"Historically, government never downsizes voluntarily; it always increases its power and minimizes accountability to its citizens. Government reinvention is frequently an effort to avoid the consequences of failed policies in the past, or to justify a government's continued expansion by posing solutions to the problems it has created." - Chuck Missler
See more of Dr. Chuck Missler's material here - http://www.khouse.org/
Monday, February 18, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Purpose ...
With all of talk of "purpose" lately, and such hot studies as Rick Warren's "A Purpose Drive Life", I have to take a step back in order to perceive the scope of it all and ask myself why "purpose" has suddenly become such a sticking point among recent trends.
No one sets out to create, design, or pursue something without first having a purpose. A student applies to a college with the purpose of getting accepted to a place where he/she can earn a degree and find fulfilling employment. Purpose exists before the act to pursue its end.
Therefore, I argue that God sets a purpose to our lives that exist before our being is made manifest. Although the purpose of us all is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the means of that glorification are what most of us struggle with.
I know a man that may be the finest guitar player I have ever seen play in a church worship band. He is exceptionally amazing in his ability, and yet is (in my observation) overly shy of his ability and holds back from opportunities to fully release his talent in music ministry.
This hesitance puzzled me, because a well-placed guitar solo can really accentuate a song and who's to say there is anything "wrong" with that? Arguably if that guitar feature included rock star antics and self-exaltation, that would be an easy determination of improper use of one's talents. On the flip side, why not play your heart out to God? Does He not give the talent to His glory? Would He not be glorified if this man tore into a few measures of worship to God on his guitar?
To each his own I suppose. It is hard to advise anyone of what they should/should not do with their talent before the Lord. However, something gave me a stir recently that I will share:
I play drums, and particularly relate to my guitarist friend as a musician with God-given ability. I started a few years ago wondering if I was overdoing any of the drum parts (which is an easy thing to do for many drummers). Then I got to thinking about my own signature style and how that exemplifies God's unique design of me and how I reflect Him in worship through my talent. I suddenly realized that, in context of demonstrating my ability, I was in fact worshipping God.
I borrow an exceptional quote from the movie: "Chariots of Fire" where Eric Liddell (1924 Olympic Gold Medalist) is giving an answer for why he chooses to delay his entrance to Seminary to pursue his running career:
"I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt; to win is to honor Him."
In whatever you do through God's gifting, do it so as to feel His pleasure. That is the ultimate experience of PURPOSE.
No one sets out to create, design, or pursue something without first having a purpose. A student applies to a college with the purpose of getting accepted to a place where he/she can earn a degree and find fulfilling employment. Purpose exists before the act to pursue its end.
Therefore, I argue that God sets a purpose to our lives that exist before our being is made manifest. Although the purpose of us all is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, the means of that glorification are what most of us struggle with.
I know a man that may be the finest guitar player I have ever seen play in a church worship band. He is exceptionally amazing in his ability, and yet is (in my observation) overly shy of his ability and holds back from opportunities to fully release his talent in music ministry.
This hesitance puzzled me, because a well-placed guitar solo can really accentuate a song and who's to say there is anything "wrong" with that? Arguably if that guitar feature included rock star antics and self-exaltation, that would be an easy determination of improper use of one's talents. On the flip side, why not play your heart out to God? Does He not give the talent to His glory? Would He not be glorified if this man tore into a few measures of worship to God on his guitar?
To each his own I suppose. It is hard to advise anyone of what they should/should not do with their talent before the Lord. However, something gave me a stir recently that I will share:
I play drums, and particularly relate to my guitarist friend as a musician with God-given ability. I started a few years ago wondering if I was overdoing any of the drum parts (which is an easy thing to do for many drummers). Then I got to thinking about my own signature style and how that exemplifies God's unique design of me and how I reflect Him in worship through my talent. I suddenly realized that, in context of demonstrating my ability, I was in fact worshipping God.
