An 'F' on my First Apologetics Test

FOREWORD: Yes, I am a Christian. I do believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I believe that He was crucified, buried, and on the seventh day he rose again. No, I’m not going to try to preach or attempt to make anyone a Christian or believe what I do and nor do I have any devious plan to. But I would really appreciate it if you were open-minded to what I have to say. It is not my intent to offend anyone in any way, shape, or form so if you are going to find this blog post offensive I’d highly suggest you not read it. This is strictly my thoughts and opinions on an event that took place during lunch on a cloudy Wednesday, October 16^th.

Without further a-do, here’s the post…

It is pointless to debate with someone who is not a Christian. You can preach all day at him until you are blue in the face but he will not understand—even if you make a perfect point. I’d compare debating a non-believer to trying to make a blind man, who’d never seen the light of day before in his life, understand the color blue. You could say that the color blue is the color of the sky or the ocean. While the explanation makes perfect sense to someone who can see, the blind man still has no perception of the color blue. The unbeliever is like the blind man—blinded by sin.

This happened earlier today as three of my friends and I engaged in a heavy debate with Ivey’s friend from Japanese class—a hardcore atheist with an interest in theology who had studied various religious texts such as the Koran and the Bible—who we had met just minutes before. (Not exactly a great start to a budding friendship.) Each question went around and around in a figure eight—the atheist standing her ground, us standing ours.

One of the things Ivey’s friend accused us of was not being ‘strict Christians’ purely because we weren’t following the Old Testament (sacrificing animals and not wearing jewelry or not getting tattoos) to the ‘t’. She brought up the verse in Matthew 5:18: 'For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.'

We countered that not only was that the custom for the time period, but Jesus dying on the cross paid for our sins so that we don’t have to do all those rituals anymore.

'Excuse me, I couldn’t help but over hear your conversation,' said a nice young man sitting at the table next to ours. 'I believe that the verse in Matthew 5:18 is referring to the Beatitudes.'

'Oh! That’s right! But…' the atheist continued to argue her point with a smirk. If it made her that happy to think that she was right, then by all means…

'May I ask you what you think of three things?' the man injected once more.

'Sure,'

'I used to be a drug addict. I used to smoke and did a bunch of pot. It got to the point that I wanted to quit. But every time I tried I would give up and tell myself I couldn’t do it and I was worthless. It was like a continuous climax ending in ‘crap’ over and over.

'And one day, while I was fixing my car—a few days before I had hit a deer—I sliced my finger on a piece of plastic. When I say I cut it, I mean, a stream of blood was coming from my finger. And so I rushed inside, and as I was cleaning myself up my phone started ringing. Of course, I was in no state to answer the phone, but it was this woman whose child I used to read to. I hadn’t talked to her in years.

'So I answer this phone call and the woman goes on to say she’d been praying for me lately. She said God showed her a vision of me climbing up a mountain. And just before I would get to the top, I would find myself sliding back down on the rocks.

'It was at that moment that I just started bawling my eyes out.' He continued. 'So the second thing that I wanted to say was that I was on a mission trip to Africa and Papua New Guinea. I had sold my car to go on this trip. And after we had been in Africa, I was trying to earn some money to pay for the Papua New Guinea part of the trip. It came down to the last twenty-four hours before the money was due and my friend ended up double paying for the trip because he ended up getting a scholarship for the trip. Well, part of his money went to my trip. However, I was still short of about five hundred dollars up until three hours before the money was due when an anonymous donor donated the money—you know the whole you give and receive thing.

'I just wanted to hear what you had to say about those scenarios. Do you think that that was God’s work?' He finished.

'Well, I think that it was nothing more than coincidence,' she replied.

The whole conversation reminded me of my apologetics Bible class my senior year of high school (I went to private Christian school from pre-K through 12th grade.) The theme verse of the class was 1 Peter 3:14, 'But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.' As Christians we are called to be ready to give a reason for the hope that is our hearts. We need to be readily available to those who are earnestly seeking the Lord and who are looking for salvation.

The atheist presented herself as a skeptic - someone who refused to believe and could not be convinced of the truth. God doesn't call us to persuade the hearts and minds of those that are choosing not to believe. If it's in God's plan for her to be saved, then she will be saved. He will open her mind, and it's not up to us to try to save her. She is nothing more than a 'dead' corpse, and it's going to take a miracle to revive her.

I’m really sorry for the terribly long post, but I just had to get my thoughts out on paper. And instead of just writing them in a journal (diary, whatever you want to call it), I thought this needed to be shared. That being said, I am open to hear what your thoughts! Please feel free to leave any and all opinions in the comment section down below.

Savannah

Here is some suggested reading if you would like to look more into Christian theology:

-The Bible (NIV)

-New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell

-Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

-The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
-The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

SUBSCRIBE FOR GOODNESS-SAKES PEOPLE!

I noticed that I am having more page views lately. If you are unaware, on the right-hand column if you scroll down, there is in fact subscribe button for you Google users (and if you don't have a Google account by now, shame on you). It should say 'subscribe' or 'join this blog' and/or you can follow me on Google+. That's fine as well. If you are worried about receiving emails, don't worry. I have turned this feature off so that I will not annoy y'all. And if you follow a ton of blogs, I would highly suggest checking out this website called Blogglovin'. It condenses all the blogs that you follow into one place. I actually put mine on the site under 'precious0443' so you can find me.

