephen Hawking if he is obviously going to say no?  You might want to add some Christian perspective if you are going to ask a question about God,  wouldn't you think so?  I plan to give you the Christian perspective as best as I can.

Stephen Hawking concluded that since time was created at the same time as the universe, then there wasn't time for God to have created the universe.  I have some serious questions for Stephen.  Why should God have to be limited to time?  If God created the universe and time with it, He is outside of time. "Outside of time" defines eternal.  Guess what?  God just so happens to be eternal!

I think if Stephen did some reading he would have bumped into this quote by C.S. Lewis, which says:

"If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn."

God is not confined to time no more than paper is confined to a line.  If we limit God to time then we are limiting God in a big way.  Stephen is limiting God to being governed by the laws of the universe.  He is trying to disprove God by limiting the aspects of God.  C.S. Lewis also addressed this when he said:

"If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe-no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house."

Stephen Hawking is trying to making his claims superior to his Creator.  Lots of the scientific claims he stated take just as much faith to believe in as God.  He is making every possible claim he can to disprove God even when there is no proof to back any of it up.

Imagine this:  If God was the Author of a story book, one character in that book could ask another, "Who made you?"  The other character would say that the Author (God) made him.  In the same sense it would be unfair for the same character to be asked, "Where did God come from?" because the character can't understand everything about the Author, for the Author isn't in the story book itself.

Because of this, we cannot expect to understand God like you understand Oprah or your parents.  Just because Oprah couldn't exist outside of space and time doesn't mean God couldn't have.  Just because your mom or dad couldn't have created the universe doesn't mean God couldn't have.  The Creator is far greater than the created.  I don't have to be a science whiz to know that.

None of what Stephen Hawking stated can be proved valid, he isn't giving God a chance and I honestly feel sorry for him.  If he is trying to take advantage of people's ignorance then he must have some serious problems to work out, because if he gave Christianity a chance he wouldn't have to.

I encourage everyone who reads this to pray for Steven Hawking's salvation.  Pray that he finds God and that he will be an example for all the atheists who look up to him.  Look at C.S Lewis's life.  He was an atheist until age 33 and now he is known as one of the best Christian writers of all time.  He studied Christianity  so much that he wrote books about it.

 I knew next to nothing about Christianity when I started this blog.  After I started reading the Bible I had a lot more to write about but I still had questions. Over the summer I started reading a lot about Christianity and I had a major boost in faith, the more I read, the more I trusted and loved God.  God calls us to trust Him like a child but He doesn't call us to have the ignorance of a child.  God kept providing me with more material to read and He will do the same with you if you ask.  If you want to learn more about the God you serve, He isn't going to keep you from that.  God has nothing to hide.  I do encourage you to read the Bible first so you can compare it to everything you learn.

I will conclude this post by stating that GOD DID CREATE THE UNIVERSE.  Stephen Hawking would know that if he didn't mistake the Architect of the universe for a mere wall.

God Gave You All That And A Bag Of Chips

Last year one of my classes was studying different religions.  The first religion we studied was Christianity.  We were discussing different stories in the Old Testament and one of them was the story of the two brothers Cain and Abel.

This is how the story goes:

Cain grew crops and Abel kept flocks.  Cain sacrificed crops to the Lord and Abel sacrificed big portions of the first born of his flock.  God didn't care much for Cain's sacrifice but He was pleased with Abel's offering.  Cain became jealous of Abel and killed him.

My teacher reflected on the story and announced jokingly, "I guess God was a little bloodthirsty at that time".  I could see the bewildered looks on some of my friends.  I could almost hear them thinking, "This is the God I believe in? what have I gotten myself in to?!"

I didn't understand it either, I didn't accept we serve a bloodthirsty God.  If we did serve a bloodthirsty God, wouldn't we still be sacrificing things?  I couldn't recall a time when my mom last sacrificed some raw hamburger patties on an alter.

Lets look at the story of Cain and Abel in more detail. 

