Churches | The Limitless

Christian Carnival CCXLV

CaseyP| October 8, 2008 10:49 am

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
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The Moral Recession of America

CaseyP| September 22, 2008 10:48 am

Damon Thompson, who is, most notably, a regular preacher at The Ramp, recently spoke at a men’s conference. An opening point that he made was that our current financial crisis is just a symptom of the moral recession in America. He went on to say that if we quit killing babies, and promoting the gay agenda, and glorifying all manner of sinful activities, that our financial trouble would turn around.

My immediate thought was, “No…the financial crisis is the result of overspending, pandering, bad debt, greed, and general mismanagement of funds…not just in the Government, but in corporate America as well.” And then the absolute brilliance of Damon’s words struck me…that all is the result of moral problems. Greed, shady money dealings, promising all kinds of freebies to people to get a vote, lying, cheating, stealing . . . even irresponsible accumulation of debt: These are all MORAL problems.

If I decide to buy more than I can pay for, and live a lifestyle of debt and overspending (which I’ve done in the past)…the problem is more than just being financially stupid. The problem is an intrinsic misunderstanding of what is important. It’s greedy and lustful, but I want more than I can have. It’s untrustworthy, and deceitful….and many other bad things because I’m just creating large problems for the future, perhaps insurmountable ones, in order to appear or feel like I’m comfortable now. It’s gambling, because I’m just lying to myself in saying that I’ll have more money one day to pay for things…which never happens…because I spend it too. That type of financial lifestyle is a moral problem.

And so to is our country’s financial problem. Lehman Brothers, AIG, now $700 billion in bailout loans. And all this money from a government that isn’t even able to pay its own bills…that is going more and more into debt every day without the help of a mega-bailout of the banking system. This sort of bankrupt (ironic wording, huh?) morality, which exalts our lusts instead of being responsible, that panders to greedy people looking for handouts instead of creating a financial sound free market economy that enables them to create their own wealth, is what is destroying our country. The same mentality would tell a pregnant woman, “Meh…it’s not a baby yet, because you can’t see it! It’s just a fetus…you can just have an abortion and go on with your life.” Or, in the case of Obama, “Oh…well, the baby’s out and alive, but it was supposed to be aborted…let’s just kill it anyway.”

Could it be that our country’s problems can only be solved one way? Through Revival? I believe so…because we can see the anemic church is actually becoming more like the world, instead of fighting for change. If our churches get on fire for God, get passionate about having a relationship with Him, and in seeking the lost and giving them an experience with a God who loves them, and wants to set them free from their past and their sin…then I believe we’ll begin to see a shift in this country back towards prosperity.

***Update: Listen to Damon Thompson’s message at the Men’s Ramp 08

Tags: Churches,damon thompson,economy,financial crisis,greed,moral problem,recession,revival
Categories: Church
9 Comments »

You can be a Christian for only $12.99!

CaseyP| August 20, 2008 9:39 am

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.

I’ve noticed for years and years a disturbing trend in churches to copy and imitate the world in order to feel “relevant.” Did God not give us imaginations? Even if you’re not original enough to come up with something on your own, why must you copy the worldliest things out there? It happens in Christian music all the time, and along the same lines…in Christian retail, it seems they also make tackier and stupid imitations of other worldly things. Worse, here is another example of just stupid theology. “Satan got Punk’d” What does that even mean? He’s still controlling and influencing the world…so it would seem that if anyone got Punk’d, we did.

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
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We Love Jesus . . . but not You

CaseyP| July 17, 2008 12:00 pm

As a followup to yesterday’s ranting and raving on churches, I’ve stumbled across a great article on Beliefnet called, “Why Christians Suck.” Basically, we’re all a bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed, uncaring dweebs. Great stuff…and it follows right along with what I’ve been going on about. Christians suck…the non sucky Christians (apparently less than 5% of Church-goers, who I personally differentiate from “Christians”) need to help the sucky Christians be less-sucky. If this fails…we should run them from our churches with pitchforks and torches…just like an old-fashioned lynching.
Or we could pray for them…either way.

Tags: christianity,Churches,Living for Jesus
Categories: Uncategorized
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Churches: Havens for Weary Souls or Spiritual Dr. Kevorkians?

