Might I recommend

In the section, Books that I am reading one of them is the Listener's Bible by Max Mclean. I ordered this for my Birthday and absolutely love it. It is 75 hours of audio for the entire Bible. I chose the ESV because I think it is a solid translation and ask Pastor Brad, I am very cautious about the translations we use. In fact, in a coming post I might comment on one that I consider not even worthy of reading. Back to this, there are 3 versions, KJV, NIV and ESV. If you are a busy person and want to get some scripture on consistent basis this is a great method of doing so. If you want to sample him he is also on Biblegateway.com.
Thanks to those who have commented so far on my blog, I want to use this to discuss topics on my mind. I am trying to work out my salvation with fear and trembling and in doing so I want to understand what is going on in modern Christianity. I welcome opposing viewpoints as I want iron to sharpen iron. God Bless

Things that I like about Emerging movement

When I critique something I try to be as objective as possible before I make a conclusion. All to often people will look at something find something bad or good about it and put a label on it as such. As I am studying the emergent/emerging(whatever it is) movement I have to say I love their concept of caring for people. I like that they want to invest in peoples lives to help them where they are in life. All to often in traditional Christianity we want to get to the point and convert people before they go to Hell. This creates an attitude in people that does not desire to be around Christians. If we invest in people and show them God in us on a real level and plants seeds of forgiveness, love, joy, long suffering, etc then maybe people will desire to want what we have. In reading Brian Mclaren's book, The secret Message of Jesus he talks about a Washington taxi cab driver who invested in the lives of some people in Africa, the end result is their community was changed and when a community Bible study was erected people flocked to go to it. They saw God in real life in this person, he didn't go there give them a bunch of Bibles and expected them to changed. He planted seeds of goodness and God worked on them through those seeds. My next post will be about some of the things that I am cautious of in the Emergent movement, in fact it might be broken up in a few posts. HA HA

Culture, Culture, Culture

Lately, I have been listen to Paul Edwards on AM1500 from 4 to 6 PM, he has been discussing a lot about being seeker sensitive and being culturally relevant in the church. This is a topic that I have been interested in for quite some time. Are we called as Christians to conform to the culture or are we set apart from the culture? The MegaChurch movement has created a culture in the church where it seems that if church leaders are not growing their churches then they are failing. In fact, I think that is even stated in Rick Warren's book the Purpose Driven Church. As a result, we have seen an influx of gimmicky Christianity. The message in the pulpit has been fluffed up so that any person that walks in the door will feel comfortable and want to return. We dare not talk about being sinners in need of a saviour, we dare not talk about changing a persons sinful state by the power of Jesus Christ. I look at it as many church leaders that have adopted this method have basically told the Lord to step aside, that they prefer to use man's methods to draw man. Instead of allowing God to do it by the power of His Word and the convicting of His Holy Spirit.
I know of some people personally that left their church of several years after the pastor adopted this method and shortly after started a series of sermons on Disney movies. In this vein there are churches that play secular music in their worship service, and playing secular movies as sermon props. Am I one to forbid secular movies or music? no, but we need to be very wise what we take in to our eyes and ears, especially in an environment that is to exalt God.
On Tuesday, Paul Edwards was discussing this article about a church in a bar. In the article it states a quote from Mark Driscoll from his book Radical Reformission where he states "that abstinence from alcohol is a sin". Are you kidding me? I will never be one to tell someone that a beer or a glass of wine is wrong. However, in our culture, in most cases, alcohol is a means to a end. The abuse of alcohol in our culture has done more harm than good. Therefore, we as Christians need to be very cautious when it comes to consuming it and conforming to what the world says is good. This goes 10 fold for our leadership. Let's all be careful not to take this message of being "culturally relevant" too far. My co-workers know me as a christian, they know that I don't prefer to go to the bar because I prefer having a clear head. They do not consider me weird(at least, I think), they know that I will not compromise. They also know who to talk to when they want an honest, thoughtful answer that will not compromise the truth. If I were to conform to what they do or their friends do I am not sure if they would hold that opinion.
Finally, We need to understand the world around us, I am trying to do so because I have little ones that are growing up faster than I prefer. In doing so, we should be able to modify methods without compromising the message. Remember, The Lord said that the world would hate us for his namesake, if the world likes our watered down message, are we sending the right message?

Just stop and think

Just stop and think

Great insights on our life and God.

http://www.juststopandthink.com/