"In the beginning, God created..."etc, etc, so on and so forth.  I've heard the Genesis creation account so many times that it's actually hard to read because I get the impulse to skip to the next page.  I'm teaching it to the kids this Sunday and I was half tempted to skip reading it and just prepare my lesson from memory.

Boy am I glad I didn't.  It wasn't that I noticed a verse I hadn't seen before.  Instead, it was the same old truth that I've heard since I was a kid and believed for the past thirteen or so years.  It was the same old thing that hit me like a ton of bricks.  I don't know if I'll be able to duplicate the eureka moment I had, but I'll try.

"And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light." - Genesis 1:3

That right there is pretty much the way each day goes.  God speaks and whatever He says comes into existence.  I've known that for a long time.  You probably have too.  But have you ever sat down to think about that?

Day 1:  In the midst of infinite darkness God says "Let there be light" and light is born into existence.  By the command of His words, light which was never there before suddenly exists now.  Bright and glorious light.  All of the colors of light.  White, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and everything in between.  The whole visible spectrum leaps into existence at the power of God's word.

Day 2:  God creates the sky and the sea.  By His word 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of water (that's 326 million trillion) are created and guided into a constant process of evaporation, cloud formation, and rain.  Big clouds, small clouds, fluffly clouds, feathery clouds, white clouds, dark clouds... all of them formed by His words.  

I could go on and on for each day but let me sum it up.  Everything that exists today was brought into existence by the power of God's word alone.  From the vast stretches of the universe to the tiny quarks of particle physics.  From the frigid cold of arctic glaciers to the searing heat of lava that melts stone!  From beautiful and tiny butterflies in your backyard to the fierce and huge great white sharks you saw on Shark Week earlier this month.  All of it created by His word and His power.

That's breathtaking.  But that's not what blew me away last week.  

It was all of that when combined with this thought: All of that power lives inside of me.

Say what?  The new testament is full of verses that tell us that the Holy Spirit Himself lives in and dwells within us.  


Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. - 2 Timothy1:14

That's just one example.  By the way, the Holy Spirit is God Himself.  He is a full blown member of the Trinity.  He isn't part God, wannabe God, or God's little step-brother.  He is God with all of the perks of being God meaning He is all-knowing and all-powerful.  So take a moment to think about that because that blew my mind last week.

The same power that spoke the universe, volcanoes, stars, glaciers, lions, DNA, and all of that stuff into existence, that very same power, lives in me.  And it lives in you too if you've been redeemed through faith in Christ.  

That same power is there to comfort me in sad times, guide me in confusing times, empower me in difficult times, and enable me to live rightly for God all the time.  It's there.  Rather, He's there.  All the time.  Within me.  I just need to reach out for help instead of doing it all on my own.  So often though, we don't.  We just try to do it all ourselves and miss out on the power of God available to us.

I read a book over the summer that really helped me remember to constantly lean on the Holy Spirit for help.  The book is Not a Fan and it was written by Kyle Idleman who quotes a guy named Bill Bright who came up with an illustration called "Spiritual Breathing."  That sentence is almost as convoluted as this scene from Spaceballs, but I'm trying to give credit where credit is due.  Before I describe it, let me clarify that this is not some magic formula to God's power.  It's a tool that may help you rely on the Holy Spirit more.  

In the book, he says that we need to have a moment by moment awareness of the Holy Spirit and His presence and work in our lives.  The moment we become aware of sin or some need in our lives, we exhale.  As we exhale, we confess our sin or explain our struggle and need to God. In doing so, we are emptying ourselves of our pride, ego, and do-it-myselfness.  Then we inhale.  As we inhale, we pray that the Holy Spirit would fill us, empower us, guide us, and we surrender control over to Him.   

I hope you've found this as encouraging as I did.  Remember, the power of God Himself is available to those who have trusted in Jesus for salvation.  Whatever your method, find a way to daily walk in step with the Holy Spirit.  And don't ignore Bible passages just because you've read it before or you really know this one like the back of your hand.  You may be surprised what new ways God can use the same old verse in your life.

Saw this video today and had to share it.  If you're looking for reading on this kind of thing, I've put some links below on things I've written.

• Cosmological Argument
• Design Argument
• Fine Tuning Argument
• Moral Argument
• Fulfilled Prophecies
  

"You keep quoting the Bible saying that sex before marriage, homosexuality, or whatever is sinful but Leviticus says not to eat shellfish or wear clothes made out of more than one fabric!  How come you don't obey those commands?  You can't pick and choose, that's hypocritical."

