I had a pop of inspiration and that is why I wrote this blog. I actually typed it all in the notes on my phone and it was cool because all of the points I wanted to make came so quickly and clear and I felt like I was on fire writing it.
That was definitely a run on sentence but… you guys get it.
Anyways… I don’t really know what made me think about this but I started getting kinda sad about how people don’t know Jesus. Not the people that know of Jesus and choose not to follow him but people who don’t even know what his ministry is about; people who don’t know what it is to be saved and have a savior. I think it’s sad because I know there are so many people in this world who follow Jesus(including myself) and the fact that not everyone knows him is.. well it feels weirdly wrong. I’m preaching this to myself honestly because I definitely don’t tell everyone I come in contact with about Jesus. From my perspective, I didn’t ever think that people don’t know about Him already. I guess I kinda assumed that the people who aren’t saved, denied him. But that isn’t true. Some people genuinely don’t know who he is, why he came, why people love him so much. It was ignorant of me to think this but I think the reason that I assumed everyone knows of Jesus is because most people in my life knew of him, since I grew up in church. When people talked about God though they weren’t saved, I assumed they knew who God was. As I got older I realized that people talk about “God” in a general way, not knowing his true character. Once I found out who he is and developed a relationship with him, it opened up my eyes to see really everything in a different way. Anyways that was a long explanation…but if you’re a person who just doesn’t get the hype about Jesus or has a negative connotation with christianity or God or also if you don’t know what it is to be saved I would love if you kept reading. Please it’ll make me happy, thank.
Some people think that Christianity is about this God that is a big guy way far away from us. That God hears everyone’s prayers but only chooses certain prayers to answer. It’s so just not true. God doesn’t choose what prayers he answers, but if you don’t know how to pray then yeah you won’t get any answered prayers. It isn’t only special people who know how to pray, but people who trust and read God’s word. God is not complicated, he literally gave us a book with all the answers to all the questions we could have. God is not far away. He isn’t a person that just lives in heaven and sometimes thinks of you. He is literally everything. He is unimaginable because how can you imagine your creator. Our brains can’t comprehend his fullness. But when you are aware of Him, you see glimpses of His beauty everywhere.
God is omniscient, all knowing
God is omnipresent, everywhere at every time.
God is omnipotent, obtaining all power.
BUT…This doesn’t mean he controls everything
Knowing that God is this all powerful being was confusing to me because well there is so much bad in the world. Someone that doesn’t know God may think He is cruel and not a good God because he allows all of this evil in the world. Without telling the whole thing, satan is the one in control of the world. This is his place. I know this because in the Bible when Jesus was on Earth still, satan tried to tempt him and offered Jesus the whole world. (Matthew 4:7-11) This wouldn’t have been a “temptation” if satan didn’t have ownership of the world. If satan didn’t have dominion in this world, Jesus would’ve just been like “ uh yeah you don’t own the world sir…” but no, Jesus was actually tempted. This is why evil things happen in the world. This is something I’ve struggled with because I’ve always known God and know that he is good. But then I could never stop thinking of all the bad that happens in the world. Example, things like shootings. Even in places like church.. horrible things even happen to innocent kids. I asked Bill Weise, this honorable man of God and he explained this to me and honestly it gave me clarity with it all. There is so much heartbreak and evil in this world but my joy and hope comes from the one who is love and who never changes. This also made me think about how death for christians is different. There is so much heartbreak and death but if you believe in Jesus and have him as your savior, dying on earth is the start to your eternal and joyful life. Not that it makes death easier for us because I have an empty feeling in my heart everyday because my mom isn’t here anymore. But sinceI know Jesus, I know it isn’t the end for my mom and i know this isn’t the end for me.
Changing the subject:
One of my biggest pet peeves is people who claim to be Christian but misrepresent the Bible. People who say they’re christian but kill and are extremely racist. Example, people who are in the KKK(white supremacists). I use this as an example because I saw an interview of one of their members and they talked about the bible and I was so pissed. I was appalled that people can really twist the word of God and try to justify blatant racism. Obviously they have a twisted, evil version of who God is and they DO NOT know him. But for people that don’t know God or what his word says, will assume that God is not good because of this kind of misrepresentation. Some people think that he is evil even! But this is exactly the perfect tactic of satan to twist the image and reputation of God
God is not who people say He is.
God is who HE says He is.
The twisted image of God: Ok I just want to set this straight because this is just another misrepresentation of God. Some people say god kills people or people say “god needed them in heaven…” Why would God need someone in Heaven? He doesn’t, he created people and placed them on earth for a purpose and that purpose is never to kill them. That is the opposite of what God is about. Therefore he can’t kill. I’m sure if God needed something he wouldn’t need to kill someone on earth and bring them to heaven. And I don’t want to offend anyone with this because I know it’s just a saying, but I will not let God’s character be stomped on for a “saying” that doesn’t make grieving any easier. I know what grieving is like, but saying something about God killing someone or needing them in Heaven can make people think that God is a murderer. But He isn’t. My God would never, could never kill someone. God is all powerful so technically he can do anything, don’t get me wrong. BUT he is truth. Being truth means he literally cannot lie. The bible is God in a book and he clearly says he is the way, the truth, and the life. This means going against what he said, would make him a liar. That is why he physically cannot kill anyone, or else he would be a liar and christianity would have nothing to stand on. People may come at me with the Old Testament where there were situations that were way different than anything we experience nowadays(like when Lot’s wife was turned to salt for looking back at Sodom) but we are living in the new covenant with God.
