“We glorify God by working out our own salvation. God has twisted together his glory and our good. What an encouragement is this to the service of God, to think, while I am hearing and praying, I am glorifying God; while I am furthering my own glory in heaven, I am increasing God’s glory.
Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honour and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.”
—Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1997), 13-14
I just noticed that there is a very strange reluctance at the ABC. It might have been just a one-off and I might be reading too much into things and leaping to conclusions but... On the AM programme this morning there was an item about the return of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party with an improved margin. The margin was so great that she was able to dump her main coalition partner, which was an unlikely and difficult allliance, and take on another conservative party in a new coalition.
The former coalition partner was named several times in the article- the Social Democratic Party- but Merkel's party remained nameless, except for a brief mention by the European correspondent. It was described as conservative, pro-business, liberal, right-of-centre, but the name was all but ignored. What is this word that dare not be spoken? Christian Democratic Party of course!
So maybe I'm just a bit too prone to conspiracy theories I might keep an ear out for other reports of political incorrectness but I suspect that some people in the media might just be reluctant to mention the C word!
The other day Margaret noticed an item on a children's educational programme, Behind The News, also broadcast by the ABC. The item was about Islam which was described as one of Australia's biggest religions. She was a little surprised by this so paid some attention. Five minutes into the programme it mentioned the real facts. Islam is the third biggest religion behind Christianity 76% and Buddhism 2% and then Islam 1%. So Islam accounts for just 1% of the population but is described as "one of the biggest religions" in the country.
Peter Glover writes about two women on trial for their faith in Jesus:
Christian Girls Under Iranian Threat of Death
Maryam Rustamoor (27) and Marzieh Amirizadeh (30) are both facing the death penalty at the hands of Iran's Revolutionary Court. Arrested in April 2009 their crime is: they became Christians. Under Sharia Law (and let's not duck it - the Koran itself makes this perfectly clear too) that the penalty for apostasy from from Islam to any other faith is death.
Here's a touching courtroom exchange from August 9:
Mr. Haddad, asked the two women if they were Christians. “We love Jesus,” they replied. He repeated his question and they said, “Yes, we are Christians.”
Mr. Haddad then said, “You were Muslims and now you have become Christians.”
“We were born in Muslim families, but we were not Muslims,” was their reply.
Mr. Haddad’s questioning continued and he asked them if they regretted becoming Christians, to which they replied, “We have no regrets.”
Then he stated emphatically, “You should renounce your faith verbally and in written form.” They stood firm and replied, “We will not deny our faith.”
During one tense moment in the questioning, Maryam and Marzieh made reference to their belief that God had convicted them through the Holy Spirit. Mr. Haddad told them, “It is impossible for God to speak with humans.”
Marzieh asked him in return, “Are you questioning whether God is Almighty?”
Mr. Haddad then replied, “You are not worthy for God to speak to you.”
Marzieh said, “It is God, and not you, who determines if I am worthy.”
If you are a practising Christian reading this you are asked to pray, if not don't bother as God won't hear you anyway (God does not hear those who do not practice the Christian faith, see John 9:31).
Remember when President Ahmadinejad lecture the recent UN-sponsored Durban Conference On human rights? What this incident shows is the values of true Islam and Sharia Law in action. And we should be realistic about issues like allowing Sharia Law in our own countries. The nutjob Ayatollahs and their revolutionary bunch of thugs - indeed all who hold to Sharia Law and Mohammed's teachings on this point of murdering 'Muslim' apostates (these girls claim they were never Muslim believers, remember) - need to apply to re-join the human race.
Here's the already prescribed verdict: they wouldn't get in.
I remember when I first heard this bit of immature atheistic reductio ad absurdum. I was in high school, and I didn't respond to it because the Nirvana-shirted, long-banged drama stud who said it didn't say it to me. He was laying it on his friend like it was theist's kryptonite.
My answer then, steeped in C.S. Lewis as I was, would have been along the lines of the nonsense of the question as framed. It is a rhetorical and hypothetical "gotcha" with no sincerity behind it, and in any event, it is sort of like asking, "Does the number nine smell red or yellow?"
