What does your letter say?

One of my favorite scriptures is the first three verses of 2 Corinthians. Check it out.

1 Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Are we like others, who need to bring you letters of recommendation, or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? Surely not! 2 The only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our[a] hearts; everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. 3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

This scripture is so neat in that it reveals two messages to us. Do you realize that (if you have accepted Christ as your Savior) you are living out someone else's letter? Everything you do and don't do, and everything you say and don't say reflects back on someone. Paul said that the Christians in Corinth were his letter and that their lives were the only recommendation that he needed. What type of recommendation letter are you writing? By your actions today, what did you write? What about this past week - what have you written?

There's certainly here to think about. I think probably the most important letter we write is the one we write to Jesus. With our life we are in the process of writing a letter to Jesus. And with our choices and decisions we pen our letter. What are you telling Him?

God Bless!

Why?

Let me ask you a question - an onion question. Huh? What's an onion guestion? Glad you asked. An onion question is a question where the answer never seems to stop. The more you pull back layers, the deeper you get into the answer, the better and more fulfilling it becomes. This reminds me of the movie "Shrek," where Shrek and Donkey are on their way to rescue the princess and the onion topic comes up - "Ogres are like onions!"

So here's the question: when it comes to faith, religion, spirituality, the Bible, why do you believe what you believe? Where do you get your frame of reference? Where do you get your conclusions? Where do you get your answers to questions? I LOVE to ask "why?" when I am having a spiritually-based conversation with a student or am teaching in a class. I could ask why four or five times in a row. And it's so much fun for me to see students pull back the layers and slowly discover their own faith.

Too often we let ourselves (and our kids) own a faith that isn't theirs. We use rhetoric that we're comfortable with to teach others our beliefs and we seem to miss the step where we help them to own the beliefs for their self. I think this, more than anything else, is the reason that we lose "churched" kids when the get older - and especially when they go off to college, move out, etc.

So next time you're sitting in a bible class and the teacher says something you've heard a hundred times (or more) ask why. Then keep asking and answering "why" another three or four times and you'll start to get to center of the onion.

God Loves You!