Fear of Association

On several occasions recently I experienced a desperate urge to distance myself from the designation of Christian. This does not mean that I have been ashamed of Christ. Rather, I have been ashamed of those who claim to follow Him.

You may say that I am over reacting, but I was thoroughly repulsed by two church signs I saw recently. The first said, “Heaven is cool.” Beyond being a really bad pun (assuming hell is hot), this sign depicts a very limited and trivial understanding of God’s desire for man and the gravity and awesomeness of the Gospel message. Non-Christians reading this sign, I feel, get a very stuffy and trite view of Christianity.

The second sign said something to the effect of, “Do not let your eyes tell your heart what to believe.” Say what you like about the intent of the message, this is heretical and very poor epistemology. Our human nature (made in the image of God) has a tendency to believe what it sees. Scripture says that creation declares the existence and glory of God. Why should our eyes not inform our heart of what it believes. Perhaps the sign should say, “Do not let your heart tell your eyes what they are seeing.”

We must not allow a disconnect between our ways of determining truth and we must not act in blind faith. We are called to believe based on something. Blind faith is reckless, dishonest, and impotent to convince others of the truth. We are designed to and able to see and hear and feel and smell and taste and intuit and reason about God’s truth and then accept the message of God’s communications to us.

I recently read a brief but brutally honest account of church history in Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory Boyd. (This is a book I highly recommend.) This account focused on the denial of the way of the suffering Christ and the use of the sword by “Christians” for most of Church history. The almost endless saga of war, torture, rape, forced conversions, persecutions, recreational killing, and inhuman slaughter all in the name of Christ and Christendom made me literally sick on my stomach. To be identified with such a legacy of blatant denial of the teachings of Christ was almost more than I could bear. I did find myself able to proudly identify myself with one of the few groups who denied this legacy. The Anabaptists were listed as one of the groups who did not practice these things.

Evangelicals Try to “Keep America Christian” When it Never Was

By Justin Webb

The current US presidential debates are almost certain to see the candidates asked to comment on spiritual issues, but some Americans are worried about the trend towards religiosity in public life.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be challenged on their beliefs

At my twins’ annual school camp in West Virginia, you are meant to leave your troubles behind.

It is an idyllic couple of days – a communing with nature which my wife gallantly insists is simply too enjoyable for her to take part in – it has to be a dad’s experience.

Actually it is not that uncomfortable. The tents are sensible structures with plenty of room to stand up. There are rudimentary bunk beds you can bang your head on in the early morning.

The setting is a reminder too of the size of the United States – only two hours from the nation’s capital, these are woods and fields as empty and isolated as any in the Scottish Highlands.

The Goal of Paul’s Preaching: An example for today’s church leaders

In 1 Tim. 1 Paul reminds Timothy of some assignments that he gave before he left. A part of this was that Timothy was to keep some of the men of Ephesus from striking off into a variety of strange teachings which were, if not harmful, then at least not beneficial to the Kingdom of God. Paul says that instead of teaching these worthless inquiries and secret ideas, the purpose of his own and these men’s instruction should be “love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (NASB v. 5)

The goal of preaching should be to:

1) engender love from pure hearts

2) develop good consciences

3) encourage sincere faith

Was Hitler Bad Enough to Kill?

A friend and I were recently discussing a Christian response to evil in the world. We discussed what to do with very evil people like Hitler. My friend, to a certain degree playing the devil’s advocate, suggested that since Hitler was so evil, people were justified in trying to kill him. In fact, may people who have studied his life believe that he was demon possessed. As I understand Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the little I have read of him, this is the line that he took. Hitler was so evil that it was for the common good of everyone if he was killed. He was the common thread that was holding the entire evil machine of the Third Reich together. If he was removed the evil would stop.

I counter: Neither Jesus or the apostles ever worked to assassinate Caesar or destroy the Colosseum even though horrible evil happened there. The Romans watched people kill each other or be eaten by animals for entertainment. They did it not out of hate and racial discrimination, but for pleasure. They left babies out on garbage dumps to die, divorce and immorality were rampant, and there was every kind of hideous and deviant behavior you can imagine. Still, Jesus and the early Christians did not try to kill anyone or even gain government power to stop the wrong doing.

To put the Hitler killing scenario into modern terms, Hitler was actively killing Jews for approximately three years. In this time he killed just slightly more Jews that America alone aborts babies in the same amount of time. Not only this, but America has been aborting babies for over twenty years. If we as Christians are justified in killing Hitler, then I would say that we are equally justified in killing abortion doctors.

