Martin Luther

          Martin Luther was a very corageous man in the 1500's. He became a monk in 1505 after almost being struck by a lightning bolt.  He had many bold ideas that went against the Catholic church, and he was not afraid to share them.  For example, in 1517 Martin nailed his 95 thesis on the church door at Wittenburg accusing the Roman Catholic Church of herasy.  The Emperer declared Martin Luther an outlaw, so he went into hiding.  In his hiding, he took on the job of being the first person to translate the Bible in any language than Latin.
          Martin Luther was born November 10, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany.  His father, Hans, sent Martin to many schools, and at the age of seventeen, he entered the University of Erufurt and recieved his Bachelors degree in one year.  Later, he recieved his Masters degree and entered law school, only to drop out and join the monastary.  He learned alot about God and he devoted his entire life to serve him.  The more he tried to do for God, the more he realized how much of a sinner he was.  He was deeply convicted and some say that he wrestled with the devil in his mind.
          He became a teacher, and his radical ideas came out.  He believed that the Catholic Church was wrong for selling indulgences.  Indulgences were supposedly merits you could pay to help get your relatives out of pergatory faster.   He believed that they were just a way of tricking peasants and taking their money, but the church officials did not like this.  They needed to raise money some way, and no one had ever challenged their authority before.  He nailed his 95 Theisis, which dealt with the selling of indulgences among many other things that the Catholic church were doing that he were wrong, to the Church door.  The door of the church was a place where anyone could come and read and see what was going on.  Soon his thesis was published and almost everyone knew his views, and many peasants agreed.  The Pope condemed his non-catholic opinions and summoned him to either renounce or reaffirm his writings.  He owened up to his writings and the Pope declared he was an outlaw.  Martin had some powerful friends and he arranged one of his prince friends to kidnap him on the way to the Diet.  He, then, grew a beard and  changed his name so that he could not be recognized when he rarely went out into public.  He focused mainly on translating the Bible into the language of the people, German.  Before Martin Luther did this, Monks, Popes, and other officials were the only people who were considered holy enough to read the Bible.  The peasants had to hear the storys second hand from the officials, but now they could see God first hand.  Later in life, Martin married Kathrina von Bora, a former nun, which broke the tradition of monks and nuns flying solo their whole lives.
          Martin Luther was very brave and he stood up for what he believed in.  This, I would say was one of this strengths.  He could voice his opinions in his teachings, and he could write succesfully on them.  His weakness would be that he struggled to find peace with himself and God, and was open with his emotions and frustrations.  He debated alot on whether his love for God was true. He said, when asked do you truely love God, "Love God? Sometimes I hate him!"  I think the movie portrayed him and his ideas correctly.  The only thing I found that differed was that he grew a beard when he was in hiding at the castle, but he did grow out the circle of baldness in the center, so it makes up for it. The movie was probably biased to Luther because it showed the Roman Catholic officials as bad guys.






http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/martin-luther.html

Please, Don't Waste Your Life :)

          Its always interesting to see what John Piper has to say in each chapter of his book Don't Waste Your Life.  Chapter eight talks about jobs.  He points out that just because you are a Christian doesn't mean that you have to work in the ministry or mission field.  He says that we are put in our job for a reason and we are supposed to shine the light of Jesus wherever we may work.  We are to be in the world, not of the world. John Piper gives us some helpful hints of how we may accomplish this.  Talking to God throughout the day will help.  Continually thanking him and praising him will help you survive your work day.  Another way to shine God's name is to be creative and use our talents.  God created us in his image.  We glorify him when we do good and creative things.  He gave us minds so we should use them and have a good work ethic.  It praises God when we do everything to his glory.   Having good standards in your workplace will help.  It is good when people know they can trust you.  We should adorn the gosple with our work because then we fully rely on God, and we boast in the cross.  When we choose to rely upon ourselves and not trust God, easy work becomes hard work.  In the beginning work was joyful.  Adam and Eve were able to be creative and enjoy life without having to wory about providing food and clothing for themselves, but after the fall a curse of struggle came upon work.  Even though Christ came to lift the curse, he still wants us to work.  He wants us to be able to be independent and not take from people.  Although he wants us to work hard and strive to earn what you need, He doesn't want you to worry.  God will provide in any situation.  But just because we know that God will provide doesn't give us liscense to be lazy.  This is a bad example to unbelievers and shows a wasted life.  Don't work hard just to simply earn money.  God wants us to do our best to make ourselves beneficial.  Just because a job is well paying doesn't mean it's profitable.  It makes much of God when we use our hard earned money for God's work. We should be willing to help others in hard times.  Lastly, and most importantly, we should use our secular jobs and the relationships with coworkers to bring people to Christ. Evangelizing and makeing new believers is the best job any Christian can do and it can be done under any profession.  This job requires no degree and is very simple.  All you need to do is get the courage and speak the truth to someone.  You never know what God can do with one simple word.  This job may pay not money on earth, but it has lots of eternal rewards in heaven.

Skid Row

          Its always interesting to think of how other people live their lives.  I can't imagine living on the streets in Los Angeles surrounded by prostitution and drug dealing.  It is great that places like the Alexandrea House and the Jonah Project exist.  Skid Row is one of the darkest places on earth.  People like Jeremiah and Patrick are trying to shine the light of the love of Jesus in this dark place.  The people who live in this area could have been rejected by the church. Its easy for people who belong to the church to turn their backs on and judge homeless people. They might say oh they are lazy or they do drugs, but realistically that may not be the case at all.  Alot of these people are just in a pitfall in their lives and are trying to get out, but if people are constantly rebuking them they will never change.  It all starts when they feel like someone cares.  The man on Secret Millionaire who owned a hat shop and made toiletrie packs for the homeless really can make a difference in someones life.  He felt called to give to others who  had nothing; he even gave someone the shoes off his feet!  Jesus wants us to do this.  He wants us to serve others and care for the less fortunate.  Even the basketball court guys made a huge difference in the lives of those living on skid row.  Just giving someone the time of day can really help save a life. I think that the ministries that go on in Skid row are awesome.  I really hope that I will get an opportunity to go in the future.