Have you ever heard anything like that?  How do you respond?  An old friend recently asked me why Christians use some laws in Leviticus to condemn homosexuality, but then we apparently disregard any of the laws in Leviticus or Deuteronomy that we don't like.  So what's the deal?  

First, let's start by agreeing.  I totally agree that it’s not right to pick and choose parts of the Bible.  Here are the parts I like and will follow and the rest can go in the garbage.  That's no good!  However, that's not what Christians are doing when it comes to Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

We Christians do believe the Bible is true and is God’s Word.  But that doesn't mean we believe that every sentence in the Bible is supposed to be taken in the same way.  Some portions are poetry, others are narrative, others are epistles, others are commands, moral laws, civil laws, prophetic, and so on.  We run into problems when we open the Bible to a random verse or passage and read it without understanding what context it is in.  We can end up taking the Bible in a way it wasn't meant to be taken.

For example, if you’re reading in Genesis 38, you’ll see that Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law whom he thinks is a prostitute.  Randomly flip your Bible to that spot, and you could be in trouble.  If you take everything in the Bible as a command, you just might think God is commanding you to be like Judah and practice incest, prostitution, or both.  This portion of the Bible is narrative.  It is telling us what happened, not that we should go and do the same thing!  Or check out Isaiah 55:12 where it says that the trees will clap their hands.  This is a prophetic portion and uses poetic language like we would in songs.  It doesn't mean trees have hands or will clap.  It is driving at a deeper point, that all creation glorifies God.  Those are extreme examples, but they show the danger of pointing at a passage or verse without understanding what context it is in and what God intends us to do with it.  

So…what about the Levitical and Deuteronomical laws?  What context are they in?  These laws were given by God through Moses to the Israelites after that whole Red Sea thing.  The Israelites had never been their own nation before and now they have emerged from slavery to Egypt as free people inheriting the Promised land.  This is over a million people with no government or laws of their own.  So God gives them civil laws by which to run a nation that’s purpose is to honor Him and be an example to the Gentiles.  They were also given to point to Jesus, the perfect man who would uphold them all.  The majority of the Levitical laws were given in that context.  They are laws for the nation of Israel to follow.  They were never imposed by God on Gentiles (those who aren’t Israelites).  Even in the New Testament, when lots of Gentiles were becoming Christians, the older Jewish Christians eventually decided not to hold these new converts to the Jewish laws.  Jesus fulfilled these laws and as a result, the Bible itself tells us we don’t have to live under them anymore in Colossians 2:16-17.  

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.  -- Colossians 2:16-17

If that’s the case, then what good are the Old Testament laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy today?  Well, we don’t have to follow them to the letter, but they do teach us about the heart of God and give us principles for how we should treat one another.  For example, one biblical law tells us not to move large stones on our neighbor’s property (Deut 19:14).  What?  Big stones in those days were ways of marking where your property starts and ends kind of like we use fences today.  What we learn is that God cares about whether or not we are ripping our neighbors' off and we should respect their property. 

What about the Levitical laws of not mixing clothing fabrics (Lev 19:19)?  God was teaching the people to be different from the rest of the world and this reflects His own holiness (set-apartness or differentness) and His desire for His people to be holy.  We aren't under the law anymore so we don’t need to avoid mixed fabrics but we should seek to dress in a way that sets us apart from the world and is holy and pleasing to God.

What about the Levitical laws of homosexuality?  Well, as I’ve been saying, we aren’t under the law.  So we don’t go around stoning homosexuals to death.  But what does this law teach us about God and how He wants us to act?  It teaches us that homosexuality is a sin and not part of God’s plan for human sexuality and marriage.

Is that a crazy interpretation?  If all we had were the Levitical laws, then some might be able to argue that we aren't under the law and this law doesn't actually mean homosexuality is a sin.  But we have lots more than these Levitical references.  We have God’s clear design in Genesis of Adam and Eve.  We have God’s condemnation of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sexual perversions.  We have not one, not two, but three explicit and clear condemnations of homosexuality as sin in the New Testament in Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:10. 

I’m not trying to harp on homosexuality or say it’s the worst or only sin.  I’m just trying to explain how Leviticus is to be understood and why Christians still consider homosexuality a sin.  

