Michael Vuke - Latest Comments

Re: Why I Stopped Loving Christ and Disliking Christians

Anjali — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:33:50 -0000

Sorry, that second part is kind of confusing!

Re: Why I Stopped Loving Christ and Disliking Christians

Anjali — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:28:26 -0000

This is so awesome! I totally see where you're coming from, but it's your recent realization that got to me the most. I know that the church can be messed up sometimes, but I firmly believe that leaving a problem alone does nothing to correct it. People complain about the politics and the obsession with irrelevant things-- and it's true, these things exist. But I think we have a call to be the "positive politics," to live an authentic faith within the context of the Church... and I think that's one of the things that's most instrumental to bringing others into a genuine relationship with Christ. If you look at the early Church, it was all about community, and I think that's just as important today as it was then :)

I especially liked your reflection on the vine and branches. I think another analogy would be that not going to or participating in a Church cuz of all the messed up people is like not going to the gym because of the out of shape people... :) Thank you so much for sharing!

Re: Why I Stopped Loving Christ and Disliking Christians

Christina M — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 01:41:52 -0000

Hi Michael,
(Please disregard my terrible grammar :P)
I am really glad to have come across this entry. For the past 2 years I have been neglecting to go to church by choice and the only times I have gone I have felt really disconnected. I feel myself drifting away from God because of this. I am a confirmed Catholic and I used to go to church every Sunday with my Mom, however, I started to notice certain things the church believed in that I was against. One in particular is as tradition says you cannot eat the bread if you are not a baptized catholic (even though they wouldn't know if you were or not it still makes Non-Catholics feel guilty to eat the bread, which I never understood because I thought Jesus said to Love all people and Let them into his light). However after reading a certain line in your article I noticed that in my attempt to become a better christian by distancing myself from the church I was actually hurting my spiritual well being and judging the church for sins when all of us sin everyday of our lives.
"So I’m sorry. I’m sorry for sometimes missing the beauty of the Bride in my attempts to help make the Bride better. I’m sorry that I have distanced myself from my spiritual kin, even though we are family (crazy cousins and all)."
And because of this I may consider returning to church with my mom on Sundays and understand that I can’t love Jesus and hate the ones He loves.

You have an amazing gift thanks for sharing it :)

Re: Learning to be Forgiven

Michael Vuke — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 13:12:13 -0000

Thank you, Tech! You have been/are an encouragement to me, and are a great example of what truly living for God looks like, in all of its glory and flaws.

Re: Learning to be Forgiven

Tech — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 01:36:14 -0000

Michael, I've watched you grow and mature over the years and sadly I missed the mark some of the times when you may have needed me. I'm glad that God didn't fail you when I did. I'm extremely proud of your writing when seeing transparency and excited about the insight I see coming from you at such a young age. Keep it up!

Re: Throwing Stones at Mark Driscoll

Naomi Marie — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 16:16:45 -0000

This is good stuff, man.

Re: Behold!

Michael Vuke — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 14:50:48 -0000

My pleasure, Natalie!

Re: Be Still: a confession

Michael Vuke — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 14:50:04 -0000

Thank you, Samantha--I appreciate that! Some things will be changing up in my life (and on here, most likely), so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Re: Behold!

Natalie Trust — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 17:06:37 -0000

Such mystery in this promise...thanks for pointing me here to contemplate this gift today.

Re: Be Still: a confession

Samantha Nicole — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 23:07:41 -0000

Amen! I've been feeling the same way, Michael. You're not alone; I'm praying for you. :)

Re: Welcome to the Rape Culture

Michael Vuke — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 14:52:20 -0000

I'd take it a step farther than that, Tory; we should certainly make sure that men and women have resources available to them on self defense, but to focus on that is still missing the point. Rather than focus on the victim, we should focus on the perpetrator! Instead of teaching women to not get raped, why not teach men not to rape? Public awareness campaigns, social pressure, education on what is not acceptable, etc. all help stop rape at the source--the rapist.

Our education resources and social campaigns are largely focused on the victim and preventing rape via better lighting, more defense training, more clothing, or other such things, but ultimately there are ways around every one of those things--its all defensive and victim oriented. This lends itself to blaming the victim when rape does occur. Post-rape, a lot of coverage is given to what could the victim have done differently, but the focus in the wrong place. That right there is another example of the 'rape culture'.

Re: The Problem With Living Dangerously For God

Michael Vuke — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 14:44:27 -0000

My pleasure, Tory! And I totally agree--anytime we construct archetypes for what the "Christian life" should look like, we are doing ourselves and everyone a huge disservice. Without thinking through what I'm about to say overly much, I'd venture saying that it might fall into the category of "causing a little one to stumble", as trying to live a life we never were supposed to live can mess us up so terribly spiritually. I know many people who tried to live a certain way because that was what Christians did, whether that was going on missions trips, doing certain things, etc. It inevitably hurt them, and many times caused them to question God.

Re: Welcome to the Rape Culture

Tory Sherrill — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 21:10:15 -0000

Our society today seems only to speak of rape in the context of abortion. They only talk of empowering women after the assault. Why not, since the government seems so willing to give away free "protection", make self defense training more available??? There is a definite lack of awareness on this issue.

Re: The Problem With Living Dangerously For God

Tory Sherrill — Sun, 22 Dec 2013 21:05:21 -0000

Incredibly relevant to today's culture, I think. Not only for the hipster-esque Christian you describe here, but also for the extreme conservatives on the other side. Thanks for sharing!!! :)

Re: Welcome to the Rape Culture

Michael Vuke — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:56:12 -0000

It is so important that we do--even though it shouldn't be, when men speak up we are often heard better than a woman is, so we must make sure that our voice is helping change that and not hurting, even by silence.

