Category: My Faith

Here I will post blogs with my thoughts on my faith and things related to it.

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The Danger of Nostalgia in Christmas Music

As we joyfully sing these wonderful Christmas songs, one of the dangers is that we get caught up in the nostalgia and fail to contemplate the words. In the new movie “The Grinch” that just came to theators, the first verse of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen is repeated several times. Words like Jesus and Satan being sung in a clearly secular industry.

I think for many people the warm feelings surrounding Christmas make it easy to fail to consider what the words really mean and, in a theater, full of people who don’t know Jesus the song simply translates to “it’s a happy time of year.”

Even though we know the Savior, we know what Christmas is truly about, I believe we are susceptible to doing the same thing. Singing Christmas Carols filled with excitement for the season but failing to consider the meaning behind what we are saying. We can sometimes slip into worshiping Christmas rather than Jesus.

Consider the song God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. It is written in old English and often is misunderstood as speaking of merry, or happy, gentlemen. But that simply isn’t what the phrase means. Consider what the first verse might say in modern, albeit far less poetic language.

May God give generous rest to you people!
Don’t let your heart be distressed.
Because we know that Jesus our Savior was born on Christmas day.
He came to set us free from Satan’s power and slavery to this world,  even though each of us has chosen sin over God.

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Taking Death Seriously

Lately something has been growing on my heart, I don’t feel like we take death seriously. Specifically here I am taking about the taking of someone else’s life. I want to start by saying I believe there is a time for war and there is a time for a person receiving the death penalty. I can’t tell you exactly when is the right time for a life to be taken but what I do know is any time a life is taken it should make us heavy hearted, it should not be done lightly.

I have seen so many post on facebook from good Christian people lately that have really troubled my heart. Talking about the military, and making light of the killing that goes on during war, I have also seen people talk very brashly about the need for someone who has done something wrong to die. I feel we should be very careful not to deal out death too quickly.

Another thing that struck me was a war movie I was watching, during one scene the solders were yelling horrible things about the men they were fighting against, I can’t imagine what it is like to fight in a war so I want to be careful what I say but I know this isn’t right. Even in war, the person on the other side of the gun is another human being and even if we must kill them to defend ourself and others we should do it with a heavy heart.

The bible is clear that we are all created in the image of God, we must remember that it also says we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-45). I don’t believe that this means we can never take a life but it must not be done rashly or taken lightly.

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We fail repetedly yet He saves us, shouldn’t we do the same?

I think in general the church does not do enough to help those who are lost and hurting, those who are hungry and dying, those who need earthly things to continue. One of the biggest reasons I have heard and always made a bit of sense to me was we need to be careful not to give handouts to people who have ruined their own life and people who will not act responsible with what we give them. While I do believe there is a small kernel of truth in there I do believe for the most part we have missed something huge and something Francis Chan said completely blew me away and I think really set me straight on some incorrect thinking.

This is not an exact quote but he said something to this effect: We need to accept/help/love people who have ruined their own life people who put themselves in troubled places and people who have tried to recover and failed again and again, because that is who we are to God. We may have our cute little life in order but we sinned we ruined our life we deserve hell but God stepped in and gave away everything so that we would be saved, and now even with that forgiveness we continue to walk away and come back, we continue to sin and do wrong, yet God is always there ready to take us back into his arms of forgiveness.

Think about this, He gave his all to save us even though we continue to fail him, most of us are not even willing to give change to someone we don’t think deserves it, we have been called by someone who is greater to do something far greater. We must love the unlovable, feed and clothe the undeserving then and only then will we begin to look like Christ as he calls us to walk in his steps.

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Get over your rights!!

At a conference I was at recently one of the speakers who was talking on the public school system really bothered me and I have been for quite sometime trying to figure out what it was I did not like about her and if it was founded. I think I figured it out and it is two fold.

First and the biggest thing is this, instead of talking about the problems in the public school system as a warning to Christians of something to be careful about with their children and the children they interact with she spoke as if it was something that MUST be fixed. While I agree the public school system is in trouble and the lack of acceptance of the Christian faith (whether this is real or not I can’t say) is not necessarily the best possible situation for kids, I don’t agree that we have a right and I feel that is what she was pushing. Instead of sympathy and sadness for the direction of the public school system she spoke as if we had a right for it to be different as if Christians deserve to be accepted as if our desires were what are important in the system and I simply don’t agree. As Christians we should not cling to our rights, we should love this world and do our best to improve it.

Secondly a huge of her talk was on how homosexuality was becoming completely accepted in the public school system. I think this is really sad but I also think that as Christians we tend to pick out homosexuality as a super sin. Why do we get so much more angry and passionate about homosexuality than other sins (but this is another topic for another post.)

Anyway I think I am fairly justified in my frustration with this speaker but I would love to hear any thoughts.

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In God We Trust (US Currency)

Well I just got a forwarded email in regard to the newish $1 coins that went in to circulation back in 2007. In order to make room for a larger picture of the the presidents that are featured on these coins they have removed ‘In God We Trust’ from the face and/or back of these new coins.

The email went on to say that we should refuse to accept these coins and ask for dollar bills instead as a way to boycott. These two quotes are taken directly from the email and simply amaze me:

Here’s another way of phasing God out of America

If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!!

