Category: faith

I Saw the Light

Lyrics by Hank Williams Sr., Johnny Cash and David Crowder…

I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin,
I wouldn’t let my dear savior in;
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night –
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

I saw the light, I saw the light:
No more darkness no more night!
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight –
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

I walked in darkness, and clouds covered me,
I had no idea which the way I would be;
then came the sunrise and pulled back the night –
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

Just like a blind man I wandered alone,
Worries and fears I claim for my own;
Then like a blind man who God gave back his sight –
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

I saw the light, I saw the light:
No more darkness no more night!
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight –
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

I saw the light, I saw the light:
No more darkness no more night!
Now I’m so happy no sorrow in sight –
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

When death takes me down
And I breath here no more
An anthem of sound on that eternal shore
I join with the angels in heaven on high
Singing praise the Lord He is the light
I can feel Him shine on me
I can feel Him shining now
I feel Him shine on us
I CAN FEEL HIM SHINE SHINE SHINE!

Fossils challenge evolutionary record

From the BBC:

Two hominid fossils discovered in Kenya are challenging a long-held view of human evolution.

According to the article,the hominid Homo habilis was previously thought to have evolved into the more advanced Homo erectus, which evolved into us.
Now, habilis and erectus are thought to be sister species that overlapped in time.

“Their co-existence makes it unlikely that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis,” said co-author Professor Meave Leakey, palaeontologist and co-director of the Koobi Fora Research Project.

It is still widely believed by evolutionists that the Homo sapien (modern man) evolved from Homo erectus.
The new Homo habilis find was dated to nearly 1.44 million years ago.
Yet, here’s an interesting Q&A from the Creation Evidence Museum in Glenrose:

Q: If fossils are dated, by Carbon 14 decay, to be millions of years old how can homo sapiens be contemporary with a species such a ‘carcharodon megalodon’ or any other prehistoric creature?

Answer: Acceptance of the Gap Theory or any other compromise position between the divinely-inspired creation account of Genesis and the fallible evolutionary assumptions of man is really a question of ultimate authority–God’s Word or man’s word (see Rom. 3:4).
In response to the above question, let me state the scientific truths that: (1) the Carbon-14 dating method is not used–especially by evolutionists(!)–to date fossils which they would consider millions of years old, because it is accurate only to about 4,500 years ago (the calibration range given by the bristlecone pine tree) due to C-14’s relatively short half-life of 5,730 years; and (2) no fossil has ever been scientifically proven empirically to be millions of years old. These supposed absolute dates are founded upon well-known and publicized errors which plague all radiometric-dating techniques, including the unobserved assumptions of no original daughter isotope, a constant decay rate, and a closed system (i.e., nothing entering in or leaching out of the rock sample at all).
David V. Bassett, M.S.
CEM Staff Writer

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss…
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”

I pledge allegiance…

I caught wind of this while web surfing and thought I’d add some interesting trivia about our beloved “Pledge of Allegiance”…
From Wikipedia:

  • The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the popular children’s magazine Youth’s Companion by Christian Socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy on September 7, 1892. The owners of Youth’s Companion were selling flags to schools, and approached Bellamy to write the Pledge for their advertising campaign. It was marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Americas and was first published on the following day.
  • Bellamy’s original Pledge read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all
  • The pledge was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive Civil War. The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be stated in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided they were too controversial since many people still opposed equal rights for women and blacks. Bellamy said that the purpose of the pledge was to teach obedience to the state as a virtue.
  • After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observances. This date was also significant as it was the dedication day of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Bellamy thought that the pledge itself and the involvement of children across the country would be a fine show of national solidarity.
  • In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference called for the words “my Flag” to be changed to “the Flag of the United States of America.” The reason given was to ensure that immigrants knew to which flag reference was being made. The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge on December 28, 1945.
  • In 1940 the Supreme Court, in deciding the case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis, ruled that students in public schools could be compelled to recite the Pledge, even Jehovah’s Witnesses like the Gobitases (whose name was misspelled as ‘Gobitis’ in the court case), who considered the flag salute to be idolatry.
  • In 1943 the Supreme Court reversed its decision, ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that “compulsory unification of opinion” violated the First Amendment.
  • Before World War II, the Pledge would begin with the right hand over the heart during the phrase “I pledge allegiance”. The arm was then extended toward the Flag at the phrase “to the Flag”, and it remained outstretched during the rest of the pledge, with the palm facing upward, as if to lift the flag.
  • An early version of the salute, adopted in 1892, was known as the Bellamy salute. It also ended with the arm outstretched and the palm upwards, but began with the right hand outstretched, palm facing downward. However, during World War II the outstretched arm became identified with Nazism and Fascism, and the custom was changed: today the Pledge is said from beginning to end with the right hand over the heart.
  • The phrase “under God” was not added to the pledge until 1954.

