Thursday, April 29, 2010
What's your excuse?
For these some of these people, the cost of following God and proclaiming the message of his son's love is death.
What's yours?
Stay faithful in prayer. Stay faithful in worship. Stay faithful in love.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The challenge!
Calling all believers, calling all non-believers! I, Michael (Rao) Lertchitvikul, a servant, slave, child, and worshiper of the one true God, have been inspired to issue a challenge to every man, woman, and child - believer and non - who may come across this blog.
How it started
The most unprofound profound thing happened this evening. I shared the gospel with my friend. He didn't accept Christ as his lord and savior. We enjoyed each others' company, I prayed for him and then went our separate ways. As I was driving home, I was overwhelmed by this unreasonable, inexplicable joy that had me praying out loud and praising God like crazy. And then the challenge hit me.
The Challenge
The challenge to believers is a simple one. Share the gospel with someone you know. Ask someone to be willing to challenge what they believe and consider the possibility that Jesus came down to die on their behalf so that they could have a relationship with him. Do it tomorrow. When you're done, pass the challenge on. Do it more than once.
Throughout all of it, be in prayer. Remind yourself that this isn't about you, that this isn't about Mike Rao, Christine Lam, Greg Mah, Jessica Chao, Debra Chang or Emily Yang, but rather this is about going and being reckless and bold for the God who sent down his one and only son to be reckless and bold for you.
As I was writing this blog, I started talking to Tanya about the challenge, and she asked me how we could be sure that people would be receptive, and I responded, "Who cares?? Let's just be bold and be blessed by whatever He does... Whether it results in crazy rejection or someone falling to their knees in repentance, let's move in faith that God will do something crazy with what we're willing to offer him, because regardless of the outcome, we'll be blessed by it. Let's go to be rejected and hated on, praised and blessed, mocked and ignored, loved and accepted - let's go to honor God with our love for him, and our love for his people.
It's so simple and unprofound, but I'm absolutely certain that if we can be faithful and really pour out in love, God will do some awesome things. We're not going to be doing anything that God can't do - it's not as if God needs our help - but let's just go out there and honor him with our lives. Let's honor him with our love for him and our love for mankind. Let's go and be blessed by being bold and crazy and loving like he wants us to - like he taught us to.
The Challenge to nonbelievers is a simple one: Be willing to doubt. Be willing to question what you believe to be true. If you don't care to question because you don't care whether or not you're going to heaven or hell, be willing to question for the sake of the people you love. If you're not willing to question for yourself, be willing to question for your sisters and brothers, your mother and father, for your friends, for your spouse, for your cousins, be willing to question for the sake of the people you love. The challenge isn't to fear you into blindly believing. The challenge is to simply to start asking questions and digging for answers.
Ultimately...
I trust that if only one person is prompted into action, if only one person blessed, if only one person hears the gospel, then this message was not in vain. That said, I pray that this could be the simple start of something big, something huge, something absolutely profound for the kingdom of God. I pray that throughout whatever this may be, I could stay humble and divert all glory, all praise, and all honor to the God that reigns from heaven above.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Insightful.
Today, Christine Lam sent me a video on gchat. When I got around to watching it, I found it so inspired and insightful that I just kept replaying it again and again, so I figured I'd share it with you all.
Oh, and an apology to the people who subscribe to my blog in regards to the random test updates you've been getting from me - I've been trying to find out if I can get rid of all these ads about drugs by talking about other stuff, but it unfortunately hasn't worked. :(
Blessings!
Friday, April 23, 2010
The first step in defeating divorce...
Is knowing when to get married. With divorce rates climbing higher and higher every year, how should we, as Christians, decide to get married?
With regard to soulmates, if God truly has someone in mind that he wants us to marry, is it possible for us to marry someone who isn't our "soul mate?? What about if your significant other dies? Is it possible that you might have multiple "soul mates" over the course of your life?
Discuss!
Soulmates - fact or fiction?
Despite the fact that I had my heart rather set on writing about Christians being judgmental, I find myself struggling to find the words to properly discuss it at this point in time, so for now, it's being shelved in favor of following up on one of Greg's most recent articles on his blog.
As Christians, we know that God sets up opportunities for us to meet people, blesses us with friendships, and even places specific people in our lives to witness to us. We know that Ananias was called by God to heal and evangelize to the apostle formerly known as Saul, and I'm fairly certain that neither of these men were chosen at random.