I borrow an exceptional quote from the movie: "Chariots of Fire" where Eric Liddell (1924 Olympic Gold Medalist) is giving an answer for why he chooses to delay his entrance to Seminary to pursue his running career:
"I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt; to win is to honor Him."
In whatever you do through God's gifting, do it so as to feel His pleasure. That is the ultimate experience of PURPOSE.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Today's Quote
"Liberalism is the right to question without being called a heretic. That's what America did for the world." - Jack Nicholson
In the American context, I am most definitely not a liberal, but I do appreciate the liberally-minded that choose reason and sense over the raw emotionalism that has characterized the modern liberals.
I share Nicholson's quote because it rings true of the essence of humanity. We are not robots, and are naturally prone to resist rote obedience for rote obedience sake. We are delightfully alive and empassioned to explore Creation with an insatiable appetite for discovery, romance, and adventure.
In contrast, those that delight in power and control go to great lengths to quench such natural passion as it is the one thing they fear most. These people tend to end up with professional careers in politics and religion.
Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves."
In the American context, I am most definitely not a liberal, but I do appreciate the liberally-minded that choose reason and sense over the raw emotionalism that has characterized the modern liberals.
I share Nicholson's quote because it rings true of the essence of humanity. We are not robots, and are naturally prone to resist rote obedience for rote obedience sake. We are delightfully alive and empassioned to explore Creation with an insatiable appetite for discovery, romance, and adventure.
In contrast, those that delight in power and control go to great lengths to quench such natural passion as it is the one thing they fear most. These people tend to end up with professional careers in politics and religion.
Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves."
Leaving A Church
Over the past six weeks of silence on this blog, I have been battling some of the greatest spiritual entanglements of my 15-year journey with Christ. Among these include coming to the conclusion that leaving our church of two years is the best choice for the health and welfare of my family.
While I abhor the idea of leaving a church over the common and relatively small matters, as the relationships with other believers are paramount to one's own growth and maturity (and that of the whole), I compare this matter to abandoning a sinking vessel or bailing from a burning aircraft.
The source of the damage to our church is the worst kind to befall evangelical ministries, especially those "church plants" or start-up ministries such as ours:
I am talking about spiritual pride.
In five years of growth, our small church had over 250 members and a healthy, growing ministry to reach out to the "unchurched" with the vision of being "real, relaxed, and relevant". Having grown up in Calvary Chapel, it followed a similar model, and was immediately something I could relate to. For awhile it was exactly what we wanted, a place where we could connect, get involved, serve, and make a difference. Our children were happy and we quickly bonded with the families in our life group.
The trouble began when a disagreement occurred between our life group leader and the pastor. Then the life group leader's family left the church. Rather than simply placing a new leader in our life group, the pastor disbanded the group entirely and told us to go find new life groups. The problem is, the church's own organizational structure established life groups as the preeminent feature for the church. Sunday mornings are simplified as "celebration service" for the life groups. Now, with seven families shaken up by the changes and without a life group, not surprisingly, all but one of them (mine) left the church over the next few weeks.
Over the next several months, I engaged with the pastor for closure on the matter and placement in a new life group and he placed us in his life group. That was fine until we began to hear about the people who had left the church spoken of in a negative light, in fact some of it was downright ugly. Shortly thereafter, the children's Sunday school classes were cut back and even stopped for awhile as part of a "forced volunteer drive". During this same time, membership began to rapidly plummet. Many families had already started to leave, mostly due to what they perceived to be a stifling level of control as demonstrated in micromanaging every detail in the church’s activities, such as cutting programs in an "anti-programs” campaign (programs like youth activities). Through this, the leadership remained steadfast against any who questioned the establishment. It was the beginning of the worst church experience I have ever had.
The more families who left, the worse it seemed to get. As numbers dwindled from over 250 down to 40, the pastor became visibly affected, and withdrew himself into greater and greater isolation. Soon the church became a pool of disaffected, joyless indifference, and we went simply out of obligation to duty rather than for a passionate encounter with Christ and other believers.