I found some other thoughts on Bellamy and his “socialist pledge” as well…

As this article by Gene Healy of Cato asks, “What’s Conservative about the Pledge of Allegiance?” The pledge was drafted in virtually its present form in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, an unapologetic socialist who had been pushed out of his position as a Baptist minister because his sermons reflected more socialism than Gospel. Francis was cousin to Edward Bellamy, who wrote the 1888 utopian socialist novel Looking Backward, which I had to read in college in a class on utopian thinking. I guess it was valuable to know that to Bellamy utopia meant a highly regimented place where all incomes were equal and men were drafted into the state’s “industrial army” at age 21 and did whatever the state decided they should do. It helped to cement my distaste for such a system.
After being kicked out of the pulpit Francis Bellamy went to work for a magazine called Youth’s Companion, and decided to work through the public schools rather than the church to advance his notion of a socialist worker’s paradise. The Pledge was unquestionably part of this campaign. Bellamy even recommended that the ceremony start with a military salute and “At the words, ‘to my Flag,’ the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, towards the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation.” For better or worse (and to be fair, long after Bellamy’s recommendation) the Nazis adopted this same salute. It was quietly dropped from American practice, but the intention was similar – to encourage a quasi-religious subordination to government.
In a country founded on “unalienable rights” of individuals, in which the government’s job is supposedly to “preserve these rights” and not much else, the government should be pledging allegiance to citizens and their rights, not the other way around.
It is curious that people who call themselves conservatives now consider this overtly socialist inducement to state-worship part of the sacred tradition of liberty and justice.

Interesting….

21 South Korean missionaries still held in Afghanistan

From NPR:

The 21 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan are missionaries but say they were providing humanitarian aid at hospitals and schools. Mike Pocock, head of the World Missions and Intercultural Studies department at the Dallas Theological Seminary, and a member of my parent’s church talks with Renee Montagne.

“Scriptures indicate very very clearly that anyone who follows Jesus Christ seriously is likely to suffer for it. And Jesus himself of course gave His own life for the world and indicated quite clearly that anyone who followed Him would probably have difficulties. So missionaries and sending Christians understand that they are putting people into harms way. They try to minimize the dangers of that and take whatever prudent precautions they can. Nevertheless they are willing to risk practically everything in order to get a life changing message across to those who need it.”
And here’s an interesting stat for ya – Koreans have over 14,000 missionaries around the world.
Listen to the story

Lessons in community

I’m sure I should be heading to bed – in fact I know I should already be asleep – but I’ve been putting off and putting off jotting down recent thoughts on community and community in the church for too long.
I’m in the middle of reading Building a Church of Small Groups by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson and really enjoying it.
It’s taking me a while to read because I read 5-10 minutes at a time and then take a day or so to chew on it and think about it.
Something that really challenged me the other day and I hope it can be said about encounter one day – “At Willow Creek we can no longer imagine the local church apart from group life, because it is within our small groups that each person is grafted into the community of love that Christ died to redeem.”
I love the way this book is pieced together and organized.
Donahue and Robinson start out with Making the Case for Community.
They present it almost like a trial attorney (which Robinson once was before taking the lead role in community groups at Willow Creek).
They present the Theological evidence:

  • “Whatever community exists as a result of God’s creation, it is only a reflection of an eternal reality that is intrinsic to the being of God. Because God is eternally one, when He created in His image, He created oneness.” – Gilbert Bilezikian
  • The study of God and His person – prove beyond doubt that God’s nature is communal… God’s communal nature requires you to respond by building community – for yourself and for your church.
  • The theological case depends on three basic ideas. First, God exists in community… Second, God was incarnate in Christ Jesus, whose transformational relationships offer a model you cannot ignore. Third, Jesus dreams of oneness for all Christians, which is why you must move your church toward His vision.

