On the Eve of All Saints Day (which is November 1st) Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg in 1517. Protestants celebrate October 31st as Reformation Day.
Internet Monk shared the following today. I approve this message 🙂
Jesus Died for This? by Becky Garrison came out in August. (Why I’m just reviewing it now is kind of a long story.) In this volume Garrison reports as a pilgrim, a sojourner on a quest to find out whatever happened to Jesus. She documents her travels from early 2007 to the election hype of 2008, taking her all the way from Jordan and Israel to Seattle and Manhattan. Along the way she witnessed a lot of “Jesus junk” but also found genuine communities living out the Gospel in small groups of broken individuals. Continue reading
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. – Galatians 4:1-7
We are by nature the enemies of God. Ever since the Garden of Eden, humanity has been prone to do the opposite of whatever it is God wants us to do. Jesus describes us in John 8 as being slaves of sin. It is easily witnessed throughout the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, the struggles of Paul with his own sin nature, and for that mature the course of all history. While in a general sense we are all belong to God, our natural state is like that of the prodigal son. God is watching and waiting for us to come down the road where he will welcome us with open arms. Continue reading
Halloween – I’m not going to write a new rant on Halloween this year, click here to read the one I wrote last year. After reading the post, be sure to read at least the first two comments; I probably should amend the post by including those footnotes in the article.
Christians – Here’s another thought to keep in mind: we should be Christ-like toward each other. If you have Christian friends, co-workers or relatives that do not celebrate Halloween, please don’t study up on it and accost them. Don’t e-mail someone a link to my blog and brag about how right you are/wrong they are, etc. If I saw a Christian brother who was putting his marriage in danger by spending too much time with a female friend, then I have an obligation to say something. Maybe he doesn’t even realize, or perhaps he assumes no one has or will notice. That would be one thing. If my neighbor does not hand out candy on Halloween, then that’s another entirely. I have to respect his doing what he feels is best for his family.
If you read those first two comments on that post I linked, you will be reminded that celebrating Easter and Christmas are extra-biblical. So many details about how to live as Christians in our particular culture have to be worked out by each believer. We are all on the same side. Christians should not be cannibalistic and apt to devour our own. Infighting hurts the witness and testimony of us all. If we can’t love each other, how can we love those in the world? The un-saved and un-churched need to see Christians treat each other the way we would each like to be treated.
I’m currently reading Jesus Died for This? by Christian satirist Becky Garrison. In this volume Garrison humorously takes a critical view of the foolish things we do in the name of Christ. Not since the writings of Michael Spencer has the evangelical circus looked so ridiculous. From souvenir shops in the Holy Land to product pushing publishers, Garrison begs the question “Is that what Jesus died for, to be hacked by vendors like a ball park hotdog?” I expect to finish the book and publish a full review this weekend.
After 5 posts on Abraham I have decided it’s time to move on. There are a lot more stories there, but Bible Survey kind of turned into a lifetime in Genesis on me. Perhaps I should write a book on Abraham; can’t imagine that making the New York Times Bestseller List.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob looks at two aspects of that title. When the Bible uses that phrase (15 times in the ESV) it is for one of two reasons; to either remind the Hebrews who they are and whose they are, or to explain to others outside the Hebrew nation which God it is we are talking about. Head over to Bible Survey and check it out.
There are two things I never do; one is over react in a restaurant if my order isn’t right. I rarely send anything back, and when I do it’s with a lot of respect for the kitchen staff and multiple apologies. You should never act like a jerk to the people who are spitting in preparing your food. The other thing I don’t do is complain about the postal service. No matter how bad it gets, keep your mouth shut if you ever want to see your mail again. It’s not like they have competition.
Becky Garrison’s new book Jesus Died for This? went on sale in August. A batch of our local mail was misdirected, and just discovered this morning. The postmark on what would have been my advanced copy was July 21. I’m not bitter, I just bring it up to say this: I’m reading it now, and will post a review as soon as I’m able. Keep in mind that Garrison is a satirist, not a theologian. Her books combine hard-hitting journalism and good common sense with frequent LOL’s. Read more about the book and author here, and perhaps purchase a copy for $14.99. There is also an audio download and e-book available as well. My review will be up in a few days.
I was introduced to Becky Garrison when I reviewed The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail for the Internet Monk. You can read that review here.
John Lennon’s quote that “we are more popular than Jesus” sparked controversy and protest once it reached the United States. That statement, part of a much larger discourse, was taken terribly out of context. Here’s what Lennon really said:
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.
Lennon was commenting on the decline of Christianity in England (and all of Europe for that matter) and over there no one even got upset. In it’s context, what Lennon was saying was true. Continue reading
Update: this is a very good introduction. Read the whole thing here.
Yesterday, Oct. 9, would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday. Huge crowds gathered across the street from his former New York apartment, at the appropriately named Strawberry Fields Park. He’s still fondly remembered, both here and in the UK, some 30 years after his death. Google honored his birthday with their first animated doodle.
Back in 1966, protests and violence erupted in the United States after Datebook quoted Lennon on the cover of their magazine saying that the Beatles had become “more popular than Jesus.” Concerts were cancelled, KKK members rallied, the Fab Four once thought they were the target of gunfire. Well… here’s what Lennon had really said:
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.
We still remember Lennon 30 years later; and despite what you see on the covers of Time, U.S. News & World Report and so on every Easter, Christians still remember Jesus some 2,000 years later. Lennon had studied many religions extensively. There are much more vocal enemies of Christian faith today than anything he said back then. Perhaps he was just ahead of his time.
“His disciples were thick and ordinary.” Yes they were; and yes we are. And we the body of Christ. That my friends is the Gospel.
Who is Jesus? Sounds simple. And you could answer simply. But no matter how you respond to the question, we all know that in reality it just isn’t that simple. Everyone has a default image that comes to mind when we hear the name Jesus. The question becomes “Which Jesus are we talking about?” That my friend is the right question.
UPDATE: I’ve removed the link to the Who’s Jesus website because that blog has been deleted by it’s author.
Who is Jesus is also the title of a blog I’ve just been reading. The author identifies himself/herself only as C. You don’t learn a lot about C by reading the blog, but I already know a lot by the clues that are given. Continue reading
