It’s amazing how when you ask God for things.. Sometimes, He gives you way more than you could ever ask for.

Recently, I’ve found myself ridiculously jealous of one of my friends. It wasn't jealousy over a car, clothing, or relationship that they have... But because of the opportunities they’re having.

Not because they’re traveling through Asia or traipsing through Europe… But because of the conversations they’re having with people!

One of my friends has this amazing ability to attract Atheists. And not just Atheists that don’t believe in God, but Atheists that don’t believe in God, and are adamant over the fact that you shouldn’t either. She gets in these hour long discussions with these people, and it tends to stress her out a little bit, but she does a great job at handling them and standing up for Christ and holding her own.

I, on the other hand… Don’t have any of those type of people in my life. My church friends are Christians, and they are amazing, God fearing people that I am so thankful for and blest to have in my life. But my friends outside of church.. They don’t stick to their guns or religion. I have friends that are Buddhist and Catholic, but they’re only those religions because it’s what their parents are. They go to mass and temple because it’s what their parents have always made them do (or because it’s a holiday). I don’t believe I have a single friend that is actually an Atheist, and if they are, it’s because they tend to just be too lazy to get up and figure out what this life is all about. And I have friends that a “Christians”, but definitely don’t live a Christian life.

Anyways, I have these people in my life that claim to be Catholic/Buddhist/etc, but they don’t really know what they believe. Or they don’t care enough to talk about it. We studied Catholicism a few months ago in College Group, and now I know more about the religion than most of my Catholic friends. And anyone that’s talked to me for an hour or more (normally even less than an hour), knows where I stand. I don’t hide it. I’m proud of it.

Where was I going with this? Oh yes.

Jealousy.

We’re not supposed to be jealous. But, I am. Or, I was. I decided I didn’t like being jealous, so I prayed somewhere along the lines of “Lord, I’m jealous of my friends that get to have these amazing conversations with non-believers. Help me not be jealous, and help me be excited for them. And if you happen to want me to experience the type of conversations they’re having, I’d be okay with that. Love, Kelsey”.

And guess what? He answered. :)

I’m trying to figure out the right way to word this next part, because I’m very aware that this is a public blog any anyone can find it. While I’m never ashamed of what I post, it’s more for the privacy of the people that I want to share about. I’ve never been vague about a single thing in my life, but I’m going to try.

There  have been three people in the last 6 months or so that the Lord has opened doors up for me to have these awesome conversations with. Two people more than the other.

Two of the people (one person is the one with the less conversations) I am with quite frequently. And it’s interesting, because both of them have a Christian background. One decided that Christianity wasn’t “right” after he took some Philosophy classes in college, and the other one decided about 6 years ago when he decided he doesn’t like the way that Christians are hypocritical and the way that the church is these days.

Now, I get excited over the idea of taking a Philosophy class. I LOVED my Woman’s History class because I loved getting in discussions with the class about abortion and women submitting to husbands and stuff. So a Philosophy class is kinda up that same alley. So, when it comes to a Philosophy class changing your opinion on your faith… Your faith wasn’t strong enough to begin with. And if your faith was genuine, you can’t lose it. And it drives me crazy when people blame their decision to leave their faith because of other people or because or something they don’t agree with in their church. If you think someone is living two lives or lying, the Bible tells us to confront them. If you don’t like your church, find a new one. Don’t blame others for your rocky faith.

That aside.. It’s presented some very interesting conversations. Because these two come from a spiritual background, they at least kind of know what they’re talking about. And it’s stretching me and it’s exciting.

The third person (this is the one that I really need to be vague on), is a friend of mine that actually is very religious (but not Christian). We’ve had a handful of very, very deep religious conversations over the past few months, and it’s so exciting! I’m so thankful that God put it on her heart that of all the people to confide in about the doubt in her own religion, that God had her open her heart to me. And that He’s given me the right words to help guide her in the right direction. I don’t know what His plan is, but I can’t wait to see how it all turns out. Whether it’s in God’s plan for her to become a Christian or not, I know that He’s placed her in my life for me, too. Because this whole situation with her has helped me grow so much in my own faith (while helping direct her out of her “faith”).

