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Singing Praises to Allah…

November 24, 2009

I found the following song in my son’s backpack.  When I asked him what it was, he explained that it’s one of the songs he and his classmates are singing at music class (in the public school he attends).

“Ramadan comes once a year

Celebrate that Allah’s here

Fasting food for thirty days

Honoring [Him] with faithful praise

Celebrate with family

Holidays for all and me”

What happened to “separation of church and state?”  It was a great clause when used by proponents  to marginalize Christianity.  But now it has been cast aside for the sake of multiculturalism and pluralism.  Call me old-fashioned, but I want to go back to the good old days when religion was kept out of the schools altogether—like, you know, last year!

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On Leadership

November 22, 2009

To successfully lead an organization one must be committed, courageous, and captivating; and embody character.  If the organization is innately Christian then the leader must embody Christ-like character.  But to transform an “organization” into a “movement,” one must be able to lead other leaders.

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The Evolution of Religion in America

November 18, 2009

Think with me now…

We’ve gone from one primary religion (Christianity), to secularism (no primary religion), to pluralism (all religions–except the exclusive ones). However, since all religions are innately exclusive (except for unitarian/universalists) we’re back to secularism. (And the universalists only accept the inclusive religions which makes them exclusive–so they’re out too).

Maybe we should just elect leaders who’d like to be substitutes for God and make government the sole locus of authority!

Oh wait… nevermind.

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“Americanized” Christianity

October 14, 2009

Americanized Christianity might sound a bit like “weaponized uranium.”  If it doesn’t, it probably should, because it’s just as dangerous.

Lately I’ve noticed far too much racism, bigotry and especially partisanship in the church to even call it Christian.  I am not picking on the church I lead in particular; however, I am picking on the American church in general.

Really, I’m picking on those who cannot separate their politics from their religion.  That is not to say that religion shouldn’t affect politics, it most certainly should.  Too many people, however, let their politics affect their religion (i.e. they cannot divorce their political persuasion from their interpretation of the teachings of Jesus).

Case in point: I have a Facebook Friend whose “friends” are discussing the merits of taking up arms in a bloody revolution against the US government.  These “friends” are all Bible-believing Christians (so to speak).  I know they are having a rhetorical discussion that is full of false bravado; but still, the fact that it’s an item for discussion betrays a great deal of ignorance regarding the teachings of Christ and His earliest followers.

If I sound arrogant here, I apologize; but working in a fairly-urban environment has taught me a number of humbling truths.  Of utmost importance: There are a great deal of faithful, Bible-believing Christians on either side of the political aisle.

Those who focus on justice for the unborn are generally conservative.  Those who focus on justice for the poor are generally liberal.  Those who focus on the independence-aspect of freedom are generally conservative.  Those who focus on the community-aspect of freedom are generally liberal.  Those who focus on individual morality are generally conservative.  And those who focus on social morality are generally liberal.

Ironically, and in regard to the above-mentioned issues, they all tout biblically-based, Christian principles.

One significant problem in Americanized Christianity is that the extremists on both sides would prefer to put a bullet in the head of those who disagree with them than to walk “two miles” with them; and this is surely not the way of Christ.

I’m not calling for political moderation.  Nor am I calling people to come together and just “get along.”  I’m asking Christians to study the teachings of Christ and consider: Would Jesus, in our context, be conservative or liberal; would He be capitalist or communist; would He be Republican or Democrat; would He be all-of-the-above or none-of-the-above?

Frankly, I’m not sure He’d have anything to do with any of us!

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Michael Moore, Capitalism & Christianity

October 5, 2009

Most of my readers know that I operate from a conservative viewpoint (see my bio-page).  Although I am no partisan, I am not ashamed to be a conservative.  I believe the same values that made our nation strong will keep it strong:  Freedom, Independence, Liberty for All, Work Ethic, Justice and Fairness (as they are traditionally defined).  Capitalism is part of that system as well.

However, I also believe that we need to take spiritual inventory from time to time, as well as appreciate what the “other” viewpoints believe.  So I submit the following words from partisan filmmaker Michael Moore.  Some of his points are easily refutable.  Others are rather potent.  I’ll let you work it out in the ensuing discussion that is sure to take place.  Feel free to comment.

“Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and corrupt members of Congress exposed in Capitalism: A Love Story, I pose a simple question in the movie: “Is capitalism a sin?” I go on to ask, “Would Jesus be a capitalist?” Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1 percent to have more financial wealth than the 95 percent under them combined?

