No letters after my name. Free to be me.

Updating LayGuy - Part 2

Well it did it again.  For the second time in 48 hours my site crashed.  Those damn old plugins are the culprits.  Working on getting things right again but it’s just gonna take awhile.

Christians. Soft Targets?

Watch any comedy show these days or listen to public opinion and Christians everywhere are made to look like idiots. What we believe in and find precious is being trodden on by an unbelieving world.

We are the butt of jokes and the scapegoats for the worlds problems. Blame it on the Muslims and you’ll have a bomb staring you in the face. The “turn the other cheek” mentality of Christians has facilitated this in a big way.

While I agree with the words of Jesus, I believe we have not mastered what He meant by these words. After all, He went nuts in the temple didn’t He? No turning the other cheek there.

Then I come across the following video by The Chasers War on Everything - an Aussie production totally irrelevant to everything and anyone:

Makes me want to seriously punch something at how the unbelieving world wants to put down the One who died for it. They don’t trash Mohammed or Buddha. They trash Jesus - and do so in ignorance not knowing that one day, their proud knee will bow before Him in terror.

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:8-11

But watching that video also made me think how parts of the Church make us look ridiculous - therefore making us fair game to a skeptical world. In particular, Catholicism.

It always amazes me when the world thinks about Christians, they think about Catholics. They lump us all into the same basket. Well I don’t pray to Mary or any other “saint”. I don’t care less about the Pope, don’t appreciate relics and couldn’t care less about apparitions or what happened at Fatima.

But millions do, therefore making the rest of us look like lunatics. Apparitions, and the crowds they attract are particularly embarrassing and attract attention as shown in the video above.

Relics are even more bizarre. Catholics should take note of the story found in Numbers 21:4-9:

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.”

So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

Here we have people bitten by snakes and asked to “foolishly” look to the bronze snake on a pole and live. Christians would know that this is representing Christ’s crucifixion. Snakes represent sin. Bronze represents punishment. So it talks about sin being punished - exactly what Jesus did on the cross and was alluded to by Jesus Himself.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” John 3:14-15

So the story ended on a good note except that if you read on, hundreds of years later we see that this “brazen snake” became an object to which people burnt incense to and became, in effect, an idol. Hezekiah, an Israelite King who honoured God destroyed the relic:

“He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).” 2 Kings 18:4

Check out the Wikipedia entry on the brazen snake here and you’ll see that it’s associated with occultism. In the same way, much of what Catholics practice is occultic in nature and is downright wrong when exposed to scripture.

The net effect of this is that an unbelieving world makes a mockery of our faith. Sure even in the Protestant movement there are heaps of things done in a questionable way.

Even the practice of worship where singing songs and raising hands could be looked on as foolish. But what difference is it to attend a Iron Maiden concert and mosh away while holding up your arm and doing the devil sign?

So are we soft targets? Probably. But only cause we represent peace and actually challenge people to question their lives in a way that most people would avoid in that it exposes their depravity in profound ways. But, because of all the depravity in organised religion, we provide ample ammunition for their attacks.

It’s a totally sad reality. Oh well, at least we don’t respond by bombing people. Chew on that for a minute.

Tags: Christianity, Moses, Catholicism, Catholics, Relics, Apparitions

How Would You Answer This?

Imagine for a second.  You’re a parent of a couple of teenage daughters.  As you look at them, you see the beauty and innocence in their lives.  You have taught them about the value of chastity.

Your neighborhood is a really bad one.  Every time anyone from your family ventures outside your home, you struggle with what they will be exposed to.  You pour out your heart to God about the city you live in and the depravity you see all around.

And yet, after a series of events unexplained, unexpected and uncalled for, you find yourself offering your daughters for sexual favours to a sexually depraved mob banging down your front doors.

Of course, this is the story of Lot in Sodom.  When the two angels met Lot at the city gates, Lot begged them to stay with him at his house.  Sodom was a sexually depraved city where homosexuality ran rife and Lot was perhaps trying to save these two travelers as his heart constantly cried out to God about the depravity of his city.

