None of my business

So, I'm still at TMI - still missing my wife - and still reading through "A New Kind of Christian". It's a very interesting read. One of the chapters today was called, "It's none of your business who goes to hell?"

Also, it was a very interesting series of arguments that followed.

Essentially, McLaren says we get so concerned with getting everyone into heaven, but what if that's not the ultimate goal, but rather a by-product? What if living out your purpose in Christ is what you're supposed to be doing and heaven/hell is merely a by-product?

So, we just need to serve people and let God sort out the rest - don't worry about their (or our eternity). Just do what we need to do. If we were needed to be a judge, I'm sure we would have been apointed such.

What I'm realizing (read: what I'm coming to terms with) is that I have a lot of 'knowledge' about Christianity. Much of it, however, is Christianity with the spin of how people have lived for the past 500 years (i.e. intellectualism, scientific answers to question). In other words, my understanding is by no means pure. It's Christianity inside the envelope of modernism.

Time to open it up.

Grace.

PS (Jennifer): I'm not familiar with Christian Hedonism . . . so I'll have to read up on it. For the rest of your question, that may be the next post.

Gotta go down before you go up

Short post: I'm at the elective interview at Territorial Music Institute.

But on the way here, today, I was reading "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. Interesting point that was made.

If you're on a mountain peak, and you want to go up to a higher one, you first have to come down from the lower before you can go up the higher . . .

Grace.

Coming Soon

Well, Camp, for me, is over. Hallelujah. Kids were great, staff was great, God blessed it . . . that is all. Not to say it wasn't without it's issues - pray for our recuperation.

Now, I'm not quite back to my regular blogging schedule. I've still got our Territorial Music Institute coming up for the next 10 days - not sure that I'll have much blogging time there. But soon I'll be able to think again.

For those of you that know, or care, I'm one of the ones that have been dealing with the thoughts that worship may, in fact, have nothing to do with what we like, and everything to do with what God likes. No reason for me to hide that. I believe it.

One of the questions asked of me is "Why would God reject my offering?" If I offer my sacrifice to God from my heart, then He should accept it.

There's a lot to consider. As I start to write all this, I realize that it's probably too much to get into at the moment . . . . here's a synopsis:

Worship is our actions that speak to God of His value. It doesn't necessarily speak of how valuable he is TO US - but rather how much we value HIM (there's a big difference in those two statements, I hope you can see it).

Worship is not just singing. Neither is it simply praying. Neither is it speaking to God how much He's worth.

Exodus 8:1 is one of the versus where God tells Moses to go tell Pharaoh to "Let my people go" but it doesn't stop there . . . the reason God wants them let go is different depending on what version you read - some say worship God, others say work for God.

• Let my people go so that they can worship me
• Let my peopel go so that they can work for (serve) me.

Working for God is neither singing, dancing, speaking, or praying - but it is worship. In essence, worship is our 24-hour-a-day statement that God 'reviews' and puts whatever priority he deems fitting on. Our track record speaks of what we love - it is our belief in action because of who GOD IS, and in the processing supporting (or not supporting?) what we say we believe.

(I know - it sounds like salvation through works. It's not. Faith without works is dead. It's still faith, it's just dead faith. I put that priority part in for this very purpose - He PROBABLY puts more weight on our BELIEFS but He certainly still considers our actions too - it's all one big offereing).

Praise is a different thing - it's more about what God has done for US - here's my major concern: WE'RE SO TIED UP THINKING ABOUT WHAT MORE GOD CAN DO FOR US THAT WE SEEM TO MISS THAT HIS DESIRES AND EVEN THE DESIRES OF OTHER PEOPLE SHOULD COME BEFORE OURS; THAT WE ARE SELF-CENTERED CHRISTIANS.

Egocentric Christians . . . . now there's an oxy moron.

The only other point I wish to make is this. God often rejected offerings. Cain comes to mind quickly - his insufficient offering paled in comparison to his brothers. Also, interestingly, in Amos 5, see this:

²¹ "I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, ^[b]
I will have no regard for them.

²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Just because they're done FOR God, essentially, doesn't mean he wants what you're bringing. Worship, without letting justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream, seems like it is turned away.

Maybe I'm interpreting that incorrectly.

Grace.

Recant

Words can be very deceiving. Please understand that, through my last posts I did not intend to offend - but I assumed that it probably would just because of the way we Christians are. Also interesting is that Christ came, in his words, to bring division.

The longer we bicker about our denomination directives, the longer we're wasting time that we could be spending serving others or worshipping God.

Someday we will all be united - not he United Church of God - small 'u' united.

I apologize if I offended. That said . . . agreeing to disagree perhaps not such a bad thing.

Recommended reading: A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren.

Exactly what I thought would happen.

Interesting comment on my last post. Exactly what I hoped would happen, deep down in the perverse sections of mind, but interesting nonetheless.

Carefully reading my statements, you will see that I did not, in fact say that we should all be Catholic, but rather that we should be catholic. The former is a denomination. The latter is a state of unity. But it perfectly illustrates the lack of understanding or concern that we seem to have for each other, in the brotherhood of God. I'm not at all suggesting that we return to any particular roots. I'm suggesting that God knows exactly what He's doing by telling us to love one another, to encourage each other, and to work together for His glory instead of furthering our kingdoms.

Just like there was salvation before the Salvation Army, the state of being catholic existed before the Roman Catholic church.

Despite what we may think about particular denominations within the body, our DIRECTIVE from God is that we make EVERY effort to keep the bond of unity.

I apologize for deliberately leading this conversation directly into the lion's den. It's a little thing I like to do. For future reference please remember: Catholic=denomination, catholic=unified Army of God working to extend his kingdom on earth.

Blessings to catholic Christians everywhere!

Grace.

A Long Break

It, again, has been way too long.

Camp is going very well - don't really expect much to change.

I said the other day during a conversation that we should all be catholic. The response was something to the effect of, "Yeah, whatever" followed by a number of other interestingly-worded statements that I don't care to mention.

Us protestants, why do we think it's OK to keep protesting? And what are we protesting over? I understand the Lutheran split, I think . . . but it's become way to silly hasn't it?

In any case, I can't help but go back to the idea in Ephesians to make every effort to keep the bond of peace through the spirit of unity.

Why we gotta hate?