Does God Hate You?

I heard a sermon 2 days ago by a local pastor on the radio. Yes I like listening to sermons on the radio. Anyway, he was saying God won't be up in heaven crying over the people cast down into Hell. The pastor said God HATES those who do not love him. I was kind of taken back. I was thinking that message isn't a good way to win people to the Lord. "Hey do you know Christ? No? Oh well then he Hates you." 

Then I started thinking about if it was a true statement. I did some research. Here is what I found.

Psalm 5:4-6 

⁴ For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome. ⁵ The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong; ⁶ you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, LORD, detest.

In Romans where it talks about Gods Sovereign choice it says this, 

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'

This was first stated in Malachi 1:2-3, and if I keep going with this we'll end up talking about God's Sovereign choice and I am just not smart enough to explain this intellectually.

Ok another verse that mentions God hating something is Pr 6:16 -19. These are the verses that talk about the '7 deadly sins' as they are so lovingly called. These verses don't actually say God hates a particular person, but the sins the themselves. 

Proverbs 6:16-19 

¹⁶ There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: ¹⁷ haughty eyes, a lying tongue,      hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,    ¹⁹ a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. 

We see that God obviously hates Evil. He hates those who are bloodthirsty; shed innocent blood. But I am not evil you say! I haven't killed anyone. Well it also says he hates Lying. We've all lied. No way around it. No excuses. We've all lied. But does that mean that God hates you?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say No. I can believe that God hates Evil. He has to. He is pure goodness and pure love. He can't tolerate evil. It is a direct contradiction to himself! So if you are a Christian, you aren't evil, you are a saint.

But that doesn't answer the question if God hates YOU! So you aren't a Christian. You don't love God. Dangerous territory I'd say. Well truthfully I think a lot of professed Christians don't Love God. Here is the perfect verse that totally go against God hating people. 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 I would conclude that if God gave his sons life for the world, he doesn't hate the people he sent his son to die for.

Bottom line: God loves you. He wants you to be saved. He wants you to spend eternity with him. But if you decide not to believe in the one who wants to save you, you will be going to Hell. He can't spare you. That would be unjust. God is just.

Follower of Christ

        You know that in some countries it is illegal to be a Christian? Right. Of course you did. People are put in jail, families reject them, and they basically live out their life, however short it may be, alone. It is hard to be a follower of Christ when everyone else is Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, Mormon, and Christian.

Wait Christian!? Um... yeah. I heard a sermon on 94.1 The Voice and it really got me thinking. It is hard to follow Christ no matter who or where you are. You might not have been spit on by someone in your church, but have you ever been judged for ‘going over board?’ Or have you ever judged someone for acting too churchy?

      I started wondering: What if my daughter told me she wanted to be a missionary in the Congo when she grew up. Would I say ‘Honey, if that is what God has for you then I will support you 1000% percent’? I doubt it. I would probably say, “Oh honey I wanted you to go to college and be a Doctor, lawyer, engineer…!” How about the son who goes to a deeper relationship with Christ than his Christian parents ever had. The rest of the family feels judged and think he acts self righteous. Or the husband who feels uncomfortable when his wife asks him to pray with her over their children at night. 

     It’s cool to be a Christian who isn’t too much of a Christian. It’s cool to go to church, maybe teach the kids class everyone once and a while. But that is it. No time spent with the Lord during the week or in prayer. You don’t witness to the lady in the cubical next to you. In fact no one at work may even know you are a Christian. Or at least profess to be one… He isn't a part of your every day life. Just Sunday life.

    I am sad that I have been apart of this. I am sad that my daughters might be ridiculed not only in school, but in church! Not that I can clearly see the lies I’ve believed about Christian Culture, I am thinking of to change my own environment. How do you start a Christians being Tolerant of Christians Revolution!? That actually made me laughs a bit. We need to be tolerant of people’s (real, thriving, and obedient) relationships with the Lord even if it makes us uncomfortable. Now that I think a little more, maybe tolerant isn’t the word I’m looking for. We shouldn’t just accept someone’s relationship with the Lord, we should be jealous for our own thriving relationship with Christ.

Don’t feel threatened or judged. Usually that means you feel conviction about something you need to deal with. So deal with it! And start living out your faith with actions instead of just words. 

