At our last study, Joe asked us to begin reading particular scriptures that the study laid out for us. One such scripture was 1 Peter 2: 2-3...but I didn't actually make it there right off.
As I am apt to do, I saw Peter and ended up reading 2 Peter 2: 2-3. I sat there blankly for a moment, because I knew these verses didn't go along with what I had been reading in the other scripture. But the verses...they really set me back. Let me share...
Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
Okay, so then I had to check the helps, because I really felt like God wanted me to see this scripture. I found this interesting: Teachers should be paid by the people they teach, but these false teachers were attempting to make more money by distorting the truth and saying what people wanted to hear. So...what does that mean for us??? Well, I think that God is cautioning us to be careful where we place our resources, and to be careful that who we listen to. This time of the year we are all inundated with requests for our money. Before we give, we need to be sure that the causes we support are actually valid ministries, and that the money given isn't being used to promote another cause.
One part of this scripture really stuck with me... their condemnation has long been hanging over them... does that mean that those who actively carry out these types of "ministry" are doomed? I think so... if you back up to verse one it says: But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves.
How do you spot a false teacher? By knowing the word...if you don't know what is biblical, you will be blind to the truth. God's word is definitely what you "need" to hear, but who said that God's word will always be what you "want" to hear? Those preachers and teachers who only preach a "feel good" message aren't teaching the word the way God intended. Like everything in life, you have to take the good with the bad, and there will be times when God pushes you out of your comfort zone to do something you are unprepared to do. You won't like it, and you won't be happy about it, but you will be asked. And if your minister isn't convicting you on a regular basis, then you might just have a problem. And as I read the scripture above... I believe that he has a problem as well.
We are blessed at GCC to have a staff of ministers who all challenge us to look beyond the "feel goods". They are encouraging us to step out of our comfort zones and go about the work that God has placed before the church.
So thanks Joe for the reading list...(and I did make it to the correct verse!) It's always good to shine up the "armor" that God has provided us with.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
Just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! If you are a reader of my posts, you know that I have tons of stuff to be happy for....
Mickey - who is my soul mate and my best friend
The girls - who are each so much like me, but so individual at the same time! They are great!!!
The boy - who is adding a whole new dimension to our family. Shoot...he is keeping me young!
the son-in-laws - who take such good care of my girls. They are very awesome young men!
the grands - they are such delights! I love having them come around - their smiles are infectious!
my friends - where would I be without you!You lift me up, even when you don't know you do it!
GCC Family and Staff - it is so nice to have someplace to call home, where you can feel the love of Christ every time you enter!
The most important of all...
my relationship with Christ - I am so thankful that He loves me just the way I am and that that He is there waiting to love each of us!
Happy Thanksgiving...
Mickey - who is my soul mate and my best friend
The girls - who are each so much like me, but so individual at the same time! They are great!!!
The boy - who is adding a whole new dimension to our family. Shoot...he is keeping me young!
the son-in-laws - who take such good care of my girls. They are very awesome young men!
the grands - they are such delights! I love having them come around - their smiles are infectious!
my friends - where would I be without you!You lift me up, even when you don't know you do it!
GCC Family and Staff - it is so nice to have someplace to call home, where you can feel the love of Christ every time you enter!
The most important of all...
my relationship with Christ - I am so thankful that He loves me just the way I am and that that He is there waiting to love each of us!
Happy Thanksgiving...
Monday, November 19, 2007
A Day of "Fellowship"
Sunday began what I consider the "beginning of the Holiday Season". Our church, Greenville Christian, hosted their annual Thanksgiving Dinner. In the past 5 months our church has grown, and our staff had the foresight to contact the local elementary and see if we could use their facility.
In light of the dinner, Mickey, the kids and I attended the first service so that we could help set up at the school. Chad's sermon was on Fellowship, very appropriate since we were getting ready to do just that. I was in absolute agreement with him... fellowship is so much more than sitting down to a meal.
In the early church, fellowship was more than just a corporate gathering...it was an intimate relationship that involved Christ and fellow believers. You have to get to know both in order to carry out the work that God has placed before you. I think that as our church continues to grow, it will be harder to get to know everyone, but impossible? No... just a little more challenging. And if we are to become a "team" of believers we need to know our brothers and sisters.
So...as we all go about the business of the holidays over the next few weeks, let's not forget to be in fellowship with our church family. If you aren't in a small group, find one...Mickey and I have joined Joe's group, and we are thrilled to have made that step. And let me clarify...it isn't that we didn't want to be in a group, we always feel that we are crunched for time around here. Lately, we have felt challenged to "make time" for something that is very important...deepening our relationship with Christ and our fellow believers.
While we already "know" everyone in the group, I look forward to building a real relationship with each of them. I look forward to celebrating their joys, grieving with them over the losses they may have to endure, holding them up during times of struggles, and learning with them about the love that Christ has for each of us.
Fellowship??? It isn't really as easy as it sounds...to do it right takes some effort...but if you do it right...the benefits will be tremendous!