My answer today is different. My answer today would not be to skewer the nature of the question but to inject its insincerity with the sincerity of God and all the weight of the gospel.
The truth is that God did make a weight so heavy he couldn't lift it. He did so not by building an immovable force -- we did that with our sin -- but by incarnating the frailty of humanity and willingly subjecting himself to the force. As one of us, yet still himself, he created the conundrum of the incarnate God, bearing a cross he both ordained yet could not carry by himself, becoming condemned in death and also victorious. And God was crushed according to the plan he himself projected from the foundation of the world.
So, can God make a rock so heavy even he can't lift it?
Yes. And he did. For three days only. And then he drop kicked it out of the mouth of the tomb.
Ryan Cordle writes this excellent piece about evangelical theology, death and the sacraments:
Death: Why Evangelicals are Missing the Sacraments
Michael Spencer wrote a thought-provoking piece on the things that Evangelicals make sacraments besides the sacraments. Growing up in an Evangelical church, we "had communion" twice a year: Good Friday and the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Also, I had to request to be baptized, because for my church "getting saved," was the key, not baptism. That is not an atypical story for anyone growing up in that kind of church.
A lot has been said and written about why Evangelicals just "don't get it," when it comes to the sacraments. These reasons usually point to the Evangelical gnostic tendencies or the fear of Roman Catholicism, which are both valid critiques of what is going on. You can check out Michael Horton's books for a very good exposition of what is going on there.
Yet, I have had a suspicion that there is a slightly different psychology of the thinking going on in modern Evangelical churches about the sacraments. I think that American Evangelicals haven't embraced a sacramental theology, because they haven't accepted mortality. Evangelicals have dealt thoroughly with what it means to be "Pro-Life," but have they consciously dealt with death? I believe that they have just accepted the current Western position on death, which is to invest as much money as possible in postponing it as long as possible. The modern attitude is to choose avoidance rather than acceptance. For example, ask most moderns if they would rather have a quick, unexpected death or a more drawn out death, and they will almost all choose the former. Just ask an Evangelical, "What do you expect to happen when you die?" or "What does it mean to die with dignity?" Evangelical churches largely do not have a coherent narrative or a language for facing death.
The uncertainty about death can be explained away in several ways. One could point to the fact that Evangelicals rose to power at the same time as modern medicine. It is much easier to avoid death around us than it would have been 300 years ago. Also, there is no liturgy/ritual Evangelicals share concerning death. Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans all have liturgies and language that demonstrate the continuing fact that we all die. What words do Evangelicals have to offer about death? Finally, Evangelicals don't embrace the martyr narratives like the older traditions do. The narratives about the early Christian martyrs give us an insight into what it means to die with hope and faith in Jesus.
There is a lot of confusion, and perhaps denial and anxiety, about death for the typical Evangelical. This attitude about death takes much of the power of the sacraments away, because the sacraments force us to face death. The story in baptism and the Eucharistic meal is that we all will die, but Jesus has given us the hope of the Resurrection. Yet, if we first refuse to understand our own deaths, then we miss the good news of the sacraments. It's much easier to just "get saved" and then I don't have to think about death any longer, because it is basically all taken care of. However, if we are to grasp the power of the gospel story, then we must somehow grasp that death is part of our own story.
For the early Church, participating in the Eucharist was also a call to (literally) die with Christ. The Eucharist was explaining the reality that to be a Christian is to expect to die for Christ. One can find this attitude all over early Christian literature. A very memorable narrative of this sort can be found in the Martyrdom of Polycarp, where Polycarp is put into the executioner's fire, and his burning skin was like "bread that is baked," an allusion to the Eucharist.
Have Evangelicals accepted death, and the call to die for Christ? I think that they have yet to work such a theology out, and in not doing so, they have missed the power of the Eucharist.
“If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”
—J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: 1993), 201-202
"The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing, who would have ever been spared?"
What would happen if somebody in an officially Muslim ocuntry, say Malaysia, were to turn up to a mosque and do something really horrible, say spit on the Koran?
