The Value of Life

I read a really disturbing article today about Planned Parenthood.  The article said that Planned Parenthood says that sex-selective abortions are "necessary and effective".  If you're not sure what a sex-selective abortion is, it is where an abortion is only performed on female fetuses.  If that wasn't bad enough, the article goes on to state that Planned Parenthood has helped human traffickers obtain abortions for their underage victims.

In a world where life as a whole has no meaning, and since life has no meaning it has no value.  So its ok to terminate female fetuses just because they're females; its ok to traffic 13 year old girls and treat them as sex objects; its ok to oppress people because they are of a different ethnic group, in fact it should be encouraged because obviously they are not strong enough.  Since life has no value, its ok to rape women and children.  What Bernie Fine and Jerry Sandusky did is ok because life has no value.

Might makes right.

But somewhere, deep down, we intuitively know life has value, otherwise we wouldn't have fought for different ethnic groups to be treated equally, or have fought to keep people like Jerry Sandusky away from little kids.  The fact that we know that something is wrong when people oppress others or rape others shows that life has value.  Because life has value, we continue to fight to stop human trafficking.  Life has value because life has meaning.  The meaning of life is we were created by a good God who wanted a relationship with us.  Because we sinned, we have a broken and marred world; a world where people sell others into sexual slavery; a world where women are oppressed because they are women.

 At times we might wonder "how can a good God allow this to happen?"  But God has done something about it.  He who knew no oppression, because oppressed for our sake.  In Jesus Christ, God was oppressed and beaten.  His oppression and beating were not just to identify with our pain and suffering, but to end it.  He bore our pain and death so we wouldn't have to and then he rose again.  In that our sin has been removed and we have new life.  Since life

In Time

I saw In Time last night with my best friend. It was a really good movie; Robin Hood meets Bonnie and Clyde and have a futuristic love child. It is really economically and politically relevant, touching home with our current situation.

But as good as it is, it is missing something. Capitalism is bad because its focus is solely about making money and gaining power. So, communism wants to redistribute that wealth and power. But both are focused on money and power; both are easily corruptible. What happened in communist Russia, whats happening here in capitalist America, what happened in the European monarchies can easily happen. Why is that? No political philosophy is intrinsically bad or intrinsically good and yet all have this massive shortcoming.

So, what can be done? Do we just accept the fact that some will always want money and power and do whatever they can to create an environment that facilitates situations like these? Do we buy into the myth that Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, or whoever can save us? No, as well intentioned as they are, they cannot save us. Maybe for a while they can make things better but the truth is power and money corrupt. Except in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, money and power don't matter. In Christ, our worth is measured in money or power like these political systems, but our worth is measured in his death and resurrection and how that frees us. If we follow Christ, it won't matter what political philosophy that we follow because we will seek to do his will and use those political philosophies to accomplish that.

Back in America

I've been back for about two months, and it's pretty different.  Things have settled back into a normal routine.  I still do my devotional every morning, but now when I go to campus I go because I have a class not to share my faith.  I still find ways to share my faith, but its no longer my sole reason for going to a campus and hanging out.  

I may not be in Berlin any more, but I still want to change the world for Christ some how.  I think it mostly comes down to me living out the life God calls us to live.  I really love dcTalk and before the start of "What if I Stumble?" there is a quote about why non-believers don't believe because of Christian hypocrites.  I know they're out there, I've meet them and at times been one, but my resolve is to live a life for God; a life that cares only about doing what He asks, even if it's hard.  Maybe that will change the way people view Christians and Christianity.  But I won't place my hope in my own efforts, rather I will place it in God.  

For my Social Justice class, I read an article about hope and hopelessness.  The author seems to think that hope is placed in what we can accomplish, but that injects fear which can and does destroy hope.  But hopelessness unites people in love and kindness.  I agree that when things look the darkest is when we tend to unite ourselves in love, but that fear cannot destroy hope if it is placed in God.  If we place our hope in what we do?  We're bound to fall short and burn out before any change happens.  But if our hope is in God, everything will work out even if we don't know the outcome.  Therefore, if our hope is in God all we must do is what we can and leave the rest up to Him.  

So hope; not in what any one of us can do, but what God does.

