Thoughts and Amusings

Christians for some bizarre reason have a very annoying habit of turning up to events late and/ or handing important things in late. I really don’t know what this is about. I sure don’t know what the biblical principle behind it is. God help me I have tried to understand certain members of my Christian circle who think they have the right to waste an hour of my life while they turn up an hour late to events/ meetings/ gatherings. However I really don’t get it.

Sure I can understand 5 even 10 minutes, things happen, but the ‘I’ll-be-there-when-I-get-there-Jesus-Cruisin’ ‘attitude is not just bizarre it’s a very poor witness. The other night I was out with sister (not Christian) I had arranged dinner with 3 christian friends for 6pm. The first friend arrived at 6.50. My sister was not only annoyed, but also discussed with me that my friends obviously don’t respect me very much, she was quite looking forward to the dinner but spent the whole night worried as we had ordered too much food for people who never arrived.

There is no point in ‘evangelising’ if your whole life doesn’t show it, this means how you interact with other Christians impacts your interaction with non Christians and how you show you value others.

The idea of suffering as part of the Christian faith is not that popular. In fact as a new Christian when I found out that martyrdom was a 'spiritual gift' that some Christians were 'blessed' to have in one of those 'find your gifting courses' I was incredibly reassured by a line that said that veryt few people in Gods family were 'blessed' with this gift. All joking aside, Modern day Western Christianity often has a hard time fitting suffering into its theology. Due to the incredible uprise of the Prosperity gospel it is seen as necessary for one to have 'health, wealth and success' in order for one to be a successful Christian.

Jesus clearly taught that his followers would endure suffering most obviously his sacrifice but also read through the sermon on the mount, this was part of his call of being an obedient follower of Christ (Matthew 5)

I wonder if Western Christians are a bit like the reciepients of the book of Hebrews.

Some of the things the reciepients of the Hebrews had were a great liking for the Old testament ( a bit like prosperity followers) and also some deep seated conscience issues to follow the 'right way' even though had a very skewed idea on what this was (even though it was well supported with some out of context bible verses) .

They had lost how suffering fitted into Faith and got side tracked into a whole lot of frivalous stuff (some of it with the best of intentions) that they thought would take them closer to God.

This led the author of the book to say this to them and I think they are very good words to ponder:

Hebrews 10
32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

I wonder when was the last time you ever heard a sermon on suffering / read an article on it?

Have we disconnected suffering from our contemporary theology or do we only speak about it on special occasions? If suffering is a daily occasion for the persecuted church, how come we hear very little of it in the western church?

Yesterday in the mail my monthly mag from VOM arrived detailing the Happenings? Events? Life? of Christians in Perscuted countries around the world. This months feature was on Laos and includes some absolutely beautiful and heart wrenching stories that bring one into the true reality of Gods grace.

However before we comfort ourselves in the fact that we are not the ones in the persecuted countires and click over to some other well meaning form of escapism can I encourage you to watch this video its a life changer, Its hard hitting and I make absolutely no apologies for it. The reality is that while dieing for ones faith as a Christian isn't a day to day reality in western countries. Regardless of where one is or who one is in Christ , one should have faith in what and who one believes and be able to stand up for it if the time comes.

God give me strength if I am ever in a situation like this

Made by, Martin Fazeli,

The clip speaks for itself really...

but I have been pondering this clip in conjunction with the lyrics of one of Tim Hughes' latest songs..

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord

Acting humbly
Loving mercy
We must go, we must go
To the broken
And the hurting
We must go, we must go

Sam and Lily get out of the busy traffic and escape into the quiet of a cafe and reflect on the latest movie - it made them good to feel a Christian. Wasn't it good to know that slavery was all over?

'Good movie that Amazing Grace? ay Lily?'

'Yeah great Movie?'

'Wasn't William Wilberforce wonderful,'

'Isn't it great all that slavery stuff is done with now? '

'Yeah less work for us to do Sam, i mean that guy was certainly persistant, it was so annoying that those others wouldn't help him , I mean how could you not see the injustice in people being held against their will ......'

sips coffee ( where are the coffee beans from?)

'beats me..... it makes me so so angry ...Lily!!'