And I meant to bring headphones so I could listen to that, but I left them at the apartment, so I'll give it a listen later.

Re: Welcome to the Rape Culture

Becca — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 07:54:00 -0000

I'm thankful to have a male friend who will speak up. :)

I appreciated this spoken-word piece on the topic: http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: You are not a gift

Michael Vuke — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:34:38 -0000

Thank you for the encouragement, Tory!

Re: When God and Time Intersect

Michael Vuke — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:09:54 -0000

Mmmmm--I like that. What a beautiful picture of what went down on that day! Thanks for commenting, Tory!

Re: When God and Time Intersect

Michael Vuke — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:09:07 -0000

It's funny that it felt that way; this post definitely came out of a few conversations just like that!

It's definitely important to still be repentant, but the need for an individual recitation of everything we've done wrong in order to be forgiven just isn't there! (Which is good, since I don't even know all the things I've done wrong) I think this is where a lot of that individual conviction vs. absolute right and wrong can come from too--there have been things that God didn't convict me of in the past that, now that I'm more mature in God, He has started to. It's not that it suddenly became wrong, but instead that now I'm at a point where I can grasp what needs to be done and be fine with it and it benefit my relationship with God. If I had been convicted of it from the beginning, I would have been caught up in the details of it and not gotten the bigger picture or closer relationship with God.

Re: When God and Time Intersect

Tory Sherrill — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 09:40:48 -0000

I love this topic!!! I have been engaging in dialogs with some Catholic friends of mine periodically over the summer about the finality of our Salvation. I have found so much in Paul's letters that states over and over that "It is finished!" One of my favorite passages is in Colossians 2:13-15... "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." :)

Re: You are not a gift

Tory Sherrill — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 09:25:50 -0000

Wow, this is so true. Thanks for putting it in such clear words!!! :)

Re: When God and Time Intersect

Christina Minikon — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 21:47:08 -0000

This was so cool to read! It felt like my mind was being blown by a friend who had something really exciting to tell me :D I know that my salvation can't be taken away, but I tend to ask for forgiveness the moment I realize that I've sinned. It's so wonderful to know that I've already been forgiven! And you're right, who are we to hold someone's sin against them if God's already forgiven them? Thanks for reminding me of these truths in such a cool, visual way :)

Re: Have we kissed self-control goodbye?

Michael Vuke — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 22:56:21 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Matt!

In regards to the first part of your comment, like you say, I do agree that there is more to it than just not having sex before marriage. I list not having sex as one of them as a sample example of God's across the board commands in contrast to personal convictions that may not be applicable to everyone (like kissing). If it was indicated that 'drawing the line at sex' was the command of God there, I perhaps should have clarified a little more. The point still stands though, that there are many more personal convictions and leadings in life than there are one-size-fits-all commands, and the two shouldn't be confused.

As for the second part, it really boils down to semantical differences in the usage of 'self-control'. Your point is valid in that it does take some form of control to say, "I can't handle myself in this situation, so I don't want to go there". I agree that they should be encouraged in their journey:

"I applaud my friends who decided that they wanted to “court”, not kiss, have people around them, etc. Without a shred of condemnation, mockery, or distaste, I want to congratulate you for sticking to your guns and doing what you feel you need to do to follow God best, and I encourage you not to compromise your personal convictions because of pressure."

The focus was more on the mis-labeling of avoidance (which sometimes is a form of preemptive self control) as self-control, because while it is helpful, it is ultimately a band-aid. You can only avoid so much, and when you are unable to avoid something, that is where the true test of someone's ability to control themselves comes into play. If there really isn't self-control, then when faced with the situation, we will cave. If there is true self-control, when faced with the situation, we will not cave.

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts/concerns, man. Did this help clarify things?

Re: Have we kissed self-control goodbye?

Matt S. — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:04:03 -0000

Just an observation/clarification, this article represented God's commands (what the Bible says) to be something similar to "Don't have sex before marriage", which, while true, is not comprehensive. The Bible commands us to avoid lust. For some people, taking part in a certain activity with a significant other, (even if they have no intention of it ending in sex), is still lustful. It doesn't necessarily have to be leading to the culmination of the sexual act to be lustful. From the rest of the article, you do explain this more, and I'm sure you would agree, but just a note pointing out that in some spots, you seemed to indicate that the Bible simply says not to have sex before marriage, which isn't quite accurate.

Also, I think it's a fine line with the boundary between self control and measure that you take that prevent you from even making the choice. As you explained at the end of the article, if some people have certain weaknesses, and need to lock the pie in a safe, they should. But you seem to argue that this is not self control. For those that have experienced a very hard battle with pie-binging, I would argue that locking the pie in a safe IS a form of self control. It's controlling themselves by taking measures that they realize are necessary to protect themselves. Again, I know you pretty much say that in your article, but it's important not to imply that people that have to take drastic measures to avoid sin aren't exhibiting self control....on the contrary, they should be applauded, helped, and encouraged for fighting the good fight. Just some thoughts.

Re: Caged by Impotence

Christina Minikon — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 02:47:27 -0000

It's true what they say-ignorance is bliss. Once you're aware of something, you notice it everywhere! I suspect that's what happened to you after writing this post. Ain't it grand to be a never ending work in progress? #TheLifeofaChristian Yes, I really did just use a hasthag in a blog post comment lol