 

So I asked God for some awesome conversations, and boy, has He ever provided! I had two within 16 hours of each other this week!

He ended the conversation by telling me to ask my Pastor if I pray to the same God that Muslims pray to. And I just kept saying “I have never met a Christian who would ever say that it’s the same God”, and he kept saying that I was wrong. So, he left.. And (how convenient is this?) I walked down the hallway to my college pastor, and said “Um, I don’t pray to the same God of Islam, right?”. And he confirmed that I was correct. And he reminded me that Allah is based on the “moon god”. And the moon god was a pagan god. And the moon god is NOT the same god as my God.

Whew. Was I relieved! And I walked back to my desk… And laughed because I saw my notebook (that I take notes in at church) sitting on my desk, and I opened to my notes from last Friday, and ten lines down I have the line “Allah is not the God of the Bible”. Okay, why didn’t I just open my notebook while we were sitting there? Hah! But, I was glad that my argument about MY God not being the same god was actually Biblically based, and not just because the idea of praying to the god that tells people to kill thousands of people in a jihad makes me want to cry.

Thank you, Lord, for not being that type of Almighty God.

 

So that was Thursday night. Friday morning, I woke up to a text from friend #3 asking me “What does it mean in Matthew 26:42 when it says that the Son submitted His will to the Father? Are they still on being?”. And I have to admit.. I went “Hah!”.. Just because I will tell you that, hands down,  that is the hardest topic for me to explain. And I don’t think I’m the only Christian that gets a little tongue tied when trying to explain how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One, but three.

I asked her to give me a little bit to get gather my thoughts.. And then I started praying. And asking others to pray for me. And then I texted Matthew (my college group pastor). I didn’t get a response for awhile, so I talked to one of my friends at work to find out how he would explain it. Both of us were struggling (“I get it, but man, it’s hard to explain.”), and then Matthew called me back (thank You, Lord!). He gave me some great examples to use and I felt so much better. So I prayed some more… And then typed out my response. And sent it to two guys at work to see if they thought the response was good.. And then sent it on over.

Here’s what I ended up writing:

First, you have to understand the difference between a being and a person. You have to picture God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as three persons, but one being. And as a being, they are all equal. However, it's like a marriage (example one). A marriage is a man and woman being two separate people, but coming together as one. They are one unit, one partnership. Neither is greater than the other, but they have separate roles. The husband's role is to be the head of the household. (In the Trinity, it's the Father's role to be the head). The wife has separate roles, as does the Son and Holy Spirit. But, you can't say that the husband is greater than the wife. However, the wife will submit to the husband, while still being equal. Jesus submitted Himself to the Father, but He was never less great.

While Jesus was on earth, He was a man. But, he was still God. Think of it like Princess Jasmine in Aladdin. Jasmine was princess and always was a princess. But, she willingly left the castle and lived as a commoner. And while she was living as a normal person, she was also still a princess. And at any time, she could pick up her princess duties. While Jesus was on earth, He was a man. He lived as man. And He didn't have His "God powers", but He was still God. At any point, He could have picked up his powers, but that didn't make Him any less God when he didn't have them. And because He put His God powers aside, when, in John 14:28, He said that the Father was greater than Him.. It was accurate, because at that point, the Father was greater than Him since He had put His powers aside. Any miracles He did while on earth was the Father working through Him, because He was man.. So He was submitting to the Father’s will because while He was on earth, God was God with power, and Jesus was God without using His powers.. But He could have called His powers back at anytime, because He was still God.

 

Oh yes, the Princess Jasmine analogy was definitely Matthew’s suggestion. :)

All of this to say.. I prayed for conversations. I prayed for God to bring people into my life that I could have conversation with that would challenge me. And man.. Did He deliver, or what?! And I love it! And I pray that He continues to bring it on :)

On New Year's Eve, I went to Pasadena to watch the Rose Parade with a couple of friends. We had fun, we tried to sleep, we ate, we laughed, we FROZE.

Around 9 o clock, these nice people came around handing out flyers for "Free hot chocolate and a movie!". Now, I'm not a chocolate person at all, but the hot portion of the name was very, very intriguing so I was immediately interested. However, upon looking at the flier, I noticed that the "nice people" were from the Church of Scientology.

