Kristus Aman Youth Ministry.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Don't Blame Culture, Blame Yourself


It's easy to blame culture for the problems of the human soul. Blame the media for peddling bling and bodies over art and truth. Blame the radio for playing evil rock and saccharine pop that gets stuck in your head and dumbs you down. Blame the movies for creating a culture of crazed sex and mad violence. We could play the blame game forever, because culture is quite messy.

But let's not forget that culture is what we've made it. Think about culture in the scientific context, and it has to do with creating the environment for a particular organism to survive. When you create a culture of bacteria, for example, you make sure that conditions will be favorable for said culture to exist and thrive. You create an environment in which culture can survive.

Now to the world's culture. It is not eternal, and it didn't spontaneously generate. It exists because we've made our hearts the environment in which it can survive. Our desires and appetites create an illicit culture. Humanity, and even people in the Church, have made the world an environment in which the culture of self addiction can thrive. When self is exalted above all, things go haywire. Sex, violence, lust for power, greed -- these are the born out of self addiction, self obsession.

So next time you feel the depravity of sin, or of the flesh, don't point the blame outward first. Sure, turn off the television, computer or whatever is the vehicle for your temptation. But before you blame the television, or the Internet, or the billboards, or the radio, interrogate and deal with the criminal who created the environment for the culture to survive in. We create the environment in which culture survives.

What culture will you allow to survive? Which culture will you decide to put an end to?



"It's from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That's what pollutes." Matthew 15:19-20, The Message

Believing in God Isn't Good Enough


There's a difference between believing in Jesus
And following Him
The believing bit is the easy part
Well, the easier part
But the following bit is where I mess up the most
I think we all tend to...

I was thinking about the Israelites in the Old Testament. They thought they were wandering lost for decades. When they got to the promised land, they were pretty convinced they had found what they were looking for. But as we read in the Bible, in the promised land, they got more lost than ever, forgetting God and committing serious evils. Back in the wilderness, they weren't quite as lost. Sure, they had no homeland to call their own. There was no temple, no monarchy, no permanent housing. But they were constantly following where God was leading: a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night. No matter how absurd it might have seemed, following God was their only hope for existence.

When we think we've got it made, that's when we've lost it. When we're desperately trying to follow God -- even when direction seems blurry -- that's when we're on the right track. The important bit is following. Not just a passive belief in God's existence, or even in His worthiness to be praised. There's more to faith than that. Following is about knowing Jesus and tailoring our life after how He lived. That's what Christianity is: following Jesus (see Luke 9:23). Following is where the Church gets it right.

On the flipside, following -- rather, refusing to -- is what has caused people to give up on Jesus, too. I've been around long enough to know that people do walk away. From the Church, from community, from a covenant they made to God, from a conviction they once upheld. Seldom does anyone ever really walk away from belief in God. They retain their belief, but cease to follow. Newsflash: not following is walking away from God.

With all the professing Christians in the world, you'd think we would make a bigger impact for justice and goodness. But there's an anomaly somewhere. And I think it lies at the intersection of belief and following. Believers rarely make an impact. Followers are a force to be reckoned with.

It's no big deal to believe in God
The Devil believes in God, for crying out loud
The big deal is following Him.

We Were Teenagers Figuring Out the World

We've got this built in desire to figure things out.


When my friends and I were in early high school we started getting into music and poetry. Deciphering deep song lyrics and coming up with our own flowery descriptions of life situations were among our pastimes. We were aspiring teenage beat-poets, deep in our brooding over the misery and anguish of middle class urban life. And for all the criticism that should accompany that reality, the ironic thing is that it was just that: reality. For all the artifice that teenagers get lost in, it's a 100% true experience for us at the moment of happening. And that's the cool thing about teenage life: it's all you've got. What you're going through is the world to you. That makes it significant. And it makes it essential to figure out the world.

The guys and I would go through our CDs, the post-grunge, mid-alternative, pre-acoustic revival, coffee-drinker music. I think I started liking coffee because it complemented music with its rustic scent, and only later appreciated the taste. We would study lyrical structure, and subtexts, and bring up different songs as the object of debate. At the end of it all, it didn't matter if we nailed the deeper meaning of the lyrics. We continued to appreciate the songs, regardless of our conclusion. What made life meaningful, enjoyable -- and sometimes, bearable -- was going through the experience with others.

One thing that doesn't change after teenage life is the desire to figure life out. We adults seem to be better at accepting life's givens, post-21. But the truth is, everyone, in some way or another, struggles to find direction. It's a daily thing. It's a momentary thing.

I wonder if it's too daring to say that we don't need to figure it all out. There's this Psalm where David says God's Word is like a lamp to his feet, a guide to keep him from stumbling. It's not some raging inferno, or stadium floodlight that gives crisp definition to what was once obscure. It's a lamp. It gives you just enough vision to get your bearing straight, walk on and leave the rest up to faith, trust.

I find it interesting that God's Word isn't some crystal ball that tells the future with certainty. I think that's the difference between Christianity and the pervading culture of spirituality in the world at large. People want complete certainty and assurance -- not faith. Anything that gets them some answers ASAP. But faith presupposes that you don't have things figured out, that you need Someone who does. Faith is the both the bane and solution of our trust issues.

I'm learning to take comfort in not figuring everything out. But I hold fast to God. I cling to His Word. And I journey with people -- friends, community -- who make the process of figuring things out comforting, when the world sees it as a burden. May we grow to trust God, His Word, and His people.

We were teenagers trying to figure out the world. And in many ways, we still are.



"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105 (NIV

Debate about a Trinitarian God

An interesting debate between a Muslim trying to understand the concept of a Trinitarian God! J Too LONG to post.

http://www.friendster.com/group-discussion/index.php?t=msg&th=231742&start=0&