    Need a good kick in the pants to get you started? Try Beth Moore’s Breaking Free or Bondage Breaker by Neil T. Anderson. Get excited for the life and freedom that a life with Christ really brings.

Gender Roles

  I am old fashioned. Not just because of my name =) I believe Gender Roles exist and they exist for a reason. I believe that God created Man and Woman equal but really really really different. Both Genders are made in his image, but he has many attributes that he gave us individually.
  Lets talk Television shall we? I HATE sitcoms where the wife is a condescending and controlling. Not all of the wives portrayed on television are down right mean, controlling, and crass, but I have think back maybe to the Cosby Show days to find one. The woman is always the head of the house hold. She is generally skinny and more attractive than her husband with a professional job. He is usually dense, overweight, and lazy. We never see a hard working man who takes care of his family and is the head of his household. (Think Everybody Loves Raymond, According to Jim, King of Queens and a load of other shows that I can't remember the names of.)
  A lot of girls my age think this is what marriage should be like. I'm sorry, but I can't be around someone who is constantly putting her husband down TO HIS FACE! They talk to their husbands like they are the star of a bad sitcom on ABC. I just don't think this is what our Creator had in mind when he established marriage.
   I think we need strong men. I think men need to take their jobs at home seriously. You will be accountable to God for your family. You have a rough job guys. I don't envy you. But you need to stand up and be men. Get some accountability. Be Spiritual Leaders in your house. (Bonus: it is way easier to respect a man who is worthy of respect) If you have a sitcom wife, then take back the reigns. If you are a sitcom wife, stop controlling your husband. If our men were actually acting like men, then women would be free to act like women.  Thank you to all the men and husbands I know who are actually doing their jobs. Thank you to the women who let them.

The Great Misconception

Have you ever witnessed to someone who knew the truth but wasn't willing to give up their old life? They are content with their sin, their chains, and their burdens. They are convinced that living an intentional life for Christ will require them giving up all they hold dear. Christians don't have fun. That is the great misconception. 

Oh boy do we know some Christians that scowl constantly right!? Obviously being a Christian means you have to eat Bran flakes for breakfast everyday and watch Touched By An Angel reruns every Saturday night. I'm sorry but that is just not true! 

Lets face it. I am a fun person. I crack jokes, know a lot of useless facts (that ones for you MW) and I laugh a whole lot. Knowing who I am living life for doesn't change my personality. It changes what I joke and laugh about. 

Being (not just saying you are) a Christian does change you. You will give things up. No doubt about that. You can't keep living your old life once you accept the truth. But giving up things is hard right!? Sometimes yes. But sometimes No. As you start to conform your thoughts and your will to what God has for you, you find you aren't as concerned with those 'worldly things'. Don't expect over night success though. This is a process.

Would you like a personal example? I was a huge Gleek. I never missed an episode. I bought the first season! I loved Glee. Then after two of the main homosexual characters kissed, I was kinda like...ew. I was convicted to stop watching the show. So I didn't watch another episode after that. I've been told that there wasn't anymore guys kissing and it isn't that bad. I saw the previews for new episodes and was really tempted to start back up again. BUT! I knew I didn't need to watch the show anymore. It isn't good for me. My personal conviction was to stop watching it period. Who wants to relive high school anyway!? So I'm done and sometimes sad, but staying strong. There are TV shows that I can watch without getting that ew feeling.

I know that is a cheesy example of giving up something. Maybe you are being convicted about giving up drinking or a relationship. That is a lot harder than just a tv show. But please let me encourage you though. When you start taking out the bad and replacing it with Godly things, you will ALWAYS be more satisfied. You will always find more joy (notice I didn't say you will always be happy) in life when you live according to  Godly standards.
I am not here to be anyone's conscience. I'm not telling you to stop watching Glee or drinking or whatever. BUT, if you feel like you should stop, then do it! Obedience rocks and I am free to have plenty of fun. Christianity isn't about what I can't do. Christianity is about what has already been done for me.

SHOCKED!

Tell me honestly. Did anyone think the rapture would happen on Saturday May 21? I didn't. I mean really. The articles made those Harold Camping followers out to be real nut jobs. And maybe they were... but we all know how the media loves to make religious people out to be lunatics. How about Robert Fitzpatrick who gave his whole life savings, $140,000, to Camping and his campaign. I can't help but feel bad for this guy! Then I kind of laugh.. but I mostly feel bad! 

