What's friendship?

I've been saying for a long time that many people are really bad with relationships, even though we are in relationships with people all of the time. We may have friendships, romances, family, friends, friends of friends, teammates, and acquaintances. Even with the increase of technology allowing us to communicate less directly to people, at least some in-person interaction with others is unavoidable. We all have relationships and see others in various types of relationships, but we still struggle with our relationships. In terms of relationships, practice does not make perfect because we often don't have the right mindset in relationships.

Two MTV shows currently highlight this struggle. Paris Hilton's My New BFF(best friends forever) and Bromance. The shows are very similar in that a group of people are competing in challenges to be the friend of a very financially rich person. Bromance stars Brody from MTV's The Hills who has a lot of expensive things and is cherished by shallow materialistic girls that he meets. Several young men are competing to be his friend. Paris Hilton has several young women and 2 flamboyant young men competing to be her friend.

Genuine healthy relationships do not begin like this. I have to wonder if anyone would be competing for their friendship if it was not on TV and if the stars of show did not have a ridiculous amount of money. The motivation is to seek what can be obtained from the relationship.

I have been blessed with several great friendships. With my friends there is a real trust and an enjoyment of being around the other person. Proverbs 17:17 says, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (NIV)." Real friendships have the motivation of "what can I give of myself?" instead of "what can I get out of this?" Real friends are there for you in both good and difficult times. Real friends are simply there.

Advent conspiracy

Christmas shopping will go into overdrive very soon. I encourage you to go to this website http://www.adventconspiracy.org/ and play the video on in that says, "lack of." I think that it is some good perspective at this time of the year.

What bothered me about the election

If you are aware at all about what is going on in the United States of America, you likely noticed that Tuesday was an election day. I don't consider myself a very political person, although I do have a lot of opinions. I am not very bothered by the results of the election. Some things that I voted for passed and some did not. God is sovereign and it does me no good to worry. What bothers me is this statistic that I saw on the television-"only 16% of people under 30 voted!" That is less than in 2000 and 2004 (both of the previous election years that I have had the privilege of participating in). When a person chooses not to vote, they are in essence saying, "I know that I have a right to be a part of deciding what happens to me and our society, but that is not worth my time or effort. Whatever happens will just happen." While I do not concern myself with political matters year round, I can't imagine giving up the right of my voice. I want to believe that young people are passionate, idealistic, and care about the world around them. When I turned 18 I was very excited that I had more rights and responsibilities. I was happy to be growing up, but still youthful. The power to vote is still a pretty new and exciting privilege for me. I love that I have a say. I don't believe that God would want His people to stand idly by and let decisions be made for them. Even outside of a faith standpoint, I cannot understand not voting and passively letting decisions be made for me. Don't let anyone take away your voice! Living in a free country and having a voice is one of the greatest things that we possess!

What we can learn from a mob flash

Ever since I subscribed to Netflix I have been watching some weird documentaries. They are often very thought provoking. They can be interesting, something that I strongly disagree with, or something that is just challenging. I think it is helpful to be challenged by things that we disagree with. Some parts of these documentaries can be rather offensive, but I do gain a broader perspective from them.

One documentary that I recently watched was 24 Hours on Craig’s list. Craig’s List is an internet site where you can buy used items, advertise events, and more. While some parts of it were weird and offensive with the perspectives of people who were emotionally/mentally disturbed (so I prayed for them), there were some things that were just quirky, and one thing that made me think.

One event that was advertised was called a “mob flash.” There were very specific directions for what to do in this mob flash. It was an invitation for a large group of people (anyone can come) to all meet at a particular place and does specific things at specific times. The documentary showed a random game of duck-duck goose with a couple hundred people. Anyone who wanted to was invited to meet and hang out afterwards. A person interviewed said, “I haven’t played that game since I was five! I had such a great time!

Another flash mob met in the lobby of a large business. At once they all acted like they were falling asleep. A few minutes later at the planned time everyone got up, looked refreshed, and left. Again, anyone who wanted to met at a place and hung out.
What an awesomely fun idea!

While I realize that not everyone can pick up and do something like that which is so spur of the moment, but many young people live just like that. I love the concept of meeting together for fun and letting relationships flow naturally. This is how my relationships have helped me grow in my faith. I believe that it just makes sense. Worship services, Bible meetings, and personal time with God is great and vital, but we can also grow through doing life together! We all need relationships that keep us accountable, teach us, challenge us, and encourage us.

