Please Reblog The Fundraisers You See On Your Dash. Please. If You Claim To Care About Palestine, NOW

So judging from your first question, Some people clearly don't respect your views or share the same passion for god. My question to you then is: The people who don't know god the way you do, are they weak in a bliss of confusion, incapable of hearing God's call?

Hmmm...."weak in a bliss of confusion, incapable of hearing God's call?" that is a very interesting way of wording it, and definitely one that I had never considered before. So I think I can confidently say no, that's not at all what I think about people who aren't as crazy for God as I am. Okay, you know when you discover this awesome video on the internet that's just hilarious, or an amazing song, and you wanna show it to your friend right away because you'll KNOW they'll love it as much as you do? That's kinda what it's like for me. Like, I love everybody no matter what their opinion on God is, but at the same time, I do live my daily life operating on the assumption that everyone needs Jesus. I need Jesus desperately and the difference He's made in my life is incredible. So I guess I view people who aren't, y'know, "God-crazy" like me as people who just haven't discovered Him yet. Like either they haven't been told about the youtube video, or they were told and haven't watched it, so they don't know how awesome it is. Totally not incapable of hearing His call, not by any stretch. God works and speaks and moves in mindblowing ways, and sometimes people who seem super "far" from God hear His voice super clear while others who seem super "close" aren't even listening, haha :P And there you go! Peace and Love! -Katherine 

I yelled at God today.

This morning, I woke up PISSED. Before going to bed, I had gone on a massive twitter rant about this whole “Make Rape Legal” rally nonsense going on. And I couldn’t let it go. Like, this was really eating at me. This morning, I yelled at God. I wasn’t mad at Him. I was so frustrated and bitter and angry with this world, and the people in it. I was so done with humanity and everything we’ve created. 

This happens every morning. If it’s not a pro-rape rally, it’s a black kid shot by police. It’s protesters at Planned Parenthood. It’s a mass shooting in a school or a theatre. It’s Trump. It’s murdered and missing Aboriginal women in Canada. It’s human trafficking. It’s refugees dying at sea. It’s terrorist attacks. It’s casual racism and sexism on facebook. It’s thousands of children dying of hunger. It’s capitalism. It’s imperialism and colonialism. It’s everything. Every day. I wake up PISSED every morning because of this wretched, broken, messed up world we live in. This wretched, broken, messed up world we MADE. 

I asked God, “how am I supposed to have joy and peace in the midst of these atrocities and injustices?” I knew that I wasn’t supposed to have this rancor and vitriol rooted in my soul. I know that this bitter, hateful, black feeling inside me is not of God. But I knew that I was outraged for the right reasons. I know that I am angry because of all the evil in the world. So why does my reaction feel so antithetical to my calling? Why can’t I help but have the feeling that I am destroying myself from the inside out? My heart is in the right place, right? I love people, so I’m outraged at their mistreatment. So why is this love stealing my peace and my joy? Why does my love feel like hate? 

I asked God this. I said to Him, “are you angry like me? Is your heart breaking like mine?” And He said, “Katherine, my heart breaks for the victims AND the perpetrators. I weep for lives taken and souls lost, no matter who they are.” 

See, my problem is that I say I love people, but I don’t actually love all people. My love only extends about as far as my personal code of ethics deems people worthy of love. I love the victims, and I forget to love the perpetrators. I love the oppressed and I forget to love the oppressor. I love the innocent and I forget to love the guilty. 

Funny, right? Cause I am the guilty. We’re all the guilty. Jesus died for rape victims AND the rapists. And I think I love people but it’s only when God shows me the hatred I harbour in my heart that I realize that I don’t know how to love people at all. 

Somehow, I bought the lie that hate is the right response to hate. Somewhere along the way, my love was hijacked and twisted and corrupted into hate, and I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t understand why I was so tortured all the time. I thought that hate was strong and love was weak. So I hated the people inflicting injustice and I thought I was doing something about it. 

I forgot that love already did it. I forgot that it’s already done. I forgot that Jesus said “It is finished.” I let the enemy steal my peace and my joy because I forgot what real love looks like. 

