If you’ve read my stuff for any length of time, you’ve no doubt caught me defending the message of prosperity being taught in some Christian circles today (and on TV), and encouraging you not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.  However, after a recent event at Books-A-Million, I’ve come to realize that maybe my exposure to certain teachings in this doctrine have been limited.  I don’t watch Christian TV (TBN, etc), and my views on God’s plans for prospering his people have largely come from my own study, and from my pastor.  Because my Pastor is so Biblically sound, and makes so much sense, I assumed everyone else did as well, and were being unfairly criticized due to the loud, but few, flakes out there.

Maybe I was wrong . . . I overheard an apparently lonely, middle-aged, obese man acosting a Books a Million Employee in between the Christian Section and the Comic Books (I was in the Comic Books, thank you very much).

Fat Christian:  “Churches have really gotten away from reaching out to people and from being mission-oriented, and instead have built large mega-churches”

Employee:  “That’s right.”  (While putting books up on the shelf)

At this point, I thought the Fat Christian might be a good Christian, and was making a point about Charitability.

Fat Christian:  “But God doesn’t want to make us rich just for Mega-Churches, he wants to make us rich so we can use our mega-churches to reach out to people… tell them how to become rich also.”

Employee:  “Uh…Yeah, God wants us to help people.”  He was clearly uncomfortable, and left a sitting area and walked to my aisle in the comic books…Fat Christian followed

Fat Christian:   “People think that we’re preaching that we’re all supposed to be like super-rich billionaires, but I don’t think that’s really the case.  I think God just wants us to be well off.  God may not give me millions, but I could sure use 100,000 or so!  God wants to give his people money, so that while everyone around us is losing their jobs, and getting their homes repossessed, we can come right in and buy them up for really cheap.”

The Employee the left and the Fat Christian followed close behind, clearly ambivalent to the fact that the guy just wanted away from him.  I finished making my comic book selections and went to other side of the store, with a new understanding of why Christendom, at large, hates the prosperity preachers.  Jesus wants us to teach people to be rich, so we can really screw the people who are already victims of the predatory bank lending.  YAY JESUS!

Sheesh.

Tags: christianity,financial crisis,Jesus,prosperity,religion
Categories: Christians Gone Wild!, christianity
2 Comments »

Welcome to the Christian Carnival, CCXLV, which a handy Roman numeral converter tells me means 245!  Wow, I should learn Roman some day.

Before I get right to the posts, I want to thank you all for the honor of hosting the Christian Carnival here at my little site.  I’ve participated, off and on (mostly off), in the Carnival since 2004, but this is my first time hosting.  So, today I’m very pleased to present the following submissions, in no particular order:

• Always a good read, Free Money Finance presents “The Economic Earthquake of 2008: Implications, Vulnerabilities, and Aftershocks.”  This is an interesting read for a brief overview of our nation’s debt crisis.  FMF covers words from Crown Ministries on the economic crisis.
• Jennifer in OR presents Looking up the Exhaust Pipe posted at Diary of 1.
• Minister Mamie L. Pack presents Is he on the roof? posted at The Life I Now Live.  I loved this honest and introspective post.
• Michael presents The Many Ways We Disobey posted at Chasing the Wind.  When God asks us to do something, we don’t always obey. How do we disobey? Look at Saul in 1 Samuel 13-15 to see how he goes through the motions but God knows his heart is not right.
• Jeff presents Word of Faith: The Demotion of God posted at ReturningKing.com. “This is part 4 of an ongoing series, “Wolves in Wool: Creeps in The Church”, a study on false teachers and false doctrines which are permeating Christianity today. This study will be updated weekly, so be sure to subscribe for updates.”
• ChrisB presents Conservatives and the Least of These posted at Homeward Bound. ” We know the Bible commands us to take care of the “the least of these.” Shouldn’t we, then, support efforts to create federal social programs to provide money and other necessities to the less fortunate? No.”
• Tiffany Partin presents The Proof Is In The Pictures posted at Fathom Deep: Sounding the Depths of God.
• Sue presents Lead us not into temptation… posted at Abstractions.
• Ronnica at Tale of a Kansas Girl presents An Appeal to Sensible Voting.  “So many Americans choose to vote based on what is best for themselves.  Why not choose whom we vote for based on our ideals?”  Amen, Ronnica.
• ChristianPF presents Tithing in the new testament posted at Christian Personal Finance Blog.
• Lincoln Adams of the Habitation of Justice presents Why Obama Will Win - Hint: It’s Real Wrath of God Type Stuff. A great read, I must say.  A scarily realistic prediction.
• Claudia presents A Floating Life posted at Standing Straight. What does a leaf floating downstream have to do with “chaos theory”? It is amazing what an astronomical number of seemingly random events and can change or modify not only weather, and biology, but human spiritual outcomes.
• Rodney Olsen presents Romancing your spouse posted at RodneyOlsen.net.
• Jeremy Pierce presents Blomberg on Plantinga posted at Parableman.  This post corrects a misimpression of Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga’s views on arguments for the existence of God.
• Weekend Fisher of Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength presents Whose Sins are the Worst? Weekend Fisher relays something a pastor once taught her that has been a blessing ever since.

