I AM DISMAYED TODAY

A NEW LEARNING
Church is God’s idea.
Church is Christ’s body on earth. The term ‘body’ refers to the collective of believing people who represent Christ and his values on this planet since he has ascended to his father’s side.

The inherent weakness of the identity rests in the limitations of the human creature. A believer is not a perfect creation, but a being undergoing a spiritual makeover which began with a spiritual birth – a conversion.

I have seen that weakness once again today. Oh, of course, some days I myself am the primary exhibitor of human weakness. I admit that. Today however, I have seen the Church in its weakness.

Humans who love Jesus but who are out of harmony with one another for frivolous reasons. And that is what makes me ache today. Christ’s body is ailing. It needs help. Not the entire body of Christ, but a cell of it, a local congregation. It’s not easily diagnosable as swine flu but something bad is happening. It’s just that we wallow in consumerism, wanting the church and its leadership and its services to fit our requirements. When it doesn’t we do not get along with everyone within the body. That’s what hurts me today.

I am not even a pastor any longer. More of an onlooker, a supporter, an advocate. Yet I feel the pain again, as once I did when leading a church. And I am saddened for Christ’s sake that his body will not function as he would have it.

It is time to pray. Nothing short of the intervention of God himself can interrupt this sickness.

RESURRECTION SUNDAY

A NEW LEARNING
Resurrection Sunday
On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Christians believe according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion, is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Because of Easter's pagan origins, and also because of the commercialization of Easter, many Christian churches have begun to refer to it as Resurrection Day. The biblical account of Jesus' death on the cross, or crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection, or raising from the dead, can be found in the following passages of Scripture: Matthew 27:27-28:8; Mark 15:16-16:19; Luke 23:26-24:35; and John 19:16-20:30.

When Jesus entered into Jerusalem for the final week of his life, he came into a city crammed with people who were present for the observance of the feast of the Passover. At one point Jesus gathered his disciples into an upper room where he communicated with them at length. Much of what he said to them is recorded in John chapters 13-16. In this borrowed upper chamber Jesus observed the paschal meal with them and it was virtually his last supper. This Passover meal was given a new significance and meaning as he took bread and wine and identified these items as symbols of his body that would soon be injured and his blood that would soon be spilled out. Following his death he was hastily placed without the customary burial treatment into a cave tomb which was sealed by rolling a large carved stone against the entrance. The Gospels’ account describes a scene on resurrection morning when the stone was discovered to have been rolled away, and Jesus body was gone. The linens that had surrounded his corpse lay in where his body had been placed. A succession of confirmations of his resurrection from death are then expressed by people who were first hand witnesses who walked and talked with Him. They ate food that he prepared for them. They touched him and they saw Him appear and vanish and forty days later ascend into the heavens.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

PREACHERS WITH THE RIGHT STUFF RIGHT NOW

A NEW LEARNING
When economic times stumble and prosperity flows from the hole in the bucket and ordinary people are helpless in the midst of loss and concern, then the preachers of righteousness need to stand up to humbly speak for God that it’s not all about us or our money. This is about God and godliness and getting ready for heaven. Preachers should be agents of hope. So perhaps you can detect that I am utterly opposed to opportunistic preachers using the chaos of a downturned economy to pretend to be visionary prophets announcing something new. It is easy for compelling leaders to exploit hard times using fear and simplistic answers and empty promises. I am very supportive of preachers who do not ignore the times but speak about God’s omniscience and compassion and readiness to forgive and receive repentant people. It appears to me that scripture models for us that God’s representatives should be telling people not to let their hearts be troubled but rather put faith exclusively in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

For so long in the western world of nations we have become accustomed to a current reality of prosperity and exhilaration and progress and advancement. The focus for most of us, whether believer or unbeliever, has been upon pleasure and gratification. When that present reality develops an oppressive overcast sky and the wells dry up, the focus can easily become despair and discontent. Doesn’t it make biblical sense that God’s spokespeople should tell all who will listen that right now would be the time to improve our vision? Should we not be counseled to clearly look ahead and into the distance? The better place and the most secure future are not here but there. It seems that we only catch on when we experience some suffering and loss. Generations in the past understood as they set their hopes on things that are “above.” The glory that lies ahead should shape the way we live today.

Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas

A NEW LEARNING
Both the Jewish and Christian holidays occur annually in December. Christians have accepted December 25th as a date to honour the incarnation, the birth of Jesus the Son of God. The Jewish community celebrates the Festival of Lights known as Chanukah (pronounced Hanukah) with an eight-day holiday beginning on December 25th. While the Christian faith tradition has Jewish roots, and while they share some common features, like lights, food and gifted presents, they are historically and practically dissimilar. In Century 2 the Maccabees successfully rebelled against Syrian Antiochus IV Epiphanes who had ravaged the temple. This festival commemorates the 2nd century purification and rededication of the temple in Jerusalem with the kindling of the menorah lights, one light on each of the holiday nights. Tradition teaches that the wicks burned miraculously for eight days with only a one day supply of sacred oil.

Jewish and Christian faith traditions have not excelled at understanding one another. Christians and secularists have often mocked Jewish culture and characteristics. I have learned that disrespect occurs among Jews for Christians. I recall a December afternoon concert at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto and chatting with two Jewish couples when one of the women said, “I hate Jesus and this Christmas thing.” That vivid recollection is the reason why comments credited to Ben Stein struck a responsive chord with me yesterday. In a CBS commentary spot on a Sunday Morning show he said, “I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crèche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.”

