January 1st Reflections

I WAS LITERALLY ABOUT TO REBLOG THIS WHEN I SAW THAT YOU TAGGED ME THIS IS SO TRUE AND I GET SO MAD ABOUT IT

dudes in their 20s who try to talk to high school girls are losers

Why I Believe What I Believe (because it was far too long to put all of it in an answer)

 I started out being a Christian because I was essentially born and raised in the church. However, make no mistake : it was my own personal decision to begin the journey of faith in Jesus. But it might be more effective for me to explain to you why I STILL believe in Christianity. I am far past the age where I had to stop coasting on the momentum of my parents’ beliefs and step up and own my faith. If you’re only lukewarm and you don’t really believe this stuff, you won’t remain convicted and active in your faith.

First off, I flatter myself that I am a critical thinker. I’m currently doing a science degree in university and I like to think that I’m inquisitive and smart. And I will fiercely deny any accusations of brainwashing or the like. I sometimes have moments where I literally question everything about my existence and I just wonder, “what if everything I’ve ever believed isn’t true?” and when I was in my early teens I asked myself, how do I know God is real? I attended small groups at my church and I read books and I really started investigating. A great book is called A Case for a Creator, by Lee Strobel, if you’re interested.  Here are the reasons I believe in God:

1. Personal Experience.

It’s pretty easy to believe in something when you see it with your own eyes, and hear first-hand accounts all the time from people who were witnesses to the miraculous. For example, the Holy Spirit is probably the most versatile form of God and He’s the form of God here on earth. He lives in us and works through us as we invite Him to do so. So basically, when we open ourselves up to God, He will come and visit. And the effects of the presence and the glory of God are varied and remarkable.

Let me list some symptoms of being in God’s presence:  -Speaking in a unique language, known only to God and not to any human -Crying uncontrollably -Laughing hysterically -Falling over randomly

I’ve seen all of those symptoms in an average church service haha. That’s why they call us Pentecostal, we’re defined by our belief in the Holy Spirit. The name is derived from the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit first visited the disciples of the early church. *Note: there was a cool study done by a student at the University of Pennsylvania who did MRI scans on people while they were speaking in tongues, and discovered that the frontal lobe was not involved the way you’d think it would be, and that neurologically, the data corroborates the Christians testimony, that we hear ourselves but have no blessed clue what we’re saying. Cool, huh? 

Also, the Holy Spirit gives “gifts” wherein He gives you power for a moment to do something humanly impossible, in order to help someone. Those gifts include… -Healing -Miracles -Prophesy -Knowledge (knowing something about someone’s life that you could never have known if God didn’t tell you)  -Faith (more like a leap of faith, It’s when you step out and do something that could not possibly work if God didn’t intervene) -Wisdom (God granting you the answer to what seemed like an unsolvable puzzle) -Interpretation (being able to understand the freaky Holy Spirit language someone is speaking in and translating it) -Discernment (knowing that something is a lie because God told you)

Obviously, it’s difficult to quantify stuff like Faith, Knowledge, Wisdom and Discernment. Usually things like that happen between the gift deliverer and the gift receiver. However, I have personally borne witness to Prophecy and Interpretation, and have heard many firsthand accounts of miraculous healings. When I stop and think about it, I’ve definitely been present at an event where healings took place, but I didn’t know the individual or the specific situation.

The very people in my life are evidence that God exists. There is a biblical concept called The Fruits of The Holy Spirit (NOT the same as the gifts) which are essentially characteristics of God which increase in a person’s life the more contact they have with God. They are… -Love -Joy -Peace -Patience -Gentleness -Faithfulness -Meekness -Self-control

I’ve met so many amazing people in my life, some who are Christian and some who are not. But it happens every now and then when you meet someone and you just KNOW that they are close to God, and you admire them for it. Because they could not possibly possess such fortitude in the face of adversity, such steadfastness in the face of uncertainty, such grace when dealing with people from all walks of life, or such a passion for loving the unlovely, were it not for God’s influence in their lives.

I’ve had a personal relationship with Jesus for 14 years. And I’ve seen Him heal my friend of an addiction to cutting. I’ve seen Him take away her cravings for alcohol, in the middle of a party, because I asked Him to (yeah that was pretty awesome). I’ve seen a young girl who prayed for a friend in her school who had similar beliefs to her, and literally 30 seconds later (I am honestly not exaggerating), met a girl who fit those exact qualifications. Wild stuff happens everyday and I’m used to it! Because God is a constant in my life. 2. It just….makes sense. 

