Odd Ideas

In the well known passage in Mark 12, Jesus says this:
“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Obviously Jesus was admiring the attitude and faith of the poor widow. Why then do so many Christians spend their whole lives trying to attain the status of the wealthy?

Is it not “good enough” to live up to the ideals that Jesus valued?

This past Sunday at church, they had invited a guest speaker to come in. Usually, the pastor is very careful about who he lets on the stage to speak. Overall, in the type of large church that this is, it might not be a bad policy. That being the case, however, I’m not sure how this “guest speaker” managed to get up there… or maybe I can.

Within a few minutes of his getting up there and starting to speak, I simply wanted to leave. I just couldn’t, because I was the sound guy!

So much of what he said “sounded good”, but was just off enough to make my skin crawl. The speaker was Brian Klemmer, apparently a well known motivational, “positive thinker” type of speaker that charges people lots of money for going to his seminars.

The one thing I did like from his speech was his analogy of how most people are “born with sunglasses on”, and live their lives while never taking them off. As a result, no matter what you say to them, they can never see things for what they are – they just simply don’t know any better. The only way to change people’s thinking is to get them to take off the sunglasses.

This made sense to me, as it seems that for many years I was wearing those sunglasses. They were the sunglasses of Christianity. Not only were they tinted, but they were also distorted. A few years ago, some of the everyday things in life made them fall off – and that certainly caused some confusion!

Ever since then, nothing seems the same. And once you have removed cheap, distorted sunglasses, there is no way you can go back to wearing them.

The problem is that with Brian Klemmer it seems that he hasn’t actually removed his sunglasses. Instead he has either replaced them with a different tint, or simply rubbed and cleaned the old ones so much that they are now scratched as well. All of his training seminars simply try to make your sunglasses match the ones he is wearing.

I was at the “dedication” of a large new facility for a local church this past weekend.

Part of the service – the official “dedication” part – involved the members of the church staff reciting various promises on the stage, each one followed by the audience repeating something about “dedicating this house of God”.

All I could think of was the words of Stephen in Acts 7.

God does not live in houses made by men.

Guess I’m still cynical.

A “re-post” of what I posted Feb 22 2009

Just thinking “out loud” here… Why is it that so many Christians have been “trained” not to ask questions? That somehow, asking questions automatically is the start of our slide down a slippery slope?

I have had several conversations with people over the past couple of weeks about what it means to follow Jesus, about what Jesus asked us to really do, and about some of the things that Christians seem to be obsessed about that Jesus didn’t even mention.

One conversation was on-line, on a message board where people were discussing “the afterlife”. I dropped in to read what people had written, and found that a young man from our church was supporting the “Christian” viewpoint on the board. So were a number of other people.

The disturbing thing to me was that there was an atheist on there who came across as sounding far more coherent and logical than many of the others, including his valid criticisms of Christianity. He was simply posting some true comments about the history of the Bible, and about some of the terrible things done in the name of Christianity through history, and how Christianity (including the beliefs) have dramatically changed over time. So what do we believe now? What really is true, and what isn’t? It was a good question.

The Christians were simply re-iterating (over and over) the same lines of belief, saying a prayer, going to church, all to avoid hell and end up in Heaven. Numerous scripture references were posted out of context to support their arguments.

I posted a few scriptures (see my earlier post about this) to show what Jesus actually said about who was “in” and who was “out”. I also commented that, as followers of Jesus, it wasn’t our job to decide who was a Christian and who wasn’t (since many on the board were trying to define that…).

The reply from one of the Christians? They used the same line I have heard many times before… a reference to Genesis 3:1…

Their response was “Does the line “Did God really say?” seem familiar?”

Somehow, this line is used to instill fear in Christians, because it is inferred that if you ever question a commonly held “Christian” belief, if you ever ask the question “Did God really say?”, you are now following the path of the serpent.

As a Christian, we never want to follow the path of the serpent. Or the path of Satan as it is then modified to mean (although Genesis doesn’t actually say the serpent was Satan).

So, we are always taught never to ask the question “Did God really say?”.

My response on the board? Yes, it does seem familiar. And yes, I am asking the question “Did God really say?” because I want to know that what I am doing, or believing, is something that God, or Jesus, really did say, and not just something invented by church or religion.

Another of my conversations was with a person from the church we have been attending. He stopped by to talk about other things, and somehow the conversation drifted towards some of the popular “evangelistic” messages and tools used in many churches, and how it just wasn’t working. This person already had reservations about the effectiveness of these methods (the typical “scare them out of hell so they want to go to heaven” methods), so I just added a bit of “fuel to the fire” by asking a few questions about what it was that Jesus really taught – about Hell, about following Jesus, about the “rapture” – and suggested he take another close look at the Bible.

He did admit that, for the past couple of years, he has “felt uncomfortable” with the current church situation, but also knew that simply going to a different church wouldn’t fix anything. He mentioned that, in some way, it felt like he was simply “putting in time” at the church until he could figure out what he needed to do.

He also mentioned that he knew a number of other people, at other churches, going through the same thing. Why?

These people want to follow Jesus. They are “still there” at the church. The problem is that they know their questions will not be deemed appropriate, and instead of actually addressing the questions, they will be told that they are wrong, that they need to “flee the enemy”, that they need to conform to the beliefs of the church.

They are not allowed to ask the question “Did God really say?” They don’t want to be associated with serpents.

Asking the question, “Did God really say?” is not really the problem.

The problem is when we know what God said and don’t listen!

We’ve managed to get it backwards – again.

Originally posted February 09th, 2009

Ok, I just have to “vent” a bit here.

I am sick and tired of hearing about the “Fireproof” movie already.