As the town heard that “fresh meat” was at Lot’s house, they formed a mob and banged at the door of Lot in their efforts to “bang” the “fresh meat.” (If you are offended by the language here, imagine the offence of God on Sodom)

In Lot’s attempt to prevent this depravity, he offered the mob his most prized treasure - his two virgin daughters so that the crowd can do “whatever they like” to them. 

Fast forward thousands of years and I find myself in Perth, Western Australia on a four day business trip.  I am thousands of kilometres away from my wife and 2 kids and I am sitting having dinner with my work colleague and she brings up this story in her attempt to discredit Christianity.

Straight out of the pages of Oxford Professor, Richard Dawkin’s, “The God Delusion” she asks, “would you offer your daughter Sara for sexual favours to a mob of people?”

My colleague, Diane is a professional 31 year old woman.  She is a clinical and technical specialist educator who has a university degree in genetics.  Standing over 6 feet tall with a brain which stores and retrieves vasts amounts of data - she is a walking Pentium Quad Core processor and she has a gripe against religion and Christianity in particular.

She is your typical post modern woman who questions traditional norms not making sense nor having any relevance to her life of inner urban Melbourne where cafe’s and shopping is the norm.  She is leftist in her ideology and accepts anything opposing God and faith as her religion.

In her scientifically brilliant mind, “faith” in the scientifically unproven is seen as a weakness and a delusion.  Dawkin’s skepticism resonates in her mind as real as the screen is in front of your eyes as you read this right now.

And she uses the story of Lot to explain why she sees the Bible as a ridiculous reality. 

“Would you use your daughter for sexual favours?”

“No.”

“That’s why I conclude the Bible is a ridiculous book.”

How would you approach this conversation?  How would you get out of your Christian cliche and answer an honest question from a depraved, and yet brilliant mind?

By God’s provision, I gave my answer.  But I want to know yours.

Tags: post modern, culture, missional, science, religion, sodom, gomorrah

Stress And Burnout

Well Mark Driscoll has been steadily releasing his “Death By Ministry” video’s. Mark is currently on holidays somewhere as he implements his “sabbatical” systems of rest and relaxation. Although this series of video’s are aimed at Pastors and Leaders in church ministry positions, anyone with a chaotic lifestyle can benefit from the wisdom and practical advice offered. Life being the what it is these days, that just about includes anybody.

Because of my recent travels and illness, I am way behind in posting these video’s into individual posts so I will lump them all below in one place. For those of you what just want the gist of each video or don’t have broadband access, simply click on any of the links below to go The Resurgence website where Mark has a short write up for each video.

How does the body respond to stress?
What are the 12 steps to burnout?
What are the signs of possible burnout?
What margins help to prevent burnout?
How can I better organise my life to reduce stress?

Mark Driscoll has paid the price on his health due to his complete devotion to building Mars Hill Church. I encourage you learn from his mistakes so that you and I don’t follow up with our own academy award winning burnouts. The Kingdom of God uses committed and fully fired up men and women to execute God’s will on earth. What’s the point if we are all stressed and burned out? Click on any of the videos below for more.

Tags: mark driscoll, mars hill, the resurgence, death by ministry

Tagged…

MommyZabs has tagged me on one of those “tag you’re it” thingies where you have to divulge a bit about your personal life. Zabs, seeing as you’re a nice lady, I’ll oblige to your request - although, like you , I usually ignore these types of things - especially when I have to write about my wife online. If my feed dies out, it’s because I’m dead! So I have to write 8 wonderful things about my wife. So here goes…

1. She is drop dead gorgeous! I am one of those lucky guys who married way outside his league.
2. She has given me the two best kids a dad could ever ask for.
3. At the slightest hint of a cold, she devours 5 cloves of garlic thereby putting a hole in the ozone layer above my home.
4. I love the fact that she is a pure blooded Spanish woman born in France. With me being a Slovakian guy with Polish/Austrian/Hungarian and Greek roots, our kids are European mongrels born as Aussies.
5. I never get to watch the news because it clashes with Simpsons.
6. She gave up being a solicitor to be a stay at home mum - which suited her anyway cause she hated Law anyway.
7. She is about to go into business with her best friend and I look forward to a new chapter in our lives with new responsibilities and day care, etc.
8. She was one of the flamenco dancers on Mission Impossible II

That was easy. But one of the most wonderful things I can say about my wife is the potential we share in our future as we learn to grow with each other and grow in our faith. Like any marriage, ours is not perfect. But I see many areas where Jesus can redeem things to perfection and I look forward to going on that journey with my wife and our kids.

