The Earthquake

On February 27th, a massive earthquake struck Chile, killing at least 200 people and causing widespread damage. This comes within a few months of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. That earthquake was less powerful, but killed hundreds of thousands of people. I've heard many people claim that these are signs that we are in the end times. They see this as God punishing a group of people for their sins.
In the case of the Haitian earthquake, a well-known and controversial host of a Christian television show chalked this up as God punishing the Haitians because of the strong witchcraft and demonic activities located in Haiti. Obviously this stirred up a lot of criticism and outrage with the public. I'm not going to say whether he was right or not in making these statements, but it's my opinion that we shouldn't try to figure out why God allows this types of things to happen. Maybe God really was punishing a sinful nation, but how does someone proclaiming that idea and condemning an entire nation help further Christ's Kingdom? This doesn't exactly attract people to the Gospel message. I think some people have a desire to try to figure God out so that us humans can understand Him. But how can mere humans try to perceive the motives of the Almighty God and Creator of the universe? God has His own reasons for allowing something like this to occur. It's not our place to try to figure it out. All we're called to do is pray for the people suffering from this disaster and help them in any way we can.

Christmas

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. But the only difference now is that I love Christmas for a different reason. When I was little, I only thought about getting all those gifts that were sitting under the tree. Christmas didn't mean much to me other than the fact that it was a day I looked forward to because I would get the coolest toys. These past few years have been different for me, though. This might be a little bit of a cliche, but I've been trying to keep in the mind the reason for why we celebrate this holiday. The world only celebrates this as a day to give and get presents for each other. There's no deeper meaning to Christmas. But as Christians, it's important to remember that we're celebrating the fact that Jesus was born as a little baby to be our Savior and Lord. I pray that God will never let me forget the reason for this season.

America

The question that was asked was what we thought about America and our feelings about where this country is now. When I was little, I always thought that the rest of the world was like this country. But then I got a glimpse of what other countries are like when I visited India when I was around 7 or 8. This completely changed my mindset of America, and I have tried to never forget how great of a country America really is.
But the sad truth is that America hasn't lived up to the principles it was founded on. It started out with a strong foundation in God, and I believe that is why this country has become the nation with the greatest amount of freedom for its people. We have gotten away from the morals that made this country great in the first place. America continues to try to ignore and shut God out from our lives, and lots of prayer is going to be needed for our great nation.

Perfect?

In English, we listened to a quote from a movie that dealt with what the main character thought perfection really meant. He defined it as you and your relationships with those around you. It's about doing everything you possibly could and knowing that you didn't let your friends down. I don't really agree with this definition of being perfect. I know that God defines perfection as...being perfect. There's no one except Him who truly is perfect. We as Christians strive to be perfect, not to try to become like God, even though God originally intended humans to be perfect beings. God understands that no matter how hard we try, we can never be perfect like Him because of sin. But that shouldn't stop us from being passionate and serious with our relationship with Christ. This way, when I finally do come face-to-face with my Savior, I can know that I didn't disappoint Him when I hear him say to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Favorite Bible Verse

One of our journals that we had to write was about our favorite verse in the Bible. The one passage that never fails to comfort me is Psalms 23:
¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
The thing I like about this chapter is the promises that God gives us. He promises that He'll always be with me, no matter where I go. Overall, this chapter in Psalms describes God's overwhelming love for each one of us. Whenever I'm feeling a little sad or frustrated about anything, I just need to read this passage in the Bible and I'm reminded of just how much God cares for me. If God is with me, and if He's always looking out for me, then nothing else can overwhelm me.

3 People in the World

If I had the choice to talk to any three people in the world, they would have to be the entire current New York Yankee team (I'll count that as one person), Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jerry Seinfeld. I'd love to talk to the Yankees team to find out how exactly they were able to make it this far into the playoffs, whether it was purely because of talent, luck, team chemistry, or a little of everything. I would want to talk to Martin Luther King Jr. so I could talk to him about how he had the courage to do what he did, standing up for what he knew was right. And lastly, I would talk to Jerry Seinfeld so I could talk to him about his famous sitcom "Seinfeld" and maybe share a few laughs with him, too.

Tough Choices in House

Recently there was an episode of the television show House, M.D. that had the medical team deal with treating the mysterious illness of a ruthless dictator responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent people in his country. One member of the team in particular, Robert Chase, has to continually deal with the conflict of trying to save a murderer. He knows that if they successfully diagnose this man, he will go on and kill thousands more. Chase finally makes the decision to trick the other members of the team into giving a wrong diagnosis that would prove fatal to the dictator. Chase apparently thought it was better to murder him before he could kill more people. After watching this episode, I thought to myself whether or not I would've done the same thing if I were in Chase's place. I know that it is completely against God's teachings to murder someone, but sometimes the line between murder and stopping someone from murdering others isn't so clear. My personal convictions are that taking the life of anyone regardless of the circumstances is wrong. The character in the show gets away with murdering the dictator (so far), but I know that if this was real life, I would have to answer to God for doing something like that.