Time to Panic or Surrender?
As I write this article, it is Saturday morning and the US Credit rating has been downgraded from it’s AAA rating by one of three rating agencies. Funny how this happened after the markets on Wall Street had already closed giving them no time to react impulsively to the news. The news media is giving voice to anyone who wants to get in front of a camera and point fingers, and many hold their breath waiting to see how the markets will react on Monday morning. Whatever is going to happen will start in Asian markets first, and will ripple around the world to US markets later the same day. Are you worried? The truth is, no one knows what will happen next. The economy seems to be on a daily roller coaster that is being built daily, and the future is...
In the world
I’m searching for balance. Believe it or not, it seems to be much harder than you’d think, because it is admittedly so subjective. In living the Christian life I see extremes. Here are some themes I see as extreme: 1. Liberty in Christ without responsibility. The thinking goes along the lines of “I’m saved so I can do whatever I want. You cannot judge me. Only God can judge me.” There is no accountability there, and no responsibility. 2. Saved and Separated and out of touch. This is the more conservative side of Christianity where the saved take defensive positions within church walls and have no contact with the lost. They see the world as it truly is, a desperate and sinful place, but fail to see their place in...
Better Late Than Never?
It has been a crazy week, and it is only Tuesday. The rest of the week doesn’t look good either as the sky seems to be falling on my secular job. Good thing it cannot start any sooner than 8:AM and cannot last any later than 5:PM because I simply won’t allow it! However, it does exhaust me, and quite simply, I forgot to post yesterday at all. However, whatever I was going to write about probably would not have been as meaningful (to me anyway) as the post I am going to write now. Last Sunday night, I preached on prayer for the end of the AWANA year service. It is something God has really been working on me about. For so long, I have had issues I have been dealing with on a personal level, and never felt like I could really talk with God until...
Extraordinary Faith
Teaching the kids at AWANAs tonight about the faith of Abram (not yet Abraham). He was told by God to leave his country, his kin, his people, his way of life and everything that made him feel secure and comfortable behind and go to a land where everything would be different for him. Not easy today, but imagine the leap in Bible times, and the disconnect he was being asked to make from everything that made him who he was. Fear did get the best of him on at least one occasion, and in the famine that came he fled to Egypt, but this only serves to remind me that he is no different than us. No less human, yet his faith was extraordinary. Thus the question: What makes faith extraordinary? I could try to be cliche and say God is the little extra in the ordinary,...
What Is Impossible With Men
The other day I was reading my Bible and came across the story of the rich young ruler. It’s a popular story among my emerging Christian friends: Jesus tells a rich young ruler that unless he sells his possessions and gives to the poor, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. In the light of the Prosperity Gospel and theocapitalism (which is when the free market system is worshiped like a god), this account serves as a reminder that we, as Christians, cannot serve both God and money. But then a few verses down I noticed this: “Those who heard this asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’”–Luke 18:26-27 (NIV) Even though I’m not rich by any stretch of the...
Authentic Christian Cool
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading Brett McCracken’s book Hipster Christianity. It’s a pretty good book overall, although I personally think Brett could have done more research for the chapter on the emerging church. And he does suggest that social justice is just another fad. But Brett does bring up some good points. For example, near the end he explains the differences between authentic Christian cool and being a self-righteous hipster jerk. Hipsters, as Brett explains, are all about individualism. Everything they do is a self-conscious attempt to be better and cooler than the average square (do people still say “square?”). Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to be other-centered instead of self-centered. ...