I was blessed to be able to spend the last few days in the United States in Florida with my uncle and grandparents. I really am blessed indeed! I flew out of Orlando first thing Monday morning and arrived safely in Managua, Nicaragua around 1:30 am. I was greeted at the airport by the Martinez family from the National Nicaragua Church of God. They have been very kind to me and have provided my own room. The food has not been as tough to eat as I had thought but there are still tough moments! The family I am staying with is extremely hospitable. I am not allowed to take my plate to the kitchen or sit in the backseat of the car and every day some of the women clean my room (my mom would have a fit).

Communicating is very difficult but I do have a friend named Milton who can speak some English. I have not done much ministry yet because I have been leaning the family and they have been showing me around. This morning for the first time I took a few Gospel’s of John and started walking down the street. To my surprise they were gone within just a few minutes. I stopped inside of a drug store and handed the Senora a Gospel behind the counter. She motioned her hand around the store towards all the people and showed me the number 10 with her fingers. She wanted me give everyone a Gospel! I told her I would bring her “Deis more mana’na.” and she smiled and shook her head.

Tonight we are going to an orphanage. I brought one suitcase packed full of candy and small cars. I brought necklaces and plastic rings; I brought any kind of toy that I could find cheap at the dollar stores in Florida. On Friday we will be staying at a home at the base of the Big Volcano near Managua and we will be there until Monday. There is a new Church in construction there and I’ll be helping with the wiring. The Churches are simply brick buildings and concrete floors. They are beautiful but simple. There are no windows and the doors are steel bars; I’ll post pictures of the new church soon.  I can’t wait to see what the Lord does. I’ve talked to Bishop Martinez and we are going to do so many things over the next 40 days. Please keep this trip in your prayers! Muchas Gracias!

This is a cover from the band Downhere. You can hear there amazing version here.

Hope you enjoy this one. It is humorous but sadly it reflects reality quite well.

I got a chance to take my youth group to Liberty University last Wednesday for Campus Church. A close friend of mine also went with us to give me some good company on the trip since the youth group totals eight girls and only one boy and he wasn’t able to go with us. Picture this in your head. Eight girls screaming, laughing, singing and sharing makeup for almost two hours – it was honestly tough for me and my buddy to even talk, but we had a blast! (The next day when I cleaned out the van I could have started an EBay business with all of the makeup and sunglasses I found!) We are a young group and our church, GraceWay (in Christiansburg), is a young church, so this was a first for some of the girls. We stopped in Roanoke to grab some food at Applebee’s and everyone got an appetizer, I could tell it was a great experience for them. I really love taking kids out to eat and on trips like we did. Some of these students never get to do things like many of us. Just one meal at a nice restaurant can really make someone’s day, young or old… We were running a little late getting to Church but we got there in time to hear some great music and an even better message. Here was the message in a nutshell and this is what I want you to get from this column… “If you can’t be faithful with the small things in life, how do you expect God to give you more?” We’ve all heard it before but when the preacher said it, my buddy and I looked at each other with our eyes wide open. We instantly new that the message was for us both… and it’s for all of us. Weather a lot or little, God has given us all something and we are to be faithful to God with it. It may be your family, your school, finances, etc. Whatever God has given you, he expects you to use it for good. That message convicted me the other night. There are so many things in my life that could be used for good yet I am often too selfish and even careless. The message that night was summed up like this: “Always be thankful and always be gracious.” It couldn’t have been clearer to me. It is time for me to start being ever thankful, to stop complaining and to start giving to people – not just money – but giving my time, my thoughts, and my heart. If we believe and trust the Bible to be true, we should also live according to its words. That is why I love Christmas so much. Christmas is the epitome of Christian giving but why do some Christians only give during the holidays? Christ said it is better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35) and He said this before there was ever a Christmas holiday season. It truly is amazing what happens around Christmas. People buy gifts for angel tree children, some cook dinner at church and feed others for free, others provide clothing and shelter, some even take gifts to inmates in the name of their family, and the list goes on and on and on. Sure there are other aspects of the holidays that aren’t so pretty (like fights on Black Friday) but Christmas is about giving; it has even been called the season of giving. The only problem I see with this is that people, especially Christians, should always give the way we do around Christmas. As a matter of fact, if we really want to say we are following Christ (myself included), we should call this type of giving the spirit of Christian. Ultimately, Christians should never wait for Christmas to give. We should give throughout the seasons. What do you have that you can give? What has God given you that you can be faithful with and thankful for? There are people all around who need someone, not just during Christmas time, but during the whole year. I was working for a senior gentleman the other day, and when I was done he began talking to me about his family. My first thought was “I need to get home” but then I realized; “This is it Tanner, this is where you can give and be faithful in something small.” The point is, sometimes people just need someone to talk to or grab dinner with, other times they may need help with their heating bill… be wise before you give someone money, but be led by God and be faithful with all you have! I’ve lived in this area all my life and I can honestly say, there are countless times when many different people helped me. Sometimes people even helped when I didn’t know how I would make it. Even if it was a phone call, it helped. Christians should lead the way with this attitude all year long, and we should all be faithful in the small things! Remember, we are all going to pass away eventually but there is nothing physical that you can take with you. So help others while you still can and enjoy life to the fullest so that there are no regrets when your time is up! It is never too late to start; what better time than Christmas!

