Filed under: Christian, Christianity, Commentary, General, Real Life, Relevant Christian, Relevant Life, Revolutionary, Thought for the Day
“I want to be “dangerous” to a dull and boring religion. I want a faith that is considered “dangerous” by our predictable and monotonous culture.”
- Mike Yaconelli
This was a comment made in response to a blog post on another blog site that I frequent. When I read it, my thought was….YES! That’s what it’s all about.
I want to be dangerous…live a James Bond kind of faith. A take no prisoners, turn the world on its ears kind of faith. What could we accomplish for Christ with a John Wayne like faith. The kind of faith that says…’I know who I am, who I belong to, and I ain’t takin no crap from anybody’! What would that be like?
What would the world say to that kind of faith? Heck…what would other Christians say to that kind of faith?
Dangerous faith is the kind that believes God can do anything….and we can do anything with Him! I want that kind of faith.
I have to be honest…there are times when I think I have that kind of faith….then fold like a cheap suit when the pressure proves to be too much. I hate that. That’s Pee Wee Herman faith.
Oh to have the kind of faith that moves mountains, the kind of faith that achieves the impossible. The kind of faith that TRULY believes ‘I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me’. The kind of faith that KNOWS if I ’submit myself to God, resist the devil, then he will flee’.
Dangerous faith is the kind of faith that grabs hold of the this statement by Jesus; “Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
i want that kind of faith!
Filed under: Christian, Christianity, Commentary, General, I Wonder, Real Life, Relevant Christian, Relevant Life
I was reading an interesting article by my blogosphere friend Chris Elrod entitled “Why Can’t We Have Hymns?”, and I found his argument very interesting.
He writes,
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“I truly believe that this is one area where the Church’s obsession with chasing culture has caused us to throw the baby out with the bath water. As a pastor of young families and 20-something art freaks I understand that the world is a different place today…there seems to rapant ADD and warped speed living. The general mantra of life today is “give it to me now the way I want it”. But following Christ doesn’t work that way…disipleship takes time and stretching. I’m afraid in our effort to reach society we have dumbed down many things in church…including the music. Instead of raising the bar for people to live life above this world…we have brought it all down to a level that reaks of mediocrity.”
Let me tell you why I feel his thoughts ring very true to ‘most’ of Christians and Churches today.
Up until just a few months ago, I had been the Worship Pastor at what is considered to be a Mega-Church. I, and my Music Director, had decided to introduce the hymn ‘O Worship The King’ (Chris Tomlin’s version) to the congregation. After singing the hymn the second week, I was told by the Pastor and Executive Pastor that we couldn’t do that song anymore. When I asked why I was told, “Because it is way over people’s heads, they can’t understand it”.
Now I will admit, we do have a large contingency of simple country folk around here. Heck, I was raised about 10 miles from here in a little town called Cut-N-Shoot Texas. But, this is by no means a community of a bunch of dumb rednecks. We still understand the english language.
The main problem with the Modern Chrisitan Society is that we have too many churches ‘Just Scratching the Surface’ of the Gospel. They have a tendency to stick to a 3 point sermon with a list of 5 things you can do to be a better husband, father, mother, wife, or parent.
Where is the discpleship? Where is the exploration of the deeper realms of God? Have we become too lazy in this drive thru and get it now culture?
Is this truly the state of Modern Christian Society? Have we become a culture of people who want the same formulaic psuedo Christian mumbo jumbo fed to us?
Filed under: Christian, Christianity, Commentary, General, I Wonder, Real Life, Relevant Christian, Relevant Life
I was reading this morning about Fred Phelps, the so-called Pastor of a very misguided Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas, and their plans to picket the funerals of the people who lost their lives in the Minnesota bridge collapse.
What a freaking nut job!
This so-called Pastor has been quoted as saying “The attack of 9/11 was an act of God’s vengeance” and now he is making the statement, “God made the bridge fall because he hates America, and especially Minnesota, because of its tolerance of homosexuality.”
So, with my blood boiling, I decided to look a little further into the Rev. Phelps and found this disturbing press release from Westboro Baptist Church and their Pastor.
So…while reading about this church and it’s leadership, I began to think…Is this what Christianity is about? Is this what God would want us to do? Is this why Jesus was beaten, bled and died…so that some idiotic, misguided, moronic imbeciles could go around shaking their fists in the air, holding up their hate-mongering picket signs, and claim they are doing God’s work, and spreading God’s word?
I also wondered, where are all the ODM (Online Discernment Ministry) Blogs railing against this idiot and others like him? Where are the odious posts from Apprising and Slice crying out against Phelps and others like him? Why are they not calling them into question like they have Rick Warren, Rob Bell, Dan Kimball and others in the Emerging Church Generation?
A good friend of mine once stated about such behavior as Phelps demonstrates, “If that is Christianity…I want nothing to do with it”. That is the part of this whole thing that irritates the crap out of me. The kind of non-sensical behavior of these zealots are demonstrating does nothing for furthering the kingdom of God. If anything, they cause non-christians to question it.
Yes…I believe homosexuality is a sin, but I also believe that the love, mercy and grace of God can call a man to repentance. I don’t believe that you have to wave a sign in their face filled with hate to get their attention. I believe that we are supposed to hate the sin, but love the sinner.