I find it hard pressed to believe that God would truly allow the marriage process to be as random as pulling shirts out of a rack and finding ones that fit. The idea that there isn't one person out there that God has specifically chosen for me to marry seems to imply that we, as potential husbands and wives, are simply interchangeable parts. With marriage being the second most important relationship I will ever have before I shuffle off this mortal coil, I just can't imagine that God would be so laissez-faire about my happily ever after.
As Christians, we know that God sets up opportunities for us to meet people, blesses us with friendships, and even places specific people in our lives to witness to us. We know that Ananias was called by God to heal and evangelize to the apostle formerly known as Saul, and I'm fairly certain that neither of these men were chosen at random.
I find it hard pressed to believe that God would truly allow the marriage process to be as random as pulling shirts out of a rack and finding ones that fit. The idea that there isn't one person out there that God has specifically chosen for me to marry seems to imply that we, as potential husbands and wives, are simply interchangeable parts. With marriage being the second most important relationship I will ever have before I shuffle off this mortal coil, I just can't imagine that God would be so laissez-faire about my happily ever after.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Inspired by the world's greatest muse
The thoughts swirl in my mind
as a kaleidoscope of emotions,
some fleeting, some eternal.
I’m left flushed, still in awe.
There are countless aspects
that both empower and overwhelm.
Old feelings resurface, new are born,
From renaissance of heart to feral libido.
The haste leaves me wondering,
is this what they call “meant to be”
or is it simply childish ambition?
It’s real to me, but what do I know?
Mercilessly hounding my sanity
this myriad of feelings confound.
I question reality, my place in it.
Tell me, are you real? Is this?
I can continue to question,
but persistence won’t yield much.
So for now I accept this for what it is
A mystery, beautiful nonetheless.
----
I wrote this on December 19th, 2004, 12 days after I came to recognize God's existence and subsequently set myself to dedicating my life to Him.
as a kaleidoscope of emotions,
some fleeting, some eternal.
I’m left flushed, still in awe.
There are countless aspects
that both empower and overwhelm.
Old feelings resurface, new are born,
From renaissance of heart to feral libido.
The haste leaves me wondering,
is this what they call “meant to be”
or is it simply childish ambition?
It’s real to me, but what do I know?
Mercilessly hounding my sanity
this myriad of feelings confound.
I question reality, my place in it.
Tell me, are you real? Is this?
I can continue to question,
but persistence won’t yield much.
So for now I accept this for what it is
A mystery, beautiful nonetheless.
----
I wrote this on December 19th, 2004, 12 days after I came to recognize God's existence and subsequently set myself to dedicating my life to Him.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Is it sinful for a Christian to smoke marijuana?
(To make things easier to read, I consolidated my posts on Christians and marijuana so that they would be listed in proper order and added my final thoughts on the matter)
What would Jesus do?
A brother in Christ recently confided with me that he had experimented with weed. Instinctively, I wanted to tell him it was bad, that it was dangerous and that he should stop - but I knew that getting impulsive and spamming him with my concerns would have been completely useless. I started by asking myself some hard questions, and I followed that up by getting council from some people who's opinions I really value (Greg Mah, I'm looking at you). I remember praying, "Lord, please tell me where you stand, so that I can stand by you." I looked for wisdom in scripture, and I found myself unable to simply say, "Jesus isn't cool with people getting high off of weed." I realized that when I really looked at all the facts, I found myself thinking that in fact, Jesus probably wouldn't have considered smoking weed any worse than a person drinking a glass of wine. It bothered me that I couldn't knowingly assert that Jesus would consider weed sinful. It bothered me a lot.
I think it's pretty clear that Jesus doesn't want us to get addicted to things, but addiction itself comes with a bunch of grey areas. The list of things that can cause physiological withdrawal is huge: hard drugs like cocaine and heroin, nicotine in cigarettes, the ever-inconspicuous caffeine, and even a vice of my own - cheese! Interestingly, weed isn't on that list. It's true, weed can be psychologically addictive, but so can television, video games, hobbies, sports, and facebook - should we abandon the use of all these things because of the potential for psychological addiction? Should I stop watching Top Chef, Good Eats and the Ultimate Fighter? Should I stop following my beloved New York Yankees? Clearly, I shouldn't start shooting up heroin, but should I also stop eating cheese and eating chocolate? Honestly, it looks like I have to eliminate the possibility of addiction as a clear cut indicator as to whether or not Jesus would be down with something.