My own breakthrough came through a massive purge of sin that I had been carrying in my life for several years ... I believe this is commonly referred to as "repentance". I had enough of the failings and needed to get right with God because I was literally dying a slow death in my relationship to Christ and buried under the incalculable volume of work at the office and at home. I was working 70 hours a week with two kids and a graduate research project due that I was six weeks behind on. After having fallen into the trappings of addiction to alcohol, I did not have time, energy, or room in my life to mess around anymore. I sat with God for several weeks through repentance and prayer and discovered the singular source of our church’s problems: PRIDE. I took my own share of the responsibility and made a point to publically repent before the men of the church and ask their forgiveness for my own half-heartedness.
Despite these efforts, I was still running into a headwind of greater velocity than my own momentum -- I was unable to gain any ground to effect change outside of myself.
Our pastor had claimed the title of the church under his own name. He built it from the ground-up, and kept it as his own, ran it as his own, and it showed in how he took everything personally and micromanaged every detail with the kind of obsessive-compulsiveness that could occupy a psychology study group for months. The problem with all of this is that the church is NOT his.
The church belongs to JESUS CHRIST.
I believe that God loves our pastor and is working in and through his life, but I also, from what I see gather that may include pulling his house down brick-by-brick until there is a surrender of ownership from the pastor ... to Christ.
The sad thing is I tried very much to relate to the pastor these very things and was rebuffed with great resistance and bitter counter-attack, which is fine because this is ultimately not my fight and I am willing to be wrong. But, in this case, the facts speak for themselves. The interactions between us that followed further confirmed the decision to leave was the right one. I pray for the pastor and hope that he and his family find what they are looking for, but I will do the same for the sake of my family by finding a place where we can enjoy the freedom in Christ that is readily available to all.
Where there is control, micromanaging, manipulation, and an overage of ownership, there lies the chemistry for religion.
I believe the reason the church of Jesus Christ has so many hundreds of denominations is due to this very thing. The Message of Christ has not changed, but the messengers have quarreled amongst themselves for 2,000 years redefining the Message after their own names, to the loss of its perfect intent--to bring us all together in One Fellowship in His Name.
John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
There is a big difference between following Christ and following a religion. Be careful to which one you anchor your life to!
While I abhor the idea of leaving a church over the common and relatively small matters, as the relationships with other believers are paramount to one's own growth and maturity (and that of the whole), I compare this matter to abandoning a sinking vessel or bailing from a burning aircraft.
The source of the damage to our church is the worst kind to befall evangelical ministries, especially those "church plants" or start-up ministries such as ours:
I am talking about spiritual pride.
In five years of growth, our small church had over 250 members and a healthy, growing ministry to reach out to the "unchurched" with the vision of being "real, relaxed, and relevant". Having grown up in Calvary Chapel, it followed a similar model, and was immediately something I could relate to. For awhile it was exactly what we wanted, a place where we could connect, get involved, serve, and make a difference. Our children were happy and we quickly bonded with the families in our life group.
The trouble began when a disagreement occurred between our life group leader and the pastor. Then the life group leader's family left the church. Rather than simply placing a new leader in our life group, the pastor disbanded the group entirely and told us to go find new life groups. The problem is, the church's own organizational structure established life groups as the preeminent feature for the church. Sunday mornings are simplified as "celebration service" for the life groups. Now, with seven families shaken up by the changes and without a life group, not surprisingly, all but one of them (mine) left the church over the next few weeks.
