Open Air Preaching

A friend and I were walking on campus today, and we stopped in front of the Academic Building. There was a crowd gathering to listen to some guy talk, and we had time to spare. He turned out to be a Christian, and he was talking on the topic of evolution vs. creation. The fact that it's Halloween today made it a little awkward, since his hecklers were dressed a little strangely, to say the least. I actually enjoyed it. The guy had wonderful speaking skills and handled the hecklers well.

One thing that I couldn't help but notice was how rude and condescending the hecklers seemed. I'm not sure if by the very act of heckling it automatically makes you out to be that way, or if it was the fact that most of them probably were not Christians. I can't presume to make a judgment as to what some of their beliefs were. I don't believe they were Christians, since Christians wouldn't try to humiliate a Christian trying to do the will of God speaking what he believes to be true, even if they did disagree with him about creation.

Actually, he never really argued that creationism is true. All he was really arguing was that creation ought to at least be taught in school's alongside evolution. Which, when looking at the facts, it's hard to see how that would be a bad idea, regardless of your views on creation/evolution.

This Christian speaker stayed cool the whole time, didn't resort to ridiculing any one. He simply spoke his beliefs, gave some evidence for his position, and answered questions. He was ridiculed and made fun of by those opposing him. All of it made me laugh since there was no reason for people to be acting that way. It made me see how the Holy Spirit can truly sustain charity in a man in that situation. I hope I'm one day able to speak to others about God in the same way.

Christian Charity

Christian charity is amazing. It gives without thinking of self. It doesn't anticipate inconvenience. And when one is on the receiving end of this charity, one can't help but be extremely humbled and think "Hey, I should probably do something nice for somebody else, something that I don't want to do, something that will inconvenience me in some way."

Sound doctrine is absolutely essential to the Christian life, but sound doctrine without love, well, let's not be whitewashed tombs pretending to care when we don't. As James said so eloquently, "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." 2:17.

Remember Jesus Christ

"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descended from David, as preached in my gospel, the gospel for which I am suffering and wearing fetters like a criminal. But the word of God is not fettered." 2Timothy 2:8-9

Yesterday, my roommates and I received a Christian tract on our door. I subsequently read it. It outlined the Gospel, something that I know, but nevertheless, being reminded of the reality of Christ and what He did on our behalf, I was overjoyed.

I think as Christians, it's easy to forget simple stuff, like the Gospel. Being reminded of it is very good for our spiritual health. As fallen humans, it's our tendency to forget what others have done for us, and this tendency directly affects the way we handle spiritual realities.

The tract we received was pretty simple. It went over the Gospel. Man has sinned, we've broken the Law, God must be just, we deserve death, Jesus died for us, we're now saved if we trust Christ and live Christian lives for the praise of His glory. Very good news.

So, there's a reminder of the Gospel. A very brief one, but reminders of much greater, richer realities must be brief for practicality's sake. Rejoice in this Gospel, for by it you have been freed from sin and death. If anything can lift the spirits of mankind, in the horrible wretched state we are in, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is it.

Readiness in Regards to Sacrifice

In the season 4 episode of Smallville, "Scare", a toxin is accidently released into the air from LuthorCorp. It puts people into a nightmare like state in which they're asleep, and their heart-rates stay at a dangerously high level. It's only a matter of time before their bodies give out and they die. Lex is under the impression that the toxin was contained at the plant, so he has a group of specialists at LuthorCorp taking care of his employees, and keeps the incident hidden.

A cure, which hasn't been tested, might be the only thing that can save them, so knowing they don't have much time, and against the advice of the head of the project, Lex decides to give the potential cure to an infected employee. He also decides to administer it himself, rather than have someone else do it to avoid risking infection, again, against the advice of the project director.

Well, when the employee receives the "cure," he immediately wakes up, grabs Lex tearing his lab-suit and exposing him to the toxin, and then dies. Lex eventually finds out that it has, in fact, leaked into the air, and that people unconnected with LuthorCorp are going to die unless they produce an effective cure. When the new modified cure is ready, the project director wants, again, to test it on animals first. Lex knows there is no time, people will die, and not wanting to risk taking another employee's life, he, without consulting the project director, takes the seringe, looks the people in the room with him in the eyes, and injects himself with the fluid. Well, the fluid, since it was derived from some of the same stuff the toxin is, causes lex to enter the nightmare state immediately, but he eventually wakes up, so they know it works and they can now use it to save those people infected.

It impressed me that he had the guts to do something like that. I mean, the last guy who had been injected with an untested cure died. I guess he felt responsible, so if anyone should die it should be him. It was a time of crisis, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Self-sacrifice is something we should all be ready for. We never know when the day may come when we're called to risk our lives for the people we love, or in fact give our lives. Since Christ did it for us, we should be ready to do the same.

Chewing Gum Lifespan

I've recently started to chew gum on a regular basis. I was chewing Wrigley's Big Red for the past few days. Today I ran out of that and got a pack of Wrigley's Winterfresh. They have them in the snack machines around campus. Anyway, a stick of Winterfresh lasts exactly four hours. How do I know this? Because that's how long I chewed the piece I had before it lost its consistency and turned into a soluble sludge. My lips are really sticky now, since when it lost its consistency as gum, some of it leaked onto my lips and it formed a blue film. Oh well. I don't know how long Big Red lasts since I always stopped chewing it before it gave out. Maybe it lasts indefinitely.

Anger and Football

Our football team beat the Baylor Bears on Saturday 16 to 13. That was in overtime. It made for a pretty exciting game, at least the last quarter. I actually enjoyed it. I have no reason to complain. We won the game. However, I think many people are complaining about it. Many Aggies.

The reason for this is that they think we should have beat the Bears by a great many touchdowns. Why? Because the Bears are not supposed to be very good, and we are. Many spent the game cussing, getting extremely angry, and cussing some more. In other words, paying for a football ticket, and taking four hours out of their day to go watch the Aggies win made them unhappy.

In my honest opinion, I don't think football is important enough to be unhappy about. It is a game afterall. I covered this in a previous post. I was more unhappy about the people around me being so angry. I mean, really, this was an Aggie football game, not an 18th century pirate ship.

It wasn't only the guys who were cussing, but the females as well. That really grosses me out. You see, guys are, by their very nature, attracted to females. And when a female is being so nasty, it's just gross.

But, anyway, the anger i saw that day was not a righteous anger. It was a very disturbing anger. I didn't like it at all. Anger is not something that can usually be contained easily, it grows, it affects others, and makes them angry. Anger is contagious. That's why we need to be careful with anger, and only use it for good. I don't think people understand that.

Well, I'm not sure what else to say. I need to study for a test I have tomorrow. Perhaps my next post should be more uplifting. It's just that this is something that bothers me, perhaps because i have a hard time understanding it. It just doesn't seem very logical. Good night.