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Check out my new blog. Sorry for the confusion but this will be a lot easier for me! Hope you enjoy the new post from a friend Mike Lagosz!

Student life in Relativism

Shayan Khalaj a student from Capo Valley Christian School, who also attends The WeLL was nice enough to post the first guest blog. I asked Shayan to talk about the reality of life in the culture of Orange County. Shayan has been involved with The WeLL for about 6 months and has shown a deep desire to influence those around him with the Gospel. Thank you Shayan for sharing your heart with all of us!

Being a Christian student in the heavily relativist culture of today can be a tougher demeanor then most people expect. Personally as a Christian I enjoy discussing with anyone who will listen to why I have chosen to put my faith in Jesus Christ the resurrected Lord. There is no disagreement between believers and skeptics alike that no single person had affected history more than Jesus of Nazareth. I personally believe that the historical evidence for the resurrection is compelling if someone didn’t look at it with a inherent bias against its reliability. Why is it so easy for the students of today to accept the life of Alexander the Great, when the first biography written about his life was written nearly a half a century after his death, but ignore the historical evidence for Jesus? The answer is simple, its “truth”. Any Christian student at a university can see that universities are no longer a center for personal development; rather it’s just a step for your personal career ladder. You aren’t truly searching for wonderful truths of this world, or creating space for a few years to consider valuable and precious things for their own sake, rather you can make an extra buck with a University’s name on your resume. Imagine a Christian walking into his University’s Biology class and starting a debate against his professor about Intelligent Design. That student would be torn apart by the contradictory relativist mentality that plagues our educational establishments. The professor might even fail the student. So this leaves a sad question, what can Christian students at any educational level especially high school and higher education do about this? How do we react?

How should Christians react to a culture and academic establishment that is so fiercely anti-Christian? First look at history, reality sadly is that nothing has changed. The world has always hated Christians because it first Jesus. This should be music to our ears. This should be the ultimate encouragement for any Christian student to never give up despite the apathy against them. Jesus promised to be with us to the end of the age. Hostility shouldn’t scare a Christian student that engagement to convert nonbelievers is impossible, rather the opposite. It should remind us that it is God who convicts and converts people, what a sobering truth.  It is only with personal friendship and commitment that we can really engage with a person and get past apathy that all too often attends university or high school life. Let us as Christian students never forget how sweet the sound of the gospel is to those the Lord is giving ears to hear. Even in hard universities and colleges we can have confidence that the Holy Spirit will do His work of breaking hard hearts and opening once shut eyes. That is why I have no fear as a Christian student in today’s culture, because evangelism is God’s work. We can have the utmost confidence that our prayers, hard work and dedication is not, will not and cannot be in vain.

Being a Christian student in the heavily relativist culture of today can be a tougher demeanor then most people expect. Personally as a Christian I enjoy discussing with anyone who will listen to why I have chosen to put my faith in Jesus Christ the resurrected Lord. There is no disagreement between believers and skeptics alike that no single person had affected history more than Jesus of Nazareth. I personally believe that the historical evidence for the resurrection is compelling if someone didn’t look at it with a inherent bias against its reliability. Why is it so easy for the students of today to accept the life of Alexander the Great, when the first biography written about his life was written nearly a half a century after his death, but ignore the historical evidence for Jesus? The answer is simple, its “truth”. Any Christian student at a university can see that universities are no longer a center for personal development; rather it’s just a step for your personal career ladder. You aren’t truly searching for wonderful truths of this world, or creating space for a few years to consider valuable and precious things for their own sake, rather you can make an extra buck with a University’s name on your resume. Imagine a Christian walking into his University’s Biology class and starting a debate against his professor about Intelligent Design. That student would be torn apart by the contradictory relativist mentality that plagues our educational establishments. The professor might even fail the student. So this leaves a sad question, what can Christian students at any educational level especially high school and higher education do about this? How do we react?
How should Christians react to a culture and academic establishment that is so fiercely anti-Christian? First look at history, reality sadly is that nothing has changed. The world has always hated Christians because it first Jesus. This should be music to our ears. This should be the ultimate encouragement for any Christian student to never give up despite the apathy against them. Jesus promised to be with us to the end of the age. Hostility shouldn’t scare a Christian student that engagement to convert nonbelievers is impossible, rather the opposite. It should remind us that it is God who convicts and converts people, what a sobering truth.  It is only with personal friendship and commitment that we can really engage with a person and get past apathy that all too often attends university or high school life. Let us as Christian students never forget how sweet the sound of the gospel is to those the Lord is giving ears to hear. Even in hard universities and colleges we can have confidence that the Holy Spirit will do His work of breaking hard hearts and opening once shut eyes. That is why I have no fear as a Christian student in today’s culture, because evangelism is God’s work. We can have the utmost confidence that our prayers, hard work and dedication is not, will not and cannot be in vain.

Quality Time

I enjoyed an awesome breakfast this morning with a bunch of church guys. In the church world we have a name for these, “Men’s breakfast.” Ya, I know, the church is real original. It wasn’t the food or the speaking that satisfied my day. After listening to Nazareth I went to my in-laws house to pick up my son. It was there that I remembered telling Brady that we would go to the beach today. So I picked him up, grabbed a kids meal and went to the beach.