From au.christiantoday.com
Two Malaysian Muslim Journalists Spark Anger With Church Article By: Derick Ho Christian Post Asia Correspondent
Malaysian authorities said Tuesday they are investigating complaints against an Islamic magazine that reported two Muslim journalists pretended to be Catholic and took Holy Communion during Mass to do research for an article.
Churchgoers, Joachim Xavier and Sudhagaran Stanley, filed a police report last week accusing the monthly ‘Al Islam’ magazine of desecrating the Christian practice of Holy Communion in an article written by two journalists who described how they tasted the wafer, representing the body of Jesus, and spat it out to take a photo of it, Al Arabiya New Channel reported.
The two journalists went undercover and pretended to be Christians to infiltrate a church they claimed was converting Muslims into Christians.
However, they wrote in their published article “Al Islam's investigation in church: Finding the truth behind youths' apostasy" that they found no proof of the church offering money to Muslim youths to convert to Christianity.
But the journalist duo who took the ‘Holy communion’ had criticized parts of the ceremony and wrote Christians strayed from the right path.
"Entering these premises with the intention to spy, and worse, to violate the sanctity of the worship only serves to incite anger and hatred that could lead to potentially dangerous consequences that would tear this country apart," Xavier and Stanley said in a statement.
Rev. Lawrence Andrew, the editor of the Herald, the Catholic Church’s main publication in Malaysia, said the men had "insulted the Christians" through their actions.
"For us, this is a very holy matter," Andrew told The Associated Press (AP). "They have shown disregard, disrespect. ... So we are very upset about this."
Norshamsinor Baharin, the assistant editor of Al-Islam, said the magazine did not want to make any statement for now. Al-Islam writes about Islamic teachings and news.
Church officials would not forbid non-Christians from attending Mass, but they cannot take Communion, Andrew told AP, adding that Catholics were also unhappy that the men had entered the church under false pretenses.
The magazine article indicated the men had spat out the Communion wafer because they took a photograph of it partially bitten.
Police federal crime investigations head Mohamad Bakri Zinin told Associated Press that the officials were investigating whether the two men had caused religious disharmony - a crime that carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
Christian, Buddhist and Hindu minorities - who comprise about one-third of Malaysia's population - often say their constitutional right to practice religion freely has come under threat from Muslim-dominated authorities. The government denies any discrimination.
Religious disputes include a court battle between the Catholic church and the government over a 2007 order banning non-Muslims from translating God as "Allah" in their literature. The government says its use would confuse Muslims, but Christians say the ban is unconstitutional. Christians have been fighting in the highest court of the country since 2007 to revert the case.
“Imagine that your prayer is a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odour, stumbling toward the palace of the great king. You have become your prayer. As you shuffle toward the barred gate, the guards stiffen. Your smell has preceded you. You stammer out a message for the great king: ‘I want to see the king.’
Your words are barely intelligible, but you whisper one final word, ‘Jesus, I come in the name of Jesus.’ At the name of Jesus, as if by magic, the palace comes alive. The guards snap to attention, bowing low in front of you. Lights come on, and the door flies open. You are ushered into the palace and down a long hallway into the throne room of the great king, who comes running to you and wraps you in his arms.
The name of Jesus gives my prayers royal access. They get through. Jesus isn’t just the Saviour of my soul. He’s also the Saviour of my prayers. My prayers come before the throne of God as the prayers of Jesus. ‘Asking in Jesus’ name’ isn’t another thing I have to get right so my prayers are perfect. Is it one more gift of God because my prayers are so imperfect.”
—Paul Miller, A Praying Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress 2009), 135
God is never doing just one thing in what he does with us. He is always doing thousands of things that we cannot see. He never has only one purpose in what he does. He always has thousands of purposes, in everything he does. He is infinitely wise, and everything he does relates to everything else that he does sooner or later. For those who love him and are called according to his purpose, all of them—all of them!—work together for good.”- John Piper, You Will Never Be Thirsty Again
“We are always looking inwards and pitying ourselves and being sorry for ourselves, and looking for something to help us. Get rid of that outlook, forget yourself for a moment; the battle is the Lord’s! Salvation is His. It is for the honour of His great and holy Name.