The mind set behind both of these lines simply blows me away. The first quote asserts something that I don’t agree with by any means, that God is part of America. The US gives us complete freedom to worship our God but beyond that it is a neutral nation. In fact the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ was not added until 1950.

The second quote bothers me just as much, how ridiculous of a fight to pick, who cares what our money says on it. I worship Jesus Christ not because he is the God of America but because he is my God. I could careless if my money says ‘In God We Trust.’ Let’s pick our battles, choose things that matter and act in a way that is honoring to the bible, not to democracy. Let us live for God and disregard what our Country does.

After all this the funny thing is, ‘In God We Trust’ was not removed from the coins, it is written around the edge along with minting location, date and ‘E Pluribus Unum.’ So not only are these people picking a stupid fight, their fight is also based on a completely false premise. Way to go, let’s show the world just how smart Christians are, fighting meaningless battles based on lack of research.

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Have we Complicated The Messages of Salvation?

I have always been amazed at how hard it is to talk to someone about Jesus, and honestly been surprised how confusing it sounded when people tried to explain how to do it at Awana training events or other such events. As I was reading “crazy love” by Francis Chan it struck me that we have made it way more complicated then Jesus ever intended, and the sad part is we have changed the message to something we can handle, The Salvation message is just a little to difficult for us.

In the gospels, Jesus doesn’t ask us to “pray a prayer” or “trust in him” in some strange figurative way. He wants us to drop everything, follow him wholeheartedly, giving him every ounce of ourselves, trust our life completely in His hands(think a second about that). When he says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” in Matthew 22:37 it does not have some figurative meaning, He means what He said. When Jesus ask for followers he is not even interested in someone who is going to say they trust in him yet not show it with their life. We should not complicate the message, we should tell people what they are getting into, it is a scary, weird thing but far more amazing than what we have made salvation to be.

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Powers and Dangers of Religion

What is Religion? Religion is a way of organizing faith, it is sets of rules, it is what helps people be open with others about our faith, it is what guides people in how they should act. Those are the main purposes of a religion.

Our faith is vital, believing in Christ as our savior, and living for him because of that faith that is vital. We need faith, religion on the other hand is a tool it is something we should use because it has much power but not something we should get to enmeshed in. Our religion gives us encouragement from others who share our faith, and support from others, it helps us to see a good set of rules, it helps us to be open about what we believe BUT there are also dangers to religion and though you should be apart of the christian “religion” I caution you about this.

Do not let the apathy of the people around you over come you. Do not let the people who all they desire is to keep things the same keep you from being passionate for God, from changing things, from making a difference. Don’t let religion get in the way of your relationship. Also make your rules and regulations your own, the bible should be the ultimate source for what is right and wrong, though the church may be able to help you come up with good guide lines you need to own your rules, you need to believe it and it needs to come from the bible and from you faith not from someone who told you this is what you should do.

In short, use religion as a tool as a resource to make your faith stronger and to spread you faith but NEVER NEVER let religion get in the way of your faith, NEVER let religion slow down your passion for God.

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Don’t Water it Down

In Seth Godin’s book Tribes(a book on leadership). He talks about how important it is that a leader of a tribe, which for these purposes will be any leader in the church, or leaders in church as a group, not water down the message that they stand for.

He make such a solid point that if you water down your message, though you may gain some people who would be offended or not interested otherwise, you will loose the passion and commitment your “tribe” could have. The message of Christ will sometimes be offensive and sometimes it will just be inconvenient but that should not stop the leaders church from holding to it strongly. So pastors, don’t let your messages become easy, challenge us, offend us. Youth pastors make the kids know what Christ stands for and how important it is that they live a life for him, challenge, inspire and strengthen them. And to the leaders of the church stand strong with the bible’s moral standards don’t let the world around us influence our morals.

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The Bride of Christ?

Well a few weeks ago I was talking to someone about my blog, and mainly about how harsh I have been toward the church in general and he said you still need to remember the church is still Christs bride. I did alot of thinking about that comment and here is where I am at.

The Church as in institution is not Christs bride, the group of people making rules and standards, the building, that is not Christs bride. And for the most part that is where my problems lies with the institution of “The Church”. Christs bride is made up of those people who follow Christ, it is made up of the Christians. There are many people who I am honored to look up to in “The Church” but it is “The Church” I am frustrated with.

So I just wanted to make that clear, I am frustrated with the institution of the church and I believe God is too. That said there are many people in the church, even our church, that I look up to and respect for there walk with God, people who I know are following him and my frustration is not toward them.

Let us never become to content with “The Church” or get stuck with the idea it is Gods bride. Because the institution is not, He already at least some what replaced the Catholic Church, there is no reason that he will not do that again  with the american protestant church.

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Welfare our fault?

What do I mean? I am against welfare, and pretty much all the socal programs that take my tax money and give it to someone else. That is clearly not the job of the government was never meant to be and I am sure the founding fathers would shake there heads in disbelief.

What I want to know is did we cause this, did we create this monster. As a church the bible calls us to care for ophans and widows in there distress. To help those in need and to care for the elderly. Is the reason welfare is around, because the church failed to do what the bible calls us to do? I definitely think that is part of the problem though I am not sure I would say it is one hundred percent.