Archive for the ‘Words of Christ’ Category

It’s His Birthday – Get Him What He Wants

Monday, December 6th, 2010 by JEL

Pardon the shameless promotion here, but as you’re scurrying around the Internet and the malls gobbling up presents to fulfill your Christmas shopping lists, I thought you might want to stop a minute.

And think.

Christmas, after all is meant to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus, not a celebration of the glowing credit card. One more plastic toy or electronic doo-dad is not going to make this world a more peaceful and tolerant home for any of us.

If you could sit Jesus down and ask Him what he really wants for his birthday, I’d bet He’d say “To be understood.” We just happen to know of a great gift for everyone on your list that makes His message easier to understand than ever before. Give it a shot >>

Uncool

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 by JEL

I loved today’s “Jesus is Uncool” column by Greg Stier. He makes the point that Jesus, as some Christians strive to portray Him today, was not this handsome superhero traveling the countryside saving the oppressed multitudes with a single wave of his hand. In reality, he was probably a short, sun-beaten guy preaching a message that nearly everyone at the time thought was the epitome of uncool.

It’s still uncool today. Help the poor? Feed the starving? Look at the rage over welfare, social security, and other entitlement programs. Look at how this country approaches immigration. No, it’s lift yourself up by your bootstraps, look out for #1, and be damned with all the rest.

“So what are the lessons for us as followers of Christ? In a 21st Century quest for Hipster Christianity we must remember that the call of Christ is the call to be uncool. It’s the call to pick up our cross and carry a radical and sometimes unpopular message to a broken world. It’s the call to embrace Jesus’ as the narrow gate, though it may appear narrow-minded and exclusive, but to be open-hearted and handed when it comes to the hurting and hopeless.”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

The Girly Medal of Honor

Friday, November 19th, 2010 by JEL

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. Things have become very busy as they always do around holiday time. Anyway, I came across this blog post from Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, and it really deserves comment.

Basically, Mr. Fischer is upset about the “feminization” of the Congressional Medal of Honor. He thinks there is a disturbing trend of recent recipients of the Medal being honored for saving lives, not ending them. Saving people, apparently, is for girls, while killing is for the tough hombres.

His main argument is that we honor and worship Jesus for crushing the enemy:

The significance of the cross is not just that Jesus laid down his life for us, but that he defeated the enemy of our souls in the process. It was on the cross that he crushed the head of the serpent. It was on the cross that “he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).

The cross represented a cosmic showdown between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, and our commanding general claimed the ultimate prize by defeating our unseen enemy and liberating an entire planet from his bondage.

We rightly honor those who give up their lives to save their comrades. It’s about time we started also honoring those who kill bad guys.”

Perhaps Mr. Fischer forgot about Jesus’ central message of peace and love and tolerance. That all war is despicable. That every soldier on the other side that we see as a “bad guy” is perceiving US as the “bad guy.” And that everyone on both sides has a wife or husband, children who love them, hobbies, aspirations, and a life they would sorely love to be able to live if only governments would stop deciding conflicts by who kills the most of each other’s citizenry.

Really?

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 by JEL

Jordan Sekulow, an attorney with religious conservative American Center for Law & Justice, writes a blog for The Washington Post. Yesterday he wrote a post entitled “Vote Your Faith” which contained the following doozy:

“As Christians, we believe that we were born in the United States for a reason. Unlike Christians throughout history and in some nations today, American Christians have been empowered by God to shape and guide our government.”

I feel like the lingerie-clad woman trying to get her Blackberry-wielding husband’s attention in the new Microsoft Mobile ads. Really? American Christians have been empowered by God to shape and guide our government? Funny, I don’t remember God showing up to bestow those powers. And claiming that He did in your blog does not make it so.

Given the election results, the next couple of years will be very interesting, and, I fear, dispiriting. I just hope all those new self-proclaimed Christians in positions of power remember that Jesus’ central message was love and tolerance and a call to help those less fortunate. Not rage and intolerance and a call to stuff the coffers of those who already have so much.

Common Sense Christianity

Monday, November 1st, 2010 by JEL

John Shore wrote a very interesting (and pragmatic) piece over the weekend. Before you read the whole thing, you might want to first check out the story of his “sudden conversion” from rabid anti-Christian to Christian.