Over the next several months, I engaged with the pastor for closure on the matter and placement in a new life group and he placed us in his life group. That was fine until we began to hear about the people who had left the church spoken of in a negative light, in fact some of it was downright ugly. Shortly thereafter, the children's Sunday school classes were cut back and even stopped for awhile as part of a "forced volunteer drive". During this same time, membership began to rapidly plummet. Many families had already started to leave, mostly due to what they perceived to be a stifling level of control as demonstrated in micromanaging every detail in the church’s activities, such as cutting programs in an "anti-programs” campaign (programs like youth activities). Through this, the leadership remained steadfast against any who questioned the establishment. It was the beginning of the worst church experience I have ever had.
The more families who left, the worse it seemed to get. As numbers dwindled from over 250 down to 40, the pastor became visibly affected, and withdrew himself into greater and greater isolation. Soon the church became a pool of disaffected, joyless indifference, and we went simply out of obligation to duty rather than for a passionate encounter with Christ and other believers.
My own breakthrough came through a massive purge of sin that I had been carrying in my life for several years ... I believe this is commonly referred to as "repentance". I had enough of the failings and needed to get right with God because I was literally dying a slow death in my relationship to Christ and buried under the incalculable volume of work at the office and at home. I was working 70 hours a week with two kids and a graduate research project due that I was six weeks behind on. After having fallen into the trappings of addiction to alcohol, I did not have time, energy, or room in my life to mess around anymore. I sat with God for several weeks through repentance and prayer and discovered the singular source of our church’s problems: PRIDE. I took my own share of the responsibility and made a point to publically repent before the men of the church and ask their forgiveness for my own half-heartedness.
Despite these efforts, I was still running into a headwind of greater velocity than my own momentum -- I was unable to gain any ground to effect change outside of myself.
Our pastor had claimed the title of the church under his own name. He built it from the ground-up, and kept it as his own, ran it as his own, and it showed in how he took everything personally and micromanaged every detail with the kind of obsessive-compulsiveness that could occupy a psychology study group for months. The problem with all of this is that the church is NOT his.
The church belongs to JESUS CHRIST.
I believe that God loves our pastor and is working in and through his life, but I also, from what I see gather that may include pulling his house down brick-by-brick until there is a surrender of ownership from the pastor ... to Christ.
The sad thing is I tried very much to relate to the pastor these very things and was rebuffed with great resistance and bitter counter-attack, which is fine because this is ultimately not my fight and I am willing to be wrong. But, in this case, the facts speak for themselves. The interactions between us that followed further confirmed the decision to leave was the right one. I pray for the pastor and hope that he and his family find what they are looking for, but I will do the same for the sake of my family by finding a place where we can enjoy the freedom in Christ that is readily available to all.
Where there is control, micromanaging, manipulation, and an overage of ownership, there lies the chemistry for religion.
I believe the reason the church of Jesus Christ has so many hundreds of denominations is due to this very thing. The Message of Christ has not changed, but the messengers have quarreled amongst themselves for 2,000 years redefining the Message after their own names, to the loss of its perfect intent--to bring us all together in One Fellowship in His Name.
John 13:35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
There is a big difference between following Christ and following a religion. Be careful to which one you anchor your life to!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Blue Like Jazz
Best book I've read in a very long time. Donald Miller's theme has been sort of an inspiration for this blog, "Nonreligious Thoughts on Biblical Christianity". His audio material is equally thought-provoking, particularly "Free-Market Jesus".I highly recommend you guys check it out. More on this (and more) later.
http://www.donaldmillerwords.com/
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Welcome
Hello Everyone:
I am pleased to start a new blog with the goal of breaking down a few of the many divisive walls of humanistic religion with the hope that in so doing, we will realize our purpose to find RELATIONSHIP with the Almighty ... and flee from the "do good=be good" trappings of modern religion in exchange for true, lasting freedom.
More to follow ...
I am pleased to start a new blog with the goal of breaking down a few of the many divisive walls of humanistic religion with the hope that in so doing, we will realize our purpose to find RELATIONSHIP with the Almighty ... and flee from the "do good=be good" trappings of modern religion in exchange for true, lasting freedom.
More to follow ...
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