I was listening to the last part of Focus on the Family tonight when I heard the speaker talking about praying to ask Jesus to come into your heart. My question is, where does the Bible say that this is how you enter the kingdom of God? Why do thousands of churches across America and around the world teach people to pray the "sinner's prayer" so that they can be born again? I'm not trying to be critical of the speaker or Focus on the Family in any way. Just trying to figure out what I'm missing here.
Blessings,
Brandon
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
99 names of God
In the interest of dispelling some of the gross misunderstanding of Muslims I thought I'd share this song and video about the names of God.
What are some of your thoughts when you hear and see this?
What are some of your thoughts when you hear and see this?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Conviction or Political Tactic?
I'm somewhat disturbed by much of what I've seen and heard from Christians in recent months, weeks and days. Once again the abortion issue has been brought to the forefront of our hearts and minds. All of the awful statistics about abortion today and in years past...the endless talk about partial birth abortion and even post-birth abortion. How an entire generation of people has been wiped out by this awful procedure. And I agree, abortion is an issue that should be high on the list of priorities for all followers of Christ. Here's the problem, it's not. For most people this will fade away again until the next political season rolls around.
If the abortion issue was really a conviction for the Church then we would DO something about it. Instead, I would liken it to the way the way that many in the church view missions, it's very important, someone should go take care of this, I'll give money to it or tell someone about it, but that's where it ends. To me, that means it's more of a preference than a conviction. We'll complain, moan and cry about the travesty of abortion, yet VERY few will get off of our behinds and actually DO something to work towards ending it. This is why I almost roll my eyes when I hear Christians boo-hooing about abortion around elections. My thought is, Oh, so NOW you care?!?! And all you're going to do is vote for someone else to solve the problem? Give me a break!
At our church AWANA is very big, it's a conviction of our church to reach the next generation. It's part of our slogan, "Neighborhoods, Nations, next Generation." and we actually make it a priority. On any Wednesday night...like tonight, we'll have 1500 kids involved in AWANA. A friend of mine who loves AWANA went to volunteer to serve in AWANA a few months ago, so he shows up one Wednesday and asked where the greatest need for people was. He was shocked to hear that we actually have too many people working already but that he was welcome to come and hang out. He couldn't believe that there were so many people involved that there was really not room for any more volunteers. The reason is that we have embraced the fact that it is our responsibility to reach the next generation for the kingdom. It's a great testimony to the fact that this is very important at GRACE.
Unfortunately, if you go to almost any crisis pregnancy center there is no shortage of vacant positions and need for volunteers. Why? Because abortion is just not a priority for the Church. If it were, we would be moved to action rather than just words.
Oh, and abortion is just the topic of the day because of all the Christian rhetoric out there over the past few weeks. The same could be said about missions, hunger, poverty and a myriad of other topics that the church likes to talk about but does very little to be the solution. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be a part of the solution. I can't end abortion or take the gospel to every nation tongue and tribe, but I can do more than just talk about it. I can go...
Blessings,
Brandon
If the abortion issue was really a conviction for the Church then we would DO something about it. Instead, I would liken it to the way the way that many in the church view missions, it's very important, someone should go take care of this, I'll give money to it or tell someone about it, but that's where it ends. To me, that means it's more of a preference than a conviction. We'll complain, moan and cry about the travesty of abortion, yet VERY few will get off of our behinds and actually DO something to work towards ending it. This is why I almost roll my eyes when I hear Christians boo-hooing about abortion around elections. My thought is, Oh, so NOW you care?!?! And all you're going to do is vote for someone else to solve the problem? Give me a break!
At our church AWANA is very big, it's a conviction of our church to reach the next generation. It's part of our slogan, "Neighborhoods, Nations, next Generation." and we actually make it a priority. On any Wednesday night...like tonight, we'll have 1500 kids involved in AWANA. A friend of mine who loves AWANA went to volunteer to serve in AWANA a few months ago, so he shows up one Wednesday and asked where the greatest need for people was. He was shocked to hear that we actually have too many people working already but that he was welcome to come and hang out. He couldn't believe that there were so many people involved that there was really not room for any more volunteers. The reason is that we have embraced the fact that it is our responsibility to reach the next generation for the kingdom. It's a great testimony to the fact that this is very important at GRACE.
Unfortunately, if you go to almost any crisis pregnancy center there is no shortage of vacant positions and need for volunteers. Why? Because abortion is just not a priority for the Church. If it were, we would be moved to action rather than just words.
Oh, and abortion is just the topic of the day because of all the Christian rhetoric out there over the past few weeks. The same could be said about missions, hunger, poverty and a myriad of other topics that the church likes to talk about but does very little to be the solution. I don't know about you, but I'm going to be a part of the solution. I can't end abortion or take the gospel to every nation tongue and tribe, but I can do more than just talk about it. I can go...
Blessings,
Brandon
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
