Shut out

I have been shut out from commenting on the Snow Hill guys blogs. They say it is a technical problem. I guess I will comment here instead.

"None of your faith is in your faith." I agree that this is what should occur, but in reality we put our faith in lots of things. Church membership, a spoken confession, baptism, to name a few things. How many of us really put our faith in Christ and not just a belief in Christ?

In studying spiritual transformation I am finding out that it is not so much what I believe, but what I become. Now of course I have certain beliefs that are consistant and with most christian theology, but the main objective should be transformation. Believing the right thing is only half the process. Faith without works is dead, is so true. Then works without faith would be dead as well. I think we confuse going to church as works, when I am not sure that is what is meant. It is certainly not all that is meant. I am not trying to say that works is part of the process of transformation, but a result.(hence, what we become) If what we believe doesn't affect how we live our lives then what good is our beliefs? I like what Willard says, "Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort". We don't earn salvation, but we can still try to live our lives as close to Christ examples as we can at whatever point we may be in our transformation process.
My main point I started to make was that we must be misapplying our faith, otherwise we would live lives closer to what apprenticeship to Christ would look like.

Mind Numbed Robots

A popular description of conservatives who listen to conservative talk shows was "mind numbed robots". This was how liberals derided those on the right who seemed to be inspired in the 80s and 90s to vote Republican.

I don't remember Rush leading thousands of people personally to the polls, such as Bruce Springsteen did yesterday. He gives this concert saying "Follow me", then leads these "mind numbed robots" to the polls. Wanna bet who these deep thinkers voted for?

This happened in Wisconsin where last presidential election the Dems picked up homeless people and paid them to vote. When the Repubs speak out against this they are called racist, and accused of "disenfranchising voters". So if you try to keep those who are not eligible to vote i.e. felons and those too lazy to register, you are evil. Wanna bet who carries the felon vote?

I am ready for this election to end. I am sick of hearing Cher, Rosie O Donell, Jeanine Garafalo, Ben Affleck, the boss and others claim they know what is best for me. I usually start out an election cycle a moderate, but after the left starts their shrill, baseless attacks, I find my refuge once again with the right. Kudos to Kurt Schilling for endorsing W, to blunt Kerry's attempt to make political hay with "his Red Sox". I can't vote for a guy who throws like a girl. (he threw a first pitch at a Sox game and bounced it, then got booed for it) W threw a strike wearing a bullet proof vest last time he threw a first pitch. That pretty much sums it up for me.

Further questions

I read this question from another website:

What does my heart tell me God intended for Jesus and what I should do about it, rather than what does a book men wrote tell me I should believe about Jesus?

Is that the primary question? Is that what Todd meant when he said " what does the bible say to us, not just what does the bible mean" or something to that affect.

Now this question was from someone who I think doubts the whole inerrancy, infallible word of God belief that most of us have.(Which is subject to different interpretations of what "infallible and inherently" mean and I know God wrote the Bible with man's hand etc.) But yet isn't it more about what scripture says to us and what it can inspire us to become, than whatever deep mysterious wisdom that might be lifted from a certain passage in scripture? I have taken Dr. Todd's suggestion and have been reading the story that is in the scripture, rather than trying to find the object lesson we are so used having forced upon us by those in "authority". It makes the read a lot more enjoyable that way. And while God did write it, the men that helped write it, give the stories perspective and life, that if we ignore we may miss out on the real meaning of what God is trying to say to us. (individually and communally)

You see out of fear I feel I have to clarify my statements so as not to sound too "out of the mainstream", when sometimes it is good to stretch our minds and ask questions that make us and others uncomfortable.

Scandal Revisited

I have just completed "Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" by Mark Noll, of Wheaton College, it ends with this:

The effort to think like a Christian is an effort to take seriously the sovereignty of God over the world He created, the lordship of Christ over the world He redeemed, and the power of the Holy Spirit over the world He sustains each and every moment. From this perspective the search for a mind that truly thinks like a Christian takes on ultimate significance, because the search for a Christian mind is not, in the end, a search for mind but a search for God.
-Mark A. Noll

Comparatively Speaking

And now, friends, we ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love! I Thess. 5:12-13 It was said that we do a good job at our church (small c) compared to others in compensating our staff. But the standard we should go by is not the standard set by ungrateful churches in our denomination, but the Biblical standard above. We probably do a better job than some, but we must always remember not to look at others and then say "Thank God we are not like them", but always be mindful of the scripture and do what it dictates.

EVERYONE CAN!

New slogan for the SBC. A funky looking bus that would make the Partridge Family jealous. (You youngsters won't get that one, I am old enough to remember when Cat Stevens was a Christian, you youngsters won't get that one either) That bus is traveling across the country and our Convention President is single handedly going to reverse the downward trend in baptisms. Never mind that 2 people he witnessed to had already been baptized and one was now a self described atheist. I think the problem is not dunking enough folks, but is making sure we dunk the right ones. I think we lose half of them before their hair is dry. (Note: technically they never were "saved" that is why I can say that we lose them. I mean where do they go on Sundays? Not to church.) There is never any commitment to discipleship. In the article I read that a young man who had never ever heard John 3:16 before in his life, prays a prayer and now he is saved and gonna get dunked.

I am trying to be funny about an issue that is really pretty serious, but if folks who are supposed to be a lot more spiritual than me can't figure it out...............then maybe it is better to laugh about it than to cry about it?

Read about the EVERYONE CAN! tour and read first hand how our Prez prays with people who say they are Christians.?! Link: http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=19176

Studying the Scriptures

http://home.sprintmail.com/~masthewitt/baptists/manifesto.html
Baptist Manifesto a document floating around has an interesting passage on how to study the Bible or how we as the body should:

We affirm Bible Study in reading communities rather than relying on private interpretation or supposed 'scientific' objectivity. We believe that we are engrafted anew into God's freedom whenever we gather around the open Bible, because it is the truth of God's Word that sets us free (Rom 11:17; Jn 8:31-32). Such freedom is a consequence, not a condition, of reading the Scriptures. God therefore calls us to freedom through the faithful and communal study of the Scriptures (Jn 5:39; Acts 17:11). Because all Christians are graciously gifted everyone has something to bring to the conversation, but because some members are specifically called "to equip the saints" everyone has something to learn from those with equipping gifts (Eph 4:7-16). We thus affirm an open and orderly process whereby faithful communities deliberate together over the Scriptures with sisters and brothers of the faith, excluding no light from any source. When all exercise their gifts and callings, when every voice is heard and weighed, when no one is silenced or privileged, the Spirit leads communities to read wisely and to practice faithfully the direction of the gospel (1 Cor 14:26-29).

Is this a correct way to view scripture study and interpretation? It sounds pretty good to me, it fits the communal picture of the Church. Check out the entire document at the above link.