With all the divisiveness that is going on now in the political, and religious world we as Christians need to read a couple of verses from scripture. On both sides of the argument, it seems that all we hear is people screaming at each other. We as Christians need to sit back, and do more listening than talking, but at the same time, be like Paul, and Peter, and speak the truth in love, Eph 4:15-16, and 1 Pet 3:15-17.
In Ephesians Paul is speaking to Ephesians, and is talking about not using the gospel to beat people over the head. Remember, we don't have to defend God; He's been doing a good job of that over the millennia. We are called to obey what Jesus told us in Matt 22:37-39. Present the truth in love, and leave it to the Holy Spirit to work in the person's life. In 1 Peter, Peter is saying that we need to be ready to give a defense of the gospel. That means reading the Bible, which should be done daily for the rest of our lives. We should also keep our life pure; I know that's not easy, but we are called to. If we pray, and continue to flee from sin, then we will slowly continue on. Remember, we are commanded to flee from sin. Then sometimes, we are going to laughed at, and ridiculed, but remember we are being sharpened by the Lord, and in order to be sharpened, some of that steel needs to be shaved off.
These two verses are a couple of good reminders. Thank you Lord Jesus!!
In my Kairos ministry I do, there are a lot of people who like Glenn Beck. I listen to him, and he's very right in a lot of what he says, but he is a Mormon. That is the one thing that troubles me. There is a good post in the Gospel Coalition blog by Justin Taylor, where he talks about Beck's, “syncretizing Mormon and Christian understanding in the service of a civil religion,”. It's worth reading, http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/09/16/andree-seus-tragic-mistake-on-the-gospel-of-glenn-beck/.
I have been reading Nancy Pearcy's book "Saving Leonardo". According to my Kindle, I'm about 30% through it, and I can't put it down. If there were more free time in my life, I would probably have finished it by now. Nancy is explaining what has happened to our society as secularization becomes more prevalent, and God, and religion are placed on the back burner; she gives a history of the secular/humanism movements, and how they have been instrumental in the downward spiral we're in right now. I don't want to give it away, but it should be required reading for all Christians.
She brings up another point, that I find difficult to do; we should be reading books by these secular authors. We need to know how they think, and what they believe. I remember reading the biography of Oswald Chambers, and he was criticized for doing the same, but like Nancy he says that we need to know what the secularists are thinking, so we can rebut them in their own language.
The biggest problem I have is time. With events going on at church, work, and other social activities, there isn't a lot of time to spend with my Kindle. Before bed, and at lunchtime are the daily times that I've spent for reading. Morning is time for reading my bible, devotions, and catching up on the news. Occasionally, I get a chance to put something in this blog.
So if you have time to read, pick up a copy of this book, "Saving Leonardo"; you won't be disappointed.
Random Stuff for 9/23/10:
Mecca Diaries - This is interesting, a video diary of man, his mother, and father as they go on a Hajj to Mecca. He's not a Christian, but an interesting view, especially when he admits that he wasn't supposed to bring a video camera with him.
World's Scariest Jobs - found this on Tim Challies' site, but it is scary.
Today is September 11 and everywhere people are remembering where they were on that day. I was at work, and as the news kept coming in, I was updating our web site with news of what was going on in New York. It was heart wrenching, and I was mentally, and physically wrecked by the end of the day. In the aftermath, it is easily to see what the real damage that was done. We have failed to really understand who the enemy is, and they're taking advantage of it. I watched a couple of online videos, I've added below, and as I watched the attack, the clean up, the hopes being dashed when loved ones didn't come home, brought tears to my eyes. Watching the video as events unfolded, there was a lot of confusion. I remember thinking before the second tower was hit, that it had to be a terrorist attack. Radical Muslims had been trying for years to bring down the tower, and they finally succeeded. There is one spot a few minutes after the first jet hit, I heard this guy video taping from a roof of building that he hoped it wasn't terrorists. No one there had a clue. With the advent of inexpensive video cameras, we have a very good video diary of what happened.
The terrorists achieved their mission, and the long term effects of what happened are still with us almost ten years later. This so called religion, is of the devil. Satan took a guy in Arabia, who was raised around Jews, Christians, Zorarastrians; he took tenets of these religions, and came up with a religion that has done nothing but create mayhem since it started. It is a works based religion, which calls for the death or subjugation of unbelievers; since Islam's inception, this religion has over 150 sects, but the two of the larger ones, the Sunnis and Shiites are behind most of the mayhem that goes on today. They love to use Surah 9:5, "The Verse of the Sword" to incite jihad to bring infidels under subjugation where they're forced to pay a tax (jizya), or killed them. The verse says, "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and merciful."
North Africa, and the Holy Land, was predominantly Christian, but the area fell under Islam within 150 years after the death of Muhammed. The Crusades, which jihadists cry about only came about after the church was destroyed in the Holy Land, and North Africa. Yes it sought to reclaim the Holy Land, but after 1300 years, the predominant religion is Islam. The history is long indeed, and there were atrocities on both sides, as there is any battle, but none of this would not have happened, unless Satan, in the guise of Islam, had not attacked, and take the land away.
Moderate Islam is like the German Christian church was in Nazi Germany, when it bowed to the Nazi ideology. Remember that Islam aligned itself to the Nazi's during World War II, because of the similar goals both had, which was to extinguish the Jews. They seemingly close their eyes to the atrocities, or like the imam who wants to build the Islamic mosque at Ground zero claims that unbelievers, the United Stats was the cause of the attack, because the of the death of Muslims. Somebody needs to remind him of the bloodshed that Muslims do to each other. I amazed at their thought process, or lack of thought process. In building an Islamic center a few blocks from Ground Zero, they don't seem to understand the wisdom of NOT doing something like that. It doesn't seem to phase them, as they name the mosque Cordoba, where in Spain, Muslims built a mosque as reminder of their victory over the Spaniards. Remember, Muslims occupied most of the Iberian peninsula for 500 plus years. Moderate Islam does nothing to denounce the atrocities of this barbaric religion of the devil.