That was part of a much larger commentary article which was sent to inboxes all over the world recently but this section may be the only true Steinistic part. Someone added the other material and turned this into an urban legend thing. (More tomorrow)

If you want to hear and see Stein on this topic for 2 min. click this sentence. There is an ad and some intro stuff and then the relevant excerpt.

Meetings Do Not Define What it Means to be Christian

A NEW LEARNING
I have been a church man, a former pastor and denominational executive. Over a forty year span I designed, wrote, developed and implemented programs with the best of church leaders. The well intentioned programs always required scheduled meetings of the intended beneficiaries. I kept people busy, myself included. I am contemplative now, less defensive of the status quo.
Recently I was given a webpage article to read, entitled The Danger of Meetings. The author Alan Richardson is one of many spokespeople who are concerned that Christianity has become defined by meetings and programs and buildings and budgets. He has not criticized anything that has not been faulted before and he makes some valid points. When Christian faith pivots around meetings, church people assess one another on the basis of attendance and performance. A meeting focused Christianity causes us to become inward looking with little time for relationships outside the church building. A meeting based Christianity may even hinder rather than help us to find a complete Christian life. In fact we can become meeting focused rather than Christ focused.

Christian leaders of existing churches can and must take corrective actions to minimize this insular posture. Some leaders, particularly younger ones have already broken away from traditional models of church to start models that are relational and fresh and vitally accenting relationship. Some are opting for house churches which determine to be less structured. The extreme danger of critical thinking about church is to go it alone. The solitary Christian disassociated from other believers is biblically unsupportable.

Here is my own list of truth points relative to meetings and faith.
1. Christianity is not defined by meeting attendance.
2. Following Christ is not to be equated with attendance at meetings.
3. Meeting attendance is no substitute for relationship with Christ.
4. It is improper to assess one’s own or another person’s spirituality or leadership competence on the basis of meeting attendance.
5. The work of God is not only with the individual but also within the context of the corporate church, so the gathering of believers is valid.
6. The gathering ideally consists of people who are committed to life giving and life promoting relationships in which they love one another as Christ loves them, open, embracing, forgiving, and love those outside the church for the sake of Christ.

Here is that webpage 'The Danger of Meetings' The paintings were done by Nathan Greene and Morgan Weistling and their work as well as others' can be seen on Christ Centred Art.

You Tell Me - Does It Matter when your testimony and conduct compete?

A NEW LEARNING
I have discretionary time. Some of it is spent productively and some is, well, you tell me. I saw the 100th episode of A&E’s ‘Dog’ The Bounty Hunter. Duane Chapman is the leather clad, chain smoking, tough talking, f...wording, tank topped former convict (accomplice to murder no less)who is known as ‘Dog.’ He's over the top enthusiastic and vulgar during a take down of a fugitive, and immediately thereafter becomes a big hearted social worker soft talking the captive down the road to rehabilitation. Makes for quite a show. Now get this, before a pursuit, he gathers the posse and he prays a spontaneous family prayer that may include “and let our lights shine in Jesus’ name, Amen.” His website claims that he is a highly intense, charismatic ex-con and born-again Christian and king of comebacks. His father was a Navy man and his mother was a minister with the First Assembly of God. Dog says, “I am what rehabilitation stands for.” He is tireless to bring in the bad people and to encourage them to change their lives.

Comebacks? Dog has been married five times and has fathered eleven children in his fifty five years. After serving time Dog co-founded Da Kine Bailbonds based in Hawaii. Joining him in the pursuits are members of his family, children Leland, Duane Lee, Baby Lyssa and his current wife of two years, Beth, a peroxided, large-haired, big bosomed business partner.

Penny Harding, the executive director of the California Bail Agents Association, said about Dog, "He represents all of the things that bail agents are trying to get away from - the cowboy image, the renegade, bring 'em home dead or alive."

This enigmatic figure is a challenge to the conventional Christian profession of faith. We customarily want to see a clearer correlation between profession and behaviour? When A&E bleeps his speech yet it's still evident that he said, sh... or mother f..... or f... one wonders about validity, true faith. When questioned about his profanity he has answered. “To say God (bleep)it or to say that God (bleep) thing -- that's not taking God's name in vain. That's like saying, 'Oh, Dog Damnit.' Is that taking my name in Vain? No! I don't think that by saying God (bleep), that takes the Lord's name in vain, and if it does every night before I go to sleep, my mother used to tell me, 'You're a lot like David in the Bible, son,' and I would say, 'Why, Mom?' And she would say, 'Well, the Bible says that David was a good repenter, and loved the Lord with all his heart.' And I repent so much, at night, I talk to the Lord, go over what I did and tell Him, 'Please forgive me for that. Don't let me do it again, God. Why did I do that?' I'm constantly repenting everyday..." And as for him being an example or role model forget it. He says that's not his role. He looked up to Jimmy Swaggart he says. "Don't look to me."

The truth is however, the thousands of viewers of this top rated show do form an impression of Jesus and his place in a person's life through observation.

What do you think about this? Some professing Christians, calling themselves Red Letter Believers endorse Dog's dichotomy as authentic Christianity.