They pull up a video off Youtube recommended by a friend off their latest whizz gadget phone (totally essential item)

'I don't get it! Sam what the frickin heck is the video on about that was a little whack!'
------------------
Yes well , it is really!

• At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking.
• 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors.
• An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year.
• The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.
• Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery.
• Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking. UN office on drugs and crime
• People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc: Types of recruitment; include abduction, false agreement with parents, sold by parents, runaways, travel with family, orphans sold from street or institutions.
  

http://www.stopthetraffik.org/ - be the difference. What Wilberforce started we have to continue. Its always more than 'just a movie'

A lot of Middle Class Churches like to send people on short term missions. While these often has the best of intentions, I am of the belief that the vast majority of these do far more harm than good. Harm? I hear you say

Yes .

Local Christians in the ‘mission country’
• We effectively say – ‘I have a much better knowledge of your culture/language and conditions and thought that by coming in for 2 weeks and often by spending just 1 day in one particular space I could further Kingdom Work’
• Those that we go to help often go out of their way to accommodate us, therefore putting themselves out and often leaving themselves in a worse financial position when we leave.

Local non Christians: Missioners have not enough time to bond or form lasting relationships often language and culture issues. The most unreached are often not talked to ‘as this would be too risky ‘ oxymoronic being the fact that this is who Jesus would I think go to first ……. *cough*

Those on the mission:
• My biggest gripe is the money. Individuals often spend (here in New Zealand and I assume for my US readers it is similar) $ 2000 – 4000 for a 2 week trip. While this is all well and good, most of those $$$$ are for the individuals costs (airfare , accommodation) and little gets to the actual MINISTRIES etc over there that they are going to support. What I am saying is after the mission group is gone is there another $2000 from each individual (and the church that is sending them) to help the ministries they have supported? Or is all that we bring home pretty photos and good memories?
• Second big gripe: Many many churches seem to push the idea that ‘mission’ is purely overseas – last time I checked Jesus started with those around him before he sent people out. If those who we send internationally do not have a grasp on this basic fact then I really doubt whether a ‘mission trip’ is ‘furthering the kingdom’ as it is claimed

Now in saying all of this there are some short term mission groups that I do make exceptions for i.e. where people are going to a place where they have been asked to go by a local community because a local community does not have those resources OR where the community has NO Christians.

I am a firm believer in native missionaries and the work of Gospel for Asia before you get all agro at me ( which I doubt very much , you lurkers you :P )

Now I must admit that my Christian theology is a mish mash of a variety of perspectives and is very post-emrgent sympathetic. In saying that I am not a Rob Bell devotee i.e. I do not own all his DVDs , nor have I even read his books (shock horror). I have though watched a fair whack of his NOOMA stuff and discussed his Velvet Elvis ideas with many of my friends.

The following two clips are on evangelism

Bell contends that all street evangelism (with bullhorns and placards and such) does not share Jesus' love or the Christian message adequately as it seperates loving God and loving others.




This guy here though has a different point of view:




What is your point of view? Can we have both? Or is Rob Bell right? Or the last guy right?

I have come to a few realisations over the last few days.

• Firstly the great stinging sensation that is the gospels. LUKE 15 is one of these Gospels. If you read it and let it actually touch you it is a great kick about God's love for the lost.
  The problem with much of our Western Christianity is that we have become so ME focused (give me this , make me feel good, Jesus what can you do for ME, Jesus bless me ) that we forget the fullness of the Gospel. Sure Jesus did stuff for you and me but if I do not show the love to the world or put conditions on when I show love to the world I am not living in obedience to what God asks of me.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart , soul and mind AND love your neighbour .........

The long awaited more substantial blog post is here.

In the last two days I have been catching up on my study ( which seems to be the story of my life, as I have been rather busy and sick lately) the topic I have been studying is the ethics of Jesus, focusing on the beatitudes. This is a very substantial and weighty topic that included some really interesting readings by a Man called Stein who outlined the different theological standpoints that people have taken (and still take, often without thinking through why they believe it) about the Beatitudes and of course 2 readings by Marshall who has a way of making me choke on my cornflakes.