NEW COVENANT:Jesus died and his death fulfilled the “old covenant” we had with God. In the Old Covenant, the Jews were under the law. On the other hand, the Gentiles which was everyone else, had no way to have a relationship with God. The people had to make sacrifices, like killing a lamb in order to have righteousness(right standing with God) because this was in the law. But the law could not save anyone and was not meant to save anyone. The law revealed to us humans that we are sinners and there is no way we can be righteous on our own. The law contained very specific rules that no one but Jesus could follow because Jesus is perfect.. there were like 600 something laws(which are the rules that some people come at christians with because we don’t follow them, but this is why we don’t follow them because the law was fulfilled at the cross!) BUT thank Jesus that He knew that wasn’t the way we should be living, he wanted everyone to be included in knowing him. This is why Jesus came to earth in human form, 100% man. He came to this earth and never sinned, he was the the only perfect person who will ever live. Which is why he was the ultimate sacrifice, to save the world from the hell we were heading for.
You’re not christian because you go to church. Also you can flip that around, you aren’t NOT christian because you don’t go to church. My pastor said one time “ you’re not a Christian if you go to church but if you were a Christian you would want to go to church” Yeah… he’s pretty straight forward. For me, I love church. Church is community. Church is family. Church is home. I don’t go to church to please God, it doesn’t please him. Hebrews 11:6 ” But without faith it is impossible to please God…” Faith is the only thing that pleases God. Going to church can definitely build your faith, because you hear the Word. But just the act of going to church isn’t impressive to Him. Church is where you learn more about God. Of course you can read your bible and learn about God at home but hearing the word from someone who studies it specifically for a sermon to share just brings different revelation. It’s a way to grow more, alongside with others who feel the same as you. It’s a place to ask questions. Ask people who have experienced more than you, ask people who’ve walked with the Lord for a long time. The Bible talks about the importance of being planted in a church but also that is too much to go into right now. For obvious reason like community, family, fellowship, church is a really amazing place to have as a home.
Who God is? God is love. He doesn’t just love, he is physically love. The origin of love.
He is the best person to be in love with, I don’t even care if that sounds cheesy or something because it’s just true. God sent his only son, Jesus to die for this world in order for us to live freely. He died, KNOWING that some people wouldn’t choose a life with Him. He still died just for the slight chance that you may want to know him and have eternal life with him. He thought you were worth it. Without Jesus, there is no way to heaven. Without Jesus, there is absolutely no hope.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
” If you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
” For this is how much God loved the world – he gave is one and only unique son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.” John 3:16
I want to say before I write this that if you don’t believe the bible, some of this just may not matter to you. To me, the bible is the infallible word of God. The bible is that to me, without a doubt because of the studying in bible college and being planted in an amazing church most of my life. If anyone would like to ask me questions or add on to what I’m writing I would love if people commented or emailed me maybe? I’m open to everything.
LASTLY: Being a Christian/a follower of Jesus is not a negative thing. Being a Christian is looked down upon, because of the bad reputation people have given it. People that don’t know Jesus. Living a Christian life isn’t easy of course, no life is. But living a life for Jesus means you have hope for tomorrow, everlasting life, healing, hope for you future, you know where you’ll end up when you die so death is not a fear, you have the promise of peace and an abundant life, you don’t have to fear because you know the truth which is the word, you belong to someone even if you have never felt like you belong.
OK SIDE NOTE:
I know I said that was the end of my blog but I have one more thing I want to defend and that is mission trips. I’m going to start off by saying, of course there are people who do and go on missions trips for the wrong reasons. People are not perfect, including christian people of course. But mission trips are far from a bad thing. People say it’s just white people colonizing which is just inaccurate. I can’t speak for every mission trip but speaking for the ones I’ve been on, we go to serve people. To show people God’s love. We go to a country that is less fortunate than America, especially when it comes to freedom. People complain on how America is horrible but trust me I’ve seen worse government and worse conditions. We are going to a place illegally, where we can get put in jail for preaching. When we go to India, the team preaches at different churches which the pastors of India are ecstatic about. Churches prepare for us months in advance, they share the news everywhere and people in India travel far to hear the word we’re bringing. The people there are so blessed and believe they are very privileged that Americans want to come preach at their church. Peoples lives are touched and transformed. We have prayed for people that get miraculously healed before our eyes. Do not tell me that we are doing bad things by going on missions trips just because you are not aware of how it works. We don’t go to take pictures with the orphans and post it on instagram. Of course I’m going to post with the kids though, they are so precious and amazing, I want to share with the people who follow me! That is not a bad thing! We bring those kids things that they need, toiletries school supplies, in addition to fun things for them to play with and candy, stuff like that. These trips aren’t the only thing we do for the people in India. We don’t just go and never talk to any of these people again, we have relationships with people there. For years and years my church in San Diego has supported Sister Padma’s ministry and the orphanage she runs. Sister Padma is an amazing woman of God who has such a huge ministry, she travels all over India and often to Africa to preach the gospel in places that even reject her. They even started in India ” The Promise Church” which if you don’t know is also the name of our church in San Diego. We are not going to other countries to “push our agenda/religion” on people. We are going there to share the promises of God, to give people hope. People need hope in this world! I don’t care if you don’t believe Jesus gives hope, it is a fact. Maybe not in your life but that doesn’t mean you should discredit someone else’s faith. God moves in such obvious ways when you know Him. Just because you can’t see Him, doesn’t mean you can’t be aware of how he moves and how people are affected by Him. We also can’t see the wind but we can see branches swinging so we know wind exists.. same with God. We see the affects he has on people and in people’s lives. God always comes through for his children and if you don’t know him then you aren’t his child. If you haven’t experienced God it isn’t because you aren’t apart of an exclusive group. Living for Jesus is the most inclusive group you can get in, He said come as you are. Jesus does not want you to change who you are, but he does want to transform your life into something worth living. He’s here to give purpose to a purposeless people.
Isabel Loughlin 