I haven’t seen the movie, nor do I want to. Just the fact that it has Kirk Cameron playing in it is enough to scare me away. His version of Christianity scares me.

From what I have heard, it is a movie about a firefighter (Cameron) and his wife. Their marriage is struggling, he is into internet porn, etc…. Then his father gives him a book and he starts to work on saving his marriage. According to the oft-repeated ads I hear on the radio here, “God gives him a new love for his wife”. That’s good. Where did the old one go?

Being the cynical person I am, I wonder what the movie makers would have done if the main character would have gone through all of this stuff – praying, following God, doing everything he was supposed to, but she rejected him anyway? In real life, that’s often what happens. Then what?

I hear on the radio ads about how many people were “impacted” by the movie, how the movie “blessed” somebody. The movies were shown in churches around here, and my guess is that most of the viewers were Christians. Yet they keep talking about it as if it was some great tool for evangelism.

Then again, the divorce rates for Christians are as high (or higher) than any other demographic, so maybe it’s not a bad thing. Hope it helped somebody!

I’m just sick of the ads!

Anybody reading this see the movie? What did you think?

Originally posted February 04th, 2009

David over at “nakedpastor” has a great post about what Jesus said would happen on “the last day”.

I have also often thought about how Jesus said he would separate the sheep from the goats, and how many of the people who thought they were doing the “right things” – doing them in “His name” – will be turned away. Yet, people who “get in” are sometimes surprised that they are included!

In Matthew 7, Jesus gives a stern warning:

15” Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t say they DIDN’T do those miracles or prophesy, which leads me to believe that they actually did do miracles. So… the mere presence of miraculous deeds and prophesies doesn’t mean that somebody is “known” to Jesus. Very sobering.

OK, I’ll admit I’m a bit of a cynic, but this passage always makes me think of the evangelists I see on TV, the guys running “Miracle Crusades”, and the like…

Where will Jesus put them? Whatever he decides, I’ll live with it…

What really IS the will of His Father in heaven? Jesus talks about that in Matthew 25…

In Matthew 25: 31-46 Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats. There are many who are included in the “sheep”, who pass the test but are quite surprised that they do. Why the surprise? Because they were doing “to the least of these” because it was the right thing to do. They didn’t know they were going to “get in”. They didn’t pass the test because they “believed”, or went to church. They didn’t even seem to be trying to pass the test!

These passages really make me question so much of what I was taught growing up in the church, about what Jesus really expects of us, and what it means (if anything) to be a Christian.

Yes, Jesus said that He was the only way to God. These passages simply clarify what he means by that. Our way to God is not determined by following religious rules and traditions (Christian or otherwise). It’s not determined by what we believe to be true (or false). It’s not determined by the prayers we say or don’t say. Yes, these may be important parts of our life, but they alone do not determine our destiny. We live our life. At the end, Jesus looks at our life and makes the decision. Yes, He truly is the way – and we can’t manipulate it or bypass it.

What does this mean for me? What does this mean for you?

I really don’t want Jesus to call me a goat or a wolf… That wouldn’t be fun.

Originally posted January 28th, 2009

I just had to post a link to this article on the “Free Believers Network” about how current day churches are full of goats, a few sheep, and some sheep who don’t know they are sheep – and how this is the result of watering down the gospel to keep the population happy and supporting the church.

Read the article HERE.

(still need to repair the links here – sorry)

Originally posted September 27th 2008

First of all… yes I’m still alive. Even though I haven’t posted in ages.

As we get settled in (whatever that means) to life here in Canada, it’s been busy with trying to find work, actually working, doing stuff with the kids, etc…

The whole “church thing” is still a frustration. No matter how we try, and how much we like the people at our church, we feel like we just “don’t fit”.

It seems that as our thinking continues to change after living for three years in Ukraine, working with orphans, and everything we have seen and experienced, the direction of our home church here is changing (or seems to be) in the opposite direction of ours. Maybe they aren’t changing but it just feels like that to us…

What is it that bugs us about church? One thing is the view of Evangelism.

I read a post today on a new blog called “Fallen off the Platform” that talks about the same concerns we have. Read it here.

In his post, the author says this:

“Where I’m from, the church will usually have a ’special’ night where you’re encouraged to bring along ANYONE you’ve ever clamped eyes on. Sometimes this’ll take the form of a ‘worship outreach’, or they’ll have a ’special speaker’ (y’know, the guy who’s life was a mess, who God made a huge success and he’s now a millionaire and tells all the right jokes with the perfect timing) or sometimes they’ll even have a film night or a drama production that depicts people dying and being faced with the reality of meeting the devil in hell or being welcomed into heaven and getting a big hug from the guy in a white robe with a stick on beard. (Who thought up this stuff? Can you hear them now…”That’s right…what a great idea…let’s scare folks into the Kingdom with eternal damnation, bad songs and sub-standard acting”) “

Well, it seems that our church has decided to do the same thing. In a few weeks, they are staging a production of “Heaven’s Gates & Hell’s Flames”. Personally, I’m not sure what to do with this. Seeing the big sign in front of the church makes me cringe! Yes, many people will likely come up and make a “decision”. They will decide to say a prayer so they can avoid hell. Is that the same as making a decision to follow Jesus for all of the good things He taught? Is that the same as making a decision to follow Jesus and sacrifice yourself for others?

Seems to me that these types of things simply help build a church full of Christians who are in it for what they can get (Heaven), and what they can avoid (Hell), instead of actually committing to living in the way Jesus did. That takes work, and sacrifice, and is more about what you can do for others than what you can get for yourself.

I’ve mentioned this before… I think Shane Claiborne was right when he said that following Jesus really messed up his life. Jesus does that to people!

But then again, it’s harder to fill up churches that way…