Nothing else has ever come along that seemed more logical to me than God. I’ve heard the theory of the Big Bang and evolution, and it’s not a flawless theory. There are holes in it. And the odds of the things occurring that they say occurred are…ahem, not great. I can only say that I find it very difficult to swallow that at the beginning of our galaxy, matter and antimatter collided and there was a massive explosion and the residual stardust formed a planet (WHICH just happens to be exactly the right distance from the sun so that we don’t burn up or freeze, and has the right gasses in its atmosphere to make breathable air - oh how convenient!) . And then that on that planet there was some kind of primordial soup with organic molecules swimming around in it like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. And then, randomly, through some unknown energy source, such molecules magically arranged themselves into a single-celled organism (WHICH are suuuuuuper complex when you think about it. I mean, come on, there are sugars, phosphate groups and nitrogenous groups in a single nucleotide of DNA, arranged in such a complicated pattern. Those DNA nucleotides code for proteins, which bunch together to make organelles, which all function in harmony to create a living, working cell? How does that even happen from elements swimming around in a soup struck by lightning??). And THEN, over millions and millions of years, such teeeeny tiny single-celled organisms evolved into multicellular, microscopic organisms, then into little paleozoic shrimp-like creatures, then into bugs and fish and birds and mammals and monkeys and eventually humans. And ALL the vast variety of life on this planet COME ON! How do we get bumblebees (whom science says shouldn’t even be able to fly) and platypii (egg-laying mammals with venomous feet) and humans (who are animals so highly “evolved” that they’re capable of emotion and altruism and philosophy and music and all this crazy stuff) and all the way back to the single-celled organisms we still have when they ALL evolved from a single-celled organism?? There also exists a theory that the universe is a closed, contained, self-propagating system in which EVERYTHING that happens is a result of something else happening and therefore everything is just one huge, continuous web of interconnected webs of things happening and blades of grass affect the movement of stars and EVERYTHING in the whole universe is linked to EVERYTHING else in the universe and so everything is a product and a piece in the giant working machine of….existence. You following? So the freakyest question in that theory is…how did the universe create a tool with which to know itself? That tool is us. Because if the universe is just one big automatic machine, it has no consciousness. But we have consciousness. But we’re part of the universe, so we were made by the universe and have a role in the universe and yet we’re aware of being a screw in this massive machine? Whoah…my head’s exploding. See, theories like that make no sense to me because they’re entirely circular. And how did this big universe even get started on its Roop Goldberg chain-of-events existence anyway? Excellent question! Yeah, I think it was God.  Everything is just so…perfect. Albert Einstein said that the more he studied the stars, the more he believed in a higher power. I want you to know that I don’t think science and religion are mutually exclusive at all. I am deeply religious, and I love science. And the more science I learn, the stronger my belief becomes. This universe, and this life, leaves me absolutely speechless in awe of the one who designed it. The patterns of life are too complex, too intricate to be the product of mere accident. The universe is so vast, and the cell is so small, and yet each is so complex that it is worthy of millions of years of study to understand it, and we still don’t understand it completely! The planet is the perfect distance from the sun. The atmosphere is perfect for us. The food webs are all so magnificently interconnected. Our bodies literally have a mechanism for every possible necessary function that I didn’t even know was possible. Have you ever studied our bodies? THEY’RE FRICKIN INCREDIBLE! No one could dream up a world like this one, ever in their wildest fantasies. It’s just too amazing and wonderful and mysterious. I CANNOT believe that this was all the product of random chance. I think that it MUST have been the beautiful design of a brilliant and very creative, infinite, craftsman. The bible says that the skies declare the glory of the Lord, and I think that’s so accurate. The skies, the trees, the land. Everything. It’s all just so absolutely, magnificently, breathtakingly gorgeous. I think that He is such an artist. Man, I’m actually blown away by the colours and the textures and the patterns and the lines and curves and visual splendor of Nature. And then I think, “how could something so beautiful not be made by God?”  Because God is…everything. He’s beauty, He’s thought, He’s life, He’s love, He’s music. He is absolutely the purest, most perfect (although there are no degrees of affection), most holy, most wonderful, most lovely, most amazing….essence. He’s not a person or a thing. He’s…everything. And everything is Him. That doesn’t even make, sense, I know. I’m not some new age hippy that believes in the organic energy or everything, or in people’s auras, or that we are all God within ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, I am a very socially conservative (probably politically too), traditional, orthodox, bible-believing Christian. But think about it: Nothing can exist apart from God. We can’t breath or blink or think without Him. He sustains our very existence. He sustains our very universe. It all arose from Him when He said “Let there be light” and there was light. He breathed everything into existence and therefore nothing is possible without Him. God is definitely the most beautiful thing I ever have or ever will encounter.  There is even evidence for the existence of God within ourselves. You cannot deny that everybody is constantly searching….for…something. We instinctively, inherently, detest the shallow, vain creatures we’ve become. We crave something of substance, something of value, in our lives. Everyone tries to be “deep”, you know? With quotes, and song lyrics, and photography, and poetry, and reading, and music, and science, and relationships. I don’t mean that as a bad thing, I just mean that it’s the way we’re wired. We want meaning in our lives. We want to make sense of that crazy, spinning mess we find ourselves in. We want to understand ourselves and each other. We want something…more. Something transcendent. Something ephemeral. Something intangible. Something spiritual. Something eternal. Every human being has a deeply spiritual need, and if you ignore that part of you, you will be unhappy and unfulfilled. And, call me crazy, but I think I have the answer to that craving. That’s called a soul. It’s who you are. Its your entire identity. And I think that it is still connected to it’s creator, Who is a being of spirit, like us. We really are, you know. We’re spirit creators. We just happen to be incredibly limited by the mortal forms we’re confined to at the moment. Anyway, your soul is crying out to be in communion, and in contact with God. It’s what we were made for!  Also, cool science fact of the day! The protein in our bodies, the one that is made to be the intercellular “glue”, the protein that literally holds our bodies together, is shaped like a cross. And there’s a verse in the bible that says that Jesus “holds all things together”