‘ They are so familiar that we have become deaf to the scandalous radicalism and costly challenge embedded in them …. No sooner is “ Blessed are the poor … intoned than eyes become glassy or moist, the heart is strangely warmed , and no one notices that Jesus the revolutionary is heaving a verbal grenade into our homiletic garden’

While this topic is too huge to share about in one blog post , as much as I want to just a few things I learnt :

*The beatitudes were meant for Christian Community (they were addressed to the disciples as a group not to one person)

*They describe the blessedness (happiness) of those who have FULLY embraced the Kingdom of God (which is perhaps why people in the persecuted church are a heck of a lot more happy than we are)

*The Sermon was public, political and social – so should our actions be. Noticeably Jesus calls for action not nice thoughts.

*The one where it says ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God’ can be translated to mean ‘ Happy are the utterly sincere’ because these people are not trying to hide anything or to appear as anything other than they are – when I first started going to Lower Hutt Baptist we had a Youth Pastor who called this taking off the mask.

*This one is from Chris Marshall and if you let it soak in is incredibly powerful ‘

The primary way the poor and oppressed will find the blessedness of participation in God’s kingdom is in and through the community of God’s kingdom, amongst other recipients of Gods saving grace who are committed to embodying the values of the beatitudes in their COMMON life and working for the agenda of the kingdom.’

So my challenge is this, read the beatitudes and let them be a grenade in your life – in the words of Marshall again – Jesus was a radical , most of us are moderates

As needful (?!) as conversations on the state of the church are or whether we should let women speak, or whether we should have Gay Ministers , or whether the worship music is too loud, too fast or too slow The beatitudes are not an optional extra that we can get around too once we finish all these other conversations and our church activities. They are the essence of being a Christ follower.

As I am still learning about this topic and will continue to all my life has anyone got anything else to add? I am soaking up like a sponge ........

By any accounts getting any opinion out of the 11 readers per day who read this blog , is like trying to get peace in the middle east, but i mean really, what do we think of this .................. I don't really have an opinion as of yet so here is your forum ..... especially you oh mystery reader from Christchurch College of Education.......

DEAR BOUNDLESS ANSWERS

What do you think about Christian singles living with members of the opposite sex? I have two friends (a man and a woman) who work for a college campus ministry organization, and live in a house together.

All told, there are four young men and the woman living in this house. My male friend has a girlfriend, but the rest of the young men and the woman are all single. I say that unmarried men and women should not live together, whether they are dating, cohabitating or just roommates. I seem to be the only one in my Bible study with this opinion.

Since my friends are merely roommates, and not romantically involved, everyone else seems to think their living arrangement is acceptable. I say it's not, since it is not a good witness and goes against what we all profess about couples not living together before marriage.

What are your thoughts?

REPLY

You are dead on. It is a very poor witness for Christian singles of the opposite sex — in ministry no less! — to be living in the same house together. They are damaging their credibility as Christians and especially leaders in ministry.

What if a single young guy and girl who attend their campus ministry meetings want to move in together "just as roommates"? What will their counsel be? "Well, the two of you shouldn't do that, because it looks bad, but if you can find about 3 or 4 other guys or girls it's OK." Huh?

Christians who believe it's OK to have opposite-sex roommates or housemates (we'll leave cohabiting for another time) have made two very significant mistakes in their thinking.

One, they have agreed with the feminists, who for 40 years have tried to get us to believe that, outside a few plumbing issues, men and women are essentially the same, that there is nothing uniquely masculine about men, nor feminine about women. We can be great buddies, fight alongside each other in combat, share public restrooms, and live together! This flies in the face of scripture. Men and women aren't the same. To throw a girl in the mix of a bunch of guys living together, and think it's essentially the same as throwing another guy in there, is a victory for the feminists. "Oh, we won't be tempted sexually, we're just friends!" And all the feminists said, "Amen!" (Of course the feminists wouldn't care so much about temptation — casual hook ups are like shaking hands).

Two, as Christians these young people have a responsibility to live in such a way that it benefits and builds up others. 1 Corinthians 10:23-24 says, "'All things are lawful,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful,' but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." In a college setting, where the hook-up culture is doing everything it can to tear down healthy relationships between guys and girls, Christians should be making every effort to live as counter-cultural to that as possible. Opposite-sex roommates send a weak message to a world that desperately needs a salt-saturated standard.

