That is what the horror of our guilt is like to a lot of people. They have heard the idea of human guilt, but it doesn't make that much of an impact because it hasn't been made real to them. We have failed to place an adequate vision of judgment before them. Hey, I'm blaming myself too.

Making it real to people involves more than just relating some facts. That much is clear. Facts without sincere passion are often useless. A lot of people are aware of our guilt, they are aware of the punishment that waits, they are aware of how they can escape it, aware of God's offer to help, aware this offer is open to all mankind. They just don't care very much—or at all. They have no problem with hell because it's not real to them. Yes, many know about the concept of sin. They just don't care if it will kill them in the end because it's only a concept in their mind. We must make our guilt real to them. They must see its horror. They must see God's plan to save us from its punishment. Unfortunately, it's really, really hard to do that today with any amount or arrangement of words.

Okay, I'm assuming if you are reading this you already know God had a plan of salvation from the very beginning. Actually, even before that. I assume you know how it all started in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve chose to disobey, steeping all mankind into condemnation. We are all born drenched in guilt. Well, God already had a plan. This plan was to send His Son—His very own Son!—to die in our stead. It was that bad. It was so bad God was the only one who could take away the penalty. I'm assuming you have already fully accepted these things. That's why I'm telling you it's our collective duty to strive to make it real to those who have not accepted the reality. Sure it's hard, sure it can be frustrating talking to the postmodern mindset, sure at times you will feel compelled to run down the street screaming at the top of your lungs and yanking out hair by the fistfuls. But evangelism must be done because Jesus commanded it. Jesus went to all the vast trouble to make salvation possible. We should want to show others God's great plan of salvation that has been ordained since before the beginning of time.

We are in the business of dealing with a guilt that has plagued mankind since shortly after the beginning of time. Know this: Jesus is the antidote; He can save us from this plague. To get people to see the need of the antidote, we need to make the horror of guilt real. It is frustrating because words themselves sometimes do not seem powerful enough. And that's hard. How are we supposed to communicate if our words are useless? How are we supposed to get people to the point where they actually see the horror of guilt? It hasn't been made real if the person says they see and understand, but then indicate they don't care. If that is their response then they don't really see and understand. If they can be so lackadaisical about our guilt, they haven't actually seen its true horror. They haven't really seen the mind-boggling awesomeness of what our perfect, so patient, and so, so loving God did for a world of thoroughly unlovable, self-centered sinners (Romans 5:8). Real knowledge of this kind of grace changes hearts.

Like I said (or inferred), I'm not Mr. Perfect Evangelist. I'm not even a regular attendee of my church's Monday night visitation. (Something I'm trying to remedy.) Maybe you are not exactly Mr. or Mrs. Perfect Evangelist either. Don't feel lonely; there are a lot of us out there. Let's work on this together, shall we? As Christians, we once arrived at the point that the gospel became real to us. Unfortunately, many Christians afterward get to the point where they take salvation for granted and the horror of human guilt once again becomes just a general idea. We have been too long away from our home state and need to be reminded of what it is like. Advice: don't wait 15 years to visit it again. We can't expect to make the subject more than just ideas to the lost if it is only an idea to us. We can't expect it to be poignant to them if it isn't poignant to us. Do everyone a favor, once again make it real and poignant to yourself. Just keep it real.

"If you buy this book, God will make you rich." So begins the insanity of Stuff Christians Like. And it gets only more insane and hilarious from there. This is the type of book you will either love or hate. It is caked—caked!—with sarcastic, ironic, tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top humor. The book is comprised of hundreds of short essays, some of which are so small they recall the Deep Thoughts segment of Saturday Night Live.

If biting, ironic humor irks you, I would highly advise you steer clear of this book. You'll just get confused or offended. In one essay he talks about how he doesn't know any Fundamentalists or even met any but loathes them just the same because he just knows they're so hateful and judgmental. If you are not familiar with Acuff's style of humor this may put you off at first. It doesn't take long to figure out this a prime example of Acuff's style of humor. He may or may not like Fundamentalists; that is not the point here. The point is that people in some Christian circles tend to make judgments about the judgmental nature of Fundamentalists without even being familiar with Fundamentalists.