115 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.     He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,[a] 116 for through him God created everything     in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see     and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.     Everything was created through him and for him. 117 He existed before anything else,     and he holds all creation together.

(Colossians 1:15-17). Search it up: Laminin. There is ALSO a galaxy out there in the shape of a cross. Coincidence? Mwahaha, I think not! God, you so sneaky! 

FURTHERMORE!  The bible, which was written, like, forever ago (okay 2000-3000 years) contains some very uncannily accurate science facts! Which were most definitely unbeknownst to the writers of that time. Here is a lovely table for you viewing pleasure: 

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, “I believe in God the way I believe in the sun. Not because I can see it, but because by it I can see everything else.” He also points out that arguing against God is a completely pointless endeavor because the faculties with which you reason out your arguments were given to you by God so you’re reasoning…against reason. That’s awkward. Classy guy, that C.S. Lewis. Another excellent book I highly recommend is by him, and it’s called Mere Christianity. He started writing it as an exhortation against Christianity. He set out to disprove it but in the process of attempting to do so, found that he could not and was thus converted. His fundamental issue was that all humans have an innate code of ethics. He goes into this in detail in the book, but I’ll do my best to summarize for you. Basically, we all have this standard of right and wrong in us, which is, surprisingly, not bred into us by society. It has nothing to do with societal pressures and is ingrained in our psyche from the time we’re created. 

What was the sense in saying the enemy were in the wrong unless Right is a real thing which the Nazis at bottom knew as as we did and ought to have practised? If they had had no notion of what we mean by right, then, though we might still have had to fight them, we could no more have blamed them for that than for the colour of their hair. 

Where did this standard come from? How could that exist if we were just the product of chance? And how do we even know what’s good and bad? It`s a fascinating read. 

If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teachings of the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own...Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five. 

The answer is that there must be some greater standard of good, outside ourselves, that we measure by. That’s God. 

If there was a controlling power outside the universe, it could not show itself to us as one of the facts inside the universe - no more than the architect of a house could actually be a wall or staircase or fireplace in that house. The only way in which we could expect it to show itself would be inside ourselves as an influence or command trying to get us to behave in a certain way. And that is just what we do find inside ourselves.

3. There actually is a great deal of historical credibility to the bible I know you said that there's "no proof of any reality to the bible", but the truth is that if we measured the bible by the same standards with which we measure historical documents, it would far exceed all other authoritative historical manuscripts in authenticity and credibility.  Historical manuscripts are judged on three criteria:  1) The number of existing manuscripts.  There are about 56000 existing original manuscripts which were part of the bible.  2) The Dating of the manuscripts. There's only like a couple centuries between the earliest manuscript and the first copy. In fact, here's a lovely chart I found when doing my research: 

3) The number of variant readings, i.e. the number of discrepancies between multiple versions of the original text. 