I hope you'll keep urging them to change their living arrangements, for their sake, for the sake of those who are watching them, and for the Lord's sake, who commands us to "do all to the glory of God."

A couple of weeks ago my I found this little gem and showed it to my non christian sister. She was in fits of laughter as it (unfortuanately) described me perfectly. My I pod was full of Christian music and nothing but christian music. This stemmed from my first becoming a christian a few years ago when I changed from listening to Channel Z and ZM and some rather unhealthy stuff and decided that so as to cut out some rather destructive thought life I would go for a 100% Christian diet. Anyway since viewing this track my sister keeps calling my I pod a J pod so I have been diversifying.

Related to this is an article by Jan Johnson about how many Christians need to escape the Christian Ghetto, i.e they live in such a Christianized world with little to no interaction with non christians that they don't know how to interact with the rest of the world properly.

I for example always find it funny when people who have been raised in Christian families all of their lives feel that they have some intimate knowledge of what it is like to live as a non christian or be raised in a non christian household... but anyway...

just like yesterday I am going to be practical here are the things Johnson suggests to get out of the Ghetto.... :)

• Renew former acquaintances (with those that have dropped out of church)
• Befriend neighbours ( this includes those at uni, school, and in the community)
• Join a community group - (this does not mean a Christian ministry group)
• Be hospitable (to people from outside your christian circle)
• Employ nonbelievers

I have had a few recent conversations with people that lead me to today's topic. Rachel was telling me about what her 'pet peeve' was, and over the last week I was sharing in depth about my pet peeve with another friend. Also some one else , I can't remember who, asked whether if we see some issue we actually do something about it rather than just moan about it and poke holes at it. So that leads me to today. Immaturity. Alex Chediak has written a fantastic article on immaturity that starts as follows:

I never used to RSVP for get-togethers, but would show up at the last minute. My friend Darren once told me that a single man's social life is based on the "last best option." In other words: Never commit, because a better alternative may come along.

Sadly this attitude reminds me of many Christian guys and girls today. Chediak then goes on to outline the Portrait of Immatruity vs a Portrait of Maturity among Christian 20 somethings.

Immaturity:

*Indecisiveness - In speaking to many christian guys and girls lately many have said to me when I end up making a decision (because I get so frustrated waiting for someone else to) that they see this as being assertive and they could not do this as it could cause offense so they prefer to 'stay in grey areas' or just 'go with the flow'. While I understand where they are coming from, this gets tiresome after a while as the same people have to keep making decisions all the time.

*Inconsistency -
'My friend Jason was willing to hang out if it involved doing something he really wanted to do, like seeing the latest movie. But if I was going through a hard time and needed some brotherly encouragement, he was nowhere to be found.'

The oppositises of those according to Chediak are Decisiveness and Faithfulness who then outlines scriptual principles for them and then goes on to demonstrate what this looks like and how to get there. ( just a sampling):

• Assuming responsibility
• Embracing risk.
• Pray
• Read and implement what the Bible says
• Make 'our work, relationships, and use of time and money reflect the infinite value of God
• 'acknowledging God's sovereignty in the process, and by seeking (in the strength that God supplies) to optimize our witness for Christ in a difficult environment so that through
  work, we not only pay bills but show the love of Christ by providing goods and services that benefit our neigbours '
• This one is juicy: ' Moral authority is the twin sister of dependability. Most of you men will marry and your wife will be biblically obligated to respect you as her head. But your behavior and attitude can make all the difference in the world as to whether this is a duty to her or a delight. Biblical authority comes with merely being the husband of your wife. You can be a complete jerk, but God still holds you accountable (as the head) for your wife and children. But moral authority is earned by the successful stewardship of assumed responsibility. '

Kudos to Sam Harvey. whose blog you should be checking out. 'Deep as a Puddle'
(thanks to Adam for that link)

For those of you behind the times Fuse is the replacement for CTC and is on this Queens birthday weekend. For more info get your fingers on over to www.soulpurpose.co.nz and take you and your youthgroup kids to it!

I can't think of anything cooler than MFC being full with people rocking hard for Jesus!

You up for a challenge?
Good!

(All random highlighting is mine :) )

I know quite a few who read this are in positions of leadership so I am here to challenge you as I have been by this article from Chris Marshall. If you are on a worship team or in youth leadership I want you to really think whether this is true for you. I know our Sunday night team has discussed aspects of this at length but I think we still have some way to go!

