"A Thiest" Or "Athiest"

Today's question is one that I promised a student last night I would answer today. It's " My friend is an athiest. What does that mean? What does he believe?" This is a good question. Jr. High is when people start to think about what they actually believe about God and about life. We will have friends who are athiests. I actually have a friend who considers himself agnostic. It's good to understand the term "Athiesm", but it's also good to understand the words "Thiesm" and "Agnosticism" as well, because they are all connected and everyone is one of them.

Everyone, actually, technically, is either a "Thiest" (thiesm) or an "Athiest" (athiesm). Athiesm is a lack of belief in God. Some completely deny the existance of God, others, just don't believe in a god. Thiesm is the opposite, it is the belief in a god, doesn't matter what god, just a god. I don't believe there really is a middle ground; you either believe in a god, or you don't. But some people think there is a middle ground, they have no idea whether God exists or not. They call themselves agnostic.

Agnostic, when broken down means "without knowledge" or "unknowable". Agnostic's say that no one can know for sure whether God exists. For instance, my friend, when asked, says, "I doen't know whether god exists or not, but probably not." They tend to think there is no way to know for sure God exists, but they are open to the possibility.

To answer the question, an athiest is someone who does NOT believe in a god; a thiest is someone who does believe in a god; and an agnostic, has no idea, but they're open to the possibility. As Christians we are all thiests, we believe a god does exists, and we believe He is the one true God, Yahwah, the Creator of the universe, the great I AM, the King of Kings and Lord of lords.

Was Jesus Emo?

While I was studying for this week's lesson, "Jesus and Emotions", I came across this picture (on the right). "Emo" is something that has become popular within the last decade. But what is it, exactly, and WAS Jesus emo?

Emo originally started out as a sub-genre of music, known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore". It is know today as a sort of fashion trend and lifestyle attitude. People who are emo tend to dress in skinny jeans, tight shirts, and comb their long bangs to cover one or both their eyes. Most people describe the personality and attitude of an emo person as emotionally candid, sensitive, introverted, quiet, shy and glum. Sad, depressed, and heartbroken are also emotions used to describe someone who is emo. Emo music and poetry is filled with depression due to unrequited love, emotional issues, and relationship problems.

Does this really describe Jesus? I believe Jesus was emotionally candid and sensitive. He constantly showed His love and acceptance toward everyone. He showed His anger to the Pharisee's and those who turned His Father's house into a market (like we looked at last week). At times He was introverted and quiet. He would sit, listen, and just be with people. He withdrew at times to connect, get refreshed and re-energized by His Father. There were things that made Him sad and broken hearted, like those who were in need, or those who were unaccepted and thrown away by society. Though He was NOT shy, glum or depressed, He DID have unrequited love, and relationship problems (though not from any fault of His own). He (and God) was constantly seeking out, loving and accepting humanity, despite rejection.

Isaiah 53:3 says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." He was despised, (meaning He was hated) and He was rejected (meaning He was lonely). He seemed to have every reason to be depressed, but He wasn't.

Depression is a feeling of hopelessness for the future. It's a choice, an attitude we choose to respond with to life. It's a feeling of hopelessness for the future, and a defining characteristic behind the emo attitude. Jesus wasn't hopeless. He had more hope than anyone could ever have, He was confident of what the future would bring.

Jesus' attitude was not depression but hope. Jesus wasn't emo, but He did have lots of emotions, good reasons behind each and every one and He never let His emotions get out of control. Join us this week at Crash as we discover more of Christ's emotions, how they are like ours, His reasons behind them and how those reasons should help shape our own emotions.

Testing & Tempting...

Last week in Crash we looked at the temptation of Christ, and noticed what He did to resist temptation- He quoted scripture. He focused on His Father, His plan and His ways. We learned that we can do the same. When we focus on God, He helps us, and empowers us. One of the verses I used to encourage the youth to not give into temptation was 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." Today's question must have been sparked by this verse. The question is this, "Does God tempt us? Or is it always Satan?"

Let's look at what the Bible says. James 1:13 says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone..." James clearly states, God does not tempts us. In fact, James goes on in verse 14, "...but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." God may lead you into a situation where you have to make a choice, but He never tempts, He never tries to sway us away from Him.

1 Corinthians 10:13 is an encouragement to believers, that God will be with us, that He will help us. When it says, "...He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear..." it's not saying that God tempts us. In the original language, the word for 'tempted' here, can also be interpreted as 'test'. I believe God tests us, but he doesn't tempt us. God provides the choice and leaves it in our hands. Think about Adam and Eve and the tree. God put the tree there, and told them not to eat of it. He prepared them by giving a way out- His command, but ultimately left it up to them. The serpent was the one who swayed Eve. God will give you everything you need to resist temptation, He's not going to test you on something you shouldn't be able to handle.

