WHy Do You Go To A Non-demoninational Public University. Why Dont You Go To A Private Christian School?

Okay, so say you've met someone and you guys fell in love. You want to wait till marriage for sex. He isn't a virgin but is willing to wait. Would you still be with him? Why? Or why not?

When talking about that issue on its own, yeah I would still be with him. There are many factors affecting any relationship, but for me, one’s sexual history is not one of them. 

The main thing I look for in a potential husband is a deep and abiding love of Christ. I want someone who will always put God before me; someone who listens to the voice of the Holy Spirit before mine. Someone who knows how to love himself and love me because he understand how God loves us. So I will marry a devout and practising Christian. Probably a charismatic Christian because someone who’s not charismatic might get a teensy bit freaked out by the whole “speaking-in-tongues” thing. 

What happened before they met Jesus really doesn’t matter to me. Whether my future husband was raised in the church and maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he’s known Jesus for years or maybe right now he still hasn’t met Him. Maybe he did drugs and was involved in gangs and committed all sorts of crimes and slept with hundreds of women. Maybe he struggled with depression and low self-worth and faced cutting and suicidal thoughts and all sorts of awful stuff. 

I dunno. But I do know that when you meet Jesus, it’s now just that your life is changed…it’s literally like dying and being reborn as a new person. In church we call it being “born again”. Because God will take your old life and your old identity and give you a brand new one. He will open your eyes and your mind to His vast, unconditional love. Love that is stronger than life and death. Love that stole the keys to the gates of Hell so that you and God could be together for eternity. Love that is stronger than anything that’s happened to you in the past. Stronger than anything you’ve done. Stronger than habits you want to break. Stronger than your own self-deprecating thoughts. 

And God, being divinely and supremely perfect, is the only person in the entire existence of everything who could possibly judge you for your past mistakes. And He doesn’t. He tosses your past transgressions into a sea of forgetfulness and it might as well be as if they never even happened. So who am I to hold them against you? 

If this potential husband were a born again, orthodox, hardcore, practising Christian who is on fire for God and respects me and is willing to wait for marriage, the fact that He’s not a virgin means less than the number of freckles on his elbow. Thanks for the question! Peace and love! -Katherine 

“To speak of the suffering God is dangerous language, and we need to beware of any tendency to glorify suffering and to forget that suffering is bad, that God is opposed to suffering and seeks to end it, and that Jesus was not abandoned but supported by God throughout the anguish of the passion and death. Yet, in spite of these qualifications, such language is demanded of us by the truth to which we bear witness. God on the cross means God in pain, God in distress, a suffering God. Only the suffering God can help.”

— Kenneth Leech, We Preach Christ Crucified

Do you think there are any situations in which abortions are an acceptable option?

So someone asked a veerrryy similar question to this one, so I sort of answered it already, but I’ll talk a leeetle bit more. To be brief: For me, personally, um…no. Haha I know that’s super blunt and you might wonder how I can answer so definitively. I can answer confidently, unequivocally “no” because my personal view of the subject is that abortion is murder, and I don’t murder. Ergo, I would not be able to kill the child inside of me (hypothetically). People think different things and make different decisions based on what they think. Someone might read this and say “Katherine, you’re WRONG.” Okay, well, if you think something other than what I think, obviously you’re gonna make different decisions than me, right? :P SO, because of that, I am literally incapable of  telling any other person on the planet what is acceptable for them. I know what is acceptable for me, based on my opinions and beliefs, but I don’t know everyone else’s opinions and beliefs. And I know that there are soooo many complicated, complex situations that could possibly arise out there in this big messed up world. But I do know, that for me, abortion is never an option. I personally believe that in an situation, God is able to help me out if I don’t know what to do (Because if you believe that God exists, you have to believe that He is big enough to handle your problems, and to do the impossible). So…yeah. There you go, my very black and white beliefs, haha :PPeace and love! -Katherine 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke (via anamorphosis-and-isolate)

On Celebrity Gossip

So I was at the grocery store today, where I work, working. And next to each check-out, there are racks of magazines. And on these racks are magazines such as People, OK, InTouch and Star. And would you like to know the main topic of the cover page headlines on these magazines? It doesn't matter cause I'm gonna tell you anyway.  Kim Kardashian's weight.  I'm serious. I don't know if you've been following this riveting story, but apparently Kim's pregnant with Kanye's baby, and she's eating a lot during her pregnancy and she put on a lot of weight and now Kanye doesn't love her anymore. Oh, and Khloe has been reported to have said "I'm the hot sister now." This is all information that I surmised simply by reading the covers of these magazines while I didn't have any customers! I can't even imagine what awful, sordid details I might find in the pages.  Like honestly, there are so many levels of wrong that I could talk about. So many societal issues that sicken me. But I'll just take one for now. 

