All that is inside me Screams..

There is something about the thought of leading a congregation in what the Lord wants that is daunting.

It can leave a person feeling empty inside and wondering if they are where they need to be in order to deliver a message.

People on the outside say pray, have faith, ask for grace.  God's grace is sufficient.  Sure God's grace is sufficient.  But what about the cheap grace that Paul warns us of in Romans.  What about the passage in James that talks about knowing what to do and then not doing it is evil.  What if the person isn't doing what God wants of them and in consequence isn't near enough to God to hear what it is that He wants in Him?

People don't think about that. People think that if you are at the point where you are willing to stand up and talk about your faith, that you have everything together.  What I don't think the majority of "Christians" know, is that people in ministry struggle with sin just as much as they do.  People in ministry might even struggle more, because Satan would rather see them fail then one of the sheep.  Cause if you take out the shepherd, then you have free reign on the sheep.  Crazy thought right?

What needs to be realized is that all Christians are the same.  All sin is weighed the same.  Which is really crazy if you think about it.  However, that means if I'm dealing with a sin of lust and you are dealing with a sin of forgetfulness, they are the same.  I'm not sinning more.  Sin is sin and it needs to be dealt with.  

As Christians we are all called to the same mission.  Pastors don't have a "higher" calling.  We are all called to actively advance the gospel in every shape and form.  Some are called to do that through leading a group of Christians others through being a light in the work place.  But, if you are not holding up to your end of the bargain, well this is where that verse in James comes in, it's pure evil, cause you know what you are supposed to be doing, but you aren't doing it.

We are supposed to be growing continually closer to Christ.  We are supposed to be in the world and not of it.  Instead we worry about what car we are going to purchase next, or where we are eating after church.  If we are close enough to Christ, we will know the answer to both of those questions.  God will be so present in our lives that we will know exactly what is of Him and what isn't.

Weekend at Burnies

Below are three articles encasing the Quran burning incident.  All of these were written/filmed before the event was "cancelled."

The cnn article focuses on how General Petraeus replied to what Jones was planning.
The Aljazeera article takes the views of different religious leaders and assesses them.
The Daily Show is a satirical view of the issue.

I enjoyed looking at how the three of these articles looked at the issue at hand from different angles.  The CNN article focused on the first big name response to the issue, focusing on the affect it would have on American troops in Muslim countries.  Aljazeera focuses on getting the opinions of other religious sects as well as showing the reaction of the largest Muslim country in the world.  The Daily Show then brings in the humor of the entire ordeal, closing out the three articles.

All three of these reports focus on the main news source, the pastor in Gainesville, but they each get comments from different sectors to add their piece to the story.  Aljazeera shows an international view on the issue, CNN with a military/American view and then Daily Show with personal views on the issue at hand.

Each of these stories seeming un biased in their reporting.  These articles are probably some of the most diverse that could be found on the issue (short of finding biased articles).  That's really why I enjoyed picking these three articles to post and discuss about.



http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/06/florida.quran.burning/index.html?hpt=T2

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One of the Preacher Dudes

         So tonight I ate supper at Wendy's with some college friends.  While in line one of my students from London came in, and was explaining to her parents who I was, and referred to me as "One of the Preacher Dudes" so I figured I'd use that as my title for tonight.
          How is it that we get these titles?  I mean sure it is part of my job, ministry, yes I get paid to go to church essentially.  We get these titles because we are defined by what we do, our daily actions, be it work, play, ect.  So being defined by our actions is an interesting thing.  If we call ourselves Christians then we had better live like that, because we have just defined ourselves.  Erwin McManus has this thing, he hates Christians, which is weird, cause he's a pastor, of a very large church in California.  Here's why he hates them: they give him a bad name.  Crazy stuff right? but isn't it true, I know I can be a lousy disciple of Christ.
         I've been dealing with what I've been defined as this past week, and it's really something to think about.  What is it that we need to look like as Christians?  What will it take for us as Christians to change the negative stigma that comes with the title of "Christian"?  While I'm asking questions, why is it that "Pastors" are held to a higher standard than non-pastors, aren't we all just regular Christians?  These questions are part of the reason why I changed the title of my blog to "ReThink:Christianity."   Cause I can guarantee you there's no merit system, no visible way to tell who is "better" than the other.  Sure we are going to get rewards in heaven, but guess what, we are all going to be there, and if someone who isn't a pastor, lives just as much for Christ as the pastor does, they are both going to receive the same amount of heavenly rewards.
          Some food for thought for this week, I may start answering some of these questions eventually, just depends on how much free time I have.