Continued Aggression

I've been thinking a little more about aggressive Christianity (by the way, you can get an electronic copy of Catherine Booth's Papers on Aggressive Christianity from http://www.armybarmy.com - it's an interesting read).

Realistically, when I "enlisted" in the Salvation Army, I signed up to be a member of an army, but my agreement doesn't include anything warlike. It says that I have to be faithful to my God, to be very, very, adament about holy living; but it doesn't say much about waring with any one or any thing. It does say that I will make every effort to 'carry on the salvation war' but doesn't really define what that is.

We are enlisting, then, soldiers that aren't required to act like soldiers.

I am confused, then from where this definition should come. Traditionally, we believe it should come from the top down, because the top is where most of the information is. They have the broad picture. I like the style of 'guerilla' spiritual warfare that is sprouting up - and in some places has intensely evolved. It's grass-roots. It's front line. It's got specific information about a couple of things. Extrememly accurate.

This I realize, is rambling on and on.

All I really want to say is that we need Delta Force to be an opportunity to take regular old soldiers and raise the stakes. The Soldiers of the Army are stagnant, but the agreement they made is a little ambiguous about what they should be doing, so they're doing exactly what they agreed to. Delta Force will be something more. Intense, specific, goal-oriented missions. Soldiers will be selected based on passion and will be held accountable to specific agreements.

Delta Force - the proactive (I still hate that word - help me find a synonym that's cool) soldiery of The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team.

More to come.

Grace.

MacMini

OK, so I'm not a MAC freak but these new little MacMinis seem to be INCREDIBLE. I really want one - click on the title of this post to see it, btw. It's a whole computer and it's about the size of two CD Portables stacked on top of one another.

Other than that, it's been a busy week. We're gearing up for camp at work and doing a week long bible school at church.

At some point, I WILL sleep.

Grace.

ProActive Christianity

I hate the word proactive. I first heard in in driving school - or that's the first place I can remember hearing it. Didn't like it then either. It sounds too much like what stupid people say to sound smart. Sorry. Don't mean to offend . . . that's just what I thought. It's also very weird because I LOVE the word active . . .

Incidentally, I'm indifferent to the word passive.

But we're talking about proactive.

It literally means to act in anticipation of future needs, changes or problems.

And I think I pretty much describes what Jesus was. Which stinks, for me, because, as you will remember: I really don't like the word.

There's a lot of talk about Agressive Christianity - and it's not that I don't buy into it . . .

I just don't think its fantastic at universally describing how our Christianity should be. Granted, I'm no expert. Proactive seems to be a whole lot closer. I'm not against Aggressive Christianity, I think some believers are called to that outright, BOLD, in-your-face Chrisitianity. Correciton: I think ALL believers are called to an outright Christianity.

My thoughts, right now, lean towards a Jesus that was proactive in seeking out people that needed Him, not aggressive in cramming Himself down someone else's throat (as described in Catherine Booths Papers on Aggresive Christianity). But, he definitely made amazing efforts to love and to confront people and their sins.

Perhaps what we really have here is an arguement (by me) over words; mere semantics that really refer to the exact same style of Christianity. We may be describing the same point on a continuum from two different perspectives.

I have to think so more.

My own DESigns

OK, so though it's not as cool an endeavor as I had thought it WOULD be, I have some shirts at: http://www.cafepress.com/desmerizing that I, if no one else, really like. Check them out! The site doesn't let me have more than one version of a product - e.g. I can only have on green t-shirt . . . so I'm trying to find a way around that. As soon as I do, I'll get some more T's posted.

I think I may start selling T-Shirts - and other items of customizable merchandise. That seems like something I'd enjoy.

"The Jesus that We See . . . "

I was listening to "Army of the Lord" CD by Salvo songs yesterday. One statement jumped out at me. "The Jesus that we see, is the Jesus that we'll be." I think it explains a couple of things. Firstly, I think that it explains the broad problem of passive Christianity; people who have no concern for DOING anything to spread the gospel. They're the ones who wait for sinners to show up to the church and can describe their emotional reaction to the salvation of another as, "OK". They just don't know Christ. They don't see any particular Jesus - because I don't know any particular Jesus that portrayed that example.

Equally, I think that's why more people aren't gung ho for Aggressive Christianity. They don't know an agressive Jesus - it's hard to use Jesus' example in leading a war against a man who only seemed to get mad about what was going on in the church. That's one of the reasons that people didn't follow Him right? Weren't people expecting a warrior and didn't they blow Him off when they found out He wasn't?

Still, it's probably best to err on the side of action . . .

Grace.

