I am reposting this off someone elses blog.  I usually don’t like to do this, but I got permission and I think the point is well made.

Maybe there are times when you have felt a bit like the crazy kid in this video. Something happens and it just sets you off on a path that has no good end to it. I know, I have been there many times before. I mean, I never stuck a remote control in my butt, but I have gotten pretty angry.

Now I am not one who will tell you that getting angry is a sin. There is no biblical support for this whatsoever. There are even those who try to say that only ‘righteous anger’ is ok, and use the example of Christ being angry at the temple workers to justify their position. While I agree being angry at sin is the correct way to go, I see nothing indicating that being angry at other stuff is a sin.

The bible does however give us some guidelines:

1. We should be slow to get angry according to James 1:19.
2. We should not sin in our anger according to Ephesians 4:26.

So I think biblically we can conclude that when we do get angry, it should take a long time for us to get angry, and in our angry we should still be loving God with all our hearts, souls and minds, and loving our neighbor as ourself.

I am not sure about you all, but that last part is a challenge for me. Usually, when someone in the church is not living or teaching as I believe they should, I get so angry and I run and tattle to the pastor rather than lovingly confronting the person myself. Clearly this is an area of sin for me that I need to work on. What do you need to work on when it comes to anger?

Technorati Tags: anger, scripture, temper

Unless you live under a rock or in a country other than the United States, you are probably aware of the movie called the Hunger Games which releases tonight at midnight.  Teens and adults nationwide are clamoring excitedly for what is sure to be a blockbuster hit.  So with all the craze and excitement, how should we as Christians respond?

To be honest, I have not yet read the book(s).  Not really sure how many there are at this point.  So because of that, I cannot and will not comment on the content of the books or the movie.  Too many ‘Christian’ leaders like John Macarthur and others get all up in a fuss when something is popular and decide to try to create or increase their following by coming out against different things without ever actually investigating what it is about.  I believe this to be a cheap journalistic trick and will not engage in it.

So, to that end, I will be reading the books and watching the movies when they come out on video.  For me personally, the price of the theater tickets is way too high.  Plus the seats are less comfortable than watching a video on my couch, but that is all personal preference.

You may be asking why a Christian woman such as myself would be willing and interested in watching a movie like the hunger games.  How can I align myself with such violence?  I believe that by engaging our culture we can reach our culture.

From what I have read in reviews, there is a wonderful redemptive story to the Hunger Games which we as Christians can use to transition into the redemptive story of Christ.  Just as Paul engaged the Thessalonians where they were when he began speaking about their unknown god, we have the same opportunities whenever a craze such as The Hunger Games takes our culture by storm.

As Christians we have a choice to either bury our heads in the sand like an ostrich and hope others are drawn to Christ by our self described piety, or we can stop acting like the Pharisees acted in the New Testament, and start acting like Christ.  We can meet our culture where it is and show them the path to Christ.  The choice is ours.  We cannot expect the world to come to where we are to find Christ, because we are only where we are because of Christ.

This is where it gets tough though. Are we willing as Christians to lay down our man made taboos in order to reach the lost?  Like Paul said, are we willing to become all things to all men to win some to Christ, or are we willing to let them burn.  Again I say, the choice is yours.

I do have one word of caution though.  There are some trends/ crazes that hit our culture that we are unable to engage in without falling into sin.  A quick and simple example would be strip clubs.  They make no attempt to hide what they are about and there is no need to investigate it to find out.  They are telling us what they are about, and I have yet to meet a Christian who would be able to partake in that activity without falling into lust.  Either male or female, depending on what type of club it is, is subject to the temptations and I believe should avoid it.

Technorati Tags: faith, freedom, hunger games

Patches lived at a bunny petting ranch.  Her owner set up the ranch so kids of all ages could come and pet and play with the bunnies.  Her owner, Baldrin, really liked to bring in busloads of kids suffering from all sorts of diseases.  It warmed his heart to see the joy playing with the bunnies brought to each child.
On the ranch there were twenty bunnies and Baldrin loved them all so much. Each one had their own hutch and all twenty hutches surrounded an acre of the most lush clover that anyone had ever tasted. If a bunny could die and go to heaven, this would be the heaven.atches lived at a bunny petting ranch. Her owner set up the ranch so kids of all ages could come and pet and play with the bunnies. Her owner, Baldrin, really liked to bring in busloads of kids suffering from all sorts of diseases. It warmed his heart to see the joy playing with the bunnies brought to each child.

