The American Nightmare

This past week I was prompted to write an essay on the American Dream for my Literature class. We were asked to write our beliefs and interpretations of the American Dream in less than two pages (double spaced). This caused me to cut back from exactly what I wanted to say, so I thought I'd bring it back up here.

According to the dictionary, the definition of the American Dream is "a life of personal happiness and material comforts traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S." If I were to rephrase this, I'd define it as a life in which one strives or lives for gaining materials in hopes that they produce happiness. I had to ask myself if I agree, the answer, of course, is no. I do not believe that a life should be lived for the American Dream because it has the concept of happiness all wrong. For a Christian, Jesus Christ gives us joy, not "material comforts".

John 15:11

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 17:13

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

We don't need material things to make us happy, Christ is all we need! He gives us joy, and our joy is made complete. We do not need to fill our lives with junk. The American Dream is really just a poor attempt at achieving a purpose in life and we already have a purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God in everything that we do. We should not live for a better future, a great house, career, or even a family. Our lives are devoted to God, the only Eternal One. All else will just fade away.

These are lyrics to a great song called "American Dream" by Casting Crowns:

All work no play may have made Jack a dull boy

But all work no God has left Jack with a lost soul

But he's moving on full steam

He's chasing the American dream

And he's gonna give his family finer things

“Not this time son I've no time to waste

Maybe tomorrow we'll have time to play”

And then he slips into his new BMW

And drives farther and farther and farther away

Cause he works all day and tries to sleep at night

He says things will get better;Better in time

So he works and he builds with his own two hands

And he pours all he has in a castle made with sand

But the wind and the rain are comin' crashing in

Time will tell just how long his kingdom stands

His kingdom stands

Well his American Dream is beginning to seem

More and more like a nightmare

With every passing day

"Daddy, can you come to my game?"

"Oh Baby, please don't work late."

Another wasted weekend

And they are slipping away

Cause he works all day and lies awake at night

He tells them things are getting better

Just take a little more time

He used to say, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins"

But if he loses his soul, what has he gained in the end?

I'll take a shack on the rock

Over a castle in the sand

Now he works all day and cries alone at night

It's not getting any better

Looks like he's running out of time

All they really wanted was you

All they really wanted was you

All they really wanted was you

What do you live for?

What Defiles a Person?

Mark 7:14-23
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

"What comes out of a person is what defiles him." Jesus' words tend to ring in my head. This passage boldly explains the state of man's heart, and, let me tell ya', it's no good news (that comes later). But, Jesus tells us that the heart is wicked and causes impurity in a person. From the heart, stems all kinds of evil. But if we are saved, that shouldn't be a problem...right? This reminds me of another passage:

Romans 3:10-12
None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands;no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;no one does good, not even one.

Okay, so that makes sense. No person is righteous because of their impure heart. From the heart comes all kinds of evil and sinful thing. With a heart like that, it's impossible to be righteous on our own account. It is impossible to seek for God or do good. The Romans passage even says that man has become "worthless." Ouch, that one hurt. So, how do we gain righteousness? How do we gain worth?

Romans 3:21-24
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Jesus took away our wickedness and replaced it with His righteousness. He died so that through repentance and faith, we would gain His righteousness. Every sinful thing that we ever did died on the cross when Jesus died and when we die, God will not see our sinful life, but the blameless and perfect life of the One who died for us.

Conformed to Christ

Romans 8:29
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

Every Christian should strive to be conformed to Christ. We are called to be like Jesus. When someone is saved, the Holy Spirit works in a Christian and they are drastically changed. They go from glorifying themselves to glorifying the One who made them. They are set free from the bondage of sin and they grow to be conformed to Christ.
Do not be fooled by those who claim the faith and after time there is no change. These people need to take a serious look at their salvation. If Jesus was Lord over their life, there would be growth, there would be conformation to Himself. Jesus can calm storms, raise the dead, move mountains, and heal the sick. You bet He can change a sinful heart. God is all-powerful and he changes those who are His own.

Love...

Love is a word that is overused and misunderstood time after time; although, love is completely necessary in our lives. Typically, when we talk about love we think about a gushy feeling that you get when you see that special person you have a crush on. It is used in the sense of the butterflies in your stomach and romantic relationships. I think that as Christians, we should not just accept what the world tells us of love, but rather what God's Word tells us about it.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Now, I'd like someone to show me where, in that verse it says that love is a feeling. Well, they couldn't because it is not there! All of these words describing love are actions. The bible tells us that love is a verb and it is most definitely not a sensation. That is why most dating relationships in our generation fail: because of selfish motives of wanting to feel good and not acting with the other's needs in mind.
Any person will tell you that they love Jesus (if they actually believe in Him). But, what makes a Christian stand out when every single person says that they love Jesus? Their actions. If you are saved, yet you are acting just like any other person, you are no different. You don't love Jesus if your actions don't show it.