Sugar Water Doesn't Change the World - Execpt to make it BIGGER

I'd heard this reference many times, but I finally read it in a book (for some reason, making it all the more believable). The story goes that Steve Jobs (founder of Apple Computers), when building his company, lured a top executive from Pepsi-Cola away from a VAST forture, into the unknown. Basically Jobs asked him, "Do you want to make sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want a chance to change the world?"

Touché.

Grace.

. . . praying for inspiration . . .

Stephanie and Tilden had their shower today. 'Twas nice. I felt for Tilden, though. It's always awkward to be the guy.

Grace.

Am I a geek because I get excited about web design? Is it OK to be OK with that?

Choose, this day, whom You will Serve?

God has been teaching me some interesting lessons on choice. In its simplest form, we all have choices to make which either confirm or discredit our claims to love Christ. In theory, it makes perfect sense. In practice, it is sometimes to get past ourselves.

Without going too much into my personal life, yesterday the Lord introduced me to a man named Wade. The choice I was presented with was to waste my afternoon, or to serve Christ. I chose Christ - hardly any other decision in my life was so clear.

The thing is, in making that decision, God showed me that most of my decisions are a whole lot clearer than I make them out to be.

Pray that the Lord will bless Wade. Pray hard.

Grace.

Free E-Books

Hey - There are a lot of FREE E-Books, dealing with Christianity, at this site:

http://www.jesus.org.uk/vault/library_ebooks_index.shtml

There are a lot of old classics there - interesting stuff. Even some Sally Ann stuff.

Grace.

John 14:12

Somthing else I've noted lately is that there is a lot of Scripture that, depending on what doctinal directives we believe at the time, we either emphasize or forget.

The first one that sticks out in my mind is that Jesus said that we can do even greater things SO THAT the Father is glorified. Not many of us seem to aspire to do greater things than Jesus - even though He said that we could.

Not sure why? I'll keep thinking.

Grace.

600

Happy 600th hit to me!

Don't Come to Church

I'm going to try to keep writing on "How We're Not Doing What Jesus Did" - I'm hoping that my thoughts come out clearly . . . because they probaby won't.

Brian McLaren writes that "Jesus didn't come to start another religion." I agree, based on the fact that he openly scolded the overly religious. His message was never about exlusive-ness, but that there is room for EVERYONE in the way of life that He proposes.

His message really seems to be summed up thusly:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength
• Love your neighbour as yourself
• I died so that all the world could live
• Go tell others that I died so that all the world could live
• Don't get caught up in earthly things while you're going to tell others that I died so that the world could live

A far cry from the buffet-style church selection that we have available today, with minor doctrinal differences tearing apart congregations on a regular basis. It's no longer about the love, no matter what we say. It's about division. It's about protest (a la PROTESTantism). Because I don't believe that the Holy Spirit dishes out the gift of tongues to the same degree as others do, I have a sense that I can't expect to work with them.

But that's stupid. We both love Jesus. Shouldn't that unite us?

The more I read and hear and think, the more I fear that we are a group of self-interested people seeking more self-gratification. We may masquerade with service, saying that we're interested in others, but our talk leads me to believe that we're more interested in the blessings that come to us in return for the good that we do for others. At the very least, we use those blessings that come to us as a selling point to do good things.

Jesus didn't institutionalize anything. People institutionalize Jesus, to the point, as McLaren says, that he is more of our Mascot than our Master. We should produce Disney-style Jesus beards (like Mickey Ears) and sell them to our neighbours that come at Easter and Christmas. We're trying to sell Jesus instead of spreading his love on people.

Our message is more like:

• Love God as much as you can - we know there's a lot of things going on, so it's OK to spread your love a little thinner nowadays.
• Love your neighbours - you'll probably get something good out of it.
• Jesus died so that I, myself, could live.
  
• Go tell the people at your church that you know that Jesus died so that I, myself, could live.
• Don't get caught up in earthly things while you're going to . . . ooooh, not now, the superbowl is on.

Kind of related, hopefully is this: Jesus didn't plan evangelical crusades, or protest homosexual activity, or protest the stoning of alduterers, or demand that the sanctuary temperature be more strictly regulated, or the music be more appealing to his ears, or the scrolls be writen in a language that flowed more easily off of the tongue. He didn't debate whether or not a person is saved once forever, or many times after each back-sliding.

He, the perfect example from which we as disciples of CHRIST take our lead, spoke to people. He actively sought people out sometimes. Other times, they came to Him. He met their needs, whether they were grateful or not, whether they worshipped or not. He didn't ask them to come join a club, but rather to go and sin no more (He ACTUALLY sent them away!).