99.5 % of the bible is in agreement on theology, and 85% has perfect agreement even in spelling and punctuation! Which is incredible for a text having so many surviving manuscripts. 

Also, and just a side note on number 3 there, with such a vast number of surviving manuscripts, it is important to note also that it was transcribed by 40 different writers, in 3 different continents, over a period of 1600 years, in 3 different languages...and STILL has 99.5% accuracy! I just don't think that's humanly possible.  And finally, there is a staggering amount of prophetical evidence for the bible's veracity. It confirms itself by the prophecies in the old testament, say...Isaiah, being corroborated by the first-hand accounts in the new testament, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. FOR EXAMPLE, in the fifth century B.C., a prophet name Zechariah predicted that Jesus would be sold for thirty pieces of silver, which would be used to purchase "a potter's field". 

12 And I said to them, “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.” So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter[a]”—this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.

Matthew's account of Jesus' betrayal, written around 60-65 A.D, confirms this: 

3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. 4 “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.”

“What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.”

5 Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself.

6 The leading priests picked up the coins. “It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury,” they said, “since it was payment for murder.”[a] 7 After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. 8 That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood. 9 This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says,

“They took[b] the thirty pieces of silver—     the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel, 10 and purchased the potter’s field,     as the Lord directed.[c]”

Science tells us that the chances of that being a coincidence are 1 in 10^11....1 in 100 000 000 000. 

Alrighty, so there you go, my three reasons for believing in Christianity. Again, I'm not trying to convince you that I'm right, but I am trying to show you that I am a smart, educated, critically-thinking person who is not brainwashed. I'm a little bit defensive on the topic because my grade 10 chem teacher, although I dearly loved him, used to say that religious people were all like sheep being led off a cliff, and he compared belief in God to belief in garden fairies, which I highly resented.  I hope this has enlightened you, or interested you, or at least amused you! Til next time,  -Katherine

w. prodigalmagazine com/ jesus-called-me-the-n-word/ please read it. Its great! However it makes me realize something with the words: "how do you love someone whose actions or behaviors you find really unacceptable?". Yes the C.S Lewis quote... My dilemma is, its like spreading a fake love, i know its better to love then it is to hate. But deep down he still thinks its unacceptable, He realizes their pain and apologizes, but he doesn't accept them, so why selfless love why not respect!?

“There is someone that I love even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is……me.” - C.S.Lewis(If you can’t say amen, say ouch.) 

Wow. Awesome, awesome quote. And great article! Okay so let’s examine your quarrel with this article. So if I understand you correctly, you feel like the fact that he still finds homosexuality “unacceptable”, means that he doesn’t genuinely love them. And your proposition is that if he did love them, he wouldn’t still have a problem with homosexuality. Alright, I will give you my interpretation and my opinion and hope that it’s…somewhat useful.

The problem I see with the Homosexuality vs. Religion catastrophe is rooted in the fact that it’s supposedly a unique situation. As I see it, there are two reasons for this. 

If I believe the bible, which I do, I believe that homosexuality is wrong. This is a problem because of the age-old psychological nature vs. nurture debate, and the fact that homosexuality is currently considered to be a natural, involuntary state which remains constant throughout the lifespan. And how can you judge someone for something they can’t help? That’s why homosexuality, among all the sins in the bible, is treated as a special case by non-religious people. 

But why is homosexuality treated as a special case by religious people? I mean, of all the things to protest with picket signs, why pick homosexuality? If I’m not mistaken, adultery is still a bad thing, right? Where are the laws against that? No one’s petitioning to make that illegal. We’re not a fan of taking the Lord’s name in vain but we sure have developed a high tolerance for it! Oh and drug and alcohol abuse. There are a good many Pentecostal church kids in that category. Do we kick them out of houses and out of churches? And don’t even get me started on Christian boys and porn addiction, we’d be here all night! So WHY is there acceptance and forgiveness for all that other stuff at the alter, and not for homosexuality?

I’m actually gonna tell you why. Let me address these two issues separately.