History’s longest underground ordeal ends in what could arguably be considered a miracle. 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days and not a single casualty. When the miners emerged one by one they were given shirts by the local Campus Crusade for Christ to put over their jumpsuits. At least 24 of the 33 minors wore the shirts that said ‘Gracias Senior!’ Which means ‘Thanks to God.’ On the back of the shirts: Psalm 95:4 “In whose hands hands are the depths of the earth. The peaks of the mountains are His also.” The sleeves of the shirt also said the name “Jesus!” What a sight to see the miners thanking and praising God on world TV.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had frequent times of reflection. I started a full time job working with a new church in Christiansburg called Grace Way. It was tough letting go of my job at the middle school; I am going to miss the students that I’ve interacted with and I am going to miss working with such a great staff there. I can honestly say I feel blessed to have worked at Pulaski Middle School for the last year and I wish my time there could have been longer. It amazes me how fast life travels by; the older a person gets the more it appears that time is accelerating. It seems like only a few years ago that I was at the middle school as a student myself. I freely confess that my attitude wasn’t anywhere near where it should have been during my middle school days. I spent many days in ISS (In School Suspension) and I even spent a day at home for getting into a fight in eighth grade. Those are memories that I am not proud of and if I could do it all over I would have been much more respectful. It was nearly comical to me when I became the ISS supervisor at the middle school last year. Many of my friends thought it was funny that I was in ISS many times when I was a student at the middle school and only twelve years later I was back in ISS as the supervisor. When I think about things like this I realize that time truly waits for no man. On one hand that scares me, but on the other hand I realize that it is a beautiful thing – if I continue to mature and make good decisions. You see, over the last twelve years of my life I have changed in ways that I never thought I would. I don’t know if this is because I made bad decisions and learned from them or if it is because people generally just get wiser over time… either way, I’ve matured, at least some, and I also realize I have miles and miles to go. Some things I have started to consider lately are the important things in life compared to the unimportant things. What do I spend time on that really doesn’t matter? There is a new song called Lead Me by a band named Sanctus Real. The song basically says this: I don’t want to sacrifice the important things in life while I am chasing the things that I could give up. How many times in life do we all find ourselves chasing things that we could give up all, the while neglecting the important things? I believe the most important things in life should be God first, family and friends second, and church and work third. Now of course that is easier said than done but the point is still the same: time goes by too fast to chase things that are meaningless. I know this is an issue for most people in the same way that it is for me. The bible calls wrong priorities Idols, primarily when we put things before God and His commands. In my life I understand that there are many meaningless things that I can often put before the important things. Some I don’t mind sharing, others are more personal but we all have something or multiple things that boarder the status of idols in our lives. For some it is work, for others it is recreational activities like fishing, hunting, golf, softball etc. (I’m a big fan of all four). Some people spend too much time in the gym and others make idols out of more obvious things like drugs, alcohol. Either way, we all have something that we have to be mindful of and careful about. None of us are perfect and none of us are above failure. I was thinking the other day, what if I took some of the things that are meaningless in my life and replaced them with devotional time or family time? How much more fulfilling would life be? I think it would be a great change for the good and that is my new goal. Life is a journey, to say the least. We all should aim to grow in wisdom as time goes by. Human perfection is not possible, what is possible is maturity over time. If we don’t make it a priority to improve, twelve more years will pass and we will be in the same boat we are today – wishing we would have done more good. So where do we start? First and foremost we should learn to put God first and spend as much time with our families as possible. We should also aim to love others the way Christ has shown us love. Granted, these things are not always easy to do but they are the things in life that matter most. In less than 100 years from now we will probably all be dead and gone, when that time comes it won’t matter how many fish you caught, how big your biceps are or how good you were on the Playstation. What matters is what you did in your spare time. Did you do meaningful things that honor God and help others? Or did you waste what precious time you were given? I pray that I can say I spend time on the important things in life. I know it is not always easy but I also know that it is possible for us all.