But go further and realise that because it is God’s battle this almighty power is being exercised on our behalf even when we do not realise it. Things are being done in this great campaign of which we are not aware. We may perhaps be half-asleep at our post, and we do not realise that the great Captain is planning something with respect to us. We are unconscious of it. We would all be lost were it not for that. He, I say, is exercising this power on our behalf.”
COLGATE CHRISTIANS 14 06 2009 ” …though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you … all over again. ” (Hebrews 5:12)
I have often wondered what period of time the write to the Hebrews was referring to when he said ‘by this time’ you ought to be teachers.
Was it 5 months, 5 years, 15 years or (for somechurch goers) 50 years?
And was he seriously referring to all those he was addressing (as it seems he is) or just those ‘called’ to be teachers.
At the same time I have wondered whether there is a connect here with the Willow Creek discovery that the longer a person was attending the church the more disgruntled or dissatisfied many became with the church.
Could it be that there is a ‘use by’ date on what we absorb through our teachers and, if we don’t get out and teach it ourselves, we have to go through the same stuff “… all over again.” (Hebrews 5:12), a process which puts many teachers and preachers (especially those that get a buzz out of the weekly delivery of “a good word this week, Pastor”) into the position of being what I call ‘Colgate preachers’. Let me explain.
The basics of the Gospel, like a toothbrush, is really very simple. However in order to keep people buying toothbrushes Colgate have to cleverly reinventing the thing. Again, and again, and again. A new bump here or flexible twist there, new colours and bristle arrangements and new marketing techniques, all designed to keep customers coming and keep them happy.
And unfortunately many pastors are caught up in a similar pattern. A new twist here and a fresh revelation there, hang the message on Abraham this week then next month use Paul, all brought to a consumer driven congregation with a clever use of PowerPoint and the latest gadgetry. The same basic message but redesigned to keep them engaged and keep them coming. Even the Pastor can be fooled into thinking he has something new.
The writer to the Hebrews seems to suggest, however, that the teacher’s objective should be less about keeping them coming and more about getting them going! In fact he gives us a warning of what will happen if they do not become fruitful. In chapter 6 verse 7 he writes: ‘Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.’ (Hebrews 6:7-8)
What are the thorns and thistles other than the whinges and dissatisfactions that are often rife in our churches, usually coming from folk who have sat under a steady diet of ‘colgate’ teaching for years. And the blessing of God? Perhaps the greater revelation of Christ that the writer longs to bring?
Unfortunately those of us in ‘ministry’ often only have ourselves to blame.
1. We have fostered a preaching style and a meeting style that only makes room for a few rather gifted members to teach anyway. As opposed to the New Testament pattern of a proliferation of home based opportunities for every believer to receive ‘a word of instruction, a revelation… all … for the strengthening of the church’. Offering the microphone to anyone who has something to say will never produce that kind of participation.
2. We have assumed and subliminally taught people that unless they sit under a weekly dose of ‘the word’ they will not grow. But, as I have suggested, there are many that would be better staying away on a Sunday morning and instead taking what they already have and sharing it with a friend over coffee or a fishing line. Rather than fall apart, every sermon they’ve ever heard would come to life as the Holy Spirit opened up opportunties for them to become teachers of the word themselves.
3. We have failed to take note of the purpose of the the ‘five fold’ gifts of Christ to the church, which is to prepare God’s people for ministry. The church is meant to be a people movement with each believer equipped to give an account of the hope they have within them and experience the joy of walking with someone on their journey into faith.
4. Perhaps a bit of a reality check might be in order as well. I don’t mind admitting that I get a buzz out of preaching and teaching. It was often the highlight of my week, especially if it received a bit of praise (see my previous post on preaching).
This can however blind us to the danger of
(1) making people reliant on us and
(2) believing that we (and our gifting) are indispensable.
As Willow Creek discovered, sitting under a weekly dose of the word may be healthy for new believers but maintaining that healthy smile comes about by learning to brush daily with Jesus rather than waiting for the weekly Colgate sermon.
Walking in daily obedience to the promptings of His spirit will brighten anyone’s smile.