And where do we draw the numerical line. If someone kills 1 million Jews in three years, are they still justified in being killed? How about 50 people a year? Should we take them out? If you step onto the boat of the one bringing justice, you become faced with the fact that a lot more people are really terrible. And if you look at yourself and are honest, you will realize like the Pharisees who wanted to stone the adulterous woman and the Israeli spy who mournfully testified against a Nazi war criminal, that I am just as evil inside.

Here are a few abortion statistics to remind you again of the need for the redemption of individual hearts in this world:

WORLDWIDE

Number of abortions per year: Approximately 46 Million
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 126,000

Where abortions occur:
78% of all abortions are obtained in developing countries and 22% occur in developed countries.

Legality of abortion:
About 26 million women obtain legal abortions each year, while an additional 20 million abortions are obtained in countries where it is restricted or prohibited by law.

Abortion averages:
Worldwide, the lifetime average is about 1 abortion per woman.

© Copyright 1999-2000, The Alan Guttmacher Institute. (www.agi-usa.org)

UNITED STATES

Number of abortions per year: 1.37 Million (1996)
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

Saving Our Nation’s Moral Foundation-Is it our job?

If Jesus had wanted to cause moral reform, He would have got on the boat with the Pharisees. If any one was moral they were. Instead He rejected their moral actions which were not backed by an inner change. He rejected using their methods and organization for the purpose of coercing people to do right. Instead He called people to an inner change out of which would flow truly good action. It is not our business to try to cause people to do right or to deter moral decline in our nation. We are not to get on the bandwagon with the moral reformers of our day and attempt to use the government’s laws to cause right living and stop immorality and the breakdown of society and the family. We are to call people to love God and their fellow men with all their heart and they will begin to do right as an automatic response.

And He Spoke to Them in….Stories

Think all the way back to the Sunday morning sermon that you probably heard a few days ago. What is the first thing that popped into your head when you did this? There is a very good chance that the first thing you thought of was a story that the speaker told. Like Graham, I have recently been thinking about the power of story. Consider what happens in church when you are getting sleepy during the sermon. What happens when the preacher begins a story? Almost always, you suddenly become alert and begin to listen with renewed attention. What do you remember about your grandfather? There is a good chance your memory involves storytelling. What do children frequently ask parents? They ask for a story. How did Jesus teach? Many times He told stories. He spoke to them in parables. God Himself communicated on a regular basis through stories. Stories bring a human connection to facts and ideas. Stories allow us to connect others experiences with our own. Throughout history, even though most people did not know how to read or write, they knew their history and about their gods because of the stories passed down from one generation to the next. Storytelling has been one of the most defining ways of communication in human history.

I think that one of the best things about postmodernism is its emphasis on storytelling and listening to other’s stories. Christians have a powerful battery of stories to tell. We need to follow the example of the Master Teacher and communicate these Stories with passion and authority. We need to speak the story of the Gospel with the authority of Christ.

In the coming weeks when you prepare to teach or speak or converse at school, at church, or in the lunch room or carpool, consider what stories you have to tell. Carefully chosen stories can help to plant your message firmly in your listener’s memory and to make the ideas you want to communicate more understandable. Christ spoke to them in parables, stories that had meaning. This is a fine example to follow.

Thoughts From the Radio

Today as I drove in my work van, I was listening to the local Christian radio station. The program that came on was by Moody Bible Institute and the speaker held some post there. Here is my regurgitation of two of his main points, which I found fascinating to ponder.

First, baptism is the symbolic act in which denotes one’s becoming united with a Trinitarian God. When Jesus the Son was baptized, the Spirit descended as a dove and the Father spoke from above. All three were present signifying an affirmation of a trinitarian relationship. In baptism, we become united with this God as well.

Second, the most frequently emphasized phrase in the Great Commission is “Go ye into all the world”. But if we look at the verse more closely, we will see that the key phrase is “make disciples”. The verse then goes on to tell us how to do this. We must, of course, go to get to where they are. We are then to baptized them (signifying a unification of them to God) and to teach them to do right. The Great Commission and the work of Christians on earth is to be focused on making disciples.