One day in late spring, Baldrin gathered all his bunnies around himself to make an announcement. He told the bunnies that he would be gone for some time, because the bunnies had to move. Baldrin was going to the new location to build new hutches for the bunnies and to plant a new clover field for them.

In preparation for his leaving, Baldrin placed many lethal traps and lethal poison around the clover patch to protect the bunnies from any wild animals that may approach. He told the bunnies that they were free to roam the clover patch and eat as much clover as they like but they should never ever step outside of the clover patch.

Patches was the newest member of the bunny ranch and did not know the other bunnies all that well. With their day spent being played with by sick kids, eating clover, and sleeping, these bunnies did not have much time for socializing. However, with Baldrin gone, the petting zoo was closed so the bunnies found themselves with much more time on their hands.

One morning, Patches was up bright and early and was enjoying her clover breakfast even before the sun crested over the horizon. Patches always enjoyed the sunrise, so she hopped her way over to the eastern most edge of the clover patch and happily munched away as dawn slowly broke over their homes.

As she was basking in the warmth of the morning sun rays, another bunny hopped up beside her. His name was Jumpy Macarthur. Old Jumpy Macarthur had been at the bunny ranch for a long time and many of the other bunnies worshipped Jumpy Macarthur and considered his advice equal to that of Baldrin’s.

“What are you doing?” asked Jumpy Macarthur. “Don’t you realize that Baldrin has forbidden us to leave the clover patch?”

“But I’m not leaving it,” squeaked Patches (she was very startled by the tone and anger of Jumpy Macarthur’s voice. “I am only eating the clover here at the edge of the field. I would never go out.”

“Well,” said Jumpy Macarthur in a huff, “those of us who truly love Baldrin and want to obey him don’t even go near the edge of the clover patch. Why would we need to if we really loved him? Clearly it is wrong to get that close to the edge. I surmise that you really want to cross the line and that is why you are eating so close to the edge.”

“No! No!” squeaked Patches, “I do love Baldrin and would never leave the clover patch. I will prove this by never getting with three feet of the edge again.”

After some time Patches noticed that some of the bunnies disregarded the words of Jumpy Macarthur and still enjoyed 100% of the clover patch. Patches looked down on them with disdain. Clearly they did not love Baldrin as much as she.

One day, she became aware of the fact that some other bunnies were not approaching within six feet of the edge of the clover patch and they were looking at HER with disdain. How dare they! She loved Baldrin as much if not more than any of them. She set herself a new boundary of ten feet from the edge and smugly enjoyed looking down on the others again.

After a week, Jumpy Macarthur decided to call a meeting with all his followers. During the meeting he taught them all that going any amount of distance toward the edge of the clover patch was not loving Baldrin. He explained that he was now only utilizing one square foot of space outside his hutch. Half was used for eating clover and half was used for his waste. This was the only way they could all achieve being in the clover patch but not being of the clover patch.

Patches thought that Jumpy Macarthur seemed a bit less plump than the last time she had seen him, but thought nothing of it. She immediately set herself under these most loving restrictions as well. She loved Baldrin as much if not more than any other bunny, and she would prove it.

A week later, Patches’ waste half of her one square foot of clover was full to the max. As more days progressed, more and more of the one square foot was taken up by waste leaving less and less clover for patches to eat. Patches grew thinner and thinner, but as her skin grew looser and looser, her pride grew bigger and bigger. The smaller she got, the bigger her pride grew. She was so proud of how much she demonstrated her love for Baldrin.

The day finally came that Baldrin returned. Patches and the eight other bunnies that were proving their love for Baldrin were very excited. Though they could barely move due to how weak they were, they were finally ready to bask in the rewards Baldrin would bestow upon them due to their superior love of him.

Baldrin slowly made his way around to each of the twenty hutches inspecting all the bunnies. The nine bunnies who were weak he put in a bin that he carried with him as he made his inspections. Patches was very excited to be included as one of the special nine that were separated out for reward. She saw Jumpy Macarthur and all the others who were also looking very weak, but secretly she felt that she has become weaker than all of them and therefore loved Baldrin even more. Her reward would be the greatest of all.