Reflection…

In the last day or two, I’ve experienced a complete turn around on my views on Hillsong Church. I have written a harsh “post conference” post here. You will see on the bottom of the post, I have made an edit in order to set the record straight.

Since I wrote the post, I’ve been copping a lot of feedback from the likes of my wife, to my Pastor to the convictions of the Spirit as He stirs my heart as I read into things deeper. As I check out the blogosphere, I see Christians at war with one another over what people believe in.

Sure, we are asked to contend for the faith and some people are worthy to be picked on. But the vast majority of the on-line war BETWEEN Christians is trivial in nature and serves no other purposes apart from inflating ego’s and giving an unbelieving world another reason to dismiss the message we proclaim as being irrelevant because we can’t even get along with each other.

Jesus prayed that we are unified in order that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son. It’s a sobering thought to think that at times I am actively violating the prayer of Jesus in my online attitudes. And for this I repent.

In this spirit, I wish to write my post Hillsong Conference 2007 post.

Now that I have recovered from my flu and have to actually interact with the world, I find my soul craving for more of what I experienced at Hillsong Conference. Being immersed in worship and teaching was a balm on my soul. I guess my initial struggle with it all was that it was quite different to anything I have experienced before.

In 1998, I traveled to Israel to participate in the Jubilee celebrations of the country. The ICEJ holds an annual conference from delegates all over the world during the Feast of Tabernacles and attracts about 5000 delegates from 105 countries. Hillsong Conference was close to 30,000 delegates and is the largest conference in Australia - period.

What fueled my initial negative response to Hillsong was the Pentacostal mindset. I was raised ultra conservative, then rebelled. I found Jesus in a conservative church and have since moved to a more missional, emerging church plant. I still am theologically conservative but culturally liberal. I love the depth and authority of the Word and long to see it played out in my modern cultural context.

So when I attend a 30,000 delegate conference and am bombarded by the Pentacostal mindset, I am somewhat blown away. What I experienced can be described as a “powerful emotionally driven zeal which lacks the theological convictions I so cherish.” Initially I responded in a negative way to all this.

I hold the Word of God with such a high degree of perfection and purity. I love its simplicity, depth, mystery and the never ending questions it raises in the human spirit and soul. And much of what I experienced at Hillsong washed over all of this in the “emotionally charged zeal” of the Pentacostal mindset.

But in the last couple of days, I have realised that it’s ok cause these guys are in the Kingdom also and we are on the same mission. Hillsong cops a lot of crap from all angles, but Jesus asks us to look at fruit to determine motives. And so I did my search on Hillsong. My conclusion? I wish all the churches had the kind of fruit Hillsong produces.

Hillsong often gets criticised for it’s emphasis on financial matters. But if the nay sayers knew what Hillsong does with these funds and the plans they have to expand their church and the Kingdom, they would be silenced - just like me.

Below are two sets of playlists. The first is the video blog of the Hillsong Conference 2007. This gives you a day by day take on the events at the 2007 Conference. The second playlist is the Hillsong 2007 Vision. I encourage you to watch all 4 clips if you have 40 minutes available. You want to know what Hillsong is all about apart from the music? Check out these video’s.

Hillsong Conference 2007 Video Blog

Hillsong Vision 2007

In conclusion, I am a blessed guy to have had the opportunity to attend the Hillsong 2007 Conference. I can now see more clearly why they do the things they do and how they do them. They may be foreign to me, but their reality is also foreign to mine.

I see clearly now how God worked in my struggles to give me a much clearer and greater revelation of what He is doing on earth through His church. And in conclusion, my hope is that the Christian blogosphere will realise the following words from Christ…

“John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us.” Mark 9:38-40

Tags: hillsong, hillsong conference, vision, brian housten, hillsong united