That, to me, was an instant "heck no, I'll deal with the cold" moment. I didn't want to go walk into their "church" and have them count me as a visitor for some sort of record of "how many visitors we had on New Year's Eve".. But, after another hour of freezing and really, really needing to go to the bathroom (my only other option at that point were port-o-pottys)... The promise of warmth and a hygienic facility won.

I walked over to the Church of Scientology with Leigh and the second I walked in the door my first thought was "ah, I can feel my nose again!" and my second thought was "this doesn't feel like a church, it feels like one of the exhibit halls at the Orange County Fair". After finding the restroom and the best taste hot chocolate of my entire life (not because it was high quality, but because of the liquid being at least 3 times hotter than the temperature of my ears).. A lady came over to point out the marshmellows.

First thing I noticed was that she was dressed like about 75% of the other people in the building - black pants, black shoes, long, black, trench coat style jacket, and a white collared shirt underneath. Obviously, she was one of the Scientologists.

After a little bit of small talk ("Boy, it's cold!" "There's a lot of people on the street"), she asked us why we came inside. We laughed and mentioned that it was most definitely because of the cold. She asked if, since we were there anyways, she could show us some of the presentation material on Scientology. I'm always game for learning more about other religions, and Leigh was, too, so we followed her over to one of the several large screen displays they had set up everywhere.

The screen she brought us to played a video that was about dianetics, which was something that the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard (aka LRH) created in the 50's to explain like, how to understand oneself through thought.. It's really hard to explain. (Obviously, they do a little bit better of a job explaining it on their official website). When it was over, Leigh and I had questions. "What do you guys believe about creation?" "Do you believe in a heaven and hell?" And her response was along the lines of just talking about how we are just spirits (or "thetans"), and not actual human beings, so it doesn't matter how our physical bodies got here.. And we don't go to heaven or hell because our spirit can't die.

I understood that, mostly. I didn't agree with it, but I understood it. But I still wanted to know what they believed about creation. So I went even more basic than the 6 days of creation and asked "Do you guys believe in God?". Instead of answering that.. She said "Well, we have this other video.." And walked us across the room and lobby into a separate room, to a new presentation TV.

This new display was about "The 8 Dynamics". The Dynamics are the different areas in life that you're supposed to strive for. I don't remember what they all are off the top of my head, but I think the first three were Self, Family and Sex, and then Group Survival. And number 8 was Infinity and the Supreme Being. She was pointing to #8 since I'd asked her about God. However, she still didn't quite answer my question. I asked her again, "Do you guys believe in God?" And she said "Well, we believe that to fully understand Infinity, you have to be excelling in the other 7 Dynamics." Which still didn't answer the question. So, she had us watch the movie on the 8 Dynamics. Did that answer my question? No, it didn't.

So now we started asking questions again.
So, why would I want to be a Scientologist?
Well, it helps you find happiness.
But I'm already happy.
Then that's what's right for you.
So it's okay that we're not Scientologists?
It's right for you, because it makes you happy.
But there's nothing wrong with me being a Christian?
If it's what makes you happy.
So there's no reason or motivation for someone to become a Scientologist..
It helps people find happiness.

It kinda went on for a little bit, about how the whole goal of Scientology is for you to be happy - afterall, dynamic #1 is Self.

I decided to go back to the question about heaven and hell..

As a Scientologist, you don't believe that death means eternity in heaven or hell, right?
Correct. Our spirits don't die, and our physical, human bodies are just a place for our spirit to be for now.
Okay, so since I do believe in heaven and hell, that means that I'm wrong.
It's not wrong if it's what makes you happy.
I don't get it. How can I believe something that's different from you, when what you believe is "right", but what I believe is different... But we're both still right?
Well.. There's this other video..

And then she put on another video. I can't even remember what the video was about, because I was still trying to process the previous conversation.

At this point, I could tell she was kinda done with us. We weren't done with her though.