Drop in a Bucket

I was recently talking to a man in charge of a children’s ministry in Lancaster City. He told me that there are three Mennonite groups doing children’s ministries in the city, but the city is by no means covered. My speeding mind came to an abrupt halt as that thought penetrated my central processing unit. Lancaster is a very small city. It is only the eigth largest city in Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia there are far fewer children’s ministries per capita. In most other cities of the world there are fewer or none. Think of all the children that know nothing of the Kingdom of God. Add to that all the teens, adults, and elderly who do not either. There may be some of these who have heard of Jesus, but that is not enough. We need tell and show these people what it means to be a part of the Kingdom. We cannot be content with handing out tracts. The Gospel needs to be communicated through relationship. Paul went to places and preached, but when he was done preaching he stayed for a year or so to show them how to live. We need to go to our neighbors, our coworkers, our nearby cities, and the many other places where no one is bringing the presense of the Kingdom. We need to build relationships that allow others to see what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We need to be a light in our area, even if it is small. Every life is significant. Even Jesus, while on earth, only established, at most a few hundred followers in a space of several hundred square miles. It is the nature of the Kingdom to grow by each person doing their individual part. Together the Body can make a mighty force changing our cities and the world from the hearts of individuals out.

Finding Balance

It is important to try to figure out what one believes. It is important to study the Scripture. But both of these can very easily become a self-satisfying excuse for doing one of the few, and most important, commands given by Jesus. ”Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Jesus did not give a lot of commands, but most of them revolve around two theme: loving God and loving others. All too often we get caught up in figuring out the details of our theology and how the next guy wears the wrong kind of suit, and we fail to expend energy and time calling people into relationship with Jesus. Is someone’s belief about the holy kiss or head veiling type or even head veiling worthy of taking all our time and efforts while our neighbors and coworkers are living outside of the joy of Christ?

The Backwards, Upsidedown, Powered-by-love Kingdom is Advancing

I have recently read a newsletter from a ministry that works with Muslims of a particular Middle Eastern country. I have been interested in this ministry for a while. From what I can tell, it is a very powerful ministry working in a very fertile field. I very much like reading their newsletter which is sent out bimonthly. It is filled with a large quantity of short blurbs of Muslim prayer needs and happenings. I find it refreshing because the newsletter presents large prayer requests like national events of this country down to little events like one person working with Muslims in an American city somewhere. It gives all these as important and offers a very Christian perspective of how each event should be prayed for.

After that long and informative (I hope) list of facts, here is the part that is referred to in the title. One of the stories given in the newsletter is a refreshing reminder of the power of the Kingdom of God. We so often hear of persecution and the advances of evil society and the decline of social conditions that we easily become discouraged and begin to think that the Kingdom and Good are being driven into the dirt, being conquered by evil and physical force. But, the story I am about to relate reminded me that the Kingdom of Love is still defeating evil.

For the safety of the Christians and missionaries mentioned by this newsletter, they ask that the information not be publicly displayed or sent to the Middle East. If you wish to have more info about the ministry, please email me at jkemouse@frontiernet.net

Prayer Item #23:

Every spring nearly 100,000 Muslims arrive by boat at a Greek Orthodox festival on an island in the sea near (the afore mentioned country) They have traditionally sought blessings from priests at the Greek church atop the island’s steep hill. In recent years, evangelical believers have distributed New Testaments to those making the climb to the church and have offered to pray for any needs they might have. “At this years’s event something was different,” a worker writes. “People kept stepping forward to be ministered to. They kept coming, and coming, and coming.” When the assistant mayor and police detectives tried to arrest the believers, the crowd prevented this. The police said, “This is a Muslim country,” and made threats. But the people weren’t afraid of them and kept standing in line to be prayed for. Women went forward with tears streaming down their cheeks, men received prayer in stoic silence, and children watched in wide-eyed wonder. A woman was overheard saying to her friend, ” I never used to believe in this, but now I do. You need to go forward and get help from God. Let them pray for you. You have to admit that Jesus has power.” One lady brought her spouse forward and said, “Last year you prayed for my husband who was sick, and now he is healed.” The Christians sensed God’s presence in a special way, and apparently many in the crowd did too. Some asked, “What energy is this? What’s this power?” Praise the Lord for this demonstration of His presence and love. Pray for the effective follow-up of those who expressed interest in the Gospel or professed faith in Christ. Give thanks for the believers who faithfully participate in this outreach year after year in spite of continued opposition.

The Kingdom is moving forward in the power of Its King and His Love. Hallelujah!!