My word to Muslims would be to remind them that Jesus, who is recognized as a prophet in Islam said in John 14:6, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Not by following the prophet Muhammad, but by following Jesus. So for my secular friends who say there are many roads to heaven, and that Christianity, I would remind them that each of these Abrahamic religions have claims on who is saved, so there can't be more than one truth. I would also remind them that Jesus' tomb is empty, and He did what He said He would do! So there is exclusivity in the message of Jesus, and unfortunately because of Islam's identity problem, where they know they can't compete with a religion of mercy, and love, Islam was setup to not let Muslims to convert, because if they do, they are marked for death. Satan is a wiley adversary, and with over 1,000,000,000 adherents to Islam, there is now setup a clash a civilizations prophesied in Revelation.
If you have about a hour, watch the video below. In the first video there is part between 12, and 15 minutes where you sense everything changed. It is very graphic. We need to remember that the religion of peace won't relent until the whole world is subjugated; we either accept Muhammed as the one true prophet, or we will be killed, or pay a jizya, or tax and be forced to who knows...wear a large "C" on our clothes to identify us as Christian. That's not how I want to live, but Jesus said we would have troubles in this world, John 16:33. Remember, Islam means "Submission".
Here's another video that looks at trying to find the identity of a man who fell to his death. The picture taken by AP photographer, Richard Drew ran in a few papers the next day to the horror of the readers who demanded that it be removed. The video attempts to find the identity of this forgotten man, who was among hundreds who fell to their death to escape the heat, and smoke.
Here are a few things that caught my eye today; a lot of them thanks to Phil Johnson...
We were a couple of days away from the Koran burning event at a church up in Gainesville. I'm glad he decided to change his mind, but after listening telling the world that he was not going to do it because the imam of the mosque had decided to move the Ground Zero Muslim center. Hmm, I don't think so. Anyway, it's amazing how this thing has taken off, and the spot light is on this person, who definitely needs to be prayed for in a way that he will think about the wisdom of doing this. This is from the Smoking Gun, and another one titled "On Burning Religious Books" by Tony Reinke, with six points to consider on burning the books, using Acts 19:11-20 as a biblical reference.
I like this one, and Phil Johnson's tweet, "This article is deeply disturbing, but at least these Malthusian morons are taking their ilk out of the gene pool", from The Weekly Standard, "There Goes the Neighborhood".
This was interesting
You would think that our leaders in Washington in their desire to move more towards the socialist model, which is being rejected in Europe, and now El Presidente, Fidel Castor, says, big government doesn't work. Really??
Have you ever wondered when you see something twice in a day, that you need to take a closer look. That happened today. I was watching FOX's morning show this morning, and they were talking about "hipsters". Obviously, since I am a child of the 60's, it caught my attention. They had a comedian/contributor on their show. His name, Steven Crowder wrote a column on, "The Trouble With Hipsters". In it he basically described me to a tee about 35 years ago. Fortunately, I outgrew it, and it remains a laughable moment in my life. It's just another way for the left to foster a negative view of what God ultimately planned for us to be. It's narcissistic, and just plain stupid.
That said, when I got home from church today, I saw this month's copy of Christianity Today. On the cover, there's a picture of Jesus with a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer's on, knocking on the door. On the cover (below)
What happens when cool meets Christ, The Ironic World of Hipster Faith. OK, you've got my attention, so I read the article. I think the word irony works here. Been there done that, would be another way of saying it. Brett McCracken who wrote the article, and I mentioned in a blog a few days ago; he also wrote a book, "Hipster Christianity", writes on the movement. In it he describes the movement as something that "isn't a monolithic subculture that can be easily categorized, but it definitely has recognizable characteristics." I think that there is something missed here, and it's all style. I know as young man, I had to rebel. I had to discover. I had to find out myself, because as a child of the 60's, I was very cynical, and trusted no one, especially the church. Amish children do the same thing, "rumspringa", where around 16 they go out, and discover the world, and decide if they want to have the believer's baptism, and become a part of the Amish church. Most Amish children stay in the church, as I did, because I discovered what works. Hipster Christianity is just another liberal theological movement. Liberal theology is nothing by secularism with theological terms, but this is nothing but style. What are your reading, what are you watching, and what are you listening to? Unfortunately, the only thing that works is a belief in Jesus Christ. After finding out what worked, I finally grew up. Hopefully, hipster Christians will eventually will too...
Who is #35? I have a key ring with that number on it. All I know is that number will be coupled with an inmate I'm going to sponsor when we go into Zephyrhills Correctional in October. Does he realize that he is going to meet God this weekend? Does he know that he's being prayed for? Sometimes we go through life oblivious of what is going on around us, and we're unable to comprehend the love that some unknown person might be showing for us while they are on their knees praying to God for our salvation, our peace, our healing, or whatever God has put on their heart. God is good...
That said, now that I've missed a few days from posting something, I'm reminded how hard it is to write everyday, so I have to lift off my hat to those who have the discipline to do this. Work has been busy, as we've been working non-stop for the last two and a half weeks to convert our website, and now that it's up, it has been non-stop in getting everyone at work used to it. It sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm grateful that every two weeks, my checking account gets a bump, and I can continue to contribute the economy, and get the opportunity to participate in this ministry, and hopefully be used by God to help #35. God is good...