My version of the abundant life

Jesus said"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10 NASB) I realize that this has numerous implications. Jesus did not come to simply make us happy. He came to give us a fuller life-an eternal life, and a relationship with Him. I could go on and on about the difference that Christ can make in a person's life, but I will just say that He does make an incredible difference. We can be satisfied, fulfilled, and have inner peace.

With all that being said, I feel like one of the ways in which my relationship with God plays out is through being joyful. I really enjoy life. Smiles and laughter are often contagious.

I had spoken with a guy at the Juvenile Detention Center that I work with a few months ago about his eternal destiny. He told me, "I have a grandfather that is a preacher and I know a lot of what the Bible says. I know that according to the Bible if I were to die right now that I would go to hell. I'm not ready to change." At first this guy would get on my nerves occasionally, but now we get along well. He told me the other night-"Dave, you're not like 99% percent of the world. You just don't care what people think about you." I had encouraged him to seek refuge in the Lord on a couple of occasions, but I think that what God may be working through the most is being enjoying life and being silly. This same guy that I work with recorded my first utube video recently. It is really typical daily silly stuff that I do, but people have found it amusing and I hope that you will too. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sa1ixiJ6t0 If that doesn't work you can go to utube and search under Dave's safety dance. There are so many awesome silly moments that are not caught on video-but I am glad that I am finally on utube. Often most people settle in life. I hope and pray that people around the world would find more and more the truly abundant life that Jesus Christ intended us to experience.

That's in the Bible....?

I was talking with some friends recently debating faith issues in a non-attacking way. One guy said something that didn't sound quite right and said, "and that's in the Bible." It may have been in the Bible, but I'm not confident of it. There are a lot of saying that sound like the Bible, but really aren't there. It is important to be able to see what is cultural or from tradition and what is really from the Bible.

I don't have the entire Bible memorized by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been studying it for years-on my own, in church, and through formal higher education. Lately in my discussions about faith issues I have been trying to reference the book that I am quoting (or paraphrasing). I think it adds credibility to what I am saying and gives a point of reference for further questioning-which I think is very healthy.

The Bible is an amazing book. It was written over a period of more than 2,000 years with over 30 different authors and it doesn't contradict itself. I look for ways that it appears to contradict and I continue to find that the Bible is completely trustworthy. A book like that is nothing short of an incredible miracle of divine intervention. It's not a rule book in the way that a lot of people think. I see the Bible as God's love letter to humanity and as our road map for life. It is often easy to say, "oh I've heard that before" and to think that we know all we need to know. I would encourage everyone (myself included) to try to look at the Bible with a fresh pair of eyes. It is not like other books. It is worth reading through carefully, praying through, exploring further, striving to understand better, and trusting. It is so rich with truth. I recommend that we all give the Bible a chance as we hang out with God and let God pour the rich truths of this awesome book into our lives.

a real friend

About a week ago I had an afternoon where I was really stressed. To be honest, I think I am carrying a lot of the burden of CONVERGE. That's just not healthy. I now striving to walk by faith and trust God with this ministry. I feel like lately my insecurities have been attacked. I continue to pray and refer back to the truth of the situation and realize that the negative things that I was feeling just weren't true. The stress was really affecting me emotionally. Most of the time I am really happy, so people can tell very quickly if something is bothering me.

There's a guy I know who I have been friends with since the third grade. He seemed to have great timing that day. I had stayed at church a couple of hours longer than what I intended to. I did this because I was trying to carry the burden instead of just completely trusting God. At that time this friend, my best friend called me. We went out to eat, which is really therapeutic for me. He drove me to the restaurant. Before we got out of the car he did two really great things. He prayed for me, which was much needed and very meaningful. Then he made me commit to not talking about anything church work related the whole time I was there. I had a great time talking about sports and life and just relaxing. It was exactly what I needed. Proverbs 17:17 says, "a friend loves at all times, a brother is born for adversity." This friend is the closest thing that I have to a brother. I am fortunate enough that I have several friends like this, and this is the kind of friend that I want to always be.