CaseyP| July 16, 2008 3:10 pm

I have a good friend, who, if you have read his blog, doesn’t exactly hold modern churches in high regard. I’ve criticized him, perhaps wrongly, because he chooses to have a service with his family, instead of going to a real church. I’ve defended churches of all types, under the premise that it’s better to go and be a part of a community of believers, to help others, and to occasionally be supported when you go through your own hard times. I, myself, belong to an amazing non-denominational church. While no church is perfect, I feel that mine gets it right on all the major points, and if they’re wrong in an area, they try their hardest to be right. I’ve always made the assumption that most churches were similar…that in their own way, they all just wanted to be right. They may go about it in wrong, or different ways, but that mostly they were trying to help people. Boy, was I wrong.

Recently, a good friend of mine, a youth pastor, discovered his wife was in adultery. They had recently had their first child, and as you can imagine, he was devastated. They separated, and my friend was intent on working things out (a good deal more than I would’ve done, personally). When he told his senior pastor, he was FIRED! Can you imagine? He has a baby, has just lost his wife, now his job, and his church! Apparently his church was concerned that it would make them look bad.

First of all, my friend did nothing wrong… at least to my knowledge. This would’ve been a time for the church, and the ministers of the church, to surround him with support and prayer. Take some time off…sure. This could’ve even been an example to the members of how a Godly person works through horrible situations with help from God. But instead, in his time of greatest need, the people that he had worked for, given his life to, and prayed over brushed him to the side when he was no longer immediately useful for praying for headaches, warts, or meaningless relationship problems. When it came to to repay all that he had given, they threw him out and brought in someone new to use and abuse until there was nothing left in him also.

Is this biblical? I think not. But it happens everyday throughout the country…when self-righteous, arrogant, Pharisaical, self-glorifying, religious dingbats run churches like medieval extremist witch hunters, on the prowl for the weakest Christians to crucify in their times of need. I see it constantly in my wife’s family (her grandmother pastors our church). The church has used up every bit of life in her until her health has failed…and is trying to do the same to her daughter while she fills in for her in the pulpit. I am sick and tired of willfully and woefully idiotic church-goers expecting their pastors to be nothing more than religious slaves, waiting on their beckon call, for whatever ridiculous thing they need that day… “Pastor…my son is running with a bad crowd…can you come witness to him?” How about living saved in front of your son, and not allowing him to participate in things you don’t agree with…cracktard?

We are all called to be ministers. Making our churches the healing centers that God means them to be is a responsibility we share in equal parts with our pastors. It’s our responsibility to go out and bring in sinners…it’s our responsibility to see about other Christians who need help, or who are sick, as much, if not more, than our pastors. STOP USING PASTORS TO BE SPIRITUALLY LAZY! STOP KILLING OFF THE LIFE IN OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN NEED! TAKE CARE OF YOUR PASTORS, INSTEAD OF USING THEM!!!!

How long were my friends in need of someone to turn to, to talk about their problems in their relationship? But no…as youth pastors, they weren’t able to say they needed help…they had to be Superman to their church’s Metropolis. Pastors and Ministers are people too…they go through things, feel the same hurt and heartache we all do. Their families are just like our families…they miss their husbands and fathers when they come out to see about your broken arm at 2am, because you just had to have your pastor there. After he spends all day praying over and tending to the needs of his flock, he is seldom able to devote that same care and concern to his family, because members call all night long. Of course in a true emergency, a pastor would want to come. But I’m not talking about rare occasions, I’m talking about a habitual systemic abuse of clergy, that is not the exception, but the norm, through our country.

Christians…I encourage you to grow up. Take on your biblical responsibility of caring for your brothers and sisters, and set your pastors free to seek God and pray for you and your family, as well as your church and town. Organize hospitality groups in your church for members to visit the sick, elderly, and back-slidden. Build your pastor up with prayer and encouraging words…because he prays and encourages you. Even if you don’t like or agree with your pastor…it is who God has given you today…and that makes them worthy of your respect, prayer, and help, in every way you can give it. Make your church a safe haven for weary souls…not a executioner’s table for the down-trodden.

*Update 8/1/2008: Messy Christian has some very interesting posts on a similar topic (Pastor Worship, which equates to Pastor Abuse, in many cases…besides those self-adulating types who like it) that you may also want to check out.

Tags: christianity,Churches,Living for Jesus
Categories: Uncategorized
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