So there you have it.  We don’t blindly point to any verse in the Bible and do what it says.  We read the Bible in its context.  If it is a command, then yes we obey!  If it’s narrative, then we try to understand what God wants us to learn from the story.  If it is national laws for Israel in Leviticus, then we understand we aren't under those laws but they can still teach us about God and how He wants us to behave.  I hope you've found this helpful.  Let me know if you have any questions!

I'm a vegan, but my favorite meal is a bacon wrapped meat loaf.  I eat one every night for dinner.  I don't see anything wrong with that!

I'm a scientist, but I think the scientific method is for suckers.  Experiments are stupid.  

I'm a Russian, but I don't have Russian ancestry nor am I a Russian citizen.  I've never even set foot in Russia.

Would you accept that if someone said any of those things to you?  I mean, those words they used have meanings right? Vegan means you definitely wouldn't be chowing down on ten pounds of animal a day.  If someone said that to me I'd either laugh or ask if they were joking.  You know what I wouldn't do?  Believe them.

So why is it that people do this with religion all the time and we let it slide?  Shoot, we even affirm it!  

"I'm Muslim, but I don't believe in all the stuff in the Koran."  Well, sorry, but you're not Muslim.  You're something else and you can choose to be whatever it is.  But let's not call it Muslim.  Cause it's not.  

"I'm Christian, but I don't agree with what the Bible says about... sex before marriage, Jesus being the only way, homosexuality, sin and judgment from God, alcohol, stealing, whatever."  Again, sorry, but that's like saying that you are a feminist but believe that women shouldn't receive the same pay as men for the same job.

I'm not trying to be harsh here.  Let me clarify by saying that I love you, whoever you are reading this, whether you are a Christian or not.  Recently, I've run into a lot of people who fully call themselves Christian, but then throw away everything that Christians have historically believed for the past two thousand years.  Can we just be honest and say that at this point, you've invented something new and it's not Christianity?

I'm not saying that you have to be perfect to be a Christian.  The Bible teaches just the opposite!  Sinners in need of a Savior turn to Jesus to pay for their sins and help them live a new life.  No.  You don't have to be perfect at all.  But we can't just invent our own definition of Christianity.  That's confusing, unhelpful, and I think hurtful to the church.  It causes people inside the church to be confused and it misrepresents true Christianity to those outside the church.  Real Christians make enough mistakes to cause those outside the church to question it.  We don't need misidentified Christians talking nonsense about Christianity to cause even more problems.  

As an example, you can't say there is no God and still legitimately call yourself a Christian.  As extreme as that is, it shows us that a line has to be drawn somewhere with what we mean by Christian.  There are just some things that go with the territory like the Trinity, Jesus' humanity and divinity, His death and resurrection, the Inspiration of Scripture (meaning we believe the Bible is actually God's Word), etc.

I guess I'm saying that I'd like to see people say what they mean and mean what they say when it comes to the "Christian" label/title.  If you have to say, "I'm Christian... but/except," and then you proceed to do away with a major part of Christianity, then I'd like you to reconsider.  Are you truly a Christian?  Do you really believe what the Bible says?  If not, I highly recommend you spend some time looking into the Bible to see whether or not it stands up as truly God's Word (it does!).  If you find that it does, then humble yourself and change your views to line up with God's Word.  If you aren't convinced and don't want to follow it, then I would humbly submit to you this thought: You are not a Christian.  I would love to talk with you.  I'll put my cards on the table.  I want you to sincerely be a Christian and follow Christ and be saved by His work on the cross.  Drop me a comment or question HERE in my Ask ?'s tab.  I'd love to help you think through the Bible and Jesus more.

What do you think?  Am I wrong?  Should we draw the line somewhere with terms like "Christian" or should we let people mean whatever they want?  Can a person flat out disagree with chunks of the Bible and still self identify as a Christian?  Why or why not?

**Edit:  Someone asked if I was referring to disagreements between denominations like the age of baptism.  I should clarify. I'm referring to issues of historical Christian orthodoxy, not minor issues of practice. Here are some things I would say count in this argument: The Trinity, Jesus' atoning death and resurrection, Jesus' humanity and divinity, the existence of Heaven and Hell. Here are some things that don't fall into this category: Age of baptism, Calvinism vs. Arminianism, trans/con/cosubstantiation of the Last Supper, what kind of outfit the pastor needs to wear whether it be a robe or a suit, or the style of worhsip. I'm talking about the big stuff that the three major branches of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant) have agreed on for thousands of years.