Last Days Part 2

Today was our last day on campus.  It was ok.  Alyssa and I went out sharing together.  The first girl we talked with was really open and willing to talk until we mentioned Jesus.  She said she was forced to go to church and the priest never explained why we shouldn't do certain things.  I tried to empathize and tell her that if she were to look, the rules really made sense.  She ultimately was kind of closed to the idea of Jesus, even from a historical sense (she was a history student).  The next two people we went to talk with didn't want to talk with us; it's kind of understandable, lots of students are taking exams this week and the exam is their whole grade.  The next person we talked with tried to argue that science would eventually prove everything and we had no need for God.  Alyssa really carried that conversation.  She is going to grad school for biology and chem, so she really knows the sciences and held her own against this guy.  The only thing I contributed besides prayer was when he said that he didn't believe in God because he couldn't see Him or hear Him, I said that you couldn't see the wind or hear it but it was still there.  I wanted to take the route that just because you can't see something or hear a tangible voice doesn't mean it isn't there, but I didn't do a very good job of explaining and he wasn't that interested.  The conversation ended shortly after that.  Alyssa and I talked about things that we can learn from that convo, and one of the things we both said that we needed to keep in mind is that we can't convince anyone, but we need to try and get them to think.  Overall, I think that we did our best to have a discussion with this guy, but ultimately he didn't want to discuss it with us.

Tonight for bible study, we went to Wahalla (we have gone there for all of our bible study meetings).  We just concluded our study on Colossians.  I really got a lot out of this study.  I read it a few days before we left and I didn't get much out of it besides the big things that everyone seems to get out of it.  I really feel like this is a book that I can discuss and share incredibly well now.  I really would like to take this kind of understanding and have it for all of the books of the Bible.  I think it would really help me live a life that is much more pleasing to God, because at the end of the day that's all that matters.  I think I've grown to the point where that's the one thing I desire more than anything is the dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.  It's kind of like that dcTalk song, "Day by Day".  Day by day, I want to see the Lord more clearly, to love Him more dearly, and to follow Him more nearly.

Tomorrow I leave for Switzerland.  I'm really excited.  We're going to be in Wengin, it's a small village up in the Alps.  It'll be about 20 degrees cooler there than here in Berlin.  I think it'll be really relaxing and pretty to look out and see mountains.  But with all the traveling, I don't know if I'll be able to update for a while.

Last Days Part 1

Today was a really good day.  Olivia and I played Let My Words Be Few.  I really love that song.  It's one of my favorite songs to sing.  I think playing with her has really helped my rhythm.  After worship, Jenna and I went out and shared together.  The lady we talked with at lunch was really nice and seemed interested to talk about spirituality but had to leave for work.  When we went back to the the Sud Mensa, we talked with a girl for five minutes but she didn't seem interested in knowing or desiring God.  That was a little sad, but each will come to God in their own time.  After that quick convo, we talked with this girl Constance.  She seemed so very interested in know God.  It was great.  We talked for about an hour and it all came so naturally.  She said she hoped to believe in heaven and that God existed but she wasn't convinced yet.  We told her that we can and that we were with Campues fuer Christus (its the German name for Crusade), and she said she thought we were because she met a guy a year ago who came up and shared the gospel with her and helped her reach the point she is at.  It was great to see that she still desired to know God and was talking with his guy.  We didn't talk for much longer since she had an exam but said she wanted our emails since we're leaving Wednesday.  It really made our day.

This evening, we went to the Olympic Stadium.  It was incredible to see the place where Jesse Owens won gold medals and where Hertha Berlin SC plays.  I sat there just in awe, realizing who am I to complain about grades or dating when a man such as Jesse Owens could stand there in persecution and perform; who am I to not rejoice daily and praise God at the top of my lunch since I do not have to worry about anything.  It was a very humbling experience.  

When we got back to the hostel, they were having a dance-party and Jenna, Alyssa, Kayla, and Austin convinced me to join them in dancing for a little bit.  It was fun.  I definitely do not enjoy dancing, but I really enjoy hanging out with them.  I'm going to be sad when I don't see those people daily when I come back to the states.  Along with Kenny and two of the male leaders, Micaiah and Doug, those are the people I'm closest to here.