I could write so much more on this subject, but I won’t.
Filed under: Christian, Christianity, General, I Wonder, Real Life, Relevant Christian, Relevant Life, Thought for the Day
I wonder do you think of me?
I’ve been away so long.
I wonder what you would say,
If I wanted to come home?
I long just to see you smile,
to feel your warm embrace.
I wonder what I will do,
When I see your face?
How amazing Your love must be,
how endless Your grace.
You gave so much for me,
I threw it all away
A price I could not repay,
when I count the cost.
Still You stand arms open wide,
to restore what was lost.
I Will Run To You.
copyright 2007 / Jimmy Eldridge
Filed under: Christian, Christianity, Commentary, Real Life, Relevant Christian, Relevant Life
His name was Fred, her name was Dee. They had two kids, one my brother’s age, one a few years younger than him. They were a cute family. Year’s later they would have another kid or two, I never really knew them. Fred was a cool guy; he encouraged me in different things. He was smart. He knew how to fix almost anything and he has patents on some pretty important stuff. But it was annoying as all get out when they came over to the house. You see, Fred and Dee were “Isolationists” not in the sense that they thought America shouldn’t be involved with the UN (although for all I know they did believe that), but they were isolationists in that they had a very strict moral code for how we were to keep oneself pure from the sin of the world. The women only wore skirts, dresses or coo lots. The boys didn’t wear shorts. That part wasn’t annoying (well, it was a for a little while when my dad agreed to sign on to the no shorts rule—but a friend, Bill H’s wife put me back in shorts by 6th grade), what was annoying was when they came over, they took over our house. T.V. was inherently evil… well the commercials were. When they came over we could watch sporting events and even some T.V. shows, but we couldn’t watch commercials. At first, they just asked to black out the T.V. during the commercial. Then they asked us to mute it too. Mind you this was before you had a “mute” button on your T.V. and we certainly didn’t have a remote. They could come over to the house and eat on Sunday’s but they couldn’t play outside.
That was kind of like another family we knew; his name was Peter, I honestly don’t remember her name. They had three kids, two boys and a girl. The boys were some of the slickest liars I’ve ever known. I don’t remember much about the girl. They called each other weird names and talked a lot about God’s anger at the world. They couldn’t play outside on Sunday’s either. They were really strict on things like clothes and music, and T.V. but not so much on what was said when Peter was angry. He could yell, and even hit his kids with his fists or open palms because God put him in charge of the family. It’s not that I think Fred or Peter were bad people, they were probably sincere people. They wanted to keep their families protected from the evils of this world. They had their flaws, I’m sure.
The biggest flaw was they missed the point of the gospel. They failed to realize that it wasn’t the skirt, or the commercial, or playing on Sunday. They failed to realize that keeping the O out of G-D doesn’t make them any more spiritual. They failed to realize that “building buffers” so that they could stay extra far away from the polluting sin of the world. Legalism never works. Isolation works even less often. Those being isolated either rebel and go nuts or slowly die a painful soul killing death that robs them of what God created for them.
Fred’s family imploded. Literally exploded, came apart at the seams. Wife, kids, the whole 9 yards. Divorced now, maybe remarried, I don’t know. Funny though, the standards are different. I don’t know what happened with Peter’s family. They left our little town of heavenly abode spreading a swath of destruction and devastation in their wake.They blew up lives, just like the Pharisees before them.
In the end, the question becomes do you focus on what you’re not going to do, or what you are going to do? I find it interesting when Jesus gives an entire summation of the law he talks about what we’re supposed to do. Love God with everything, and love our neighbor. He gives us pro-active verbs. He doesn’t tell us to dress our women up in coo lots, and a list of don’t do this or that. He doesn’t even get into the Calvinism/Free will debate. He just says, “LOVE GOD, and LOVE OTHERS.” Maybe Jesus believes that love wins.
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Saw this video on CNN
The pastor of Stevens Creek Community Church is marketing an ATM/Debit Card system for giving in church called “SecureGive“.
He tells a good story about why this is the way to go. Good idea? I kind of like it!
Filed under: Christian, Christianity, Commentary, General, I Wonder, Real Life, Relevant Christian, Relevant Life, Thought for the Day
I have read much discussion on the subject of whether or not secular music can preach. They have tirelessly argued over pastors using secular music in their sermons to drive home a point. Some say ‘what’s the big deal’, others think that ‘the ends doesn’t justify the means’.
Now I will admit that I don’t listen to much christian radio. It is filled with too much cheese and bad programming and not to mention they play the same stupid songs over and over and over and over again.
So…to add fuel to the fire…read the lyrics below and then tell me what you think.
In this farewell
There’s no blood
There’s no alibi
‘Cause I’ve drawn regret
From the truth
Of a thousand lies
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done
I’ll face myself
To cross out what i’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what i’ve done
Put to rest
What you thought of me
While I clean this slate
With the hands of uncertainty
So let mercy come
And wash away
What I’ve done
I’ll face myself
To cross out what i’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what i’ve done
For what I’ve done
I start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I’m forgiving what I’ve done!!!
I’ll face myself
To cross out what i’ve become
Erase myself
And let go of what i’ve done
For what I’ve done
What I’ve done
Forgiving what I’ve done
Linkin Park / What I’ve Done
So…what are your thoughts?