Neighbors

This past weekend I went with some friends to see the new movie Lakeview Terrace. It was really interesting to see the epitome of a bad relationship between neighbors. There were continuous subtle verbal jabs exchanged with great skill (as well as many other various hurtful acts). While it was very entertaining, that is not a skill that I think people should excel at. Often people excel and take pride in hurting others. I think that the intellect behind that can be used for much better things. Yes, if you are wondering I do feel very nerdy right now as I write this, but I don’t really always write how I talk. If a person is told five positive things and one negative thing, he or she is more likely to focus on the negative thing. I don’t know if that has to do with not being affirmed enough, sin nature, identity struggles, not understanding that we were created in the image of God, or biological issues. The fact remains that negative words can really damage people emotionally. I have so many people in my life that surround me and bombard me with encouragement. Many people have very little encouragement shown to them.

It is amazing to see how lots of people have really helped each other during recent power outages. People have allowed others to use their showers, shared freezer and fridge space, shared electricity to their neighbor who didn’t have it and talked to people that they normally may not talk to.

I’m not typically a great neighbor. I would like to be and often plan to be, but it usually doesn’t happen. I’m not a bad neighbor, but I could do more. My birthday occurred just before the beginning of each fall semester in college. I always planned to share birthday cake with the people in the rooms next to mine, but I would always end up eating it all (my grandma makes great cake) or some of it would get old because I had a lot and I would never get around to talking to them and meeting them. I love meeting new people, but I have never been great with people that lived next to me, unless I knew them from something else already. The power outages have taught me that it is never too late to be a good neighbor. I imagine myself talking to the people that live around me and them saying, “dude, you’re a jerk. You’ve lived here over a year and your just now asking me what my name is (they haven’t asked me either).” The truth is that people aren’t generally that vicious, especially if they are approached with sincerity and tact.

It is not too late to be a good neighbor. It’s not too late to reach out to someone. It’s not too late to extend courtesies. I think many of us; me included would be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Narrow and broad views of intimacy

My favorite young married couple (who I am very good friends with) recently were blessed with their first child, a healthy baby boy. I am very excited for them. They are a great example as a couple of what a romantic relationship should be.

About 200 people saw their first kiss because it was at the conclusion of their wedding ceremony. That is incredibly counter-culture. Our culture for many years has sent the message that physical affection precedes emotional love. I remember an old song that a woman sang (I think by Vonda Shepherd and made popular by Cher) called It’s In His Kiss. The song goes through ways for a girl to try to find out if he loves her examining his eyes, face, embrace, the way he acts, his charm and decides that the only way to know for sure is in his kiss. A kiss is a wonderful way to express love, but physical intimacy should not precede relational intimacy. Waiting until marriage to kiss someone may not be for everyone, but I do think that it is the right thing for some people and a potentially great example of intimacy for others.

A huge part of our culture suffers from a narrow view of intimacy. When many people hear the word “intimacy” they automatically think only of the physical aspects of a romantic relationship between a guy and a girl or possibly just sexual activity. Real intimacy is more than that. So much so in fact, that it is difficult to describe or put into words. I hear concern of some people about sexual compatibility as if real intimacy were just about physical things. I have heard people say, “I wouldn’t buy a car without first taking a test drive, so I wouldn’t marry someone without having sex with them first.” That’s a horrible illustration! Picking a potential marriage partner is nothing like buying a car. I think that many marriages are unsatisfying because they lack real intimacy.

I saw real intimacy in the relationship that my friends had before they got married. It was obvious in the way they looked at each other, held each other, laughed, communicated, and the way that they talked about each other. My friends were crazy about each other and it was not self-seeking. (1 Corinthians 13:5) Both of my friends love the other one deeply and are enjoying a wonderful marriage relationship. They recently had their first child about 16 months into their marriage and I know that they will be great parents to their new son.

fingernails

I was watching the movie Juno last night at the Juvenile Detention Center where I work. We have a privilege session for the youth that followed the rules that day and watching that movie was our activity for that the privilege session that day. There is some great dialog in Juno. It is very witty. As I get older my tastes broaden. I don't think I would have liked the music when I was in high school, but I do now.