“I have come to believe that there is no getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what’s left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you’d have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.

“I guess that’s bad news for us Americans. Here’s how we define “Blessed Are the Poor”: We now have the highest unemployment rate since 1983. There’s a foreclosure filing once every 7.5 seconds. 14,000 people every day lose their health insurance.

“At the same time, Wall Street bankers (“Blessed Are the Wealthy”?) are amassing more and more loot – and they do their best to pay little or no income tax (last year Goldman Sachs’ tax rate was a mere 1 percent!). Would Jesus approve of this? If not, why do we let such an evil system continue? It doesn’t seem you can call yourself a Capitalist and a Christian — because you cannot love your money and love your neighbor when you are denying your neighbor the ability to see a doctor just so you can have a better bottom line. That’s called “immoral” — and you are committing a sin when you benefit at the expense of others.”

Gospel According to Matt’s Opinion:  Jesus would have been neither capitalist nor socialist.  He would have been something else altogether.  What say you?

You can read Moore’s editorial in it’s entirity at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/for-those-of-you-on-your_b_308948.html

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Psalm 57:5 & Tozer’s Prayer

September 10, 2009

Psalm 57:5 says, “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above the earth.”

“O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions.  Nothing of earth’s treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life.

“Be Thou exalted over my friendships.  I am determined that  Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth.

“Be Thou exalted above my comforts.  Thought it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee.

“Be Thou exalted over my reputation.  Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream.  Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life itself.

“Let me decrease that Thou mayest increase, let me sink that Thou mayest rise above.  Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon a the humblest little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, ‘Hosanna in the highest.’”

A. W. Tozer, “Restoring the Creator-Creature Relation,” The Pursuit after God

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Self-Examination & the Christian

September 8, 2009

2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”

What a potent challenge!  We need to look inward not outward to examine ourselves—not others.  What are some examination question we might ask ourselves?

1. Do I believe in one God, and one Faith, and one way to God in Jesus Christ?

2. Am I filled with the Holy Spirit of God, received in faith, at the time of my baptism?

3. Do I allow biblical values/ethics/morals to trump my own personal values/ethics/morals?

4. Do I, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, share my faith with those around me who do not know God?

5.  Am I filled with compassion, rather than judgment, when faced with suffering people in need?

6. Do I respond to suffering with generosity—serving and giving to those in need?

7. Do I love the Church, the Bride of Christ, despite her spots/blemishes/sins?  Do I believe that He is perfecting and preparing her for eternity?

8. Am I more godly and Christ-like today than I was yesterday, more this year than last year; more than I was before I met Christ?

These are just some of the questions that I might need to ask myself?  You might come up with a similar or dissimilar list of questions, but the point remains that we have a responsibility to “test/examine” ourselves to see if we “are in the faith.”

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Being Jesus, at Home.

August 29, 2009

Why is it so much harder to live like Jesus, at home?  I pondered this question as I passed through my neighborhood, on my way home from the grocery store.

I was thinking about one of the kiddos a couple of blocks away who spends quite a bit of time at our house.  During the Summer time, he leaves his house when he gets out of bed, and doesn’t really go home until dusk.  Half the time, we’re feeding him dinner and giving him basic adult supervision.  And at least three times per evening during the school year he rings our doorbell, wanting to play.  He’s pretty respectful to my wife and I, but doesn’t play real well with our boys, especially when other friends are visiting.  If often find myself frustrated with him, and especially with his lone parent who spends more time with potential mates than with the kids.

Why do I have such a hard time acting like Jesus, at home?  When at Church, I get to help people in such circumstances all the time.  And I generally do it with a cheerful spirit.  When I see single moms, or struggling families, or broken lives, my heart breaks for them.  I want to reach out to them, help them, serve them, and hopefully restore them.  But when I’m home, it’s a lot harder.  Would hypocrite be the operative word?  I hope not.

Why do I have such a hard time acting like Jesus, to my family?  It’s not just toward the neighbor kid, but toward my family as well.  I’m much more gracious with the kids at church than I am with my own kids.  I’m much more forgiving with the people at church than I am toward my own wife.  And I’m much more generous with the folks at church than I am with the folks in my home.