So to answer the question, "Does God tempt us? Or is it always Satan?" I would say that God never tempt us, but rather He tests us, to see how faithful we will be. Satan is always the one to tempt us, to sway us to choose one way, which always leads away from God. So trust and be faithful to God and focus on Him only. Trust that He is faithful, He has prepared you, He will be with you and that He wants the best for you, which is never tempting you to evil.

Rage & Grace

There are things in this life that make us mad and angry. They are our hot buttons and when pushed can get us going from 1 to 60 in a second. Some people have more buttons than others, we call them hot-heads. I saw one video on You Tube of a hothead, who, after his mom deleted his online gaming account, went up to his room and went nuts. He was flailing about, bouncing on the bed and screaming. He almost looked demon possessed. Sometimes we have so much rage built up, that we just freak out and go nuts. We lose control.


Rage is defined by dictionary.com as angry fury or violent anger. Now rage is an extreme form of anger, but we typically even look at anger as a negative thing. We think that anger is sin, and it's never what God wants. He never wants us to get angry.


But did you know there was a time when Jesus got angry? You might even say He flipped out. But wasn't He sinless? How can Jesus, who loves everyone, flip out, and how was it not sin? Tomorrow night we continue our series on The Life Of Christ, looking at John 2:13-17 to figure out what made Jesus flip, how it was not a sin, and what is OK for us to be angry about.

Why I'm Excited About 30

So I was wholly planning on answering a question today, but I'm going to save it for next week. Instead, I'll tell you all why I can't stop smiling. Why our God, The LORD, Yahweh, is so awe inspiring. I am encouraged to see how God is moving and working through Crash. I am so thankful not only to be witnessing it, but to be a part of it.

Last night we had 30 students show up. Let me repeat that in case you missed it, 30 students came to Crash last night! There was SO MUCH excitement and energy, it emanated and oozed out of the Loft. This is a huge encouragement to me. Whats more of an encouragement is that I know a few students who weren't able to come last night, which means we'll have even more next week. I feel blessed to see the Crash community growing not only closer together, but growing in numbers.

Now I'm not one to focus solely on numbers. If you do that you miss the point, you miss the relationships. The students become a number in stead of a student... with a face... and a name. 30 is by far the most we've ever had at a single Crash night. But I was, and am, able to say all their names, and point them out of a crowd, even the first-time friends. I'm able to tell you a little about each one. To me they aren't just numbers, but students.

I named our ministry Crash for a couple reasons, first it implies community (because a community of rhino's is called a crash), second it implies a safe comfortable place. Crash's purpose is to provide Unity, Security and Identity. Unity to connect them with other peers, godly adult leaders and with God. Security to create a safe place where they won't get hurt physically or emotionally. Security to have a place where students can be themselves and share their struggles and victories without fear of feeling rejected. Identity to show them their new identities in Christ and to show them that they are loved and accepted for who they are.

Here is what 30 students tells me, beyond the number. It tells me that junior high students are excited to come to church. It tells me that Crash is becoming a community that people want to be a part of. It tells me that junior high students love Crash so much, they want to share it with their friends. Lastly, it tells me that Crash is more and more becoming the place I desire it to be, a place for junior high students where they can find unity, security and identity.

Please pray that this continues to happen, that students are encouraged and excited to come to Crash, to share it with their friends. Please pray that Crash continues to be a place where students can find Unity, Security and Identity. Please pray that we find more godly adult leaders, who love God and love students, who can connect with them, guide them, and point them to God.

Resisting Our Little Devil

When I stop to think about the topic of temptation, the first thing I think of is Donald Duck. There are some famous Donald cartoons when he is tempted to do something. What happens is a small version of Donald wearing a devil costume, appears on his shoulder. Then eventually a small version of Donald wearing an angel costume appears on the other shoulder. Ah, this is the temptation moment, which side does Donald give into?

Sometimes when I find myself tempted by things, I feel like the same thing is happening in my head. There is a little Cameron wearing a devil costume on one shoulder and another little Cameron wearing an angel costume on the other. Which side is Cameron going to give into?

Temptation is funny (not funny, "ha, ha," but funny interesting). Here's why, even the best of us, when we're tempted end up falling into sin (except one, The Best, but I'll get to that later). And it's not just the things that are impulsive, the things we react to. I sometimes catch myself planning to sin: like wanting to see a movie I shouldn't, or thinking of a mean joke or prank I could pull on someone, or (when I was younger) planning on disobeying my parents.

Satan uses a wide variety of schemes to tempt us, both internally (in our minds) and externally (through other people and outside factors) to try to get us to sin. Sometimes we give in and sin, and other times we are able to resist the temptation. There was one guy who was able to resist all temptation. He never sinned, even at His physically and emotionally lowest point. Join us tomorrow night as we continue to explore this topic of temptation. We'll figure out the schemes that Satan uses to tempt us. Finally, we'll look to Jesus, at His life when He was tempted and find out how He resisted temptation and how we can too.