Anyway, one thing that struck me was the scene where Juno (the female main character) goes into the abortion clinic. There is a classmate mispronouncing words and shouting (with good intentions and not angrily) in protest of abortion outside of the clinic. As Juno is about to enter the clinic the protesting student says, "your baby probably has finger nails." This seem to make Juno stop and think for a second as she walked into the clinic. She sat down and noticed the fingernails on various people in the waiting room. The noise of the fingernails grew louder and louder in her head until she finally ran out of the clinic and decided to embrace her pregnancy.

I consider myself to be pro-life. There are lots of "what ifs" that go into the abortion issue. I am not going to go into all of them at this point. I just like the statements that were made in this scene about the value of human life, taking responsibility, and the information about how babies grow inside the mother's womb. In closing, I am glad that my mom was pro-life, because if she was not then I possibly would not be here right now.

Hope in the midst of annoyance

I don’t watch a lot of “chick flicks”, but I have seen some. I think that most everyone has. While I do like silly comedy, action, and sports movies, occasionally a love story is unpredictable, entertaining, and somewhat inspirational. There is one “chick flick” that keeps popping into my head. The Notebook is that movie. This is not because I really like the movie. The movie actually irritates me. I really like the movie Hitch, which is a movie that both girls and guys seem to really enjoy. There is good reason for this-it is an awesome movie! The Notebook seems to appeal to mainly one gender. It seems that for most girls between the ages of 14 and 35 The Notebook is one of their favorite movies.

It has been a couple of years since I saw The Notebook (I only watched it once), but I can’t seem to be able to escape it. Love stories are often predictable, cheesy, and unrealistic. What I remember of this movie could have actually happened. I am a sucker for sports movies. They always seem to have a happy ending. I think I don’t really like The Notebook because not everything works out in the end. At the end of the movie the wife has Alzheimer’s. Her husband who has loved her for many years keeps visiting her it the nursing home. There are moments where it seems like she is going to recover and recognize him again for good. The couple will have a romantic moment, a dance, a conversation, and then she won’t recognize him and yell at him with orders to go away. I remember watching this and getting frustrated because I have been spoiled by happy endings in the past.

Lately because this irritating “chick flick” keeps popping into my mind. I have decided to ask girls and women at several ages why they like this movie so much that simply annoyed me. I learned that it was because the husband had unconditional love for his wife. He loved her even when she didn’t recognize him and could not love him back. He loved her in the midst of his suffering. He took the words “till death do us part” literally (as he should). He loved his wife even when it wasn’t easy or convenient.

We live in a world where (according to the most recent statistics that I have read) most marriages end in divorce, where over half of men cheat on their wives, and a third of women cheat on their husbands. While I have a “leave it to beaver” family tree where every adult is a Christian and no one (outside of maybe a fifth or sixth cousin) has been divorced I still see reason for lack of hope for romantic relationships. I have to admit that it makes me angry when anyone cheats on any person whether dating or married. Humans are not savage beasts, but sometimes they act like they are. I know that we all are vulnerable to sin, but people don’t accidentally make out with someone that is not their significant other.

In this movie that I found irritating because not everything “got fixed.” In the end I see a glimmer of hope for society. I see an inner longing for monogamy and unconditional love. I see a desire to fulfill the vowel of “til death do us part.” To me one of the greatest sights is a couple that has been married over 50 years and you know just by watching them hold hands or have a conversation that they are crazy about each other. I could go on and on with my theories about romantic relationships. But for now I will just say that “till death do us part” is very possible and much more likely in a Christ-centered relationship.

