Debunking a Belief

This is an email I wrote the night of an extraordinary evangelism conversation on the Wildwood Boardwalk in 2013. I wrote it to my best friends back home, who had recently helped at the Chapel for a week with others from our church.

July 27th, 2013

Tonight (which is really last night as I write at 1:30am), I had the coolest conversation with a complete stranger. My evangelism team consisted of two shy youth groupers and myself. We set off for the Dark Side at 11pm on the dot with only 43 minutes to have a conversation which lasted 62 minutes. I was on point and I approached the first convenient couple I saw: a man and woman who looked to be about mid to late twenties. I politely asked permission to talk with them about faith and God and they both readily agreed to "a few minutes". 

The man was instantly interested. They both introduced themselves as "Christians" though they did not agree with the truthfulness of the Bible. After just a few minutes, I learned that all the man wanted to do was discuss science, and the woman needed to work through specifics about her faith. God directed my youth groupers to talk to her while I talked with the man.

He was friendly, casual, and considered me an equal even though he was a high school chemistry teacher who left the faith when he turned 15. He respected my beliefs, even saying, "I have my beliefs, you have yours. You're trying to change mine, and that might happen, though I know I won't change yours." We established early on that this conversation was a fun discussion for the sake of the furthering of knowledge.

The cool part is, that's not what happened. I started off the conversation with creation, which he countered with the theory of evolution, agreeing completely that both are theories. (70% of the time, he was defining his beliefs, 30% I was either countering them with my own or countering them with his own.) I was able to convince him that evolution (from one species to a new one) has never been observed. 

We moved to fossils: I gave evidence for instant fossilization while he hypothesized about 10 billion year old fossilization. Gradual evolution within a species: countered with the example of the giraffe (which he actually brought up and I actually knew about. Thank you Grandma Bloom for elementary school chapel stories). Overpopulation countered with increased forestation. Individual standard of the right and wrong countered with Hitler. Beneficial chaos with the 2nd law of thermodynamics. God gave me words and I spoke them. The crazy thing was, every time I proved him wrong, he admitted I was right. I deconstructed his worldview and showed him the internal consistency of my own. It was amazing.

Ok, I have to expound on the whole giraffe thing. We were talking about evolution within species and he says "think about giraffes with those crazy nerves. What kind of a God makes up that stuff?" I said "Let's talk about that nerve. Evolution could not have known that the giraffe needed that." I explained the purpose of the special nerve in its neck and how it supplies oxygen to the giraffe's brain while it drinks, and how one mistake with the first giraffe ever from "old man evolution" would kill out the whole giraffe race. He says "so then magically you get another giraffe." and I said "from where? magically? You're a man of science. You can't bring magic into this." And that's how that went. Evolution within species means the total elimination of whole races with just one mistake.

Another line I love is when he said "total human homicide is ok because the universe doesn't care if humans are eliminated." I replied calmly with "God cares." "Why?" "He loves us."

Also something you'll appreciate, he said "No one can know anything for certain. All truths are relative." I replied with "that statement is universal." Stumped him. We smiled. Such a cool moment.

19 minutes past curfew, this guy and I were still at the top of our game when Sarah and Pastor Z came to collect us. It was then that I gave the couple Trusting Christ tracts and got their names. I still wish I could go back and talk to him, this time about why he can trust my worldview and how to "adopt" it for himself.

Please pray that that man looks to Christ for his answers, not himself. Also pray that the lady trusts Jesus with her life, not just her chart of morals.

Oh there is so much more...we talked about the flood, dioxyribonucleic acids, lab experiments, deserts expanding, the earth getting magically catapulted into the sun, desire for knowledge and religion, afterlife as carbon, Plato, entropy (which he actually denied), crazy crazy stuff!

That's about it. I thought you guys ought to know what I've been up to. I'm so excited I can't sleep. Oh well. Have a great weekend and keep praying!

Your friend on the front line:

Susanna

My Missions Trip - FAQ

Hey everybody! I've assembled some frequently asked questions that I get from people when I tell them I'm going on a missions trip all summer. Enjoy!

Q: Where are you going?
A: The Boardwalk Chapel in Wildwood, New Jersey.

Q: What is the Boardwalk Chapel?
A: It is a ministry of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church that shares the gospel on the Wildwood Boardwalk.

