Love and Brotherhood

At one point this year, I was talking with my friend, Ryan, over Facebook when I asked him how I could become closer with other Christian guys. I had asked him about his thoughts on this a few months ago as I was questioning if I will ever become close with another guy who also loves God. This past week, he made a response to my question through a long email, and the passages that he recommended me to meditate on were as follows:

• 1 Samuel 20 (David and Jonathan's oath of friendship under the sight of God)
• Proverbs 27 (wise expressions about love, family and friendships)
• 1 Corinthians 13 (Paul explaining about the character of a Godly love)

I found that while 1 Samuel 20 portrays a great example of friendship between two close friends (who were guys), 1 Corinthians 13 seemed to pop out more to me. I still find it a bit hard to explain why, but it seems to be a more heavily focused passage, and that it was something on which I needed to reflect. Another particular thing that came to my attention was Proverbs 27:10 (see below).

"Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,  and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away."

I guess that, based on these readings, I still have trouble with love. I guess it could have something to do with my difficulty to fully accept myself. I don't know why, but I find that as I get older, I feel more of the pressure to be like other guys (typical gender stereotypes). I try to go through life, but you keep hearing that you're supposed to be this or that. The thing is, I'm not so hugely into cars, I'm not a sports super fan, I don't even obsess over sex and girls like guys normally do.

I still tend to question God as to why he allowed me to be born with Autism as it tends to act more like a curse in both the "job world" and the "guy world" (which both co-exist as though they are one and the same; again, this is just my way of explaining things from my point of view). Because the main impairments caused by this disorder are my delayed speech and the fact that I need time to think things through before speaking. But the only thing I have going for me as an advantage is that I am often more focused on some things rather than others. Hopefully, I'll be able to get over this hurdle in my life.

Chances are, I'm not alone in these kinds of struggles: there are probably many Christian guys like me who are having trouble in making and maintaining strong friendships with other Christian guys. I agree that it's not easy, especially since I'm expressing about my thoughts. I think what might work for guys like us in being closer and more trusting with our Christian brothers is what Ryan had said to me in the email message: 

"As for advice? I would say, find a friend you think you can trust, and tell him you want to be a brother in CHRIST for him. Don't be clingy, but just say, 'Let's be there to encourage each other in our walk with God'. From my experience when you consciously make that decision then you focus a lot more on it. Pray, envision, minister with, and confess sin to brothers you can trust. The Bible asks this."

I hope that any of this helps somebody as I am also going through this. I find that expressing these struggles and lessons allows me to remain humble and to remind me, as well as everybody else, that we are all human and need God's love and grace as he conducts his work on us and through us. It's great to be writing about real life rather than some fantasy sometimes.

Peace be with you and keep it real with Jesus!

-Alex

The Bible: Language of the Jesus Culture

Do you know what I like about studying French? I like how I am able to learn not just a language, but a set of cultures based around the language, each with its own rich history, customs and contemporary habits. I find that learning French has opened doors for me, allowing me to be more aware and appreciative of the ethnicity of other people. God has gifted me to learn French for a reason. Part of it might be because I need to be in a certain job where a knowledge in French is useful or even necessary. Studying languages like French can be rather beneficial, especially in the mission field.

In a way, you could say that the Bible is written as one of God's "special languages" that was designed for us while living on the earth. Unfortunately, this particular language is the most difficult to learn, especially when you have never lived in its culture before. Yet some pastors will tell you that reading your Bible is easy.

Why would pastors say this? Well, they do have a point; reading the Bible is easy, but understanding it is a whole different story. I think that if we are going to bring the Bible to our spiritually seeking friends, as I am learning to do through the book that I am reading, we should at least let them know that really reading it is not going to be as easy as it may seem.

A verse in the Bible that I see involving words is Psalm 119:105 (taken from the NIV): "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path." It means that the Bible, as God's word, is a key piece to living an abundant life with him, another one being prayer. It appears to be part of a prayer of joy and promise toward God which can be applied to us today. By allowing Christ to take over that abundantly promising life will be more realized, and sharing the experience with a friend will also be very rewarding, not only for you, but your friend as well.

I think that a good challenge for me would be to go out and actually apply the principles of inviting a friend into spiritual conversation, or even just continue to be a generally good friend to him or her. That way, sharing things like faith would be easier to come around. Perhaps this is a good challenge for all of us Christians. You can consider this one for yourself along with God.

Take care and may God continually bless you along the way!

Genuine Living and Genuine Relationships

I often find myself wondering if I am living out my life the way I'm supposed to live it, and this also tends to make me ask myself, "did I even bother so much with talking to a friend outside of the church about Jesus?" This past month has gotten me to reflect more on the past readings through the book I have been reading, how it talks about everyday conversations as a way to practice true evangelism.

Part of the book mentioned about how Gentiles had begun to learn the truth and become followers of Jesus Christ (you can find it in Acts 10:1-11:18). Here, you have a man named Cornelius, who was a God-fearing Roman centurion, receiving news from an angel that a man of God was to come, and Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles, who was sent by God to go see Cornelius. Once Peter had spoken with Cornelius and the other Gentiles in that area, he baptized them and returned to Jerusalem, justifying this action to the other Jews. I thought it was rather interesting that the authour brings this up. What you see here is an amazing example of how evangelism, or "spiritual friendship" should look like. Clearly, the authour is assuring that God wants to extend himself to everyone, not just a few people, and that we should remain humble when helping other people in their journeys.

Reading more through this book has got me into noticing that it doesn't take much to evangelize if all you have to do is talk to somebody about Jesus. I also noticed something really interesting over the past couple of weeks: part of how Power to Change works is through these relationships with others, handing out articles and discussing them sometime later in the coming weeks. I believe that we can learn a lot from these people as they have been doing this stuff for many years and have experienced what it's like to be in such a friendship with someone who is seeking answers to life's biggest questions. For one thing, they show humility by making Jesus famous wherever they go, proving that being humble before God is part of the key to living genuinely as a follower of Jesus Christ.

Now as I continue on my journey as everyone else (yes, that includes you too), I pray that we all can take something in from all of these thoughts. If you want more information about Power to Change, you can check out their website here.

God bless you all and thanks for reading.