And that wraps it up for this week!  Some great reads.  Unfortunately, a crazy week at work prevented me from submitting my own post this week, and also weighed in on the time it would take to properly categorize the postings.  Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your Christian Carnival!

Tags: Blogging,Christian Carnival,christianity,Churches,gospel,prosperity
Categories: Online Living, christianity
6 Comments »

Ever since W.W.J.D. bracelets, it seems that enterprising people have sought to capitalize on naivete of Christendom.  What would Jesus do?  Probably he wouldn’t wear a bracelet that cost $5 and tauntingly remind people to consider what Jesus would do in any situation.

I recently stumbled across this lovely site on the internets that portrays just how far that rabbit hole goes.  Seriously?  Is there no limit to what people will make?  I suppose though, they wouldn’t make it, if crazy Christians wouldn’t wear it!  Since I was…oh…16 or so, I have eschewed all forms of Christian apparel.  It’s typically tacky, and mostly self-righteous and condescending.  When it’s not those, and strives to just be humorous, it mixes in a good bit of heresy as well.  In the case of the image to the right, it also infringes on a trademark.

A few more examples of some of the worst Christian paraphernalia the net has to offer:

Again…copyright infringement seems to be a meaningless phrase to Christians.  I wonder how many Christian musicians are pirated on the net.  Once I heard a waiter say you can always tell the Christians groups at the restaurant, because they only want to know what they can get for free.  Shameful.

A spoof on (RED) the charity that fights against AIDS?!  Seriously?  Who would wear that?  Do they have no shame?  I don’t even know what else to say about this disgusting and flagrant self-righteous piece.

One of the weirdest and scariest examples of this is the new world of Christian emo.  Seriously?  How can a Christian be depressed, hate the world, and dress like a tranny?  W.W.J.D.?  He would not wear black fingernail polish.

In a strange example of Christian greed, www.wearyourfaith.com wouldn’t allow me to use some of their images claiming “Copyright.”  Not only do they not own the art on the shirts (they’re available in many other places) some of their art itself is copyrighted.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and is only indicative of the larger problem of Christianity attempting to become more “worldly” in order to feel like people can relate, when the truth is…”why become a Christian if my life is no different afterward?”  Christian skater tv shows (Thank you Alec Baldwin), Christian punk rock, and pastors riding motorcycles around their sanctuary.  There is no holiness and sanctification in the body of Christ today.  That will draw people.  Lifting up Jesus instead of skating or other worldly influences will draw people to God.  We have that in writing:  “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” John 12:32.

Tags: christian apparel,christianity,Churches,copyright infringement,crazy christians,emo,gospel,heresy,Jesus,stupid people,theology,unprofitable servants,W.W.J.D,witnessing
Categories: Christians Gone Wild!, christianity
5 Comments »

Last week I posed the challenge to witness to one person for every blog post.  I happen to know that at least 10 Christian bloggers visited my site, and chose not to respond to that challenge, choosing instead to mindlessly prattle on with their unprofitable theologies and divisive doctrinal debates.

Perhaps some non-evangelicals would dismiss it as the church leader told William Carey: “Young man, when God wants to save the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine.”

Listen… you may not like that Jesus commissioned us to go out and preach to all the world, God knows there are lots of things in the Bible I wish I could just rip right off the page and pretend like it didn’t exist (love your enemies?!), but you can’t ignore it.  Sitting at home, feeling so spiritual because the other unprofitable “servants” of God think you’re very intelligent is self-delusional.   I present you with a video, and a testimony.  God help me be as profitable in life as this man:

Tags: Blogging,christianity,evangelicals,faith,gospel,salvation,serving God,unprofitable servants,william carey,witnessing
Categories: Church, christianity, witnessing
2 Comments »

My wife nonchalantly posed a serious question to me recently, as she looked at some notes for future blog posts, “You have so many good things to say…why do you sit in front of a computer and blog them, instead of going out and sharing them with people who need Jesus?”

