Spiritual Emphasis Week

This week Andy Braner came to speak for spiritual emphasis week.  He was really good.  He didn't just come to try and force his beliefs on us, he asked questions that made us discover what we believe.  The first questions he asked were how do you know the sky is blue, how do you know you are alive, and how do you know there is a God.  When you really start to think about these questions it starts to make your head spin.  In reality you really can't prove any of these points.  Really the answer to all of these questions is the next question, Believe?  This really makes you think about what you believe.  We find out how we really believe God is there and why we believe it.  We know that we have Archaeological, Geographical, and inner biblical proof but, we are probably just being told all these things unless your and archaeologist, tour guide, or a philosopher.  You find out you must believe for anything you do.  The next question he asked was how we should behave.  At this point probably allot of us sighed, we have been lectured all of our lives on how we need to act, what we shouldn't do or watch, or go.  But he says that we need to watch what kind of spiritual food we put in.  He says we will get out what we put in.  He used the example of cinnabon, if you eat a steady diet of cinnamon rolls you will start to look like one.  However, if you just eat one on occasions you will probably suffer no ill effects.  I don't think he means we should indulge in sin on occasions, but he means that we can be exposed to sin on occasion as long as we have enough good spiritual food to balance it out.  The final question he asked was if we belong.  He says we need to be open to God's wills for our lives.  Sometimes we have our lives all planned out and God turns our life upside down on us to get us to listen to what he wants.  God doesn't always have to do this if we will just listen the first time.  He also talked about not judging people God has shown you to minister to.  He used the example of Jonah.  Jonah judged the people of Nineveh, and he had all the reason in the world to do so.  We usually judge people because of the way they look, none of us have probably had the threat that an entire nation would brutally kill you If there is a valid reason to judge I think this is it.  This concludes Andy's speaking for the week.  This was the first time I was actually sad for spiritual emphasis week to end.