When it all boils down, I have no idea whether I think homosexuality is a choice or not. But guess what. I DON’T CARE!  I honestly could not care any less than I do right now whether homosexuality can be helped or not. It makes no difference to how I see you. It makes no difference to how I treat you. It makes no difference to how I love you. Hypothetically, if someone really did consciously and willingly make a choice to be gay, that wouldn’t make a difference either. I mean, all the crap we choose to do doesn’t, why should this? 

To answer the big WHY question back there, it’s because church people feel like we need to “fix” everybody’s behavior. You’re cutting? Let’s draw a butterfly on your arm and work through a positive psychology plan for diminishing relapses. (That actually worked for my friend.) You have a porn addiction? Okay, make me your accountability partner and download a secure browser and I’ll get email updates on your browsing activities every week. (I actually do get emails like that.) And I’m not saying that trying to help someone who wants help is bad! I’m saying that the compulsion to modify behavior is bad. We are accepting and loving but we want to fix you. And when church people come up against something they can’t control, like homosexuality, the rules change? I mean, come on. In reality, although I’m glad for butterflies and weekly emails, I don’t have to fix anybody. I can just go one loving them and leave it at that. And those butterflies and emails, they’re not me. They’re Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can do any fixing, so I’m not even sure why I try. 

But here’s the thing. All sin is equal in the sight of God. (James 2:10). So why are people making this big stinking deal about homosexuality when some of us have so much pride in our hearts, we can’t even hear God anymore and we probably think we wrote the bible! Some of us have so much hate that our souls are corroding away inside of us. Some of us have so much lust and secrets and shame that we can barely make eye contact. And you’re gonna look at me and say “homosexuality is a sin”? No my son (Newfoundland expression). I’ve got bigger things in my own life to deal with than homosexuality. And chances are, so do you.

Secondly, I feel as though we’re reading this article through different filters and the way we perceive love is very very different. I’m sensing that you see love as an endpoint. Like I’ve got to jump through a hoop, crawl through a tunnel, pole vault, limbo and do the hokey pokey before I can love you. And you see my issue with homosexuality as an obstacle that needs to be overcome before I can love you. Maybe homosexuality is a wall between me and loving you. And I just climb over the wall. But…the wall’s still there. It’s still a big huge reminder that the path to loving you was not easy. Maybe by saying that he still finds their behavior unacceptable, you feel like he’s cheating on his love. And that’s why you called it a fake love. 

Well I’m here to tell you that that’s not the way it works at all. Love is a starting point. It’s not like “Okay fiiiine, I guess I love you, even though….” No no no. It’s just “I love you.” Period. End of story. No ifs, ands or buts. In reality, it’s “I love you becauseyou’re a person and you’re a child of God, and God loves you.” And that’s good enough for me. That’s all there is to it. There are no qualifications on God’s love! He didn’t ask to see photo ID or a baptism certificate or your report card before He loved you. He just does! That is the nature of unconditional love. And that’s how I love you. EVERYTHING ELSE in the entire world is secondary to that fact. Your colour, your size, your height, your weight, your gender, your culture, your religious affiliation, your political opinions, your sexual orientation, your socio-economic status, your income, your education, your choices, your actions, your attitudes, your behavior, your family, your upbringing, your personality and your genetics are ALL secondary to the fact that first and foremost, and above all, you are a human being, worthy of love. And I don’t have to change your behavior. My ONLY job is to love you. I think that’s what the author was getting at in that article. It wasn’t really that he had this grand revelation that changed everything, it’s more like God brought Him back to the basics.

See, I know that God loves me. That’s why I’m capable of loving myself despite the terrible things I do, the struggles I face, the mistakes I make and the people I hurt. God loved us before we were born, so we obviously didn’t earn it, and obviously nothing we do will change it. And as a Christian, I love people the same way. 

Finally, respect is one of the primary exigences of love. Please, please don’t ever think that I don’t respect you. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done. Nowhere in that article does it state that he doesn’t respect gay people. You’re inferring disrespect where none was implied. Furthermore, nowhere is it written anywhere that you and I have to be in 100% agreement to love each other. Just because we might come down on different sides of the homosexuality question makes no difference to how I love you. I disagree with a lot of people on a lot of things, some small, some rather large. But I love them all the same. Just because I disagree with your behavior doesn’t mean I don’t respect you, and it doesn’t mean I don’t genuinely love you. 

I hope this helps a little! Thanks for your question :)Peace and love! -Katherine 

10 Awesome Quotes from C.S. Lewis

“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.”