In light of the dinner, Mickey, the kids and I attended the first service so that we could help set up at the school. Chad's sermon was on Fellowship, very appropriate since we were getting ready to do just that. I was in absolute agreement with him... fellowship is so much more than sitting down to a meal.
In the early church, fellowship was more than just a corporate gathering...it was an intimate relationship that involved Christ and fellow believers. You have to get to know both in order to carry out the work that God has placed before you. I think that as our church continues to grow, it will be harder to get to know everyone, but impossible? No... just a little more challenging. And if we are to become a "team" of believers we need to know our brothers and sisters.
So...as we all go about the business of the holidays over the next few weeks, let's not forget to be in fellowship with our church family. If you aren't in a small group, find one...Mickey and I have joined Joe's group, and we are thrilled to have made that step. And let me clarify...it isn't that we didn't want to be in a group, we always feel that we are crunched for time around here. Lately, we have felt challenged to "make time" for something that is very important...deepening our relationship with Christ and our fellow believers.
While we already "know" everyone in the group, I look forward to building a real relationship with each of them. I look forward to celebrating their joys, grieving with them over the losses they may have to endure, holding them up during times of struggles, and learning with them about the love that Christ has for each of us.
Fellowship??? It isn't really as easy as it sounds...to do it right takes some effort...but if you do it right...the benefits will be tremendous!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Look out Frodo...we aren't in Narnia anymore....
Received this email again today and wanted to share. I recently saw a preview for this movie on TV. The book is on the shelves at Wal-Mart. Checked out snopes.com (thanks Chandra) and this article appears legit. Makes me nervous for our children.....
The Golden Compass, a fantasy film starring Nicole Kidman that is scheduled to be released into theatres on 7 December 2007, has been drawing fire from concerned Christians. The film is based on Northern Lights (released in the U.S. as The Golden Compass), the first offering in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of children’s books, a series that follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat oppressive forces of a senile God. Books of the trilogy have sold more than 15 million copies around the world, with Northern Lights winning the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature in 1995 and in 2007 being awarded the ‘Carnegie of Carnegies’ for the best children’s book of the past 70 years. The Amber Spyglass, the final book of the series, won the Whitbread Prize in 2001, making it the first children’s book to do so.
The series’ author, Phillip Pullman, is an avowed atheist who has averred that “I don’t profess any religion; I don’t think it’s possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality’.” Critics of Pullman’s books point to the strong anti-religion and anti-God themes they incorporate, and although literary works are subject to a variety of interpretations, Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “My books are about killing God.” (Conservative British columnist Peter Hitchens labeled Pullman “The Most Dangerous Author in Britain” and described his as the writer “the atheists would have been praying for, if atheists prayed.”)
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic Leagues, has condemned The Golden Compass as a “pernicious” effort to indoctrinate children into Anti-Christian beliefs and has produced a 23-page pamphlet title The Golden Compass: Unmasked in which he maintains that Pullman “sells atheism for kids.” Donahue told interviewer John Gibson on 9 October 2007 why be believes Christians should stay away from the film:
Look, the movie is based on the least offensive of the three books. And they have dumbed down the worst elements in the movie because they don’t want to make Christians angry and they want to make money. Our concern is this, unsuspecting Christian parents may want to take their kid to the movie, it opens up December 7th and say, this wasn’t troubling, then we’ll buy the books. So the movie is the bait for the books which are profoundly anti-Christian and at the same time selling atheism.
Other critics, however, have described Pullman’s works as being more generally anti-religion rather that specifically anti-Christian or anti-Catholic:
In “His Dark Materials,” Pullman’s criticisms of organized religion come across as anti-authoritarian and anti-ascetic rather than anti-doctrinal. (Jesus isn’t mentioned in any of the books, although Pullman has hinted that He might figure in a forthcoming sequel, “The Book of Dust.”) His fundamental objection is to ideological tyranny and the rejection of this world in favor of an idealized afterlife, regardless of creed. As one of the novel’s pagan characters puts it, “Every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.”
To summarize, It appears that Pullman hates C.S. Lewis’s Chronicle’s of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie appears to be done in such a way that kids and their parents will buy his trilogy where in the end, the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so undoubtedly it will be advertised a lot.
Something like this is shared so parents may use wisdom and discernment in sorting through the various options available for reading or viewing. A caution light while driving is just that, a light which cause you to exercise caution.
If you've heard something different let me know!
The Golden Compass, a fantasy film starring Nicole Kidman that is scheduled to be released into theatres on 7 December 2007, has been drawing fire from concerned Christians. The film is based on Northern Lights (released in the U.S. as The Golden Compass), the first offering in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of children’s books, a series that follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat oppressive forces of a senile God. Books of the trilogy have sold more than 15 million copies around the world, with Northern Lights winning the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Literature in 1995 and in 2007 being awarded the ‘Carnegie of Carnegies’ for the best children’s book of the past 70 years. The Amber Spyglass, the final book of the series, won the Whitbread Prize in 2001, making it the first children’s book to do so.