Baldrin carried the bin into his house and down into his basement and turned on a very loud machine. It was all metal and made an awful noise. The noise scared Patches a little bit, but she was excited that the reward time must be very soon.

Baldrin reached into the bin and grabbed the bunny right next to patches and tossed it into the opening in the machine. There was a blood curdling scream and the noise the machine made got louder for a few seconds and then returned to its previous level. Patches got a little more scared at this point. One by one each of the other bunnies were thrown into the machine. They all screamed. Finally, it was Patches turn.

“Wait!” she screamed. Baldrin paused. “What are you doing to us? Why are you doing this to us? Why have all the others’ screams been cut off mid scream? We showed you how much we loved you! We suffered for you!”

“Silly bunny,” said Baldrin, “I never asked you to suffer. In fact I gave you freedom to eat over the whole acre. Though you claimed you were suffering for me, it was in fact for yourself and your own pride. You were so filled with pride and were only serving that pride and your hopes of getting a reward from me. I gave you freedom because I knew what is best for you. You chose suffering and now you are worthless to me. You will have one more chance to serve me and bring joy to the children who visit.”

With that, he threw Patches into the hot dog machine and poor little Patches was no more. Deluded by her own pride she died worthless and became a hotdog. Jumpy Macarthur fed her pride but starved her soul. He became a hotdog as well.

The next day, a group of kids from the local hospital were overjoyed to visit the bunny petting zoo again. It had been so long that they could not visit since Baldrin was out of town. Today was extra special for them because as an added treat, Baldrin was serving hotdogs.

I wrote this parable to teach us the importance of Galations 5:1

Technorati Tags: bunny, freedom, galations, legalism, macarthur, pride, reward

A few months back I tried to engage everyone in a conversation on gambling, but unfortunately, no one wanted to join me. Historically, when I discuss gambling with someone, inevitably they get to the point where they say something like, “Well, I can’t come up with anything else right now, but I know it is wrong.” In other words, “Since you have pointed out that my biblical ‘proofs’ were not infact proofs at all, I just cling to my preconceived opinion I had before I even opened the scriptures.”

Recently I had may first visit to gty.org.  If you are unfamiliar with it as I was, it is John MacArthur’s website.  I was shocked and dismayed that prominently displayed on the front page of their site was a post about gambling. In fact, on further research, I discovered that, Phil Johnson, Executive Director, has written a whole series of posts on this topic.I actually took the time to join and reply to his blog, but to no avail.  So far he has not had the courage/ integrity to approve my rebuttal.  In fact it appears he only approves 1 rebuttal for every 4 mindless agreements.  Bear in mind, I did not do a hard count, but this is the general impression I get by my observations.

Here at increasing faith, we allow all comments regardless if they agree with us or not.  .  The only thing we disallow is obvious spam.  Comments like, “I agree”, and then linking back to their own site are not permitted, and also attacking other commenters is not permitted either.  Other than that, disagree with me all you want.  I challenge Phil to have the same courage and integrity.  Allow people to freely comment.  If your are in the truth, you should have no fear.  Otherwise, it just appears like you are afraid of the other side making you look foolish.

All that being said, here is my point by point reply to his article:

“Gambling places something valuable at risk for an illegitimate purpose.”

First off, he has failed to establish that gambling is an illegitimate purpose.  Just because he states it does not make it so.  I can say the moon is made of cheese, but that does not make it so.  So let’s reword it in a more accurate, truthful way- “Gambling places something at risk for entertainment.”  Well that now opens up a whole mess of things like cable, high speed internet, movies, eating out at restaurants.  All of them place something at risk for the benefit of the person placing it at risk.  The reality is, gambling is the only one of these activities that gives you a chance to receive greater value for what you pay.  The others do not.

“Gambling is covetousness distilled to its very essence
I know people—and in all likelihood you do, too—who claim that they gamble only for entertainment or recreation; not out of greed or covetousness.
But if it’s mere entertainment they seek, why not play a game without staking any money on the outcome? Every gambler to whom I have ever posed that question has given me the same answer: “To play a game with nothing at stake is not as much fun.” The stake makes the game more “fun” or more “interesting.”