They present the Sociological evidence:

  • “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • God gives us life so that we will seek out community with Him. “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.” – Acts 17:27
  • God exposes His emotions to us. (Exodus 32:9-10)
  • God engages us in His decisions. (Gen. 18:23-26)
  • God doesn’t simply wait for us to voice concerns. He engages with us so deeply that he steps in when we cannot even identify the problem. (Rom. 8:26-27)
  • God created us to house himself. (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
  • Just as God designed us to live in community with Him, He designed us to be communal with and to reproduce spiritual life in others.

    • This is something that really grabbed my attention:

  • “Our knowledge of the Bible has been shaped by the individualism of our culture, so that we teach the need for personal forgiveness — then stop. We neglect to preach the full doctrine of humanity, namely, that we are created to be dependent on God, to enjoy interdependence with God, and to experience communal interdependence within the church… We have missed out on the richness of communal living and do not know how to guide our churches toward God’s vision.”
  • We must rebuild an apologetic for and practice of community based on God’s identity and dream for relational oneness.
  • The biblical record shows that true community offers four blessings:
    • We get strength for life’s storms
    • We receive wisdom for making important decisions
    • We experience accountability, which is vital to spiritual growth
    • We find acceptance that helps us repair our wounds

    • And you don’t have to remind Laurie and I of this one…

  • “Two are better than one… if one falls down, his friend can help him up.” – Eccl. 4:9-10
  • “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:12-13) Jesus really does expect us to lay down whatever we have, however we need to, whenever requested. Is your church living up to its Christ-mandated potential for community? – OUCH. Maybe I should just stop there and let everyone chew on that.

Donahue and Robinson also give the case for the Organizational evidence for community in a church. I won’t go much into it but it’s very good, solid teaching and uses the example of Jethro’s teaching to Moses (Exodus 18) regarding the Israelites. In a church of small groups, the principal ensures that everybody is cared for but no one cares for too many people.
In the next chapter, Small Groups are Built on Authentic Relationships, I’ve been chewing on a lot Donahue and Robinson have to say – especially since we’re studying authenticity in our weekly group.

  • Larry Crabb writes, “One small group pastor said to me over lunch, “We’ve got to move to another level. Good things are happening in our groups, but not what most needs to happen, not what I somehow know could happen. We arrange our bodies in a circle, but our souls are sitting in straight-backed chairs facing away from the others.”
  • There is no fast food at the table of community. – That could be a message in and of itself.
  • “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
    I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”     – Phil. 3:10-14 – Paul realizes spiritual transformation doesn’t take place overnight. It’s a race – a marathon.
  • In 2 Peter 1, Paul reminds us that we cannot pursue a life of transformation on our own. It is a progression that culminates in genuine love expressed in community.
  • “Personal prayer, Scripture reading and memorizing, solitude and other spiritual practices are essential, but pursued apart from community they fall short in producing the degree of transformation Christ intends.”
  • “Friends who ask questions and really listen are like water to a parched throat.”
  • “To allow others to see deeply into our lives is the greatest gift we can ever give them.”

Ok. I could seriously go on. But you’ve got enough to chew on for now. Read it. Think about it. Ponder it and ask yourself if you’re building community as God intended. Should you be?
I’m not claiming that I am – but I want to. I hope to. I pray to.
Thoughts? Challenges?

Want more – listen to Brian’s message on regroup from early today.

Lessons from Rick Warren

The DMN shares some lessons Rick Warren says the church should learn and un-learn about church mission work.
The lessons comes from the AP and the summer 2007 issue of Leadership:

We need to learn… humility. The focus of world Christianity in the future will be South America, Africa, and Asia. Get used to it.

To unlearn… our consumer approach to spirituality. The American church needs to move from selfish consumerism to unselfish contribution.

To learn… a new approach to missions, and who does it, and where, and how it’s funded.

To unlearn… our dependence on specialized parachurch ministries. The church is called to embody the whole Gospel.

To learn… to go and to serve. The old approach was praying, then studying, then giving, then — maybe one day — going. Now, we just go and see how we can serve.

To unlearn… our method of goal-setting. Most leaders set their goals too low and try to accomplish them too quickly. We need to set big goals and devote the rest of our lives to accomplishing them.

To learn… that average Christians can do missions. People around the world want to learn from peers — mother to mother, businessperson to businessperson, teen to teen.

To unlearn… our desire to pay. Americans’ reflex is to try to solve a problem by throwing money at it, which often creates dependency and harms the church.

To learn… to trust the people we serve. Assume that indigenous leaders have a better idea of what their people need than we do.

Do you struggle with any of these? Think Warren is right on – or a little off in his assessment?