If you have a few minutes catch everything that Martin Luther King Jr. said that day.
25 January 2008
24 January 2008
Top Ten Contradicted Bible Passages...
I have not been around very long, but I have noticed that we tend to disregard parts of Scripture that do not rest snugly within our systematic theology.
The following verses are just a few of the many examples of verses that can give us big headaches at times, but ultimately we simply ignore. Many Christians that I come in contact with simply contradict Biblical teaching at these points.
So here are the top ten New Testament passages we 'block out.' (All Scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version.)
**Disclaimer** I would encourage you to read the context as well. The point is, even in their context many 'Christians' would not agree with these Bible passages. I would be interested in other verses/passages you might put on this list.
Anyway, here they are...
#10.1 Corinthians 6:9-10
#9. Matthew 10:8
#8. Hebrews 12:14
#7. Matthew 10:37
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
#6. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you.'"
#5. Matthew 5:48 (See also James 1:4)
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
#4. Ephesians 5:22 (See also Colossians 3:18)
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."
#3. 1 John 3:8-9
"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God."
#2. 2 Thessalonians 3:10
"For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."
#1. Hebrews 10:26-27
"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries."
The following verses are just a few of the many examples of verses that can give us big headaches at times, but ultimately we simply ignore. Many Christians that I come in contact with simply contradict Biblical teaching at these points.
So here are the top ten New Testament passages we 'block out.' (All Scripture is quoted from the English Standard Version.)
**Disclaimer** I would encourage you to read the context as well. The point is, even in their context many 'Christians' would not agree with these Bible passages. I would be interested in other verses/passages you might put on this list.
Anyway, here they are...
#10.1 Corinthians 6:9-10
"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
#9. Matthew 10:8
Jesus to his disciples: "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay."
#8. Hebrews 12:14
"Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord."
#7. Matthew 10:37
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
#6. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you.'"
#5. Matthew 5:48 (See also James 1:4)
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
#4. Ephesians 5:22 (See also Colossians 3:18)
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."
#3. 1 John 3:8-9
"Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God."
#2. 2 Thessalonians 3:10
"For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."
#1. Hebrews 10:26-27
"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries."
23 January 2008
For Those Considering Suicide...
A powerful blog post on another site addressing the issue of suicide.
Disclaimer: I never endorse every post on another blog because I haven't had a chance to read them all.
Here's the link.
Suicide is always a very destructive thing. But then, sin always seeks to destroy us.
Disclaimer: I never endorse every post on another blog because I haven't had a chance to read them all.
Here's the link.
Suicide is always a very destructive thing. But then, sin always seeks to destroy us.
08 January 2008
A New Year (2008)
God has blessed in 2007.
I have a new family member. Jacob Kevin Henry who was born on January 15 of last year.
I have a wonderful wife who I continue to love.
Greensburg Church of the Nazarene, where I am the pastor, is a loving congregation. I truly believe it is more than just "an assignment" to me it; it is my church home and the people are my church family.
I am blessed beyond measure. I look forward to all that God has in store for me in 2008. I will continue to walk with Him and live a life that reflects his glory & holiness!
I will say like Mary, the mother of Jesus, said in Luke 1:46-47 "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!"
I have a new family member. Jacob Kevin Henry who was born on January 15 of last year.
I have a wonderful wife who I continue to love.
Greensburg Church of the Nazarene, where I am the pastor, is a loving congregation. I truly believe it is more than just "an assignment" to me it; it is my church home and the people are my church family.
I am blessed beyond measure. I look forward to all that God has in store for me in 2008. I will continue to walk with Him and live a life that reflects his glory & holiness!
I will say like Mary, the mother of Jesus, said in Luke 1:46-47 "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!"
23 December 2007
Christian School to Secular School...
It would seem to me that many colleges & universities started by churches have, over time, parted from their Christian roots and eventually divorced themselves from the church.
**WARNING: Intense waves of sarcasm to follow...**
I'd like to propose a few ways to change a Christian school into a secular school (and there is a difference between the two)...
1) If you have chapel services five days a weak; change it to three. If you have it three days a week; change it to one. Too much "church" is a turn-off to unbelievers (not to mention the fact that it could hurt enrollment/finances to require chapel). Finally make chapel optional before being a good steward of the school's finances and doing away with chapel all together. (Remember, do it slowly so no zealous Christians will cause a fuss.)
2) Strive for intellectual and academic excellence to the neglect of the spiritual state of the campus. Certainly you could probably focus on some one's spiritual health and academic performance, but their spiritual state is just another thing to be juggling and the 'academy' has a different function than the church. You are, after all, a college/university!
3) When you advertise on TV, billboards, or secular periodicals make sure you do not mention your Christian foundation. It is a turn-off and you will lose many prospective students that way. (They might find out if they come to your school anyway, so why mention it?). Even if they don't ever realize they attended a Christian school, you've just done a great job of helping them be Christians even though they may not realize it!
4) Lower the standards for your sports teams. If it makes you feel better you can convince yourself that having a winning basketball team will make a better name for Jesus than a mediocre basketball team that lives a holy life.
5) Hire faculty, staff, & administrators that are not Christians. As long as they do their jobs well, who really cares?
6) Consistently raise your tuition so that you are one of the most expensive schools to attend in your state or region. This is a good way to get rid of some of the more religious students who are studying to be preachers (preachers won't be able to afford to go to your school). It is definitely positive if you can prevent ordinary people from the denomination you are a part of to come to your school because of financial hurdles, this takes away from the close minded Christian influence. Plus you can increase your salary and be more prestigious in the academic world with higher tuition rates and more upscale students!
