The Season of Giving

Especially in these tough financial times the temptation to keep God’s money to ourselves is hard to overcome. Here’s an easy way to make a difference in a kid’s life and give a gift of eternal significance. Go here and make a gift of $50 or more choosing the “campership” option. Then,  send me an email and I will mail to you or your loved one receiving the gift a beautiful card with pictures of students with disabilities at camp in Latin America, explaining that you have sent a student to camp in their honor. The gospel message is presented to these kids at a camp where they also get to experience life outside of anything they’d ever dreamed possible. Merry Christmas.

The emergent church…

…or foo foo Christianity as I like to call it. I had a long discussion tonight with a well seasoned middle-aged christian man and his wife. He’s educated, a graduate of seminary, and currently employed as an architect. We started on politics. When I talk about politics I tend to be extremely far right…basically libertarian. Of course, this couple was very liberal. It was interesting however how many things we were able to agree on and frankly left me wondering why these two voted for a communist to be our next president. I made my points, as it usually goes when I debate with liberals, received no counter points, and we proceeded to move on to the church. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not afraid to share my opinion and am often critical of the modern church. In many cases the church has become a business and assimilated itself into the culture of America. That wasn’t our discussion. Instead, they began to question the virgin birth, the infallibility of scripture, the fall of man, and the need for salvation through the sacrifice of Christ. It hurts my soul to even talk about these things, but the reality that this is a movement within the church that is gaining momentum scares the hell (if there is a hell) outta me. Here’s the deal emergent church. If that’s your real name. The audacity that you display by thinking you can pick and choose which sections of scripture are God-breathed is inexcusable. The line of thought that belief and profession in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is secondary to social justice is detrimental to, and has the potential to ultimately destroy our faith. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. Without that, what are we left with besides the will and determinations of man? When Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you,” what else are we to take that to mean? Not that anyone reads this blog…but figuratively, to the people I’m addressing, I urge you to not read the words of man, for whom the ways of God will always be somewhat of a mystery. Instead, read the scriptures. Discover through the beautiful simplicity of His word the relationship that He longs to have with us and the life of purpose that is available to us ONLY through and because of Christ’s sacrifice.