So when I yelled at God today, and I said “what am I supposed to do?!” He told me to love. 

Which was much more revolutionary to me than one might expect. :P 

Hey Katherine :) (its michaela) I love your blog! I also love the show 19 kids and counting with the Duggar family. I was just wondering if you watched the show and if so, do you like the Duggars as well? :) god bless! xox

Hello dear! I must confess, although I am familiar with the concept of the show, I had never seen a single clip. So when I read your question, I went and watched a couple episodes. I think they seem like really nice, really friendly people. They're a little bit more conservatives in their traditions than I am, but from what I can tell, it's nothing extreme or worrisome like that.

For example, from what I've read, their decision to abstain from using birth control was because they thought it caused their first miscarriage, as opposed to it being a religious thing, as I had originally thought. I mean, they did say they were gonna let God decide how many children they have, but I don't think they chose not to use it because they thought it was unholy or un-biblical or anything, so I definitely find that reassuring! 

I definitely adore children, but 19 or 20 would be way too much for me! So I think Michelle and Jim-Bob are a little bit crazy and also very very impressive people :P 

I'm not a huge reality tv fan, so I don't foresee it making my top 10 favourite shows or anything, but they really do seem like lovely people. :) Lots of love! -Katherine :) 

ALRIGHT EVERYBODY LISTEN UP

I AM A CHRISTIAN.

I BELIEVE IN HEAVEN AND HELL.

KNOW WHAT I DON’T BELIEVE?

THAT PEOPLE GO TO HELL FOR BEING GAY.

KNOW WHY?

CAUSE THAT’S NOT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS.

KNOW WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS?

THAT EVERYBODY WOULD GO TO HELL IF NOT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST WHO DIED ON THE CROSS.

THE BIBLE ALSO SAYS THAT IF YOU CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH THAT JESUS IS LORD AND BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, YOU’LL BE SAVED (ROMANS 10 FREAKING 9 MOTHER-TRUCKER)

THEREFORE!!!

PEOPLE GO TO HELL IF THEY DON’T KNOW THE LOVE OF JESUS.

YOU KNOW WHO’S NEVER GONNA KNOW THE LOVE OF JESUS IF THE CHURCH KEEPS BEING RIGID JUDGEMENTAL CONDESCENDING NOT-NICE PEOPLE!?!?!

YOU GUESSED IT!

GAY PEOPLE 

CHURCH, BY OSTRACIZING GAY PEOPLE YOU ARE LITERALLY LIVING THE ANTITHESIS OF YOUR MANDATE.

Dearest,

Look at the scars on your wrists. Now look at the scars on mine. On my wrists, on my head, on my back. Look at the blade in your hand. Now, do you see the thorns?  Do you see the whip? Do you see the nails? Look at your own blood you spilled. Now look at mine running down the rugged wooden tree.

Do you know how much I love you?

When you feel worthless, remember that I love you individually and personally. Every part of you is familiar to Me and I love you deeply no matter what. You are the apple of My eye. You are priceless to Me. You are so valuable to Me that if you were the only person ever in the entire world, I would have suffered every horror of the cross just the same. I died for you.

When you feel like a mistake, remember that I made you. I do not make mistakes. You are perfect exactly the way you are. You are My masterpiece. When I look at you, I see My wonderful creation, and I see your soul shining through. I see a beautiful vessel of My Spirit which I placed in you, a spirit of freedom, a spirit of victory, a spirit of power.

When you feel like nothing good could ever come of you, remember that when I created you, I had a specific purpose in mind, and a glorious plan for you life. I will use you to impact lives and to change the world in your own special way and I equipped you with the exact right skills, passions, talents and experiences to do it.

Again I ask you, do you know how much I love you?

Every pain you feel, ever drop you bleed, every tear you cry, I wish you did not have to. That’s why I went to the cross. I took every single heartbreak, every single addiction, every single mistake, every single negative thought about yourself on my shoulders on the cross. I felt everything you feel…

…So that you wouldn’t have to.