His weekend piece deals with a Christian perspective that includes logic, intelligence, and compassion. Among the bullets, these are some of my favorites:

  • Anyone seeking to mix church and state has failed to understand the nature and proper role of either.
  • It is much more reasonable — and certainly more compassionate — to hold that throughout history God chose to introduce himself in different ways into different culture streams than it is to believe that there is only one correct way to understand and worship God, and that the punishment for anyone who chooses any but that way is to spend all of eternity having the living flesh seared off of his or her bones.
  • God’s will and intention is to forgive and teach us, not judge and punish us.
  • The only person who should be actively endeavoring to convert non-Christians into Christians is God.
  • There were no dinosaurs on Noah’s ark, and Jesus didn’t have a pet stegosaurus. Anyone who believes the earth is only 6,000 years old needs to stand up, put down his or her hot dog, and come eat dinner at the grown-up’s table.
  • The single most telling indicator of a person’s moral character has nothing to do with how he or she defines or worships God, and everything to do with how he or she treat others.

Who Knows the Most About Christianity?

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 by JEL

If you guessed “Christians,” well, guess again. In a recent Pew survey, Americans didn’t fare so well on their knowledge of world religions.  Even worse, they scored poorly on knowledge of their OWN religion.

Atheists and agnostics did the best on the survey, followed by Jews and Mormons. Christians were at the back of the pack. In case anyone is looking to beef up their knowledge on what Christ taught in a really simple way, have we got a book for you!

Here’s some interesting commentary on the survey.

“In Christ There Is No East or West”

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 by JEL

Music is a wonderful thing. It can uplift you, transport you, alter your mood, and express ideas and emotions far better than words alone.

Peter and I are both huge music fans and have loved Wilco since the beginning (including half the band’s precursor, Uncle Tupelo). Jeff Tweedy of Wilco recently produced an album for the legendary gospel and R&B singer Mavis Staples called You Are Not Alone. You can stream the whole thing here.

One song in particular I find particularly powerful. It captures the many things I’ve been trying to say in this blog. And the many things Jesus teaches in the gospels. Give it a listen–it’s not an assignment; it’s a little present to boost your day.

WWJD? Not This

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 by JEL

Perhaps you’ve been following the story of a small church in Florida that plans on holding a “Burn a Koran” event this Saturday to protest the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In case you missed it, you can view a recap of the story here.

In a nutshell, despite pleadings from the State Department and the top US General in the Middle East, Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center plans to go ahead with his event. Here’s what General Petraeus had to say about it:

“Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence.”

An interfaith group of evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim leaders also condemn the plan:

“This is not the America that we all have grown to love and care about. We have to stand up for our Muslim brothers and sisters and say, “This is not OK.'” – Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Pastor Jones has not been granted a fire permit, but remains undeterred. His lawyers say the First Amendment gives him the right to burn copies of the Koran.

I Don’t Understand

Monday, August 30th, 2010 by JEL

After Glenn Beck’s big rally on Saturday, he went on “Fox News Sunday” and talked more about Obama and faith. Namely, he spoke about Obama’s “liberation theology.” He defined this term on his radio show last Tuesday:

“You see, it’s all about victims and victimhood; oppressors and the oppressed; reparations, not repentance; collectivism, not individual salvation. I don’t know what that is, other than it’s not Muslim, it’s not Christian. It’s a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it.”

I’ve read that quote a half dozen times and I still don’t understand it. It’s a lot of words that I’m sure some people will lap up, but I just don’t get it. Maybe that last part of the quote holds the key: “the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it.”

So instead of the ACTUAL gospel of Jesus Christ that calls for tolerance and love and helping the needy and the poor, most Christians are following/believing something else entirely.

Hipster Christianity

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 by JEL

Last week Brett McCracken, a 27-year-old evangelical, wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Perils of ‘Wannabe Cool’ Christianity.” In his piece, he talks about the efforts of pastors to stop the flow of young people out of their churches. He cites a 2007 study that states that 70% of young Protestants between the ages of 18-22 stop going to church.

What have church leaders infused in their services and programs to appeal to youth? Coffee lounges, “the emerging church” with a cool, countercultural image, cutting-edge technology, even open discussion of sex. I found these paragraphs especially interesting:

“In his book, ‘The Courage to Be Protestant,’ David Wells writes: ‘The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.

‘And the further irony,’ he adds, ‘is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.’

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that ‘cool Christianity’ is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.”

Here’s an idea: try teaching what Jesus taught. Love, tolerance, and peace never go out of style.