I’m always up for some harsh self-examination, so I really pondered how I could answer this, and justify my relatively reclusive lifestyle.  I’m not reclusive because I blog, let me get that straight.  I don’t sit at home wishing I was elsewhere, but I just have to get this post written.  I blog because I find it enjoyable, and I like the web development aspect of it (I’m a geek, what can I say?).  And I just happen to be rather introverted.  But this got me thinking on how blogging fits in with God’s great commission to go out and win the world.

I believe if harnessed properly, the internet could be a tremendous tool in reaching the world with the Gospel.  I have yet to see anyone actually accomplish this, however.  Surely our blogs, much of which debate the finer points of religious doctrine, are not effective conduits for the Gospel of Salvation to reach a lost person.  On the contrary, I would submit that should a spiritually-curious non-Christian stumble into our blogosphere, they may find so many contradicting statements, arguments, and debates, that they would be turned off to the Gospel.  I’m not criticizing any one person here, as I’ve engaged in a few debates myself on the internet, for better or worse.  But do these benefit the Kingdom of God?  I don’t believe so.  At best, it seems like the proverbial “peeing contest,” and at worse is actually a divisive force in the church.

Those criticisms out of the way, I will also admit that there have been several times that I have read a blog and felt personally challenged to better my walk with God.  I have been convicted, encouraged, and enlightened on many different kinds of topics in regards to my faith, and living it out in this world.  More than once, I can probably even say that my prayer and bible study times have profited from some things I’ve read.  And many of us just write to share our thoughts, and experiences, in our Christian walk.  If we find something interesting while studying the Bible, we share it with other Christians through our blog . . . and I would even say that is very Biblical.  It’s the 21st century version of Acts 2:46.

For some people, I imagine, this online community is the only place they feel like that have that fellowship.  But is this a healthy situation for the Christian and the Kingdom of God?  I think not.  Our highest calling is to fulfill our Great Commission, to go out and win the world.  While theoretically possible, I find it highly doubtful that blogging will do that.  A Christian, full of love, caring and helping someone in need, and sharing the Gospel with them, will do that, though.  I’m not saying don’t blog, but I encourage you to keep it in its place.  Instead of debating, let’s all encourage each other to go out and win souls for Jesus!  Let’s keep sharing our experiences, encouraging each other, and growing together, but let the fruit of that be evident in our profitability for the Kingdom of God.

I’m very interested to hear your thoughts on this, as I don’t believe myself to be the authority on the effectiveness of blogging as a witnessing tool.  But I also want to issue a challenge to every blogger reading this post, which I intend to participiate in with you:  Witness to, or share the gospel with 1 person for each blog post you write this week.

I, personally, get very excited when I think about the great things that we can all accomplish together for the Kingdom of God.  Let’s make the Christian blogging movement responsible for souls being brought into the Kingdom of God, and not just a lot of interesting articles for other Christians.

If you’re taking the challenge, leave a comment, or trackback here with a story of how it went!

Tags: christianity,gospel,Living for Jesus,salvation,Sharing Jesus,witnessing
Categories: Online Living, christianity
3 Comments »

I’ve attempted posts on this topic occasionally, generally trying to point out that while many criticisms of the prosperity movement are valid, the teachings are sound.

Cerulean Sanctum has an excellent post up on just that topic.

To sum it up from my point of view, God can and does bless those who follow after him.  The problem with many followers of the prosperity message is, they’re following after the not-so-almighty dollar. . . not God.  Having been through quite a few hardships (including financial) in my life, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ve seen God prosper me, and work financial miracles for me (which I will detail soon) that were beyond the scope of natural occurence, or me getting a just reward for hard work.  As Dan eloquently points out…that’s scriptural.  However, those victories came after I submitted myself to serving God in the midst of terribly trying times, and I was joyful, no matter my situation.  Once I had stopped begging God for more money, and quit trying to make things happen for myself, like stressing out all day trying to find a better job, and more ways to provide for my family, and I started submitting my life to prayer, witnessing, and living to serve God, his purposes, and his kingdom, I saw an equally dramatic shift in my financial situation.

Am I rich?  Far from it…but my situation today is drastically different than it was even 1 year ago.  And as I learn to submit to God in other areas of my life . . . I see God continuing to bless me financially.  Perhaps, as I’ve heard a preacher put it, God is seeing that he can “trust” me with his money.  Meaning that I don’t hold any back from Him during offerings, or from people in need.  Why wouldn’t God prosper you if you were sharing that prosperity with the rest of his people?

Tags: blessings,christianity,finances,gospel,prosperity,serving God
Categories: christianity
2 Comments »

Categories: christianity
3 Comments »