I just don't know how they could trust this guy when the Bible clearly states that we don't know the hour he is coming back! And it won't be when you expect him. Check out Matthew 24:36-44. 

So here it is. My question of the day. Would your life be different if we knew WHEN Christ was coming? 

To answer my own question honestly, I Would be living differently if I knew the exact time and date Christ was returning. I would be living A LOT differently. I'm guessing we all would. But is that right?

We know he is coming. And some of us might feel like it might be soon. So why aren't we living differently, with a sense of urgency? I think urgency is a hard thing to keep up. I was thinking on Friday "There are a lot of people I should witness to if tomorrow is the last day for me on earth." I didn't make one phone call or write one email because I knew I wasn't going anywhere. But wait!!! I could have just as easily died in a car accident! 

We don't need to know our last day on earth to really witness to people. We really should be doing it every day. I heard a sermon the other day that basically said this: Why would you hide the most important relationship of your life!? You wouldn't tell your husband or wife, 'I love you' in private and pretend not to know them in public! If Christ is important to you than act like it.

Bottom line: We can't live every day like its our last day on earth. That would be exhausting and full of money spending and crossing of things off our Bucket List. But we can live every day like it is important to the salvation of someone else.

Thoughts on Depression

                                               What is it?

A state of feeling sad : dejection (2) : a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies. This is diagnosed as clinical when someone has felt this way for at least 2 weeks. Not woke up on the wrong side of the bed, in a funk, out of sorts, kind of feeling that everyone has.

Who suffers from it?

David

"Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak" (Ps. 31:9-10).

Job, just read the book!

Elijah in 1 Kings 19 – I love this story because the Angle of the Lord has Elijah eat and sleep to get better. Then he goes on a 40 journey, just after he had been asking for death! Our bodies are a temple!

A survey in 2009 showed that there was no evidence to suggest that the frequency with which one attends church altered or diminished the occurrence of Depression. Supposedly 25% of church goers experience depression at some point and 15% are taking anti-depressants. I couldn’t find any other sources to back up these numbers.

Of course there has been a significant rise in the diagnosing of Depression mostly due to pharmaceutical companies and psychologists lowering the threshold of diagnosing the ‘illness’. It is no longer ok to just ok. You have to good, or great when someone asks how you are doing. If you respond ok or fine then something must be wrong and subsequent questions follow. Our society doesn’t recognize normal emotional fluctuations. Bi-Polar seems to be thrown around a lot.

What are some causes of Depression?

* Situational Depression – Job, housing, family dynamics

* Sin – Guilt induced depression

* Exhaustion – I listened to Dr. Dobson yesterday and he spoke about his own father’s bout with depression. His father was a traveling evangelical speaker. He worked himself to the point of exhaustion and had to quit. It took two years for him to recover. He found that he needed an athletic outlet and took up tennis.

* Chemical Imbalance – which can’t be proved but can be medicated

* A God given emotion

* And for Women, a hormonal imbalance or issue like after child birth

* Distorted thoughts – such as; I’m not as good as others, My family would be better off, and other self destructive thoughts.

This is not a complete list! This is just what I compiled from my research.

What does discouraged mean?

To deprive of courage, hope, or confidence, dishearten, dispirit.

So I was wondering if we sometimes jumping to conclusions and calling discouragement depression. There is a difference. We can all be discouraged at times. I would venture to say that Jesus was discouraged during his time on earth. I don’t know that he was Depressed.

I took a poll on my facebook last night and I had 31 comments.

I asked is :Depression a sin issue, chemical imbalance or normal emotion. (I discovered and thought of a few more later on after my research)

2 said Sin

1 said both

2 said normal emotion

2 said situation

Another cautioned us against judging and a few more just saying nice topic.

Than it just turned into a long discussion after that.

Pretty much most people didn’t believe it was solely a sin issue.

A lot of the people that commented had dealt with it themselves.

No one here pays to hear what I think, but here ya go!

I personally have dealt with 3 of these for sure and I do believe that A Chemical Imbalance plays a part in depression. BUT not to the extent that social media, psychotherapists, and pharmaceutical companies say they do.