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

“God can’t give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

My Manifesto

I am a Christian. That means that I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. He is there for me every hour of every day, He listens to me and comforts me, guides me, helps me, inspires me, empowers me, restores me, heals me, blesses me and walks with me through the bad times. He gives me life, peace, hope, joy and freedom. Most importantly He LOVES me. No matter how screwed up I am. He is my teacher, healer, redeemer, my best friend, my king and my Lord. He is my Savior.

 I believe in the one true God, the omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent creator and supreme ruler of the universe. I believe he sprinkled the stars in the sky and hung the sun in the vast expanse of space. I believe He created us with love and a purpose, and made the entire Earth just right for us. And He is threefold: He is at once The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. That the infinite was contained within the confines of space and time and that GOD dwelt among us in a human frame. And I believe that Jesus, the one who was absolutely wholly pure and perfect, was crucified in the most inhumane way possible to take the penalty for every time we screw up. I believe He died and three days later, rose again. He conquered the grave. He is the Lord of life and of death so that NOTHING, not even the powers of Hell can separate us from His love.

 That means that we are free. Free from the bondages of addiction, depression and self-harm. Free from cutting, from drugs, and from all the pain and hurt. Free from anorexia and bulimia. Free from porn. Free from the lie that says we have to fit in and wear the right clothes, be a size double 0 and have perfect hair, skin and teeth. Free from every time someone told us we aren't good enough. Free from all the times we say that to ourselves. Free from hatred. Jesus conquered all that stuff when the nails pierced his hands and blood ran down the rugged wooden cross.

 You know why? Because He loves us. We are his children, the apple of His eye, His treasure. More precious than any other of His myriad creations. Priceless. He created us in love with free will to be our own people and to do our own thing and He let us choose Him. And some of us didn't. But He longs to have a relationship with us. He created us to be His companions, in His image in fact, with a soul and a spirit that instinctively seeks to be close to Him. He created us to live forever, in paradise with Him.

 But we have alienated ourselves. God's justice demands that we pay the penalty for the mistakes we make. That's fair right? We screw up, we take the consequences. Is it still fair when the consequences for our sinful nature is that we can't go to Heaven and live forever, that we die? Well yeah. And God's name, YAHWEH, means "I Am that I Am." He will not go against His own nature and elude justice by not letting us pay the price for our sin. So that means we're all going to die.

 Because we all make mistakes. Come one now, you can't tell me you've never felt like you would do anything at all to take back that one day, or week or month. That you've never felt unworthy to live and you've hated yourself? I have. We are nowhere near perfect and we hurt ourselves and we hurt other people. In the depths of our hearts, we hold hatred for other people. And hating someone is such a terrible emotion that it's tantamount to murdering them in our heads. And our sin, the evil poisoning our hearts and minds, is killing us.

 That sucks though. We don't want to die. God doesn't want us to die either. But where is all this Karmic, Cosmic debt gonna go? What happens with all the mistakes we make? What about all this pain I've caused? It can't just disappear. SOMEONE has to take the consequences. Someone has to pay the debt. But it can't be anyone human, we're all in debt. It had to be God. It had to be someone who had never done anything wrong and who had no sin. And humans were the ones in need of saving so it had to be a human. So God stepped into our galaxy. He was incarnated in the body of a tiny baby boy in a lowly stable in Bethlehem, Judea. And He grew up, never did a thing wrong, but hated by the people He came to save. And they killed Him, all according to the plan designed by God. Then He came back. See how this works?

 Now, some ask, how can there be a loving God when there is so much bad stuff in the world? How can He love me so much if He lets me go through all this stuff? He could very easily make this world a perfect world. And He could remove murder, rape, adultery, divorce, war, terrorism, racism, slavery, oppression, starvation and poverty. But let's stop and think about how He would go about that. All those things are entirely out fault. It's not fate, it's not the devil, it's not random, this messed up world is messed up by the people living in it. So how would He get rid of all that stuff? Get rid of us? Or change us? Change the way we think? Would He have to go all the way deep down into the very fabric of our souls, the motives of our hearts and the patterns of our thoughts? Because we are human, and to get rid of bad stuff would be to either obliterate all of us or to remove our free will. He could make it so that we never have a single bad thought. But we'd all be robots. If we're all perfect, that means we're all the same. What's the point?

