Brokenhearted for the smart people

Intelligent people "less likely to believe in God"

This is really tearing me up right now, guys; I'm literally on the verge of tears. It makes me so very sad to see that people deemed intelligent are turning away from the gospel because they've gotten "too smart" for God. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4: "...if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (emphasis mine).

Satan has used the gift of great intelligence with which God has blessed these people to convince them that He is simply the main character in a great fairy story. Science and reason can explain everything anymore, so what need is there for God? Maybe I'm naive, but I can't look at the world we live in without seeing God everywhere. Matter of fact, I can't get past how intricately He made me, so I really don't have to go that far to see evidence of a Creator.

"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts[...]because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." Romans 1:22-25 (emphasis mine)

This humanistic intelligence essentially says that we are our own god because we have outsmarted and out-thought Him. Religion becomes superstition in the revelation of enlightenment, and God becomes a frayed, ragged safety blanket clung to by those of us who are not educated enough to know any better. If you ask me, they've got more faith than I do for sure. I think it takes a lot more faith to believe that there is no God than to believe that there's Someone out there holding the universe in the span of His hand.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.' Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (emphasis mine)

God was kinda cheeky in my opinion when He made it so we can't get to Him through our own means, by our own power, and via our own wisdom. He is known by faith in Christ, not through reason and science. Certainly we see God through these avenues, but that's now how we know Him. It might not make sense to our tiny human brains, but that's the way God wanted it.

With acknowledgement of a higher power comes responsibility to that higher power, and humans don't like that. I'll readily admit to being one of them, but part of the beauty of the gospel is this: when you follow Christ and surrender fully to His will, you are free in Him. You're no longer bound to the weight of you and the junk you carry around. It's freedom. If that makes me unintelligent, so be it. I'd rather have Jesus than men's applause.

(I really never intend to write this much, and I've got a lot more to say, but I need to sleep. I guess I'm just opinionated. Best be bracing for the backlash to come. =P)

Passport or Textbooks?

I LOVE to travel. I think that’s a desire God has given me because it’s part of what I’ll be doing in my life. I get impatient sitting around my room like I am now because I know there’s a great big beautiful world out there just waiting to be explored. I also know that same world is full of hurting people who don’t know Christ.

I just want to go. I know God has called me to missions in some way, and given my love for languages and travelling to far-off places, I feel like it’s going to be on the foreign field. At the top of my list are places like New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, India, Costa Rica, South Africa, Brazil…I could go on and on. If God chose not to place me in any of these countries permanently, I’d at least love to see some of them before I die. I don’t know where I’m going-not in the next year, and certainly not in the next ten years.

God has this way of only revealing things to us piece-by-piece because the big picture would overwhelm us, I think. He must smile a little when I come to Him, demanding to see it all right now. At the moment, I’m in one of those places where I feel like He’s about to show me another piece soon. I’m fairly certain I’m on-schedule to graduate this May, which means I’ve got to be thinking about what I’m going to do once I’m through college. With my Biblical Studies major and calling to the mission field, seminary seemed like the logical choice. (Here’s a hint, folks. In case you didn’t know, God doesn’t really work based on our logic.) Now I’m not so sure. I’ve begin weighing the options, making lists of pros and cons. Do I really need an M.Div to serve God? Should I take a year off and travel or do mission work through a missionary society? Journeyman? Should I just get involved with an international ministry and forget seminary altogether?

I’m surprised at the fact that I’m not freaking out yet, but I feel that’s God’s hand in all this. He’s going to let me in on things when I need to know. Like Gandalf (he-he): A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to!

Where Does One Begin?

So I just got home from the special simulcast of Secret Church. I've got a 142-page notebook of truth and doctrine that is still blowing my mind. My plan is to make a study of it once I'm through the book of 1 John, so I'm sure there will be more posts about, but here's what I was thinking on the way home.

The beauty of the gospel is such that it does not fade or grow old with time. It is difficult to grow bored with the gospel. Rather, the more we gaze into it, the more we study its complexities and facets, the more we see exactly how much we do not understand. Instead of driving us away, however, this spurs us on in our desire to know God more.

I remember the first time I heard John Piper preach. I had the opportunity to attend Passion 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia, and Piper was one of the speakers. I had just gotten "legit" (as I like to put) it in October of 2009, and this was day 89 of my new life with Christ. I was (and still am in many ways) just a baby. I'd never heard of this view of God he was teaching. A self-centered, glory-concerned God just sounded awfully selfish to me. Wasn't He supposed to be about loving us, His creation? Wasn't He supposed to be about blessing me? My eyes were opened to the error of my thinking. God is about His own glory. Does He have this right? Umm...yes. He is the supreme sovereign God who created the universe; He can do what He wants.

I'd been doing okay this far into the conference, taking great notes in the sessions with Louie Giglio, Beth Moore, and Francis Chan (I kind of fell asleep during Andy Stanley's talk...ha.), but Piper blew me away. I just sat there in shock. I'd never heard this before and I was having difficulty processing. God was opening my baby Christian mind to huge truths that I wasn't ready for. He knew by showing me all this that it would give me a desire for more. And desire I did. When we met with our family groups afterward, I snapped out of shock and just wept. I don't understand. I want to understand was all I could say. I didn't have any spiritual teeth yet and God had just slapped me upside the head with a steak.

Since this experience, He has taught me more about Himself than I ever thought there was to know, and He just keeps going. Our God is unknowable, yet He invites us to know Him. Chew on that for a minute. We can never exhaust the depths of His character and attributes, yet we are blessed beyond measure when we spend time with Him.

Again, it's late. My brain is mush after tonight, so I apologize if this lacks sense in some places. Time for some sleep. There's more to come, you can be sure.

Hope you have a blessed day. =]