Sorry about that!

I just realised that people couldn't leave messages on blog...till NOW! once again so sorry!

Mr. Lewis

"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning..." C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

Liz bought me Lewis' Mere Christianity for the heck of it today when we were window shopping. I have always loved it when the little things she does for me radiate in love and compassion for so long. It was so selfless for her to spend money on me, when I wasn't expecting anything.

I have been wanting to get into C.S. Lewis for some time. A few friends of mine talk of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters quite a bit, so I was more than excited to start my adventure with (to me) a new writer. I had read Screwtape once before, but have honestly forgotten most of the message within it.

I feel like I have opened a door to vast amounts of Christian thought and application!

Thank you Liz for the cool book, the awesome hiking mag, and the great time we had today!

My Dream

"Jesus answered and said to him, " If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him."
John 14:23 (NASB)

I love it when God sends you warm thoughts and great feelings. The dream that God gave me brought me tears of excitement and joy, knowing that He cares this much. Mind you, some may not believe this, but I know that this was from my Father. Nonetheless here it is:

Sitting in a field of white buttercups and daisies, near a dirt path I felt at peace. Further down the road, I see Jesus walking toward me smiling. Nothing could explain the feelings of great joy that went through my mind and body. But that wasn't even the half of it. When He reached me, He extends his hand toward me with a beautiful grin, and asks if I will rise and follow Him. I take His hand and then wake from my dream.

I feel as if Christ is moving stronger than ever in my life, and that He is going to do great things along my path because He knows that I will follow him.

"I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart"
Psalm 77:6 (NASB)

Praise be to God who delivers love when his child needs it. I needed to know that God was in control. I asked Him to take control of my life, and instead of just knowing that He would, Christ showed me. How great is our God!

Power and Gifts

"For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face."
Psalm 11:7 (NASB)

When I first found this passage, I thought the turtle Crush from Finding Nemo would have been the best candidate to read this aloud for others to hear. Ok, so there might be a little more "Righteous"s added for effect, but I digress. Think about the strength of that last part. "The upright will behold His face" is not something that is thrown around lightly. In order to even see his face, we must be upright. Simple, right? I have always known that the sheer power of looking at God can age or kill you. Just ask Moses when we are in Heaven!

I think as Christians, we all seem to have a problem with His overwhelming power. In one hand, none can fathom His reigning power, and the beauty of grace. But, unfortunately, the church over hundreds of years has made Jesus a meek and mild man who loved everyone. While this is true, they seem to overlook the amazing power that he had.

The question that comes up then is why do we have this problem?

In the beginning of Christianity, the power of God would have never been questioned. Well at least by other Christians. In Acts, Peter calls out the onlookers in a hardcore way for even thinking that this power was his own; as if it hadn't come from above. When Peter is beginning to rail on them he asks in verse 12 "Why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?" The answer is simple, all who have the Holy Spirit within have this power. It wasn't Peter who allowed the beggar to walk, but God's power and glory through Peter. I find this not only powerful, but beautiful.

I'm going to throw this in the air: too many Christians have been handed a God that is love, but with no power. In doing so, they sell themselves short thinking that God only gave the apostles this power; that the Holy Spirit that dwells within me is completely different than the one that dwelt within them.

How can this be so? Especially when this is the same God that talked to them, that talks to you and me. I feel that God's power is yearning to be unleashed, but we refrain because we don't believe that we have it. This is not only saddening, but disheartedning. If you believe that God doesn't heal the sick and the weak through the Holy Spirit, I highly suggest you watch The Finger of God, a movie where a humble Christian seeks the Power of God and finds it in the most humble places. This movie gives the doubter a chance to see miracles happen in front of their very eyes.

But when the prescence and power of God is so evident with these miracles, I really struggled with God's ability to move with Christians that don't use the gifts of the Spirit. But when I read 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I was calmed by realizing that these gifts (however evident to others) are given by the same spirit that dwells within me, and that all parts are essential for the church's body.

Where I am certain that God moves through the laying of hands and through prayer, others may not be and I am not judging you. However, just ask yourself how amazing would it be if God used you like He did the Apostles and that through God you helped heal many and preached the word to many. Does not your spirit get excited? It is my belief that God created you to get excited for Him, for His power, and for His returning glory.

We have this power, my friends. For "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:32 (NIV)

May your heart soar with His love today, may you seek Him, and may you embrace His power that He has given so graciously to you. I love you all with every depth of my soul.

5 More Years to Go!

"The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."
William Faulkner

"When I grow up, I want to be a professor of American Literature, just like you daddy!" This was the nightmare that encountered my dreams last night. In fact, I didn't truly realize that it was a nightmare until this morning.

As an English student, I fully understand the concept of masochism: a type of pain inflicted upon oneself for personal gratification (see also: reading James Joyce and writing on societal concepts within a selected text). You see, in order to obtain my dream job as a professor, I must obtain not only a BA, but an MFA, and then a PhD.

This situation is great, because I love to go in depth with stories in a classroom environment. But it is also disheartening, knowing that I have so many more papers to write, so many more novels to read in depth, so many more textual analyses, and so many more lectures to attend.

Whatever the case may be, I am more than happy to endure the pains of school assignments to do something that has so much value for myself. But not only will obtaining a PhD be such an accomplishment for myself, it will also be great for my family. On both my Mum's and my Dad's side, I will be the first Matthews to have a Masters and a Doctorate degree, EVER!

This is a great blessing that God has put on my plate. One that constantly reminds me of how great and amazing He is.

Nonetheless, I want my future children to enjoy the full experience of college, without all of the stress that comes along with it.

Finding a lesson of faith through Dr. House

"These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
1 Peter 1:7 (NIV)

This scripture has always captivated me in its power. But even before I get to this scripture, I think I need to speak on how I actually came across this.

It was a normal school day for me during the spring semester. I had just returned from my Chemistry class, and had a couple of hours to kill before Italian. So what does a 21 year-old student do when he is bored? Contrary to popular belief, it is actually watch/listen/play something (and not under the influence). I had been going through a House kick and put in season 1 that I had just bought. An odd thing about Dr. House is the tried and true method of his medical practice. I have watched so many episodes and most of them have this formula:

1 patient with weird symptoms+ 1st treatment - 1st treatment +2nd treatment after some revelation that the team didn't know before = a healthy patient and Dr. House learning something about himself or one of his underlings.

I love change, but the consistency of the tv show brings me happiness as well. Anyways, there was an episode where a nun has some weird problem (totally forgot what it ended up being at the end though) and when one of the doctors talks to her, he quotes 1 Peter 1:7 as his favorite verse from the Bible. After hearing the scripture, I ran to grab my Bible and I truly soaked it in.

Until I moved to Richmond, my faith had been extremely stale. But recently, I have been diving head first into His word, and haven't stopped since. I believe this scripture spoke to me via House. Weird, I know. However, throughout my life, I have been tested and tested and I can say that my faith has grown stronger because of it.

C.S. Lewis once said, “Faith... is the art of holding on to things your reason once accepted, despite your changing moods.” and I agree with him full-heartedly.

My life has moved through many different "moods", but my faith will always stay strong. He has shown me way too much for me to turn away. If there's anything I would want you, reader, to take from this is this:

1) that, if you are a Christian, that you have your eyes and ears open to recieve God's message through any medium. and
2) may your faith be proved genuine for Him.