CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Saturday, December 13, 2008

GIFTS OF LOVE OR GIFTS OF OBLIGATION?

DYING BOY'S FINAL WISH COMES TRUE
We feud with our families and refuse to forgive and forget before the holiday. We feel our Christmas is just not right because we don’t have the funds to spend the way we want to. We train our kids to expect great gifts for Christmas. As adults, we secretly get disappointed when we don’t get the gift we were hoping for. We eat enormous meals and watch the leftovers go rotten in a few days. We go through the holiday thinking we understand the meaning of Christmas because we focus on Jesus’ birth, yet most of us fail to sacrificially give a gift that can make an impact on someone who really needs it. We make sure we tell our kids about the gift of Christ but don’t show them the gift of servitude that came with the birth of Christ.
Jesus came to the earth as a gift of redemption.
I celebrate Christmas by giving gifts of obligation.

May the Lord grant me the heart of this young child.

Monday, December 8, 2008

CHRISTIANS ARE SO UNCHRISTIAN: TRUE OR FALSE?

I've been reading Dan Kimball's book "They Like Jesus, But Not The Church". And it has inspired me to repost an old post. I don't want to forget where Christianity is today and the severity of what is happenening to the Body of Christ in North America. Here it is:

A gentleman came up to me the other day and told me how he had asked a fellow coworker why he didn’t come to a bible study that was open to all the employees at their job? The young man told him to get lost (with more descriptive words) and take his religion crap elsewhere. This blew the man away because his coworker was a man that was always showing others respect and love. But when it came to a Christian trying to have a “Christian conversation”, he was turned away like he had some nasty plague.

In Dan Kimball’s book, “They Like Jesus, But Not The Church”, he tells us how the issue is not Jesus, but rather His followers. Though Christians need to hold onto the Truths Jesus gave, it’s how Christians have handled that Truth that has scarred so many into turning them away from Jesus.
JESUS VS. CHRISTIANS


Judgmental, antihomosexual, hypocritical, too political and sheltered. According to the book “UnChrisitian”, written by David Kinnaman, these are the words of those outside of the church from the late teens to early 30 somethings when asked to describe Christians. According to Kinnaman's Barna study, here are the percentages of people outside the church from that age range who think that the following words describe present-day Christianity:

* antihomosexual 91%
* judgmental 87%
* hypocritical 85%
* old-fashioned 78%
* too political 75%
* out of touch with reality 72%
* insensitive to others 70%
* boring 68%

Kinnaman believes that these are not stereotypes with no basis of reality. Each person in the poll gave specific details on why they believe such things about Christians. This morning, after I read one of those “Christian-fowarded emails” that determines how solid of a Christian you are by forwarding it on to as many people as possible, I could only laugh and think of what a person outside the church would have thought if they read it. It was about keeping America a Christian nation because that is what the founders intended it to be. The last words read something along the lines of “If you’re a Christian, then remind people of what our country is by telling them to SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!” Wow.

Christians have two ways to react to this. One way is to justify every critique that has been given us by those outside the church and point the finger back at them. The other way is to evaluate how we want to be perceived by those outside the church and how can we change that perception without compromising The Truth. One thing is certain: those outside of the church hate us....and sometimes, I don’t blame them.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

JUDGING A BOOK


Several months back I was hearing all this hoopla about the “Twilight Series”. I read magazine articles about it. Some saying it will be the first series to sell on the scale of Harry Potter. It was the next hot thing out there. So I decided to check it out. When my wife and I were in the check out lane at Wal-Mart, I told her I forgot something and then ran and grabbed the book. When I brought it back to the check out lane, she looked at the book and said, “Are you sure you want to get that? It looks and sounds like a girls book.” I kind of agreed, so I put it back and grabbed a different book.
Over the next couple of months, we kept coming across that book and the youth of our church couldn’t keep their mouths closed about it. Needless to say I regretted not getting it. So I went out and purchased it. While I was being drawn into the book, I was waiting for something vampireish to happen. Some fighting, action, garlic, stakes, crucifixes. But all I was coming across was some really cheesy teenage love story. IT WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY! I wanted to see these amazing, super-human tough vampires go to action. And it finally came……..in the last couple of chapters. My thoughts of the book? Sappy and disappointing.
She seems to have all her stuff together. She’s a beautiful young girl. She’s very personal and doesn’t lack friends. When we talk, she makes sure she tells me about how she told someone about her faith. She lets me know what book of the Bible she’s reading. Every Wednesday she’s one of the few girls who bring her Bible. But every now and then I have to approach her with something I’ve heard. Parties where she’s wasted. Several guys that she’s crossed boundaries with. Smoking weed. She is a young gal that is trying to do the Jesus thing, but has a problem of being transparent. She feels that her job is to make people believe her life is good, but has not come to understand that being a Christian means that we’re just not good.

One of the most exciting youths in our youth group is a young gentleman named Brian. If one was to look at him, they would probably be scared out of their pants because he has a pretty rough image. He has a head full of crazy out of control hair. He has a tough (yet handsome)mug on his face that looks like he could chew your face off. He’s not a small guy. He dresses to his own liking, not to impress anyone. And he has his own rock band. But if you were to have one conversation with this young man, you’d thing you just had a conversation with someone that has the heart of Mother Teresa. He’s by far one of the most loving gentlemen I have ever known. He goes out of his way to make his beautiful girlfriend know she's loved by him. He asks the serious questions. He wants to grow deeper but recognizes his struggles. When we worship, he’s screaming off the top of his lungs. This youth gets all the leaders excited and has much potential (along with his girlfriend Candace) to do great things for the kingdom of God.

We hear and see things and we assume it’s true. We see a book and we figure it has to be good because it looks good or that’s what people are saying. But sometimes we pick it up and read it and it is nothing we were expecting. We judge to quickly. We need to make sure that we don’t assume the book is good or bad until you know for yourself. The hearts of each individual has its own motives, and we don’t know what it is. All we can do is see the fruit of someone and let it be what it is.

“Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” 1Cor. 4:5