. . .Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked in the soil.  In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.  But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. (Genesis 4:2-4, NIV)

This is a very important part of the story and we must look at the words carefully or we will miss the point.  There is a big difference between their offerings and it has nothing to do with blood.  It says Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering.  Then in the next verse it says Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock as an offering.  There is a pretty big difference between the offerings both brothers made.  Let me also say that these offerings are love offerings to God.  The Lord blessed Cain, Abel, and blesses us with everything we have, He just wants to see if we love Him enough to give some of it back.  This reminds me of the countless times I have been eating a meal and my dad asks for a chip, so I break off a little crumb of the chip and give it to him.  Then my dad raises an eyebrow and says, "Who bought these for you?".  Then I am silent because I know he bought the chips for me so he technically owns the chip he wanted and even the entire bag they came in.

In the same sense, God owns everything in our lives and He is only asking for "a couple chips out of the bag" just to see if we will give it to Him.  He deserves the whole bag but He doesn't ask for it.  He asked Cain and Abel for just a chip.  Abel gave God a chip but Cain gave God a crumb.  My dad was rightfully mad when he asked for a chip and just got a crumb.  This also brings up the question why Cain didn't give the whole chip worth of crops to God.

When I gave my dad a crumb instead of the chip, I didn't want him to have the whole chip for a reason: I wanted the chip.  I took for granted that my dad bought me the chip that I was hungry for and (in my selfishness) I didn't want to give it up.  I didn't really care about giving my dad the entire chip because my selfish mindset told me is was okay as long as he got a little bit of the chip, and that he should have been grateful that he even got the crumb I gave him. 

I believe my ancestor Cain shared in this ignorant mindset,  he didn't believe the God of the universe deserved to receive a chip worth of an offering, and that God should have been grateful to get the crumb he offered.  This shows the attitude Cain had towards God.  He took God for granted and didn't care to set up an actual sacrifice instead of just some scraps that he could easily do without.  He gave God the "crumb" that he wouldn't be hungry for.  Another indicator that Cain had a bad attitude towards God can be found later in the story after he killed Abel:

Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied.  "Am I my brothers keeper?" (Genesis 4:9, NIV)

I have serious reason to believe that Cain and Abel were teenagers, and that Abel was just the better behaved one.  This combination of lying and sarcasm usually comes from teenagers.  We have all lied or been sarcastic with our parents at one time, but it's only when we are really mad that we use them both together.  Lying is disrespectful whether you mean to be disrespectful or not but sarcasm is always used to be purposefully disrespectful.  So clearly, Cain didn't respect God enough to even be nice.  He showed that he truly had no respect for his Divine Creator.  He also showed his ignorance because he should have known God was all-knowing and that there is no point in lying to God's face.  He must have forgotten what happened to his mom and dad (Adam and Eve).  God asked him what happened to his brother to give him a chance to tell the truth and he blew it with God again.

So now we have uncovered two major reasons that God didn't like Cain's offering.  The first reason is he didn't give God what God asked for (and God didn't want much) which showed God that Cain didn't trust his Creator.  The second reason is that Cain didn't have a good attitude while he gave the offering.  God was mad at him because He knew that Cain didn't love his Heavenly Father or even respect Him.  Our All-knowing God knew what was in Cain's heart even before Cain decided to be all smart alec with Him.  God gave him two chances to do what was right and in return Cain spat in God's face. 

God had a right to be mad at Cain.  We don't serve a bloodthirsty God that wags His Divine finger at us whenever we don't do what He wants.  He is a loving God that has blessed us with a bag of chips.  Everything we have is a blessing from God and we have no right to claim any of it as ours.  It should all be God's, but God isn't asking us for all of it.  He is just asking for a chip for the sake of seeing if we trust and respect Him enough to give it to Him.  We still give Him offerings today, just with different currency.  We don't offer our tastiest hamburger patty or our finest salad, for the reason that man eventually made green pieces of paper with the faces of past presidents on them that are considered to be just as valuable.  Our Celestial Dad just wants a little love from us, He just wants to know if we are willing to give it to Him.