Blazoned across one of the covers, in big yellow letters, were the words, "six months pregnant and already 200 pounds".  Um, excuse me, but in what universe is it okay to broadcast a woman's weight on the cover of a magazine? You and I both know that precious few of us will admit our weight to even our closest confidantes, and yet it's okay to tell the whole world Kim Kardashian's weight? Why? Why is it okay to talk about private matters like health crises, addictions, relationships and such just because these people are actors, or musicians, or royalty, or politicians? Why is it possible for me to pick up a magazine at a doctor's office and find out Kim Kardashian's weight or Jennifer Lawrence's bra size (36C, in case you're wondering)? Why are we so obsessed with these people's lives? Why do we thoughtlessly participate in the violation of their privacy? Why is it that their daily lives are a consumable commodity to us?  WHY DO WE EVEN CARE?  You know what, I don't even know why. I am legitimately asking you. I think it's despicable how much we crave it. We just can't get enough! Oh Angie's jealous because Brad still has feelings for Jen! We eat that crap up! We are so desensitized to the humanity of celebrities that we analyze and judge and ridicule their lives as if it means nothing.  Because of this, I am a fervent boycotter and protester of reality tv. Why is 16 and pregnant even a thing? How did this happen? Or the bachelorette? It is not possible to fall in love that fast! We are taking serious life events, like choosing a partner and having a baby, and turning them into entertainment! That is not okay.  See, these people aren't characters on a show. They seem like it, but they're not. They're not the protagonist or antagonist in your favourite book, movie or show. No one made them up. No one gave them strategic character flaws. No one made them heroes. No one invented a history for them. They're real people. They have lived through situations and circumstances that made them the way they are today. They make choices that affect the rest of their lives. They have feelings and talents and struggles and goals and dreams. They love, they hurt, they fear and they triumph. They experience the same range of emotion you and I do. It still hurts when someone calls them fat. Somewhere in the world right now, they're actually living and breathing. Just because you don't know them personally and they live far away, doesn't mean that they're immune to your criticism and caprice. It is still not fair and not okay to talk about them as if they're invented characters. It's still not okay to pick apart the details of their lives. We've all made really stupid mistakes. We've all messed up badly. But none of our mistakes get published in the tabloids. When we mess up, the whole world doesn't have to know. 

So please, I beg of you, don't be a part of the industry. If you don't watch reality tv, or buy the magazines, or read the websites, that's awesome! Keep doing what you're doing. If you do, pleeease, stop. Have some empathy and compassion for your fellow human beings. Let them live their lives without your commentary. And live your own life instead of reading about someone else's. It's like a reality tv show, except nothing's scripted, and you get to decide how it ends. So much better than normal reality tv, amiright?  Goodnight my darlings! Hope I gave you some food for thought.  Love,  Katherine

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sermon on II Corinthians 12:9 (via bonniekristian)

Hate is not a productive response to hate. How are we to have genuine dialogue with someone when we're putting them on the defensive? How are we to overcome evil by stooping to the same level? How are we to correct ignorance by overshadowing the real issue with our ugly words? By hating those who hate us, we ensure that we will remain trapped in a cycle of hate. Just because you're hating in the opposite direction doesn't mean you're doing the opposite of hating. You're still hating. Two wrongs will never make a right. We must overcome hate with something stronger than hate. You know where I'm going with this, right? Love. Love will always conquer hate. Love is the most radical, scandalous answer to hate, because it is unnatural. Not unnatural. Supernatural. Jesus says to love those who hate you. When your love is big enough to swallow wave after wave of malice and vitriol, then you will be truly victorious. Then you will see people take notice. Then you will change the world.

"he is risen" if you believe in him then he rose 2000 years ago. put down your roses and get in the dirt there are people suffering now get out in the street there are people being occupied get out in the world maybe he is risen but it is your job to keep him alive

My Testimony

My testimony is, simply put, the story of how I became a Christian and what God has done in my life. When I was five years old, I decided that I wanted to have a relationship with Christ so I prayed with my mom and invited God to become a part of my life. Ever since then I’ve had a relationship with God, and I’ve tried to live every day as He would want me to live. That was 12 years ago and I’m so thankful that 5-year-old me made that choice. God has taught me some amazing truths over the years.

No matter what I’m going through, He is always there for me. Whether it’s conflicts with my friends or worries about the future, I can talk about it to him and I’m not worried about it anymore. As a result, I’m a pretty happy person most of the time because I don’t have all these trivial little cares weighing me down.

One of the most amazing things I’ve learned sounds very simple but is actually mind-blowing: God loves me. The creator of the universe…loves me. The one who made the sun and the stars loves me! He knows me. He knows everything about me, and He still loves me! I feel so special, so important, so loved.

I know that God has a plan for my life and that He is going to use me to do amazing things. I am living every day according to the purpose He has given me. I don’t have to live to please people, I don’t have to be popular, I don’t have to fit in because my significance is in Christ.

I can tell you that I am a teenager who is happy, secure, confident, and I have significance and purpose. I don’t need drugs or alcohol or sex to make me feel alive or fulfilled. A teenager who can say that is so rare in today’s society. And it’s all because I have God!

I am so thankful that God has given me people in my life who have taught me these wonderful truths, and now I want to tell others about them because they’ve made such a great difference in my life.

Is sex before marriage a sin? If so, why? Does the ceremony make a difference to God if you're in a fully committed relationship? Is it a sin to have sex the night before the wedding but not a sin 24 hours later? I've always believed in waiting but now I'm questioning what the difference is to God

In your question I can see that you have already gotten rid of the idea of marriage as a covenant. When you ask “does the ceremony make a difference to God if you’re in a fully committed relationship?” the answer is yes because it’s not a fully committed relationship until the ceremony that symbolizes the covenant relationship between you and your spouse before God. If marriage is just a ceremony or a social contract, then yeah, it wouldn’t make that big of a deal, but it is so much more than that. It is an image of the relationship that Christ has with his bride the Church. 

Marriage is not the small thing that the culture has made it out to be. The call in marriage is to give your life for your spouse, and when people throw their marriages away for nothing then it gives people the idea that marriage really isn’t that big of a deal and that in the end it’s basically just like any other relationship. Once you start thinking that way, then marriage becomes irrelevant. But that’s not what marriage is. It’s a covenant between you your spouse and God, and as such it should be treated with great reverence.