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.

Romans

The book of Romans was originally directed toward believers in Rome. Paul wrote it mainly to give the Romans a concrete and solid foundation for their faith. The book of Romans told them that they should live and serve God to the fullest. Romans can both lead many people to Christ and strengthen many Christians in their faith. One main theme throughout the book of Romans is the focus of "The righteousness of God." Paul explains how salvation isn't obtained through doing good things but is obtained through faith in God's righteousness. Even today, the book of Romans is still applicable for believers and is still a great source in the Bible to lead others to Christ.

The hardest thing out of Romans to explain to non-believers would be the whole concept of faith in God. This would be hard to explain because most would be confused why you would need faith in somebody or something that is not physical. This would especially be hard to explain to an atheist. The most believable or sensible thing to a non-believer would be to explain that there is a God that loves them but all your sins would separate you from Christ. 

Death and Resurrection

The way how I think of death is the consequence of man's sins. 1 Corinthians 15:21 says, "Death came because of what a man did. Rising from the dead also comes because of what a man did." According to studies, death is the second most feared thing in America. As Christians, we believe that as believers in Christ, we are raised from the dead because Christ has also been raised from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:16 says, "If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either." Even though nobody knows exactly what happen's after death, we as Christian's should have faith in God.

If Christ has not been raised, our faith doesn’t mean anything. Because of our faith in Christ, we should know that he did die for our sins, and he has been raised from the dead. Even though we as Christian's believe in a heaven after we die, many other religions don't. Some people believe that you can get accepted into Heaven by being good or by doing good things. Some believe that after you die, you die. Hinduism believe that when you die, your body gets reincarnated into an animal. With all these different views of life after death, most of them seem depressing. Christianity's belief in an afterlife in Heaven with Christ isn't depressing mostly because it gives us more hope.

Marriage

In I Corinthians 7, Paul talks about marriage. He gives both his opinion on marriage and how marriage should be. Paul tells us that it is better to stay single than to become married in some cases. Even though he's saying pretty much that you shouldn't get married, he is also saying that if you do; there is limit to marriage. He says that a married couple should stay together, but if divorced, they can't or shouldn't marry anyone else. Because of sexual sin happening today, a man should only sleep with his wife, and a woman should only sleep with her husband. A husband should satisfy his wife's needs, and a wife should satisfy her husband's needs. 

Today, I think many couples take advantage of marriage by getting divorced and remarrying, cheating, and adultery. Paul says that if you are single, it is better that you stay single. Thinking for the future, I believe that for me it would be harder to stay single than to get married. Staying single the rest of my life would honestly feel lonely and boring. Today, many teenagers have different definitions of dating. Some date just to date and others date to get to know someone for marriage. I believe that dating at our age is being in a relationship and spending time with someone that you are attracted to. What do you think of dating?

Second Coming

In 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, Paul mentions the second coming of Jesus to the Thessalonians that has not taken place yet. He is mainly talking about that one day Jesus will return back to earth, but Paul reminds them that certain things could happen concerning nature. These letters were written to them to prepare them for this event. When Paul is telling them to prepare, he is telling them to build up the church and be at peace with one another. He also let’s them know that there are no signs of when exactly this could happen and neither does anyone know when He could return. Paul says that when Jesus returns, He will come to destroy the Anti-Christ and all of his works.

Even today we need to prepare for the second coming of Christ. Some things that we as Christians could do is build each other up and share the love of Christ. Why as Christians do we break each other apart? Even though we are corrupted with sin, we have been forgiven by Christ, therefore we should have hope. If you are a believer in Christ, there should be no doubt that you are going to heaven.