The series’ author, Phillip Pullman, is an avowed atheist who has averred that “I don’t profess any religion; I don’t think it’s possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality’.” Critics of Pullman’s books point to the strong anti-religion and anti-God themes they incorporate, and although literary works are subject to a variety of interpretations, Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “My books are about killing God.” (Conservative British columnist Peter Hitchens labeled Pullman “The Most Dangerous Author in Britain” and described his as the writer “the atheists would have been praying for, if atheists prayed.”)
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic Leagues, has condemned The Golden Compass as a “pernicious” effort to indoctrinate children into Anti-Christian beliefs and has produced a 23-page pamphlet title The Golden Compass: Unmasked in which he maintains that Pullman “sells atheism for kids.” Donahue told interviewer John Gibson on 9 October 2007 why be believes Christians should stay away from the film:
Look, the movie is based on the least offensive of the three books. And they have dumbed down the worst elements in the movie because they don’t want to make Christians angry and they want to make money. Our concern is this, unsuspecting Christian parents may want to take their kid to the movie, it opens up December 7th and say, this wasn’t troubling, then we’ll buy the books. So the movie is the bait for the books which are profoundly anti-Christian and at the same time selling atheism.
Other critics, however, have described Pullman’s works as being more generally anti-religion rather that specifically anti-Christian or anti-Catholic:
In “His Dark Materials,” Pullman’s criticisms of organized religion come across as anti-authoritarian and anti-ascetic rather than anti-doctrinal. (Jesus isn’t mentioned in any of the books, although Pullman has hinted that He might figure in a forthcoming sequel, “The Book of Dust.”) His fundamental objection is to ideological tyranny and the rejection of this world in favor of an idealized afterlife, regardless of creed. As one of the novel’s pagan characters puts it, “Every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.”
To summarize, It appears that Pullman hates C.S. Lewis’s Chronicle’s of Narnia and has written a trilogy to show the other side. The movie appears to be done in such a way that kids and their parents will buy his trilogy where in the end, the children kill God and everyone can do as they please. Nicole Kidman stars in the movie so undoubtedly it will be advertised a lot.
Something like this is shared so parents may use wisdom and discernment in sorting through the various options available for reading or viewing. A caution light while driving is just that, a light which cause you to exercise caution.
If you've heard something different let me know!
Monday, November 5, 2007
The Daughter of a King
Yesterday we celebrated Kailyn's 3rd Birthday. She had a princess party, and of course received many princess gifts. She is really in to dress up right now, ans she received a ton of dress up items; gowns, tiaras, purses, and shoes. She was so excited as she opened each one, and she couldn't wait to dress up. After all of her gifts were opened, she went into Aunt Carly's room and proceeded to transform herself into Cinderella. The look on her face said it all... she was excited to be a princess, and she couldn't wait to get her magic wand and a purse and begin to play.
As we watched her (she eventually took the bridal headpiece from the bridal wear she received and put it on!) it was amazing to see how something so simple could transform how you see yourself.
Kind of like putting on Christ isn't it? Once you have accepted that he has forgiven your sins and you realize that you have cast off your old self, you begin to see that you are a new creation in Christ. I think that we should all take a good long look at the face of Princess Kailyn... can you see the joy, the excitement and the anticipation?
That should be how we look each day! Joyous over the gift we have been given, excited to share it with others and anticipating what is to come.... after all, we are all sons and daughters of the King of Kings. It's time we act like it!!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Delivery
Today I spent my time delivering the paper to different churches and businesses in Washington County. It was a beautiful day!
It takes around four hours to run all of my route, and I get a lot of time to think, to sing...to just talk to God. While I don't necessarily enjoy the continual getting in and out of the car I do like the alone time.
Today the weather was perfect, the traffic was light, and the trees were beautiful. I ran into a few people that I knew and that is always enjoyable. The only down side to the day is the fact that I had a touch of the "bug" yesterday, so I didn't feel the best in the world today.
Due to the bug, I wasn't able to go to church last night. I would hate to infect all those kids (and the adults as well), so I stayed home. I have to admit, I missed seeing the kids, and I think that Michael missed his time at church. A mid-week pick-me-up is something that everyone needs, a little dose of God time to keep you focused.
While I didn't get my pick-me-up last night at church, I did get a healthy dose today. I listened to praise and worship music for awhile, I had some prayer time and I just talked to God... and I took the opportunity to thank him for the beautiful day.
It takes around four hours to run all of my route, and I get a lot of time to think, to sing...to just talk to God. While I don't necessarily enjoy the continual getting in and out of the car I do like the alone time.
Today the weather was perfect, the traffic was light, and the trees were beautiful. I ran into a few people that I knew and that is always enjoyable. The only down side to the day is the fact that I had a touch of the "bug" yesterday, so I didn't feel the best in the world today.
Due to the bug, I wasn't able to go to church last night. I would hate to infect all those kids (and the adults as well), so I stayed home. I have to admit, I missed seeing the kids, and I think that Michael missed his time at church. A mid-week pick-me-up is something that everyone needs, a little dose of God time to keep you focused.
While I didn't get my pick-me-up last night at church, I did get a healthy dose today. I listened to praise and worship music for awhile, I had some prayer time and I just talked to God... and I took the opportunity to thank him for the beautiful day.
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