So what’s the deal, anyway?  If you have good answers to any of these questions, I would appreciate your responses.  I don’t really know the answer.  But I do no that I’m not as much like Jesus as I’d like to be!  My most natural self is evident at home, and that’s the hardest place for me to live like Jesus; which means I’ve got a long journey ahead of me, in my pursuit of “Christ-likeness.”

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Hand Sanitizers & American Christianity

August 21, 2009

In a micro-biology article, Regina Bailey tells us that: “Antibacterial hand sanitizers are marketed to the public as an effective way to wash one’s hands when traditional soap and water are not available.  These waterless products are particularly popular with parents of small children.  The manufacturers claim that the sanitizers kill 99% of germs.  Since you naturally use hand sanitizers to cleanse your hands, the assumption is that 99% of the [harmful] germs [on your hands] are killed by the sanitizers.  Recent research, however, suggests that this is not the case.

“Hand sanitizers work by stripping away the outer layer of oil on the skin and prevent bacteria in the body from coming to the surface of the hand.  However, the bacteria normally present in the body are not the kinds of bacteria that will make us sick.  In a review of the research, a professor at Purdue University, who teaches safe sanitation practices, came to an interesting conclusion, noting that hand sanitizers do not significantly reduce the bacteria on the hands, and may [actually] increase the bacteria.[1]

When I read this article I chuckled to myself for two reasons.  The first is because I’m nearly addicted to this stuff and apparently it isn’t doing me any good at all.  The second reason is because the parallels between hand sanitizers and traditional American Christianity are endless.

It’s like we’ve got this substance that can destroy all the bad stuff in our lives and in our world, but we have no idea how to actually make it work.  And so we smear it on the surface of our lives, and it might make us look clean and it might even kill some of the surface problems, but it doesn’t really sink in and make a difference.  So we interact with Christianity, and we get this pure-clean feeling, but we’re just fooling ourselves. Too often we are like the religious leaders that Jesus called “white-washed tombs.”  We are shiny and clean on the outside, but not on the spiritual inside.

It makes me think of the people addressed in 2Timothy 3:5 who “have a form of godliness” but “deny it’s power.”

 

[1] Accessed at, http://biology.about.com/od/microbiology/a/handsanitizers.htm, on August 20, 2009.

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The Real Meaning of “Christian”

August 19, 2009

One of the primary tests of Christianity is that we walk in the footsteps of Jesus.  Not just that we believe in Him, not just that we trust Him for salvation, but that we walk in His steps.  I’m not talking about His culture and customs, nor am I talking about securing salvation, I’m talking about our life-patterns.  Do our habits and patterns look anything like Jesus?  Do we care about the things Jesus cared about?  Do we talk about the things Jesus talked about?  Do we seek out the kinds of people Jesus sought out?  Do we love the things that Jesus loved and hate the things that Jesus hated?  Do we live like Jesus called us to live?  Real Christians walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

1 John 2:3-6 says: We know that we have come to know Him if we obey his commands.  The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what He commands is a liar and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys His word, God’s love is truly made complete in Him.  This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.

We can sum up this Scripture into three tests of Christian authenticity: (1) Real Christians obey His commands; (2) Real Christians embrace His truths; and (3) Real Christians walk in His footsteps.

1 John 2:3 makes it clear that true followers obey the commands of Christ.  It’s pretty simple: If we don’t obey Christ, then we aren’t true Christians.  The biblical word for obey in verse 3 means “to watch, to observe, and to keep an eye on” something.

When I was a boy, and when my mom would suspect that I was up to no good, she would say, “Matt, I’ve got my eyes on you!”  And then when I’d get caught for something I was sure I’d gotten away with, Mom would say, “I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.”  If you’re a parent then you know how important it is to keep your eyes on your children at all times.  Whether they’re in the house, or outside playing, or away at school or at some sporting event, every parent bears the responsibility of keeping their eyes on their children.

True Christians likewise bear the responsibility of keeping their eyes on the commands of Christ—that’s what obedience means—that they observe, watch, and consider His commands as they go about their lives.  1 John 5:3 says, “This is love for God: to obey His commands.”

Obedience plays itself out in two ways: We embrace His truth and we walk in His steps.  We accept what He says as gospel truth, even if it conflicts with our own values and preconceived notions.  And we pattern our lives after His life, even if it means that we have to change some of our habits and behaviors.

Real Christians obey His commands, embrace His truths, and walk in His footsteps.  Sadly, I think there are many people who wear the name “Christian,” who are nothing of the sort.  May this not be said of me.  What say you?

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