John 14:15
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Besides, why would we want to be messing around with sin? Jesus died a terrible death so that we could be freed from sin. He gave us the gift of freedom and we spit in His face and tell Him that He isn't good enough by simply fooling around with our sin. That's not love. He gave us the purest most sincere love-laying down His life-and we turn and stab Him in the back with our fake love.

1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.

Don't let your actions show that you love the world, but let them speak for the love of the Father.

Time for the Important Things

Oftentimes, life gets busy. Between school, friends, family, and extra-curricular activities, the teenage life can be chaotic and seemingly uncontrolling. Sometimes we find it hard to incorporate time for God in these types of settings. But I have frequently been awed by the amount of time we spend with pointless junk, wasting precious time that could be used for God. It amazes me at how many hours some Christians can spend playing video games, going on Facebook (temptation for me), or watching TV, without spending one second of their time reading the Word of God. When we are constantly surrounded by mind-consuming garbage and neglecting God's word, we are setting up idols. God is supposed to be number one in our lives and we would all like to say that He is, but we need to show that we love Him by getting to know Him through our actions of reading the Bible.

Acts 17:11
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Approach the Scriptures with eagerness! God knows all there is to know about us and it is about time we start trying to know more about Him. The only way we can know about Him is in the perfect, inerrant Word of God. The excuse "I don't have any time," most certainly does NOT cut it. Make time. I think that God deserves it after all He has done for us. He gave us the biggest sacrifice ever known and I think that we can start sacrificing some TV/computer/video game time to spend with our Lord and Savior.
Sometimes it may be difficult getting into the habit of spending time with God, but I have a few suggestions and tips:
1. Cut out an hour or so of time you would spend doing something pointless or dishonoring- I used to be a fan of watching those CSI shows. I would literally watch them every night from 9-10 pm before I went to bed. CSI did not have content that was suitable for my eyes, and I knew it. It was hard, but slowly, I cut it out of my schedule and spent that hour reading my Bible and writing in a journal addressed to God. I have never ever regretted that decision.
2. Accountability- find someone who can help keep you on track with reading or perhaps even read with you. This could be a parent, sibling, or friend to remind you about what is important.
3. You won't miss the time wasted- Really, how much of that stuff are you going to miss? You might miss a TV show, but is that really what you want to be living for? In the end, the only things that matter are the things you do for Christ, not things you do selfishly.
4. Regularity- read at around the same time every day so you can plan events around your quiet time. Make it a time that is easy for you to unwind and be eager to read the word. If you say you will read it when you find time, you won't find time. Set aside a certain time for the most important thing, and then you will find time for the other stuff that is least important.

Humility

Philippians 2:1-11
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Humility is very difficult to master. In Philippians 2:1-11, Paul uses Christ's example of humility to show us what it ought to look like in our lives. Paul says that Jesus, "though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Jesus was most certainly not prideful about being in the "form of God"; however, he took the role of a servant. He accepted the role that God placed him in, and he humbly took it. We are meant to be like Jesus. Christ is the perfect example of humility by becoming flesh and taking on the cross.
This passage reminds me a lot of when Adam and Eve sinned. The serpent told them that they would be like God, and, because of that pride, they ate the fruit. They let pride master them and I am sure that we do too. We so desperately want others to think highly of us when all that matters is what God thinks of us. We can spend so much time being self-righteous that we neglect our responsibilities to our God. When we are prideful, even to ourselves, it takes away from the glory that is to be given to our Lord and Savior. It takes away from the One who really deserves it, and that is Jesus.

Joy in Suffering?

James 1:2-4
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It is a very challenging idea to rejoice through suffering. The last thing we want to do through pain is thing positively. But God does use hard times in our lives to produce endurance and character. God seems to always work things out for his good when we are in Him. Although it hurts us and may tear us down, God can work through trials for His Glory. I believe Horatio Spafford, the author of the hymn, "It is well with my Soul," wrote this shortly after he was virtually left with nothing. All of his children died and the Great Chicago Fire ruined him financially. In this painful part of his life, Spafford managed to say the words, "it is well with my soul," although he had next to nothing left in this world. He rejoiced through the pain and strife.
We should be able to do the same. Even though we are not usually faced with this massive amount of loss, we are told to have joy, because pain produces endurance. Horatio Spafford is an amazing example of endurance for Christ. For through tough times, God produces an enduring and faithful man after His own heart.