Q: What do you do there?
A: I tell people about Jesus. Staff has opportunities to witness to the people who walk the boards directly through the Heaven and Hell machine and nightly evangelism, and indirectly through the programs. Staff also meets and disciples youth groups that visit the Chapel each week.

Q: How does the ministry work?
A: A team of approx. 15-20 volunteer staff and 4-5 Summer Assistants stays in Wildwood all summer and puts on a program every night for the board-walkers.

Q: What is in the programs?
A: Singing, skits, preaching segments, the Moment of Truth, and the Moment of Grace.

Q: What is the Moment of Truth?
A: A short explanation of a scientific fact and how it makes sense with a Biblical worldview.

Q: What is the Moment of Grace?
A: A Staff member or a visitor from a youth group gives a short testimony of where they have seen God at work in their life.

Q: What is the Heaven and Hell machine?
A: Essentially, it is a conversation-starter. It's a quiz with true or false questions about Christianity.

Q: What demographic do you reach?
A: Literally every demographic: rich/poor, old/young, country/city, all religious backgrounds. I've spoken with people from Guatemala, Russia, Canada, France, England, Egypt, India, Romania, and Philly.

Q: Where do you stay?
A: There is a house near the Chapel that is set apart for Staff.

Q: How long are you there?
A: June-August or about 75 days.

Q: How do you do evangelism?
A: Almost every night after the program, several groups of 2-4 Staff (including youth groups) are sent out onto the boardwalk to talk to people. We walk up to people sitting on benches and ask them questions to see what their worldview is, and present the gospel. Detailed post on evangelism coming soon.

Q: Are you going back next summer?
A: I am planning to return if it is God's will.

Q: How can I help?
A: You can pray, donate to the Chapel, assist me in my fundraising for the program fee, be part of a team that visits the Chapel and helps with programs or service projects, and/or spread the word.

For more information please "like" and "follow" The Boardwalk Chapel's page on facebook and check out the official site: boardwalkchapel.org

On Doubts

I doubt the same way I dream. Most of my doubts are short-lived, fuzzy, and I forget them as soon as I "wake up." Sometimes my doubts are bizarre. They leave me with more questions than answers and I try my best to put them aside and move on with the rest of my day. The worst doubts are like nightmares that last long after the night is finished. They have some leverage and reasoning. They scare me and consume my thoughts, making it difficult to trust.
I've learned to react to both doubts and dreams the same way: with prayer. I ask God to help me see clearly. I tell friends about what's going on and get advice. Often, I over-think and end up wasting a day or a few days in worry and confusion. Typically, prayer is just the thing I need to put me back on my feet in the morning.
I don't always understand why nightmares scare me, or why doubts, so big and strange, invade. One thing I do know: both are important. Some aren't nearly as important as others. Like that time I doubted that the Redskins could beat the Steelers. Or that time I dreamed I was a pink kitten named Fleur.
No, the important ones shape you. I have doubted if I was really a Christian. That caused me to explore my faith, the Bible, God's work in my life, and taught me to seek godly advice and healthy friendships. I had a few nightmares last year where all my friends forgot me and shut me out of their lives completely. That caused me to appreciate the strength and reliability of true friends.
The doubts and the dreams will keep coming, I don't doubt that, but we're not powerless. God wants us to go to Him with our doubts, place them in His hands, and then trust Him to take care of them and teach us what we need to know.
He will.
Will you trust Him?

Out of Zion

"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." Psalm 50:2

Our God is coming back.
We need to remember that.

Life gets awfully confusing sometimes. Right now, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to "be when I grow up." I have a lot of wonderful friends who are trying to help me understand what I'm supposed to do and why I'm here. However, standing in the middle of it all is tough because I am confused.

My high-school mentor, my "other dad", expressed to me the other day that doubts are very prevalent in this time of one's life. I'm fairly certain one can experience doubt at any point in life. Who am I? Do I have some glorious purpose I'm supposed to realize? What if I'm not one of those special people who history remembers? Why am I here?

Doubts like these are pretty scary when they come along. So what do we do?

I once spoke with a man who said that hope was the strongest force available to humanity. "Nothing beats real hope." As a Christian, my hope is in the Living God. He told us He is coming back: "Behold, I am coming soon..."(Rev. 22:12) I believe that. I am living for the day when I see God's face. This hope is genuine; it is trustworthy.
But hope cannot survive on its own.

"Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."(Hebrews 11:1) Hope all by itself is exhausting and open to a lot of doubts. That's why you need faith. Faith steadies hope. When hope feels flimsy or foolish, faith has to be there to back it up.

Frequently, I find it necessary to go back to the basics of my faith. What is it that I actually believe? What are the things that I see everyday that defend my beliefs and help me know that my faith has a foundation?
What is the only foundation that will stand the test of time, life, experience, doubt? "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus."(1 Corinth. 3:11)

Jesus is the only foundation. When we know that and trust Him, we can believe His promises. Life is full of doubts, but we should not be afraid of doubt.

Bigger picture moment: I'm a small thing. I will make an impact on few lives at few moments throughout my life and I will not be remembered by history (at least not accurately.) God is big. He made everything and He made it all for a purpose. No matter how big my confusions and doubts seem, God is bigger and stronger. All my little battles are part of a really big war that the Bible talks about. You know this stuff: Good vs Evil, God vs Satan, "principalities, ...powers, ...the rulers of darkness of this world." (Ephesians 6:12) And you know what the best part is? God is winning.

He promised to come back and end the war. In power. In love. In majesty. In awe-inspiring splendor. In undeniable victory.

His church, the Bride of Christ, has nothing to fear. I have nothing to fear. God is going to come back, and when He does, He will shine.

The Mystery of the Mask

Introduction:
Before I begin, I'd like to present the disclaimer that this is more of a progression of slightly-related concepts than an official study. If you ever wondered, this is most similar to my actual brain activity. Enjoy.
Background:
Growing up, I read a lot of stories about mysterious people: spies, wizards, aliens, people in masks, hermits, the hooded man in the corner of the inn telling an unusually small person to be careful. *cough* Rangers and hobbits *cough*
Cool Stuff:
Two common themes among these suspicious characters were the obtaining of 1) a second name and 2) a disguise. An alias and a costume. For what purpose? To hide in plain sight.
You see, I grew up learning about people who had a reason to hide. People who didn't want to be recognized. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Being yourself, but not. Disguised as someone else. Basically, being two people at one time. Inspired, I made an alias for myself, designed costumes (always involving a cape), and cut masks out of shiny black cloth.
Eventually I put away the cape (though it's still hanging up in my closet), and turned my alias into a character for a book I'm writing and will probably never finish.
Study:
It took me a long time to realize why the culture has so many stories of people who want to hide. I started putting the pieces together when I met certain people. People who didn't have my easy life. No, these folks have history. They have lived through things I cannot imagine and it surrounds them like a cloud.
I believe this is where we get the concept of "aura" or "essence." Something that is the person, but extends outside their body. I believe our experiences surround us, making it harder for people to see who we truly are, and yet easier in some ways. It's hard to see through to people who have their lives and histories floating around them, and yet, the more essence a person has, the more you can see who they truly are by all they've gone through.
[Side Note: If you're not hiding anything, but hiding behind it all, you're creating a paradox of being seen and unseen at the same time. I get the impression that people love paradoxes.]
They say a disguise always reflects the person it covers. Your personality seeps into everything you do and manifests itself in various ways. Some of those ways are your manner of speech, the way you carry yourself in public and in private, your clothing, and, most importantly, what you speak up/fight for. In actuality, it's impossible to hide yourself completely.
Most people manage for a long time to hide certain things: their darkest moments, the things that haunt them, etc. Even these should be shared at some point. This is where trust comes in. In my own experience, sharing my deepest secrets with people whom I trust allows me to begin letting go of my fear and insecurity. There is a peace that comes with knowing that someone who loves you knows what you struggle with and can help you recover.
Denouement:
I say all this, but I still don't have the answer for why people hide. I've tried to hide sometimes. I can fool people who don't know me at all, but I can rarely ever fool the people who know and love me.
I've hidden because I was hurting, ashamed, embarrassed, trying to keep a secret, planning a surprise, lots of reasons. Most often, though, I hid because of my pride. Somehow, real honesty in various situations would injure my pride. In consequence, while I protected my pride, I isolated myself from people I love and broke trusts. Hiding has rarely ever resulted in nice things. So why do I still struggle with it? It really doesn't make sense, but I want to try to be as genuine as possible.
Application:
I would urge you to identify your essence, so to speak, and figure out what you're hiding, and what you're hiding behind. What do you allow people to see about yourself and your history? What are you keeping from people who love you and want to help you? Most of all: What are you hiding from God? The Bible says in Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." He can see you clearly while you pretend that He can't. If you're hiding from God, you're estranging yourself from Him, disconnecting yourself from the One who has promised to forgive your sins and make you more like Himself. It's the most beautiful promise ever and we'll just make ourselves miserable by choosing to ignore it.