Acuff is not totally serious very often—at least I don't think he is. Sometimes it is hard to know if he is serious about something or not. Well, right off the bat he lets us know that the majority of the book is all in pure fun. In the introduction he says in his first draft he finished every essay with a veritable altar call. After much consideration, he decided to take most of those out and just have fun. As such, this is probably not a great book to read if you just want to learn deep spiritual lessons. While the deeper subjects (mainly at the close of the book) are good, that is not Acuff's strong area. His strong area is awesome Christian comedy. Stuff Christians Like is a great book to read if you just want to laugh hard or at least smile inside. You will find yourself saying, "That is so true! That is so, so true!" Final verdict: This Christian really likes this stuff and recommends it with caution.

Not sure if you'll like the style of humor? Check out Acuff's blog at http://stuffchristianslike.net.

Ben Plunkett is an avid reader and writer from Pleasant View, Tennessee. 

Consider the huge and complex dance:

The universe is so incredibly big many scientists believe it doesn't even have an end. Our small, finite minds cannot comprehend such a thing. Our minds don't register endlessness to anything. We cannot fathom the enormity of what we know or guess is there.

Space and spatial bodies are so large the measurement of light-years is used. A light-year is simply how far light travels in one year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. One year's worth of those seconds comes to almost 6 trillion miles. Well, the average galaxy is about 1,500 to 300,000 light-years. That's huge!

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Each of these galaxies contains hundreds of billions stars. In addition, they contain lots of other bodies and substances. We live in the Milky Way galaxy, which is a spiral galaxy. That means it has several arms coming out from a hub and it looks like it is spiraling like a whirlpool. It is about 100,000 light years in diameter.

We live relatively close to the edge of this whirlpool in a minor arm called the Orion Spur. Our Solar System lies on the outskirts of this arm. For the size of the galaxy, our Solar System seems really small. Scientists estimate the Solar System is between 7,348,981,944 and 9,320,567,882 miles in diameter. Within this expanse are a number of familiar bodies: the Sun, the planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids.

One of these nine planets is Earth—our Earth. As far as we know, it is the only place in the universe that sustains life. At this point in time, there are about 7 billion people inhabiting the earth. These 7 billion people are spread throughout 195 countries on 7 continents. Zoom to your continent. Zoom to your country. Zoom to your city. Zoom to your street. Zoom into your house, dorm, or apartment. We have come to you.

This is a very, very, very brief description of the universe. Yeah, we are a teeny-tiny part of it all. In essence each one of us is a speck on a speck (the world) on a speck (the Solar system) on a speck (the Milky Way galaxy) on a speck (that's right, the endless universe is a speck in the mind of God). We are less than nothing, but the sovereign God who is the omnipotent Creator of the universe, the divine choreographer of this great complexity yearns to have a personal, intimate relationship with you. You! He is the endlessness beyond the endlessness who cared for you before you were born, who cares about every aspect of your present life, and who wants to be forever with you after death.

...Uh, Did I mention this is the God of the universe? Sometimes it seems we forget that part. We are mere specks and know so little. As mere, selfish specks we do not even deserve His attention. For some reason He gives it. For some reason He cares for our lives—both this and the next. How is this not reason for a greater joy and boldness? The God behind the endlessness is at work in you!

Ben Plunkett is a writer from Pleasant View, Tennessee.

Remember Solomon? Now there was a smart guy! At the beginning of Solomon's reign God gave the new king the chance to request whatever he wanted. God would have given Solomon anything! He requested only wisdom in governing his people (1 Kings 3:8-9). God was so pleased He made Solomon the smartest, wisest man in the world (1 Kings 4:32-34). During his reign, people came from all over the world to hear him expound his wisdom and knowledge.  Yes, Solomon was a very busy, very involved scholar.

There is debate as to whether or not Solomon is the author (or an author) of Ecclesiastes. It is certain the writer of Ecclesiastes had a Solomon-like passion for study, knowledge, and wisdom. We can know, then, that this person knew what he was talking about when he said in Ecclesiastes 12:12 much study wearies the body.  (Some versions say "flesh.") He (or they) wanted us to know study is a mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual thing.

