Our Own Worst Enemy: Overcoming and Avoiding Spiritual Emptiness

Not everyone is going to like you. You could be the nicest, kindest person in class or at work, but there will still be at least one person who won't appreciate you. If you make it apparent for example that you're a Christian some may take offense to that. Some simply take offense at seeing the Cross. Sometimes we can be overwhelmed by opposition when you just want to stand firm and make peace at the same time.

Still, while it can be overwhelming dealing with others, often it's ourselves that prove the most threatening.

Many Christians wonder if they've committed some sin that God will not forgive. Some passages like this one make apparent that there is a sin He won't forgive, "...but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." Many after doing something which sounds like that, (cursing God, denying or rejecting Christ/the Holy Spirit, attributing Him to evil) think that they "lost their salvation." And what is a worst feeling than that? In the last month I've been dealing with a lot of bad thoughts regarding my Christian faith. Many occurrences I thought God had given up on me. But, it took some time to realize that can never happen.

You see, the reason why Jesus says a person will not be forgiven is because overtime a person after so violently opposes God's free gift, the Holy Spirit will stop convicting them. It's not because God rejects them, but because they've made it their personal decision to harden their heart, never once receiving Christ. Did you catch that? If you've already accepted the gift, you've "passed from death to life." And Jesus is the one who holds you in His hand. This means that no matter how bad one gets, salvation can't be lost. Think back, almost every believer has a salvation day. (Maybe you grew up in a Christian home but never actually personally gave your life to Christ, then there's a good chance you aren't saved, so say that prayer now!) At that moment in time you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, "a guaranteed inheritance." Nowhere does it say we ourselves can break that seal...and how could we? It's the seal of God. Look at it like this: Jesus died on the cross for everyone. Our condition then is to "Believe on it" and receive the gift. This gift is "irrevocable" for the truly born again.

This is why sermons and Christian friends make it apparent to others to ask Christ to become their savior now, because it can be too late tomorrow.

Alright, so now that we've established that no born again Christian ever has to worry about losing their Savior, we can then look at ways to overcome and avoid spiritual emptiness when it comes, because it comes to everybody. Too often we become our own enemy when neglecting these things.
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   Adequate Sleep, Diet, and Exercise.

These are somethings your nutritionist will tell you, but I don't think many realize how vital these things are spiritually. For  example, I find when I get anything less than 6 hours rest I can't think properly the next day and end up being exhausted by the afternoon. When one can't think properly, they're easily influenced by outside forces. A proper diet is also basically the same thing. If you aren't eating well enough, it can leave you feeling weak and depressed. It's the same withe exercise. If you're like me and on the computer a lot, you need to make sure you're spending at least 15 minutes on the treadmill, riding your bike, or going for a walk.

Trust me, do these things well and you will yourself becoming stronger not only physically, but spiritually as well.

        Church & Bible Study groups!

It's important to obviously attend church services. Lately I've been finding myself not going Sunday mornings due to work and the rest of my family not being able to go. Because of this, a feeling of disconnection has surfaced. So, do your best to attend church consistently, or find an alternative. (For example, because I'm often not able to go on Sundays I can go to a Wednesday service at another church.)

Now, while church service is important, I don't think many would put youth or Bible study groups in the same league, which I think is unfortunate. Listening to the pastor is always fantastic, but there's something far more personal in groups. Friendships are made. The New Testament makes it clear that it's important to have fellowship with brothers & sisters in Christ. If you're a highschooler, get involved in the youth group. If you're a college student or young adult, get involved in the young adult group. Not all churches have groups for everyone, but if yours does, why not get involved?

                  Christian Music

Almost every highschooler to young adult has an iPod or iPhone. Movies and books are major mediums, but in today's day and age I think it's fair to say that music is probably the most popular form of media with the younger crowd. Many spend at least an hour a day listening to their favorite songs. Ask yourself: What am I listening to? Is it wholesome? Would I want the whole family to listen to it while riding in the car?

Awhile back at my youth group the pastor did a series on music and its impact. It was then that I realized many of the songs I was listening to had some not so great lyrics. These type of songs can creep up on us, because we like the beat so much that we don't realize what it's doing internally. Some songs can make us feel unnecessarily depressed, give us bad thoughts, etc.

Fill yourself with Christian music. Now, this doesn't mean every song has to be a traditional worship one. For example, while Casting Crowns is a fantastic band, many young people might find their more traditional type of singing rather "old school." A common misconception is that Christian music is usually emotional in tone or overly preachy. Bands like Kutless and 33 Miles are examples that produces songs teens and college students can readily relate to. RED is another band which sadly many Christians don't know about. Give them a try, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Continually filling yourself with Christian music will help fight off spiritual depression.