A friend of mine was reading a study Bible from Charles Stanley and came across a section on eternal security. Dr. Stanley states that once a person is truly saved, he cannot and will not lose his salvation. The response from my friend was surprising to me; it went something like this; “There is no way Charles Stanley believes this! I’m done reading Stanley!” It amazes me how one small difference between two groups of Christians can mean isolation from each other. My friend had reasoned that since this pastor believed in the doctrine of eternal security he was done reading and supporting his ministry. We Christians have to be so careful how we respond to disagreements. Take, for instance, the doctrine of eternal security (since it very well may be the hottest debate topic within the church). Can a truly saved person fall from God’s saving grace once they have received salvation? Most Baptist and Presbyterian denominations (among others) believe that once a person is truly saved, their salvation will be divinely preserved. Most Methodist and Pentecostal denominations (among others) believe that a person can turn away from God after God’s gift of salvation and literally fall from salvation. Many denominations like Lutherans have a great number of people on both sides of the debate. (I have personally held both views at one point or another – I take a neutral stance on the issue now because, frankly, I just don’t know how I feel…) I fear that we miss opportunities to grow as Christians when we isolate ourselves from others with differences; this is where it becomes a problem. I’ve been around most of the major areas of Christian theology in my life; from college to my home church to friends and family, the thing I realize is that we all desire to see people come to love Jesus Christ. As Christians, most of us realize the importance of the essentials but for whatever reason, we tend to get caught up on the unimportant things like eternal security. Look at it this way, If a person is not saved, who cares if they did or didn’t lose their salvation or if the ever had it to begin with. What matters here is their eternal destination. Once saved always saved, or not, an unsaved person is still unsaved — we can have friendly debate later. Again there are many things we can learn from differences of opinions within Christianity. For one, if left to ourselves we will self destruct! We need God because we humans get caught up in the irrelevant things sometimes. We forget that whether Baptist or Methodist, we are still all working toward the same goal. Another important thing, as I already mentioned is that we all have a very common set of beliefs as Christians. We know that we should flee from sin since Christ paid such a high price for our sins and we know that eternal life awaits those who seek God. Truly, the similarities are far greater than the differences. Almost every hotly debated subject within Evangelical Christianity does not determine ones salvation; we need to remember this and start getting past the silly differences. Our culture is fighting against truth and only the Bible holds the truth. Even in our differences we can see the truth. Let us not fight over a person’s salvation or any other area of doctrine that is irrelevant to orthodox Christianity. I’m all for friendly debate but when is comes down to it, we Christians have “bigger fish to fry” There are people all around us who do not know Christ as their savior and we are a stronger body when we are unified. Churches shouldn’t split over silly irrelevant issues, we should join together and win back our families and our friends and we should take a stand in our culture for truth. We Christians are on the same team and we must always remember that. I want to end this column with one of my favorite non-biblical works; the Apostles Creed. Here are important truths that we should all hold to: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