To understand what is meant in this verse, we need to look at it in the whole context of the book. Whoever wrote Ecclesiastes lived a privileged, scholarly life. During his life he sought to find meaning in all sorts of places: sex, work, politics, friends—and academics. He came to the conclusion that it is all meaningless. Humans think humans are wise. We think human knowledge and understanding is enough. It isn't. We trust too much on ourselves on figuring out everything.

Yes, of making many books there is no end and much study wearies the body—boy, does it ever weary the body. But is it meaningless? Is there a point to my tiring myself out like this?

Wait, Ecclesiastes wasn't finished after that verse. In the final two verses the writer of Ecclesiastes came to a conclusion: The only true meaning in life is to worship God and obey Him. Why? Because He is the creator of all knowledge, because He will come to judge every ignorant person and every scholar alike, because He will one day expose all good and evil to the light. Yes, it is pointless to exhaust your mind and body in pursuit of anything if that object is an end in itself. That is meaningless. It is meaningless if God is not in it.

Much study can get really tiresome. Sometimes you may grow disillusioned with it. Rest your heart and mind in God. Learn through God. Let Him be your meaning.  He is where true wisdom is found.

Ben Plunkett is a writer from Pleasant View, Tennessee.

Jesus was often condemned because He appeared to many to be spiritually contemptible. Conversely, the Pharisees were often honored because they looked holy and demonstrated great knowledge of the law. The Jewish people had come to revere this law over the God who gave the law. Steeped in such legalism, they automatically rejected anything they saw as remotely contrary to complete adherence to the law. They came to judge people based not on what God wanted, but on appearances. They judged based on their own selfish interests.

We too tend to judge people in this way. We too judge others according to appearances rather than by “righteous judgment.” Who are these “others”? What are they like? They are awkward. They are short. They are wrinkly. They are fat. They are plain. They are poor. They are smelly. They are ugly. They come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. The world of mankind revolves around appearance.

To an extent, appearances are important. It is important to present yourself in a respectable, modest, Christian way. Everything about our appearance and presentation finds a place in the minds of everyone we meet. However, there is a definite line we should not cross in being concerned with appearance. There is a special danger of basing our judgments entirely on appearance. Verbally, society takes a negative view of judging people based on appearance. However, what people say does not always translate to what they do. We may be spiritually repulsed by acting out of selfish, superficial judgments. Physically we’re drawn to such behavior. It is how the fallen minds of men work.

We do not have to be taught to judge based on appearance. From childhood, we are drawn to honoring what looks the most visually appealing. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis noted that human beings judge each other by external actions, but God judges by their morality. Even the most moral of non-Christians tend to judge people on these external, outward actions. It is true that Christians have been made closer to God. However, we are never perfect while on this earth. We are still attached to these human bodies. The danger of judging based on appearance is a very present danger throughout our lives.

Even Paul freely expressed his own struggle to keep his body in line (Romans 7:7-25). The lesson of Paul is even Christians can fall into the danger of doing what we know we shouldn’t and not doing what we know we should. We know we shouldn’t judge people based upon appearance. We know we shouldn’t act based on those shallow judgments. However, that’s exactly what we do. We judge people before we even know them. We judge filtered through our own whims based upon how they look, what they do, and how they talk. The key phrase here is “through our own whims.” Christianity does involve judgment, but the judging is not to be based on our own feelings and thoughts. Follow the command of Jesus; follow the command of God; let your judgment be a righteous judgment.

Society defines success by day-to-day jobs. And that’s how society judges us—by our job, our career, our income, our wealth. The more cash and objects we acquire, the more we are honored. Having a paying job is seen as primary; accomplishing something meaningful is secondary. Work has become more than a vehicle to support the family unit. Jobs have become status symbols. They have become institutions that delegate status by their very existence. Many are as devoted to them as to religions. Lost souls are seeking for something to give them lasting happiness. 