I was listening to my son in the back of the car talking about the beach and how excited he was to burry his cars in the sand. He was going on and on about the sand, the water and of course the toy from his happy meal. I was brought to an extremely vulnerable place after realizing how much it meant to me that he was excited to hang out. Not buy big elaborate gifts or go to disneyland but just hang out. Hebrews 3:1 says “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. Life is so hectic that we loose track of what’s important. Often times our busyness becomes a distortion to the simplicity of walking with Jesus. It was more than my son wanting time with me that got me, it was that I lost track of how important it is to invest in him as my son.

When God gave us His son as a sacrifice He also offered us something so unique. That unique offer was to become a son or daughter of the Lord. When God offers us this He has the intention and purpose to fully develop us as His own. I want to leave with two thoughts about being a son or daughter of God.

One is that we inherit all the blessings of a child. Not only justification but a life, found in Christ, that is full and complete. His desire is to allow circumstances to invade our narcissistic mentality and draw our focus on Him rather than our permanent reflection of self. This draws the thoughts to, will God allow bad things to enter our life? God is, by nature good, so whatever happens to us, His children, is also good. How can we rationalize that with hurt, pain, sorrow, grief, disappointment etc? The Bible says that trials and tribulations produce in us character. We ought to be joyful in all trials, knowing that God has allowed them and that He will bring them to completion. As a conclusion we can be in a state of consistent joy knowing that God loves us as His children and will bless our lives. This leads into the second point.

The word adoption has too many implications to list. Through cultural reference we might think, mom was to young, mom was immature or dad left the picture. You see I have heard those and granted they will have validity in certain circumstances but not when speaking of God. We, by nature, were sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2) and God saw a need in us. We were orphaned as spiritual children and God had the heart to reach out to us. As Jesus hung on the tree, the process was complete. The victory won! Now it is for you and me to either respond to the call of God. God wants you and He wants me. Jesus does so that you and I could be adopted in the family of God.

As a response to this truth we have the opportunity to offer God quality time. He saves and adopts in order that He can spend good quality happy meal and beach time with us. Remember Jesus!

Lucky You

I recently watched a reality show that deals with racing cars. Not the nascar or formula 1 racing but the type where your 2 car garage is full of gears, grease guns and extra fenders. Yes, I love watching reality shows that deal with real life, not the contrived formulated reality shows that tell a diluted fairy tail of Orange County existence. As I was watching the show the turn “it’s gonna be a full moon” came up about 10 times. Not that the statement has anything inaccurate in and of itself but the follow up to the statements is what caught my attention. The submission to coincidence or luck. To think that someone could stroll into a casino or horse track and pick a number or thoroughbred and win do to some mystical magnet to winning.
I heard a doctor say something that has stuck in my head since the day of my fathers thyroid surgery. The statement had so much truth in it that it has sparked an interest in me every time there is a tongue and cheek comment thrown out toward someone about to compete in a competition or play a roll in theater. “Good luck!” These simple two words have more than deceit and inaccuracy but theft! How can I justify a statement like that? SImple, “Satan attempts to rob God by implying that circumstances happen by chance rather than divinely orchestrated by a sovereign God.” The fact that you may be lucky or unlucky seems outlandish in the sight of a Biblical truth of God. Webster Dictionary says that luck is; good fortune, advantage or success; considered as a result of chance.
We are revealed through the scripture that God is completely sovereign from the opening testimony to closing statements. Genesis 1:1- “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Revelation 4:11- “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.” The most telling verse to me is in Isaiah 45:7- “I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness. I am the one who sends good times and bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does these things.”

It is a challenge and certainly a stretch to think that God would send bad times on anyone, especially if His purpose is to draw us near so we would know Him intimately. Why does God do this? Is God truly in control or is there luck involved with our circumstances? I say this, God is in control! It was the apostle Paul that wrote to the Romans, “all things will work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” As we develop our understanding of God’s character we must embrace the fact that God allows bad times. Not only does He allow them but He has a powerful purpose for them. We also read from James that these trials allow us to become complete and perfect. We know that God allows these to come as a test being the forging of our character. So when we hear the statement, “Good Luck,” remember that luck has no part in our lives. Even more than in our lives, in our relationship with Jesus!

“There is no attribute more comforting to His children that that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that soveriegnty has ordained their afflictions, that soveriegnty overrules them, and that soveriegnty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought to more earnestly contend to than the doctrine of their Master over all creation-the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands-The throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne…for it is God upon the Throne whom we trust.”
C.H. Spurgeon

The power of the age

In the last few weeks I have been truly awakened to the power of technology. The ability to interact and socialize through devices that are extremely impersonal have been on my screen for hours a day. This is an interested thought to bring into a biblical time period. In all things we are to ask ourselves, how would this be received from Jesus? Is the technological world bringing honor to God? I know your thoughts. Of course not, pornography is the most active search of the internet. Countless marriages have been disturbed if not destroyed because of internet usage and inappropriate activity. I have been examining this concept in light of the internet being an amazing tool and resource in spreading the love of Jesus.
Communication as we know it is changing. The interaction of our youth has been redefined by the ability to chat, blog, tweet, search etc. So as young adults what do we do in a world that has past us by because of basic technology experience and knowledge. How do we keep up? We, as Paul encourages in his letter to the church on Corinth should “become all things to all men”. Why shy away from a toll road to students? We have a fear of change.
It is my goal and aim to reach the students of this generation without compromising my relationship with Jesus. This demands that I think outside the box but inside The Book. Maintaining our doctrinal beliefs but allowing our methods to shift with the tides of culture is a safe place to stand. Allow me to bring your thoughts back to my original argument against internet usage. Has man changed with more accessibility of sin or has our sin made the accessibility more evident?
Be driven by love and led by the Holy Spirit-