From Bad To Good

Today's question is, "Why does God make things happen for no reason?" This is a great question. It's one I have wondered many, many times. You tend to ask this when something has happened in your life, that makes you question if there is a cosmic ultimate plan or not. When you can't see any good, or anything beyond the situation.

Growing up through Jr. High and High school, I tended toward the optimistic side. I believed that everything happened for a reason. It helped me get through the tough times in life. But, if you think about it, it's not really that comforting. "Everything happens for a reason..." It doesn't provide any answers. It's sort of what I like to call a 'pat answer', something that we say when we don't know how to respond, to hurt and pain. My heart goes out to the student who asked this. I don't want to give a pat answer. I want to give a straight answer that will hopefully give you... well hope.

First off, God gave us free will. Every human has the choice to do what they want, to make their own decisions. As great as a gift as this is, it has the potential for evil. See, someone can choose to get drunk and drive home, and get in a fatal car accident. Someone can think that they have nothing and choose to steal, to rob people, to break into a car or house and steal valuable things. I will not shy away from the sad thought that there is evil in the world and that it can and does effect us.

God does not make these things happen. These things are a result of human choices. Evil is born in our hearts (Matt 15:19), and affects the decisions we make. The decisions we make effects other people. Now I will say that God allows things to happen, this I think He does for many different reasons. The biggest of which is to grow us, to draw us closer to Him and His will. God allows things to happen because we need to live with the decisions we make, and we need to live with how they will effect others, otherwise it wouldn't be free will, it'd be limited will.

Now, this is the last and most important point I want to make. Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." This verse can be tricky. A lot of people use it in their pat answer, "...see, everything's going to work out... There's a reason for everything..." I don't think people really understand what this verse says. This verse is saying that God can take any situation, and turn it into good, His good, for His glory. God has power over evil. Yes, He will allow things to happen, but He can take that evil, and turn it into something good. It may not be our idea of what is good, but it is God's, and that makes all the difference in the world.

This is where Christians are separated from non-Christians. This verse has incredible hope. The hope is this, no matter what, God can make it good. Even though we can't see beyond the situation, we can have a hope that good can follow. So, "Why does God make things happen for no reason," the answer is, He doesn't. He allows things to happen because He gave us free will. But be encouraged, whatever the situation, God can make good come from it.

Contains 100% Man AND 100% God

Today, I want you to do a little experiement. It's going to take 2 half full glass of water, a spoon full of sugar, and a spoon full of salt. First take the salt and mix it into one of the glasses of water. Make sure to stir it all the way in. Next take the sugar and stir that into the other glass of water. Make sure it's all mixed together. Now, pour both glasses of water into the same glass. It probably doesn't taste very good, but it's now fully salt water, and fully sugar water. it's 100% both.

O.K., now for the real fun. See if you can unmix the water from the salt from the sugar, so you have all three ingretients back to being separate. It's hard right? It's almost impossible. This is a metaphor, an allegory, it's something easy to understand, to help you understand something a lot harder.

This expierment is a metaphor for Jesus Christ. It's to help you understand how Jesus is fully, 100% God and yet fully, 100% human. He is divine, He has all of God's power (cause He is God). He preformed miracles. He was also fully human. He got hungry and thirsty, He felt pain and even had emotions. Jr. High students are welcome to join us as we look more at how Jesus was fully God AND fully man, what His attitude was, and what that means for us as we live our daily lives.

Meaning Of Life...

Today's question is a good one. I think it's a question everyone has had. It gives people purpose, and direction. And knowing the answer can really give people a new life. The question is, "What is the meaning of life?"

This is a fantastic question. It's one I know I've wondered often. What is our purpose? Why are we here? Many people have pondered this question, throughout time. Some think life was an accident. Others think it's all just a dream. If you've read The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, you found out the answer to the meaning of life is 42. Yes, 42 (although, now, you need to figure out the question to the meaning of life).

While these might be interesting thoughts and gusses, I think they are all wrong. I believe God created us for one purpose, to glorify Him. Not that he needs anything from us, but God desires us to choose Him. He built us to have a relationship with Him. He loves it when we love Him. He loves it when we glorify Him. Jesus' own prayer describes eternal life: that we may know God (John 17:3). He gave us free will, because He didn't want robots who were programed to love Him. He wanted people to choose to love Him.

Paul tells us that, no matter what, whatever we do, we need to glorify God. 1 Corinthians 10:31, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." The prophet Isaiah says that God called us all by name and created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:7). In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, we are encouraged to "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." The Psalms are packed with declarations such as, "I will glorify you..." Among other things, He calls us a "crown of splendor" and, "a royal diadem." When we glorify God, He is delighted.

So the meaning of life is to glorify God. It's not about us at all, it's all about God, it always has been. If this is the meaning of life, then we are not fulfilling our purpose until we are glorifying God, praising Him, thanking Him, and enjoying the relationship we can have with Him. So I want to encourage you, go out. Enjoy God's creation. Enjoy God's company. Seek God, and glorify Him with everything you do. Then you will truly live and will fulfill the purpose God created you for.