Love

Love has always been a confusing topic and all the time used in the wrong way. Most of the time people just say that they love Starbucks or “I love food” and not expressing true love for it. So what is love? Love is a subject very hard to explain but very important. In many places in the Bible it says that God is love. God shows love towards us constantly throughout our lives. He loves us enough to send his son to this earth as a sacrifice for all the sins that we have committed. There is also different kinds of love. There is unconditional love which is the kind of love that can’t be changed from actions but committed. A friendship or brotherly love is the caring for someone else. And there is also the love of having emotional feelings or a passion for someone or something. If I considered God one of these types of loves, I would consider Him an unconditionally loving father for us. For everything that we have said or done that is sinful, God overlooks our sinful flaws and forgives us. After anything that we do no matter how bad or sinful, God still loves us unconditionally.

Jesus

To start off explaining who Jesus is, I would start off saying that He is the Son of God and is also God. Even though this is impossible to explain, Jesus wasn't some invincible god that flew around and struck people with lightning when he was mad. Jesus was a man who was perfect. Jesus was so perfect that he never told a lie or stole anything. Jesus was a man sent to this earth to die on a cross to forgive us for our sins. His purpose for us was to be our Savior and save us from our sinful lives and give us the opportunity to live in heaven with God. He was born from a virgin even though that seems impossible. Jesus was God but he still had to grow up as a normal human being. Through out his life he also preformed many miracles such as: healing, raising people from the dead, walking on water, raising himself from the dead, etc. To compare how powerful Jesus is to God is almost equal. 

Christianity

If I was visiting a church and they happened to preach about something that I either disagreed with or have never heard before, I would question if what they said was true. Most likely if there was scripture backing it up, then I would be able to agree with them. Sometimes if there is something that is being taught at a church that people disagree with, they just leave the church. Personally I believe that the pastor should use the Bible when preaching.The way how I would respond to the pastor preaching on something I didn't agree with, I would probably find out if what he said follows scripture. Depending on what they said would determine if I would return to that church. 

There are essential parts you need to be a Christian. To be a Christian, I believe that you should believe in the trinity, that Jesus is God's son and the Savior, and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It is hard to determine if you have to believe in certain thing such as hell or satan. A lot of questions that aren’t answered in the Bible are almost impossible to find the answer to.

Money

The book of James talks about the topic of being wealthy versus being poor. The way how I think of it is that it doesn't make a difference if you are rich or poor. Either wealthy or not wealthy it doesn't make a difference in how you can get exepted into Heaven. James talks about how being poor is better than being rich. I don't agree with him because it can go either way. It can be bad to be poor or rich. A lot of the time the poor wish they were wealthy just like the rich. They could also just complain about how poor they are. Sometimes they could even blame God as the reason that they are poor. But the rich aren't any better. The rich could be gready and just want more and more money. They could also believe that they are better than God because of how much money they have, or they could make money their idol over God. Even though being wealthy or poor can be bad they can also be good. Sometimes the poor are the most content. The poor can have no money but still have God. And some rich can have all the money but could use it to give to others.

The Church

How structured should the church be? I believe that the church should have lots of structure. Having no structure to a church wouldn't even be a church. No structure would make the church very unorganized. Church should require leadership, a pastor, and worship. Even though a church doesn't require a building necessarily, you can have church anywhere. My definition of church is: A group of people that gather together to worship God with a pastor that is guided by God’s Word. The definition of church has nothing to do with the “Building with the cross on it.” 11 When a woman is learning, she should be quiet. She should follow her leaders in every way. 12 I do not let women teach or take authority over a man. They must be quiet. Who should have authority in the church? Who should be in charge? I think a man should be the pastor or the head of the church. Verse 11-12 are saying that a female can’t be a pastor. Can a woman be a pastor or be part of that authoritative structure? I honestly don't think a woman should be the head of a church, but I think a woman can be a part of the authoritative structure but not as a pastor. I haven’t personally been to or have heard of a church with a female pastor but I know my church is the same on this subject. 

Predestination

Ephesians 1:4 says, "God chose us to belong to Christ before the world was created. He chose us to be holy and without blame in his eyes. He loved us." This passage is saying that God has predestined how our lives, and he has planned how everything is going to happen before any of us were born. The question is: do we have free will to choose to be saved or is that up to God to choose who gets saved and goes to heaven? Ephesians 1:9-10 says, “He showed us the mystery of his plan. It was in keeping with what he wanted to do. It was what he had planned through Christ. It will all come about when history has been completed. God will then bring together all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” One thing that I believe that Calvinists get wrong is that God chooses that path that either you get saved or not. I believe that we have the free will to choose whether to get saved or not. No matter what we choose God already knows what we were going to choose before we do. The whole meaning of predestination is that we choose our path freely, but God already knows what we picked.

Our School

In our school, we try our best be the best Christians we can. No matter how hard it is, it is impossible to be perfect. It's the hardest thing to not be influenced by the world or to follow the crowd. In Romans 12:14 says "Bless those who hurt you. Bless them, and do not curse them." This is hard because the automatic thing we think of doing after someone hurts us is we want revenge or payback. Verse 17 is also applicable, "Don’t pay back evil with evil. Be careful to do what everyone thinks is right." In our school, this is applicable but not only for our school but for everyone. 

Sometimes it is hard to also respect the authorities in charge of us. Romans 13:1 says, "All of you must obey those who rule over you. There are no authorities except the ones God has chosen. Those who now rule have been chosen by God." It is a hard thing to respect ALL authorities because not all of them treat you the same. One example is respecting substitutes that treat the class like kindergarteners. Even though how annoying that can be sometimes, God tells us that He want’s us to respect them because they were put into the authority position over us.