At Play In the Fields of the Lord!

I think about a lot of serious issues. I care deeply about the worldwide body of Christ. I want to be Jesus to others. Those who read my blog might ascertain a few things about me, like some of the issues I care about and think about. Perhaps some might think I am a killjoy 'nary ever allowing laughter to escape from my mouth. However, what you may not know is that I laugh a lot, that I find people, including myself, funny. I know God laughs a lot. He celebrates. One day there will be a great wedding feast, where entire nations and people groups will celebrate. I am sure there'll be singing and dancing and much laughter and much horseplay. I'll never forget what my pastor in Rochester, NY, Russ Palsrok, said on Sunday morning. He said that we could be sure that Jesus danced at weddings. Jesus did partake of the wine that wasn't mostly water. Up until that time, I had never pictured Jesus dancing. But that is what they did at Jewish weddings.

I think sometimes we forget that Jesus enjoyed himself in the midst of his calling. I wonder what Jesus found funny? The first question and answer in the Westminster Catechism calls us to love God and enjoy him forever. And an implication of loving and enjoying God is that we will love and enjoy others and life. That's part of being fully human. So, if those of you who do not know me personally have found me to be dour, I apologize. Those who do know me know that I am not.

Blessings this day!

Fighting Against Abortion Is Working For Social Justice Too!

I believe we will be judged for our casual indifference toward the children we allow to die through abortion. We're horrified at the WWII German people for allowing the Holocaust and the South for allowing slavery. We're nauseated by our massacre of Native Americans. But here we are, amusing ourselves to death in the midst of the abortion massacre. We are as guilty as the German people, the South, and those who oppressed and murdered the Native Americans. May God have mercy on us. May our children not ask why we Christians, collectively, didn't do more.

Preaching, Origen, and Arrows of God

"In his commentary on Psalm 36 Origen is talking of Christian preachers under the metaphor of arrows of God. 'All in whom Christ speaks, that is to say every upright man and preacher who speaks the word of God to bring men to salvation--and not merely the apostles and prophets--can be called an arrow of God. But, what is rather sad,' he continues, 'I see very few arrows of God. There are few who so speak that they inflame the heart of the hearer, drag him away from his sin, and convert him to repentance. Few so speak that the heart of their hearer is deeply convicted and his eyes weep for contrition. There are few who unveil the light of the future hope, the wonder of heaven and glory of God's kingdom to such effect that by their earnest preaching they succeed in persuading men to despise the visible and seek the invisible, to spurn the temporal and seek the eternal. There are too few preachers of this calibre.'"

From Michael Green's book Evangelism in the Early Church p. 245.

Oh that my words and life be an arrow of God!

Greedy Church Staff, Power, and Poverty

A friend of mine recently related some exceptionally disturbing details about her church. It has over a million dollar budget but spends 99.9% of it's money on itself (salaries and building). None of the money is going to missions. That's right, zero dollars in the budget for missions! Close to $25,000 is allotted to the phone plan. And under $15,000 is going to help those in the local community. $3,000 goes to the youth group. Are other outreach ministries in the church eating up the budget? Nope. They get nothing either.

My friend is wrestling with whether or not she should give to the church or just donate to ministries outside of her church. It's my opinion that she should not give to her church. Her money, and most of the parishioners' money, is going to salaries and a building. Don't get me wrong, I believe the worker should be paid her or his wage. But in this case, from what I understand, the workers are getting rich off of the church. They've forgotten the poor. In my opinion, giving to her church is like giving money to a corrupt organization or government. The whole situation is nauseating.

She confronted the pastor and staff about the complete lack of missions funding. They said they probably could find money for missions somewhere. Hmmm.

To me it looks like the staff doesn't want to give up their salaries and expensive lifestyle. My friend is convinced of the same.

In his book, Power and Poverty: Divine and Human Rule in a World of Need, Dewi Hughes makes a statement that makes me tremble. I provide the context and then highlight the statement:

"the creation of humankind in the image of God is reaffirmed and seen as the basis for a very high view of the value of human life, so that murder opens an account that can be paid only by the blood of the murderer. Cain was indeed Abel's keeper (Genesis 4:9b). Many Christians believe that this text means that capital punishment is the just response to homicide. To discuss this is beyond the scope of this book, but if poverty is primarily the result of oppression, then whose who cause the death of the poor through oppression are guilty of murder. The way we live in luxury in the minority world while millions die in poverty could well make us liable for the blood of the poor before God. Ignorance and a lack of intent can reduce culpability, but there could still be blood on our hands.

May God have mercy on us and may we, may I, in the name of Jesus, do what is right (not just say what is right) on behalf of the poor and powerless.

Beautiful Assurance From The Heidleberg Catechism

Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

There is Life

There is life in the desert. God brings life in the least likely places, even in the desert wilderness.

Howard Thurman on Hatred

Jesus and the Disinherited is one of the best books I have read. We were required to read it in seminary. I highly recommend it.

Above and beyond all else it must be borne in mind that hatred tends to dry up the springs of creative thought in the life of the hater, so that his resourcefulness becomes completely focused on the negative aspects of his environment. The urgent needs of personality for creative expression are starved to death. A man's horizon may become so completely dominated by the intense character of his hatred that there remains no creative residue in his mind and spirit to give to great ideas, to great concepts. He becomes lopsided.



~ Howard Thurman in Jesus and the Disinherited page 88.