Quiet Strength

This morning I went to Berlin Projekt instead of going to one of the concentration camps near here.  I didn't really want to go to one of the camp, so I decided to go to church.  I didn't really want to go there because Berlin Projekt is all in German with no translations so it's kind of hard for me to get much out of the services but everyone else was going so I went.  While I was there, I opened up my Quiet Strength devotional since I wanted to spend some time with the Lord and it was hard to get anything out of church.  I went to chapter 2 which is all about strength.  It was really refreshing because I have been feeling a little drained and weak.  There are a couple of guys on the trip that I am really trying to get to know and be close with but they keep shutting the door and its draining to try and keep pursuing them.  I told Austin this morning that I was drained from trying to pursue these two guys and that I didn't know if I could keep trying so hard without getting too drained, especially after pouring so much of myself out trying to keep things with Amy from ending like the way it did.  I don't think I'm still fully filled from all that.  But the thing that really was awesome and God's hand was about the idea of strength and where do we get our strength from and what makes us strong.  The book says that strength is "having the faith to look to God to change us and to obey Him in what He has called each of us to do ... It is revealed when your relationships get difficult and you want to just walk away."  It was great.  I know both of those sentences, but the great thing was I really felt like God was saying "keep going.  Trust in Me and this fire will burn hotter and deeper and it will spread to others.  Pursue."

I have talked about how Germany is secular and in my last post I mentioned that Berlin in particular is secular.  Being in the former East Germany, there are a lot more atheists here because of the communist regime.  But even the people who grew up in the church have an interesting view on faith and God.  A lot of pastors and priests here in Germany do not have much faith themselves.  It is an odd system here in Germany how the church works.  If a person registers as a Lutheran or a Catholic, part of the money is taxed directly to that church network so many pastors and priests go into that field because they know they can get a job and have an income.  As a result, a lot of people who to church don't really know or ever hear that Jesus is the way; all they know is that Jesus taught peace, love, etc and they think of being a Christian as a moral way to live but not a lifestyle.  It's a sad state of affairs.  It's not uncommon for people to say that they believe the bible is true and good but that Jesus isn't the son of God, even though he does claim it but they don't know it since they haven't read it or had someone tell them that.  I ask that whoever reads this post prays that their eyes will be opened to see the truth and that they be willing to learn more about Christ and desire to know Him.

Wittenburg

Today, some of us went to Wittenburg. It was really nice. Wittenburg is much more like the typical German village. Berlin is kind of like the New York of Germany, lots of diversity and a unique culture to it's self. We got to Wittenburg a little after noon and looked at some of the sites. It was kind of cool to see some of the places. The first place we saw was the house where Luther burned his excommunication papers. The town really places up Martin Luther. They have Luther Beer, Luther signs, Luther food. It's a little annoying but in a country so secular, it's nice to see them embrace some of their religious past. The town has little maps all around it with spots where Luther did something or lived. We saw his house. Originally it was an abbey for monks, which he was, before it became his family's home. After lunch, we went to the first Protestant church where Luther preached. It was a really beautiful and moving place. The entire building was made of stone so it was really nice and cool inside. The ceilings were huge arched vaults with ornate decorations on them. The pulpit was very ornate and decorative. It was not just a normal podium, but it had a spiral staircase that was connected to the wall before it branched out and became the pulpit. At the very back, Luther's 95 Theses were written in German. Where the original door that he nailed the original copy to was is a bronzed cast of his 95 Theses in German. We spent half an hour or so in the church itself praying, looking around, taking pictures before we climbed up the tower which overlooks the whole town. The climb up to the belltower was really long and hard. It was a very narrow spiral staircase that went up about four stories. Once we reached the top, we could see for miles and miles. Wittenburg is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, about 45 minutes away from Berlin. We could see the town, all the streets, and the fields surrounding Wittenburg. I could even see the wind turbines a couple of miles out from the town.

I actually read a few of Luther's Theses today. I always knew that Luther didn't want to break away from the church, just reform it but I don't think I realized how much he just wanted to change the salvation through works message. On our way there I read a little bit of his thrid treaty on freedom, and he was very adamant that it is salvation through grace alone, our works only reflect the change in spirit. Without him, the majority of our denominations would not exist. We may still have a salvation by works mindset and many people may never know that what matters is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope to read more of his writings, along with some from John Wessley and Oswald Chambers.