I was crucified in the most inhumane way possible. Unendurable agony for 6 hours. And then, God the father turned His back on me. Every sin of this world was laid on my shoulders and I was completely alone. All that you feel multiplied 6 billion times.

My child, I took all of your pain. I conquered all your addictions, all your self-hate and self-harm. I am Lord of life and death. I went down into the depths of Hell and came back. I won the victory on the cross, I bought your freedom. I went through it so that you don’t have to. You are free.

That’s how much I love you.

I want to give you LIFE  and life more abundantly! I want to wrap my arms of love around you and never let go. I want to blow your mind with the amazing plans that I have for you. I want to fill you so full of peace and hope and love and joy that you’re overflowing. Will you let me?

-Jesus

P. S. Put down the blade. I say you’re better than that.

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

some positives:

Seven states voted to protect abortion rights, including the deeply red state of Missouri

Sarah McBride became the first openly trans woman elected to congress

Mark Robinson, the man who called himself a "Black N*zi" will not be governor of North Carolina

Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester become the first duo of black women senators ever in the history of the senate (sadgressive but good for their constituents)

Kentucky voted to protect public education!

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 you please watch the video "rapping for Jesus" and tell me your opinion on it? Thank you!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA just watched it, and I have to say that I always get a kick out of painfully awkward Christian videos. I make fun of myself all the time, because we can be a pretty ridiculous bunch. For example, I love the "Sh*tuff Christian Girls Say" video and quote it aaaaaalll the time hahaha.. "God is love, enough said. Hashtag, BOOM." There was one problem with the "Rappin' for Jesus" video, though. They kept saying that Jesus is their "n****"!! I think it was a misguided attempt to emulate rap culture and slang but really ended up being pretty disrespectful. I would personally NEVER EVER EVER EVER say that word! I know some people who say it, and they're like "I'm just joking" and I'm like "that's not funny." It's made sooo much worse by the fact that they are just. so. white. haha So..yeah. I honestly didn't take it very seriously and therefore found nothing excessively good or excessively bad about it. Except the n-word thing. That's not cool. What did you think of it? :P  Peace and love! -Katherine 

The Need for Missionaries in North America

Christians in North America love to talk about “missions”. Usually that means people on other continents, across oceans, with vastly different climates and cultures. We talk a lot about unchurched peoples. 

I think it’s time to talk less about unchurched peoples and talk more about DE-churched peoples.

In North America, we have a unique mission field. We live on a continent where millions of people already know about Jesus, and are vehemently disinterested in Him. Because of us. 

We are surrounded by millions of people who actively reject God because of us. 

They equate God with hate, judgment and condemnation because of us. Just one generation before mine in my province, people left the church in droves because of hypocrisy, scandal and intolerance. My generation is the first generation in Newfoundland in which many people have absolutely zero affiliation with any church. My generation is the generation that knows God as someone who hates women and people of colour and LGBTQ+ people. Because his followers hate all those people. 

Jesus said that people would know his followers by their love for one another, not their hate. 

Something has gone very very wrong here. The most well known image associated with Christianity in the United States is a sign saying “God Hates F*gs”. Half my time is spent trying to combat misogyny, homophobia and transphobia within the church and the other half of my time is spent apologizing for all those things to people outside the church.

Yes I assure you, I know that it’s “not all” churches and “not all” Christians. Before you whine about my generalizations, I will preemptively refute that critique by saying that every time someone claims “not all” about a social class in a position of power, the answer is that it is the vast majority enabling us to make general claims about clear trends evident in this social class. Furthermore,  in this specific case, even if it is not all, it is a portion that is statistically significant enough that it dominates the psyche of our culture. And those of us who have not been active perpetrators have been complicit through our defenses like the one that you’re leveraging against my stance right now. Okay, that’s out of the way.