I spent some more time wrestling with my thoughts when I realized that I need to compensate for my own self-reference criteria to really put together an honest answer about getting high off of pot. It's clear that the things associated to marijuana are bad - laziness, gangs and drugs dealing, dropping out of school, fornication and adultery, the list goes on and on - it is these things that I must disassociate with weed to properly assess the morality of marijuana. People say rap music is bad because it advocates lust, materialism, drugs, and violence, but there's plenty of awesome Christian rappers like Shai Linne out there that tear it up for God.
It's clear that as Christians, we should obey the laws of the land, as Romans 13 clearly states that we should submit to the governing authorities. Paul immediately follows that up by telling Christians that they should abstain from engaging in activities that could stumble their fellow believers in Romans 14. Both of these chapters would point to the fact that it is unwise for a Christian to smoke weed, but I'm still left unsatisfied. It's illegal to possess weed, but it's possible to get high off of it without possessing it (via hotboxing). Legislation may be passed as soon as this year to undo the laws we have about the legality of cannabis. Using the laws of the land to determine what is moral and amoral is in itself foolish - the American government is clearly sympathetic to the homosexual and pro-choice agenda, but God straight up says that he isn't down with either abortion or homosexuality. I've been trying to dig deeper to uncover that elusive verse that will explicitly say thou shalt not smoke weed, but it's nowhere to be found!
Before I finished writing this blog, I asked four separate Christians one question, "Is smoking weed sinful?" The answer from all four was a adamant, "Of course!" ...I don't know why it makes me sad that I find myself conceding that my answer is no.
Kentucky Fried Sin!
I neglected to mention one key argument against smoking weed: 1 Corinthians 6 says that your body is a temple of the holy spirit, therefore you shouldn't do things that are bad for your physical health, and smoking weed is bad for your health, therefore you shouldn't smoke weed - a logical deduction based on one key assumption: 1 Corinthians 6 is talking about your physical health.
Now I've heard quite a few arguments that say that smoking marijuana isn't bad for your health, but for the sake of this argument, let's assume that marijuana is unhealthy as smoking cigarettes. "Your body is a temple of the holy spirit" seems to be the generic Christian response to individuals struggling with nicotine and alcohol, the main implication being doing things that are damaging to your body would dishonor the holy spirit in a way. Now, while this seems to make sense on the surface, I try to apply this principle to other situations to see if the logic holds up. Is Matt Hughes, a hardcore Christian mixed martial artist who fights in the UFC being a bad Christian because he's willingly choosing to do something that causes physical harm to his body? It's true, mixed martial arts is a fairly safe sport, but I'm pretty sure getting punched, kicked, kneed, and elbowed in the face isn't good for your long-term health.
That might be a bit harder for you guys to relate to than it is for me, so let me try something that'll cover a wider range of people. Would we be defiling the temple of the holy spirit if we were to dive into a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken? I posed this argument earlier this evening to a friend of mine and the response I received was that eating unhealthy food in moderation was okay, but I just find that logic completely faulty. The argument against smoking is that it's unhealthy and that we shouldn't do it because it's unhealthy, but in the case of unhealthy foods we can occasionally do it?
When I actually read 1 Corinthians 6 for myself, it becomes pretty clear to me that we may be taking things out of context. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 reads as follows:
Quick thanks to Steven Keem for reminding me about this argument against marijuana.
Man, you're robo-trippin'.
So one of my friends from New Jersey, Justin Stymacks, raised another objection: It is sinful to get drunk, and getting drunk puts you in an altered state of mind and removes inhibitions. Weed is sinful because akin to drinking, it alters the state of mind.
Assumption: God doesn't want us to have an altered state of mind.
First, a look at scripture.
Ephesians 5:18
Disclaimer, the following is second hand knowledge, take with a grain of salt!
I digress. Pushing the line can get pretty scary indeed.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, it's clear that today in America, Christians shouldn't smoke weed for recreational purposes. In regards to stumbling brothers and sisters, Paul says that we should refrain from engaging in activities that could stumble others. Regardless of our opinions of the authorities of the land, Paul makes it clear that we should obey them unless the laws of the land contradict God's law - in regards to marijuana, it does no such thing. Ultimately, the best conclusion I could draw with the information I have is that smoking marijuana is not sin in it of itself, and regardless of whether or not you agree with me, I would warn my you against hastily jumping to conclusions . The divide between what is unwise and what is sin is great indeed - it was sin that necessitated Adam and Eve removal from the Garden of Eden, not a lack of wisdom. Sin is the reason Jesus had to die on the cross. To wrongly assert that anything is a sin that isn't is a grievous offense against God indeed.