          Prayer & Reading the Bible

These two are obvious. Many of us neglect prayer, only doing it when we need something. It's the same with the Bible. It's always there, and we know we should read it, but don't since everything else is apparently more important. I was like this for many years. After becoming saved, I should have been growing spiritually, but I neglected two of the most important things in sanctification. I look back and wish I had done those two things consistently, because I would have been better prepared to deal with spiritual problems in the present. Nonetheless, it's never too late to start. Set aside Bible reading every night and the morning, same with prayer.
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We become a threat to ourselves when we don't seek to grow spiritually. Look at it like this: Once we become saved we're citizens of Heaven. The war is already won. But we can still lose many, many battles here. We can lose joy and a sense of direction when we try to reject the Spirit Who lives within us. If we don't grow spiritually now, we won't be able to handle problems adequately, whether external or internal. Our minds become weak, and I can speak with clarity that it's hard to function with a weak mind.

So, continue to seek God. Remember, no matter what bad thing or thought you had five minutes or two weeks ago, it didn't change your status. Don't let that hinder you. Just because you don't feel like a Christian doesn't mean you're not. We become our own worst enemy by thinking up crazy things in our heads, believing them, and then trying to go forward on our own. Ask God for help, and He will. And then, put everything listed above into practice. For the born again, life never ends. So get back up, and start again today.

A Smile Says it All

There's a lot of harshness wherever you go. Whether you're in the 'glamorous' Las Vegas or Lower East Side, you'll run into plenty of cold-hearted people. That's why a smile is one of the greatest things in the world. It shows you giving acknowledgement to another individual. And it also makes you happier on the inside, a cool psychological effect.

Let's look at the Christain perspective.

One song I've recently discovered is 'Smile' by Kutless.

 Though everything's the same inside there's something real

A faith which causes me to change.

I think a smile says it all

In any given situation, the Christian has the ability to smile, even through the hardest of things. Why is that? Because we know Someone is always with us, and that we'll be experiencing true happiness in the end. As the Casting Crowns says it, "I will praise You in this storm." Look at it another way. The atheist, the unbeliever, doesn't have much reason to smile unless they're "high up in the food chain."

A non-believer struggling in various aspects of life has absolutely no reason to smile, because they have nothing to look forward to and more often than not feel alone with an emptiness inside. There's always the saying, "I'm lucky to be alive." But if one is living in poverty or struggling greatly in another area and doesn't have anything to look forward to, there's not much reason to be happy, or even pretend to be, is there?

Always smile. Even when you don't feel like it. You'll more often than not make someone else feel good. And especially if you're going to wear a cross chain, go to church, or call yourself a Christian, just remember that

A SMILE SAYS IT ALL :D

SON OF GOD Review

They call him Jesus of Nazareth.

Despite being the Bible, it has not been explored in the movie industry as much as it should have. In fact, the last major Christian movie was The Passion of the Christ, which was ten years ago. And before that, the last 'big one' was The Ten Commandments, from 1956! Since The Passion, there have been a number of Christian movies such as Fireproof and Courageous. But outside the the Biblical audience, those films aren't that well known to others. That is what's so exciting about Son of God. The announcement came almost out of nowhere, I was shocked that it would be an actual theatrical release worldwide. Now that it's officially out, how exactly was it?  There will be complaints, of course. Liberties are taken. But in the end, it does what it sets out to do: tell the story of Jesus Christ.

What a lot of people don't know going into the theater is that this movie was actually part of The Bible mini-series awhile back on the History Channel. What they did was splice together certain parts for a movie experience. Some of it you can tell has more of TV budget than film, but it's nothing too bad. The intro I particularly liked, a very nice prologue featuring all the key Bible Scriptures from the Old Testament. After that, we head on over to the main story. The film is over two hours, so I can't believe I'm saying this, but it could have actually benefited from another hour. The birth scene could have been longer and more detailed. The fact that the Satan scenes were removed didn't help matters. How great would it have been to see the Three Temptations adapted for the big screen? It was a truly missed opportunity.

Diogo Morgado had an interesting thing ahead of him; portraying Jesus is always a challenging but accomplishing task. I am definitely pleased with how the portrayal came out. He portrayed happiness, righteous anger, and sadness effectively. He nicely delivered all the core verses Jesus said in the Scriptures. The Disciples, while technically getting screen time, don't stand out other than being "the disciples of Jesus." Only Peter and Judas really are given importance, even John the Baptist is surprisingly not a big deal in the film. But, Mary Magdalene is. She was definitely one of the best written of the people in the whole thing. The strange thing however is that she's featured a lot more than John, (almost every five minutes) and was made out to be a more important figure than what was said in the Scriptures when compared to The Baptist.