7) Do away with any kind of rules you might have on your campus. Those include curfew, dress code, required chapel attendance, and any other rules students often complain about. You certainly do not want to be viewed as legalistic. If you have any rules and, for denominational reasons, are not able to do away with them, just leave them in print but ignore them.
8) Change your school motto from something like: "Christlike in all we do" to something that uses some Latin and is translated to say something more general like: "We are nice and we like everybody."
9) Take down all crosses and religious imagery from your campus. It was all probably graven images any way. Put up peace signs, lots of posters on what we can do to help the environment, and weekly fliers about how much more important it is to not litter than take the life of an unborn infant.
10) Replace some of the religious requirements (either chapel or some Bible course) with community service (playing hop-scotch with homeless kids or some kind of non-committal activity that pushes toward little to no change is best). It will fool the Christians into believing you are still a part of the Christian church and convince the rest of the world you want to make a difference without "pushing your beliefs" on anyone else.
11) In your Bible, Theology, or religion department (whatever you might call it) hire a Jew, an atheist, and some other professors who are so smart they think they've figured out why Mary really wasn't a virgin. Your students probably need a larger worldview (narrative if you want to talk like a post-modern) than the narrow, exclusivistic worldview of Jesus/Christianity/the Church.
12) Finally, measure your success by how much money your graduates make or how many books they publish. If someone becomes a denominational leader you can take credit for it within the denomination but do not talk about it outside of the church. (You may be able to take credit for sports stars who thought about coming to your school.)
Extra note: If part of a denomination, you may want to continue to tap into the enormous amount of financial resources available from the many lay people who have no earthly idea what is really going on at your school. To do so, talk a lot about what God is doing at your school (even if you have to exaggerate or even make things up). All some lay people care about is whether or not the young people are serving the Lord and living for Him (how short-sighted they must be)!
**WARNING: Intense waves of sarcasm to follow...**
I'd like to propose a few ways to change a Christian school into a secular school (and there is a difference between the two)...
1) If you have chapel services five days a weak; change it to three. If you have it three days a week; change it to one. Too much "church" is a turn-off to unbelievers (not to mention the fact that it could hurt enrollment/finances to require chapel). Finally make chapel optional before being a good steward of the school's finances and doing away with chapel all together. (Remember, do it slowly so no zealous Christians will cause a fuss.)
2) Strive for intellectual and academic excellence to the neglect of the spiritual state of the campus. Certainly you could probably focus on some one's spiritual health and academic performance, but their spiritual state is just another thing to be juggling and the 'academy' has a different function than the church. You are, after all, a college/university!
3) When you advertise on TV, billboards, or secular periodicals make sure you do not mention your Christian foundation. It is a turn-off and you will lose many prospective students that way. (They might find out if they come to your school anyway, so why mention it?). Even if they don't ever realize they attended a Christian school, you've just done a great job of helping them be Christians even though they may not realize it!
4) Lower the standards for your sports teams. If it makes you feel better you can convince yourself that having a winning basketball team will make a better name for Jesus than a mediocre basketball team that lives a holy life.
5) Hire faculty, staff, & administrators that are not Christians. As long as they do their jobs well, who really cares?
6) Consistently raise your tuition so that you are one of the most expensive schools to attend in your state or region. This is a good way to get rid of some of the more religious students who are studying to be preachers (preachers won't be able to afford to go to your school). It is definitely positive if you can prevent ordinary people from the denomination you are a part of to come to your school because of financial hurdles, this takes away from the close minded Christian influence. Plus you can increase your salary and be more prestigious in the academic world with higher tuition rates and more upscale students!
7) Do away with any kind of rules you might have on your campus. Those include curfew, dress code, required chapel attendance, and any other rules students often complain about. You certainly do not want to be viewed as legalistic. If you have any rules and, for denominational reasons, are not able to do away with them, just leave them in print but ignore them.
8) Change your school motto from something like: "Christlike in all we do" to something that uses some Latin and is translated to say something more general like: "We are nice and we like everybody."
9) Take down all crosses and religious imagery from your campus. It was all probably graven images any way. Put up peace signs, lots of posters on what we can do to help the environment, and weekly fliers about how much more important it is to not litter than take the life of an unborn infant.
10) Replace some of the religious requirements (either chapel or some Bible course) with community service (playing hop-scotch with homeless kids or some kind of non-committal activity that pushes toward little to no change is best). It will fool the Christians into believing you are still a part of the Christian church and convince the rest of the world you want to make a difference without "pushing your beliefs" on anyone else.
11) In your Bible, Theology, or religion department (whatever you might call it) hire a Jew, an atheist, and some other professors who are so smart they think they've figured out why Mary really wasn't a virgin. Your students probably need a larger worldview (narrative if you want to talk like a post-modern) than the narrow, exclusivistic worldview of Jesus/Christianity/the Church.
12) Finally, measure your success by how much money your graduates make or how many books they publish. If someone becomes a denominational leader you can take credit for it within the denomination but do not talk about it outside of the church. (You may be able to take credit for sports stars who thought about coming to your school.)
Extra note: If part of a denomination, you may want to continue to tap into the enormous amount of financial resources available from the many lay people who have no earthly idea what is really going on at your school. To do so, talk a lot about what God is doing at your school (even if you have to exaggerate or even make things up). All some lay people care about is whether or not the young people are serving the Lord and living for Him (how short-sighted they must be)!
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