Tag Archives: Christians

This Just In…

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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.

Who Is Jesus?

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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 →

We Need to Remind Each Other

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Last week I said that it’s good to remember, but we need to be reminded (full story here).  In summary, Joshua had the Hebrews take 12 stones from the Jordan River to set up as a memorial.  We take the Lord’s Supper because he said “Do this in remembrance of me.”  It’s good for our faith to remember what God has already done for us.  But we often need reminded.  Our nature – just like the Old Testament Hebrews and Jesus’s own disciples – is to forget.

We also need to remind each other. In the ESV, the word exhort is used 15 times in the New Testament.  10 of those refer to a person that was exhorting and 5 are instructions for us to exhort each other.  Heb 3:13 says “exhort one another every day…”  We need to build each other up, and offer encouragement.  Nichole Nordeman says we all need an ata’ boy or ata’ girl once in a while.  When things are going badly, it may be hard to read the scriptures and remind ourselves of God’s promises.  If we’re a little down, we may not feel like praying.  As a community, Christians ought to be lifting one another up.  There’s enough junk in the world – stress at work, traffic on the road, bad on the news, bills in the mailbox, moral decay on television – to bring us down.  We certainly don’t need to be cannibalistic and devour our own kind.

So, don’t just IM an lol to your friends this week.  Remind them God loves them as well.  Some of us still have telephones, you know the kind that plugs into a phone jack?  And of course smiles are contagious, and still free.

🙂

That didn’t hurt a bit.

Would Jesus Burn a Koran?

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Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, FL, has declared 9/11 “Burn a Koran Day.”  Publicizing the event has earned Jones multiple death threats, and many have threatened to burn down his church as well.  Jones is also the author of “Islam is of the Devil,” and his church has a large sign out front that reads the same.  You can read more on the event here.  Many Christian groups have tried to convince the church to cancel the event, still scheduled to take place next month. Continue reading →

For God and Country

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The 4th of July falls on Sunday this year.  The comparisons between our liberty and freedom as Americans and the freedom found in Christ are easy to make, but we need to be careful.  I wish to present a sermon that is both patriotic and scriptural, but also fair and truthful.  The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776 – the Bible was not. Continue reading →

Can a Homosexual be a Christian?

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I’ve written before on Christians fighting the culture war. It is certainly going on, but to what degree are we expected to change this culture we live in versus walk circumspectly of it?  Paul was certainly aware of what went on in the public bath houses as he planted churches across Greece, but we don’t find him standing outside those bath houses carrying signs in the first century.  He went on planting churches and training pastors, and as far was we know never once made a sandwich board about God hating fags.  (Google Fred Phelps if that doesn’t make sense).

Many Christians, evangelicals in particular, have done a questionable job dealing with cultural issues like homosexuality.  Can a homosexual also be a Christian?  Please don’t answer that question, at least not here.  Check out the conversation going on over at Life in Mordor. The Fellowship has grown to three, and as far as I know the door has not been closed.  Joe Derbes wasted no time, and jumped right in with both feet on this issue.

Jesus’ Example: Ministry

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Jesus-healing-blindI have written many posts under the heading of Jesus’ Example.  So much of what Jesus did during his earthly ministry was to give us the examples to follow.  After washing the disciples feet, he actually told them it was an example and they were to do the same.  It was a dramatic demonstration of humility and service to one another.  We are commanded to imitate Christ by doing the things he did.  It should go without saying that must study his words and actions so that we can model our actions after his. Continue reading →

Open Door Policy

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open door Summer is the season of mission trips, Vacation Bible School and Backyard Bible Clubs.  I would like to share a personal experience that I find especially encouraging. 

Our church is hosting a large number of volunteers this week from Lynchburg, VA.  Their mission team is doing a few construction projects and running several Backyard Bible Clubs in different locations.  One of them is at the small country church I frequently preach at.  This is an old church, and does not have central air.  During the day we open up the windows and turn on a couple of fans.  We’ve been leaving the front door standing open, just to move some air.  Well, this morning a young couple was driving by and noticed the open door.  She has been looking for a job, and everyone knows what that is like right now.  She felt the need to stop in and pray.  They entered the back of the sanctuary, and listened to the children’s Bible lesson that was being taught.  When the kids went downstairs for snacks and crafts, we had the chance to listen to their story and pray with them.  We invited them to join us tomorrow, and certainly for service on Sunday. 

They stopped at the church to pray because they saw the front door open.  We often (I hope) invite people to church, but how inviting is our church?  How many others would stop and pray, ask questions or just talk to us if they saw the door open?  This happened at 11:00 on a Thursday morning.  There’s a lot of hurt, a lot of need, a lot of fields white for harvest out there.  It may be a stretch just to imagine people with problems wanting to be anywhere near “church people.”  Imagine if more churches had open doors and people waiting to pray with those passing by.  Just a thought.

Discussions That Are Academic

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debateThere are some discussions/debates that are purely academic in nature, meaning that they have no real bearing on anything practical.  Is Superman strong enough to beat up the Incredible Hulk?  It doesn’t matter who wins the debate, there is no practical application for the results.  Continue reading →

Jesus’ Involvement in Starting the Christian Church

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jesus_teaching If we began a study of the first century church, 9 times out of 10 we would begin with Acts chapter 2.  The Holy Spirit comes as promised, and Peter preaches a fiery message proclaiming Jesus is the Christ.  Certainly by the end of Acts 2, we see the first Christian believers come together in an organized way.  But if we back up a just a few chapters, Jesus gives the disciples instructions on what will happen next, going beyond his death, burial and resurrection.

Critics of Christianity, as an organized religion (the Church), even claim that Jesus had no intention of starting a new church or movement of any kind, but rather his followers started one in his name.  To put it mildly, these critics have not studied the Bible.  Continue reading →