DWYL!

It's always interesting to read books. In our Bible class we just read chapters 6 and 7 of Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper.  Forgiveness was the first topic.  We need to stop seeing faults in others and start forgiving. Our biggest motive for forgiving should be that God forgave all of us and gave himself to us.  Our fellowship with God is the best thing we could ever have.  The next thing he talked about was money.  God says to give your money away to the poor, and it's hard to be rich and get into heaven.  We should want more out of our money than to just spend it on things that will burn up the second we leave this earth.  We should want to give it away so that someone could come to know Jesus through it.  The verse on the list that was the most meaningful to me was Luke 12:15: "One's life does not consist in the abundance of his posessions."  It helps me realize that there is more to life than having a really nice house, coolest clothes, biggest TV or newest phone.  Speaking of TV and the internet, is it ok?  John Piper really bashed both in this book.  He considers this the greatest waste of a life and he even said that makes you dumb.  He said that if you sit around and watch TV you will forget how to think. I agree/disagree. I agree that if all you do is sit around and watch meanless shows you will probably go dumb and fat, but there are such things as educational shows.  He said himself that biographies are great because you can learn about people from the past and there are biographies on TV.  Our pastor tapes his sermon on Sundays and they show it on Pegasys so that people who can't come to church can see God's message.  But on the downside, there are also alot of unappropriate shows on TV that could lead you astray.  Also if you are addicted to a TV show you might choose to watch it instead of study for an important test the next day.  It is sad, but I definately spend alot more time watching TV than reading the Bible.  It could seem that I find my satisfaction in worldly things and not in God.  It is just hard to get into the scripture sometimes. I definately need to work on that.

Lord, Save Me From Your Followers

It is always interesting to read bumper stickers.  They often say clever things. The main man in the movie we watched in class walked around in a big white suit that was covered in bumper stickers that had to do with Christianity. It was a good way for him to break the ice while asking often difficult questions to answer. He went all across the nation asking people questions about religion and Christianity.  Most of the results he got were sad, but true.  When asked 'what do you think of when you think of Christians?' some answers include: fantacisim, the crusades, warfare, snobby, hypocrites and theatrical. On the other hand, others said: holy, God, compassionate, love, and Jesus. The man gave many stats on religion in America and surprisingly, most people consider themselves Christians; however, this does not mean that they actually are. We live in a culture where evangelicalism is percieved as 'I hate you.'  Whoever speaks up creates the culture. If we do not go out and speak the word, how is our country ever going to be based on God again?  One man in the movie said "Church is the body of Christ, but it's hands and feet have been amputated and all thats left is one big mouth."  He did not say this in a positive way.  It seems that Christians have stopped doing the things they are told to do, but we sure do talk the talk. It is in this way that our country has slowly moved away from being one nation under God. We can't even call December 25 Christmas anymore because we are too worried that we might offend someone. And since when does God hate gays? Doesn't the bible say that God loves everyone? The modern church has strayed far from the way God intended it to be. This movie shows how Christians and the church are really percieved by the majority of people in this country. Some of the results are scary, but it just shows us what we need to work on.

Jesus Camp

           Its always interesting to see what movies will be nominated for an Oscar.  This movie was shocking for me to see. On one hand the motives of some of the parents of these children are good.  It is a good thing to want to teach your child all about God and his word so that they will be prepared when they face troubles of many kinds, but in some instances, to me, it can go a bit over the top.  I think that if these parents are also telling their children about things that the world thinks and other opinions that it is fine, but if they are limiting what their child hears to just what they think that is where it crosses the border into brainwashing.  When the little girl went up to the lady at the bowling ally it just seemed strange.  It is really good to reach out to people, but when you are 9 years old and you walk up to someone three times your age and tell them that God has put you on my heart, it is just an unlikely occurance.  When the average person is 9 years old they are not typically listening for God to direct them to lead someone to Christ.  It can come off  very weird. The way that the girl's dad reacted seemed very robotic.  She told him what she had done and he just patted her on the head like he expected it.
         I really enjoy Christian camps, but this one may be a little too extreme.  It seemed to me that the director of the camp was doing a lot of guilt tripping the campers.  She seemed a little too sure of herself too.  I did not like how she said that she can talk to a student for just a few minutes and can have them seeing visions of God.  She really does not have that kind of control, only God does.  Sure God can use people to lead other people to him, but I think she was boasting a bit.
         All in all I think that this movie shows how some people can take things in to their own hands too much.  It almost seems like these people are not even doing it for God even though they say all these holy things and pray outloud.  I wish I could have been there to see the second half of the movie.  I have never heard of any of this and I find it very interesting. 

Do NOT Waste Your Life

Its always interesting to think about living for Christ.  We have just read about a section in a book that is talking about boasting in the cross.  The only way to boast is in the cross and through Jesus and you are on the cross.. It is believing that when Jesus died on the cross we died and when he resurrected we are now resurrected in Him.   If we don't put ourselves upon that cross, we will continue to boast in ourselves.  In Galations 2:20 it talks about how I is meant in two different ways.  The I who died and the I who lives now are two different beings.  We are changed and are renewed because of the cross. The verse talks about our new life in faith. I have really been trying to live by faith lately as my life seems to be very busy and stressful.  When I feel like I can't do it alone I thank God that he has been helping me.