Moses was 80 when he confronted Pharaoh.My Grandpa was 80 when he went to be with the Lord.
Perspective.
Word of the Day: Frugal
Quote of the Day: "Rich called them the 'no no' parts." Erica Akers
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Sep 13, 2009
May 31, 2009
The Way Things Work
Cute Story:
This morning in church I noticed that the second youngest child of the Pastor and his wife was now old enough to be in church. He was very excited, and dressed in the same cute blue polo as his older brothers. It was adorable. Anyways, when the pastor went up after the praise team had opened with a few songs, I heard the little boy say quite loudly to his mom, "Look! It's Daddy!" Surrounding congregation members smiled.
A little excitement in my own life?
Finally made management at the BK Lounge! Yay for a new uniform!
MCC: still 8- the 11 oclock news is disappointing me
Word of the Day: Myrtle Beach
Quote of the Day: "Look! It's Daddy!"
This morning in church I noticed that the second youngest child of the Pastor and his wife was now old enough to be in church. He was very excited, and dressed in the same cute blue polo as his older brothers. It was adorable. Anyways, when the pastor went up after the praise team had opened with a few songs, I heard the little boy say quite loudly to his mom, "Look! It's Daddy!" Surrounding congregation members smiled.
A little excitement in my own life?
Finally made management at the BK Lounge! Yay for a new uniform!
MCC: still 8- the 11 oclock news is disappointing me
Word of the Day: Myrtle Beach
Quote of the Day: "Look! It's Daddy!"
Apr 13, 2009
Tell the World
With a close to the Easter season, I am forced to study for my religion course. It's interesting how the content I am studying pertains to witnessing the good news of the Risen Savior to a culture that believes God is dead. We live in a story of Confessional Humanism, caught in the middle of the truth that I AM has already put his redeeming plan into action.
Confessional Humanism 101.
If God is dead, we must replace him as Creator.
If God is dead, we must replace him as Ruler of history.
If God is dead, we must replace him as Savior and Redeemer.
And what do we come up with? Science. The Industrial Revolution. We come up with a consumerist story of the world where religion is only relevant to the individual. What happened to a church that was part of every aspect of society? This is why Christians today are stuck in a rut. Christ has been minimized to our personal Savior. He is no longer the author of history, the ruler of all creation, and the redeemer his fallen people. No, he gets to live in our hearts. But not our cities, not our governments and most definitely not our churches.
Instead, Christians today have to ask themselves. 'Do I believe the Gospel truth that the Bible says- that God is ruler of all creation, and has already won history, and his rule is over ALL things?' or 'Do I believe that Christ is my personal Savior, allowed to come out only on Sundays, but maybe not even then, because he is just relative anyways?'
Alright, so I'm a little irritated. But let's think about this. The North American church is shrinking, not growing. We sit in a comfortable society, where we can have all that we could ever want and need, and as long as our faith is kept in its own box, we can avoid the persecution. No one wants to suffer for their beliefs. Guess what, God says its manditory. You must first die to yourself and to this world, before you can live for him. Take up your cross...
On Good Friday, God sent his only son to the cross to die not only for your sins, but to redeem every part of creation. On Easter, Christ rose from the dead and claimed victory over death itself. And now, we live in a time where God has called us to be witnesses. Soon, Pentecost will be upon us, when God poured out his Spirit so that the whole world may know the good news that the Kingdom is not coming, it is HERE!
(besides the point that Hillsong standing up there is very hypocritical and that the show is what its about, in this Easter season, the lyrics are appropriate.)
I know it's confusing, but we truly live at a crossroads between a perverted society and the supreme truth of Christ. Go ahead, tell the world.
Confessional Humanism 101.
If God is dead, we must replace him as Creator.
If God is dead, we must replace him as Ruler of history.
If God is dead, we must replace him as Savior and Redeemer.
And what do we come up with? Science. The Industrial Revolution. We come up with a consumerist story of the world where religion is only relevant to the individual. What happened to a church that was part of every aspect of society? This is why Christians today are stuck in a rut. Christ has been minimized to our personal Savior. He is no longer the author of history, the ruler of all creation, and the redeemer his fallen people. No, he gets to live in our hearts. But not our cities, not our governments and most definitely not our churches.
Instead, Christians today have to ask themselves. 'Do I believe the Gospel truth that the Bible says- that God is ruler of all creation, and has already won history, and his rule is over ALL things?' or 'Do I believe that Christ is my personal Savior, allowed to come out only on Sundays, but maybe not even then, because he is just relative anyways?'
Alright, so I'm a little irritated. But let's think about this. The North American church is shrinking, not growing. We sit in a comfortable society, where we can have all that we could ever want and need, and as long as our faith is kept in its own box, we can avoid the persecution. No one wants to suffer for their beliefs. Guess what, God says its manditory. You must first die to yourself and to this world, before you can live for him. Take up your cross...
On Good Friday, God sent his only son to the cross to die not only for your sins, but to redeem every part of creation. On Easter, Christ rose from the dead and claimed victory over death itself. And now, we live in a time where God has called us to be witnesses. Soon, Pentecost will be upon us, when God poured out his Spirit so that the whole world may know the good news that the Kingdom is not coming, it is HERE!
(besides the point that Hillsong standing up there is very hypocritical and that the show is what its about, in this Easter season, the lyrics are appropriate.)
I know it's confusing, but we truly live at a crossroads between a perverted society and the supreme truth of Christ. Go ahead, tell the world.
Aug 20, 2008
Blahism
Let's get one thing straight. I love GOD! I can recite the Apostle's creed and believe every word of it. I have a decent grasp on the catechisms, and I think I know where most of the Biblical books are. I know that Jesus teaches love, and faith, and trust, and sacrifice, and I believe that the rules are there to make our lives better, not to hinder our lives. I am Christian Reformed, firmly founded on 'blahism'.