The 'antagonist,' Pilate, (Greg Hicks) is done well enough. He's a harsh Roman emperor, and the film displays that perfectly. The story does a nice job displaying how big the Romans were at the time in comparison to the citizens. What I personally like about this film more than The Passion is that since it covered the life of Christ, it managed to have key scenes the aforementioned movie couldn't include. We have the paralyzed man from the roof, the woman who was about to be stoned before Jesus said, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her," the resurrection of Lazarus, and when he knocked over the tables in the Temple. The latter scene I felt was very well done. It could have gone the other way and make Jesus look like a berserk man, but the film nailed it perfectly. (The tax collector scene was also very good.)

The thing, however, about the movie is that it assumes the viewer knows everything about the Scriptures it's based on. So key scenes such as Judas hanging himself are rushed because it assumes the viewer knows this ahead of time. Also, some of the lines are very robotic and could have been handled better. The biggest culprit is perhaps the scene where Peter denied Jesus three times. We know it's going to happen, but the problem is that it feels and looks scripted, as if he's reading an off-screen paper with the lines. Mary surprisingly doesn't play a huge factor here. But, her actress does a nice enough job displaying the emotion of a mother losing her son.

It's hard not to compare the final act to The Passion. Let's get one thing out of the way: yes, the Passion's portrayal of it was definitely more powerful and emotion inducing. But, that's not to say the Death wasn't handled that great here. It does the job very well, with great emotion portrayed by Diogo. It's a nice reminder that while He was God, He still had the flesh of a man, and thus felt pain. The entire Cross scene was well done. I also like how well the film does explaining the reason why Jesus was crucified. (Aside from the Spiritual reason.) Here we have this Man forgiving people's sins and claiming to be the Son of God, a clear blasphemy to some of the Jews at the time. The story does a great job explaining this, even more than The Passion. The soundtrack is pretty much what you'd expect. It goes nicely with each scene, and has good choir for the emotionally powerful ones.

Overall, SON OF GOD is a pretty great watch. Yes, it does take some liberties, and changes a few things, but in the end, it's hard to complain since what we get is a great telling of the life of Jesus. It could have used more scenes detailing certain things, and the fact that the Three Temptations wasn't included was immensely disappointing. But, despite any lingering complaints, the film succeeds in what it wanted to do. It might be a long time before we see Jesus on the big screen again, so the film is special in that regard too. We're all going to have our personal faults with it for taking some liberties, but by the end when He's on the Cross you'll forget about everything. SON OF GOD is definitely worth a watch, for anyone.

I am coming soon.

4/5

Take Up Your Cross

Every day we're called to take up the Cross. Not just when we're feeling happy, not just on Sunday mornings, not just when we feel like it, but every day. It's not often the easiest thing to do, but we are called to do it.

How exactly does one fight the good fight of faith each and every day? How does one be a light in whatever area he/she is placed?

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." ~Philippians 4:13

The Cross has always remained the primary symbol of the Christian faith. Throughout the years it has become more of a symbol for general religion than on Jesus himself. The average person that sees it thinks automatically of 'religion' than the Death and Resurrection. The Christian however every time he/she sees the Cross it's a testament and reminder. It's a symbol of faith. That's why we often wear necklaces and chains of the Cross. I wear one every time I go outside and to work.

Of course, especially if you're going to wear something like the Cross, you have to be prepared to live by it.

Since I'm a cashier, I've seen a lot of people. And a good majority of them do have Cross/necklaces. But sometimes I think quite a few forget that they're showcasing their faith because of the way they act. They don't seem any different than the average person. Wearing a Cross is a broadcast of your faith, and if you're not going to be any different than the average person, you might as well throw it in the trash can.

Because being a Christian means taking up your cross daily.

There's a big mentality (especially among teens and young adults) that faith is something to keep to yourself. There's this 'coexist' nature that runs rampant. "If believing in Jesus works for you, fine. Just keep it to yourself." That's basically what a lot of the thought process is these days. That's not what Jesus would be doing. One shouldn't be afraid to talk about God. You'd be surprised at some of the conversations that can result.

One time I was talking to a girl who was helping me bag while I was working the register. She wasn't a believer, but not quite an atheist either. She said, "It would be ignorant to say there is no God." Everyone has a worldview. While you may not change them, you can plant a seed that God can grow.

Would you be willing to sacrifice anything and everything, whether it be a career or simple attitude adjustment, to take up your cross? Jesus said in Luke 9:23:

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."