As a matter of fact, one commenter made that very point: “Poker simply doesn’t work without some money at stake . . . the money at stake adds to the enjoyment of the game.” He said he plays for small amounts—so that “the financial losses are not enough to be any more than entertainment money, and the prize not enough to create greed.”
Analyze that for a moment. Why would the element of gambling make a game more “fun?” There is only one reason: because the “fun” is derived not from the game itself but from the possibility of winning something that belongs to your neighbor. In other words, what makes gambling “fun” is pure covetousness.”

So the reason people go to work is for a paycheck, so that is ‘pure covetousness’?  The reason someone writes a blog like gty.org is to make money, so they are now coveting?  Phil, if John stopped paying you, would you still show up?  If the answer is no, then by your definition you are coveting and in sin.  Pure and simple.  You need to apply your arguments with equal integrity if they are valid.  One must assume they are not since you fail to equally apply them.

Also, the only thing that brought me to gty.org was someone posting that they were having a 20% off sale.  Does that mean that gty.org has been overcharging everyone for the past years by 20% which means they have been coveting 20% more of our money than they are due?  Placing the desire for money as motive the means test of coveting, then every person that goes to work for a paycheck is therefore in sin by your standard.  SERIOUSLY?

“Gambling can be a sinful dereliction of the steward’s duty for several other reasons as well. Note: I’m not arguing here that every act of gambling is necessarily tainted by all the following sins. But these are all major factors in the complex of evils that commonly accompany gambling. Anyone who practices gambling as a pattern of life is systematically tolerating and even cultivating the sin of covetousness in his or her heart. That person will of course be especially susceptible to many of the corresponding temptations, too:

•Slothfulness. Get-rich-quick schemes are practically all foolish and immoral. Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 28:22: “A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, and does not consider that poverty will come upon him.”
The promise of easy wealth is an overt appeal to slothful desire. Yet most gamblers freely acknowledge that the promise of gaining money quickly and with little effort is one of the major factors that adds to the “fun” of gaming. In other words, gambling fuels both covetousness and sloth.”

So now by your standard Phil, every person who analyzes mutual fund returns and picks the one with the highest return is sinning.  His desire to earn a return in the quickest possible way is by your standard, ‘slothfulness’ and therefore a sin.  In fact, you should go to John and offer to work for minimum wage, otherwise, you are just trying to get rich quick.  Oh, and hide your money under a mattress or else you are trying to get rich quick.

See ‘quick’ is relative.  Is 100% a year quick? What about 20%?  5%?  Phil, who appointed you the god of proper investment returns to determine what is quick and what is not?  Please enlighten us all.  What percent return is acceptable to you to keep out of sin?  Almost like asking the Pharisees how many steps are ok to take on the Sabbath, but we will hold off on the Pharisee comparisons for now.

“•Foolishness. Listen to Proverbs 22:16: “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.” That’s an interesting verse. Most of us will instinctively understand that it is sinful to oppress the poor in order to increase our riches. But the verse also says that you shouldn’t just give your money to the rich. Who would give their money away to rich people? People who gamble in casinos are doing it all the time.”

The same can be said for any purchase you make.  When you pay for cable, you are giving your money to the rich.  When you pay $8 at restaurant for a $1 slab of beef you are giving to the rich.  When you buy clothing at the store rather than sewing your own, you are giving to the rich.  The reality is, gambling venues are selling entertainment, you are giving them nothing.  If you go to the movies, you are giving money to the rich.  If you got to a show, you are giving money to the rich. PHIL- EITHER HAVE INTEGRITY AND CALL OUT ALL THESE ACTIVITIES, OR ADMIT, GAMBLING IS NOT A SIN!

“We could also talk about gambling’s negative impact on philanthropy and charity for the poor.”

As we could regarding eating out, going to the movies, etc.  Weak argument Phil.
The truth is, gambling does cost money.  It can be very unwise for some people to get involved with, but it is not sin.  The reality is, gambling is the only activity that one can spend money for entertainment and have a chance at getting some back.  Imagine if you went to a movie and they announced that 2 patrons would get triple their ticket value back to them at random.  Now it would be declared a sin by many folks to go to movies because it would now be gambling.  In other words the 100% chance of losing your money is more spiritual than a 2% chance of making money.  Does that make any sense?  Is that wise?

