Interview between Two Church Shifters

I found this interview to be somewhat revealing.
http://www.renovare.org/invitation_christian_disciplines_and_grace.htm

I see the thought is that we can do something to grow in grace, that we can get somewhere to grace in spiritual disciplines. The claim is “the Christian disciplines as avenues to grace…” I thought Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

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stimulus, yeah, right…

Here’s the pdf link to the “stimulus” bill as it stands:

Click to access 111_hr1_text.pdf

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Wake up!

Why do we sleep?  Why do we allow ourselves to be taken away?  It’s because we would rather sleep than face the stark reality that is the world pretending to be the church.  We would rather pretend that what’s happening is okay, it’s fine to change the way we worship.  As long as we’re sincere, God will understand.  So what if the pastor mentions at one ment or quotes emergent/emerging men and women?  So what if the skit attacks Christianity in a way, or if the comic brought in says some off color things, it’s all good Christian fellowship, right?  What if Bible study is no longer called Bible study and is “small group” or “life group” or some other such thing?  So what if we’re following a popular book in small groups and from the pulpit and it’s just fluffy, what’s the harm?

The harm is we are walking ourselves right into our own destruction.  We’re taking our kids down with us, giving them candy instead of the real meals, the real food they need.  We are accepting of things not right, a bit off.  This little bit of arsenic in the brownie mix will kill us slowly, and we’re willing participants.  Just like the Jews around the time of WW2.  They didn’t want to believe it was bad, that they were slowly being strangled to death.  We don’t want to admit we’re being starved to death and fed poison when we do eat.  We willingly walk the road with lies, and because we are trying to “not rock the boat” and be seen as nice and good people, we just go right along.  We even hear sermons and prayers differently than they are truly presented, and different than they are intended.  We don’t ask the questions.  We might find out we have cancer in our churchy building, then what? We would have to do something then, and that would be unpleasant. Wake up people! Wake up!

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Embarassed

I am personally embarassed I missed it.  I thought Rick Warren was making some sort of jab or point at people who would have a problem with him praying in the name of Jesus, so he went into overkill by stating the name of Jesus in a few different ways.  I didn’t listen closely, which is easy to do when you are home schooling four children and have two under the age of four to keep track of.  I didn’t read the transcript, and only today have seen the full transcript.  Who is this Isa?  From what I’ve read, it’s not the Jesus of the Bible.  Lovely.   For all who think Rick Warren did a fine job, and for all who think he maybe made a few mistakes in his books and believe he really is one who follows the true Jesus of the Bible, pay attention.  I am ashamed I missed it completely.  I knew the prayer wasn’t going to be quite right based on past experience with Warren, but that ending got right by me.  No discernment.  I’m ashamed.   Those who praise Warren on this should be too.  Slick guy, that Warren.  Slick.  GRRRRRRRR!

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laughable

Looking on the web page for my former church they have an upcoming comic for a marriage conference.  Watched Youtubes of the guy, yes, he’s funny.  How in the world he can make a marriage better though is beyond me.  I figured that the Bible might be a good source for marriage help, but what do I know?  And to think, we had the audacity to claim the church was not focused on the gospel and on Christ.  Where would we get that idea?

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These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…

John 20:31.  It’s a basic verse and my children ages 6, 8, 10, and 12 know it.  They learned it at Awana.  The pastor of a church we’re visiting spent a long sermon on this verse today.  This church is going to spend many months on the book of John.  He actually said about a year, but later said months…but still, coming from a church that has themes last 4-8 weeks maximum, this is worth note.  Anyway, this verse is one that defines our struggle with our former church a bit for us.  With that verse, I am taken back to a Sunday when Steve Smith was talking about Lazarus, and began saying that we come to Christ’s call and have grave clothes on us.  These grave clothes have to be removed by community in order for us to heal.  This was a big “aha” Sunday for us.  It was the early stages of questions, and so began my search for the direction our former church was heading.  Lazarus is recorded in John, and my husband and I believe the Steven Smith (as a guest speaker) was presenting the account of Lazarus incorrectly.  The Bible was being mishandled, and psychology injected.  It really sounded like a message Oprah might give.  When we went to our former pastor, we brought this speaker up.  He said he not only supported what Steven Smith said, but he had personally sent letters out recommending his book about Lazarus and the grave clothes.  Lovely.  We tried to explain how we felt the Bible was being mishandled, and the pastor countered that each miracle had a purpose for us.  We were supposed to understand something we could apply to our lives.  We were to, for example, dig deeper into why Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding.  This did not satisfy us as a proper explanation.  We asked two friends, and one a pastor himself the other a college professor said that the verse which explains the purpose for the signs and miracles recorded in John is written in the book itself.  They both quoted “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” 