Ultimately, I ask not for you to agree with me, but rather to truly consider the issue at hand, to seek out your own answers and come to your own conclusions. We have the most unfortunate distinction of living in an age where ideas heard, stored away, and regurgitated opposed to truly being processed and understood.
Next up:
The judgmental nature, willingly self-inflicted ignorance, and close-mindedness that exists in the church today.
What would Jesus do?
A brother in Christ recently confided with me that he had experimented with weed. Instinctively, I wanted to tell him it was bad, that it was dangerous and that he should stop - but I knew that getting impulsive and spamming him with my concerns would have been completely useless. I started by asking myself some hard questions, and I followed that up by getting council from some people who's opinions I really value (Greg Mah, I'm looking at you). I remember praying, "Lord, please tell me where you stand, so that I can stand by you." I looked for wisdom in scripture, and I found myself unable to simply say, "Jesus isn't cool with people getting high off of weed." I realized that when I really looked at all the facts, I found myself thinking that in fact, Jesus probably wouldn't have considered smoking weed any worse than a person drinking a glass of wine. It bothered me that I couldn't knowingly assert that Jesus would consider weed sinful. It bothered me a lot.
I think it's pretty clear that Jesus doesn't want us to get addicted to things, but addiction itself comes with a bunch of grey areas. The list of things that can cause physiological withdrawal is huge: hard drugs like cocaine and heroin, nicotine in cigarettes, the ever-inconspicuous caffeine, and even a vice of my own - cheese! Interestingly, weed isn't on that list. It's true, weed can be psychologically addictive, but so can television, video games, hobbies, sports, and facebook - should we abandon the use of all these things because of the potential for psychological addiction? Should I stop watching Top Chef, Good Eats and the Ultimate Fighter? Should I stop following my beloved New York Yankees? Clearly, I shouldn't start shooting up heroin, but should I also stop eating cheese and eating chocolate? Honestly, it looks like I have to eliminate the possibility of addiction as a clear cut indicator as to whether or not Jesus would be down with something.
I spent some more time wrestling with my thoughts when I realized that I need to compensate for my own self-reference criteria to really put together an honest answer about getting high off of pot. It's clear that the things associated to marijuana are bad - laziness, gangs and drugs dealing, dropping out of school, fornication and adultery, the list goes on and on - it is these things that I must disassociate with weed to properly assess the morality of marijuana. People say rap music is bad because it advocates lust, materialism, drugs, and violence, but there's plenty of awesome Christian rappers like Shai Linne out there that tear it up for God.
It's clear that as Christians, we should obey the laws of the land, as Romans 13 clearly states that we should submit to the governing authorities. Paul immediately follows that up by telling Christians that they should abstain from engaging in activities that could stumble their fellow believers in Romans 14. Both of these chapters would point to the fact that it is unwise for a Christian to smoke weed, but I'm still left unsatisfied. It's illegal to possess weed, but it's possible to get high off of it without possessing it (via hotboxing). Legislation may be passed as soon as this year to undo the laws we have about the legality of cannabis. Using the laws of the land to determine what is moral and amoral is in itself foolish - the American government is clearly sympathetic to the homosexual and pro-choice agenda, but God straight up says that he isn't down with either abortion or homosexuality. I've been trying to dig deeper to uncover that elusive verse that will explicitly say thou shalt not smoke weed, but it's nowhere to be found!
Before I finished writing this blog, I asked four separate Christians one question, "Is smoking weed sinful?" The answer from all four was a adamant, "Of course!" ...I don't know why it makes me sad that I find myself conceding that my answer is no.
Kentucky Fried Sin!
I neglected to mention one key argument against smoking weed: 1 Corinthians 6 says that your body is a temple of the holy spirit, therefore you shouldn't do things that are bad for your physical health, and smoking weed is bad for your health, therefore you shouldn't smoke weed - a logical deduction based on one key assumption: 1 Corinthians 6 is talking about your physical health.
