Everything That's On My Mind

Skye Jethani has a great post on Christmas over at the Out of Ur blog. He identifies two primary obstacles to truly celebrating Christmas as we should: Busyness and materialism. I think most of us will readily admit we suffer from busyness. Materialism, on the other hand, is something no one likes to admit but all of us suffer from to some degree. As I've mentioned on Sundays this month materialism isn't just "wanting more stuff". You can have very few "things" and still be materialistic if your focus is on your "things" or your focus is on all the "things" you don't have. It takes great discipline to avoid both these traps, but when it comes to materialism we have to start at step 1: Admit we have a problem. Skye has some good suggestions on avoiding the traps of busyness and materialism, click on over and see.

May we all truly focus on Christ this Christmas.

May we all truly give thanks for all God's blessings, great and small, and may we resist the temptation of the sin of gluttony.

On a much sillier note:

There’s an email being forwarded around this Christmas season regarding sending Christmas cards to the ACLU. If you haven’t received it, a copy of the email is below.

With all due respect, this is absolutely the WRONG thing to do at Christmas. Even if you disagree with the ACLU, maliciously trying to “freeze their operations” is absolutely ANTI-Christian; a violation of Christ’s teachings and the Christmas spirit. What happened to “love your enemies”? (Matthew 5:44) What happened to “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” (Romans 12:20) Not to mention the idea of dishonestly writing “contribution enclosed” on the envelope. Don’t tell me “but I contributed a bible verse!”…please. We all know it’s intentionally dishonest and SINFUL. Have we completely forgotten how Christ calls us to behave? This is exactly the kind of thing that gives Christians the reputation of being malicious, hateful, and petty. How can we proclaim “God is love” and act in such hateful ways?

While the ACLU is involved in trying to get nativities off government property*, they have NOTHING to do with stores changing from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays”. Stores are doing that as a business decision because fewer and fewer of their customers are actually Christians. The solution to that is NOT to protest, but for Christians to MAKE MORE CHRISTIANS!!!

Please, please, please, I beg you, DO NOT do this and DO NOT forward it on to other people. The only thing it will accomplish is to make things more difficult for people who are actually trying to share the Gospel.

Sorry for the rant, but these things really get under my skin.

* Personally, I don’t think getting nativities off government property is such a bad thing. I don’t want my Savior associated with corrupt politicians. Why do we want people who aren’t living according to Christ’s words promoting Him, anyway?

Here's the email in question:

This is coming early (really early) so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list. Read on ...

Fun with the ACLU ... Wanna have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world.

Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it!

Here's the address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's Not the Christian Way, you know!)

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions. (Put "contribution enclosed" on the envelope and inside contribute a bible verse!!) So spend 39 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a "Holiday Tree" ... It's a Christmas Tree even in the fields!!

REMEMBER send a card that says MERRY CHRISTMAS not HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

There's a great uproar in certain Christian circles regarding the new movie The Golden Compass, which comes out next month. This movie is based on the first book of a series by Philip Pullman. Pullman is one of the new "evangelical atheists" (my term, AFAIK) along with Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, who are actively trying to rid the world of all religions. I have not read Pullman's books, and I expect you haven't either, but author and film reviewer Jeffery Overstreet has and you can read his summary over at the FamilyLife Culture Watch blog.

Historically, a movie like this generates massive protests, email campaigns, and cries for the destruction of Hollywood. Such protests are silly and counter-productive to the extreme. They provide free marketing for the movie in question and in the end probably cause more people to see it rather than less. If it weren't so sad it would be funny.

Christians spend far, far too much time worrying about the "competition" and screaming about how wrong they are. What happened to the Good News? Have we lost faith in the power of the Gospel to the point that we feel it needs our protection? Michael Spencer (the iMonk) has expressed this more eloquently than I could in his fantastic post called "I'm Not Afraid of Atheists (or Their Movie)" which I highly recommend reading. We need to "overcome evil with good", not with a culture war. Paul never needed to attack his opponents, he just preached the Truth. That's what we as Christ-followers need to get back to.