I can spend 2 hours playing in a $10 poker tournament or $10 at a movie.  Only one of those activities allows me the chance to walk away with some money in my pocket.  Also, the movie is giving money to the rich’ by Phil’s standard which makes it a sin.  If I lose, I am just giving my money to some middle class friends, so therefore it must not be a sin by Phil’s standard.

All I ask in discussing gambling, is so called Christian leaders do so with integrity.  Otherwise, they prove themselves to be the modern day Pharisees they are.

You see, I have this foolish notion that God through the Bible should determine what is sin and what is not.  Not some made up man made rule.  Otherwise, the Amish arguments for not driving cars are valid and we are all in sin.  If gambling is the great sin that the Pharisees say it is, then I believe God would have addressed it.  Didn’t they cast lots to determine the next Apostle after Judas killed himself?  Imagine, a game of chance to determine Apostleness.  Joseph called Barsabbas should have condemned their sin and not participated in it.

Technorati Tags: gambling, gty.org, john macarthur

Last night I was having a friendly conversation with some good friends regarding the morality or lack there of gambling in various forms. I typically find that the range of opinions regarding this to go from completely immoral to completely moral. People tend to have a fair amount of passion regarding this, and bring out said passion in discussion. Last night was thankfully more low key regarding the passion front, and the typical mindsets appeared in one form or another. Those of you who know me well, know where I land on this, but for those who do not I will not spoil the surprise.

My goal with this post is to engage in the discussion regarding gambling from a moral perspective. The foundation of this discussion is the Bible, just so we are all on the same page. Remember, keep it nice and on topic.

So what do you think? Is it wrong to gamble? Should a Christian gamble or refrain from it? Would you teach your kids to play poker?

Technorati Tags: christian, gambling, holdem, moral, poker

Have you ever really looked in the mirror? I mean, looked really close. You might see a zit on its way in at one spot, and another on its way out at another. As you get older, you will start seeing hair in places that never had hair before, and you may see less hair in some places that used to enjoy being hairy. A few wrinkles will appear over time, and all in all, if we look real close, it tends not to be a very pretty sight. Even super models, when pictured in real life look a little squirrelly over time.

Looking in a mirror can and often is a painful experience. It makes us want to change things about ourselves. To improve what we see in the mirror.

Now I want to imagine that you have a magic mirror. Sort of like the one Bell from Beauty and the Beast had. Not that it would show you what you want, but that it was magic. But our magic mirror would have a very specific kind of magic. It would be so special, because when we would look in this mirror, we would not see our face, but we would see ourselves from God’s perspective.

We would see all the junk we hold onto and love as God sees it, junk. We would see our uniqueness that has shamed us as the beauty God intended it to be. We would see the puss filled sacks of sin in our lives as just that, fetid rotted flesh.

How much time would we spend looking in this mirror? Could we really take it? There are days I get to work, and after using the bathroom at work, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realize that that is the first time I have looked at myself that day. I somehow managed to shower, dress, brush my teeth, and do all my other morning rituals, and never once glance at myself. Now this is not because I do not want to see myself, it is just that 1. I get up at the butt crack of dawn, so I am still half asleep, and 2. I really do not care all to much about what people think of my appearance.

But let’s pretend for a moment. Let’s pretend that I have a giant golf ball size zit on my cheek. (can you even imagine the pain of that sucker). This baby is huge, and it is a perpetual whitehead. Even if I pop it, it forms a new white head. When I exercise, the zit juice dribbles down my neck and onto my shirt. To make matters worse, it looks like there is a second one beginning to form on my other cheek. My body has turned against me.

After this has gone on for a few months, and my friends have nicknamed me Mt. Pussuvius, how often do you think I would look in the mirror? Each time I would look, I would see a massive puss bubble on the brink of erupting. Nothing I could do to change it, so eventually, I would stop looking. It would not longer matter if my hair was a mess, because who would be looking? Got lettuce in your teeth? Who cares? The eyes are naturally drawn to the gargantuan bubble of puss residing on your cheek.