Saying Goodbye

This post is devoted to Ryan my (former) youth pastor and mentor.

I haven't been involved with my youth group as much as I would have liked to be but I have been with the youth group long enough to really miss Ryan.  In a former post I have referred to him as Mr. Awesome because if I had it my way, that would be his name.

For the many of you reading this that don't know Ryan, I feel sorry that he hasn't entered your life yet.  He is a blessing for all the people that he has met, even if only for a brief moment on the street or in a restaurant.  He was (and still is) loved by all his youth group.  He always taught us lessons as if Jesus had personally had chatted with him that day (and there is no doubt in my mind that he did).  He reminds me of a modern day disciple following Jesus wherever Jesus goes, even if it's away from the youth group for a while.

Today the church had a roast for Ryan where we all ate and told our favorite Ryan story.  I felt like that's what the Last Supper must have been like for the disciples, sitting down to a meal with all the other disciples while everyone tells their favorite Jesus story and laughing about all the good times they have had together.  It was still bittersweet and a bit awkward at times but we didn't let that from ruining a good memorable time.

I know I am speaking for the whole youth group when I say Ryan has walked with us and lead us a little closer to Jesus every Sunday.  He always gave me a little more spiritual insight on my walk with God and he has crafted me in amazing ways that I never would have imagined.  God definitely put him in my life for a good reason.  I am closer to God because of him.  When I was first asked to join the youth group I wasn't expecting to make so many friends and I definitely wasn't expecting a loving youth pastor such as Ryan.  The most valuable lesson he taught me was to apply the word of my God to my life.  I always try to express that lesson in my blog posts.

Lean On Jesus People!

I decided to go back to regular posting.  Hallelujah!!

Anyway, last night I was flipping through the channels and it landed on the aftermath of the bachelorette show where Ashely was being interviewed with her new husband J.P. and the other dude Ben.

She was asked the question,"What helped you decide between (the other guy) Ben and J. P.?" and I almost choked on my mouthful of Almond Joy when she said something like,"Well I just followed what my heart said and that's how I made my decision".

There are a lot of things in a persons heart.  There is love, kindness, evil, lust, selfishness, arrogance etc., etc. . .It is a spreading philosophy that we should rely on our hearts for direction in tough decisions.  Is that really a trustworthy source for weighing options and finding the more solid one?  I think we need a better method for decision making.  I think Paul had the same concerns with the Colossians when he wrote:

See to it that no one takes you captive through  hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and basic principals of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8, NIV)

I  think Paul knows what he's talking about.  Instead of trusting deceptive emotions we should put our trust in Christ and lean on him to make decisions.  If we aren't trusting God when the going gets tough, we aren't trusting Him at all.  Do you really think that God is going to give you faulty advice or let you down when you ask Him for guidance?  You can make the decision a little easier by doing what the disciple Peter says:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7, NIV)

So don't hold all the pressure on yourself, cast your worries to God so it will be easier to weigh the choices in a tough decision. I can almost hear some of you screaming, "Well how else can God help me decide, I've never heard Him speak!".  Well God does speak, and He does it everyday.  There is this awesome thing we have called a conscience.  C.S. Lewis called it "the connection between the creature and the creator".  That is seriously what it is.  Has your conscience ever given you bad advice, ever?  When Satan was persuading Cain to kill his brother Abel, God was telling him quietly and persistently not to do it.  That was Cains conscience.  It was quiet because God isn't going to force anything on us but it was persistent because God loves us and wants us to do what it right. 

Another way God can speak to us is by scripture.  God speaks to me everyday through scripture whether it's an awesome revelation or just something to think about, it never fails.  It's your personal guide for life, just open it up!  In Paul's letter to Timothy he writes:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. . . (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV)

So please people, don't "look within your heart" when faced with tough choices.  Just lean on Jesus, you can't go wrong.