“True spirituality is not a superhuman religiosity; it is simply true humanity released from bondage to sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit. This is given to us as we grasp by faith the full content of Christ’s redemptive work: freedom from the guilt and power of sin, and newness of life through the indwelling and outpouring of his Spirit.” - Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 19-20.
Dan Edelen reminds is of the danger of predicting when Jesus will return:
Cerulean Sanctum’s More Cowbell Award, given to the most ridiculous aspects of “Christian” practice, has not been handed out since October 2007, and since “time may be running out,” I better bestow another while I still can.
I start this seventh award by asking, Has there ever been a more bloodthirsty, demon-driven culture than the Maya?
The Maya of Mesoamerica practiced ritualized slayings of enemies and willing victims as part of a large number of religious festivals. These sacrificial victims often had their hearts carved out of their chests while still alive. The Mayan gods were animistic demons to whom the Maya offered perverted blood sacrifices, a complete corruption of the one genuine blood sacrifice that truly mattered, that of Jesus.
Oh, and then there’s that wacky Mayan calendar. You know, the one famously set to run out of time at the end of 2012. So how is this a Cerulean Sanctum post, you ask.
Well, if you’re like me, you’ve received spam from supposedly Christian sources attempting to link the lack of a 2013 in the Mayan calendar with the Second Coming of Christ. Yes, indeed, June 2009 marks 3½ years before the end of that calendar. And we all know how the numbers 3½ and 7 figure into speculation about Christ’s return.
Jesus, however, said this:
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ” —Mark 13:32-33
You know, I take that as pretty authoritative, as it comes from the mouth of Jesus. Yet there are “Christians” out there who are willing to state that the heart-extracting, demon-worshipping Mayans have got one up on the Lord of All. With all apologies to the original lyricist of the classic children’s song, those folks seem to be singing, “Jesus may not truly know, but the Maya tell us so.”
Good grief.
But before we set to stoning the New Age syncretists behind this “Mayan Calendar Predicts Jesus’ Return” garbage, need I remind anyone of a couple sets of dates:
7/7/07 Rosh Hashanah, September 1988
The first was the “magic number” trotted out by a bunch of charismaniacs. We all know from the Bible that 7 is a blessed number, so let’s all go crazy and predict that Jesus will come back on a day filled with that number. All I can say in response is that the Rapture must’ve been really, really small, and not too many of us passed muster, apparently.
Now I’m generally a contrarian, but even I was struck by how many sane Christians decided to spend the entire day of July 7, 2007, praying. A fine endeavor on its own, yes, but let’s get real about why they were doing it. And if they were doing it for that reason, they were doing it wrong.
As to the second date, I was working in a Christian bookstore when the infamous 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 came out. I urged the owners of the store to send the book back to the distributor. They didn’t listen. I didn’t last too long at that store afterwards.
That summer of 1988, I worked at a Christian camp. Everyone was talking about the book. A lot of the young, Evangelical staff wondered if they would be raptured as virgins, thus missing out on the be all and end all of life. Evidently, the senior class of Cedarville Bible College (not too far away from where I live) thought the same thing, but they remedied their fear the old fashioned way: by marrying in droves before that second week in September. (I’ve always wondered how many of those couples are still together.)
I know people may not remember this, but earnest believers, especially in the Bible Belt, sold their houses, stock, and all manner of goods just so they could be unencumbered when that decisive week in September 1988 rolled around. Some went so far as to euthanize their pets so that Muffin and Bowser—who, being soulless beasts, would not be raptured—didn’t wind up as animal sacrifices atop the altars of millions of Satanists who would be left behind.
You may laugh, but I’m not joking. I have no doubts that a few folks reading this are saying to themselves, Yeah, I was one of those fruitcakes.
I’d blame the false prophets behind this kind of stuff ordinarily, but they only pander to the crowd.
So this More Cowbell Award instead goes to:
People who listen to lying prophets about the date for the Rapture.
I mean, this is a no brainer, folks. This doesn’t require any major spiritual discernment when Mark 13:32-33 exists in every Bible I’ve ever read.
Why not try this instead: Live every day as if Jesus was coming back tomorrow.
Sound good?
Word of warning: If no posts show up here after today, you’ll know I was done in by a shadowy cabal of book publishers who make a bazillion dollars off Christians by marketing according to the old adage There’s a sucker born every minute.