So when we look at ourselves through the mirror of God, there is no doubt that we will see many of these giant zits. Do we give up and stop looking? The difference between Zit monster and our God mirror, is that God gives us the tools and the grace to begin removing the giant zits from our spiritual faces. It takes time and discipline, but it will work like a spiritual dose of Proactive.

You: BUT WAIT! I must have been in the bathroom when these God mirrors got passed out because I never got one.

Me: Yes you did.

You: No I didn’t! (you even stomped your feet a little at this point.

Me: Yes you did, it is called the Bible. Start in I Corinthians 13. If God is Love, and we are supposed to be like Him, how much of our lives do or do not line up with I Cor 13? That little mirror is enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life. Every day I fall short of this mirror.

Below is a skit by The Skit Guys. It illustrates a bit what I am talking about and goes a little more in depth into God’s view of you. I enjoyed it, and I hope you do to.

Technorati Tags: chisel, god, guys, love, mirror, proactive, skit, The, zit

My younger readers may not know that the title to this post is also a title to a old school popular song at one time.  If you are not familiar with it, it is essentially about a guy who goes to a gipsy and gets a love potion.  This potion causes him to fall in love and want to kiss everything he sees.  Sometimes I wonder if following the second greatest commandment would be easier if we all had a little love potion no 9.

What prompted this bizarre chain of thinking was my prayers the other day.  I was praying for someone who tends to be a little difficult for me to interract with.  As I was talking to God, God said, “Do you love him?”  Well, I have been trying to show him love, I replied.  God answered back, “I didn’t ask you to show him love, I asked you to love him.”

For many of you this may seem like a simple no brainer, but for me it was profound.  How often do I try to show someone love rather than really trying to love them?

This can tend to a challenge for me.  People can get on my nerves.  Prekids, I used to tell my wife that if God took her home early, I would probably become a hermit.  So this lesson from God really home.  Loving instead of just showing love.  Love will be shown naturally when I love, but loving will not naturally happen when I show love.

Showing love is fake, in and of myself, and is absent of the work of God.  Loving is a miracle from God.  Loving takes transformation.  So God, please teach me to love, and not just show love.

Today, I was just preaching at myself.  If anyone else benefitted, I am glad.  Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Technorati Tags: fake, god, love, potion, real, show

A favorite verse for many Christians to quote to other Christians is Romans 12:2.  It is a beautiful hammer to swing down on the heads of those not conforming with a lifestyle choice mandated by the swinger.  Isn’t it great, who can fight back.  Noone wants to (at least outwardly) go against scriptures with their lifestyle.  1 Point awarded to the Pious Christian, and the peasants rejoice.

But WAIT! (oh no, Kurt is about to stir the pot)  The crux of the matter is who is defining what.  For complete clarity, here is the actual text of the verse: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”(NIV)  Seems pretty straight forward.  Don’t live like the world, be changed by renewing your mind, that way you can figure out what Gods’ will is.  (KSV- Kurt’s Summary Version)

The problem that arises is, who gets to determine what living like the world means?  I know some of you say, “Well that is just common sense, it means x, y, and z.”  At the risk of sounding judgemental, doesn’t relying on common sense to determine our morality seem… well…  a bit worldly?  For you, common sense might mean wearing a bikini is wrong, but for the Amish man, common sense says that wearing zippers is wrong. (for the record, dudes wearing bikinies, thongs, or speedos is wrong on a level that transcends the spiritual.)  So whose common sense is correct?  Whose common sense spiritual living do we follow?

WHOA!!! I shout through a megaphone.  Hopefully for those of you riding on your high horse of judgment, your horse has now halted.  The reality is, most that are riding their high horses would never read this, and those that did certainly stopped by the second paragragh.  But if there are a few still with us, and for those of us who are more likely to be trampled by the horse than ride it (though I have on occassion been known to jump in the saddle), why don’t we see what scripture has to say.  I know, it is a novel idea to define spirituality and morality by scripture, but why don’t we take a poke at it.  Just for kicks, or maybe just so we can correct our theology a bit.

