Hello, my name is Matthew and I am yet another contributor to this awesome blog. I write a blog called Loving Christ With Your Mind (LCWYM). In my blog, I write about apologetics and defending the Christian faith. I really wish to write some posts on this blog that discuss how to witness to those who don't know Christ. Let me start with discussing who I am and what I mainly aim to accomplish.
I was raised into a "Christian" home (and still am). My family called itself Christian just because we believed in Jesus. Throughout the years before I got saved, I was mainly focused on religion and trying to please God with my works. I was absolutely terrified of hell, and I wrongly thought that I had to do something to go to heaven. This all changed last summer when I truly got into a relationship with the Lord.
One day, my dad brought me to this awesome church. We were just kind of visiting. One thing I really enjoyed about it was how awesome the music was. The first service I attended was on Easter, and my dad and I continued to go to that church. In the time around the summer the pastor talked a lot about salvation and what it meant to be saved. One verse that he went over really spoke to me. It was Ephesians 2:8-9, and this is what it says:
For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
It was an amazing moment. I finally realized that I didn't have to do anything to go to heaven. All I had to do was trust in God's saving grace that works cannot earn. Now let me talk about how I got into apologetics.
Well I was a new real Christian who had just been saved from sin and religion. I wanted to go show Christ to the world. I remember one day that my sister introduced me to this app on my iPhone called opinionated (now called Thumb). I started showing my faith on there, and there were many atheists on that application. They completely destroyed my faith, and I really did not know why I believed what I believed. I really wanted to believe that there was a God who loved, for I had just recently struggled with depression.
One day I almost gave up on my belief in Christianity. I considered becoming agnostic. But what's really cool, though, is what good God could bring about through this situation. I started to search for reasons to believe in the Bible. I found that there was so much (which you can check out on my other blog). I was soon gaining more and more faith day by day.
But another obstacle hit me: my sin. I always tried to overcome my sin, but I found that my own efforts were never enough. Throughout my fights with temptation, I thought of a line from a Relient K song called For the Moments I Feel Faint. The lyric is, "I think I can't, I think I can't, but I think You can, I think You can." What this line means is that we cannot do anything without God.
I can't imagine something more true than this. Throughout all my hardships and my sin, God never gave up on me. That's what agape is. Agape is the Greek word for unconditional love. God's love is not like human love. His is unconditional. We humans often hold a mindset that if someone does a certain thing, we won't love them anymore. I hope that my friends and I can write some posts describing how to live showing agape. A Christian is one who loves God and others, and my firmest intention is to show others to Christ.
Give me no glory. This blog is for the Lord. May God use it to bless you. I hope you enjoyed my post and I hope you look forward to more.
The true measure of loving God is to love him without measure. -St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
February 29, 2012
February 28, 2012
Intro: Paul
Hey guys! This is Paul, a 14 year old guy who is crazy for Jesus! I write the blog Christaholic: The God Addiction. The blog's mission is to magnify God above our addictions and to line all our dreams and desires according to His glory. In other words, it talks about loving Christ with all of your heart.
This blog is run by me and my three really awesome friends, Matthew, Langston, and Courtney. each of us absolutely love the Lord and we mutually decided to compose a blog of awesomeness that compiles all of our interests. I am the designer of the blog and logo maker and all that other fun happy stuff, while the rest of the gang just write the posts necessary to keep it running.
Our theme verse, if you will, is Luke 10:27: "He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (NIV). Ironically, this verse was recited by an expert of the Law trying to test Jesus. This verse eventually leads to the well-known, yet often ignored, parable of the Good Samaritan.
What do I mean by "often ignored"? We all know about it; yet, unfortunately, we don't bother acting it out. We name hospitals and ministries after it, yet we forget that we all must love every human that breathes. The leading cause of atheism is Christians proclaiming that they love Christ but they deny it with their actions.
I am a witness of this. When I was 1, my dad surrendered to the ministry and ever since then I've encountered several moves and several hedonistic theists (people who believe in God for pleasure instead of life). The ironic thing is that I was like that too. I followed the religious crowd and went through the motions because that was all I really knew. I knew that there were hurting people, but I ignored them and played Mario instead of pursuing Christ.
A couple years ago, My family and I moved to a small town in eastern North Carolina. I spent the best two years of my life there because I saw God's "blessings" through my works instead of my faith. All that changed in October of 2010. People that I loved and trusted suddenly turned their back on us for the sake of tradition which resulted in my dad losing his job, and us losing our house. My whole family was hurt. That was when God got me on my knees and demonstrated His real purpose for me.
My idol (the Wii) broke one day. I told my parents and the closest place that professionally fixed Wiis for a reasonable price was two hours away. A few days afterwards, we went to get it fixed. They promised that it would be fixed in around a week. While they were fixing it they realized that they needed parts from Japan just before the tragic earthquake/tsunami hit. One of the aftershocks hit the factory that had the parts. The repair was delayed for 3 months. God took my idol away and I had nowhere to go but to the Lord of Hosts. He freed me from addictions. That is why I'm writing and not playing video games.
My dad also took a ginormous role in my spiritual renewal by making sure that I did not fall. He constantly helped me when I was angry or devastated, and demonstrated that there is no such thing as a perfect church and helped point my way to Christ.
My life demonstrated to me, and will hopefully demonstrate to you, that God does not want our works if they are purely for happiness instead of His glory. He also warned me that Christianity is slowly falling in a ditch of ignorance. I pray that you will not ignore God's presence in your life. I pray also that we love people because we love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, God bless!
I am a witness of this. When I was 1, my dad surrendered to the ministry and ever since then I've encountered several moves and several hedonistic theists (people who believe in God for pleasure instead of life). The ironic thing is that I was like that too. I followed the religious crowd and went through the motions because that was all I really knew. I knew that there were hurting people, but I ignored them and played Mario instead of pursuing Christ.
A couple years ago, My family and I moved to a small town in eastern North Carolina. I spent the best two years of my life there because I saw God's "blessings" through my works instead of my faith. All that changed in October of 2010. People that I loved and trusted suddenly turned their back on us for the sake of tradition which resulted in my dad losing his job, and us losing our house. My whole family was hurt. That was when God got me on my knees and demonstrated His real purpose for me.
My idol (the Wii) broke one day. I told my parents and the closest place that professionally fixed Wiis for a reasonable price was two hours away. A few days afterwards, we went to get it fixed. They promised that it would be fixed in around a week. While they were fixing it they realized that they needed parts from Japan just before the tragic earthquake/tsunami hit. One of the aftershocks hit the factory that had the parts. The repair was delayed for 3 months. God took my idol away and I had nowhere to go but to the Lord of Hosts. He freed me from addictions. That is why I'm writing and not playing video games.
My dad also took a ginormous role in my spiritual renewal by making sure that I did not fall. He constantly helped me when I was angry or devastated, and demonstrated that there is no such thing as a perfect church and helped point my way to Christ.
My life demonstrated to me, and will hopefully demonstrate to you, that God does not want our works if they are purely for happiness instead of His glory. He also warned me that Christianity is slowly falling in a ditch of ignorance. I pray that you will not ignore God's presence in your life. I pray also that we love people because we love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, God bless!
In Christ,
Paul
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