We could learn a lot from this Jesus guy.

This isn't really the way I was going to write this at first - so it probably means there will be more installments of it. In any case, I hope it makes sense.

Grace.

Visitors

As of right now - I've had 542 hits on this blog in under 2 weeks - that's more than I would have guessed.

So . . . Hi everyone.

Grace.

How We're Not Doing what Jesus Did

Sorry - I know it's been a few days - I've been travelling, dealing with allergies/ailments, attending funerals and visiting the dentist. My dentist got mad at me, incidentally, and said that if I were ever in a plane crash that there would likely be no way to identify me - since I have no fillings.

I think I'll deal with it.

I probably don't have time to expand on this thought a whole lot right now - but I read something very interesting last night. It talked about how we as Christians have a philosophy that, even if we don't do it, we SHOULD be bringing people into a church, a building, or a set of practices (not unlike the set of practices that we see today in the Christian places of worship all over the world). In other words, we want to de-culturize a people; we believe that the utmost of Christian practice, is Western Civilized World Christianity (e.g. Bible-Belt Christianity)

That's not what Jesus did, according to this author.

At least He didn't call people out of a WAY OF LIFE or a CULTURE. He warned people not to become obsessed with religious practises - a la Pharisees. He ministered to Romans, Samaritans, Jews, people from every place, and NEVER scolded them or put down their thoughts or culture or traditions or told them they were going to hell.

He engaged in dialogue, noting that the God of the Jews is about to provide a way for them to be saved (remember that Salvation used in the Bible hardly ever refers saving from hell and sin) and that they should live lives that honor the God of the Jews, their Creator, etc.

Theres a lot in this. Hopefully I'll get more added about it soon.

Grace.

Sometimes We Forget Who we are Not

The last time Kristy and I went to see Norah Jones, this guy Amos Lee opened for her. He was pretty incredible. He had an amazing stage presence, even when though was just him and his guitar. Very talented. Cool voice, great sound, fun lyrics . . . nice.

One lyric says this:

"Sometimes we forget who we are or who we are not."

It's very much a secular CD . . . but I love that God uses those too.

I've gotta do some more thinking on that lyric before I delve into it. In the meantime to to Amos' website. His new album, Clean, in on the same label as my good friend, Norah.

Grace.

I Got an Itch

This is keeping my promise from a few posts ago when I said I had this weird vision about the body serving itself (see "Whose Lord is it Anyway?" from a few days ago).

So . . . we have a body. When do we pay attention to it? Generally when we either are being vain or something is wrong. Example, we spend a lot of time focused at ourselves when we do our hair or makeup (not that I do makeup . . . I'm just trying to relate to y'all, yo). We have to tend to it when we itch or when we hurt. Sometimes, like if the itch is right in the middle of our back, we have to make a whole lot of effort to relieve it.

When we're paying attentino to ourselves we can't pay that attention to others. I realize that we often have to tend to our own problems . . . but I wonder how much God wants His body to serve itself . . .

Sorry . . . my mind works in strange ways, sometimes.

Grace.

It's a Boy('s car).

Exciting News:

Kristy and I are now proud parents . . . . of this car.

Cards and gifts can be sent to:

Me.

Why do I Love?

This morning, I was thinking about some issues I've been having - specifically, still dwelling on the "I love you, Jesus, for what you've done for me" issue that I see in myself and a lot of Christians. I probably won't have much to say about this, but I wanted to share these thoughts from today.

My wife (another person whom I love) often does stuff for me - for example, she often makes dinner, for example. Or she'll buy me little things at the store, or leave me little cards, or vacuum the floor, or whatever. But it's not her actions that make me love her - I don't love her for the fact that she prepares me a meal, or leaves me a card in my suitcase. I love her because of her character that motivates her actions (i.e. I love her that she is thoughtful and caring, not because of broiled chicken or sucking up dirt). It's awesome that she does that stuff - but there's something much deeper behind what I can see.

The very same is true of Christ. We say we love Him and/or praise Him for what He's done for us, for taking away our sins, for giving us life, for blessing us financially (i.e. for him doing and us getting). But he's got some premium characteristics that motivate HIS decisions to shower us with blessing that we tend to ignore substantially. He is the ULTIMATE in caring, the ULTIMATE in salvation (not only to us, but the the world; not only from sin, but from all kinds of bondage), the ULTIMATE in knowledge, and fairness, and loyalty, and every other good and perfect things.

Praise God for His character - not for His actions (as INCREDIBLE as His actions are). Praise HIM not because He has cleaned your house, and not even that he's cleaned the houses of MANY believers. Praise Him because He wants to.

Grace.