I have said for a long time now, “to be an atheist is to be completely illogical.” On one hand it is much more reasonable to be agnostic or to at least to believe in some kind of incompetent deistic god. Many of the “smart guys” like Richard Dawkins try to persuade people that to believe in God is laughable but as even Dawkins has conceded, “no person can prove there is no God.” There is a powerful argument in favor of a creator developed by a Christian philosopher named William Lane Craig called the Kalam Cosmological Argument. The argument has three basic premises. (1) Anything with a beginning had a cause. (2) The universe had a beginning. (3) Therefore, the universe has a cause. It is the most basic of principles – the fundamentals of life. Nothing just happens. For instance, if a person leaves a piece of paper on a table and walks off, that piece of paper will never move again… unless something moves it. The wind may blow it away, a person may come by and ball it up, even bacteria in the air may begin to decompose it but the paper itself will never move unless someone or something causes it to move. This can easily be related to the beginning of the universe… Nothing can move unless first moved, nothing can begin unless it is caused. Apparently, according to atheistic scientist at least, in the beginning there was this nearly infinitely long moment of black nothingness; there was nothing, no planets, no stars, no water, no life, just nothing. Then all of a sudden there was an accidental needle prick of motion that came from nothing (it just happened) and this started matter and movement that eventually (by some extremely complicated process) magically turned in to everything we see around us… and that’s how we all got here with all of these scientific laws and emotions and feelings. That’s right, no God, just accidental nothingness that became this intricate something that we call the universe… which really has no point other than being accidental motion headed towards a fiery ending. Some take a different approach to the explanation of the universe since this is obviously impossible (to say the least); they say that matter is infinite. This seems to answer the question at first glance but quickly fails many important tests. For one, any theory that contradicts the Second Law of Thermodynamics is in serious trouble. This law states that disorder increases with time (Darwinian evolutions seems to contradict this) and that processes move towards a state of equilibrium. Let me explain; when we mix cold and hot water into the bathtub the water equalizes in the tub. All of the cold water does not retreat into one end of the tub and the hot water to the other, they move to a state of equilibrium. Gasses do the same thing; we don’t breathe oxygen at one end of the room and hydrogen at the other – without the Second Law of Thermodynamics, life would be impossible. Now let’s relate this to our universe… Nearly all scientists believe that the universe is expanding; it follows that one of two things will happen. (1) The universe will continue expanding until matter becomes too dense for life. Matter in the universe will move towards equilibrium and will begin to separate causing the death of the universe. Or (2), the universe will stop expanding because of gravity and begin to crunch and crash back together (humans will be billions of years gone at this point)… You see, infinity is impossible, there is no such thing – it is illogical. Think of it this way, let’s say the cycle of our universe is 50 billion years (from beginning to end), if there really is an infinity of time, 50 billion years has easily passed already… so why is the universe still functioning? It is still functioning because it had a beginning, it is not infinite. Infinity is illogical and the idea of our universe beginning accidentally, from nothing, is illogical as well – these are smart theories but fail when tested with reality. This is why it is most logical to believe in God; there really is no good reason for life other than God. He is eternal and he created everything from nothing. Now some will say, “Who then created God?” This question is a favorite among atheist but ultimately has no foundation. Premise (1) of the Kalam argument above states that, anything with a beginning was caused. God does not have a beginning because He is God, He is uncaused – He is the cause, He is the force behind all things. God, by definition, is the creator of all things; including time… this means that God is outside of time and not bound by time and therefore could not have a beginning in time. In the realm of our universe there is cause and effect, to accept the universe as beginning accidentally is a denial of cause and effect; therefore there is obviously a realm outside of what we humans understand. This is the ONLY explanation of how our universe came to be. Something outside of time MUST have caused our universe, there is no other explanation. Every other explanation fails the test of logic.

