Adapting to the Mission

What is your mission? Does it involve sacrifice or are you just trying to eek each day out? As Christians our mission is glorify God in everything we do. This may take on different faces in each person's life. Some may be called to preach, some may be called to build houses, but at the end of the it is your mission to glorify God.

Recently at work, an interesting event took place that showed me how some have a slight misconception of the mission. A lady was sitting at a table when a coworker of mine walked to see how she was doing. And then it happened, the lady at the table told my co-worker how she needed Jesus(which is a good thing), and then proceeded to tell her to repeat the prayer of easy-believism(which does not make you saved). After my co-worker followed these steps the customer pronounced my co-worker to be "born-again".

Two days after these events transpired, my co-worker told she a funny story to tell. She proceeded to tell me the aforementioned story and then asked me what I thought. I told her a mere prayer of that nature does not make you a Christian, but belief in Jesus and his sacrifice for your sins and repentance of your sin would be a better start. We then meandered into a small biblical conversation for the next 15 minutes, at which she requested a Bible, so she could read it.

The above event one example of living a life on mission. I've worked at the same joint for two years and this girl had never engaged in any type of spiritual conversation. I asked her later why she decided to ask me these questions. It was because she observed me at work and knew I was a Christian. She said she was more willing to trust what I said about Jesus then some random lady.

Why do I give this example? In certain Christian circles, there seems to an impetus to get out and win as many converts as you can, as if we are in some wild game. Though it is a good idea to want to see converts, if you are only doing it to generate numbers as it appears this lady was doing, you are missing the boat. Our sole purpose on earth is glorify God, through God's glorification people will see our love. It may take one day to see a convert or it could take 5 years, as in the case of Adoniram Judson. No matter the case, don't get caught up if you aren't see any converts, make sure the life you lead is to God's glory and to His mission and God will take care of the rest.

*As a side note, Judson's first convert came 5 years into his ministry. 10 years later he was up to only 18 . Shortly after his death, it is estimated there were nearly 210,000 Burmese who had placed their faith in Christ alone.

Back from the dead?!?!

tomorrow or today since it is now 3:01 am, there will be a forthcoming post entitled loosely, "Adapting to the Mission"..stay tuned it should be up by the mid afternoon unless I fall asleep in the street....

Faith of the Founding Father's

It has been said in various Christian circles that well over 90% of the founding fathers were born-again Christians. To me that just sounded like an absurdly high number. So, I thought I would do a little peaking around and see what I could come up with. For a disclaimer, I believe the word "founding father" gets tossed around a bit much, as there were different signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation. For the purposes of this blog, I will only be referencing the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Now for the fun to begin. For the purposes of time and length I am only going to include the signers who seem to be a bit sketchy in regards to their Christian faith.

John Adams the 2nd president of the USA was most definitely not a Christian. He was nothing more than a universalist who rejected the Triune God. Below are a few quotes ascribing him to this belief. You can find a great deal of these quotes in a this book.

In correspondence with Jefferson, we see why Adams was definitely not a Christian,

"θέμίς was the Goddess of honesty, Justice, Decency, and right; the Wife of Jove, another name for Juno. She presided over all oracles, deliberations and Counsells. She commanded all Mortals to pray to Jupiter, for all lawful Benefits and Blessings.

Now, is not this, (so far forth) the Essence of Christian devotion? Is not this Christian Piety? Is it not an Acknonowledgement [sic] of the existence of a Supream Being? of his universal Providence? of a righteous Administration of the Government of the Universe? And what can Jews, Christians, or Mahometans do more?"

Next up will be Thomas Jefferson....