In the world’s view, money and career equals this happiness. Does it really? Does it really bring a true happiness? The pleasure that does ensue is a passing, synthetic happiness that masquerades as joy. However, real joy is not an actual result. Joy is only found in God, not in riches. The rich man who trusts in his riches for meaning is chasing after the wind. Jesus realized the additional hardship rich people had. He said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24). We continually seek after what is enough.

There is never enough. There is never a lasting contentment in anything. The only way to be even closely content in this world is to realize we’ll never be content with anything in it. We must realize that we do not belong to it. The burning, incessant desire we feel will never be entirely quenched until we enter heaven.

A lasting satisfaction is never reached on this plane. Eventually you are dissatisfied with everything. Why is that? The simple answer: We are all members of the human race. I ate breakfast this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I know that satisfaction won’t last. In a couple of hours I will be hungry again and the cycle will repeat. After we have more, we want more and better more.

Kids yearn for new toys; not long after getting a desired toy they grow tired of it. Before you know it, it is lying forgotten and forlorn on the floor and they want something else. This is the cycle that continues throughout our lives. We are all grown-up children. We constantly want new toys. We want that exercise machine, that new car, that bigger house, that gadget that looks so enticing on the infomercial. More will never be enough. We get more, then we want more more, then more more more, then more more more more, and so on.

Welcome to life in the world. We have a choice: we can rush toward God or we can rush toward the world. If we choose God, we choose eternal satisfaction; if we choose worldliness, we choose temporal satisfaction. In essence, the temporal satisfaction of worldliness is an insatiable desire. The Bible has several meanings for the word world: the earth, the nations, and fallen mankind. The fallen mankind aspect is what we are referring to here. 

All men apart from God are failures—true success in life comes from God (Psalm 20:4; 1 Samuel 18:14; 2 Kings 18:7). Success is a blessing He bestows. David prayed for such a blessing. And he received such a blessing. David and Hezekiah are both described as being successful at whatever they undertook because God was with them. They were not successful because they were rich and powerful. The success here was defined by a full trust in God.

Lasting contentment via success comes only through seeking after the everlasting food of heaven. Working is a necessity. It is necessary to earn money so we can live. However, Jesus said that our whole intent should not be set on earthly food that spoils; it should be on heavenly food that satisfies for all eternity (John 6:27).

Working for God and the furtherance of His kingdom—that is success. There are those of us who work the night shift, but most of us work during the day. Jesus used this analogy to explain how we are to labor for Him (John 9:4). Jesus was specifically talking to His disciples to explain their need to work while He, the Light, was still shining in the world. His light is still shining in the world. It shines through us. We are to work for His glory until the end of day (time) when the judgment will come. In the daylight of that night (the end), each person’s life and work will be judged for what it is to God, not for what has been to men (1 Corinthians 3:12-13).

Let’s go back to the birds of Matthew 6. Flocks of flying birds are such a mysterious thing to behold. For the past few weeks there have been enormous flocks circling here and there about my town. The dense flocks move as one entity. I wonder: Who are the leaders? Why do they move when they do? What brings them here? How do they know when to land? Such questions would be trivial to the birds. They have found true success; they do not worry about these things. They trust only in the Lord who gives them what they need. That is true success—to find joy and satisfaction in what the Lord provides. True success is not being unhappy with what the Lord has not given you. It is the curse of man to long for more. We will always long for it; we will never possess it. We must come to understand we will never be content with this world.

Knowing through other people is risky. Speakers often don’t make verbal endnotes, but you have to know they got their information somewhere. That source learned it from someone or something else, and that source from someone or something else, and so on, and so on. Somewhere down the line in whatever source someone was the first to experience the event or think of the idea. Can we really trust that? We don’t always know how accurate information is. Good writers can write things in such a way that anything can sound true. Adequate rationale or rhetoric can make anything make sense. Anything can be said to make anything sound stupid.

And knowing through your own conception or perception is riskier. One might conceivably know something for sure through experiential witness. But can we really? Is it always possible to trust our senses? The world of man is fallen. The eyes lie. The ears deceive. The sense of touch can mislead. One cannot fully trust any of the senses. And that’s not all. One cannot fully trust the mind or heart. What we read, hear, and see we often twist to agree with our own preconceived opinions. So basically, we cannot trust ourselves.