It is very much apparent (even to some young people) that our culture is quickly changing. We live in a time of war; a culture war. The values of America have come under attack by those both at home and abroad. We allow illegal aliens to cross our boarders and we make no attempt to communicate our values and what we stand for. We nod our head at laziness and allow children to grow up with no responsibilities. We pride ourselves on religious tolerance, even though we have a foundational misconception of what that actually means. In America, if you are a part of a minority group your rights are of the uttermost importance… unless you believe that the Bible is true. Our nation’s motto should be changed from “In God We Trust” to “Never Hurt Another’s Feelings.” This is all part of some fairy-tale attempt to create a utopia – a worldwide utopia.  (Apparently this type of society is possible, but only if followed by large scale genocide. After all, this is what Hitler, the atheist, was trying to do and he nearly succeeded.) Any idea, any religion, any lifestyle is allowed, so long as there is no expectation of others to believe in a similar way. American culture today, is very different compared to countries around the world; we allow others to come to our land and we never expect them to act in a manner which reflects the attitude and commitment of those who made this free nation. For instances, If you are a Christian in a Muslim country and you freely share your Christian beliefs, you face a tremendously high probability of extreme persecution. Here is just one example: Earlier this week, Jamshed Masih, a Pakistani Christian, lost his wife and four children to a Muslim mob. While Jamshed was at work, the mob entered his home and murdered everyone present. Events like this happen regularly throughout our world but they never make the news; partly because they are so commonplace, but at least two things can be learned from these stories. First, (even though murder is always wrong) these people are showing how dedicated they are to their culture – in America many people could just care less. The second thing that can be learned is very important. If we continue allowing anyone and everyone into our nation with no responsibilities, we will begin to see events like these right here on American soil (and arguably these horrible events have started happening).  Now of course there are many wonderful and kind Muslims in America today – don’t miss my point. The truth is when you silence a moral establishment (like the moral American establishment) and you allow anyone and everyone to “just come on in,” you bight off more than you ever intended to chew. It is completely ridiculous to allow those who hold fundamentally different viewpoints to come to a nation that is not their own and gain liberty to impose their beliefs on a fully established culture. America is what it is because of who we have been; if we continue the change, we can say goodbye to being the greatest and freest nation on earth. Many on the far left have made a career out of changing the American way. President Obama is the first President to say that America is not a Christian nation. This is quite interesting considering that even today almost 80 percent of Americans identify themselves with some type of Christian denomination. I just can’t help but wonder where these leaders think morals come from if they didn’t come from the Bible? But let’s not fool ourselves, morals in America are fading fast and we can expect that as our leaders try to pull us away from our religious heritage. The good news is that Christians won’t go quietly; the bad news is that the extreme lefties know this all too well. That is why if you are a Christian and you stand up for biblical values, you will irrationally be called ignorant and intolerant. Yes, in America we don’t uphold our biblical traditions, we hate them. In June, North Carolina pastor, Dr. Ronnie Baity was asked to present the opening prayers (yes there is prayer during government sessions – an old tradition, by the way) during a week long legislative session. On day one, Dr. Baity concluded his prayer in the name of Jesus and was soon after released from any further services for the remainder of the week. It is no secret that Christians are under pressure in America today more than ever. The Ten Commandments (the most moral set of laws any person could abide by) are removed from public buildings, children don’t have to say the pledge of allegiance because of the word God, schools are discouraged from providing opportunities for Christian organizations and sharing one’s faith can even result in arrest, in America! (Google: “Dearborn Michigan Christian” for just one example). In America today, heritage is under attack; the Bible is also under attack. Men and women fought and died so that the star spangled banner would wave for all time, but America—the strongest nation on earth—could vanish into thin air if we don’t protect what we have. We must get rid of those leaders who have an anti American mentality. History, morals, the Bible, freedom and so much more are all prides of America. Those who don’t have that same pride and those who have no fear for God can stay if they would like, but it is time they sit down and remain quiet. If we want to continue enjoying the freedoms found in the United States of America, we must remember how these wonderful freedoms came to be and strive to act in the same way. Long live Freedom, Long live America.