My Experiences with Bullying.

Bullying is a topic that has been in the news recently. Most recently an incident at my high school alma mater in Philippi, WV today. Whether bullying played a part in what happened today is unclear at this time, but in many cases it is a factor. Whenever such incidents occur, people ask why someone could be driven to something like this. While everyone decrys bullying most don't have experience being the recipient. I feel this is something that I can speak on more than most, it happened to me.

I never really brought to the attention of my teachers when it was happening, mostly in my middle school days. The reasons why are varied, but the main reason comes down to the idea that I considered my bullies to be friends, even though I wasn't treated as such.

The kinds of bullying I experienced varied, but included being dragged by my legs into a closet, locked in, and lights turned out because of my fear of the dark. Having my pants pulled down while standing in the lunch line. Being thrown in the showers while dressed. Having a teacher encourage others to throw dodgeballs harder at you to make you cry and toughen you up. Girls that flirt with you not due to attraction but because they know your shy and it makes you nervous. I could continue but I won't.

Nobody wants to be the one who gets others in trouble, no one likes the tattle tale we are told from a young age. So the anger and sadness builds. I was able to put a lot of my anger into video games and eventually I went to being mostly ignored by bullies. But only because easier targets existed I believe. Unfortunately for many kids the problem never stops.

But I can't say that even 20 some years later the bullying has had a lasting legacy on my life. I have trouble with any emotions that may bring me to tears because I tried to hide it so much in middle school. The ability to know who my friends are when I was bullied by those I thought my friends at a young age makes trust difficult. Building relationships with women was difficult because I never knew if they were actually interested in me.

I hope that my experience may help someone down the line. If anyone still in school reads these words, take the time to think about how your words and actions affect those around you.

Soli Deo Gloria

Advice for college Christians

It is move in weekend in Morgantown. Which means about 10,000 new students are descending on Morgantown as we I type this. As I reflect back on my experiences in college there is some advice I would like to give. So that hopefully you can avoid mistakes.

1. This is the most important one, find a local church in Morgantown. Unless you plan on going home every single weekend, and you won't. A church that you can attend on a weekly basis is a vital and necessary part of your Christian life. (Hebrews 10:25). Plus here is a secret a lot of those churches in Morgantown feed college students.

2. Don't mistake attending the various campus para church ministries Cru, YL. Intervarsity etc, for attending church. I believe my friends that do these campus ministries would agree with this. Many weekends that I would not go home I would attend a campus meeting midweek and then sleep in on Sundays. It's not the same. Especially if you quit attending these events like I did.

3. Read books that grow your faith. Your faith will be attacked during college. Read books that feed your faith and give you the confidence to answer those who question you on your faith. (1 Peter 3:15) I recommend CS Lewis,John Piper, G. K. Chesterton among others.

4.in the midst of your studies pray, read the bible. Make sure you leave time in your schedule for these important spiritual disciplines.

5. Make Christian and non Christian friends.

6. Pursue God passionately. (Matthew 6:33) He has promised to provide for us if we seek him first. Because as you grow in faith you will find he is all you need. As CS Lewis wrote if we live for heaven we get earth thrown in, but if we live for earth we get neither (paraphrase).

I made a mess of my time in school but I hope that others can learn from my mistakes.

Soli Deo Gloria

Restless

Ecclesiastes 3:11...he has put eternity into man's heart..

Have you ever felt like you were supposed to be doing something, you just didn't know what it was. Have you ever watched something that normally you would enjoy, but felt like you wanted to turn it off and go and do something else? Been playing your favorite video game that normally you could play for hours, this time your just not feeling your normal level of enjoyment?

I've been feeling like this a lot in the last couple of months. There are a lot of tv shows I enjoy watching on a regular basis. But a lot of times when Leann asks if I am ready to sit down and watch with her, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about it. Leann sometimes feels like I'm not wanting to spend time with her, but in reality it has nothing to do with her. I'm just feeling like there is other things I could be doing. 