Is there no recourse, then? If we cannot fully trust anyone or anything else, if we cannot fully trust even ourselves, what is the hope of knowing anything at all? How can we trust the Bible, if we cannot trust our eyes?

It all goes back to the glory days in the Garden of Eden. Ironically, the event that opened the eyes of man also closed them. The first lust for knowledge deprived Adam, Eve, and all future mankind of ever being able to completely trust anyone or anything of this earth for full knowledge. (Read about this tragic scene in Genesis 3.) How can we believe in God if we cannot fully trust our own hearts and minds?

First, we must understand the imperfection of the present, worldly knowledge. Everything in this world is passing. There is not a thing in this world that will last. God, on the other hand, is complete perfection. When His perfection enters, the world’s imperfections will cease existing. That means the imperfection of our thinking will be no more. Right now we have a faulty picture of everything, but when that time comes we shall see everything clearly (John 13:8-12).

Second, we must understand the imperfection of worldly wisdom. Wisdom knows how to use knowledge. What the world thinks is wisdom is not really wisdom. It is selfishness masquerading as wisdom. True wisdom is from God and is characterized by selflessness, purity, peace, consideration, submissiveness, mercy, and good fruit (James 3:13-17).

Third, we must seek these things from God, the only source of perfect knowledge and understanding. Prayer is how we express our relationship with our heavenly Father. Like a devoted child, we must come to Him in love. He knows what we need and therefore knows we need His gift of knowledge. However, we must ask for it (Psalm 119:65).

Fourth, we must be very careful that what we think is godly knowledge is really godly knowledge. God delivers wisdom and knowledge through the Holy Spirit. The Bible warns there is a danger of being deceived by other people. First John 4:1-3 warns of many “false prophets” in the world who are the “spirit of the antichrist.” We can recognize the falsity of these people by whether or not they confess Jesus really appeared in the flesh. Believing and obeying Jesus who came in the flesh is the crux of the whole matter. Through obedience of Him we shall receive knowledge through the Holy Spirit. We shall know the truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:31-32).

I have abandoned myself. I feel through the Father’s heart. I think through the Father’s mind. I know what the creator of knowing has made known to me. That is what I can know. God’s revelation of His knowledge is how you can truly know.

The world of knowledge hangs on that knowledge. That is what keeps us from despair. That is how we can truly know.

Genuine joy comes from a real relationship with God. It is something all believers can and should know. The Bible is very clear joy comes from a hope and trust in Christ (1 Peter 1:7-9). With joy, we can glory in suffering. And suffering results in perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:1-5). There is a type of pleasure involved as well. It is not a temporary, worldly pleasure; it is an eternal pleasure (Psalm 16:11). We can rejoice knowing God gives us power over the forces of evil. However, a cause for even greater rejoicing is knowing our names are written in the Book of Life (Luke 10:20).

If you are a Christian, you are in a relationship. Christians are never single whether or not they have a human companion. I am NOT arguing against marriage—not at all. Marriage is a very good thing. Even more, it is a blessing from God. If you feel God leading you to marry, then do so. What I am saying is that personal joy and meaning should not be sought through relationships with other people. True joy is not found in these things alone. It is found only in God. The joy of that relationship will seep into our earthly relationships.

There are two timetables regarding marriage: The world’s and God’s. The world expects us to marry as soon as possible. They would have us believe there is no point to life without a significant other. God’s timetable is quite different. It is not hurried or desperate. On God’s timetable, we marry in His good time. It may be next year; it may be much later—it may even be never.

Keeping God’s timetable in mind, we need not worry about marriage. You can find meaning as a single person. There is no excuse not to do so as a Christian single. There is much you can do for God. Find peace in the fact that you are not married. There’s no reason to worry about it. In Luke 12:22-31 Jesus teaches the pointlessness of worrying. He gives the examples of ravens and lilies. They do nothing, yet God feeds and clothes them. God takes care of animals and flowers. Won’t He take care of His beloved children? Jesus urged them to seek the kingdom of God. Do that and don’t stress about everything else. With Jesus’ help, take joy in your singlicitude.