History

Throughout the past month or so, God has really been placing a desire inside of me to learn about the past. There wasn't really a specific past to learn about. I've toyed with the idea of America's past (bought the book "God and Gold" that talks about the rise of Great Britain and the US as world powers and how they did it), the history of the St. Louis Cardinals and even church history.

This past weekend Becky and I were walking downtown after an Astros game and decided to go out to eat and go see a movie (which we haven't done in a very long time... I'm not the biggest movie fan. Honestly I think most of them are a waste of time). While Becky stood in line to get tickets for the movie, she told me to go and look at all the posters to see which one looked good to me. To my surprise, none of them looked good. I head back to line thinking, "Typical... I'm so difficult even the entertainment capital of the world can't entertain me." Becky suggests we see "The Other Boleyn Girl" and after a look that told her, "I know this one is bad, but I'll go ahead and go in so I can say 'I told you so' later" we were off to the movies.

Halfway through the movie we both realize that the movie is the story of Henry VIII of England and his annulment from Catherine of Aragon. I knew this was an important part of history but never really paid that close of attention back in my Senior year of high school to remember any details. The main one I remembered is that the Church of England was formed when Henry VIII decided to split with the Roman Catholics (which was unheard of). This was in some way a part of the Protestant Reformation which proceeded to have a huge impact on the rest of the world.

When this dawns on me, I instantly become fascinated. I'm not talking, "Oh that's cool". I'm talking, "I have to read every book that was ever published on this topic" fascinated. I couldn't stop talking when we left the movie theater and walked back to our car about how crazy God was. He used corruption, deceipt, dark, evil ideas and actions to spread the gospel throughout the world. And when you think about it, we know VERY LITTLE of what actually happened throughout the history of this world. We only know about those that are written about. We don't know about every common family, orphan, criminal, child, adult, grandparent... we have no clue. We know detailed history about less than 1% of the world's population. It blows my mind to see God's hand in the known. It absolutely floors me to think of His hand through the unknown. If he could use the wicked, just think what He could do with the willing!

There's so much to this. That night we headed over to Scott and Blakely's good-bye party and started talking to Laurie Johnson (a friend from church). We all three just started talking, not really knowing each other that well but just talking about the events of the day. Well I tell Laurie about this movie and she tells me about a sermon series that Tommy Nelson (yes, the Song of Solomon guy) preached at his church entitled "Church History". It was a 13 week series that took you from the book of Acts in the Bible to present day Christianity. Laurie promised to bring us a copy of the series so we could listen to it and did the next day at church, but to my dismay we didn't meet up. Thinking the pastor of our church would know where a good resource would be to learn about the history of the church would be, I went up to talk to him after the service. He suggested a book and then suggested this very same sermon series from Tommy Nelson. At this point, pure obsession took over my body and as soon as I got home I stumbled upon this website: http://www.archive.org/details/ChurchHistory. The complete 13 week sermon series free of charge. I could hardly wait for Monday.

To make a long story longer, I've now listened to the entire 13 week series in 3 days. I have to listen to it again after some studying. I can't get my head around this. Trying to see where God was at work and where man was at work. In the history of the church, there are examples of both. If I'm honest, you should know that I've never been really big on theology and doctrine. I've read through the Bible once in my life and have probably read it about half way through after that.

I have a big picture understanding of the Bible and have very basic core beliefs. I accept Jesus as the sinless Son of God who came to Earth for the sole purpose of dying for the sins of the world. A perfect atonement was provided to God for my sin through this act of love, therefore paving the way for me to spend eternity in Heaven. The only requirement to getting into Heaven is believing in Jesus. Faith.

Listening to this series has radically altered my perspective. I can't read fast enough now. I can't pray for enough wisdom now. Today I couldn't stop praying for my workplace and for our country. The sad part about this whole thing is that the status of today's world is not something new. It's old news. "New" belief systems are rooted in the 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, etc. There's so much behind our faith, behind denominations, behind worship service structure, behind the belief that you have to earn your way into Heaven as opposed to being saved by faith alone. Some of it is Biblical, some of it honestly is not at all. It's fallen man's opinion that went unquestioned or really uncontested for so long that now it is accepted as inerrant. It's insane to me...

My only question to leave this post with is this: What is truth? My answer is the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible, the inspired written words of God through various writers. This answer should drive every action, every thought, every word, every prayer and every service that I ever take part in in my life. Part of me longs for the time back before I discovered this truth. The other part of me just wants to go forward and trust the Lord with the lost time and time ahead. I'm overwhelmed at the possibilities and currently trying to figure out how to live with what little time there is left.