Or I was raptured.
This feed is from Cerulean Sanctum (http://ceruleansanctum.com), a blog by Dan Edelen that covers issues facing the American Church.
Gordon Moyes has published a prety good article by Rod Benson about homosexuality and scripture.
Sex, stereotypes and the ScriptureAn address by Rod Benson at the launch of “Beyond Stereotypes: Christians and Homosexuality”Australian Evangelical Alliance, Robert Menzies College, Sydney, 30 April 2009.
My name is Rod Benson and I am a heterosexual. And an evangelical.Now that I have outed myself as a person of unsame-sex orientation, and a person of a minority faith, some of you breathe a cautious sigh of relief, while for others the confession discredits everything I am about to say.
But the discussion we are inviting through the launch of this book, Beyond Stereotypes: Christians and Homosexuality, is a discussion worth having. Indeed I believe it is a discussion we need to have in Australia,and especially in Sydney, at this time. You be the judge.
There is a basic problem here- not unlike Al Gore flying around the world warning against the perils of burning fossil fuel.
From the ABC:
Israel tightens security for Orthodox Easter ritual
By Middle East correspondent Anne Barker
Thousands of police and soldiers have been deployed to stop any violence between orthodox Christians celebrating Easter in Jerusalem's old city.
Every year tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims descend on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to witness the ritual of "holy fire", the supposedly spontaneous flame that appears from the tomb where many believe Jesus was buried.
In other years fist fights have broken out between Armenian, Greek and Coptic Christians, over who has first rights to enter the tomb.
This year about 4,000 Israeli police and soldiers were deployed to prevent a repeat of last year's violence.
Scuffles broke out before the ritual began.
Thousands of pilgrims were denied entry to the holy city until the ceremony was over.
While I'm feeling a bit frustrated by technology, God shows me that people can be just as bad!
I really find it hard to cope with people who are rigid in their thinking-- like Mr Man in "Little Britain" (Pirate Memory Game anyone?). I should post a You Tube link shouldn't I? Here it is:
Anyway, this woman from out of town wanted a present for "a man- a truck driver." She thought books on CD would be good, but we don't have any of those, so maybe some praise CDs. Any suggestion I made she dismissed with a gruff couple of words:
Hillsong CDs- "don't like them- too loud" But they would keep him awake. "He's probably got them" Books: "Driven by Eternity"- looks at cover after I explain the book- "That's for young people." Max Lucado- "Too deep." (Interesting, I thought) She picks up a Philip Yancey book- and I'm thinking "And you think Maxy's deep!" She looks at a book by Gilbert Morris- a fictioanlised acocunt of Noah. "Would a man like this" "Well I read it and I like it." "Yes but an older man in his 40s" "Well I'm 50." After a while she settled on "The Shack" and "Inspirational Australian Stories" which I trid to point out when she started. And "Run Baby Run"- her review: "It's full of violence and stuff- men like that, and it's got a picture of a man on the front" (I didn't tell her that most men like a woman on the covers, but I was just glad to close the sale).
So I managed to interact with a grace-grower for half an hour without strangling her- I tihnk I did pretty well!
A Dozen Sayings of Jesus That Will Change the World—If Christians Ever Believe Them
When I began to write this post, I looked for a dozen passages in the Scriptures that Christians in the West largely ignored in practice, despite mentally assenting to the truths contained therein. But what scared me as I delved into this was that far too many passages of the Scriptures are simply ignored.
So I started focusing. Eventually, I narrowed down a dozen sayings of Jesus from the book of Matthew alone. A sad state of affairs, indeed, that I can cull a dozen passages from just one book that are largely ignored by enlightened Evangelicals. But there you have it. Perhaps if we were more serious about the Scriptures, we’d spend more time putting these words into practice and less time obsessing over the petty little kingdoms we build in our own names.
I might keep an ear out for other reports of political incorrectness but I suspect that some people in the media might just be reluctant to mention the C word!
COLGATE CHRISTIANS 14 06 2009 ” …though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you … all over again. ” (Hebrews 5:12) 
WIDGETIZE