 No, He made us with a choice. We can choose Him. And He gave us this world and we messed it up. And we walked away from Him. But our souls long to be united with Him again. We don't know what we're missing but we know that something is. We are all trying to ease the pain, to fill the void, to make sense of this life. We search for meaning and significance and fulfillment in friends, family, relationships, travel, food, sex, drugs, career, politics, literature, money, possesions, music and religion. But none of those things will ever cut it.

 Hold on now, you say, you just listed religion. Aren't you preaching Christianity? Isn't that a religion? And you just said that religion's not gonna cut it. No no, religion is rules and traditions. Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus. Totally different. Don't get caught up in the "Don't do this, don't do that." Don't get confused by Catholic vs. Pentecostal. Those are denominations, but I don't like defining myself by a denomination.

 I am a Christian. I love Jesus and Jesus loves me. And I screw up but He forgives me. And when I step from this world to the next, He will be waiting for me and I will party up in Heaven with Jesus for all eternity. 

Can God call me to be an exotic dancer?

Dancing is an absolutely beautiful art form which can totally be used for ministry. HOWEVER imma go ahead and assume that when you say "exotic dancer" you mean it as a euphemism for "stripper". I wanna be all saucy and brush you off but...Here's the thing.God is so not into disrespecting yourself and your body. You do realize that He made you right? That He "knit you together in your mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13). He twisted together chains of deoxyribose nucleic acid with his bare fingers. He personally designed every physical trait you have. Your body is His masterpiece. And He is so not down with you using your body to incite lust. He is so not down with random men undressing you with their eyes because you're so much more than that! You're beautiful and perfect and made in the image of God! So....haha no. I don't think God's gonna call you to be an exotic dancer. I know you were just being a sauce-pan but it's not a topic I take lightly. So I am taking this opportunity to remind you, and everyone, to love and respect yourself and your body. And on a sidenote, I do not appreciate your attempts to twist my words and trap me into saying something I'll regret. That is very pharisee-esque of you. As in when the pharisees were trying to get dirt on Jesus so they could arrest him. And boy did they get BURNED! Food for thought. (Don't make me turn off the anon option!) Peace and love!-Katherine 

"We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself? And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us."

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

I'm Turning 20 In 10 Days

"I've come so far but I've got so far to go." 20 strikes me as a very odd age indeed. You're two decades old. You're no longer a teenager. You have a different digit at the beginning of your age. I mean, you've had the same first digit since you were 10 years old. And we can all agree that 10 is a very young age. It's a big deal. You're entering into the decade of your life where so many things are supposed to happen. Between the ages of 20 and 30, you might finish post secondary education, start a career, fall in love, move out, get married and have kids. All of those things might happen while the number 2 is the first debit of your age. And I'm not gonna lie, that freaks me out. Adding to my disquiet is the fact that one of my friends is 20 and got engaged just the other day. I'm thrilled for her and panicked for me, and it's implications regarding the stage of life I am entering. Might I add that it did not help when my father said "that's how old I was when I got engaged." It does not worry me that I am single and will not be engaged at the age of 20. What worries me is that I might be expected to be engaged at the age of 20. There's only one day's difference between being a teenager and being an adult. Teenagers have a reputation for doing dumb stuff. But adults are expected to make informed, logical decisions in life changing situations. I know that 24 hours is not going to make that big a difference in my decision-making skills. 20 is a grown up age. But it will not belong to a grown up life. I still live at home. I still ask my parents' permission. I still eat Nutella with a spoon. I still have stuffed animals. I still hate homework. I still have sleepovers. I still get stupid little crushes. For all intents and purposes, I am a child! And yet I feel as though at the age of 20 I'm supposed to undergo some transformation and move out and have a career and find a mate. And then you begin contemplating the future. Do you know what it feels like when all the moments yet to come have weight and they press down on you? When all the breaths yet to be breathed turn to lead in your lungs? When you're suffocating under the expectations of others and your own expectations for yourself? The future is heavy with paths to be chosen, mistakes to be made, hearts to be broken, prices to be paid. Like a stormcloud with rain, it's full of successes and failures, joy and sorrow, triumphs and disappointments. And you begin to wonder, how on earth am I to weather these storms of life without an umbrella? I'm not entirely gloomy about this birthday. I know the future has limitless potential for optimism and that life is what you make it and I'm very excited to become an adult! I can't wait to move out and try new things and explore brave new worlds. That being said, I'm also straight up terrified. And with that thought, I bid you goodnight.

Shrinking Women - Lily Myers

Stop feeling ashamed of being human.

A lesson I am still learning.