I/We've Moved! (Sorry Goggle, I Use You For Everything Else, I Promise)

Charlie's Church of Christ has been posting for a while over at http://www.charlieschurchofchrist.wordpress.com

Come on over and giggle with glee at my 3-4 posts a week.

Incomplete Scripture

I would never want to be a pastor. When your organization is a non profit and the money that sustains it is purely from donations, you're in the place where the pressure is to please everyone. At least that's how the donors seem to approach it. It's kind of an odd thing, if you consider it, most people in churches are giving their money to have someone stand on stage and preach to them, a message they of course want to agree with. Therefore the attendees have a vested interest in hearing something that pleases their ears. I'm not saying this is how it should be, the ideal, merely how it is currently playing out.

If I don't discuss the sermon with others after church, then I wonder what the purpose of going ever was. At least for me, it was probably so I don't have to answer the much hated question "why weren't you in church?" If I don't engage in community then I question if I'm merely being indoctrinated by being told what to believe.

Often a comment made in response to the message will acknowledge its worth, however there is a "but" thrown in there, being "but he didn't mention...." For an example plenty of online reviewers of Rob Bell's filming of his 'The Gods Aren't Angry' tour expressed their disappointment that he didn't emphasize the wrath or related holy anger of God. It seems silly to me that we expect a complete exploration of every aspect of God's character in a 25 minute message or flags are tossed like an international football match to protest a particular part being left out.

One of the most powerful lessons I've ever learned in regards to relationships is to meet the person where they are, and not where you want them to be. We often will be disappointed for a person not doing as we expect them to, and when we approach relationships this way we are bound to be failed.

In my mind, the Bible isn't complete, or maybe better stated, exhaustive. It doesn't present a full picture of God. At best it stops at a first century understanding of him. Not even with 20+ contributing authors could they capture him. I could write twice as many books as Max Lucado (which would put the number in the triple digits) and never get the total picture, merely the (tiny) snipet I have received. And that's okay.

We will spend the rest of existence, which is to say infinity, exploring and better understanding God. My favorite quote is from Einstein, one I parallel to God: "We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us."

I hope that when we discuss God we can all allow grace for another to not get upset if we feel that they are doing the fullness of God injustice. Because we all are. And in my mind, even if we get it wrong, forgiveness remains unchanged.

A quickie

I realize now that title may be a bit inappropriate in relation to the topic of this post. I finished reading Rob Bell's new book called "Sex God" and I loved it (with some parts I had a minor disagreement with, although it didn't diminish the heart behind what Rob was trying to communicate), so I googled the title to read reviews of what other people thought, to see how it was being received. And the website I am linking to came up like no. 5 on the list. It's called sex in Christ dot com and it claims that God gave us anal and oral sex to kind of appease those of us who aren't married until we make the big plunge. Obviously you don't neeed to hear any of my commentary, I just wanted to post it because it cracked me up and also saddened me a little too. I just hope no one read this and put its teachings into practice.

There's also sections on the site that allow for threesomes within Christian marriage (as long as its two women and one man, not vice versa, because apparently the Bible only condemns male homosexuality) as well as arguing for how Christian pornography is possible, as long as it follows a list of Biblical guidelines. It's an interesting site, and a great example of complete legalism, of only doing what the Scripture clearly outlines and missing the entire heart we are to have in doing the rules.

www.sexinchrist.com

Divine Punishment

News Flash: United States possibly nuked in 2007
source: Pat Robertson, host of 700 Club, via Creator of Heavens and Earth

After a private meeting dialogue with God himself, the second day of the year Pat Robertson announced that he was told that in 2007 the United States will face mass killings. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that," Robertson was quoted as saying. He did not reveal the reason for such a disaster, although it is believed liberalism, homosexuality, and tolerance of abortion, the trinity of spirituality super sins, are to be the cause. This comes on the heels of his 2006 revelation from God that stated the Pacific Northwest will be struck by a natural disaster, as bad as a tsunami.
Robertson also claims to have a very special power of prayer, and has taken credit publically for diverting huricanes Gloria and Felix in 1985 & 1995 respectively from hitting his companies' HQ in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

As you might be able to tell, I am at least somewhat skeptical of this man's claims. They are similar to the claims that Jerry Falwell made that said that gays, abortionists, feminists and pagans helped September 11th happen. There was a church from Kansas in the news last year who would go to the funerals of soldiers to declare that their deaths is proof of divine punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality. The one that really struck home for me are Pat Robertson's message to Dover, PA, telling them not to turn to God if a natural disaster strikes, because they voted God out of their town (Dover was where the school board tried unsuccesfully to bring a textbook into classes referencing intelligent design, the remarks were made after the new school board voted to not do this).
I used to ride my bike to Dover. I can get there in five minutes from my childhood home. If a disaster strikes Dover, it's quite likely to spill over to my parent's house, where my whole life is.
The thing about all of this is, all of these people are Christians. I am not here to judge them, although I admit it is my natural inclination to do so. But their remarks, especially when saying God told them this (just as President Bush claiming that God told him to invade Iraq) - it puts all of us followers of Jesus in an awkward position. Okay maybe not the Kansas church, but everyone else - they've devoted their lives to Christian service.

I'm sure they all pray and talk to God and struggle with him and try to listen to him, just as I do. So for me to say that I doubt God told Pat Robertson to watch out for mass killings in 2007 it means that I discredit this man's personal communion with God, which I do not want to do - even though every fiber of my being feels as though it's asinine. I don't feel as though I can completely doubt them, even though all evidence points to it's idiocy, lunancy and even poor theology.
It's hard, what do you do with someone who is seemingly a man/person of God, who seemingly loves Jesus and wants to advance his kingdom (though I have a suspicion of our views of the kingdom differ greatly) yet says things like this. They've been Christians for double my lifespan, they can quote a heck of a lot more Scripture than I'll ever be able to, and I know these don't necessarily lead to a closer relationship with God or knowing him any better, but nonetheless it puts us all in a hard place.

Please, discuss amongst yourselves.