Urgency

I have longed wondered what our Christian faith would be like if we had this true sense of urgency. There are many scriptures that speak of how short our lives actually are. You have James 4:14, "yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." The first time I read this verse I didn't think much of it but when you really think deeper about what this verse is implying and how short of time we have on this earth you really start to get a sense of urgency. Why do we need this sense of urgency? It goes along with the world wide calling all Christians get. Evangelism. That is why we need to be urgent. If our lives are short, that also means that others lives are short, and if they are not Christians then they WILL go to Hell. We all have heard of Hell, but what is it? The Bible tells us that this is a terrible place to be, like in the account in Luke 16:19-31, “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.^[a] The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers^[b]—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” I realize that this is a long passage but I believe it shows what I mean in the fact that Hell is a terrible place and that we NEED to be urgent in our act of evangelism to save people from this terrible place that they are going to go if Christians do not go out and evangelize to the unregenerate. I believe that if we actually start to think of the end and where people will be going, whether saved or not, we will start being more urgent, or proactive, in our evangelism. So, I challenge those who read this to be more proactive in their evangelism to their community.

The Commitment to Reading the Bible and Prayer.

One of the many things I struggle with is the commitment to reading the Bible and constantly being in prayer. I figure that this is actually a struggle for most young Christians and also mature Christians. The idea of sacrificing a large amount of time, if not most of the time to either meditate on the Word of God or prayer is very foreign to the American culture. Now of course this is not always the case for Christians in America but I and many Christians I know do struggle with this. To show that I am not making this idea of constantly being in prayer or meditating on the word I have some scripture to back me up on this. Psalm 119:15 says, "I will meditate on your precepts and consider your ways." Also, in Joshua 1:7-9,  “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid;do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” These two scriptures imply that we should be in the Law, or Bible, so that we can live our lives to the fullest to fulfill the calling the Lord has given each and everyone one of use.  In I Thessalonians 5:15-19 it says, "See that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." There were a lot of commands given in that passages but notice the underlined sections. This verse is a command to pray continually, among other things. How do we do that you might ask? Well if you think about it, prayer is just talking to God. So, if you have always found prayer awkward or weird, just talk to God as you would any other person. You also don't have to do the "classic" form of prayer were you fold you hands and close your eyes. Though you can do this, it is not a needed thing to pray. As you walk around your school, walk around at work, driving to work, ect. the list will go on and on. These are all times you can exercise prayer. Now moving onto meditating on the Bible. The big issue I find in my life is I don't want to give my time to study God's Word. This is a tough thing to do and like I said I struggle with this on a daily basis. The ultimate thing that will get you studying the Bible is this, You just got to do it! You might ask what is the point of doing all this praying and reading of the Bible stuff any way? Well, it is two fold really: First, we, as Christians, are commanded to to both of these things. Second, this is the only way we will really grow as Christians and grow more mature. I hope this has been helpful. 

                                                                                                                                       - The Baptist

        

Introduction

Hello, I am The Baptist. This blog will be my mainly used to talk about life of a Christians. First, a little more about myself. I am a senior at a small Christian high school in Valparaiso. I like to think of myself as nerdy or geeky due to the fact of my favorite subject being science and I play video games, or maybe because I play Magic: the Gathering. Any way, I have been raised in a Christian home. Now that you know a little about myself let me expand on what I mention earlier. I want to commit this blog to be a transparent view of the struggles in every day life of a teen age Christian. This could be anything from questions that are asked or to just a plain writing of how a day went. I hope you all can learn from this blog from what I have done in the past or what I will do in the future and present.
                                                                                                                         - The Baptist