In what I am sure will come as a shock to a lot of people. I have the same feelings about sports a lot now. I still enjoy watching them, and I can sit and watch a couple of games at a time like I always do. But there not is not the life and death feeling that used to come with me missing a particular game. 

I think a lot of it has to do with now I'm watching these shows and thinking about what they say about God, or lack thereof. What kind of theology or doctrine is being presented. Even shows that have nothing to do with religion on the surface present a theology or doctrine if you take the time to think through them. For most of t.v., it is that God doesn't exist, or if he does, what he has revealed in us word is no longer relevant. 

Leann and I were watching the episode of Glee last week that dealt with the death of one of their cast members in real life. (I like musical tv shows and movies, except for Sound of Music, my sister watched it too often when i was growing up.) The episode dealt with people remembering the character, but never mentioning how the character died, in real life the actor had died of a drug overdose. While there was a lot of emotion coming from the actors who were close to the deceased. And there were moments that made me tear up, at the end I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. But I couldn't place what I was missing until today. 

The show was missing Hope, the hope that comes for Christians who realize that this world is not the end. In one scene a character put his thumb over the dash on a memorial marking the character, separating his birth and death dates. Remarking how short that was that his thumb could cover what represented his friend's entire life. And this life is indeed short, here on earth. But humanity is not mortal, but eternal. We do not cease to exist. 

Hence there comes the restless feeling these days for me, even before that episode. As I read and study more of Christianity, theology, doctrine, the history of the faith. Heaven and the fact that everyone we meet will spend eternity somewhere, this drove Christians for centuries. What drives Christianity today? 

Furthermore what drives where we desire to spend eternity? is it where our friends, family, where the fun is? Is it the lack of pain, tears, fear? or is it the presence of the ONE who loved you before there was a you?

I don't want to be restless, I want what i do to echo throughout eternity.

Doctrine leads to worship

Romans 11;33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

My old pastor used to say that we don't worship a doctrine, we worship God. While this is certainly true, for the Christian, their doctrine, which is what you believe, is of vital importance. If your doctrine is off, then your worship will be off. Our doctrine informs our worship. 

Let's look at the cross for example. If all you believe was accomplished on the cross is that Jesus died for your sins so you wouldn't go to hell. Then you only are scratching at the surface of Christianity and your worship will reflect that and be shallow. 

But if you study what the Bible says was accomplished on the cross by Christ, then you will realize that so much more was accomplished there. A partial list would be-
Access to God in prayer
Sins forgiven- past present and future
Healing
secured our eternal life
wrath of god satisifed

If you read the apostolic letters in the Bible, there are times when the writers will finish explain something about God, and they just begin to break into a doxology, or praise of God. The one that starts this post above comes at the end of Paul discussing how the Gentiles have been saved and brought into the gospel. The Jews have not been ignored, left out or forgotten. But God has grafted the Gentiles in. The knowledge of what God has done in saving both the Gentiles, and making future plans to bring Israel into the plans of salvation. Moves Paul to worship and praise of God the father. As it should for us.

S.D.G. 

The spiritual problem of GYPSY's

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

Yesterday, Pastor Chris linked to a blog that seeks to explain why people of Generation Y tend to be unhappy. The link to the article is here (Generation Y Yuppies are unhappy). The article does a good job of explaining the general malaise the people of that generation feel. However it does not address an important problem with the Y generation. The article is not written from a Christian perspective and it was never meant to address the problem. How do you reach a generation with the gospel that has been told that they are special, a generation that feels a sense of entitlement, a generation that is wildly ambitious and wants that #1 spot in whatever they are pursuing at that time. 

The idea that everyone in the detrimental sense has even creeped into the church. I remember singing a kids song when I was growing up that went " I am somebody, because God loves me. I am accepted, just the way that I am."  That however is not the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is that we are an extremely messed up people. All of humanity is stained with the curse of sin. Left to our own devices we are going adulterous idolaters who are going to to chase after whatever makes us feel good, and worship whatever is most important in our lives. 

