Being Real

My Sermon Topic this past Sunday was "How to be a Christian, without being Religious?"

Points.

A. What is a Christian? Looked at calling of the disciples in Matt.
B. What is Religiousity? Works salvation.
Looked at Paul's rebuke of the Judaizers in Galatians.
C. Answering the Question.
How to be a Christian in this postmodern world.
Ended with a song and powerpt of Lost & Found's song "Baby"

All good. Shared from my heart. One of my elders even prayed with me at the end of the service. Been a good week. Emotional.

Our church had looked at the budget. I let my leaders know I'm here for the long haul and God is still in control. Good to have alot of encouragement and support from the leadership. I pray your church leaders support you as mine does me.

The Porn Crisis

Article



"The 60 Minutes report also revealed that many of the largest hotel chains, including Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton, and Holiday Inn, make most of their in-room profits from the sale of pay-per-view porn – with half of all guests purchasing erotic video products. Think about that the next time you walk down a hotel corridor. A pornographic video has been bought by half of all the guests in the hotel. That statistic alone staggers the moral imagination."

WOW. The NYWC is in CA this weekend, my prayer is NOT one youthworker subscribes to a movie.

What is the Gospel?

Gospel is Good news or rather God interacting with us that we maybe a part of His story.

I think we do a big disservice to the Bible and to God reducing the Gospel to an equation or a phrase. The Gospel is basically God's Story. all of the Bible and all of what has happened in History - and our becoming a part of that story.

Now does it make it easy or easier for the unchurched? Well if we use the Christianese vocabulary I think we confuse people.

A Big part of the Gospel is Jesus. God's love. In that also covers the whole character of God - His love, grace, mercy, justice and wrath. So when we talk about the Gospel it isn't just Christology but even some of eschatology, pnematology(sp) other atolgyism if you want to include them.

The Gospel starts at the Beginning of which there is God. And also ends at the end of which there is God. All truth is God's truth and so the Gospel is God's love story and interacting with His people - whether that be Jew or Gentile.

The Gospel is also a pursuit. The start of it to a child might be as simple as John 3:16 or later in life that of leaving the elementary teachings and pursing other disciplines and the continual pursuit of God and all that is Who He is.

Now people like to say this is what makes sense or doesn't. The Gospel to some is that Jesus has these rules: DOs and DON'Ts and we are to follow them. (Legalism)

And then of course if chaos reigns .... then why would we allow Grace to abound?

It is a balance. So what is the Gospel? simple answer: God; and His and our pursuit to get to know one another.

The real question is: If the Gospel is that of what God has done? What do I do as a result?

(Sarcasm button ON)

Package it? Sell it.... Nah, I got it ... let's make the gospel into a tract or into this Roman Road or into a Equation ...better yet let's sell it. I mean package, business like and have our CEO pastors in their CEO building sell the CEO purpose Driven Gospel .... afterall that is what Jesus would do right?

Or let's make the gospel and the Christianese from a noun to an adjective and package that and have Christian homes, Christian music, Christian shirts, Christians bobbleheads, Christian video games, Christian message boards, and of course Christian cars, Christian schools.

Somehow no Wonder people are confused about what the Gospel is or isn't and well people like Jerry Falwell, Fred Phelps, and others with their unfortunate comments now and then don't make it any easier.

Should We Hate?

Personally IMHO I think it is OK to Hate. I think we can voice it. I respectfully disagree with some people who say you shouldn't hate. Now with our touchy feelie good PC people that would want to make everything we are against as a "Hate" crime. But God created feelings, God created emotions. Sometimes at that moment we do hate or dislike things. We, even, hate people. Of course it is what a result of what you do with that - that makes the person. Don't let the devil get a foothold etc. I think this is what separates us from the "Fred Phelps" crowd. We maybe upset, rant, rave but recognize that once we are done our little whining ... we are to love one another.

It is ok to be angry, upset. I think too much counseling and psychological terms says "Don't hate" "Let's be nice" but there are days when we feel depressed, hate, dislike, want to punch people and see injustice done.

I think there are times in the Bible we are commanded to hate. (The word appears over 80s and a few of those reference things God hates)

We are to hate wickedness. (Hebrews 1:9).

Of course there are some words that set people off, right away ... like if I were to write "I hate Doug Fields" - People might respond ...Well I hate you too, Gman. And that would be OK. That is there feeling at the time. Hopefully people see my heart and that even though my emotions at the time may not be the best response - they are my emotions and unfortunately there are times I give into them rather than think things through.

Should I let Hate consume me? No. It should be a righteous hatred. A love for people, but not wanting them or their actions to stay that way.