But what it all comes back to is the focus that I am placing on myself. Maybe you’ve heard it said that the best medicine for depression and self loathing is to volunteer time to a bigger cause like a Homeless Shelter or Animal Shelter. We have a hard time thinking about ourselves when we are focusing on others.

I have been on medication before for Depression. Looking back, it was probably situational depression. Someone I was close to told me that Depression was solely a sin issue and that obviously I had to stop taking the meds and do some serious praying. I did just that. Went off of Zoloft cold turkey and prayed. I don’t remember what lifted me out of that depression, but you can bet it wasn’t someone judging me and telling me what to do. No way! The church has a big problem with Depression and drugs. I heard someone say on Dr. Dobson’s program that the same people who take Lipitor and other drugs for various reasons are the first to condemn you for taking an anti-depressant. Church, why are we so judgey!? Why do we all assume we are right? Everything is opinion! Your opinion is not fact. 

How am I handling my depression right now?

1, I learned that my destructive thoughts played a huge role in my depression. I believed lies and was repeating them to myself all day! I ‘captured my thoughts’ and started living and believing Biblical Truths. I have Isaiah 55:8 is taped to the wall by my kitchen sink. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD’

2, on those cloudy days I’ve sought the LORD with my whole heart. Making sure that I was walking closely with him and asking him to search my heart for any thing that I may have done that could cause me to feel this way today.

3, life continues. My girls still need me. I still need to get up and feed, clothe, and care for them. I have to choose to smile at them sometimes. I cannot just lie on the couch all day. It just isn’t an option! When I decide to be apart of life, usually, I find that things just aren’t as foggy.

4, This happened most recently. I was being disobedient. I knew I was. God asked me to do something and I didn’t want to. So I didn’t. For 2 weeks I was depressed. I knew what he wanted me to do and I knew that when I did, the depression would lift. So I finally sat down and obeyed. Obviously under great protest since it took two weeks. But when I sat there having completed my task, the cloud over my head was lifted.

My depression doesn’t happen as often as it use to. And when it does I am better equipped to handle it. But some days nothing helps. No amount of prayer, reading my Bible, and helping others lifts that fog. I don’t know what to say about that. I have no explanation.

The articles I read stemmed from a google search of the words depression and Christianity. There were many articles, but my favorite was from the Christianity Today Magazine. An Article in March 2009 called The Depression Epidemic.

Hope.

During the month of March my husband was still in Tax Season, our kids had 1 eye surgery, 3 follow up appointments, 1 neuro psych testing session, croup, and a broken collar bone (plus lots of time outs, fits, and early bed times). As I was driving to take Sydney for X-rays I was thinking how lucky I am.

Not for the basic stuff: house, car, job, food on the table and GREAT health insurance. But lucky that I know my life has purpose. Lucky that I know I have a creator who loves me and has a plan for my life and the life of my family. If I didn't know that there was a bigger purpose to my life, March might have be the death of me.

Jeremiah 29:11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'

Even when I have a month like March, the worst month of the whole year if you ask me, I know that everything has a purpose.  I LOVE knowing that the Lord wants me to succeed! He wants what is best for me. Let me clarify, what HE knows is best for me. Not what I think is best for me. What he has in store is much better for me that anything I could dream. When I start surrendering to his will for my life I am much much happier.

I fell into a depressive state of mind for about 2 weeks. I know that God wanted me to do something I was too scared to do. I pushed it off for months. I got so depressed! I was reading my Bible, doing Bible study and praying. Doing all the things I'm 'suppose' to do. But nothing helped me out of the depression. I knew I was being disobedient. So when I finally sat down to do what I was suppose to do, the fog lifted. He rewards us for obedience. He definitely gives us consequences for heading the other way(ie, book of Jonah). I wasn't swallowed by a fish, but still!

So my next thought after how lucky I am was: What if you don't know God? What if you are just living life not knowing you have a purpose!  What if you don't know someone loves you more than you can imagine. I was instantly sad. No hope? How do you survive with no hope? I'm sure there are coping mechanisms. But nothing compares to the love of Christ.

A relationship with him doesn't guarantee an easy life. It doesn't guarantee money, friends, and health as some people preach (Prosperity Gospel). But it does guarantee you will never be alone. You will never need to wonder if you have been abandoned, although you might at times. It also guarantees the most important thing, Life. I won't go all fire and brimstone, and lake of fire. But trust me, heaven is something you don't want to miss out on.