Have a good night!

Savannah

#MotivationalMonday—It’s All About Your Body Language

"Looking around this table I know this isn’t true at all," my good friend Sarah said, indicating we were nice, beautiful young ladies—she was right; there was no reason why each and everyone of us wasn’t good enough or incapable of being in a relationship.

"The problem is in our body language and how you hold yourself," she continued. "We are coming off as very defensive and unwelcoming. Guys are insecure too, and it’s really hard for them to ask girls out. They’re the ones who face rejection."

And as it turns out, 40% of how we communicate is purely done by our body language. When we slump and cross our arms, we not only make ourselves feel worthless, we are giving off a defensive signal. We aren’t appearing very welcoming with our heads down. (It’s no wonder we are all hopelessly single!)

However, there are some very simple ways to fix this, the first of which is to stand up straight. Standing up straight not only makes you appear more confident but makes you feel confident as well (it actually triggers the feeling of confidence in your brain, which I found rather interesting). Hold your head up high and smile more. Not only will you make others around you feel better, you will lift your own spirits as well. It may seem awkward at first (especially for me, being someone who doesn’t smile very often). Suck in your stomach/fill your ‘womb space’ as it helps to calm you down if you are nervous. (Breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth will also help to keep you calm and relieves anxiety.) But these are just a few things that can help you seem confident and become more confident. You know what they say, a confident woman is an attractive woman!

I hope this helps anyone that is struggling with this issue. Just know that you are in no way alone, and you don’t have to feel that way! Let me know if you have good tips in the comments below as always!

Savannah

No Friends in High School

In the summer of 2011, I moved from windy Delaware back to Georgia with my family. I was starting my junior year of high school and had been promised by the faculty and staff that my new high school (which I won't name so as not to offend anyone should they discover my blog) was almost like a family and the class of 2013 was the best thing since sliced bread. Like any other normal person, my expectations were pretty high. Visions of me being myself and having lots of friends made me pretty damn excited to attend the remainder of my high school education there. But after going there for two long years, I can honestly say it was just like a family; the class of 2013 being a tight-knit group of individuals who had most-likely gone there since elementary school (to clarify, most private/Christian schools offer grade pre-K through 12th). It was extremely difficult to make fit in, especially for someone who is shy such as myself.

Save for a handful of people, no one attempted to become friends with me or include me in activities outside of class. Granted, I have been in the position where I didn't want to become friends with the 'new kid' before, but that is no excuse for being stuck-up and selfish. So I sat in the back of the classroom and often times felt like a brick in the wall. I couldn't wait to graduate.

But now that I have graduated, I keep being invited by the principal to come back for various alumni events such as an 'alumni banquet' that went on early this evening to football games (which for record, the football team sucks; the cheerleaders could beat them in a game of football). I don't know why they think I would want to go back to a place that made me feel like I didn't belong.

I think I'm going to stop there. I'm going to quit ranting about things you probably don't care about. But like always, please feel free to leave me a comment about what you thought of this post in the comments below! 

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Savannah

Destined to be a Cat-Lady

I have reached a mid-life crisis. Okay, I’m kidding. Obviously, I’m not having a mid-life crisis because I am definitely not in my late thirties/early forties. Point is, I have reached a point in my life where I am having a little bit of a crisis. And I’m trying my darnest not to get upset about it even though it would be easier just to break down and cry about it. The last time I let something like this get to me I ended up with about six months of depression that just ate me up inside. I felt so worthless all the time, and I remember telling my mom that I just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up.

But that’s another story for another time.

The problem at hand is the fact that I am still single. I went through my ENTIRE middle and high school without having been in a relationship, much less had my first kiss. I can’t help but feel embarrassed about it. Did I do something wrong? Is there something wrong with me?  Granted, I am very quiet but I find myself to be a fairly attractive young woman, and I have a great personality. I know this for a fact because every person that truly knows me loves me to death.

However, I can say that any guy that ever tried to get to know me I have selfishly pushed away. (And for that I am truly and deeply sorry.) It is really hard for me to open up to people, and I have a hard time understanding how anyone could love me when more often than not, I have a hard time loving myself (especially during the periods of my life where I have been depressed).

But it's not just that. Most of the people that are closest to me are in relationships. For example, my friend Jordan (who I've known for twelve or thirteen years and is practically family) is in a long-distance relationship. My own brother, who is—dare I say it—younger than me, is now in a relationship as well and even told me how awesome it was to be in a relationship. I'm honestly happy for him, but it is hard not to be jealous, especially when it seems he it all: he's confident, is part of the 'popular' group at school, runs on the cross country team, makes all A's without having to put in much effort, has a girlfriend... the list goes on.

Right now, I just feel so hopeless. I'm forever alone, and I'm destined to be a cat-lady. I think I should go ahead and plan on getting like five kittens when I move out of my parents' house. I already own one cat, what's five more? 

Savannah