Devotions

Hey all! Been a while since I wrote. Sorry about that. Anywho, I'd like to pick up with a few thoughts about personal devotions in the Bible. It's something I've always wanted to do since my family did devotions together when I was little. Last summer, lots of Staff members at The Boardwalk Chapel mentioned how helpful their devotion times were for them, so this past spring I tried it for myself.

It was hard. Sounds crazy, but it was very very difficult to decide every single day that I was going to read a chapter of the Bible. I wanted to go all the way through, and that was easy back in Genesis and Exodus. But by the time I got to Leviticus and Numbers? I'll be honest, they are boring. Tons of Levitical rules and, well, numbers. I'm not a math genius or even minorly interested in which animals were used for which sacrifices. That said, I was determined to keep going, no matter how boring it was.

This is where I need to pull you aside and whisper in your ear: It was the best decision I made all year.
God gave us His Word for a reason. Lots of reasons, in fact, but one reason in particular: that we may know Him.
Know a Spirit? Know the force that created the universe? Know the Almighty God who sits in Heaven and judges the quick and the dead?
Yes.
Because He's personal and He made you and He loves you. He inspired the writing of the Bible so that we can know who He is and why He loves pathetic, hairy creatures like you and me.

When I was first told that Jesus loved me and died on the cross to save me, I read only the gospels. I thought that because that's where Jesus was in person, that that was the only place I could learn about Him. Don't really know where I got that idea...
The truth is, you can find out who God is from books like Deuteronomy and Joshua as well as in Matthew and Mark! He performed miracles all throughout the Bible, all throughout time! He made laws, saved His people from enemies, caused them to have victory over their enemies, and cared for each individual, family, and tribe in Israel. He even cared for people in the other nations, like Rahab in Jericho and Ruth in Moab! God was saving Gentiles way before the book of Romans.
Sorry, tangent.
Anyways!

I've now been reading through the Bible for my devotions for six months or so. I'm two chapters away from the book of Judges and I have learned so much about God.
It's really difficult. There's a spiritual battle going on every time you go to read the Bible because Satan doesn't want you to fall more in love with God. Every night, I have to make a conscious decision to open my Bible and read... or decide I'm tired and go straight to sleep. It can be pretty tough on some nights more than others.
One of my personal inspirations for choosing to read the Bible is its impact on me the next day. I can honestly say that I am more ready to face the day if I have read my Bible the previous night. (btw, devotions at night is my personal preference. They can take place at any point in the day and the effect is the same: sustenance.) I am sustained and nourished by Scripture just like I am by food. Super cool.

I'd like to close with a nerdy thought about the etymology of the word "devotion". It's a Latin word that means to consecrate. Consecration or profound dedication is meant to be more than patting myself on the back because I read a chapter of the Bible. It's a hunger, a yearning, a deep-seated, driven plunging of my whole self into the Word of God.
I need it. I need to know more about my Savior, Redeemer, and Friend.
"With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." -Psalm 119:10-11

Read the Bible. It was written for you.

On Dreams

Dreams.

They're not meant only for the night.

They follow you throughout the day.

Dreams.

Some disappear with the rising of the sun.

Some disappear with the opening of your eyes.

Some cling.

Some stay.

Dreams.

They unite us 'round a campfire or walking down a wood path.

They skip into our memory in unexpected moments.

They catch us unawares.

Dreams.

Some say we dream in black and white. Some say we dream faceless people. Some say we dream meaningless nothings.
Some say dreams are built from memories. Some say dreams are random. Some say dreams are the brain's way of entertaining itself at night and confusing us in the morning.
Some say dreams hold answers.

Dreams.

They're important.

...And strange.

Dreams.

Sometimes they hurt.

Sometimes they hurt a lot.

Sometimes they make us sweat
or scream

or wish to never sleep again.

Dreams.

Sometimes they inspire.

Sometimes they are exactly what we need.

Sometimes they help us hope
and write

and assign purpose to what we don't understand.

Dreams.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you lose your heartaches; whatever you wish for, you keep."