It's Not The End Of The World (probably)

89-year-old Harold Camping of Oakland, California seems to think he's got it all figured out. I don't think he does.

I think he's doing his part to give Christianity a bad name, but that doesn't mean this week is a bad time to ponder your relationship with your Creator. I do think it's a bad time to quit your job, sell your house, charge a fortune on your credit cards, or shave your head and go sit on a hill to wait for The Rapture.

I won't waste much more time on this, but I will refer you to Jesus himself, who said in Matthew 24 verse 36, "Of that day and hour no man knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." Camping tries to explain here, but in my opinion it's a swing and a miss. See you Sunday then?
Love,
derifter

Biting And Devouring

I've been noticing (and so have you) that among Christians there's an awful lot of back-biting taking place. Fundamentalists and some percentage of Evangelicals go on about how the Emergent crowd is off on a tangent and doesn't understand the law or the gospel. They just don't get it. In the Emerging church, one of their claims to fame is that they are able to present the gospel in context, in a relevant way, not like old-school Christians who are stuck in the past and just don't get it. Everybody knows Charismatics are loony, right? God doesn't move anymore! Man, they don't get it. Charismatics are the only ones who know that the Spirit has left all the dead churches and only dwells within their own church.

"Ello, Guvna!"

Remember what Paul said in Galatians 5...
"But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another."

It's not like we don't have enough adversity in the world, without attacking each other to boot. We're the body of Christ. Jesus prayed in John 17, "I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are."

That they may be one, even as We are. Maybe your bothers and sisters don't say it just the way you would, but they're saying it. Maybe they're saying it the way someone needs to hear it, in order to take a step toward God. Encourage that. Encourage them. Let's not forget why we're here. The Body isn't all feet, or eyes, or arms. We need each other.

The Tornado, the Lutherans, and Homosexuality

John Piper posted on the implications of the tornado in downtown Minneapolis that hit the location of the ELCA convention, where they intend to vote on whether homosexuality should disqualify a person from the pulpit.

Any thoughts?

Atheists: "Boo Hoo" Ha Ha

The LA Times has a pretty good article on how boring atheists are getting.

(HT: Art)

How Low Can We Go?

This isn't about stocks or the economy. It's about the human condition.
I read this article this morning, and it absolutely blew my mind. It was the first I had heard of it, and I've been kinda depressed all day because I can't stop thinking about how far we've fallen. What were these dudes thinking? I haven't a clue. If life sucks and you're mad at the world, just stick your head out the window and yell, "AHHHHHH!!!" Don't inject people with infected blood. Some people might say, "How can there be a god if this sort of thing can happen?" To me, it makes me think there has to be a God. There needs to be, because if this is where humanity is heading and there is no god, then there is no hope available anywhere. But there is hope in the fact that Jesus sacrificed Himself to redeem people who were as far gone as these guys. There's hope for them, for you, for me, for child molesters, everybody.

You picture the Garden of Eden, where life was good in every sense of the word. And then you hear of this story. I can't begin to imagine what life is now like for the fourteen victims who woke up to find that not only had they been drugged and raped, but intentionally infected with HIV. Man, that's a hangover you don't get rid of with an aspirin. I'm sorry to put up such a downer of a post, but it's pretty much consumed my mind today.

Glide

Several years back, my wife and I were in San Francisco visiting our daughter. When Saturday rolled around and we mentioned going to church the next day, she recommended Glide Memorial, where she had been a few times with friends. Well, if you've ever been to San Francisco you know that just about everything there has a pretty liberal feel to it and Glide was no exception. As we sat in church behind a couple of girls with their arms around each other, (I'd guess same-sex couples made up around 10 to 20 percent of the congregation) we felt like a couple of sore thumbs in a large room full of fingers. We're pretty conservative socially, politically, and to my surprise I'm starting to think, religiously. We're used to hearing the Word preached: Sin, repentance, forgiveness, new life, worship. Most of what we heard at Glide was social justice. I have nothing against social justice, but the Knights of Columbus and Kiwanis and Lions clubs could just about be under Glide's umbrella of ministry. I don't think I heard anything about anyone's need for Jesus that day.

I do remember hearing how Glide helps alcoholics break free from their addiction, brings food to the hungry, aid to the handicapped, and acceptance to the GLBT crowd. I thought, "What?!! By that logic, you should be serving alcohol to alcoholics, taking food from the hungry, and crippling the handicapped! It would deliver the same amount of help."

In certain circles, there's a lot of debate over whether we should be focused on our personal relationship with Jesus or loving and serving our neighbor (essentially, Jesus vs social justice). Well I think that's a crazy debate because the answer is so obviously "Both" (Matt 22:37-40).
But as a picture of how far off course Glide has gone, I took this quote from the About Us portion of their website: "In 1967, Cecil [Williams, then-head pastor] ordered the cross removed from the sanctuary, exhorting the congregation instead to celebrate life and living."
Also, from Williams's profile on the site, "His vision for a truly inclusive church has attracted a 10,000 member congregation, an extended family, who reflect the diversity of the world- all races, ages, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations and religions. What brings this community of people together is the common search for acceptance, spiritual growth, and social justice."


Not sure where the spiritual growth is there. Not sure where the end of this post is either. How about here?
/rant

The Golden Compass

I got an e-mail a few days ago warning about the upcoming movie, The Golden Compass, saying it's a movie about killing God. According to the e-mail, it's "the anti-Narnia". It also contained a link to Snopes.com, where there's a brief summary of the movie and of the author of the book series the movie is based on. The Snopes.com link quotes the author from a 2003 interview as saying, "My books are about killing God." So I guess there isn't much doubt about what the books are really about.

But if you've seen the trailer, it looks really good!

There's a feature on the movie's website where you can "meet your daemon" by answering 20 questions. Mine is a spider called Aspradora. In the movie, everyone has a daemon (demon), but they dwell in the form of an animal outside your body rather than inside, and they're a reflection of yourself rather than an indwelling spirit. Maybe your exo-soul. So maybe the whole "Demons are our pets" thing is a bit troubling.

I love fantasy-adventure flicks like this. And regarding the hidden message behind the story, I don't think I'll lose any sleep over it. Remember The Matrix? We Christians found a hidden message of hope and life and truth in it, because of all the "other-world", eye-opening, truth-revelation scenes it contained. Non- (or anti-) Christians found in it a hidden message of hope and life and truth, because of all the "other-world", eye-opening truth-revelation scenes in it. I have a hunch The Golden Compass will will be owned by both positions, too. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
But I definitely want to see it. Maybe I'll post on it again afterward.
Normally I like spiders, and I had three tarantulas as pets when I was younger. But if I ever see Aspradora around, that sucker's gunna get squashed.