Boo! Wanna Go to Heaven?

I watched the end of a documentary on Hell House, a type of haunted house put on by an Assembly of God Church in Texas. Needless to say I was disgusted by what I saw. Attempts to frighten children into making a "profession of faith" under duress is a revolting thing to watch.
After all after seeing Columbine re-enacted, a botched abortion, a suicide , references to 911, and more, who wouldn't be shocked into submission.

I had heard about such places before but dismissed them as harmless wacky fundamentalists having some fun on Halloween. But this embarrassing practice must end. How can Christians allow this garbage to happen in their town? This is wrong on so many levels that I could not do the subject justice to comment further.

After I did a little research I discovered that Jerry Falwell promotes garbage like this. You can see Jerry when he visits the Oklahoma Baptist Convention this year. I should have guessed.
Glad to see my giving goes to good use.

I wonder how many people Hell Houses send to hell with their misguided view of the Kingdom of Heaven and what it really means to follow Jesus?

For or Before That Is The Question

The Lord says, Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is the resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, and what place will be my resting-place? 2 For all these things my hand has made, and they are mine, says the Lord; but to this man only will I give attention, to him who is poor and broken in spirit, fearing my word.
Isaiah 66:1-2 (BBE)

The word humble is what is meant by poor and broken in spirit. How many times do we humble ourselves before God? Most of us who call ourselves Christians actually do humble ourselves from time to time, maybe when we go to church, pray or tithe. After all He did create everything so naturally when we acknowledge this we are humbling ourselves before Him.

How many times do we humble ourselves FOR God? And what would that look like? As I look at my life I see that there is a huge difference between the two. I humble myself before God briefly for a couple of hours a week, maybe, then go out and live my life only concerned about myself. I get angry when things don't go my way or argumentative when people don't agree.

The passage clearly points out that God focuses on a man who humbles himself. God is not concerned with how big our church buildings are or how ornate our edifices to Him might be, but God focuses on the humble. Perhaps that is what is meant by dying to self, loving others as you would love yourself, blessing those who curse you and so on.

I have noticed how this is missing, not just from everyday people but from those of us who call ourselves Christians. Some of the conversations I read clearly indicate to me a lack of humility of Christians on different sides of issues. When we are so concerned about being right or theologically sound or scholastically correct, more so over being humble, then we miss the point entirely, no matter what the issue might be. God focuses on the humble. I could write more on Isaiah 66 but I will wait till later.