Today, the pastor went through an overview of the purpose of John’s gospel using this verse as a starting point.  He explained clearly that the signs recorded were for showing Christ’s glory, his divinity, that he is the Messiah, and the Son of God.  The signs were an apologetic, a proof of God.  We are to believe and receive eternal life.  The second part of John was to show the suffereing of Christ.  Again, we are to believe.  No psychology.  The pastor even mentioned at the end of his sermon that nowadays people are preaching a lot of therapy, or as he put it, the Jesus they call people to believe in is not the real Jesus.  He listed several examples, one of which was the “theraputic Jesus.”  This is a generally quiet church, but I almost said, “Amen, brother!”  I heard that theraputic message big time at my former church.  It was an empty message.

A woman I don’t recall meeting is now a facebook friend, she’s still in my former church.  She has written much about emergent on her facebook, so another friend introduced us.  She has written a testimony she shared about small groups.  In her testimony, she mentions going to church alone and never feeling she was close to God.  She joined a small group, and presto, she was hungry for the Word.  Of course, this small group was actually studying Acts, studying the Bible.  She was also introduced to a study Bible with notes, so she was digging into commentary.  Now, she’s still at our former church and has no clue about me and why our family left.  I won’t tell her the obvious, but to me it’s obvious, the message she wasn’t getting at our former church caused her to feel far from God.  She joined a small group, and she found people she connected with.  She might actully be getting “fed” since it sounds like they are studying from the Bible.  She was praising her church in her note and testimony, but really, she is missing that the theraputic messages aren’t filling.  It’s the study of God’s word.  Also, she may be feeling good because she has friends, but she’s not being challenged about her sin.  I wonder if she’ll see it someday?

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Anyone else loose blog stats?

I came to my dashboard, and no longer have record of clicks or stats.  What happened?

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God is in control

As I read about market crashes and planned craziness with the upcoming change from one president to the next, I am remembering that God is in control. He has a plan, He will allow what He will allow. It’s tempting to begin to fear, to become frightened by what will happen to Christians everywhere. It’s tempting to fear the loss of income, the oppression, the blatant in your face lewdness even beyond what we know now. It’s especially easy to become afraid for my children and for their future. I personally sometimes dwell on the thoughts of what it would be like to suffer persecution (real persecution and not this little bit of annoyance I’ve experienced before) with several children in tow including a nursling. Fear may seem justified, but when I begin to entertain fright, I know where to run. When in doubt, I choose faith. When I fear, I choose God’s strength and His shelter. No matter what happens, He is. I can rest in Him. Truthfully, I know that even when I might think I’m choosing, I’m not choosing, the Lord has mercifully given me the faith and the strength. He is protecting me. I believe He has brought to my mind the recall that we are not to worry about what we shall eat, what we shall wear. He will provide. If we are to be truly persecuted, He will even provide the words for us to say.

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No More Footnotes

The last Sunday we attended our former church the “missional pastor” spoke. He’s the one we quoted in the letter, he’s the one who quoted emergent authors with no warnings. It’s been several months, and he has been out of the country being missions oriented. The church was also having a campaign to raise money, and also had special Christmas messages. So, when I saw he spoke, I really wanted to see what was up. Interesting, he had no more footnotes, no more citing authors. If you want to know his influences you have to ask (hoping he’d be honest) or try to figure it out for yourself somehow.

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