A tale of two Sundays

A week ago I visited another church in the area (probably not the one that you might be thinking of). I had just spent a week at high school work camp and wanted to be fed spiritually with no responsibilities in an casual environment. A lot of my friends go to this church and God is doing great things there. I don't agree with a couple of their denomination's teaching, but I still do agree with most everything that they do. Their service was possibly the most creative worship service that I have ever been to. I wore a t-shirt and shorts because that is more of what is the norm there. I sat on a stool eating popcorn (that the church had provided) during the service. There was the first good use of a beach ball in a spiritual event that I had ever seen. The theme of the service was joy. The beach ball was tossed around while a secular song (with words slightly changed to tie into the message) was played. There were banners that expressed the theme of joy on the walls all around the room. There was a great discussion that the senior Pastor had with the kids that tied into the theme. The children were given the opportunity to blow bubbles. I love blowing bubbles! Instead of a full length sermon at the end, there were two Pastors taking turns making points. It was like mini tag team sermons separated by God songs, a video, a prayer exercise and talk with the children. The prayer exercise was very cool. Along the wall at the front of the sanctuary were banners that had the word joy on it in huge bubble letters. Near it was a bowl full of crayons. We were encouraged to grab a crayon and talk to God as we wrote or drew on the sign. I grabbed a red crayon and drew fire on the inside of the letter J, telling God that I wanted to be spiritually on fire for Him. I drew a trinity symbol on the outside of the letters, telling God that I wanted to lead people in creative ways that are "outside the box." I want to learn about creativity from the author of Creativity-God Himself. The Pastors of that church were speaking about how God has expressed joy in creating. The way that they explained it was that God has child-like joy. Children often times when they are getting tossed up in the air say, "do it again!" Children can enjoy the same video over and over. As we get older often times we enjoy life less and get frustrated with the monotony of life. Our sin "ages us" and we enjoy life less that what God intends us to do. One of the amazing things about God is that He can clean us up and make us new again. The Psalms say, "restore to me the joy of your salvation (51:12a)" I don't believe that God thinks, "I have already made millions of dandelions and I am annoyed to make one more." I believe that it is the opposite-that God takes joy in creating. I think we could learn so much in creativity and joy from seeing how God works. I want to help people experience God in creative ways.

I went to second service at Fairhaven Church yesterday. I was unfamiliar with many of the songs, but the words were still good. The songs tied in well with what we were doing and the flow of the worship experience. We took communion which is always powerful. The message from Kirk had a video, a personal story, great Biblical insight, and practical truths. It was not as creative as the church service I went to the week before(but neither had any other worship service I had ever been to), but it was still creative. I left not feeling like I had really worshiped. I began to think about why I was feeling this way. Our service was well put together and truth was proclaimed. The difference was that the week before I was not distracted and I came expecting God to teach me and to connect with Him way more than I did yesterday. Sometimes it becomes natural because of the rest of culture influencing us to come to church with a consumer mentality, asking"what will they do to meet my needs?" I believe that instead we should come to church with an attitude that says, "God I want to praise you, focus on you, learn about you, serve you, and glorify you." God is speaking all of the time, but we are not already ready to listen. Today God is still speaking and still inviting us to listen to Him.

THE PLACE (hopefully the first and last time I will use this to advertise)

Right now I am at the stage of promoting this new event called THE PLACE. It still feels weird for me to promote anything other than a restaurant that I am really excited about. I guess that a lot about my calling feels weird to me. I firmly believe that God has called me to vocational Christian ministry. I am thankful for and feel unworthy of this calling. I am simply a guy that God has asked to do some really awesome things and I have said, "yes." I don't why why He selected me to do some of the things that I have done, but I am glad. I don't feel very "pastoral" and am still coming to terms with God's plans for my life. I know that God is using me to help people and that's really amazing and wonderful to me. I am definitely just Dave. People will ask me what I do at Fairhaven church and sometimes I respond at first with, "I have a fancy sounding title, but I am really just Dave." I don't think that I am a great Christian, but I want to be. While I am far from perfect, I really do enjoy getting the opportunity to point people to a God who is perfect and wonderful beyond words. If you are still wondering, my title is presently Associate Pastor of Student Ministries.

For whatever reason, I feel God is leading me to start this event that I am calling, THE PLACE. I think a ministry for younger post high school people to come together and get to know God is really important and I wish that it was a priority for more churches. Too often I think that a student ministry is viewed as successful if a lot of people come to the high school ministry events. This is not even close to a good measurement. The Great Commission asks us to make disciples, not have a lot of people show up to our events. It is cool when a lot of people show up to have fun and check out God, but that's definitely not the end goal. Kevin and Kyle do a great job of leading the student ministries and being used by God to make disciples. These guys love God and students. It is a privilege for me to be their teammates. However, I think that it is past time that we offer more for people after high school. I think that doing this is a big part of working towards making disciples. I think that it is the 3rd part (the fist two being middle school and high school) of a student ministry bringing people to mature Christian adulthood. (obviously before adolescence the early childhood and kids ministry have an incredibly important role laying a foundation for spiritual growth in the lives of people)

