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Well, it is that time of year again, when I am school, being spiteful of the rest of the nation that still has at least one more week off for Christmas break 
. Anyway, I’m two days into classes, and I like most of them. I have this one class though, it will be an odd one. It is my Philosophy class. The title is thus “Quest for Meaning: World Religions” I have to say, this shall be an interesting class. I am required to go to two services of different faith traditions than my own. So, for those of you in Corvallis, if you see me walking into some weird building or something, fear not, it is for the quest of an A. I also have to watch two movies on some other faiths. The professor seems nice enough, but I’m not sure where he is coming from in the class, raised Lutheran, spent four years living in a Buddhist temple, and who knows what else. I also plan on resuming my daily prayer points this term, so tune in and join with me in prayer!
Hello everybody. I’m taking a brief hiatus until I get back to school. Then I will have more time to think and contemplate things (I mean, I think and contemplate, but I mean write about things). The next school year should be interesting, so I will try to keep you updated.
Hey y’all, it has been awhile since I have posted on here. But, soon and very soon, I will be posting a lengthy blog on my trip to Mexico.
Tonight I went to this college ministry group called One Voice. Usually I go just because I feel that I HAVE to or, as a time filler when I don’t have much to do. Tonight was something different though. I would have never thought that tonight would have brought forth potential change in my life. Ian, the speaker at the college group taught on Revelation 3:14-22. I had heard this portion of scripture over and over again, but the keyword was heard, I had never listened. What a difference it makes when you listen! The verse that really stuck out to me was verse 15-16 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Now as I have mentioned earlier, I had heard this a thousand times up to this point, but for some reason, this time it really hit me. The analogy used was that of coffee. Humans (in general) like their coffee hot, or cold, and if it is lukewarm, they don’t like it, they spit it out. And so it is with God, He would rather have us hot and on fire or cold and hating Him, than have us just be so-so about Him. This is typically contrary to our human minds, as Ian so adequately pointed out. We don’t want people to hate us, we would rather have people sorta like us than not like us at all. So as I began to think about this, it was drastically, and most upsettingly pointed out, that I was lukewarm, and had been for some time. Me lukewarm?! I thought it couldn’t be! I mean, I went to church every Sunday, I’m involved in a Christian house, I go to One Voice almost every Thursday, I “read” my Bible, how could I of all people be lukewarm? Then as the night went on, and Ian continued, I realized, it isn’t the actions that make a lukewarm Christian, but the heart. And I realized my heart wasn’t His, my life wasn’t His. I still held on to that tiny bit I wanted to control, or more realistic, I only gave the parts that didn’t matter. It was then that I started fearing being rejected, and spit out, but as the verse continues there is a tremendous promise of grace. It was then that I wanted to change, it was then that I started crying at my lukewarmness. But how to change, I had tried before, but it never worked, things only seem to got worse. After the night was over and I had thought this out, I realized, we can only change with the help of God, and by help, I mean a lot of help. If we try changing by ourselves, more than likely we will burn out and make things worse, we in reality need the transforming grace of God. So what started out as a normal night, in reality rocked my world. Things were revealed to me, that I didn’t necessarily want to be revealed right then, but God hits us when we need it the most, and that is usually the point at which we are complacent, which I was.
When I got home, I also began to think, well, why doesn’t God like lukewarmness? I mean, it seems that a lot of Christians are that way, and that God would seem more pleased with people that sorta wanted intimacy with Him, than those that don’t. Then I realized, it is the lukewarmness of the church that gives the rest of the world the idea of what a “Christian” is. God doesn’t want this perceived image for those that follow Him. He wants us hot, or cold, plain and simple. Mediocrity leads to hypocrisy it seems. The more I think about this idea of lukewarmness giving the rest of the non-believing world the image of “Christianity”, the more it makes sense. I had a teacher in high school, that spent 3 years in Arabia, and he said, the Muslims perspective of Christians, was everybody from the west! Do we truly want that image for the followers of Christ? Do we want to be known as the people who engage in fornication, drugs, murder, etc.? Do we want to be covered in a shroud of mediocrity? I don’t think so. This is why God doesn’t like lukewarmness. Lukewarmness makes people mediocre towards God. Mediocrity towards God leads to compromise. Compromise leads to more sin. And obviously, the sin is of the world. That is it right there, we are to be set apart, not of the world. And if we live in a lukewarm state, we look more and more like the world, more and more of the time, because we really don’t care. Society today is lukewarm, we really don’t care. But fortunately, we have a God who does care about how His people are perceived, and ultimately by us how He is perceived. We don’t want people to think God tolerates sin. We don’t want people to think God tolerates lukewarmness, because that would be a lie. And honestly, our God doesn’t lie, and what a shame it would be for people to find out, that being a true Christian, means sacrifice, not just “Yeah sure, I believe in God” We can’t always expect God to do everything. That is part of the reason for lukewarmness, laziness. If we want God to draw near to us, we have to make the effort to draw near to Him. Then and only then, will the beautiful intimacy between God and creation occur.
Hello everybody!!! It’s Mark. This is my blog, inspired by Pastor Ryan Couch. He started a blog, and I thought it would be a good idea to get my thoughts on paper, er, cyber paper. So here it is, my blog. Hopefully I will have some inspirational stuff, stuff to make you think, and most importantly, stuff that I need answers to. But anyway, I just request that you keep the comments and stuff clean, and somewhat to the point, and whatnot. You know, just common courtesy kinda stuff. Well, I’m going to go off to bed, and hopefully this thing will be up and running sometime soon.
Mark Halvorson
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