...clergy today give much less attention to catechetising young believers, teaching them how to access the Scriptures and stocking their minds with biblical stories, language and themes. If this is true of more liturgical traditions, such as Lutheranism, how much more true must it be of evangelical, pentecostal and other free church traditions which usually lack any formal apparatus for the catechesis or instruction of young believers? Indeed, I sometimes wonder whether, ironically, it is the relative strength of so-called “Bible believing” churches compared to the declining mainstream congregations that partially accounts for falling levels of biblical knowledge. At least in liturgical worship, the congregation every week hears the public reading of Scripture on the basis of the lectionary, a timehonoured practice stemming back to the earliest days of the church. In most looser evangelical church services, by contrast, the only time
Scripture is publicly read is to furnish the launching pad for some
sermonic excursion that focuses more on the experiential or therapeutic needs of the listeners than on the meaning of the text itself. The same is true of the worship
repertoire found in our most popular churches. Although the old “Scripture in Song” genre had distinct limitations, at least it served as a vehicle for inculcating our
minds with biblical imagery and language. By comparison, it is striking how lacking in biblical allusions many of the most popular worship songs are today, such as
those emanating from Hillsong. Many say little more than “Jesus is my girlfriend”, and a very cool girlfriend too, countless times over! When it is reckoned that what
people sing in church is today arguably their primary source of theological instruction, this is rather troubling.

But why should it be troubling?

Why should diminishing familiarity with Scripture be a cause of concern?
Does it really matter?
Yes it does!
It matters because what is being lost is an awareness of the Bible’s central
role in shaping Christian identity and forming Christian character

.

I highly recommend you read (or skim) this article avaliable from Stimulus :

http://www.stimulus.org.nz/index_files/STIM%2015_1%20Marshall.pdf

Disagree or Agree??? Got an opinion Dave, Natalie, Huggies, Nicola, Random England and US visitors?

When was the last time you:

Smiled at someone random in the street?
Looked at God's creation and thanked him for it?
Prayed?
Asked someone for help?
Thought of one of your brothers or sisters in the persecuted church?

I think as Christians its all very well to spout out Micah 6:8 but I wonder how much we put it into practice. For me last year in my last teaching paper I had the chance to choose a research topic and I chose dyslexia. Unfortuantely for me I did not get a good mark, the reason why - Dyslexia was not recognised in the NZ education system as a recognised learning disability. This I thought was pretty poor as there are thousands of kids out there who have Dyslexia and who are not getting the help they needed all because the MOE had decided that 'labels' were not a good thing for kids. I.E. TEACHERS WERE NOT TAUGHT HOW TO HELP DYSLEXIC KIDS! So I made it my hobby horse telling anyone and everyone about it. It just so happened that around that time TV1 had a big thing about Dyslexia on its close up program and the fact that it wasn't officaily recognised, and the thing has been growing in momentum ever since. Anyway some great news has come through....

Dyslexia, that's d-y-s-l-e-x-i-a.

It's taken a while for the Ministry of Education to get its head around the word but affected families and the Dyslexia Foundation are celebrating long-sought recognition of the needs of those identified as having the reading and writing disability.

It came yesterday in the form of a statement titled "Ministry improves understanding of dyslexia".

After denying for decades that the condition existed, the ministry said it would put greater emphasis on assisting students who struggled with reading and writing, including those identified as dyslexic.

Anne Jackson, deputy secretary (schooling), said dyslexia was a term used to refer to a group of students with a range of persistent reading and writing difficulties or disabilities.

The Ministry of Education recognised that more needed to be done to identify such students as early as possible and to provide them with effective interventions based on their specific needs.

"We are also developing a resource for teachers that outlines strategies for working with students with reading and writing difficulties," Ms Jackson said.

She added that the ministry had recently completed an analysis of international research into dyslexia, looking at various international definitions of dyslexia as well as scientific attempts to locate and describe the causes and symptoms associated with it. - NZ HERALD

Obviously many of you will not find this very exciting but I encourage you to re examine Micah 6:8 and ask yourself what exactly is it that gets you pumped and looking for Justice?