knowing history...

Something I read the other day...

To know Israel's history/story, in many respects, "is to know our own.

No other nation has as much to say to us about the love, patience, and anger of God. God demonstrated His love to Israel to demonstrate His love to everyone. She was chosen to be a light to the nations. An object lesson for all countries and people to watch and see the goodness of God and what happens when God's holy ways are ignored. When you trace the story of Israel, you realize that God extends hope, forgiveness, and everlasting life to all."

Being me... and Christian?

disclaimer: this post is not so you can listen to Keith Sweat all day and say 'yeah God knows this doesn't do anything for me" -__- most importantly, this is my opinion. plus, although it may be permissible, it may not be beneficial (1 Cor 6:12; 10:23, AND like i said below, you have to be mature enough to make the right choice)


I'm going to start this with something that doesn't seem on topic, but I'm sure you will understand. I was at a party some months ago and the discussion was whether being a Christian was fun. To my surprise, most people felt like "Christian fun" was whack. Why is this?

First off, I would like to promote some thought/discussion on this...do you (the person reading this) honestly think that "Christian fun" is exciting?

As you evaluate yourself and let that thought simmer, I'll say a little bit.

Most of us would agree that part of being a Christian is having a personal relationship with God. Now, does your relationship with your father look exactly like your best friend's relationship with his father? NO. So why are we so eager to make our relationship with our Father the same as everyone else's? If everyone has the same Christian 101 cookie cutter relationship with God, how is that personal?

Everyone is nodding at this, yet when we feel like doing something a little different, we question ourselves and compare ourselves to others. "What would (insert Christian friend) think about this?" We wonder if this thing is qualified as Christian. We run ourselves crazy trying to figure out if this act is in the Bible and if we would be sinning by doing this thing. We worry about how the Christian community and how the people we witness to will receive what we are doing. Guess what? That is a GOOD thing! We should make sure that we are in the will of God. But what we rarely consider is whether we are in the will of God for OUR life.

Personal example: some of my friends don't listen to secular music and some do. For Bonquisha, she knows that all secular music does something to her inner atmosphere so she doesn't listen to any of it. J'mahl knows that some secular music (namely India.Irie & Miles Davis) doesn't do any harm to him and so he listens to that and others on occasion. Neither of them judge each other; they respect the other's mindset and they don't try to encourage the other to come their way, the "better" way. Because guess what, they are different!

Everyone has a different purpose. Likewise, everyone has a different personality, and everyone has different needs. Don't you think God knows this? There are basic things that we all agree we should definitively NOT do, but there are other things that He wants us to learn about ourselves and then be mature enough to make the right decision. In order to effectively minister, you have to understand who YOU (not yo mama) are in Christ.

Check this out--the early church had this same issue! (that is people straining their necks to see how others are living their lives and how it compared to their own.) Read Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 (cmon they are short chapters guys) and apply it to real life: Christians who believed the same basic principles about God were arguing about matters of opinion. Can we drink one of these, should I go to church in the morning or evening, can I go to a party with secular music? It's a decision that YOU alone have to make, be comfortable with, and answer to God about. Although there is no right answer, there is a right answer FOR YOU.

Bottom line: "You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. [Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too.] Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning."

Last thing I say before I get back to my first point (that you were supposed to be thinking about). God doesn't want you to lose your swag, so why let somebody else take it away from you?

SWAG: The way in which you carry yourself. Swag is made up of your personal overall confidence, style, and demeanor. Swagger is shown from how the person handles a situation and it can't be touched or replicated. It may be in the walk or it may be in the talk, but there is no doubt it means you own the room and you have that natural charisma. Basically, one with swagger dominates at life.

So. Back to the top. My question that night was what IS "Christian fun?" Seriously. I am a Christian, so everything I do is Christian. But I don't go around saying stuff like "Christian studying" or "Christian eating," there isn't a certain way that I, as a Christian, do the dishes. So I don't have "Christian fun" although I am a Christian; I just have fun. 

Being a Christian? It is simply what I AM. Therefore everything I DO reflects that; there should be no separation. So for me, it's not about "Being ME and Christian," because that's redundant. It's about being ME.