Do you guys have a "Bible"? I'm sure it's not called a Bible, but a basic "scripture" that you read?
*pointing around her* We have all of the books that LRH wrote.
And what he wrote is basically truth, right?
It is truth.
So you do have some absolute truths.
Yes, because LRH discovered everything about Scientology and Dyanetics since he created it.
But what if I don't agree with what he wrote in his books? If I don't agree with what he says.. If what he says doesn't make me happy, how can I follow it and be okay with it?
You shouldn't agree then, because it doesn't make you happy.
So I can still be a Scientologist, but not completely agree with the "truth" of LRH and I'm still considered right because it makes me happy?

I DON'T GET IT!

I was so thoroughly confused. And that didn't complete the conversation. I didn't even mention their auditing. And so much more.

The only thing I do get is why it's so appealing to the Hollywood community. The entire "religion" is about me, me, me. My happiness, my survival, my everything. It's a selfish organization disguised under the pretense of good deeds and title of religion.

And all that I mentioned, didn't include the crazy/cult side of things. They believe in aliens. But, noticed how I didn't mention Xenu in any of the conversation with my new Scientology friend? Why wasn't it mentioned when I asked about creation? Scientology (and Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses) are known for the secret side of things. Keeping things a secret until you reach a certain "level" within the "religion". Why would you want to be a part of something like that? I've never understood that. I had someone explain that they want to keep things "sacred".. But there's a difference between sacred and secret. Christianity doesn't hide anything.

The only thing that I can possibly think of in the realm of Christianity that you can kinda, sorta, possibly compare to that is asking someone not to participate in something (like Communion) until you understand and believe it. But that's not a secret. You can still watch, ask questions, and learn about it.. We just ask that, out of respect, you don't participate.

But these other "religions" keep them secret. Keep their members sworn to secrecy and are punished for telling ahead of time.

I DON'T GET IT!

Anyways.. It was definitely a learning(ish) experience. I guess I learned more about Scientology, even though she didn't fully answer any of our questions.. Like I said, I'm always game for learning about religions..

And this was just another time where I realized how thankful I am for the family I was born into and for the God that I know and love. And how glad I am to have been introduced to my God at such a young age.

And that was how I spend one of my last hours of 2010 :)

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is a gift from God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:5

How can Catholics believe in the Bible, and yet believe that Salvation is works based?

In fact, according to faithforcatholics.org, "...the Catholic Church teaches that faith is important; but it also insists on the necessity of good works to merit eternal life."

Maybe I'm reading that with a negative tone.. But how I interpret that is "yeah, faith is important, but it is necessary to do good works to gain good works."

I'm so thankful that I know my salvation isn't something that I can gain or lose based on how many bowls of soup I serve at a homeless shelter or how many kids I tutor in math.. And that verse proves it. Our salvation is because of God's grace and mercy. And nothing more.

Mercy: not getting something we deserve (Hell)
Grace: getting something we don't deserve (Heaven)

We deserve Hell, but God gives us Heaven. And not because of "good works".

There's nothing wrong with doing "good works". But the reasoning behind it is important. "Good works" is something we do as Believers because we know it honors God.. Not because it's something we have to do to earn favor with Him to reserve our spots in Heaven.

Jesus already did the "greatest good" that anyone could do. His "good work" is the only reason we can go to Heaven.

Doing "good works" to ensure our salvation is like people still believing that sacrificing a lamb is necessary. It demeans what Christ did for us on the cross. It's like saying what He did for us wasn't good enough, so we have to keep doing it.

Thank You for the cross.
Thank You for the cross.
Thank You for the cross, my Friend.

(Once Again - Matt Redman)

I had a conversation the other night that sparked a ridiculous joy in my heart. I actually can't talk about it, though. Well, actually, it's something I need to not type about. But any of you few and faithful readers that I have.. If you can pray for me to have wisdom, patience, and courage, it would be so incredibly beyond appreciated. I can definitely share the details if wanted, but it can't be here!

I hope that I'll be able to share this in detail at a later point, just because if this works out the way I hope and pray that God has it planned to work out.. It will be amazing. Absolutely amazing. He's amazing and an awesome God no matter what happens. But I just feel that He's got something incredible scheduled in the future.
Sent from my Blackberry :)