I'll close with this quote from Leadership Journal:

"Paul doesn't bash Artemis. When you tell the story well, you don't have to bash. It's clear. In fact, in Acts 19, the city clerk says to the rioting mob, "Paul has never blasphemed the goddess." One of the distinctive things about the Jesus revolution is they never blasphemed the gods of the cities, and yet the whole city became Christian. That has unbelievable implications for what Christians are doing right now—preachers bashing Hollywood—When you tell the story well, you don't have to."

~ Rob Bell

I love Ben Stein. Many know him only from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Win Ben Stein's Money, or silly commercials, but he's also an incredibly intelligent (first in his class at Yale Law School) and articulate writer...and terribly funny too. It appears he has leveraged both his intelligence and humor in a new project, Expelled. It's definitely on my must-see list now.

HT: FilmChat

A couple weeks ago the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Thomas Trask, resigned his position with two years left on his term. Before taking office in Springfield, Rev. Trask was my pastor. I have the utmost respect for him and I pray God continues to bless him in whatever he does. At the General Council meetings next month, new leadership will be elected. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that this is a significant turning point in our fellowship. It goes without saying that we need to be in prayer regarding this decision over the next two weeks.

Some of the "young guns" (younger than me, at least chronologically) in the A/G including Brad Leach from Church of the King in Berkley have started the FutureAG blog to discuss this decision. While it's advertised as a temporary blog just for the next few weeks, I really hope it turns into something more. The interaction I've seen on this blog so far has been very positive, thoughtful, and encouraging. Case in point, yesterday's post by Paul Stewart entitled Identity Crisis and the ensuing comments. While the conversation is primarily among pastors, feel free to at least eavesdrop.

I've been tagged and also chastised, deservedly so I suppose. For those of you new to reading blogs, a "tag" is a set of questions that one blogger answers and then "tags" their blogging friends to do the same. I've seen this one bouncing around different blogs, so this tagging wasn't entirely unexpected.

1. I dig that Jesus is deep. (Pun most sincerely intended.) When Jesus taught, he didn't wrap everything up into a nice, simple three point "how-to" sermon. He didn't over-simplify things just to grab people's attention. If something he taught was challenging, He allowed his audience to work at understanding. He wanted His disciples to wonder, to ask question, to develop their understanding gradually. Jesus didn't lower himself to the lowest common denominator, he raised the common denominator.
2. I dig that Jesus is common. I love that Jesus is a regular guy. God did not send him to earth to a family of privilege. He didn't attend the best schools and learn from all the best teachers. He didn't dwell in ivory towers teaching the elite. He was a common, working class guy who taught and served common people. He didn't seek to change the world through influencing the powerful and learned. He basically invented the grassroots campaign.
3. I dig that Jesus is direct. Jesus never pulls his punches. When something needed to be said, he said it. He was never intentionally antagonistic or abrasive, but he didn't soften what needed to be said. In every situation, he spoke the truth in just the right form and with just the right intensity. An amazing trait.
4. I dig that Jesus is patient. Even a cursory reading of the gospels reveals the disciples to be inconsistent, petty, short-sighted, and faithless. Yet through it all, Jesus never tossed them aside for a better bunch. He patiently allowed them to grow and develop into the men that would establish his church. Fortunately, he is still just as patient today. If he wasn't so patient I'd be in big, big trouble.
5. I dig that Jesus is alive. OK, so I'll end with the obvious one. Jesus isn't a hero, a philosopher, an icon, a revolutionary, or a martyr...he's God-made-flesh, crucified and raised to life eternal. He's not the ideal man to be emulated, he is the son of God who created us and, thank God, is re-creating us each day.

So now I'm supposed to tag five bloggers, but I don't think there are five other bloggers reading this. Bob and Corrine, consider yourselves tagged. Anyone else who's reading this but doesn't have a blog, feel free to leave your five in the comments.

If you grew up in the evangelical church during the '70s as I did, Brother Andrew's autobiography God's Smuggler was unofficial required reading. In case you've never read it, it tells the story of Brother Andrew's efforts smuggling bibles into communist countries during the Iron Curtain days of the '60s. Needless to say when it comes to passion for the Gospel and the courage to do something about it, his credentials are flawless. That's why when he talks about a Christian response to radical Islam in Christianity Today, I take notice. I highly recommend taking some time to meditate on this article. What should a true Christ-centered approach to radical Islam look like?