In Matthew 22 :36-40 we see- 36. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37. And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38. This is the great and first commandment. 39. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Most of us are familiar with verses 36 and 39, but the crux of our topic today lies in verse “40.  On these to commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  In other words, all God’s moral yardsticks and code can be summarized back to love God and love others.  So if someone wants to judge the action of another, they also need to judge their heart.  Probably a good question to ask from atop the high horse of judgement is, “Is it possible to love God or others by doing what that person is doing?”  Or better yet, instead of riding your high horse, why not climb down and look at your own life.  Because I think we can all agree that riding a high horse of judgement is typically done out of love for self.  Plus only God knows a man’s/woman’s heart/motives.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying live and let live.  I completely affirm the need for brothers and sisters in Christ to come along side one another and at times smack each other upside the head and tell us to straighten out.  However, from my experience the Dark Riders (please don’t read anything into the fact that this term is the representative of the essence of evil in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, somewhat completely unrelated/hyperrelated to my opinion of the Dark Riders) will not come along side you, but come at you if you are lucky.  I say lucky, because then you can at least try to educate them out of their ignorance. 

More than like though, the Dark Riders will challenge you because you believe x, y, and z is ok, and not whether you do it.  The very fact that you believe it will shake them to the core and cause them to saddle up.  Or even more likely, they will just ride down to the stable and talk about you to the other Dark Riders.  But it is ok for them to gossip about you because after all they are the Dark Riders, they determine morality, they are the judge of the spirit, heart, and motives.  Only they are pure enough to ride and ride high.  To help throw a cloak of spirituality over it, they may say a prayer for you to come out of your depths of worldliness. (I hope the intended sarcasm came through the written word, if not reread it in a sarcastic tone)

After rereading what I have written, I seem to have quite a negative tone to my writing which I don’t like.  Also, I find my self being a Dark Rider against the Dark Riders which I don’t like either.  I guess I am fed up with people trying to determine morality by what people do instead of who people are.  Only God can determine what is moral and what is not.  The rest of us should probably just try to what He says  instead of creating extra rules for people to follow.

Technorati Tags: christ, dark, faith, judgement, law, love, matthew, riders, world

Are you really reading this?  Is there actually a post from Kurt after all this time?  Yes and Yes.  This is my final post in this series, and then I hope to start afresh.  I honestly cannot tell you what happened to my initial energy with writing for this site, but it went somewhere.  So I will try to reawaken myself.

In the next few weeks, you should begin seeing some changes to design etc as I work to improve the site. 

Regarding our tripod for church growth- Our tripod is complete.  Prayer, Fellowship, and meeting needs.  However, there is one more aspect which is part of fellowship that I wanted to highlight.  In John 17, Christ prays for us believers.  In it He prays for us to have unity.

He prays for us to have unity so the world will know we are His.  How often do people leave churches over music style or carpet color?  God has called us to be unified.  In fact he prayed for us to be unified.

I truly believe if the American church would follow the tripod to church growth, and be unified in it endeavors, there would be a spiritual explosion in the U.S. that would light the world on fire.

Speaking of fires, hopefully the writing fire has been reignited and you will hear from me again shortly.

Yes, it is I, the phantom faith blogger. It has been far too long. It is one of those situations where it went to long, then it just kept getting longer, then you start feeling bad, but you keep pushing it off, then it gets almost laughable, then you feel even more bad, then you finally get back to it. So here I am.
Over the next few weeks, I will finish out this series. One more after this one at least. And I will also update you on the church planting front.

If you remember way back to the first article in this series, the third element of the Acts church was meeting the needs of others. More specifically, they were living communally, and if a need came up within their church family, they met it. However, I imagine, because they were following Christ, I believe they would be caring for orphans and widows.

See aside from all the other things God wants us to do, He has boiled it down to just two commandments. Do you remember Mark 12:29-31? The most important commands are to love your Lord and love your neighbor. This is all we have to worry about. If you adhere to these, all the other commands will take care of themselves.

So if we act like the Acts church and truly start loving each other and loving our neighbors, what would this do to our church? Would we see dying churches? Would we see a world heading to hell in a handbasket? Probably a lot less so.

I know we have talked about it before, but I cannot say it enough, start loving.

And finally, let me be the first to say, “Welcome Back.” To myself.

Technorati Tags: acts, church, faith, love