Some random thoughts on James

While driving to work on Monday, I was mentally shuffling through some info. I spoke about on Sunday. For those who are unaware I preached on James 2:14-26. I started to think about Abraham and the faith he displayed while carting Isaac up Mount Moriah to be sacrificed. And it struck me. Would we have that type of faith in that situation? At first, I would be inclined to say no, but after a little bit of mental juggling I've come to the conclusion that everybody would have that faith. My reason for this line of thinking is: Abraham's faith was slowly refined. First, God said he would give him a son. Then, many years later Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac. He may thought this to be crazy, but his faith had matured so much he knew to trust God.(Probably similar in the way Noah trusted God, when he was told to build an Ark).
On a personal level, how does this apply? We may know people(or it could be ourselves) who are thinking God has great plans for us, but it is our failure to have faith in the little things that doesn't allow us to accomplish great things. If we can't trust God to help us when silly mundane trials arise, why should God trust us to do the Christ-honoring thing when great trials arise.
If you can't control your anger when you spill grape juice on the carpet, how are you going to control your anger someone slanders you in front of non-Christian friends?
If you don't have patience to deal with traffic, how are you going to have patience with your own children?
Some of these examples may seem far reaching, but the point I'm trying to drive home is if you ask for patience, or wisdom, or mercy, or kindness, expect something to come up to determine whether you look to Jesus to get you through the trial. Or whether you fall into the seductions of Satan!

The Myth of the Founding Fathers

I know I haven't posted in a bit, but it is soon coming. I'm working on a piece refutes the idea that 97% percent of our founding fathers were Christians. Why would I do this you say? Well stay tuned and find.

A new candidate

Some zany ideas

What, two blogs in one night...why yes it is my friends. Just like the double features of the bygone days.
While I was sitting in church on Sunday at Mars Hill listening to another fine sermon by Mark Driscoll, a Wu-Tang Clan song came to mind. The title of the song was entitled C.R.E.A.M. and the course went a little something like this, "Cash, Rules, Everything, Around, Me. /C.R.E.A.M./Get the money/Dollar, dollar bill, ya'll." And before everyone blows me up for the Wu-Tang Clan for popping into my head during church let me explain a little further. The sermon was on God gives, and Driscoll was detailing how we as Christians have become poor stewards of God's possessions. Instead of serving the Jesus, we takes jobs that give us a little extra "breathing" room. For what...a new car... a member ship to the health club....new carpet....a redone kitchen...a new tv(that is something I am guilty of)...fancy new clothes...name brand groceries...Truth be told we are guilty, one time or another, living by Wu-Tang's Clan credo of C.R.E.A.M. Though none of the above mentioned things are in of themselves wrong, I am issuing a challenge to detail your budgets and try and document everything you spend. And see if you are being a good steward. Stewardship is not about just tithing, it is about using everything God gave you for His glory. I myself have fallen way short in this area. I buy mt. dew like I'm preparing for the decimation of the world. I treat Christmas, as though the stores are going to suddenly run out of toys. I fill my kids closets as though I was preparing on becoming a Mormon. Boys and Girls, take inventory and see if you are being a good steward.

On a long side note, during the sermon a couple of other ideas popped into my head. I will relay them. They are need of some serious fine tuning. Here they are any rate.
One idea is to implement as soon as possible a ministry where the people of the church, give(with a gracious heart of course:) $10-$25 or more a week, bi-weekly, monthly,etc. to a ministry that would be involved in helping out the community. Some facets of this ministry would include, at the beginning stages: Providing thanksgiving meals to families in need, providing a "good" Xmas for the single-moms with kids or families who are in dire straits, putting jackets on kids during the cold Philly winters, etc. As the ministry grows, I would like to see it include chipping in on the bill on those with medical needs, taking some stress off the single moms by taking/giving her a day at the spa(or whatever she likes to do) and taking the kids to theme park, a museum, etc.

The second idea involved challenging the church members to go through possessions and see what they don't use from toys to clothes to tools to cribs and gather them up and starting up a thrift type of store for the needy. The only catch is I want this store not look like your typical musty, thrift. I would like to see clothes clean and on hangars or folded nicely. I would like the toys in working order and not beat up. Though people can donate what they want I would like to this the person "in-charge" sifting through the stuff to make sure it works, it clean, etc. And best of all everything is going to be free.

Anyway, those were just a couple of random thoughts, if you have any suggestion throw them my way. Or if you know someone who does this type of ministry throw them my way.