All that brings me to THE PLACE which is based on Psalm 34:8 (I encourage you to check it out yourself). It basically talks about knowing God and taking refuge in Him. We are going to talk about this verse during the first two previews of The Place (July 30 and August 13). The last preview of the event we are going to talk about shame and regret. I think that will be a unique night. I will try to not make it too heavy, but it will be very honest and real. I just think that it is a crucial topic that the (universal) church does not do a great job of dealing with. This will be on August 27. We will be having fun and talking about the values of this new ministry at each preview event. THE PLACE will be in the student ministries room from 9-10:30 on Wednesdays. It will happen every Wednesday starting September 10. I encourage you to explore the CONVERGE website where you probably found this blog. http://www.fairhavenchurch.org/converge/

So please don't think of this as a sales pitch. This is just where I feel God is leading me. I just think that it would be awesome for people 18-25 to experience community, seeking God together.

The music debate

It is amazing how much people will debate about music within most local churches in America. A lot of people really like more modern choruses. Many others strongly prefer hymns. I have heard of a church putting together 7 different worship services with different styles of music for each one. I like many types of music. It can be easy to tune out the words of a song if it is a style that you don't enjoy. I remember as a teenager having a black gospel choir come to the church that I was a member at. At least 10 people walked out. They did not walk out because the choir did anything offensive. They walked out because they did not enjoy the music style. I think that Psalm 150 settles a lot of the arguments. This portion of scripture says to praise God everywhere, for everything, and with many instruments. In verse 6a the Bible says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." I enjoy Christian hip-hop a lot. God really speaks to me through it. Some churches even have hip-hop services. However sometimes when I am driving and listening to rap music that reminds me of how incredible God is and teaches me truths from the Bible I wonder if people that hear the beat automatically make several negative assumptions about me, I like hard rock music that glorifies God. I enjoy several styles of music and appreciate any song that helps people relate to God. We need different styles of music to help different people with different tastes relate to God. However, all music that honors God should be valued. I am not generally a country music fan, but I think that there are people that are proclaiming the love of God through country music and that is a great thing. I think that it is amazing that He has given us so many avenues through music alone to relate to Him! My grandfather had a lot of sayings. Most of them I did not totally understand. One saying that I did understand was him saying, "If a dog is barking for Jesus then I am for that dog!” I believe that while the music style can help a person open their heart to God, the important thing is that regardless of what we hear that we do in fact open our hearts to God and allow Him to do what He wants in our lives. Thanks for reading. I would love to read thoughts that anyone reading this has on music and relating to God through it.

Hi! I'm Dave! or "Welcome to a Dave's Eye View"

Hi! I'm Dave! This is the beginning of my blog. I am writing a blog in hopes that my thoughts on life will help others in their life journey. I also help to use it to get to know people and for people to get to know me. I often have thoughts running through my head that I want to share and I think that this blog will be a good avenue for that.

I enjoy many great blessings in my life. One of those is having the role of being Associate Pastor of Student Ministries at Fairhaven Church in Centerville (Suburb of Dayton), Ohio. This role allows me to work with Middle School students, High School students, and College age people. I look forward to getting to know people better in days ahead.

A bird's-eye view is a view of an object from above, as though the observer were a bird, often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps. (source= wikipedia) You might have guessed that I am not a bird, as birds can not type. As I previously stated, my name is Dave, and I have a different view on life than many people. If you have seen me then you know that I am vertically challenged. Although I see things at a lower level than some, that is not why. If you have heard me talk about myself and my history you might know that my vision is twice as bad as what is needed to be considered legally blind (yes, I do still drive-I have contacts and glasses that are sufficient). I am not talking about a visual view as much as a world view.

I see the world differently for a couple of reasons. First of all, I think differently than many people. It is a little difficult to explain, but I act and mentally process things differently than other people.

Secondly, I have a Biblical world view. Everyone looks at the world through some type of mental lens. George Barna in his research puts it like this (for the purposes of his research): "A biblical worldview is defined as believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those views were that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings." Having this view affects not only the way that I think, but the way that I act, and how I treat other people. The more that I embrace this view, the more I can become like Christ Jesus. I often pray for God to help me to see things like He does, thinking like He does, seeing others like He does, and acting more like Him.

My question at this time to encourage and challenge you and I is to ask, “Through what lens are we viewing the world?” I welcome your comments.