One thing I have never been able to understand is the demonination, nor what the big deal about denominations is. I know the difference between protestants and catholics. I know about the Reformation, the Crusades, and why the various creeds and catechisms were written. I know that in the Protestant Christian faith, there are a multitude of other various churches that have broken off. Baptists, CRC, URC, RCA, Presbyterian, Luthern, Methodist, etc, etc. And other than the practising differences between the various Protestant churches and the Catholic ones, we all fundimentally believe the same thing, don't we?
I'm not here to debate faiths, but the practises. I'm not even going to debate the practises of the denominations outside my own. I will however say this. When people are asked to describe Christians in North America, their reactions is as follows. 'Judgemental, harsh, boring people who have nothing better to do than try and stuff their religious views down the throats of their neighbors, and then sit through the most uninspiring, unhappy service anyone has ever seen.' I know that when I come across people and they ask what denomination I am from, I say CRC. 95% of the time the response is "But its so blah." Hence the coined term blahism.
Christianity is anything but blah. In fact, Blahism should not be the definer of the Christian faith at all. God gave his son so that we could be saved. We should be rejoicing, not turning up our noses if someone is sitting in our pew at church. We should be lifting our hands and praising, not standing still for fear that someone is looking. The problem lies in the first description of Christians. 'Judgemental'. God teaches us to love. Which we do. But we have been caught up in the image bearing perfectionist society. God didn't tell us to love only the well-dressed, porcelian-doll type people. God didn't tell us to love only the homeless, forsaken, broken people. God didn't tell us only to love those of our own race, or faith, or class. God didn't tell us to love only the people in our church, school, community. God told us to love everyone. EVERYONE.
I blame the judgement for the blahism. We sit in church, first of all, primped and proper. Sunday clothes, Psalter Hymnals..we are the hypocritical congregation not unlike the one from the movie Footloose. We have our spots that we always sit in, the people that we always talk to, and the gossip that we always share after the service is over. (I`m not even going to start on that..) Church is boring. When did praise and worship become overcome with a list of unspoken do`s and don`ts that the entire world must follow. Why is it irreverent to wear jeans? Why can`t we raise our hands and sing? Why do we stare upon newcomers as if they don`t belong? Why is it, that we expect to come out of church feeling depressed and tired? It`s no wonder the world doesn`t think Christianity is all that great! We are a pretty boring bunch of people!
Can you really blame people for not being interested? Our world is consumeristic, self agreeable, and unaccountable. Why come to church if you can do your groceries, surf the net, or party on? Why bother putting any effort into faith at all when the world tells us that every belief is somehow `correct`, `respectable`, `self-adhesive`. The problem is simply, religion is a bunch of rules and regulations that a no-frill world just doesn`t want. In short, it`s boring, it`s blah.
`Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!` -Phillipians 4:4
I don`t think we were meant to be a people of blahism..
One thing I have never been able to understand is the demonination, nor what the big deal about denominations is. I know the difference between protestants and catholics. I know about the Reformation, the Crusades, and why the various creeds and catechisms were written. I know that in the Protestant Christian faith, there are a multitude of other various churches that have broken off. Baptists, CRC, URC, RCA, Presbyterian, Luthern, Methodist, etc, etc. And other than the practising differences between the various Protestant churches and the Catholic ones, we all fundimentally believe the same thing, don't we?
I'm not here to debate faiths, but the practises. I'm not even going to debate the practises of the denominations outside my own. I will however say this. When people are asked to describe Christians in North America, their reactions is as follows. 'Judgemental, harsh, boring people who have nothing better to do than try and stuff their religious views down the throats of their neighbors, and then sit through the most uninspiring, unhappy service anyone has ever seen.' I know that when I come across people and they ask what denomination I am from, I say CRC. 95% of the time the response is "But its so blah." Hence the coined term blahism.
Christianity is anything but blah. In fact, Blahism should not be the definer of the Christian faith at all. God gave his son so that we could be saved. We should be rejoicing, not turning up our noses if someone is sitting in our pew at church. We should be lifting our hands and praising, not standing still for fear that someone is looking. The problem lies in the first description of Christians. 'Judgemental'. God teaches us to love. Which we do. But we have been caught up in the image bearing perfectionist society. God didn't tell us to love only the well-dressed, porcelian-doll type people. God didn't tell us to love only the homeless, forsaken, broken people. God didn't tell us only to love those of our own race, or faith, or class. God didn't tell us to love only the people in our church, school, community. God told us to love everyone. EVERYONE.
I blame the judgement for the blahism. We sit in church, first of all, primped and proper. Sunday clothes, Psalter Hymnals..we are the hypocritical congregation not unlike the one from the movie Footloose. We have our spots that we always sit in, the people that we always talk to, and the gossip that we always share after the service is over. (I`m not even going to start on that..) Church is boring. When did praise and worship become overcome with a list of unspoken do`s and don`ts that the entire world must follow. Why is it irreverent to wear jeans? Why can`t we raise our hands and sing? Why do we stare upon newcomers as if they don`t belong? Why is it, that we expect to come out of church feeling depressed and tired? It`s no wonder the world doesn`t think Christianity is all that great! We are a pretty boring bunch of people!
Can you really blame people for not being interested? Our world is consumeristic, self agreeable, and unaccountable. Why come to church if you can do your groceries, surf the net, or party on? Why bother putting any effort into faith at all when the world tells us that every belief is somehow `correct`, `respectable`, `self-adhesive`. The problem is simply, religion is a bunch of rules and regulations that a no-frill world just doesn`t want. In short, it`s boring, it`s blah.
`Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!` -Phillipians 4:4
I don`t think we were meant to be a people of blahism..
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