Now I've heard quite a few arguments that say that smoking marijuana isn't bad for your health, but for the sake of this argument, let's assume that marijuana is unhealthy as smoking cigarettes. "Your body is a temple of the holy spirit" seems to be the generic Christian response to individuals struggling with nicotine and alcohol, the main implication being doing things that are damaging to your body would dishonor the holy spirit in a way. Now, while this seems to make sense on the surface, I try to apply this principle to other situations to see if the logic holds up. Is Matt Hughes, a hardcore Christian mixed martial artist who fights in the UFC being a bad Christian because he's willingly choosing to do something that causes physical harm to his body? It's true, mixed martial arts is a fairly safe sport, but I'm pretty sure getting punched, kicked, kneed, and elbowed in the face isn't good for your long-term health.
That might be a bit harder for you guys to relate to than it is for me, so let me try something that'll cover a wider range of people. Would we be defiling the temple of the holy spirit if we were to dive into a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken? I posed this argument earlier this evening to a friend of mine and the response I received was that eating unhealthy food in moderation was okay, but I just find that logic completely faulty. The argument against smoking is that it's unhealthy and that we shouldn't do it because it's unhealthy, but in the case of unhealthy foods we can occasionally do it?
When I actually read 1 Corinthians 6 for myself, it becomes pretty clear to me that we may be taking things out of context. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 reads as follows:
12 "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. 13 "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." 17But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.Now, it might just be me, but it sure does seem like this might have a little more to do with sexual immorality and not becoming one flesh with prostitutes than it does physical health. Honestly, when I read these verses, I find myself thinking that the take away point is that our bodies belong to Christ, and that we should honor him with everything we have, that we shouldn't engage in sexual immorality, and we shouldn't have sex with prostitutes. Maybe the conclusions I'm drawing all wrong, but for now, I'm inclined to consider this argument debunked.
Quick thanks to Steven Keem for reminding me about this argument against marijuana.
Man, you're robo-trippin'.
So one of my friends from New Jersey, Justin Stymacks, raised another objection: It is sinful to get drunk, and getting drunk puts you in an altered state of mind and removes inhibitions. Weed is sinful because akin to drinking, it alters the state of mind.
Assumption: God doesn't want us to have an altered state of mind.
First, a look at scripture.
Ephesians 5:18
18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.Getting drunk on alcohol is sinful, period. It's true that alcohol causes one to have an altered state of mind, and it's true that drunkenness can remove inhibitions. The bible itself warns against drunkenness because of the possibility of debauchery. It's seems pretty clear to me that God probably wouldn't be down with someone losing his senses and becoming completely without inhibition, just as he isn't cool with debauchery, but having an altered state of mind? Pain killers, vicodin, benadryl, food coma, chocolate, coffee, energy drinks, sugar can all alter an individual's state of mind - are they sinful? When someone gets their wisdom teeth out, should they refrain from taking pain killers so that they don't have an altered state of mind? Should I lay off the energy drinks when I need to stay up late to finish a project (or write in a blog) because it might alter my state of mind? I'm inclined to say no.
Disclaimer, the following is second hand knowledge, take with a grain of salt!
- Weed does not remove inhibitions, it simply makes people think outside of the box
- Weed does not cause people to do things that they normally wouldn't do, except maybe laugh at different things
- Weed does make you more creative
- Weed does alter your state of mind
I digress. Pushing the line can get pretty scary indeed.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, it's clear that today in America, Christians shouldn't smoke weed for recreational purposes. In regards to stumbling brothers and sisters, Paul says that we should refrain from engaging in activities that could stumble others. Regardless of our opinions of the authorities of the land, Paul makes it clear that we should obey them unless the laws of the land contradict God's law - in regards to marijuana, it does no such thing. Ultimately, the best conclusion I could draw with the information I have is that smoking marijuana is not sin in it of itself, and regardless of whether or not you agree with me, I would warn my you against hastily jumping to conclusions . The divide between what is unwise and what is sin is great indeed - it was sin that necessitated Adam and Eve removal from the Garden of Eden, not a lack of wisdom. Sin is the reason Jesus had to die on the cross. To wrongly assert that anything is a sin that isn't is a grievous offense against God indeed.
Ultimately, I ask not for you to agree with me, but rather to truly consider the issue at hand, to seek out your own answers and come to your own conclusions. We have the most unfortunate distinction of living in an age where ideas heard, stored away, and regurgitated opposed to truly being processed and understood.
Next up:
The judgmental nature, willingly self-inflicted ignorance, and close-mindedness that exists in the church today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