I am in no way saying that we don’t have a responsibility to “Go” and make disciples of ALL the nations. I am in no way saying that the work that overseas missionaries do is not important or that God does not call people to international missions. Here is what I AM saying: 

if God does not call you--yes, YOU, specifically--and me to go overseas and preach the gospel, then the only logical conclusion is that he’s calling us to STAY and preach the gospel. 

Too often we think that if we are not being sent to a different country then we are excused from the Great Commission. We are not. 

We will each be responsible for all the people we came into contact with, all the people we were supposed to love like God, all the opportunities to be Jesus.

We need to recognize the vast population of dechurched people in North America. We need to understand the unique cultural challenges of doing ministry in this context. We need to intentionally address the very specific obstacles to the propagation of the gospel in North America. In some countries, the gospel faces opposition from animism. In some, from Buddhism. In others, from Islam. 

In North America, the gospel faces opposition from Christianity itself. 

Our job now is to undergo cultural sensitivity training for our own home missions field. Our job is to recognize that we don’t actually have home team advantage here. Christianity is not the default, dominant moral standard. And we don’t have any right to expect it to be. 

We’re fighting an uphill battle on a landscape that has already been ravaged by the war we’ve waged against the culture.

We have to meet people where they are. 

We need to respect the challenges, the baggage and the bondage in North America. 

The pain and fear and shame that the church has instilled in people so that they run away from God. If we really want to reach people for Jesus, we have to look around. We have to stop expecting people to come to us. We have to stop thinking that it’s easy for anybody to just walk into a church. For a lot of people, walking into a church is traumatic at worst and ironic at best. 

If we really believe in this earth-shattering, history-altering, life-changing, time-stopping, world-healing message we have the immense honour and responsibility to carry, then our job is to love.

That’s vague and trite and cliche. Allow me to elaborate. You know how overseas missionaries say that it’s not a job, it’s a lifestyle? Like that. You know how overseas missionaries intentionally create spaces where they can meet people exactly where they are and meet their needs in the best way possible? Like that. You know how overseas missionaries do not consider it their place to judge anybody, simply to demonstrate the love of Jesus? LIKE THAT. You know how overseas missionaries understand that they are guests of their region and are not entitled to a platform but instead have to work to EARN the trust of the people they minister to? LIKE THAT. You know how overseas missionaries spend months and even years carefully building connections in the community and relationships with individuals? LIKE THAT.

It’s not that I think that pastors and missionaries are the only ones in “full time ministry”. We’re all in full time ministry. 

If you consider yourself a Christian and you have a personal relationship with God and you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you’re AUTOMATICALLY in full time ministry. 

It’s like Step 1: Accept Jesus. Step 2: Tell EVERYBODY. Far be it from me to insinuate that missionaries are the only ones doing missions. I am claiming the opposite, in fact. I think that we all need to start thinking of ourselves as missionaries much more seriously than we do right now. 

Whether God has told you to go or to stay, you are where you are because He has placed you there for a purpose. 

I am advocating for a shift in attitude at a corporate level. I am advocating for a change in the way we as the Body conceptualizes outreach.

So what does this look like on a practical level? For one, it looks like acknowledging that we have occupied a position of social and political power for a long time and still do. It’s acknowledging the privilege inherent in living in a society where our religion has been the default for generations. It’s dismantling the myth that a white, straight man is God’s chosen one. It’s divorcing the church from the culture. It’s confronting the racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia within our communities. Yeah, I said it. It should be old news to you that I believe homophobia and transphobia to be theologically unsound and antithetical to the gospel. It’s letting go of our need to have our beliefs respected. Truly. Honestly. It’s accepting that we are not entitled to anybody’s time or ears. It’s working to build relationships, to be present in the community, to earn trust and establish credibility before we even think of asking people to engage with us on matters of life and death. It’s respecting the wounds our predecessors have inflicted on our siblings. It’s trying to be a part of the healing instead of claiming that the wound does not exist, or worse, causing even more pain. It’s putting an immediate halt to any kind of exclusion in our communities. 

What part of unconditional love do we not understand? How do we think we’re being salt and light by gatekeeping the gospel???

Whether we’re called to go or to stay, we’re all missionaries.