The idea of transformation is throughout the Bible. We see it introduced by God when Abram becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah. God continues the theme in the New Testament when Simon becomes Peter and Saul becomes Paul. Through the Bible God through the prophets and the apostles preaches a message to his people. You are broken, I can fix you. All your human efforts to make yourself better will ultimately fall short. You cannot earn my love, and your works will never be complete enough to earn my favor. 

How then do we reach a generation of people dissatisfied with their lives and have been told through those same lives that they are special? We reach into that discontent and dissatisfaction and tell them of the one who can make their lives whole. You take their sense of ambition and direct it to the glory of God and show them something that they work to that will out last them into eternity. You battle their sense of entitlement with the truth of their sin and show them the humility of Christ, the Son of God become man. But in the end only the Holy Spirit has the power to transform these lives. This is a generation that needs not the platitudes of Osteen, but the purifying, transforming power of the gospel.

S.D.G. 

S.D.G.

Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

I used to write a lot more than I do now. Mostly blog posts that in reality were mini sermon ideas that I could write and flesh out. But even on occasion I would write songs or poetry. It was never great poetry or songs, but they could help me try to express the thoughts that were swimming around in my brain. But for the past couple of years I haven't done any real writing. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that I'm working more now than I used to, so that leaves less time for writing. Especially when your work involves sitting at a computer for 8 hrs a day. Some of those hours involving a lot of typing. As a correlation to working more, I am not reading as much as I used to do. I'm still reading my bible at my normal pace. But I'm not reading as much fiction or non-fiction as I used to. It's books that a lot of times would make me look a certain idea or scripture in a second light, and inspire me to write something on it. But honestly the main reason I stopped writing as I once did, was that I didn't think anyone was reading my writing. Or even worse if they were reading my writing, didn't think it was good enough to tell me they were reading it. 

The problem was that I was writing for the approval of others around me. I love a line out of one of Lecrae's songs. "If I live for their approval, I'll die by their rejection." I can't control how many people read he stuff I write, whether they like it, or whether they comment on it. What I can control is whether I am going to use whatever talents or skills I have to glorify God. So that's why I changed my blog title to one of the slogans of the Reformation. I want whatever I do, whatever I write, from here on out in my life, to be for the Glory of God. Someone more talented than I Johann Sebastian Bach ended all the compositions of his music with the initials of S.D.G. to signify that God was to be given credit for his masterpieces. While this is no masterpiece, I'm going to steal that idea.

S.D.G. 

Calvarys Anthem- A Puritan Prayer.

Thou hast led me singing to the cross
    where I fling down all my burdens
       and see them vanish,
    where my mountains of guilt are leveled
       to a plain,
    where my sins disappear, though they are
       the greatest that exist,
    and are more in number than the grains
       of fine sand;

For there is power in the blood of Calvary
    to destroy sins more than can be counted
       even by one from the choir of heaven.
Thou hast given me a hill-side spring
    that washes clear and white,
       and I go as a sinner to its waters,
          bathing without hindrance
             in its crystal streams. 

At the cross there is free forgiveness
       for poor and meek ones,
    and ample blessings that last forever;
The blood of the Lamb is like a great river
       of infinite grace
    with never any diminishing of its fullness
       as thirsty ones without number drink of it.

O Lord, forever will thy free forgiveness live
    that was gained on the mount of blood;
In the midst of a world of pain
    it is a subject for praise in every place
       a song on earth, anthem in heaven,
          its love and virtue knowing no end.

I have a longing for the world above
    where multitudes sing the great song,
    for my soul was never created to love
       the dust of earth.
Though here my spiritual state is frail and poor,
    I shall go on singing Calvary’s anthem.
May I always know
    that a clean heart full of goodness
       is more beautiful than the lily,
    that only a clean heart can sing by night
       and by day,
    that such a heart is mine when I abide at Calvary.